Tomorrow will be a nice day for a coaster ride

Tomorrow. Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Virginia. Company picnic. Rollercoasters.

In order of "excitement" from fine to great:

1) Big Bad Wolf - suspended cars, meant to simulate a bat flying around a German village, reaches maybe 45 mph, and has an 80' drop from 100' up just over the river, great starter for the kids

2) Alpengeist - suspended chairs with shoulder restraints (your feet dangle,) has a 170' drop from 195' height and includes many rolls and loops. Exciting yet oddly relaxing, one of most imposing rides that is really a big graceful ride that just happens to turn you upside down a few times. Great for the reluctant adult.

3) Loch Ness Monster - a granddaddy steel coaster that has been around since the 70s. Drops 114' from 130' up, has two loops (very exciting and innovative for 1978), reaches 60 mph and is 55 degrees at its steepest point. Still a fun coaster. Has good, though short, thrills on the drops. The best thing about the ride is how they've fitted this into the park. It loops and glides over the boardwalk at the bottom of the ravine that splits the park (where the river is.) In fact, they've designed this so that some part of each coaster at the park passes over the river.

4) Apollo's Chariot - this is still the best coaster I have ridden, but then, I've never been to Cedar Point and taken on some of those monsters there. This coaster climbs 170' in the air, but thanks to a terrain change, it plunges 210' at 65 degrees reaching about 73 mph. That is the first of nine drops. The next three are 131', 144', and 102' respectively. There's another 87' drop later just for giggles. The seats are designed with no restraints other than a heavy restraint on your legs. You catch significant zero-g air on every drop. This coaster matches its name. It is a great ride and I am not always in the mood for it.

There is one coaster, pictured above, that I haven't ridden yet. Tomorrow is the big day for that. It is the Griffon, sister of the SheiKra at Busch Gardens Tampa. The Griffon is the highest floorless drop coaster on the planet. A 205' plunge, straight down. 90 degrees. No floor. This should feel like flying. There's a second 90 degree drop at 130'. But by then it won't matter. Sure, it'll flip us upside down, but it is that first plunge that I'm anticipating.

(Side note: Another great coaster experience is the Borg Assimilator at Carowinds in North Carolina (used to be the Stealth at Great America.) It's a flying coaster. Check it out. I've experienced nothing like it.)

Let me know your favorite coasters in the comments section. Any ACE members out there?