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RE: Verbolten

The park opens at 10am on Friday ;)

I imagine they'll open Oktoberfest with the rest of the park. If they don't, crowd control will be a complete nightmare (not that it won't be anyway).
 
RE: Verbolten

Thank you Swift, trying to plan my trip and avoid waiting on the bridge for my first ride, though I'm prepared to!

To anyone who has ridden, I have a 9 year old niece, she's ridden Loch Ness and was fine, Verbolten I assume will be fine despite the event building. Insights?
 
RE: Verbolten

HAJiME said:
On an unrelated note, I've been hatin' on Griffon but it was way better than I remembered yesterday. Oblivion is still better though.

I have NO idea how you could think that having riden both myself....Literally. I think I'm a little flabbergasted right now. Explain yourself in the Griffon thread!

Also, back on topic, the floating tunnel is a real bummer for me. like....come on bush. at least plant some trees under it or something. Other than that I think ride has the best theming IN the the park, including DarKastle. While I still wish the bridge looked better and the tunnel didn't float, the ride experience is what counts and it's certainly thrilling. Can't wait for an official pov. ;)
 
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RE: Verbolten

netdvn said:
I had the liberty of riding both V-bolt and Cheetah Hunt in the same week. :D CH had a rattle, but I felt V-bolt's was a bit more severe. If anything, V-bolt rattled like Sheikra did (and it did have a noticeable rattle).

Anyway, let's get to the comparison.
Ride-wise - CH has the edge with the zero-g roll and the pops of airtime throughout the ride. Other than that, both aren't too intense, and both have good transitions. CH's OTSRs will dig into your shoulders if you raise your hands in the air, so I don't recommend trying that too often.

Theming-wise - Verbolten takes the cake. Even though both parks reused old stations, BGW definitely pulled out all the stops while BGT sorta kept most of the good theming outside. The Cheetah Run exhibit is pretty nice although the cheetahs were sleeping when I was there. As for V-bolt, I didn't get the full effect going through V-bolt's show building (I was lucky enough to ride with the lights on), but what I've seen so far has impressed me. The floating tunnel still bugs me greatly though.

Fun factor - Both coasters are great additions and both coasters are very fun to ride. I'd put the fun factor at a draw.

Overall - Cheetah Hunt is more intense with its zero-G roll and pops of airtime, but Verbolten's theming really gives it the edge to beat out CH. Either way both parks got big winners.

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I would have to say I completely disagree that Verbolten is better than Cheetah Hunt... with that said...I have been on Verbolten twice this past Saturday 5/12/2012.

I was able to ride Cheetah Hunt the weekend of April 21-22nd. The queue line theme I will have to agree should go to Verbolten. There was much more involved. CH only had a stone cheetah and then little random facts about cheetahs posted at a few spots in the queue line. Basically imagine the Verbolten car with the live vine growing on it being in the queue line but outside of that your queue line is nothing but metal railing ...that was CH setup.

The ride however.... CH boosts you out of the station and the boost you up into the tree house for a really good air time. The downhill shot after that along with the zero-G roll and other blast into a camel hump for more air time is something Verbolten doesnt even touch. There is also the gliding side to side along a river way and inside trenches as if your a cheetah chasing its prey. And lets not forget the fact that CH is faster than Verbolten.

Now in Verboltens defense...I have only been on it twice. Both times I got the wolf episode. I rode it once from the front and once from the back. The only advantage I would give is to the back having a little more G force to it and a better "drop track" experience. Yes the drop track is better than any element on CH....HOWEVER... Verbolten blast you into the event building were you saw a few neon lights and then nothing but pitch black...all the sudden your turning and then you stop....then you go into another helix turn and stop again....the drop track happens and you start out of the event building and blast.....for all of like 100 feet....up to the bridge.....and....YOU STOP AGAIN!!!.... I think its all the starting and stoping that trully killed the experience. It would have been so much better if someone was talking over the speakers as if they were driving and something flashed at you and thats why you stopped...but the ride just seemed to stop every 20 seconds about it seemed like which was annoying. CH you slowed down obviously going up the hill into the tree house but outside of that you slowed slightly right before going into the water twist section. CH just seemed like a much more thought out and properly transitioned ride.

