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David said:
I don't 100% disagree, but just remember Vbolt was/is a replacement for Big Bad Wolf. At the end of the day, BBW was a family coaster. It was a lot of peoples' "first" coaster. Do I think vbolt was the best replacement? Of course not, but it's serving the purpose the park wants it to. It's also rather popular with the GP. It doesn't "go upside down" and have tons of gimmicks, a lot with pretty decent theming. The problem is, people are still finding out that the park even built Vbolt. It's sorta sad...

Interesting point. The tallest, fastest rides are not necessarily the most popular. On several visits to Kings Dominion, I found the wait to ride the Intimidator 305 "giga" coaster by Intamin very short while the line to ride the older, Volcano coaster was significant. This year the new queue arrangement for Volcano was better, but I still had a decent wait. I wonder if KD views Intimidator 305 as a disappointment? The $25 million ride was the largest investment of any ride in the park's history.
 
ReggaeInMyJeggae said:
I think "family coasters" are a disappearing middle tier of rides because they don't move bodies like they used to.

I don't see 50 million + dollars of roller coaster there.

IMO, this coaster can/could/should move bodies. It's an extremely marketable coaster, and people seem to gravitate towards it once they find out about it. But like I mentioned, marketing failed to get the word out properly. When locals don't know of the ride, there is a serious issue... At $50mill+ this coaster should be bringing in people from all over the country. Sure it has some quirks, but I think it's a great addition to the park, and a great coaster as a whole. I mean, it's even got a dual loading station to push all those people through...

We all know of the plans the park WAS working on in anticipation for Vbolt properly boosting attendance. Once they basically broke even on attendance, the plug was pulled. And as netdvn mentioned, this is mostly MT refund money. But I think we would still be getting something for 2015 even if the MT fiasco didn't happen. The funds would have just come from a different account.
 
GeoUSA said:
On several visits to Kings Dominion, I found the wait to ride the Intimidator 305 "giga" coaster by Intamin very short while the line to ride the older, Volcano coaster was significant.  This year the new queue arrangement for Volcano was better, but I still had a decent wait.  I wonder if KD views Intimidator 305 as a disappointment?  The $25 million ride was the largest investment of any ride in the park's history.

I don't want to derail this thread with KD stuff, but I have to interject for a second. Intimidator is a capacity hog and lets more than twice as many people through as Volcano, which has a terrible capacity.

...and then you realize Tempesto will have a worse capacity than Volcano...
 
I305 is still has amazing ridership numbers. Like Joe said... The ride is a capacity hog. Volcano is very popular and has horrible capacity. It's better but still not great.

Tempesto is also not too good as far as capacity goes.
 
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I think at the end of the day, there will be enough people that enjoy this ride. People will think this is a unique coaster and the park is certainly going to market or as such.

Demon Street and Volcano are popular FFS, people will love it.
 
I have to say the thing I'm looking forward to most about the ride is airtime and chance of a roll back. As you may know Superman Ultimate Flight has insane airtime going down the near vertical drop and coming up the first hill. Superman has two cars, Tempesto has three! Plus since theirs three cars there's a better chance of the ride rolling back over the third launch. I admit this is like a Wild Maus decision but it's just a place holder and should have a nice view of the James. At least it's not a boomerang.
 
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A roll back isn't as fun on this ride as a ride like Volcano. Every ride cycle roll backs. Maybe not from the same point, but rolling back is part of the ride cycle.

Launch forward. Roll back. Launch backwards. Roll forward. Launch forward to get to full speed. Slow down through the station. Roll back into place.
 
Evan said:
A roll back isn't as fun on this ride as a ride like Volcano. Every ride cycle roll backs. Maybe not from the same point, but rolling back is part of the ride cycle.

Launch forward. Roll back. Launch backwards. Roll forward. Launch forward to get to full speed. Slow down through the station. Roll back into place.
I know that but what if the first two cars were over the crest but the back car pulls them back down due to the speed. Judging by the POV of other models it makes it up with a very slow speed as it is. Now that you think about it this thrid car is gonna change quite a few things. :p
 
Yes. When the launch fins are not powered, they automatically convert into brakes. So the launch will turn off because the computer thinks it launched it fast enough, therefore braking the ride. They also need to do this because the ride can valley in the non-inverting loop.
 
The LA times put this for number eight for most anticipated rides of 2015. Article
8) Busch Gardens Williamsburg -- Vertical coaster
Busch Gardens Williamsburg has filed permits with a local government agency to build a 156-foot-tall attraction in the Festa Italia area of the Virginia park. Blueprints posted by BGW Fans indicate the new attraction will be similar to the Superman: Ultimate Flight vertical coaster built by Premier Rides at Northern California's Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Parent company SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment filed a trademark for Tempesto, an Italian word that loosely translates to "storm."
Hey, they mentioned BGWFans! Keep in mind this was done in July.
 
Bringing capacity back to the forefront again since it was mentioned, I'll clarify just how bad Tempest is going to be. A traditional 90 minute line by El Toro's standard would mean 1620 people are waiting in line so we'll use that as a base comparison across all rides.

El Toro - 1080 rph target for a 90 minute line
Bizarro - 1184 rph target for a 82 minute line
Volcano - 928 rph theoretical max, 105 minute line
Full Throttle - 792 rph max, 123 minute line
Tempesto - estimated maximum capacity of 450 rph, 216 minute wait
Hershey's Wild Mouse - 832 rph, 117 minute wait
Raptor - 1792 rph max, 54 minute wait
Maverick - 1200 rph max, 81 minute wait
i305 - 1344 rph based on 42 dispatch/hour cycle, 72 minute wait
Apollo - 1728 rph max, 56 minute wait

This is taking into account peak operations and operating at max or target capacity. El Toro and Bizarro have a lowered target capacity due to limited staffing and more stringent operating procedures (Visual Scans). Cedar Point is absolutely bonkers about capacity, especially at Raptor. It isn't rare to see their crews running at max capacity, or close to it on their packed days. That's what will make this ride so bad with capacity. Being generous with a 25 dispatch/hour cycle and 18 riders per train means that no matter what you're doomed to wait, and wait, and wait some more. What's more is Premier has not posted their capacity on the LSM catapult clone. For comparison Full Throttle only gets 792 rph MAX, and that's with two trains. Tempesto will only have one and will have a similar ride cycle duration to Full Throttle, that's where I'm being generous with that 450.
 
b.mac said:
Tempesto - estimated maximum capacity of 450 rph, 216 minute wait

Is that taking into account the additional car? Projecting over a 3 1/2 hour wait. OMG... 3 hours is the longest I have waited for any ride and I promised myself I would never do it again. I will ride only on low attendance days.
 
This ride won't even be worth an hour wait, but yet most people are going to wait twice that.

And even if the extra car wasn't taken into account in B.mac's presentation, the capacity rises only to 675 from 450. It doesn't make that much of a difference. You could Get on Grover's Alpine Express faster.
 
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