Follow the sun riding the Greek god's chariot high in the sky...
Follow the sun riding the Greek god's chariot high in the sky...
| Theme Park | Busch Gardens Williamsburg |
|---|---|
| Park Area | Festa Italia |
| Type | Rollercoaster |
| Audience | Thrillseekers |
| Opened | 27 March 1999 |
| Manufacturer | Bolliger & Mabillard |
| Model | Hyper Coaster |
| Height | 170 ft |
| Length | 4882 ft |
| Inversions | 0 |
| Max Speed | 73 mph |
| Drop | 210 ft |
Apollo's Chariot
According to Greek mythology, every day Apollo - the son of Greek god Zeus - would ride his chariot pulled by fiery horses through the sky to bring daylight to the world.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg offers its visitors the opportunity to ride along with Apollo on their hypercoaster called Apollo's Chariot.
While hypercoasters are often defined as rollercoasters over 200ft tall, Apollo's Chariot doesn't quite meet that criteria as it "only" reaches 170ft into the air. However, it qualifies thanks to its 210ft first drop which dives into a small valley.
Following the first drop, the coaster generally follows an out-and-back style layout with numerous airtime hills. There's a very very short and unthemed tunnel after the second hill, which hardly seems worth it. The rollercoaster's turnaround point comes alongside the Rhine River with a speeding upwards helix sending the train back in the right direction for its return leg.
The ride was the first Hyper Coaster model from Bolliger & Mabillard and at the time of opening in 1999 was Busch Gardens Williamsburg's fastest and tallest rollercoaster.
Hypercoasters are almost always fun rides and Apollo's Chariot is too, but it also feels a bit lacking. Sure it is fast and has a decent length, but the big tall hills don't seem to deliver as much airtime as more recent B&M Hypers. That is most definitely only my opinion though: the ride is regularly placed in the top ten steel coasters at the Golden Ticket Awards.