Hopefully there was alot of special effects that were not turned on this Saturday when I was there because honestly if thats all Verbolten had ....I would rather they spent the money and build two Cheetah Hunts than to waste the money on one Verbolten.

Also everytime I got in line to ride Verbolten there was "technical difficulties" ...again hopefully this is because they had things turned off and were trying to "test breaking points" ...if this was supposed to be the actual ride I just hope for their sake it never gets as bad as Mach Tower that seemed to be off to the side throwing a tantrum that nobody wanted to ride it with Verbolten's line directly across from it...hehehe
 
RE: Verbolten

I find it odd you say every time you turned around that it was having technical difficulties. I rode a total of twelve times this past weekend and only saw technical difficulties once. That one time only lasted around ten minutes.

And who cares if it was going down during a soft opening better known as "technical dress rehearsal." That says nothing about how it will be and whether or not there will be any issues opening day. The entire point of it is to work out the bugs under regular operation.
 
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RE: Verbolten

Atlantis said:
I find it odd you say every time you turned around that it was having technical difficulties. I rode a total of twelve times this past weekend and only saw technical difficulties once. That one time only lasted around ten minutes.

And who cares if it was going down during a soft opening better known as "technical dress rehearsal." That says nothing about how it will be and whether or not there will be any issues opening day. The entire point of it is to work out the bugs under regular operation.

Got in line at 1045am and there was a 10min delay during that wait...

Got on it again later that afternoon... that time it was down over 20 minutes

Going down multiple times a day....that is an issue...unless your trying to force break points with your testing. Thats why I mentioned maybe they were testing limits on the ride...if they were then that is a perfect explanation as to why it was down every time I was around the area and in line to ride it. Still definitely say as a ride factor CH is much better unless you can see more stuff or there is more audio in the event building.... both rides were the exact same though to us and we rode it first thing in the morning and shortly after lunch time...
 
RE: Verbolten

reg31miller said:
Got in line at 1045am and there was a 10min delay during that wait...

Got on it again later that afternoon... that time it was down over 20 minutes

Going down multiple times a day....that is an issue...unless your trying to force break points with your testing. Thats why I mentioned maybe they were testing limits on the ride...if they were then that is a perfect explanation as to why it was down every time I was around the area and in line to ride it. Still definitely say as a ride factor CH is much better unless you can see more stuff or there is more audio in the event building.... both rides were the exact same though to us and we rode it first thing in the morning and shortly after lunch time...

No, it is not an issue. Training was ongoing throughout the weekend and on a soft opening, I mean technical dress rehearsal, they reserve the right to close the ride down at any point. There did not have to be an issue. There could be required training that was need to get in with cycling trains. They reserve the right to close the attraction at any given time.
 
RE: Verbolten

reg31miller said:
Now in Verboltens defense...I have only been on it twice. Both times I got the wolf episode. I rode it once from the front and once from the back. The only advantage I would give is to the back having a little more G force to it and a better "drop track" experience. Yes the drop track is better than any element on CH....HOWEVER... Verbolten blast you into the event building were you saw a few neon lights and then nothing but pitch black...all the sudden your turning and then you stop....then you go into another helix turn and stop again....the drop track happens and you start out of the event building and blast.....for all of like 100 feet....up to the bridge.....and....YOU STOP AGAIN!!!.... I think its all the starting and stoping that trully killed the experience. It would have been so much better if someone was talking over the speakers as if they were driving and something flashed at you and thats why you stopped...but the ride just seemed to stop every 20 seconds about it seemed like which was annoying. CH you slowed down obviously going up the hill into the tree house but outside of that you slowed slightly right before going into the water twist section. CH just seemed like a much more thought out and properly transitioned ride.

