It was January 2018 when Busch Gardens Williamsburg announced that unbeknownst to fans, they’d already taken their last ride on the park’s Lost Legend: Curse of DarKastle. Originally opened in 2005, DarKastle had done the unthinkable by porting the still-coveted ride system of Universal’s The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man to a regional, seasonal park. Punching well above its weight, Busch Gardens’ DarKastle was a cult classic fusion of mythology and technology, introducing a completely original story, characters, music, and world in a ride that was funny and frightening; action-packed and adventurous.
So when Busch Gardens re-opened for the spring season in 2018, seeing the gilded German palace on the edge of Oktoberfest roped off with its marquee removed was a heart-breaker. Even seeing the dark ride’s showbuilding hollowed out in favor of seasonal haunted houses and Santa Claus meet-and-greets felt like a gross underutilization of prime real estate… and a tragic abandonment of a genuinely-cool, original IP.
Five years later, DARKOASTER was meant to change that. A return of a climate-controlled, indoor, “dark ride” style experience (in a park whose dark ride count has fallen from 2 to 0 in the last half-decade), DarKoaster is also intended to serve as a sort of “spiritual sequel” to the iconic dark ride that preceded it. Does it all come together? Well… (Naturally, spoilers for DarKoaster will be out in the light, so read on at your own risk!)
Der Background
Earlier this year, we published a preview of what DarKoaster promised – and that’s still a good place to start. But the long and short is that from the moment DarKoaster was announced in 2022, we knew a few key things about it.
First is the “story” stuff – that DarKoaster would, in a way, continue the story of the Mad King Ludwig, inviting us back to the ruins of his castle at some time ostensibly after we broke the curse and escaped on the dark ride. The new ride would challenge us to “Escape the Storm” by launching into the blizzard-ravaged grounds of the castle, all while Ludwig’s spirit pursues.
Though Busch Gardens was casually noncommittal on how much DarKoaster would explicitly tie to DarKastle, extensive behind-the-scenes videos of the ride’s development saw the creative team discuss how the new coaster would build on Ludwig’s story, nod to the dark ride’s scenes and stories, and even feature a musical score paying homage to its predecessor.
Second is the logistical stuff – that this new roller coaster inhabiting the DarKastle showbuilding would be (as you’d expect based on space limitations) family fare, reaching top speeds of 36 miles per hour and dips and hills of about as many feet. We also knew that it would be a “straddle coaster,” grafting snowmobile decor onto the manufacturer’s “straddle” train design (cast on previous coasters as four-wheelers, jet-skis, motorcycles, horses, off-roading Jeeps, and Hagrid’s motorbikes).
Speaking of which, we also knew the manufacturer – Intamin. As Coaster Wars aficionados will tell you, this Swiss-based ride manufacturer has been known since the ‘90s for its technologically-driven rides that often feature elements known to push reliability to its limit. Some of the most legendary coasters on Earth – like Volcano: The Blast Coaster, Millennium Force, and of course, Top Thrill Dragster – are Intamin icons.
Indeed, Intamin rides are known not only for “experimental” pursuits, but for serious frustrations. (Cedar Fair and Six Flags both seemed to make Intamin a manufacturer non grata in the mid-2000s after a series of high-profile ride breakdowns and notoriously unreliable projects.)
Intamin is back in many coaster junkies’ good graces thanks to a string of major successes (including VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure for Universal Orlando and Busch Gardens’ own Pantheon – all three of which have indeed suffered significant downtime or delay). But in many ways, an Intamin is still a jewel in most parks’ crowns… and true to form, BGWFans quickly discovered what DarKoaster’s quintessentially-Intamin “feature” would be…
… That DarKoaster would make good use of the limited showbuilding space to travel through the course twice, without passing through the loading area. How? Put simply, at the end of the first lap, a quick switch track would divert trains down a hidden “bypass” track running parallel to (but hidden from) the station, returning them to the start of the course.
