Busch Gardens Williamsburg is known for its many world-class roller coasters that can be found nowhere else in the world, and one of the most popular coasters in the park is Verbolten.
Found in the Oktoberfest section of the park, this roller coaster is themed as a journey through the black forest on the famous German highway system the Autobahn, with each ride vehicle themed as a car traveling through the forest.
This is almost certainly the best-themed roller coaster in the park, with a large highly themed indoor section that allows the ride to tell a complete story in a fast-moving roller-coaster setting.
The ride begins with a relatively tame outside section before launching into the indoor section of the layout.
At this point, you may encounter one of three different storylines presented through various effects inside the building, either encountering a lightning storm, a mysterious spiritual force, or a raging wolf chasing you. This makes the ride one that you have to go on more than once to fully experience.
The inside portion is mostly tame, focusing on helixes and small hills to allow you to pay more attention to the theming elements that surround you.
You then enter the most unique element of the ride, a drop track. The train comes to a full stop and effects happen all around you completing the storyline you have experienced, building anticipation to a drop track where you fall 18 feet vertically on the coaster in a way that mimics a drop tower.
You then continue down a small hill before launching once again into the finale of the ride, going up a massive hill into a themed bridge before going down the ride's biggest drop, an 88-foot fall near the park's river.
The rest of the ride attempts to recreate the layout of the previous occupant of this space, Big Bad Wolf, even reusing its footers, before speeding back into the station.
This coaster is the perfect mid-tier coaster, with a decent level of thrills without being too intense for visitors with a lower tolerance for intensity or inversions. It is certainly elevated above its layout by stellar theming and working itself into the terrain of the park.
As a coaster on its own, it is far from the best roller coaster in the park. It is not the most intense, or pack in the biggest thrills. But what it does, provide a family-friendly themed experience, it does better than anything else in the park.
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