WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — "The wolf has returned."
Busch Gardens Williamsburg announced on Friday the 13th its next roller coaster, and long-time fans of the theme park may get a sense of familiarity with it.
The inverted family-friendly roller coaster pays homage to one of the park's old but popular rides, the Big Bad Wolf, which operated from 1984 to 2010.
Busch Gardens says the new ride needs a new name -- more on that in a bit -- and that when it opens it will be North America's longest inverted family coaster. The ride boasts 2,500 feet of track and will send riders up to 40 miles per hour, bolting through the streets of an abandoned Bavarian village.
Busch Gardens is inviting the public to decide on a name and is offering three choices in an online poll:
- WölfSturm (Wolf Storm)
- WölfsReign
- GeisterWölf (Ghost Wolf)
Voting on the poll ends on September 25, 2024.
A sneak preview video shows the coaster -- with bright red track -- zipping through a Bavarian hamlet, invoking the old Big Bad Wolf. The original Wolf, with its sleek red track and suspended black cars, became one of the highlight attractions at Busch Gardens, perhaps second only to the Loch Ness Monster, during its quarter-century of operation. Riders would be steered through a Bavarian village, narrowly missing buildings before finally taking a final steep, 100-foot drop down to the park's Rhine River.
The Big Bad Wolf's original location is now occupied by another roller coaster, Verbolten, which included its own series of homages to the wolf, including replicating that 100-foot drop.
The new Wölf ride will instead be located in a different part of Busch Garden's Oktoberfest, occupying the location of another long-gone coaster: Drachen Fire.
No specific opening date has been announced, but the park said it will be in 2025, in time for Busch Gardens Williamsburg's 50th anniversary.
