Comments on: Verbolten @ Busch Gardens Williamsburg | Coaster Reviews

By: Shelly Alexander

Shelly Alexander — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 09:17:16 +0000

While I am certainly not a master of coasters, I found Verbolten to be more of a head ringer than a thrill ride. There are far better coasters out there that don't leave you feeling as though your head has just been spun around by Rocky himself. My children ages 10 and 14 rode along and they too hated the ride. Don't be fooled by the height requirements as I do believe that it's not a "family" ride at all.

By: Mike M.

Mike M. — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:59:38 +0000

I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely loved Verbolten. And it's weird, because although Cheetah Hunt technically has better elements, I enjoyed Verbolten more. Cheetah Hunt has a better drop, a better airtime hill, and a nice inversion. Yet, Verbolten seemed a lot more intense vs Cheetah Hunt's gracefulness. The combination of the theming, darkness, and drop track made a much more memorable experience for me. Plus I liked the buildup to the final drop even though it wasn't as long as Cheetah Hunt's.

The Skull Mountain reference is a bit unfair in my opinion. I think Revenge of the Mummy is a much better comparison as far as thrills go. An 8 is a fair rating though. Objectively I'd agree with that. Not a top thrill coaster, but definitely fun.

By: RCTPro

RCTPro — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 17:47:47 +0000

they should have went with Intamin over the obsceure Ziier sorry if i butchered the spelling) and made something more akin to Cheehttah Hunt (sorry about butchering that as well), or something different alltogher, tney wasted prime rcoaster land on this ride for what, an ugly event building and one terrain element that hardly makes it a terrain coaster,

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:06:38 +0000

I, too was disappointed with Verbolten. It didn’t seem much different from the Italian Job at Kings Dominion/Island. I wasn’t much impressed with the launches either. I didn’t know about the multiple themes as I only rode it once. I didn’t feel it was worth waiting in line again. I had more fun on Alpengeist (of course) and the Loch Ness Monster.

By: Dean

Dean — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 01:00:10 +0000

I watched the POV, and I think they should have kept The Big Bad Wolf. The small city that The Wolf went through was so awesome. This new rollercoaster; well, half of it is inside a dark building. I guess if I want to ride Space Mountain, I'd go to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. I mean, there were SO MANY opportunities to incorporate the 'Real Woods' there at Busch Gardens, that they could have done it outside where you could see it. Just sayin'.

By: Zach

Zach — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 06:03:07 +0000

It actually runs in a A-B-C format. So if the train in front of you has the spirit, you get wolves, then the train behind you gets the storm, and then it repeats. It would be nice if it was synced with the trains though so you knew which scene you were getting.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:13:41 +0000

Aww too bad about Apollo. I wanted to live vicariously through you. I was hoping to get to the park this year but it looks like it ain't happening due to my being so busy. Maybe I'll get to try Verbolten next year if I can't make it this year. Pretty down this year with the exception of my big FL trip which was amazing. Looking forward to the X Flight review.

By: RCTPro

RCTPro — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:58:04 +0000

i do understand why they'd do that CC and what else was said by the others, butwhere's the terrain coaster, i doin't call it a terrain coaster since i believe that one terrain element doesn't count as a terrain coaster. And the old Drachen Fire spot will eventually be used for a ride, and nw they have to banish the next coaster that'll likely be a thrill ride to that obscure location, and with any of the options i gave, that would be more of a waste then this being built there with a much better event building, that could have combined all three effects scenarios into one and have actual objects. And BTW, Air, the prototype B&M flyer was very tame and not that tall and in a way a family coaster with a slightly taller height requirement.
Amd the RMC iron horse could have had a theme that involved hunting the wolf down but ending up becoming the hunted, if that puts things into perspective.

By: @mattmcirvin

@mattmcirvin — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:09:04 +0000

Hmm… The old Drachen Fire location is kind of out of the way, whereas the BBW/Verbolten spot is relatively accessible. I can see why they wouldn't want to banish their new signature coaster to the margins if they could help it, especially considering that BBW was sort of a family ride in the first place.

By: MPM

MPM — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 04:56:58 +0000

Now that I've seen the wolf theme and FINALLY gotten in a different theme from the spirit one, and now that I've ridden 3 out of 5 trains, I feel like I can more accurately judge this. Some trains can definitely be rougher than others – orange was silky smooth (rode it twice), blue had a definite rattle to it similar to a wooden coaster but nothing uncomfortable, and green was about as close to a "headbanger" as you can get at BG. On all my rides I experienced the noted head slam on the dip before the second launch to varying degrees, but all my rides were great except on green. They really need to create a more consistent ride experience in that area – get on top of maintenance and make all trains run as smooth as possible. The wolf theme was so much better than the spirit theme that I'd have to rate the ride a 9.0 on the former and 8.0 on the latter. Unless you get a particularly bad train I'd have to say this is slightly better than Leviathan in Canada's Wonderland, which I rode back on Victoria Day weekend. That may seem shocking but Leviathan really had no wow factor after the initial drop, and it had me missing Apollo's Chariot halfway through. I know this is an apples to oranges comparison but as two of the best new rides of the year I couldn't resist!