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There's no rate or cabins for solo travelers so you're still forced to pay over $4K if you go by yourself and even if you bring a friend to split the cost you either are going to have to decide who gets the nice bed or share the main bed. At least if I wanted stay at a WDW Deluxe hotel I could split the room with a friend and we could each get our own bed. I've stayed at both Grand Floridian and Yacht Club for under $600/night (total room cost w/ AP discount) and those feel way more luxurious then this looks. Honestly I'd rather stay at another WDW Deluxe resort than try this out at the moment.

80mph and a 5-minute cycle.

I don't think anyone in this conversation disagrees with getting Fastlane. Let me be clear: Yay Fastlane. We love Fastlane. Fastlane at this park is great. We all think you should be ready to buy it, Boldy and I have just gone to this park a lot in March and know that there's at least a 50% chance that the park will be so dead that every single ride will be a walk-on AND there's no benefit whatsoever to buying it before you get there at Kings Dominion. Actually it's better to buy it at the park anyway since you don't pay a processing fee and you get the added benefit of checking to see if anything is actually beyond the merge points before you buy it. It's not likes he's going in October. It's late March. If it's 44 degrees and cloudy there will be six people in the park. If it’s 70 and sunny, sure… buy it when you get to the park. The park agrees with us that it might be a ghost town that day which is why Fastlane starts at $65 and it’s selling for the absolute bare minimum price for all of March. This is an argument between a bunch of people who agree with eachother. Lol

^ LOL.. I just dropped a lot of $$ on FL+ for Kings Island during Coasterstock - where we're gonna get a lot of ERT anyways. I look at it as $65 is not a lot of money for a perk that can guarantee you little wait. And s/he's never been to the park before. . so better to pay the smallish amount and guarantee a good time. but I also agree with Bill that it can be purchased in the park at any point if they get there and it looks busy

^ If you like wasting money for no reason... sure. If he was going on Saturday or even all day Sunday it would make sense to me but we've been there on Sundays and its always a ghost town. That early in the season? It definitely will be unless its just a freakishly perfect day weather-wise. But if he is there for three hours and nothing has a wait except for Timbers spending $65 just to skip that line seems pointless.

for $65 it's a no brainer for me. . I'd get FL+

Yup. This park is really good at being an absolute ghost town in March. Be prepared to by Fastlane but it's available at every shop and not going to sell out so there's literally no reason to buy in advance anyway. Just go and see. If the Timbers line is beyond the merge point, buy Fastlane.

https://www.kingsdominion.com/fast-lane-passes get Fast Lane + end of March on a Sunday, it's only $65 you probably wont' need it for I305 (it scares folks and never seems to have a line), but you WILL need it for Twisted Timbers. (and it gives you all the FL rides too. . so that's gonna be your best bet to ride more than just a couple of things in 3 1/2 hours)

Go ahead and say it. It's ugly as shit lol.

Great report Bert, I plan on getting a SeaWorld Platinum pass this year and hitting all the new rides. I've never been to SWSA, so I'm looking forward to making my first visit to the park!

Hey barber, give me a Thanos Chin cut

^ Is it appropriate to compare this upcoming summer to July 2020? That was when most parks had just reopened, social distance markers were being used in queues, trains were only loading half the available rows, and rides were being sanitized every half hour. There will still be some crowds in June/July but overall operations should be more efficient.

I feel like the "you can do everything in a few hours" advice is referring to pre-Covid crowd levels. I've done 30 parks in the last two years and I haven't experienced a single day at any of them where I'd describe crowd levels as anything less than "packed." When I visited WOF on a Tuesday in mid July 2020, every single line was spilling out into the midway. Demand has never been higher for amusement parks in my lifetime. I still wouldn't pre-purchase Fast Lane (who knows, you *could* get lucky...), but I'd certainly budget for it.

Sounds like Flash Pass will be mobile-phone only, which is kinda disappointing. Not everyone has unlimited data plans (the park's WiFi is spotty at best) nor the desire to run their battery down during the day (or carry a charger). Option are always good.

If only he ate better chicken strips.

Maybe he had a bad hot dog?

It's... interesting? I'm a huge Star Wars fan, but I'm not dropping $5k on two days of lite LARP-ing. If someone ever makes a full blown Knights Of The Old Republic Westworld thing though, sign me the hell up.

Unnecessarily long lines for the same experience as you could have a week later for a fraction of the wait time. Plus the rest of the park will be equally swamped with the people who didn’t realize the Iron Gwazi line would be so bad. If you truly “must be first” you’ll need to plan to get to the parking lot early (several hours before park opening) and be prepared to wait in your car until the toll plazas open. There may be some gratification that comes from riding on opening day or being among the first, but ask yourself how much that is worth. The ride operated previously for employees in 2020 and has been doing passholder previews for weeks. You’ll be far from the first to ride. What can you expect from attending on opening day? A less enjoyable version of an enjoyable day at Busch Gardens a week to two weeks later.

I really think if they scrapped the rooms and sold this at $300/person for four hour dinner party experience I’d consider it. Or even $500/person but include Hollywood Studios ticket, the lightning lane passes and lunch. That to me would be the better move.

I know it's a preview and there are a few really cool things going on here (live force effects, light speed, food) but it seems like they over-promised and under-delivered in a big way. I'm very curious how they're going to stretch this into a 48-hour experience without tons of downtime. Until the full thing opens I'll withhold most of my criticism. That being said, the actors clearly need more rehearsal time and the interactive experiences honestly seem more fitting for a preshow at an attraction in the park.

DC and Colonial Williamsburg are both really good ways to spend the day. If you go to DC you can park at the metro station in Old town Alexandria and take the metro in to the mall, or WH or whatever monument you want to see. If you want to tour the WH, it's free but you have to contact your local congress person's office well in advance to get tickets. You can also go to Mt Vernon (Washington's home) and easily spend a day there. It's about 10 miles from DC on the VA side, has parking, a restaurant, living displays, newly refurbed whiskey distillery, etc. Down in Williamsburg in addition to Colonial Williamsburg there is also a huge living museum at Jamestown and there is Yorktown Battlefield with a very well done museum and living displays of the American Revolution. Eat at the Yorktown Pub, fresh oysters right out of the Chesapeake. I'm with you Bert! I drove from SFA to KD in about an hour and 45 min. It was a Monday night after rush hour so I dunno, got lucky maybe? People also told me to allow like 3 hours to get from Williamsburg back up to Reagan and it didn't take me nearly that long. Maybe I'm just blessed though, I've never had a problem driving in SoCal even though everyone else carries on like it's hell

I'll be traveling to Richmond at the end of March. I'll be coming in on a sunday. I see that the park is only open on weekends so far and closes at 5 that night. I probably wont get to the park till after 1:30 pm. Is it possible to get all of the major coasters in in about 3 hours? If so, how should I plan to do that? Thanks for any help. It will be my first trip to KD.

For anyone looking for the Jersiest thing to ever exist: lol