While you're right about CH having better pacing than V-bolt, you need to realize that most of the brake runs on V-bolt are used to show off some of the ride's theme elements. The spirit of the wolf trying to capture you and send you back into the forest, trying to escape over a bridge only to find out that it's broken. The only point where you stop and nothing's going on is the first one inside the building yet there's still that huge prop to look at in front of you. I will say that dip after the first set of brakes in the building could be extended a bit to include and extra helix or something, but it doesn't really make or break the ride.

CH's Rhino Rally portion feels a lot like the final drop over the water and the twists close to the ground. Sure CH's portion is longer (and very fun don't get me wrong), but V-bolt's tight transitions combined with the rattle gives a more out of control ride.

Hopefully there was alot of special effects that were not turned on this Saturday when I was there because honestly if thats all Verbolten had ....I would rather they spent the money and build two Cheetah Hunts than to waste the money on one Verbolten.

I rode with the lights on and the effects turned off and I still think the ride is about as good as if not better than CH.

Also everytime I got in line to ride Verbolten there was "technical difficulties" ...again hopefully this is because they had things turned off and were trying to "test breaking points" ...if this was supposed to be the actual ride I just hope for their sake it never gets as bad as Mach Tower that seemed to be off to the side throwing a tantrum that nobody wanted to ride it with Verbolten's line directly across from it...hehehe

That's not very uncommon for new rides and for a prototype like V-bolt, I'd expect a lot of difficulties to occur. I know CH had a delayed opening last year and Universal's Rockit was delayed a few months because of problems. BGW seems to be right on track with Verbolten, especially getting the coaster open this early. I'm sure most of you guys know how some companies *cough* Intamin *cough* can't do this for their prototype rides.
 
RE: Verbolten

I was able to ride Verbolten twice on Saturday. It was an amazing ride and I rate it 11 out of 10. I found no flaws with this ride knowing there were going to be some kinks missing in the soft opening. People need to stop whining about the roughness. Why do people always have to find something negative. It's not too fast, the freefall drop wasn't big enough, etc. I did not find the ride shaky at all, and the free fall drop actually delivered a nice kick. I was going into the ride knowing it was not going to be Kingka Ka but a nice spooky family themed coaster.This ride would fit perfectly in a Disney or Universal park. Blackstone has really proved their investment with the Busch parks, and I can't wait to see whats next up their sleeve with the possible Resort Expansion and Water Country Expansion. I feel like Busch Gardens is going through what we saw in the mid to late 90's. I expect a boom in the next five or so years. The Oktoberfest expansion is a great model on what kind of direction is going for the future of Busch Parks. I don't know if they were planning this, but with the success of Christmas Town Busch Gardens was maybe looking for new ways to enhance the experience.With most of Verbolten being indoors maybe it has a higher chance of staying open during colder days. Just a thought.



Here is a little review of Verbolten. I rode twice. Once in the front and once in the back. Since I used to be a ride attendant back in Disney I know that is no problem requesting for a certain row. I liked the back a little more because of the slight increased G's. I was so disoriented inside that I did not quite catch the show scenes. I was having too much fun inside there. I have a passion for indoor coasters. There is something great about zooming around in a dark building and it never matters how fast you are going. This all goes back to the success of Space Mountain in the 1970's. I found this ride to be a mixture of three coasters down in Florida. Cheetah Hunt in Busch Gardens Tampa, Expedition Everest in Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Mummy at Universal Studios. I have ridden all three of those coasters in the past year and I found Verbolten shares a lot of elements taken from all three coasters. Kudos to Zierer, I feel like this is a big project for the up and coming company. Kind of like what Montu & Alpengiest did for B&M in 1996/1997. I have always respected Busch Parks concept to shy away from the cookie cutter coaster designs Six Flags and Cedar Fair Parks usually go with. I guess Sheikra and Griffon are an exception. You can't really customize a vertical drop coaster too much, and Busch Parks even did a good job customizing those rides.



