Busch Gardens Williamsburg Project 2023: DarKoaster (Multi-Lap Intamin Straddle Coaster)

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Could they have obscured the view of the castle any more than they did with this? Does this look as bad in person with the castle behind it?
 
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RollyCoaster said:
Could they have obscured the view of the castle any more than they did with this? Does this look as bad in person with the castle behind it?
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Here is a view from the side. It doesnt block much.
 

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New fans around the courtyard. They are replacing all of the lights along the pathways.
 

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I'm witholding final judgement until it's finished, but I am very concerned about the design of the photo sales and locker building. It seems to break many of the architectural conventions of the Oktoberfest village.

Screenshot_20230225_173518_Earth.jpg

Right now, the only Oktoberfest structures without gable rooflines are the trio of individual game shelters near Das Festhaus. These structures share a pyramid roof line with the new DarKoaster building, but they're dressed up significantly by the inclusion of very large, elaborate cupolas. I worry this new structure may look very out of place in the current hamlet.

Ignoring the roofline, I very much hope that, at the very least, we see some Oktoberfest-matching, decorative, wooden trim work, knee braces, etc (pictured below) added to the new structure. These elements are present on essentially all of the neighboring structures. I'm sure these touches inflate costs, but, especially when the park is mucking around within already built-up areas, building aesthetics are the last place they should be cutting corners.

Screenshot_20230225_173258_Earth.jpg
 
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rollercoastercoaster said:
I hope they bring the wolfs back. Does anyone know what they did with them after they were removed? Were they one of the items sold in an auction last year?
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from several sources I have heard that they are no longer owed by BGW and that there are no plans from replacement.
 
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Here at the park today and don’t feel like browsing all 66 pages… does anyone know if they still have the DarKoaster beads?

EDIT: They do!
 
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I'm still so confused by the dedication to lightning on this ride. At first I thought it was just them leaving out details, but now seeing the preview center they have doubled down on this being a tempest, like a lightning storm.

Not only does that have nothing to do with the original DK other than them calling the "storm demon" Ludwig, what the hell is the point of using snowmobiles to get through a lightning storm?

I really wonder if the creative team has any smidge of qualifications at times. It's like they went down to a middle school and had some kids pitch ideas. "A big flashy lightning storm and and and snowmobiles go NYEEEOOWW and angry demon man who's purple comes out and he shoots lightning and it's in a castle and there's like a lightning ghost wraith thingy and it does it TWICE"
 
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@Ice: It's literally the "Can I copy your homework" meme in action. They took Verbolten (tour company sends you on an adventure to a mysterious place controlled by a dark, magical force during a lightning storm) and tweaked it just a little so it didn't look too sus.

I know BGW and the creative team behind DarKoaster are going to be praised to high heavens by most people basically no matter how this ride turns out. Next to the atmospheric abomination that is Pantheon and the nearly empty warehouse that they've turned Verbolten into, DarKoaster will, almost inevitably, look great. People are going to be tripping over themselves proclaiming how amazing it is. In reality though, what I've seen of the thematic and story direction thus far is just, like you said, braindead, juvenile, crap.

I can't imagine how Falcon's Treehouse must feel seeing an incredible, original IP they crafted being soiled like this.
 
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Smoke and mirrors....they flash some bright lights atyou....lightning....then you cant see how little theming there is. Think about it....they have to install strobes for the onride photo...why not double down and use that as the lone effect on the ride in the form of lightning.

But a few things I was thinking about...no matter how shitty it is its a much needed indoor attraction that will not be weather and temperature dependant. Honestly with BGW struggling with year round opps they either should have opened it right after the first of the year or wait till the same time next year to draw in people for the struggling slow season espically if its a winter themed coaster. Additionally not many parks open rides during that time so they would not be competing with other opening attractions for the most part.
 
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WDWRLD said:
Honestly with BGW struggling with year round opps
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To be fair, I don't think they are struggling, really. Presidents Day weekend, for instance, sounds like it was a home run.

There's also probably an argument to be made for not opening a new attraction when so little of the park is functioning. Park services have already been grinding to a hault with current crowd levels. Bringing in a flood of additional guests could go very poorly.
 
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Zachary said:
To be fair, I don't think they are struggling, really. Presidents Day weekend, for instance, sounds like it was a home run.

There's also probably an argument to be made for not opening a new attraction when so little of the park is functioning. Park services have already been grinding to a hault with current crowd levels. Bringing in a flood of additional guests could go very poorly.
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Presidents day they were busy, but one weekend outof the whole winter I dont consider a huge sucess andhonestly if they opened everything the park has to offer then lines wouldnt have been massive like they were. Its absolutely unaccectable that Sunday the lines grogans grill were back to the bridge and grogans pub back to the magic shop but yet Bradys drinks is closed. Then to make matters worse with the 6pm closing they still close Grogans a hour before that so it closed at 5pm. They are purpously not opening locations which created huge lines for the few open places. Trappers was closed.....which was stupid. We again went this past Sunday, got there about 2pm and the first lot was half full and I dont think they even used the other two. The lines for those same two places in ireland were basically the same. The park isnt busy, they just look busy with long lines with the few measly places open. I was watching a youtube video last night (PCDEV) and he went to Seaworld recently. He is a local there and he was even commenting on their lack of staffing. Disney and Universal may very well be "short staffed" but if they are it does not show. I think SEAS is just beating that dead horse of not being able to get workers for everything its worth then doubling down by charging 5% surcharges and $6 for a bottled drink.
 
