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Day 2 - Sunday 7th June 2009 Trip Report from Busch Gardens |
Day 2 started early at 08.15 when we all boarded our bus for the short journey down to Busch Gardens. On arrival some of us got together for a group photograph before heading into the park and over to Apollo's Chariot for our first ERS of the trip. The ride did not disappoint either. The park also kindly allowed us to use camera's on the ride so some great shots were achieved. The ERS was due to start at 09:00 but we were well under way over 10 minutes early! Once the park had opened to the public we all took a train ride over to the area called "France" for an Alpengeist ride takeover. After this we had the park at our leisure so we all split off into our relative groups to explore this lovely park taking in all the coasters.
We rode Griffon early on just in case of a technical failure. Some of the group got an exclusive boat ride which went down by the coasters and got some great footage of them. The Loch Ness Monster had to be tried out along with The Big Bad Wolf which was celebrating a birthday. The coaster counters amongst us even rode the Family Coaster Grover's Alpine Express. The park was an 'awsome' start to our USA Trip, the staff were extremely friendly and made us feel very welcome. Along with the coasters we saw the animals they have there and a number of shows. The weather was excellent with blue skies throughout the day so the wet rides also proved very popular with the club. We had plenty of time to explore the park before our planned second ERS of the day on their Oblivion type ride Griffon, a floorless dive coaster which accomodates 30 people at a time. We were given green wrist bands during the day so the staff could tell we were from the club so when it was time for the public to leave, we could head over to Griffon without being ushered out of the park. A couple of members also decided to have a photo opportunity with the muppets!
The ERS started a little late as the public were allowed to queue up until the park closing time of 21:00. Once the ERS got under way we managed to fill 2 out of the 3 trains that were running but shortly after we were taking all the trains. The ERS was in the dark which is a club favourite and we got over 40 train dispatches in the hour of the ERS which the staff were very pleased at. After the ERS had finished we thanked the staff for staying back and making our day such a great one. Then it was back on the coach for our short journey to the hotel and our second night out on the town. Unfortunately due to it being a Sunday night and our ERS had started and ended late we found it difficult to find somewhere open as all the restaurants in the area closed at 23:00 so many of us retired to our hotels and some of us went to the 7/11 store for some snacks. Laptops were fired up so we could put some reports up on the message board then it was time to retire in readiness for Day 3 of Stand Behind The Yellow Line, Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia.
Please Note: All on ride photographs were taken WITH PERMISSION of the theme park and ride management. Under no circumstances should any member of the public or club member attempt to take photographs on rides without express permission from the theme park. Safety comes first - follow the rules!
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| Group Photo | Apollo's Chariot ERS | Apollo's Chariot On Ride with permission from the park | 2 Members take a photo opportunity with the muppets! | Our Late Night ERS on Griffon |
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| View of The Loch Ness Monster and Griffon | Alpengeist vs Griffon | The Loch Ness Monster | Alpengeist | Griffon in the water |
