Busch Gardens Williamsburg

[TwingleMum]

Any promotion codes?? Or discount sites???

 

[Andrea from PA]

I can't say enough good things about BG Williamsburg. It is my fav park & just about the only park my parents took as to us kids (even thought 3 other parks are within 2 hour drive of our house, we trekked 6 hours).

VA is hot & humid in August. It is gross even without crowds, but if you can handle the southern weather, BGW has plenty of shaded areas.

HOTELS -- I don't mind driving, so we stay at Quality Inn Lord Paget in close to Colonial Williamsburg. It is set back. Has a small lake, pool & breakfast gazebo. Join Choice Hotels for a discount. But honestly, there is so much competition in the Colonial Williamsburg area that it is similiar to Orlando -- You can find all levels in all price ranges and you can go on a whim for parties of 4 or less & find a hotel at a non-rack rate price.

If you frequent Orlando, you may want to look into season pass packages that cover Busch Gardens Williamsburg & Sae World, etc.

We live near Sesame Place & got an awesome deal August 2004 to buy a season pass good through 12/2005. We used it at Sesame, BG Williamsburg & Sea World. Really saved us a lot.

 

[disneyhottie]

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier!We live about 15 min. away from Busch Gardens and love it a lot.Agree with everything that everyone has said.Although we do not go for long days(we have had season passes for years)do wear comfortable shoes(why do some women wear heels)and plan on climbing a lot of hills.Don't miss the animal show in ireland(by the wolves)and catch the bald eagle sanctuary.Can you tell I love animals(have 7 cockatiels).You must do trappers,a lot of food for a gret price.So far as the kingsmill resort and spa...never stayed there but worked at the spa-club teaching aerobics and it is one beautiful place!!!I could send you some maps of BG if you are interested.Also agree about water country as we migrate there for the summer when it gets so hot!I complain about the heat and then go to florida in aug.

 

[englishteacha]

We went to BG Europe/Williamsburg in 2002 in late August. The lines weren't bad at all. It was 100 degrees though, which might have had something to do with it! We were in a tent for the weekend, too. Ugh. I haven't slept in a tent since! We went for 2 days and had a wonderful time. Alpengeist is my all time favorite roller coaster! I'll put it this way: I didn't like roller coasters much prior to riding Alpengeist. Now I'm an addict! I'd love to go back to BG. It's a trek for us, though; 12-14 hours if we drive straight through. We're going to BG Africa/Tampa this summer in August and I'll see how it compares.

 

[disneyhottie]

Have ridden on all of the coasters at BG and love loch ness the best,will not ride new coaster "Griffo n"but have watched family ride,and when they come around that first curve and start the decend from 300ish feet and stop and are suspended at a downward drop...that is awesome!!!It is truly an amazing sight!!! During the heat of the day,go to the festhaus.It is very chilly,there is a show and great food and beer!!

 

[jennib5426]

I live about 45 minutes from BGE and was just at Kings Mill last month for a golf outting. It is a beautiful resort on the James River. I also recommend the Hilton Garden Inn in Williamsburg was there last week and it was very nice.
Remember that Williamsburg gets no breezes so it is Hot and Humid well into late September. We played golf there last week and it was 102 degrees

If you can't handle the heat and humity don't go in June, July or August.
Also the kids around here in VA do not go back to school until after Labor day. Both Bush Gardens and Kings Dominion relay on the school kids to work the parks until Labor day so school start the Tuesday after.
So crowds are pretty steady until after Labor Day. Weekend lines for the major rides are HUGE.

 

[disneyhottie]

Where abouts in VA do you live jennib5426?We live in west point va,about 20 minutes out of richmond!!Howdy neighbor!!

 

[cookiemonstermommy]

My son and I will be going down to BG next week (can't wait!).

We'll be going to BG for 3 days, water country for one and Colonial W'burg for one.

So if anyone has any specific questions, let me know and I'll check it out. Or any pic requests, lemme know, I'll do my best!

 

[ajcolorado]

Any promotion codes?? Or discount sites???

I just flew on Southwest and there was a coupon on the flap of the snack box granting an adult admission at the child rate.

What about the Entertainment book coupon?

There is probably a AAA "Show Your Card and Save" discount.

You may want to chech out: http://www.buschgardens.com/bgw/special_offers_home.aspx

 

[ajcolorado]

Are there any books - like the Unofficial Guide or "Beyond Disney" that offer touring plans for Busch Gardens Europe/Williamsburg?

 

[theterms]

Hi all! We're heading to the Kingsmill Resort July 6-10. I'll try to remember to give a review when we get back.

I'm excited because I haven't been to BGW since I was probably 9 years old and my dd (15) is a HUGE roller coaster fanatic. Although, I still wish we were off to US/IOA but we're replacing our deck this summer...

 

[Biggreen19]

I have just returned from a trip 6/16-6/20 to Busch Gardens Europe / Water Country USA. I'll give a quick trip report / review later this afternoon. I will say now that Griffon was awsome!

 

[Biggreen19]

First off I would like to say that I have been visiting Busch Gardens Williamsburg regularly since 1997. Although I am not a local to the Williamsburg area, I do have family in Williamsburg and have a fair idea on how to get around in the area, when to visit the theme parks, and a general idea on how to tour Busch Gardens. Anyway, here is a brief trip report/review of Busch Gardens and Water Country USA, and how we toured the parks.


Friday 6/15 - departed the Philadelphia area in the mid-afternoon for Williamsburg VA. Anyone familiar with I95 in the mid-atlantic region knows that it can be a nightmare to travel on during a Friday rush hour, so I opted to take the longer but more relaxing "Eastern Shore Route" over the Chesepeake Bay Bride Tunnel. I would rather arrive safe and sane.

