The Story of Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Part II

Continued from The Story of Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Part I.

The Loch Ness, as seen 

from the Aeronaut sky ride

In 1978, Anheuser-Busch constructed the Loch Ness Monster, a steel roller coaster that took three exciting honors. It was the world's tallest coaster, the world's steepest coaster, and the world's only coaster with interlocking loops. Although two other coasters with interlocking loops later opened (the Orient Express and the Lightening Loops), they have since shut down, so Nessie again holds the honor as the world's only!  

And, if my readers will excuse this digression down the path of nerd-dom, Nessie was also the site of the first ever Coaster Con-I in 1978, the inaugural convening of coaster addicts in search of the best the planet had to offer. Apt choice. Located in the park's Scotland-themed area, Heatherdowns, the bright yellow coaster is still a favorite among thrill seekers and normal people alike. Okay, enough about Nessie, and on with the history schpeel...

The arrival of modern steel thrill rides had hardly diminished the park's European aestheticism. A random 1981 Maryland wedding announcement declared that the bride and groom had planned their honeymoon for not Rome, not Paris, but Busch Gardens Williamsburg... hinting at the park's appeal as the perfect destination for dreamers of Europe's romance, on a lower budget.

In 1984, in typical eclectic style, the Gardens introduced more exciting and enchanting elements to the park. With a six-million-dollar price tag, the Big Bad Wolf debuted to hurtle riders through a wild Bavarian mountain and into an unexpected plummet into the lake below. "The scene will be like nothing we've every seen, they say, and since that's what they said about the Loch Ness Monster, we better believe it," observed the Washington Post. Meanwhile, the park also introduced, in the words of the Post, "Joe Carvalho's exotic bird act...; an Italian open-air folk show; the 5,200-seat Royal Palace Theater; and wandering street characters and story tellers. They better watch where they wander, close and crowded as the 360-acre park is."


In 1990, the National Amusement Park Historical Association awarded Busch Gardens the first of an unbroken (as of 2012) string of wins as the most beautiful theme park in the whole world! I kid you not!

Idyllic scene in Heatherdowns, Scotland

Playing more than a tiny part in this beauty is Italy. Costing the same price ticket as the Loch Ness Monster, the country of Italy in Busch Gardens was completed in 1980.

From lively music and Italian artisans to the smallest details on ancient Roman frescos, the Gardens create an Italy that has sprung to life after passing through the lens of romance and nostalgia, like a transplanted immigrant fondly remembering the Old Country. You would think that the following article by Carlin Romano in The Washington Post described an excursion in old Italia, but think again:

The terra-cotta roof tiles evoke memories of San Gimagnano and other Tuscan towns. Scrawled on a wall near the Piazza San Marco,  a Latin graffito reveals that Mr. Holconius Triscus managed to line up the local fruit sellers ages ago in his race to be a magistrate of Rome.

Ah, the home country. Ah, history.

One turns from the piazza to the waterway beside it, hoping for the Grand Canal, the vaporetti and motoscasi, perhaps a grand palazzo, or the elegant Pont di Rialto.
Instead, one faces the Rhine. Across the way, Oktoberfest erupts.

It's a small world, that Busch version of the "Old Country" is...

The guests attending the country's opening on July 15, 1980, included Mario Andretti. Not too shabby. 

And among the wares of the quaint street shops sat a Capodimonte porcelain sculpture of one of Da Vinci's paintings, the Last Supper. Fitting, since Capodimonte artisans would soon become a fixture in Italy. Drawing clusters of onlookers to their open-air workshops, the native Italian artisans continue to create delicate, life-like flowers with the simplest of tools, often just their fingers. 

A special-effects-laden adventure, Escape from Pompeii, opened in Italy in 1995, again balancing the charming with the thrilling. But, as Bachmann-Turner Overdrive said in 1974, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

SOURCES:

Newspapers

Trescott, Jacqueline. "The Roller Coaster Zealots" The Washington Post 12 June 1978: B1.

Romano, Carlin. "Visa to the Home Country, Via Busch Gardens" The Washington Post 16 July 1980: B3.

"Weddings" The Baltimore Sun 16 August 1981: E11.

"Virginia Theme Parks: Thrills and a Foreign Air" The Baltimore Sun 18 April 1982.

"Footloose: Six Cures for Cabin Fever" The Washington Post 20 April 1984: WK5

"Travel Advisory: Escape From Pompeii At Busch Gardens" New York Times 7 May 1995: 5.

"Busch Gardens" The Washington Post 14 May 2010: T22.