Verbolten

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The first entry in this thread is a WikiPost. As such, it can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.

Manufacturer
ZIERER

Model
Elevated Seating Coaster w/ Vertical Drop Element

Hamlet
Oktoberfest (Germany)

Official Opening
May 18, 2012

Soft Opening
May 11, 2012

Tallest Drop
88ft


Top Speed
53mph

Inversion Count
0

Launch Segments
2

Riders Per Train
16

Number of Trains
5

Height Requirement
48in



Verbolten is an indoor/outdoor ZIERER Elevated Seating Coaster that features a Vertical Drop Element. It officially opened in mid-May 2012 on the site formally occupied by the Arrow Suspended Coaster, Big Bad Wolf.


Videos​

Development Documentary​

Ride Recordings​

On-Ride Videos​

Backstage Footage​

 
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How was the ROI terrible? Theme park and tourism industry as a whole was down a lot at this time, and BGW managed to not lose business. In an economy that's down, holding steady is seen as an increase.

Also the likely timeline:
Depression from Dec 2007 - June 2009, nothing planned.
Big economic expansion July 2009 - Sept 2011, Bolt planned.
Oct 2011 - Early 2015, tourism decrease. Tourism was the major industry hurt by the latest 10 year economic expansion as families took more staycations over large vacations as part of increasing the economy overall.

So I would be willing to bet easily Bolt was planned at a time of economic and tourism industry growth.

Also needing to be factored in was the fact the SEAS was starting to get into deep water with the filming of Blackfish in 2010, and it's release in 2013; which had a MASSIVE impact on SEAS operations overall, and yet despite that BGW managed to never see the bottom fall out individually like SWO, SWSD, SWSA did.

Put all of that together and I would say Bolt was a success with facing all the factors that could have easily sunk the park financially.
 
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warfelg said:
I find this to be a very off base thing to say. DF was certainly BGW's fault. Saying they did the same thing with Bolt is a big accusation to make. Again with all my research, it sounds like Zierer was the choice from the start. Zierer is VERY underrated as a coaster builder. And if you are looking for a family thrill coaster, would you rather have a high intensity company overdo it; or a family oriented coaster company be at the helm?
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But Zierer did overdo the intensity. I have a feeling they wanted to establish themselves as a name in high-thrill coasters, and felt pressured to deliver extra intensity to keep up with Cheetah Hunt.

I maintain that slowing the launches and lowering the big hill would have made for a better ride. What family coaster racks up complaints of neck pain? https://parkfans.net/threads/projec...ulti-launch-coaster.4887/page-180#post-181169
 
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SLC Headache said:
But Zierer did overdo the intensity. I have a feeling they wanted to establish themselves as a name in high-thrill coasters, and felt pressured to deliver extra intensity to keep up with Cheetah Hunt.

I maintain that slowing the launches and lowering the big hill would have made for a better ride.
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Zierer over doing intensity is your opinion. We’ve been through this before. Everyone experiences forces differently. I have no issue on Bolt and find the initial helix and turn at the drop rather tame.

Just like the G’s pulled on the first turn of I305 have little effect on me.
 
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warfelg said:
How was the ROI terrible? Theme park and tourism industry as a whole was down a lot at this time, and BGW managed to not lose business. In an economy that's down, holding steady is seen as an increase.

Also the likely timeline:
Depression from Dec 2007 - June 2009, nothing planned.
Big economic expansion July 2009 - Sept 2011, Bolt planned.
Oct 2011 - Early 2015, tourism decrease. Tourism was the major industry hurt by the latest 10 year economic expansion as families took more staycations over large vacations as part of increasing the economy overall.

So I would be willing to bet easily Bolt was planned at a time of economic and tourism industry growth.

Also needing to be factored in was the fact the SEAS was starting to get into deep water with the filming of Blackfish in 2010, and it's release in 2013; which had a MASSIVE impact on SEAS operations overall, and yet despite that BGW managed to never see the bottom fall out individually like SWO, SWSD, SWSA did.

Put all of that together and I would say Bolt was a success with facing all the factors that could have easily sunk the park financially.
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This is exactly why I know the people at BGW don't consider this coaster a failure. Whole everyone else had attendance decreases they were stagnant. That in and of itself is incredible and worth the investment.

Also to the point about the $54 million. There are definitely a lot of costs. I actually think the $54 million we throw around is the cost of the total update to Oktoberfest. That included Mach Tower, the Pretzel shop, Verbolten and the various theming changes that were made.
 
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warfelg said:
Zierer over doing intensity is your opinion. We’ve been through this before. Everyone experiences forces differently. I have no issue on Bolt and find the initial helix and turn at the drop rather tame.

Just like the G’s pulled on the first turn of I305 have little effect on me.
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Yeah I don't find Verbolten particularly intense. Helix is quick and tight but no gray-outs for me. Second launch has some oomph and the last portion of the ride rattles a bit but it really isn't bad. Might not take a five year old on it but anyone eight or up should enjoy it.
 
The idea that 2012 was a bad year is just wrong. 2012 was a big year for SEAS and they actually saw a significant increase chain wide, just not really at bgw. 2011-2012 bgw had an increase of about 100,000, very close to being statistically insignificant. Manta at swsd however drove a much greater increase in the same year.

