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Loch Ness Monster
Website: Busch Gardens Williamsburg Homepage
Ride Type: Steel Coaster
Ride Status: Running
Average Rating: 4.0952
TPC Overall Rank: #145 out of 2933 rides.
Reviews: 118
Last Review: 7/31/2012 5:48:00 PM
In User Top 10: 75 times.
User Tracker Count: 353 times.
 

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5 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up wavylips on 7/31/2012 5:48:00 PM
I love the loooonnnnnggggg tunnel/cave! Great coaster.

4 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up TyTlock52 on 7/21/2011 10:30:00 AM - User's Top Ride #9
Loch Ness Monster was the first ride i rode at BGW. I waited an extra 10-15 minutes for the front seat, which gives a good view at the top of the 115 foot lift hill. The Interlocking loops are a cool sight to look at and fun to go through. This was the first coaster i rode with a loop in it. Another amazing part of the ride is the tunnel. you never know when its going to end. Considering its 30+ years old, the ride is in great shape and a great ride for new riders and roller coaster veterans.

4 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up RCGenius on 7/22/2009 4:52:00 PM
Nessie's truly a classic coaster and BGE's gem. Going up the old rickety lift hill's music to my ears as it gives riders a sense of not knowing if they'll make it all the way. Afterward, the coaster makes a right turn before going down a 130' drop that goes 60 m.p.h. The drop had a little bit of floater airtime to it. After the drop comes a left turn before sending you down a small drop before going through one of the coaster's legendary interlocking loops. I wasn't feeling the brakes before the second drop, but it was still all good. After the vertical loop came a series of helixes inside a dark tunnel. The thrill of not knowing when you're gonna get out of the tunnel never gets old. After the tunnel execution's when you go up a second lift hill, then going down another drop into the final loop before hitting the brakes. After 31 years, Loch Ness Monster continues to own over the swamping Scotland area at Busch Gardens scaring new riders by the minute. For a coaster its age, Nessie's still a somewhat smooth ride.

4 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up bpski13 on 11/12/2008 6:38:00 PM - User's Top Ride #19
Although this coaster tends to get bashed, I found this to be one of the most enjoyable rides at BGE. It has a high capacity and almost no line, a drop that I actually felt in my stomach (unlike Alpengeist), and there is no headbanging at all. However, during my front row ride, I found the first curve that takes you into the first loop to be very rough to the extent where it was almost painful. I had already ridden this before and was shocked at the sudden jolt. The rest of the ride was smooth, though. My only other complaint is the mid-course brakes, which really took away from the helix, which for the first half was very slow and boring. In conclusion, the smoothest arrow looper featuring a first drop with enough ejector air to push me up against the OTSRs along with interlocking loops is definitely worth riding a few times. Make room for this ride on your trip to BGE, because this ride is truly unique.

3 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up shag9004 on 11/7/2008 6:13:00 PM
Date Ridden: Summer of 2007 and 2008. Times Ridden: 2 The Loch Ness Monster is a sit-down steel looper located at the # 2 ranked amusement park in the world according to Amusement Today. The ride is the oldest operating coaster at Busch Gardens celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Based on the looks of this classic ride, you would never guess its age. BGE ranks right up there with the best of all operating amusement parks when it comes to the upkeep of their rides. For that reason, while not the best coaster in the park, the Loch Ness Monster offers a very fun experiences with many unique elements in a ride that doesn&#39.t beat you to death due to the OTSR&#39.s. The unique interlocking loops are smooth, the closing helix in the tunnel is fast and intense, and the other transitions are not bone-jarringly uncomfortable. The ride is good. However, with the high-tech thrill rides being built today (many of them at this park), old Nessie is one of the weaker attractions here. It is not an airtime machine like Apollo&#39.s Chariot, does not have a 200 foot vertical drop like Griffin, nor is it the world&#39.s tallest and fastest suspended coaster like Alpengeist. Most of the time, this coaster has no line so you are not going to spend your entire day waiting. I would not recommend more than one or two rides, but make sure you do get at least one spin on it. The interlocking loops themselves make for a great photo op along with bridge area as well. Overall the Loch Ness Monster scores in the 7 range which is not bad for BGE&#39.s &quot.worst&quot. coaster. At many other parks, it would be the feature ride. Here, it is simply another coaster to hop on and get a credit. Overall Rating - 7

4 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up DDfan on 9/4/2008 4:31:00 PM
The loch ness monster the ride that was the highpoint of the first ACE event ever. The ride Is themed to the loch ness monster that terroized a fishing lake for many years. The ride starts out with a small drop into two small banked curves. The chain lift takes you up thirteen stories into another small drop and banked curve. The inital drop then takes you 60 MPH into a hill then a banked curve. Then a second big drop is then taken into the first of the inerlocking loops. The ride takes a high speed curve into the mid course brake. Then you enter a tunnel that you go in 3 360 degree helixs. The ride exits the tunnel and goes through some more brakes into a second lift. At the top of the lift there is a medium sized drop and a large banked curve. Another medium sized drop is taken. The second loop is taken and so is the on ride photo. There is a medium sized up- ward hill then the final brakes. A fun ride worth wating 20-25 minutes for.