From there, it was over to fans to speculate what, exactly, would happen inside the ride itself…
Things to Know
Let’s start with the known issues.
DarKoaster is an Intamin through and through. That means that if you hope to experience it in the next year or two, you have to factor in that the ride will invariably close for what amounts to hours a day. As anyone who waited for Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure in its first years can tell you, that’s par for the course and to be expected when you have a multi-launch, track-switching Intamin.
Unfortunately, DarKoaster has a serious compounding problem: it has an almost unacceptably small capacity. The ride can operate just two trains (which makes sense when you puzzle out the ride’s double-lap cycle) with each holding just 10 riders. To make matters worse, the “straddle” trains also require more finesse to enter than most coasters which – when combined with the need to place loose articles in bins – greatly impacts the ride’s throughout.
(For at least part of the ride’s first few weeks, one of its trains also needed removed from service, leaving just one, 10-person train… evidence that the park probably should’ve ordered three trains even if only two can operate at once.)
During its inaugural weeks, fan calculations have seen the ride max out at dispatching a train every 1 minute and 42 seconds… extrapolated out, that would give DarKoaster a best-case-so-far operational hourly capacity of 350 people per hour. To put that in perspective, that’s less than Disneyland’s Dumbo the Flying Elephant, which can theoretically reach 600 riders per hour.
With continuous break-downs complicating an already-abysmal capacity, you can see why on even moderately busy days, DarKoaster has tended to have a wait time hovering between 90 minutes and two-and-a-half hours. Needless to say, even the lower end of that scale pretty much ensures riders would disembark feeling that the ride – remember, a family coaster by any measure – wasn’t worth the wait.
So given what we know about DarKoaster’s limitations, there’s really just one way to ride…
Der Rope Drop
As anyone who’s ridden a brand new ride in its first few months will tell you, your experience with the ride doesn’t really begin when you step aboard. And likewise, my review of DarKoaster is shaped by the trials I had to endure to get on it!
Full transparency: I visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg on Memorial Day Weekend – the “unofficial kick-off of summer,” and notoriously one of the busiest days of any theme park’s operating calendar. That only reinforced the need to participate in “der rope drop,” bee-lining straight to DarKoaster (which had only opened the weekend prior) whose wait would only grow as crowds do and breakdowns compound throughout the day.
As “luck” would have it, this year’s Memorial Day weekend was a rainy one, with (quite literally) continuous misty showers all day on Sunday. While I hoped that would put a damper on turnout (and it did), I knew that any guests who did show up would head to the brand new DarKoaster first. Given a 10 AM opening, I showed up at the parking lot booths at 8:30, joining five or six other cars lined up at the “Starting Line.” The booths opened at 9:30, and we made our way to security.
(That’s when we saw the sign proclaiming that the park’s other Intamin – Pantheon – would be closed for the day. Not even a “wait and see, weather-related, temporary delay.” They’d already called it for the whole day, apparently because Pantheon can’t operate in even mild wind – thanks Intamin! Full transparency again: Pantheon did end up opening that afternoon despite the all-day mist, which is obviously a great thing, but it was certainly an irritating mood-killer to start your day being told it would be closed all day.)
The park opened at 10 AM, and the horde of hundreds who made the trek back to DarKoaster made it to the ride by 10:10 or so. And then… we waited. With a small set of switchbacks outside the castle’s gates and a winding tail leading through Oktoberfest beyond, we (maybe the tenth party in line) just stood… in the rain… waiting. An ambassador standing at the ride’s entrance didn’t say anything or insinuate there was a problem, so we all just waited.
Like many parks, Busch Gardens opens some sections of the park later than the official opening time. Maybe Oktoberfest (at the back of the park) would open at 10:30? Given that the park’s newest and most in-demand ride is there, it wouldn’t really make sense… but maybe at 10:30 the chain would be pulled and we could enter the queue! Nope. One by one, guests approached the bored ambassador to ask what was going on, and he must’ve answered in some way, but never made any announcement to the group. (You’d think answering the same question from a dozen people might tip you off that everyone wants to know!)
