Pantheon is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated whee ...

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Busch Gardens Williamsburg (formerly known as Busch Gardens Europe and Busch Gardens: The Old Country) is a amusement park located in James City County near Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Located approximately northwest of Virgini ...

theme park in

Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...

. Manufactured by

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement ins ...

, the roller coaster opened to park members on March 4, 2022 and features four launches, five airtime hills, and a 95-degree beyond vertical drop. The inverts riders twice and reaches a maximum speed of . Its theme is set to

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

with a focus on the ancient culture's

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Jupiter, Mercury, Minerva, Neptune and Pluto. It is also being marketed as the fastest multi-launch roller coaster in the world, breaking a record previously held by Taron at

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History

This ride was referred to as Project MMXX during the early construction stages and replaced an earlier project named Project Madrid, where Busch Gardens filed a 315 feet height waiver for a cancelled attraction. The initial planning application for the ride was filed in February 2019, and it was eventually announced to be Pantheon on July 30, 2019. The announcement was held in the globe theater at the park and streamed live on the park's

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page. Leading up to the announcements there was a series of teasers posted on social media. By October 2019, photos indicated that construction of the track had begun. Pantheon's opening was ultimately delayed by two years due to the

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. Busch Gardens announced in September 2021 that the ride would open the following March. The ride opened to the public on March 25, 2022, following a soft opening on March 4.

Characteristics

Pantheon is tall, long, and reaches a maximum speed of throughout the ride. This made it the second fastest roller coaster in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

upon opening, behind

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. The ride's layout includes four launches – three of which occur on a swing launch between the vertical spike and top hat. This swing launch can also be found on

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Parc Astérix Parc Astérix is a theme park in France based on the comic book series ''Asterix'' by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. With around 2.3 million visitors yearly, Parc Astérix is France's second largest theme park, behind only Disneyland Paris wit ...

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. Pantheon also has two inversions, which are a zero-g winder and a zero-g stall. It runs two trains of five cars, each of which seat two rows of two riders for a total of 20 passengers per train.

References

External links

* {{Intamin Busch Gardens Williamsburg Roller coasters operated by United Parks & Resorts Roller coasters in Virginia