3 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up Steve NY on 5/2/2008 9:30:00 PM
Nessie has been considered a revolutionary coaster for decades and I remember being scared out of my mind on this as a kid. Unfortunately, the great beast has been neutralized somewhat and tamed with trims. I absolutely love how the ride carves through the woods with a unique layout. Those first two drops still are really intense and quite huge. Heck they even provide air thats better than a lot of hypers Ive been on. Afterwards was the first of two loops. Sadly, this loop and the second one just seem pretty tame now compared to other loops Ive exprienced. They both are smooth though. Afterwards comes the cool tunnel helix, but it is really bumpy now and pretty slow. Overall, the whole ride is really long and packs some great elements, but it just has been tamed down a bit. This is my least favorite of Busch Gardens coasters. Dont get me wrong though, its a good coaster and one of the few Arrows that have held up, but its just that Busch has so many excellent coasters.

4 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up T-Rex on 12/12/2007 10:20:00 PM
Best of the Arrow loopers Ive been on. Those first two drops still are amazing and provide some very good air towards the back. Also, the interlocking loops are forceful and exciting, and that really long helix in the tunnel is pretty nice too. The ride is also quite smooth and the rides layout is hidden.

3 Rating
+2 Rating Rate Down Rate Up Timberman on 8/25/2007 5:35:00 PM
Most roller coaster enthusisasts can probably recall the one roller coaster that first captured their imagination, the one a mere glimpse of which on television gave them butterflies and sweaty palms. For me, that roller coaster was the Loch Ness Monster. I had been on a few roller coasters by the time Nessie started showing up on TV commercials in our neck of the woods, and I watched those commercials with a mixture of fascination, horror, and dismay. One of the dark secrets of my childhood is that while I began riding roller coasters relatively early in life, I didnt start really enjoying them until I was well into my teens. Those early rides were often gut-wrenching experiences provoked not by an appreciation for all the things I later came to love about roller coasters but by the sure knowledge that chickening out would subject me to hours of ridicule during the car ride home, followed by even more shaming at school. I therefore felt tremendously put upon when Nessie first started showing up on TV. Busch Gardens was in day-tripping distance of our house, and I knew the day would come when I would have to make that awful Hobsons choice of enduring two minutes and ten seconds of teeth-grinding terror, with the attendant nauseous anticipation for days ahead of time, or be exposed, finally, as a coward. Surely, I thought, the designers of these instruments of torture must appreciate the dilemma to which they subjected young children. What sort of sick, twisted psychopaths, I wondered, would intentionally plague innocent kids this way?

In the early days of the Loch Ness Monster, I would relentlessly interrogate any of my friends who had ridden it for details or hard-won survival tactics that could prepare me for my own looming showdown with this beast. One by one, each of my friends had their fateful rendevous. Some came back triumphant and emboldened; others, like stony-faced combat veterans, had little to say. Their silence was the most awesome testament of all, as it eloquently expressed that some things simply had to be experienced to be understood.

As fate would have it, I managed to dodge Nessie throughout elementary and junior high school, and when I was finally eager for the challenge in my later teens, events always intervened to place me elsewhere. Last Wednesday, however, nearly 30 years after I first watched those synchronized Arrow trains negotiate those terribly beautiful interlocking loops, the day had arrived. I would finally face the monster that had for so long haunted my childhood.

By this time, however, I had nothing to prove. I instead approached Nessie with a sense of curiosity and nostalgia, albeit colored by a healthy respect for the potential rigors of any 130-foot-tall first-generation Arrow looper. My initial impression upon finally seeing the ride in person was that being in its presence certainly would have had me quaking in my Keds back in the day. Busch Gardens has wisely stuck with the original black and yellow paint scheme, which has been lovingly maintained year after year. This is without a doubt the finest-looking Arrow of its vintage I have seen. As with BGEs other roller coasters, it also makes excellent use of its surroundings. The intial drop into the gulley is beautifully rendered, and the loops are artfully placed above the water. Even the trains looked showroom new.

The ride itself, alas, is another matter. My karma for having avoided Nessie all those years is that I probably missed experiencing it running at its untamed best. This coaster has an atypical layout for an Arrow looper and strikes me as having been inspired by a wooden terrain coaster. Its drops are unexpectedly sharp and abrupt, and the helix feels tighter than what is typical for a full-sized steel coaster. The loops are also quite tight, and each comes at the base of a respectable drop. Unfortunately, as was the case with all the roller coasters at BGE on the day of m

4 Rating
0 Rating Rate Down Rate Up B&M Fan on 8/10/2007 6:50:00 PM
This was a good ride. When I went on it I had to wait for it to be fixed and never actually found out what happened to it. Anyway, was on the train pretty quickly. The lift is the classic clickity. I liked that a lot. The ride was not too rough for its aged and I enjoyed this one more than I did Alpengeist. The interlocking loops were cool but my favorite part was the in the cave helix. Overall a good ride.

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