Back in February we published a story outlining the early signs indicating to us that something notable was in development for the current site of Water Country USA’s Aqua Skoot, Rampage. In the months since, Water Country USA has reopened for the first time since 2019 and both Rampage, and its neighboring tube slide, Wild […]
Enormous Event Building Proposed Near Festhaus Park
I know this article isn’t short and the title sounds like a snooze-fest. Give it a shot though. I assure you, there’s something for everyone in here. Howl-O-Scream? Project Madrid? Pantheon & Drachen Spire? This piece has it all. Part I: Background Busch Gardens Williamsburg has morphed a lot over the years, but there are […]
Is Busch Gardens Surrendering the Battle for Eire?
This post is going to feel hauntingly familiar. Back in late 2017, we wrote The Curse is Fading, an article outlining the early, tentative evidence suggesting to us that Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s beloved darkride, Curse of DarKastle, may have already seen its final riders. Back then, Battle for Eire was right on the horizon—in fact, […]
There’s a winter storm pummeling much of the country, we just marked Valentines and Presidents Day off our calendars, and we’re still in the midst of a devastating, world-altering, global pandemic. Taken together, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that February 16th, 2021 is an odd time to talk about Water Country USA—yet here we […]
Will Pantheon & Aquazoid Amped Open in 2020?
As eyes slowly turn towards reopening a post-COVID-19 world, we’ve been inundated with one question over and over again: “Will Pantheon and/or Aquazoid Amped open in 2020?” Obviously, until Busch Gardens Williamsburg makes an announcement one way or the other, we’re unlikely to know for sure. What we do know, however, is that there is […]
COVID Compensation Complications
In this weird pandemic-induced dystopia, I was not expecting to find myself sitting down to write an article about park passes for BGWFans. Everyone in the world is self-isolating, deaths across the country continue to climb, and theme parks are ghost towns. But this week, some interesting news arrived in our inboxes, setting off a […]
New Site Plan Provides First Glimpse at La Cucina Renovations
Hey everyone, quick note before we get started: The article below was written last week and scheduled for a March 12th publication. In the time since, COVID-19 has flipped BGW, the amusement industry, and to some extent, society as a whole on its head. Due to the impacts of the Coronavirus, projects like the one […]
Apollo's Chariot May Not Be Ready for Opening Day
As opening day approaches, bits and pieces of Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s website have been slowly receiving updates. Most of these changes have been pretty mundane, but, as one of ParkFans’ forum members, FoozMuz, pointed out this morning, there is a particularly suspicious recent change to the park’s Quick Queue offerings. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is now […]
In an investor-facing press release published this morning, SeaWorld Parks let Water Country USA’s 2020 secret out of the bag: Water Country USA’s family raft ride, Aquazoid, is going under the knife. As we’ve been reporting on for a while now, odd things have been happening around Aquazoid—which is easily one of Water Country’s most […]
Aquazoid's Slide Tower is Gone
Ok, so maybe the subtitle of this article is slightly clickbait-y. I’m sure you’ll forgive that though in light of the amazingly niche Aquazoid billboard reference. It even features a tower being destroyed! This is peak Water Country USA comedy guys! Anyway, there may not be any CERTAIN COSMIC DOOM! involved here, but we have […]
Late January Pantheon Aerial Construction Update
We believe that BGWFans has a responsibility to our readers to be as transparent as possible regarding our relationship with Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Despite being a relatively uncomfortable and inconvenient topic to address in a public setting like this, we believe there’s a moral imperative to do so. This is particularly true when the status […]
Leaked Electrical Plan Depicts Busch Gardens Williamsburg's 2021 Roller Coaster in Detail
If there’s a god, he’s up there laughing this afternoon. Why? Because BGWFans just had one of those classic sitcom moments. Yesterday, we published our painstakingly detailed analysis of the footer plan for what we believe is Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s 2021 roller coaster—seemingly a huge, multi-launched, giga shuttle coaster slated for construction behind Verbolten in […]
Multi-Launched Shuttle Giga Coaster Planned for 2021 Debut at Busch Gardens Williamsburg
January 21st Update: Many of the questions left unanswered by this article were solved one day after its publication thanks to a leaked schematic that clearly depicts the track and supports for Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s 2021 roller coaster! We are proud of the article below and encourage you to give it a read if you […]
After the resource protection area impacts map was filed earlier this month, we weren’t expecting to see any additional BGW Project 2021 information hit the James City County Planning Department till after the new year. Much to our surprise, that expectation seems to have been misguided. Today Busch Gardens Williamsburg filed an incredible new packet […]
Partial Project 2021 Site Plan
I spent the morning promising “2020 news” on Twitter and ParkFans. Well, I must admit that was slightly (intentionally) misleading. While there was Pantheon news today (track is on site!), the “2020 news” I’m writing about today is probably more accurately described as “news from 2020“—specifically news that we expect will be announced in 2020 […]
Mid-September Photo Update: Gods, Dragons, and Monsters
Prologue I have been feeling nostalgic lately and, with so much happening at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (and Water Country USA) right now, I thought I’d hold some content back from our social media channels for a bit and take the time to write a longform, in-depth photo update. Somehow, that idea ballooned into this absolutely […]
Newly-Leaked Document Depicts Project 2021's Station
This is not a normal BGWFans leak. Typically, our coverage of unannounced attractions proceeds fairly formulaically—we identify internal park activities and patterns that suggest an upcoming attraction is on the way, we track public filings, and then, if the stars align, we leak as many actual, legitimate, confirmable documents as we possibly can from sources […]
Pantheon Basics Pantheon is a new Roman-god-themed, Intamin-made, steel roller coaster which is slated to open in the Spring of 2020. Notable features of the ride include four launch experiences (three forward, one backwards), a fast-track switch which will change the layout of the coaster while the train is in motion, a 180 foot, 95° […]
Project 2021 Height Waiver Vote Happens Tomorrow
June 11th, 2019 Update: At tonight’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting, James City County approved the 355 foot height waiver Busch Gardens Williamsburg requested! Now that Project 2021 can move forward, we have launched a new page dedicated to tracking the progress on BGW Project 2021. If you’d like to catch up on information you may […]
It has been a long time since BGWFans published a basic, barebones, in-park construction update to its frontpage. Instead, progress photos for new rides, shows, etc have been largely relegated to our various social media channels for the past few years. That said, now that we have a major new roller coaster to keep tabs on […]