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Park News - (11/16/09) The latest information from Busch Gardens mentions new shows at the Christmas Town event. The Globe Theater will put on A Sesame Street Christmas. The townpeople of Killarney (Ireland) will sing under the stars and a show called Rejoice will play in the Abbey Stone Theater. Germany will offer “Deck The Halls” in the Festhaus and everyone can enjoy O Tannenbaum around the 45 foot tall light animated Christmas Town tree.
    (11/10/09) Busch Gardens Williamsburg has released new details about the new Christmas Town event starting Nov. 27th. Special features will include a light dancing Christmas tree, the winter atmosphere of the English town square, a stroll through the Scottish countryside over to Ireland for some new live Christmas shows. France and New France get in on the act as well, offering both new traditions and a down-home country Christmas experience. Plus visit Santa in his North Pole workshop.
    (10/7/09) A very well done tribute video for The Big Bad Wolf has been embedded below, shot and edited by one of our readers. Excellent work!!

    (9/8/09) From what I’ve been told Big Bad Wolf was pronounced dead at Busch Gardens Williamsburg last night at about 8:42pm. The lines were said to be fairly large on the last day until a spot of bad weather hit which ended up causing a good percentage of park guests to pack it in for the day early. Sunday seemed to also be a very good day for the Wolf with the average line length reported to be 60-90 minutes all day and the park extended hours to keep the Wolf running later into the night so everyone in line could get their final rides in the front row. According to one reader, the park was supposed to close at 9pm and the Wolf was running until 10:45pm on Sunday night. So sad… but I’m going to end this with a reader review of the Wolf’s final day.
    “I have been riding the Wolf faithfully since she opened in 1984, and like many thousands of fans, have been saddened at her retirement. I did, however, make the most of her final season, and have enjoyed a few dozen rides on her in the past 4 weeks. I was at Busch Gardens when the gates opened this morning with my 6 year old son, and we were among the first riders of the final day to go out of the station in her first run of the day. It was awesome, and though sad, it was also a great way to pay respects to a coaster legend. It was also neat to be amongst the hundreds of other riders who were there to say so long, many of whom were in vintage t-shirts and hats that dated back to the Wolf's heyday! We will all miss her and only hope that her replacement will be half as grand as she was. Goodbye Big Bad Wolf, and retire knowing that you have thrilled millions in your 25 years! We will all miss you!”
    (8/30/09) A fun photo update from BGW has been posted to Theme Park Review, including a behind the scenes tour of Curse of DarKastle. 

Howl-O-Scream 2009 - (10/20/09) Behind the Thrills has a new photo update from BGW’s Howl-O-Scream as well as some preview shots of the new Christmastown event being set up. They managed to get a peek at Big Bad Wolf as well and I’m sad to say that while the queue has been boarded up, the coaster itself looks untouched. A pitty they couldn’t have just left it open to run through Howl-O-Scream.
    (9/16/09) A copy of this year’s HOS map has been posted to BGWFans.com.
    (8/20/09) All new details for Howl-O-Scream have been added to the official website if you click on the Attractions, Shows, Scarezones button. From a brief look it appears as if there will be 5 shows, 7 Scare Zones and 6 Haunts this year: Bitten, Catacombs, Cavern of Darkness, Cursed, The Hunted and Revenge of Pompeii.
    (8/4/09) Busch Gardens Williamsburg has announced on their website that this year’s Howl-O-Scream will feature 15 NEW attractions, 18 scare zones, haunted mazes and shows. Howl-O-Scream will kick off this year on Sept. 25th and run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Nov. 1st.  The official website is now live as well, though the section that will describe the haunts and such is still under construction for now.

Winter 2009 - ChristmasTown - (7/8/09) New details about Christmastown, the new winter holiday event planned for BGW have been posted to the official website. The way the map is drawn, the only visible coaster seen in Griffon.
    (12/5/08) The long awaited rumor about Busch Gardens Europe opening up for the winter holidays next year has finally come true with the park’s announcement about Christmas Town and launch of a special new website. The park will be transformed into a winter wonderland for the holidays next year, see all new shows, experiences and walk around the park which will be decorated with over a million twinkling lights, along with a visit from Santa each night. While nothing was mentioned by name, they also confirmed that not all of the park will be open and that the operation of some rides may be affected by the weather conditions on any given day. The fun will begin on November 27th, 2009 as the park opens each Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 4-9pm, and daily from December 18-27th, except on Christmas Day. Admission is set right now at $19.95 and passholders can buy a ticket for half-off.

2010-2012 - Park Expansion / New Land - Rumor - (4/16/09) Our spies tell us that the park still has big expansion plans on deck to add a new land to the park, taking over the former site of Drachen Fire. The unfortunate side of things, is that many of Busch’s big plans were put on hold when InBev took over the company, so there is no telling if this plan is still moving forward or just on hold for the moment. Either way, it seems that the multi-year plan to build an entirely new country (Spain is the most likley) in still very solid. It’s all a matter of “when” and not “if” at this point from what I’m told.
    In addition to adding a new train station to service this area on the line, we’ve heard about two major new attractions that will also be fighting for your attention. One would be the chain’s second B&M Flying coaster, where the design will be based on what they’re learning from Manta right now. Like many of the rides in Williamsburg, I’d expect this one to be an even bigger and longer coaster than what we’ve seen from Manta already, and given the location, I can help but wonder just how close some of it may some to Big Bad Wolf, or perhaps even diving down close to the river. The second big attraction being talked about would be actually something unique for the Busch parks, their first true “freefall” style tower ride. However don’t expect to see another Drop Zone style tower or something as basic as that. From the sound of things, they want to keep the entire experience INDOORS... offering an experience more like Mystery Castle from Phantasialand in Germany. Since this is a multi-year project, lets assume the plan is to build up the land in complete phases, so expect one new ride with each phase if everything gets approved.
    (10/30/07) The latest whisper on the wind in Williamsburg indicates that there may be a possible multi-year plans to add a new country at Busch Gardens Europe. A multi-year build plan very likely as we’ve seen Busch do with SeaWorld Florida’s Waterfront area. Over the years different counties have been mentions as possible future projects, but some say that they’ve heard Spain mentioned specifically as a primary choice in the past. As I recall, the park currently has an old England area, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy… so there are still other options as well such as Greece.
    (10/24/07) We’ve heard an interesting rumor for Busch Gardens Europe today that gives us a good location to watch for the park’s next big expansion in 2009 and possibly beyond. In short, we’ve been told to keep our eyes open for a possible fourth train station to be added to the line, this time in the German area of the park. Things get interesting when you realize that the best place to put down a new train depot in Germany would be back along the existing tracks near the old Drachen Fire spot, which is a fairly large and undeveloped area currently being used for the three back-to-back Never After haunt experiences. Given the massive size of this area alone, it could be used for anything from a massive new coaster to a large new themed land. Of course the bigger the size of the development, the bigger the chance that this could become a project that will take more than one year to build out, so 2009 may just be the beginning.