By about 11 AM – an hour after park opening – another ambassador finally took the microphone and announced that the ride was temporarily delayed. No park dares make an estimate of when a delayed ride might re-open. But it was odd when a third ambassador tried to comfort guests by saying, “We’re just doing some training in there.” Uhhh… on Memorial Day weekend? At park opening? (It was a made-up excuse, of course, but it doesn’t really sound better than the ride being “broken” when you’ve been pruning in the rain for an hour.)
By 11:30, people ditching the line had moved my party up to first place. Sure we’d sunk 90 minutes into a rainy wait already… but I knew the wait would be at least that long the rest of the day once it opened, so why not hold out? Luckily, I was right. At 11:40 or so, announcements were made that the trains were cycling, and by 11:50, the queue was open. But man… There’s no way to explain the lack of communication and the frustration and the looming lack of Pantheon but to think, “Intamin really owes this park a refund… and this park needs a better plan.”
DarKastle’s Ruins
Obviously being first in line meant that I walked quickly and continuously through DarKoaster’s queue. The space itself was largely unchanged from the DarKastle days with some exceptions. For example, ever-present stone wolves (in an iconic garden state and flanking the castle’s entry) were removed when the building was used as an event space and needed carte blanche flexibility. The former was replaced by the legs and saber of a long-crumbled statue, ostensibly of Ludwig. The statue’s base has carved reliefs clearly meant to depict Ludwig and his Mother as they appeared in DarKastle.
Further on, in the castle’s covered colonnade, a “historical marker” sign touches on the lore of the structure known as “DarKastle,” effectively making the story of the dark ride “official” in the new coaster’s mythology. Sadly for fans of the former occupant, that’s one of the most overt references to the former ride.
Otherwise, you pass quickly through the corridors of the castle and into a room presided over by a portrait of King Ludwig himself (or at least, a version of him; Falcon’s Creative appears to retain the DarKastle intellectual property, requiring that this Ludwig be a different and legally-distinct character model). If you were paused in this room, you’d see that every few minutes, a ghostly spectral version of Ludwig leans out of the painting, looks around the room in disdain, then sinks back into the portrait with a growl.
That’s about all the “pre-show” you get, but frankly, this isn’t a story-driven ride. There is no “beginning, middle, end,” and it certainly requires no knowledge of the dark ride that came before. At best, visitors would pick up that they’ve joined a ghost hunt at a castle, and – evidenced by the skis and snowmobile parts that litter the ghost hunting equipment cases – the weather can turn on a dime. That’s reinforced when visitors finally hop aboard their “snowmobiles,” facing a gothic window where – outside – a snow storm is raging.
So far so good? Then let’s grab those handlebars and explore DarKoaster itself…
DarKoaster
Rounding the corner from the loading dock, the train aligns with a corridor of arches recalling the architecture of DarKastle. They’re lit like brown stone, etched and carved with time. Without stopping to pause, the snowmobiles suddenly accelerate through the arches (“Launch A”) and out into the darkness. At the end of the launch track, a lightning strike illuminates, sending the snowmobiles tearing up to the left and into the darkness.
From that vantage point, you can see the most steady element of the ride – a “projection bridge” that you’ll end up passing under four times. On this first pass, it’s a snowy bridge with dripping icicles. Above it, purple lightning flashes draw your eye toward the purple specter of Ludwig, reaching outward.
The train sweeps under the bridge and to the left, aligning with “Launch B,” which is right under a set of unusual, puffy “clouds” lit from within. The snowmobiles race up and to the right, swirling around and then passing the ride’s weakest scene. Two spectral “ghouls” illuminate on the right. They’re clearly mannequins in sheets with hands outstretched. As you think you’ve passed them, a strobe light suddenly illuminates a third ahead and to the left, causing the train to dart away to escape. (It could be that these “ghouls” are meant to be retro, but they’re really just hokey and low-grade.)
