WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WAVY) — In mid-May, Busch Gardens Williamsburg will mark 50 years of welcoming guests to what has been dubbed “The Worlds Most Beautiful Theme Park.”
Also by mid-May, there is hope the sequel of a beloved attraction will again be strapping in riders once again for thrills.
The Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf’s Revenge, is currently under construction in the Oktoberfest section of the park. The coaster will pay homage to The Big Bad Wolf coaster, whose right of way ran nearby from 1984 to 2009, the ride will feature similar theming, even down to a recreated Bavarian village.
Billed as “North America’s longest inverted family coaster,” the ride will have distinct differences however from the original, chief among them will be the riders feet will dangle free.
Still park leadership is leaning-in on nostalgia. Hoping it pays off in high visitation this year.
“I think everybody is really excited, especially those people that have ridden it before when the original one was here back in the day,” said Suzy Cheely, vice president of design and engineering for Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
The renewed Big Bad Wolf coaster will be most similar to the park’s current coaster Alpengeist. Built and designed by Switzerland-based Bolliger & Mabillard, the ride will use 2,500 feet of blood-red track to cary riders on two trains of black, red and yellow coaster cars.
Each seat will be include speakers to allow for in-ride audio effects as the ride traverses two lift hills and flys over the Busch Gardens Railway twice.
Riders will have to be at least 42 inches to ride with someone else of at least 48 inches tall.
While Busch Gardens wouldn’t share the cost of the new ride, they did say they saved some money by using the old Drachen Fire station and maintenance building. Drachen Fire was a short-lived coaster in the park, opening in 1992 and closing in 1998.
The village is being built in an area long known as the boneyard by park employees. It was an area closed to the public where old ride parts and scenery were often stored.
Park President Kevin Lembke believes the attraction will bring people in who have visited throughout the last five decades.
“It’s all about that nostalgia,” Kembke said. “I meet so many people that [say], ‘I came to Busch Gardens as a kid, and now I bring my kids.'”
The park, along with Colonial Williamsburg, helped cement the Historic Triangle as a top tourist destination during the last quarter of the 20th century.