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WDWRLD said:
Presidents day they were busy, but one weekend outof the whole winter I dont consider a huge sucess andhonestly if they opened everything the park has to offer then lines wouldnt have been massive like they were. It’s absolutely unaccectable that Sunday the lines grogans grill were back to the bridge and grogans pub back to the magic shop but yet Bradys drinks is closed. Then to make matters worse with the 6pm closing they still close Grogans a hour before that so it closed at 5pm. They are purpously not opening locations which created huge lines for the few open places. Trappers was closed.....which was stupid. We again went this past Sunday, got there about 2pm and the first lot was half full and I dont think they even used the other two. The lines for those same two places in ireland were basically the same. The park isnt busy, they just look busy with long lines with the few measly places open. I was watching a youtube video last night (PCDEV) and he went to Seaworld recently. He is a local there and he was even commenting on their lack of staffing. Disney and Universal may very well be "short staffed" but if they are it does not show. I think SEAS is just beating that dead horse of not being able to get workers for everything its worth then doubling down by charging 5% surcharges and $6 for a bottled drink.
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No wonder they have a workers shortage… how exciting they hiring at minimum wage rates….
 
Im not sure how to fix that issue....certainly some workers deserve better pay but some dont. When I hear employees tell guests "they dont pay me enough to care" and they are in a position that requires zero skill they deserve min wage. Its not just BGW its a nationwide broken system and raising the min wage for employees and a job that requires zero skills, zero training and little effort higher yet people in the worklforce that have 25 years in a job that requires numerous certifications, skills, and they are very knoledgeable in their trade yet they are still making basically what they have made for years and arent getting raises that keep up with inflation.
 
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WDWRLD said:
Presidents day they were busy, but one weekend outof the whole winter I dont consider a huge sucess andhonestly if they opened everything the park has to offer then lines wouldnt have been massive like they were. Its absolutely unaccectable that Sunday the lines grogans grill were back to the bridge and grogans pub back to the magic shop but yet Bradys drinks is closed. Then to make matters worse with the 6pm closing they still close Grogans a hour before that so it closed at 5pm. They are purpously not opening locations which created huge lines for the few open places. Trappers was closed.....which was stupid. We again went this past Sunday, got there about 2pm and the first lot was half full and I dont think they even used the other two. The lines for those same two places in ireland were basically the same. The park isnt busy, they just look busy with long lines with the few measly places open. I was watching a youtube video last night (PCDEV) and he went to Seaworld recently. He is a local there and he was even commenting on their lack of staffing. Disney and Universal may very well be "short staffed" but if they are it does not show. I think SEAS is just beating that dead horse of not being able to get workers for everything its worth then doubling down by charging 5% surcharges and $6 for a bottled drink.
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The reality is most Sundays of Winter ops that staffing level is pretty good. The issue that is hard to fix is how do you address those nicer weather days like that bring out extra people. I mean you can't realistically except that BGW can higher a extra set of employees to open something extra if the temperature rises above 65. And it really hurts the finicial button line to open to much if the high is 45. For the record my unders5is that the Sunday of Presidents day there was almost 3 times the number of guests as the other winter Sundays this year and almost double last week. if those are correct then I really can't blame BGW for having long lines. Possibly an attendance cap might solve this issue and I am sure no one here would complain if they capped it and they couldn't get in when they wanted right?
 
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WDWRLD said:
Im not sure how to fix that issue....certainly some workers deserve better pay but some dont. When I hear employees tell guests "they dont pay me enough to care" and they are in a position that requires zero skill they deserve min wage. Its not just BGW its a nationwide broken system and raising the min wage for employees and a job that requires zero skills, zero training and little effort higher yet people in the worklforce that have 25 years in a job that requires numerous certifications, skills, and they are very knoledgeable in their trade yet they are still making basically what they have made for years and arent getting raises that keep up with inflation.
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You either want workers or not. People deserve as much as they can get. Taking less would be doing yourself wrong. Free market and all.

If they can get more somewhere else, clearly it’s easy to say bge isn’t paying enough.
 
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qdeathstar said:
You either want workers or not. People deserve as much as they can get. Taking less would be doing yourself wrong. Free market and all.

If they can get more somewhere else, clearly it’s easy to say bge isn’t paying enough.
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Fully agree that they're not paid enough. SEAS makes a boat load of money, surely it wouldn't hurt to give a little raise, right? Then again, corporate greed is insane so...
 
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Tinfoil hat time. The upcoming specialty menu for Bürgermeister’s Hideaway is DarKoaster, and it runs March 11th to the 22nd, could it be a prelude to the opening?!?! /s
 
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