Trip participants : myself-44, DW-44, DS-14, and DS's friend-14

Saturday 6/16 - Arrive at Busch Gardens at 9:30 AM. We enter the park and check the crowd size waiting by the Bridge to Ireland to see if it's worth getting in line to wait for the rope drop and then on to Griffon. There are loads of people already, we decide it's not worth the wait, so we ride Loch-Ness once, and queue ourselves for the Italy rope drop for Apollo's Chariot. 10:00 AM - rope drop! On to Apollo's Chariot. DS and friend "walk briskly" to Apollo's and wind up having the first ride of the day in the front car with one other individual only, nobody else on the train. Wind up riding Apollo's 3 times (DS rode 4 times), then time to move on. I must say that Apollo's Chariot is still my favorite coaster anywhere - it is still a smooth ride and the air-time you get riding in the last car of the train is fantastic!

We decide to head over to Octoberfest. Rode Big-Bad Wolf, probably the tamest coaster at Busch Gardens, but it is really fun at night when you go through the village, anyway it's the first coaster my son rode when he met the 42 inch requirement, so it has sentimental meaning to us as a family.
The next ride was Darkcastle - which was fun as always - great family ride! It can be a little scary for little ones, but overall it's a fun ride. It is similar to Spiderman, but Spiderman has more stationary props incorporated into the ride - Darkcastle relies more on the 4-D film sequences. At this point my stomache is getting a little lively, so I figured I needed a little break. DS and friend took a walk over to Le Scoot, the log flume ride to catch a quick ride. After DS and friend got off the ride, it was 11:30 - time to grab lunch over at the trappers smoke house. The food is very good at the smokehouse, however it is the most expensive counter service in the park. Most counter service meals in Busch Gardens run in the $7-8 range, but the smokehouse platters are in the $9-15 range. Still, not that expensive, but it adds up quickly when desserts and drinks are added.

After some shop browsing ( and digesting), we notice that the Park is getting rather crowded. We grab a quick ride on Alpengiest which is still an amazing suspended coaster, and decide to make an early exit due to the growing crowd size. We head again through Italy, grab one ride on Apollo's chariot, and head for the exit around 2:30 PM - Why didn't you ride Griffon you maybe thinking? Patience.......patience........

A few quick observations - Park was as beautiful as ever.

Restrooms were clean and had attendants working them - something I have noticed missing at WDW recently

New Park Policy - No Backpacks, purses or loose objects in the Rollercoaster queue lines. This policy is being enforced! You can only carry into the queue line beverages. Busch Gardens has stationed some lockers outside the queue lines for your personals, but they require tokens, which means you have to pay for the lockers. Of course Univeral Orlando has this issue covered with the free lockers, so this must be a newly enacted policy at Busch Gardens.
Hopefully Bush will come up with a different locker policy in the future, maybe similar to Universal?

I'll post more later....cia for now...

 

[tropical depression]

we need to make the roadtrip up to BGW. we've got platinum passports so we might as well use them outside of Tampa and Orlando.

 

[LovintheLodge]

I live about 45 minutes from BGE and was just at Kings Mill last month for a golf outting. It is a beautiful resort on the James River. I also recommend the Hilton Garden Inn in Williamsburg was there last week and it was very nice.
Remember that Williamsburg gets no breezes so it is Hot and Humid well into late September. We played golf there last week and it was 102 degrees

If you can't handle the heat and humity don't go in June, July or August.
Also the kids around here in VA do not go back to school until after Labor day. Both Bush Gardens and Kings Dominion relay on the school kids to work the parks until Labor day so school start the Tuesday after.
So crowds are pretty steady until after Labor Day. Weekend lines for the major rides are HUGE.

Twice we've stayed at the Hilten Garden Inn. It's very nice and in a good location for restaurants. There's a cute Williamsburg General Store nearby that also sells ice cream. If you have some time to shop, there's a really nice Yankee candle outlet (we squeezed that in the morning before we left). I mentioned this in a previous post, but all three of our visits were the last week of August and we experienced low crowds. Yes, it can be very hot, but the low crowds make it a great time to go in the summer.

 

[Metro West]

I haven't been to BGW in a long time but I definately would like to go back and ride Griffon! I rode Apollo's Chariot not long after opening and Fabio's infamous bird incident.

 

[dawnal]

Thanks for all of the helpful info!! We are going in July and it's been tough getting a handle on what to expect.

 

[larrycl]

Earlier someone wrote:

New Park Policy - No Backpacks, purses or loose objects in the Rollercoaster queue lines. This policy is being enforced! You can only carry into the queue line beverages

Anyone know if this applies to water bottles? I was thinking about getting those water bottle lanyards/necklaces so that everyone in my family could carry his/her own water bottle. We'll need lots of water as we are planning on visiting at the end of August.

 

[cookiemonstermommy]

Each ride that has those signs let my son and me go on the lines with my bag and refillable cup. We left it near the exit while we rode. No one enforced it at all, and in fact the line attendants helped me secure a safe spot to keep my things. If someone walks off with your stuff (never happened to me or anyone I know), then I'd guess you don't have any recourse.

Now, I can't promise that you won't get someone who will enforce it, but this was my experience last week (came home 6/30). And we weren't making any attempts to hide the bag or be discreet.

And almost EVERYONE had water bottles!

Note: Most places will give you a cup of free ice (tap) water. Some don't have the "free" cups, but will fill one of your containers for free with ice water. Don't keep buying the Aquafina bottles, especially in August, you'll spend more on water than on park admission!

Kelly

 

[larrycl]

Thanks Kelly. I was thinking about loading a case of Costco water bottles in the car, then handing out water bottle holders ($4.95 for 12 from Oriental Trading) to everyone.