The train continues through the darkness, passing under the “projection bridge” again (this time with the abstract face of Ludwig’s spirit glaring down from above). Technically, this is where the track reconnects to the station. But DarKoaster’s secret ingredient cleverly doubles the ride’s length when instead, a “switch track” has moved into place, diverting the train down a “bypass”.
(Unlike most unusual, technological elements that tend to be the marketing focus of a roller coaster – like drop track, swing launches, or backwards sections – Busch Gardens hasn’t really acknowledged the bypass track or made the ride’s double-lap set-up part of its messaging. That makes sense, since the whole point is to lengthen the otherwise limited ride, not to call attention to the fact that you’re doing the same thing twice.)
The bypass grazes alongside the single, physical set remaining from DarKastle: the castle’s “exterior wall” (previously seen in the dark ride’s first scene). It’s a lovely set, with multi-color stained glass windows providing one of the most “real” moments in the ride. At the wall’s end, the train is reconnected to Launch A, though this time, lighting has shifted to make the arched corridor appear blue. As before, lightning strikes at the end of the launch, leading to the same ascent to the left. This time, the “projection bridge” has no bridge. Instead, it’s a hazy cloud of purple with Ludwig’s ghostly hand reaching for the train.
As before, the train realigns with Launch B except that this time, those puffy clouds each emit a lightning bolt as the train accelerates, passing between them. Mercifully, the “ghouls” stay dark on round two, which actually creates a wonderfully strong sense of confusion since the last twists and turns after “Launch B” are tackled in pure darkness, without any sense of landmarks or orientation.
And when you align with the “projection bridge” for a fourth time, it’s now got an image of the ghostly king who opens his mouth and “swallows” the train in a release of fog just as slows on the brakes. During lap 2, the switch track quietly reset to send the slowed train back to the station, and as a distant wall lights up, we see that we have, indeed, survived.
In short, there are five “interactions” within the showbuilding – that initial lightning strike, the “projection bridge,” the hovering storm clouds, the “ghouls,” and the castle wall that runs parallel to the bypass track. Some of them show up on both laps. Others activate just on the first or just the second. And the “projection bridge” is passed under four times, with a different projected element each time. As you can imagine, each moment is gone in a flash, interspersed between the ride’s weaving layout and its two launches.
Frankly, the most complete way to understand DarKoaster without riding it is probably some combination of our hand-illustrated ride layout above, an off-ride video that helps you keep your bearings, and of course, a classic point-of-view video here:
Our Findings & Thoughts
For just a moment, forget whether or not the ride should be more intense or less intense, or whether it’s a fitting continuation of DarKastle. On its own merits, DarKoaster is a fun ride. And at least measured against the norms and financial affairs of Busch Gardens’ parent company, SeaWorld Parks, it’s a surprisingly extravagant one, making use of serious show control systems, some physical sets, a custom music score, and even projection mapping.
Of course, there’s no denying that the results are somewhat mixed. The “ghouls” feel particularly weak, and the puffy storm clouds are… unusual. Likewise, while the “projection bridge” is a clever element, it doesn’t feel well-used until the fourth of your four encounters with it, when Ludwig “swallows” the train. Otherwise, it’s too high up to feel like Ludwig’s ghost “chasing” you; it’s like someone liked the idea of Disneyland’s Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy holiday overlay, but didn’t get the green light to have screens close to the trains and throughout the building. (Pre-vis teasers also show the train passing through an enclosed, rocky, icy tunnel, which was apparently cut but would’ve been a much-needed physical scene.)
Some have claimed that you can’t really tell that you repeat the ride’s layout twice. Meh. I find that hard to believe. Whether or not you recognize the physical track layout, on both go-rounds, Launch A is in the arched corridor and Launch B is among the puffy storm clouds. It would seem to me that most riders would understand what happened if you asked them, even if they didn’t consciously think about it until you asked. And that’s okay! Sure, we might’ve liked two entirely distinct laps that really could hide the repeat layout, but it still works and feels different enough each time that most guests probably wouldn’t bother to think about it.
