2014 - New Land / New Coaster - Rumor - (4/8/13) With BGW adding nothing new in 2013, this begs the question about just what they may be planning for 2014 then. Historically, whenever BGW seemed to skip adding a new attraction in any given year, they usually had something quite good in the works for the following year.
For example, the park added nothing in 2004, but added Curse of DarKastle in 2005. They followed this up with nothing in 2006, but added Griffon in 2007, then taking 2008 off, but adding the new Sesame Street land in 2009.
Whatever they have planned, the former Drachen Fire site is very likely to be the location of choice. There has been a lot of speculation for what may come to this site as well over the years, including rumors of an expansion to the Oktoberfest area, or possibly used for a new themed country… with Spain being heavily rumored in past years. A new train depot here along the existing tracks is almost a given at this point, as well as a new roller coaster. One old the older rumors, going along with the Spain rumor, indicated that a wooden coaster, the park’s first, could be chosen for the site as well.
While these older rumors have faded while the park spent the last two years transforming the old Big Bad Wolf site into Verbolten, I do have to wonder if they are ready for a new coaster…. Especially a wooden one given the problems the Tampa park seems to have been having over the past few years with their single wooden coaster, Gwazi. This is one reason I bring all this up again… because half of Gwazi sits closed, and the rumors coming from people in Florida indicate that Gwazi’s unused trains could be sent to Williamsburg for an unknown future ride. There is also a very hot new trend in the industry right now… a lot of parks are wanting to try out a wooden coaster with an inversion.
There are 3 opening in 2013 alone… two from Rocky Mountain Coasters (Outlaw Run & Iron Rattler) and the conversion of Hades into Hades 360 from Gravity Group. At IAAPA 2012 in a few interviews with Great Coasters (who built Gwazi and it’s fairly new Millenium Flyer trains) they also claimed that they have been ready to build an inversion on one of their wooden coasters as well for years. Could BGW be the first ones to take GCI up on that claim? Time will tell… there are no new rumors from Williamsburg indicating anything just yet… so for now consider this my own bit of speculation on what we could see in 2014. (If I were calling the shots, I know I’d do it…)