Hannah’s Big Coaster Day

So my youngest daughter, Hannah has been a little bit slow to get bit by the roller coaster bug that bit Carrie and I a long time ago. That’s not to say that she hasn’t ridden any coasters, but most of her credits have been on smaller coasters. At our home park of Busch Gardens Williamsburg, she has previously ridden Grover’s Alpine Express (their kiddie coaster), InvadR (the park’s family wooden coaster), and the classic Loch Ness Monster. Even though she enjoyed Loch Ness, she still wouldn’t ride it on every trip to the park and InvadR was certainly not a favorite of hers on her previous rides. That’s why when a few weeks ago, I was surprised to hear Hannah say that she wanted to join Carrie and I on our next Busch Gardens trip so that she could try out some more coasters.

Prior to our June 6 visit to Busch Gardens, Hannah had 18 coaster credits from various parks. I was very curious to see which rides she was going to make the decision to try out for the first time. Here’s a rundown of our day.

We left for the park right after church and we arrived a little bit after 2pm. After getting our obligatory photo at the entrance, Hannah wanted to get herself warmed up by taking a spin on the parks 43 year old classic Arrow looping coaster, The Loch Ness Monster. This ride is a classic and it always delivers fun for everyone.

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I love these two girls of mine.

The perfect coaster to start your day on at BGW – The Legendary Loch Ness Monster

We got off of ‘Nessie’ and made our way back to the Oktoberfest section of the park which is where Verbolten, the park’s Zierer multi-launch family coaster resides. However, before Hannah was ready to brave the Black Forest, she wanted to take a ‘spin’ on Der Wirbelwind, the park’s Wave Swinger. Carrie chose to sit this ride out which left me to put my stomach to the test on the swings. I can ride coasters, but spinning is a whole different ballgame for me. Fortunately, my stomach stood the test and we got off of the swings and walked across the midway so that Hannah could tackle Verbolten. I did give Hannah a head’s up about the drop track inside of the show building and when we got off of the ride, she was smiling. She loved it. Coaster credit #19 achieved for Hannah.

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Hands up! Gotta love it.

It was a warm day and we were kind of wanting to cool off a bit. We made our way back to Le Scoot, the log flume, and waited on our friend James who had just arrived at the park to join us. Well, as soon as we got in line, the ride went down, so we went over to ride InvadR. Hannah had ridden this ride before so it wasn’t a new credit, but she did get her first ever front row ride as she rode with our buddy James.

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The ride photo is on the first drop, but shortly after the photo snapped, Hannah’s hands went back up.

Did I mention that it was a warm day? We really wanted to cool off and with the most likely next new credit for Hannah being in the Italy section of the park, we decided to make a pit stop and Escape from Pompeii. This is a highly themed shoot the chutes ride themed around the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed the city of Pompeii. Falling beams, statues and a whole lot of fire surround you before taking the plunge and making a splash. Interestingly enough, this is still not a favorite of Hannah’s.

James and I were the only ones in our group that seemed to be having fun.

Well, we got off of Pompeii and asked Hannah what coaster was going to be next. Her answer shocked me. I fully expected her to say Apollo’s Chariot, but she said Tempesto. On the way over to those two coasters she changed her mind and wanted to ride Apollo’s first. That was fine by me. The only problem was, Apollo’s Chariot had just went down for a minor maintenance issue. Hannah nervously made the walk over to Tempesto. Unfortunately there is not a working on ride photo for Tempesto. However, she conquered it and while it wasn’t her favorite, she enjoyed it. Credit #20 achieved.

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I was so proud of her on this one. I really didn’t think she would ride it.

The day was winding down for us. We were all tired and hot. But we weren’t finished just yet. While we were in line for Tempesto, Apollo’s Chariot began running again. We decided that we would ride that as our finale for the day. Long story short with this ride, Hannah’s hands were up before the second drop and when we hit the final brake run, she deemed it her favorite ride ever. Credit #21 achieved.

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What a great day!

Well that’s a wrap on our June 6 trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Hannah still needs two more coaster credits at the park and I’m confident that she will get them this year. I’m also curious to see which coasters at Kings Dominion she’s ready to try out this year. At that park she has only done their two kids’ coasters and the family friendly Back Lot Stunt Coaster.

I really love sharing this hobby with my girls. I’m super excited that Hannah now seems to be catching the fever too. These are memories that I will always cherish. Until the next adventure, ride on!