It’s okay, too, that DarKoaster doesn’t really have a “story” or a “plot,” but some simple environmental tweaks could’ve helped big time. For example, it would be very cool if the ride’s interior were filled with fog and – in a few key spots – had snow-capped pine trees lit by “moonlight” filtering through the fog. That would reinforce the notion that guests are “outside” (something the current ride doesn’t communicate at all), and why we’re on snowmobiles. On the first lap, some programmed purple spotlights moving through the foggy, chilly air could give the sense of Ludwig’s spirit “chasing” riders as they dodge through trees.
Then, on round two, a simple lighting trick (think of Space Mountain’s “stars”) could see several disco balls around the room used to create a chaotic “snow storm,” with disorienting lights in the darkness and fog. Combine that with the ride’s existing “projection bridge” and the castle wall set and you’ve got a very strong family ride with very simple – but very effective – environmental storytelling.
Lastly, we have to acknowledge that Busch Gardens was right to be cagey in how they avoided explicitly calling the ride a “sequel” to DarKastle. It isn’t. The Ludwig in this ride hasn’t got anything to do with the one we met on the dark ride. He never speaks, he doesn’t look quite the same, he isn’t a werewolf, and certainly has no great puns. (“It’s time to heat things up!” as he pulls you into a fireplace.) Other than the re-stylized, silent version of Ludwig himself, the “lore,” characters, and music of DarKastle don’t make any appearances.
Speaking of which, the only other “issue” we have with DarKoaster as it currently exists is the ride’s score. (It doesn’t have on-board audio, but it does have custom music played in the showbuilding that’s timed to the ride.) Despite hinting that DarKastle’s (very good) music would shape DarKoaster’s, I don’t pick up on that at all. That’s a shame, because the music that DarKoaster does use (which you can hear pretty well in the off-ride video above) actually sounds more like a tense, eerie background loop that should play in the queue, not an action-packed, exciting score to be played on the ride.
As you pass through Ludwig’s mouth and onto the brakes, it sort of resolves and quietly fades away, which is a shame. One need only ride the Modern Marvel: Revenge of the Mummy to know how a triumphant musical finale can send guests back to the station cheering. Again, we presume that Falcon’s Creative retains the music from DarKastle, but that’s a shame…
Der Verdict
DarKoaster is in a unique position at the park. By the numbers, it fills a gap in the park’s lineup, offering thrills firmly between Grover’s Alpine Express and the park’s former entry-level thrill ride fare: Invadr and Verbolten. (Of course, though it fills that niche on paper, it’s also quite scary with its spooky queue, darkness, and pop-out props.) Luckily, the ride’s spirit is very appropriate for Busch Gardens, where rides tend to draw on myths, legends, and sometimes-scary fables from “The Old Country” (like Verbolten, Corkscrew Hill, Curse of DarKastle, and more).
The issue for now is that most guests turning up for DarKoaster are likely seeking either an intense and dynamic roller coaster, or a sequel to Curse of DarKastle. Frankly, DarKoaster is neither. And when those expectations collide with multi-hour waits, continuous downtime, and irritating operations and communication blackouts, it’s bound to create a whole lot of upset.
In three years, we expect that DarKoaster will settle perfectly into the park’s lineup, maintaining 15 – 20 minute waits throughout the day. When that happens, it’ll probably be a whole lot more appreciated and adored. We certainly wish for some “plusses” or “tweaks” to DarKoaster in the coming years, but given SeaWorld’s track record, that seems unlikely. (Verbolten, for example, had an entire physical set removed and never replaced.)
In other words, the DarKoaster we have now is probably the best version of the ride we’ll see. And that’s not a bad thing! But until its terrifying teething issues are sorted, just be sure you know what you’re getting: an uneven family coaster that doesn’t quite fill the shoes left vacant by the masterful dark ride of old…
