Verbolten

Big Bad Wolf, Busch Gardens Williamsburg's long-running Arrow suspended coaster, closed in 2009 after 26 seasons, leaving the Oktoberfest hillside without a headlining ride. The park's in-house creative team partnered directly with German manufacturer Zierer — an unusual level of co-design for a launch-coaster order — to build a family coaster wrapped in a "Brave the Black Forest" story, announced September 17, 2011 for the vacated site.

Verbolten had a media soft opening on May 11, 2012, and debuted to the public a week later on May 18. The ride launches trains through an enclosed show building with sound, light, and practical special effects simulating a runaway dash through a haunted forest, before sending them outdoors into high-speed turns and a final 88-foot plunge toward the Rhine River. Its signature feature is a pair of randomized vertical drop-track segments — mechanically selected drops whose sequence changes from ride to ride, so no two trips through the show building play out identically. A 48-inch height minimum keeps the ride accessible to most of the family.

The name itself is a play on the German word verboten ("forbidden"), continuing Busch Gardens Williamsburg's pattern of building rides around a specific narrative conceit rather than a generic thrill-ride premise.

Verbolten remains the most story-driven coaster at either Busch Gardens park, and its randomized drop sequence is one of the only mechanically varied ride experiences anywhere in the SeaWorld Parks portfolio.