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Busch Gardens Williamsburg's Project 2015 Revealed: Part II
By Zachary Posted in Featured, Previews on August 1, 2014 13 Comments 5 min read
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[iconbox title=”UPDATE: Images Removed” icon=”warning”]This wave of leaked plans has been redacted in response to a formal legal request sent by the park. If you’d like to see the other set of more basic site plans that we leaked previously, you can still check those out, here. That said, the information in this post is still spot-on and likely worth your time even without the pictures.[/iconbox]
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Here we go again! As you may recall from a few months ago, we got our hands on some basic site plans for Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s 2015 coaster which showed that the park would be adding a clone of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom’s Superman: Ultimate Flight. Well today we have a ton more to share. In fact, today, we have everything. Since the make, model, and location of the ride was already known to people who have been following the project, the big news here for most of our readers will be the attraction’s, uh, thematic elements.
I’m not going to bother explaining most of what I’m publishing today as most everything is relatively self-explanatory and I’m a bit restricted on time, but if you have any questions, I’d recommend tossing them out on our Project 2015 thread, here, or asking us directly on Twitter or Facebook.
Before I let you get to the plans, in an effort to curb the inevitable resulting flood of misinformation, Diavolo is not the final name. SEAS parks have a long history of using code names in their theming documents. Many people may remember “Elementum” showing up in Verbolten’s theming documents. We fully anticipate the same being true for Diavolo when it comes to Project 2015.
With all that out of the way, enjoy the sneak peak at Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s 2015 coaster!
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Schematics

For the technically minded among us, we have a fairly large collection of technical drawings from BGW’s 2015 project. They’re categorized below.

Full Site Plans

No real revelations in these new site plans, but they should give a much clearer idea of how everything will be positioned in the middle of Festa Italia next season.
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Coaster Plans

As with the site plans, aside from confirming without a doubt that we are, in fact, getting an off-the-shelf Premier launch coaster, there isn’t much in the way of new information to be gleaned from these newly uncovered coaster plans. That said, there is one detail we didn’t see coming: Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s version will feature three car trains instead of two found on the three other clones of the layout. While this alteration will help a bit with the attraction’s hourly capacity, I still predict rather painful lines.
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Station Plans

Aside from providing further evidence of three car operations, there’s nothing incredibly newsworthy to be found in the station plans.
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Greenery Plans

According to the landscaping plans, essentially every tree between Apollo and the larger Festa Italia hamlet is being removed.
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Design Documents

We’ve known about the coaster itself for a while now but, this most recent collection of documents gives us our first insight into the park’s plans for theming the ride. I’d love to say we worked out the theme for the attraction months ago but, alas, I don’t think anyone could have guessed a grunge, carnival, BMX theme…

Color Pallets & Stylization

As the documents below show, the thematic package includes a huge range of different colors. While a wide color pallet is fitting for Festa, I worry about the painting techniques looking wildly out of place next to the hamlet’s existing decorations. The planned typography is another issue for me: It’s vastly different than anything else currently in Festa.
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Entry Archway

Here are the designs for the entry archway. This will be placed over the queue entrance and will act as the ride’s path signage.
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Station Facade

This, uh, “facade-themed” facade (no, really) will be constructed against the front of the coaster’s station. Guests will exit through the large opening in the middle.
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Signage

Of all the project’s theming, its signage makes up most, if not all, of my favorite visual components. Below is a fairly large fraction of the planned signage we’ve seen for the attraction.
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Support Tower Banners

The park plans to place banners advertising the ride on the coaster’s tallest support tower.
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Posters

A large collection of ride posters advertising the “stunt show” will be littered around the area, especially throughout the queue.
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Control Booth

I really only have one thing to say about the control booth plans: Wowza! And not in a good way either…
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Photo Sales

And now I leave you with what is likely the ugliest planned bit of thematic design for the ride: the photo sales booth. Perhaps I wouldn’t care about it so much, if it were hidden in a dark corner somewhere. Unfortunately it will be located right in the attraction’s main plaza. Not at all a fan.
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[iconbox title=”Note to News Media” icon=”info”]If you would like to cite any of the information in this post, please contact us first (zachary@parkfans.net). We have no problem with your sharing the information you see here, but we’d like to make sure these documents are being interpreted correctly. Thanks![/iconbox]


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  1. I really only have one thing to say about the control booth plans: Wowza! And not in a good way either…
    Can’t the same be said about the ride as a whole?

  2. Everyone who says this is a bad idea must also remember the 2014 fiasco that is London Rocks and 99 Nights of Summer/Americana… The future looks bleak for Busch,lets hope soon we get some new blood in the system to bring back the old feel, or least go into a new direction that isnt tacky…

  3. Hey a new coaster is a new coaster but this one just ain’t right: an off the shelf, low capacity / long wait time, poorly branded “bicycle stunt” coaster. While the ride might be fun, it just doesn’t fit the BG brand.

  4. This should be no surprise for everyone. The park is trying very hard to go away from “the Old Country” 18th century theming they have had to a more modern Europe theme. Verboten is themed to a trip in a modern sports car , London Rocks is all about 20th Century music, Entwined uses lots of modern pop tunes, and now this ride is themed to a stunt rider. I hate to say it, but say goodbye to the Old Country. I do think they should change the bike idea to a motorcycle.

  5. Honestly, While I’d like to see a different theme, There are only a few parts that are really bad (The Photo Sales Booth). While its a clone, Its probably gonna be the best of its kind with the most theming. And what’s so bad about clones if they’re actually fun? At least it’snot a boomerang. I’d even prefer this over a giant inverted boomerang. Also, it’s not like they wont ever have a non-clone roller coaster again. The three cars per train will up the capacity immensely. Plus, Busch Gardens is pretty good with crowds. The longest wait I usually have is on Verbolten or Apollo, And those don’t even take too long! And with the trees, Festa Italia already didn’t have many trees. They could put tons of Italian Cypress trees in the area. It would make the area look about 100x more Italian. And lastly, with a ride this cheap, they could definitely put in a large flat ride soon. Maybe even in 2016. I’m hoping for a Huss Giant Frisbee. I think a good move after this would to put a GCI Woodie in Oktoberfest (One like Goldstriker). Sorry for the long post.

  6. I grew up going to Busch Gardens The Old Country and really liked that theming…it was unique in the world of theme parks and Busch Gardens Williamsburg was always so beautiful. I am afraid it is becoming a clone of every other theme park. I hate that one of the parks that has always had such unique rides is starting to use off the rack attractions. With the rolling hills and terrain out where Drachenfire was, why not build something akin to Cheetah Hunt or another Hypercoaster? This coaster will not be luring me to BGW… thank goodness for all of the other attractions they do have!

  7. Hey Zachary and BGWfans, I’m sure you’re probably aware of this, but Superman: Ultimate Flight will be getting a clone “Zombie Ride” at Bosque Magico. I’ve heard that it will have a dual loading station like Mr. Freeze, and will travel the track twice! Perhaps these ideas could be used in the clone BGW will likely be getting?

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