Here’s an article talking about the year by the Orlando sentinel. I’m having trouble finding the actual end of year report, I guess cause it’s so old now.
Link
 
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lce said:
I was wondering when the pilgrimmage of Verbolten hate would return. It appears the time is now.
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I don't hate the ride, I think it's quite good. I'm just aware the fact that it cost a lot of money for what the park got. MAch tower was a dissaster, Verbolten IMO was BGW trying to raise the bar on theming and project scale, and it just didn't work out all that well.
 
sunchild said:
The idea that 2012 was a bad year is just wrong. 2012 was a big year for SEAS and they actually saw a significant increase chain wide, just not really at bgw. 2011-2012 bgw had an increase of about 100,000, very close to being statistically insignificant. Manta at swsd however drove a much greater increase in the same year.

Here’s an article talking about the year by the Orlando sentinel. I’m having trouble finding the actual end of year report, I guess cause it’s so old now.
Link
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First that article actually points to Verbolten and Williamsburg as being a key component to the success.

You are correct though that 2012 was a good year. Was confusing 2013 with 2012. That being said attendance increased by 100k which. Is not insignificant but there are a number of factors that effect that the public might not look at but the park will when determining success. One of them being the number of bad weather days. If BGW had more bad weather days then the previous year than an attendance increase of 100k is substantial because bad weather significantly impacts attendance.

Also as I have stated having worked at the park in the offices at that time this ride was not and is not considered a failure by the park. It is the same with Mach Tower and the general updates to OKT. They largely accomplished what the park wanted.

Also as has been outlined above the costs are not just the cost to build and theme the coaster portion.
 
Pretzel Kaiser said:
It's not like anyone has created an account just to talk about how much they hate Verbolten.
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I didn't hate the ride until a little while after I signed up.

But learning that it kept the park performing pretty well in a down time, I think I've changed my opinion slightly yet again. Instead of wanting the ride gone now, I'll give it time to lose its luster or become too high-maintenance to justify keeping. However, I'll still be jeering when its anniversaries come up.
 
I like the outside part of the ride, but find the inside portion rather boring (and the vertical drop is interesting the first time, then it gets old). For me, Verbolten is neither worth a long wait in line, nor the price of a Quick Queue, so it falls into a valley of "I'll ride it if the park is empty and the wait is no longer than 2 minutes." Which doesn't happen often - or at least not when I'm there.
 
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It absolutely boggles my mind how fans are still surrounded in melancholy over the sudden closure of DarKastle, yet criticize every single flaw that lies within Verbolten. After the failure of Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin and Submarine Quest, SEAS will most likely not open another dark ride or highly themed coaster experience for several years until their financially stable in any of their parks. V-Bolt is by far the most immersive attraction in the park and honestly one of the best themed coasters at a regional themepark in North America if not the world and the community acts like it's an abomination to the park and industry as a whole. While I'm still mildly saddened by the loss of the parks only dark ride it too suffered from a shrinking budget year upon year and began to present a degraded experience. I just can't comprehend the hatred for such a beautifully crafted attraction despite it's blemishes when many choose to contradict their own beliefs by praising DarKastle.
 
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sunchild said:
What? Antarctica is one of the most popular attractions at SWO.
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Yes, as the attraction has a very low capacity along with a height requirement of 42 inches in a park geared towards families. Also, the TEA report from 2013 shows that Antarctica brought a -5.0% drop in attendance that year alone.
 
Don't know that attendance drop was because of Antarctica but more likely because of Blackfish.

Also I don't think SEAS isn't willing to spend on theming. Have you ever been to Mako? Or seen Infinity falls? Both of those are pretty extensively themed. And they were both post Verbolten
 
It's already been brought up how Verbolten was a successful addition because it kept attendance similar to 2011's, but I'm still gonna elaborate on this.

TEA/AECOM is an attendance estimate based on the reports from the companies themselves. Very rarely do parks (especially ones that are apart of public stock trading) announce their annual attendance but they love to toss around percentages. The economy was already in a downturn and SEAS also got blindsided by the Blackfish backlash, they really couldn't blame that on the attraction itself.

EDIT: Adding on to that I can confirm myself that TEA/AECOM is not 100% accurate, and their estimates can vary heavily compared to how the parks actually perform. I can tell you for a fact a few parks did not hit their attendance estimates in 2016 and 2017, and more than one of them was off by more than 300,000 visitors.

Also if we're going on the "attendance is the sole determining factor for success or failure" argument. All the Six Flags additions in 2006 were failures, even though one of them is rated as one of the best wooden coasters in the world.
 
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I would wager that the folks on here who dislike Verbolten are still in a minority on the forum. Not to say one opinion is more valid than another, but I think the prevailing opinion is that Verbolten is a very well-themed coaster by regional park standards.

Like me, Verbolten is far from my favorite coaster and there are definitely thematic decisions that I would have made differently, but I totally think it belongs in an elite circle with rides like Mystery Mine for being incredibly immersive experiences outside of Florida and California.
 
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The first entry in this thread is a WikiPost. As such, it can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.
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