Great job Zierer, Blackstone (Merlin), and Busch on a great ride, and everyone needs to come check this thing out as soon as possible.
 
RE: Verbolten

Can we please not continually compare CH to Verbolten? It really steals the impending excitement of riding this when these two rides carry so many inherent differences. IMO its like comparing Behemoth or Leviathan to Apollo's Chariot. The basic principles are the same for CH and VB, but the experience is different on purpose, one is a family ride and the other, a more thrill oriented experience. Also, CH has been open over a year, Verbolten has been "open" like what, 72+ hours? It's still a baby in need of close watch/adjustments, which will certainly mean down time.

Love comparisons of rides for contextual reasons as much as the next guy/gal, but we have got to keep an open mind here with this new and very different experience, I'd hate for this discussion to become old too quickly.
 
RE: Verbolten

Expoman said:
I was able to ride Verbolten twice on Saturday. It was an amazing ride and I rate it 11 out of 10. I found no flaws with this ride knowing there were going to be some kinks missing in the soft opening. People need to stop whining about the roughness. Why do people always have to find something negative. It's not too fast, the freefall drop wasn't big enough, etc. I did not find the ride shaky at all, and the free fall drop actually delivered a nice kick. I was going into the ride knowing it was not going to be Kingka Ka but a nice spooky family themed coaster.This ride would fit perfectly in a Disney or Universal park. Blackstone has really proved their investment with the Busch parks, and I can't wait to see whats next up their sleeve with the possible Resort Expansion and Water Country Expansion. I feel like Busch Gardens is going through what we saw in the mid to late 90's. I expect a boom in the next five or so years. The Oktoberfest expansion is a great model on what kind of direction is going for the future of Busch Parks. I don't know if they were planning this, but with the success of Christmas Town Busch Gardens was maybe looking for new ways to enhance the experience.With most of Verbolten being indoors maybe it has a higher chance of staying open during colder days. Just a thought.



Here is a little review of Verbolten. I rode twice. Once in the front and once in the back. Since I used to be a ride attendant back in Disney I know that is no problem requesting for a certain row. I liked the back a little more because of the slight increased G's. I was so disoriented inside that I did not quite catch the show scenes. I was having too much fun inside there. I have a passion for indoor coasters. There is something great about zooming around in a dark building and it never matters how fast you are going. This all goes back to the success of Space Mountain in the 1970's. I found this ride to be a mixture of three coasters down in Florida. Cheetah Hunt in Busch Gardens Tampa, Expedition Everest in Disney's Animal Kingdom, and Mummy at Universal Studios. I have ridden all three of those coasters in the past year and I found Verbolten shares a lot of elements taken from all three coasters. Kudos to Zierer, I feel like this is a big project for the up and coming company. Kind of like what Montu & Alpengiest did for B&M in 1996/1997. I have always respected Busch Parks concept to shy away from the cookie cutter coaster designs Six Flags and Cedar Fair Parks usually go with. I guess Sheikra and Griffon are an exception. You can't really customize a vertical drop coaster too much, and Busch Parks even did a good job customizing those rides.



Great job Zierer, Blackstone (Merlin), and Busch on a great ride, and everyone needs to come check this thing out as soon as possible.


This is exactly the review i wanted!!!!! We need to compare this to the mummy, space mountain, and rock n roll in disney. I love indoor coasters too, so i am extremely excited. How will you rate this compared to directly to rock and roll and mummy in terms of special effects and overall fun factor? Thanks.
 
RE: Verbolten

CarterGee said:
Also, back on topic, the floating tunnel is a real bummer for me. like....come on bush. at least plant some trees under it or something. Other than that I think ride has the best theming IN the the park, including DarKastle. While I still wish the bridge looked better and the tunnel didn't float, the ride experience is what counts and it's certainly thrilling. Can't wait for an official pov. ;)
The floating tunnel is no where near as obnoxious as I thought it would be. Not sure why though. I think because attention isn't drawn to it.
 
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