griffon

Went back to the park this afternoon... happy to report that there was no seat assignments on I305; not even a person at the station entrance. Also noticed that more rides had two trains running including Grizzly which surprised me a for a weekday in April. It was the largest crowd I've seen at KD for spring break week, so I'm happy that the park is getting good attendance because of the new ride, and the operations were all pretty good from what I encountered.

hey man it was nice to see you on opening day again, even though it seems like all we did was wait in line for food.

I spent opening day at KD with Jeff, and had a great time talking with different people from all over the place. It was nice to meet Robb and others from the site, even though I’m still lacking a TPR shirt. After a couple days to reflect on the I305 experience, my opinion sounds something like this: It’s 80% the best ride ever, and 20% “ man I wish the trims were a little bit lighter.” I don't mind that the trims are there, I just feel like it kills some intensity and makes you think "what if..." Overall it’s a beast of a ride and very high on the list. There is no way to anticipate the intensity and even though the length of time you're on the ride is short it doesn't feel like it's missing anything. We rode in 5 different places and I don't have a seat preference (yet)... the forces felt about equal in any seat. Here are some pics, most have been seen before in one form or another, but in case anyone still wants to see more: Finally spring

Great photo reports, you have some interesting angles from a lot of the parks I have been to and I've really enjoyed looking through all your shots. Thanks for sharing

I can try to put some of these in a zip file. I think the largest size I saved the edited versions is 1920x1280. I'll check that out a little later. The lens flare in the Time Machine pic is from Photoshop. It looks much better that way. It's all in the selection tool in Photoshop. I selected the red track and desaturated everything outside of that selection.

Thanks, I'm not a pro, but I've been more serious about photography the last year or so. I use a Canon SLR and mostly a wide zoom lens in parks. Glad you guys like the shots even though i only have a few.

Now that the snow outside is being measured in feet instead of inches, I've had quite a bit of time today to sort through pictures from this year and pulled out the ones that stood out the most. Despite not posting many trip reports in 2009, I actually had a very solid year traveling to familiar parks, new parks, and finally reaching my goal of 200+ credits. Here are just a few of my favorite shots from the year. These are the images that jump out the most to me and seem to capture the main points of interest in the places I visited. Hopefully they will be interesting to other people as well. My blurry, underexposed, off-centered, last shot ever of the wolf. An unfortunate ending to a great coaster season, but I'm definitely looking forward to 2010. The speed of fright will be missed Griffon timing shot Fall atmosphere at Great Escape I sort of like this one because there is 1 person on the ride Details, Freestyle Music Park. As lackluster as the rides are, I still hope this park finds a way to stay open Reflections and Time Machine at night Kings Dominion fireworks from the State Fairgrounds Americana was moved from the great state of Ohio to Kings Dominion this year and provides some new vantage points of the park The symbol of greatness in a wooden coaster collection. I would never pass up the opportunity to go back to Holiday World. Kings Island after the storm Diamondback was a decent ride and had some good photo spots. I thought this one came out pretty sharp. A memorable #200 at Indiana Beach I happened to be at Indiana Beach on Memorial Day. It was raining, I was on the Shafer Queen, and I saw this shot that really summed everything up in black and white. Mamba from outside of the park. This helix was also one of my favorites on any coaster. Mamba after the storm My favorite ride to photograph, Dominator looks great from almost any angle

Jason, I have to say that your hypothetical conversation between BG Execs was hilarious . Congrats on your engagement, and thanks for the thorough report as usual. As much as I'd love to get down to the park to check everything out and form my own opinions, they just don't seem to have anything unique or entertaining to me, so I'll just wait and see if they ramp it up and add some more attractions next year.

I can't believe you have 2 pictures in there without any part of a coaster Glad you got these pictures up, I would definitely say that Great Escape was a memorable little park with a beautiful setting. Food was great too!

At the moment I see this as a positive for the Busch Parks. Having a foundation with an ownership group clearly interested in Theme Parks is much better than the Inbev situation over the last year or so, and hopefully they will continue to be successful.

some really great composition man, thanks for sharing those. Glad you had a good time in FLA.

Thanks for the picture update, I was wondering how they would seal off that area. Are all 3 trains still in the transfer area?

\ Maybe if they offered one of the trains for my living room I would bid that high... But for now I'll take my last ride on Saturday night.

Am I reading that right? Is there really a bid for $27,300??

Beautiful... wish I could sneak out of work one day this week, the weather really has been perfect. Interesting that they built a retaining wall next to the station area. Can't wait to see some track start going up, thanks for the update

Just want to chime in and say that I second this option. If you like park and nature settings, Skyline drive is very scenic and makes for a great day trip or 1/2 day trip. You can stop and hike down to waterfalls and such if you have more time. Much better than anything you can do in Richmond.

^ that's funny, thanks for adding some humor to an otherwise depressing thread

It looks like the park has updated their press release to include a FAQ Section which is good because it probably means they are getting feedback. At least one local news station has a front page article about the closing. I would encourage everyone to send the park a response about this because I think the reasoning is bad, and the timing is bad. It may not make a difference in the fate of the ride, but enough responses may help to keep it open through the end of this season. It's not like something new is coming right away for 2010.

I don't really buy their argument about expiration of life. This is probably the most dissapointed I have been at a park ever. Better go get some night rides and pictures.

nice photos man. I haven't heard much about BBW closing recently (as in the last month or so). But I haven't been looking very many places either. I'd like to find out where the the whole rumor started, and hope that the park would make some sort of announcement if it is true. They announced the last days of Le Mans raceway before Griffon construction started, you would think they would do the same with one of their most popular rides. *edit... guess I had some bad timing on this one

Not necessarily, if they use multiple block sections. He's saying that a vertical lift means a tighter pull-out which would cause extreme forces in the back seat of a long train. Just another reason why this wont be a vertical lift. I don't see how it's still even thought to be possible. Not only the radius of the drop and the pull-out, but I imagine that a long train on a vertical lift will generate an enormous amount of weight pressure on the catch car or whatever it is that pulls it. So I'm just saying, if it becomes clear that the lift is vertical then it will likely mean that the trains will be shorter. Even with multiple trains, the capacity would still be limited. I mean look at Hypersonic, that was designed to run 4 trains and never did. Backlot and Volcano are designed to run 3, and rarely do. I think the park would really benefit the most from a big capacity ride with a big train rather than a gimmick like a vertical lift or a vertical drop. Hopefully Cedar Fair caught onto this. Regardless, I'll be happy with the ride no matter how it's designed. Any new coaster of this magnitude is awesome news. But it's always fun to speculate and hope for the best possible scenario.

^^ yea but the lift angle *could* determine the length of the train. I can't see a vertical lift with an 8 or 9 car train. And a shorter train means a line that moves as slow as Fahrenheit's, and that would definitely suck. I really want to see that bottom piece that appears to curve out of the station. The angle that picture is taken at may exaggerate the actual angle of the curve, but we'll see.

That water looks like it came from lake Moraine. Very good theming. Thanks for sharing your photos, that park was a nice find.

Those are probably the most photos I have seen from Go Kart's plus. Despite being less than an hour away I have still never been there. It looks nicer than I thought overall; thanks again for the pics and report(s)

Mr. Big Mike it was nice to meet you and Jeremy at KD on Thursday, even though it was somewhat of a bummer to hear about your experience on the way to VA. Glad you had a good time at BG and picked up a few credits. Take care and safe travels