smallpox

it's not rough at all. it used to be a bit of a headbanger, but years ago they replaced the over-the-shoulder restraints with lapbars and it's fine now. i just wish they would turn down the midcourse brake -- last time i was there (last year) it brought the train to a complete stop, and makes the second half of the ride excruciatingly slow. Cedar Fair loves their aggressive MCBRs, though.

While I like the idea of a wing coaster at Kings Dominion, I don't see why any plans for the near future would involve removing FoF from the park. yeah, they've got tons of room. why go through the expense of removing and moving a coaster, particularly an indoor one with tons of props and theming?

i don't think we know yet if anyone was killed. it seems quite possible. also, i found this snippet from the article interesting: i'm not sure what she means by it stopped and then regained full speed ... but it sounds like the ride should not have been in operation in the first place. (easy to say in retrospect, i suppose)

(double post)

the trims on the drop were taken off years ago. the light trims before the bunny hills have always been there, and are there still. neither can be "turned off" because they are not electronic. they can only be added or removed. the water sprayers on the wheels were added during its first season.

I would love to see a unicorn that could fly that would give me hundred dollar bills every time I called it's name. You're not getting sh*t in that spot. why are you being so hostile and unfriendly?

#KDproject2017 weird. way too large an area for fireworks. the fact that it's right next to i305 in plain sight means it's probably not a storage facility. and it's way too far away to be a new ride. i guess the optimist in me could say something like "well, it could be a turnaround for a big B&M ... " but i don't want to get my hopes up.

Hurler was "meh" on the day it opened in 1994, and it's gone steadily down hill from there every year since. an RMC retracking would not transform it's bad and boring layout into an awesome one. in my opinion, it would be throwing good money after bad. tear it down and put in an original RMC design.

seriously, ride Volcano first, or you might not get to.

yeah, i'll join this crew. the ride wasn't great, but i do think it was underrated. that first drop actually was probably the third best first drop in the park behind i305 and Dominator. The loop had great g-forces as well. the rest of the ride was admittedly just something to be endured. my favorite part, though, was going completely limp right before the brake run at the end slammed the train to a stop. my arms and legs would go flying forward like a ragdoll. good times. finally, i will add that the blue/green paint scheme looked pretty great. (and its original navy/yellow was pretty nice too .. but that weird alternating pastels scheme it had through its middle age was horrendous)

Woodstock Express, Ricochet, Avalanche, and Heist Movie Studio Warehouse Powered Stunt Amusement Attraction are all basically family coasters. Plus there's the Great Pumpkin kiddie coaster as well. how many family coasters does one park need? would there really be a benefit to adding a 5th (or 6th) coaster in the same niche? a nice sprawling out and back B&M floaty airtime hyper that takes a scenic trip through the woods (yes, much like Apollo's Chariot down the road) would fill KD's biggest missing chunk. i305 is nothing at all like a B&M hyper, and i don't think BGW's presence should automatically eliminate it as a possibility.

No. It has a trim near the end of the ride (though I believe for a short time it did have a trim on the drop in it's debut season). Personally I think the ride is absolutely insane and the only other coaster I've ridden with those types of out-of-control transitions is Maverick. "Controlled" and "Predictable" don't come to mind for me with I305. the trim that is currently on it (near the end of the ride) has always been there from day one and is pretty minor. there were temporary trims on the drop that were removed once the first turn was slightly redesigned. in my opinion it's the most intense coaster on the planet. it's a whole different kind of experience from almost anything else.

yeah, it is a little surprising. to this day, i don't think any ride has matched the intensity of its launch. I suppose the lackluster layout, low capacity, and maintenance history outweighed the appeal of the launch.

i rode it several times monday and detected no rattle. but then i happen to think the thing has a ton of airtime, too, so what do i know. *shrug*

How do you know? And apparently I haven't ridden a woodie with a decent restraint system since the 70s. I still like them. I LOVED Hurler until they put the brake on it. It might indeed be less exciting with topper track, but they won't run it and maintain it as it was and everyone complains, complains, complains. It was a very good airtime coaster, for one thing ... the people complaining about airtime at KD must have a very strict definition. KD has too many coasters which they kind of bend the idea of a family or beginner coaster to, but not any actual great ones. Hurler is now very family in thrills, but too rough to not be thrilling. Shockwave is going away. I went with a friend to KD once and got there and THEN he announces he doesn't want to go upside down or 200' ... good thing we didn't go to BGW, we'd be riding Grover all day (this was few years back). I don't want a family coaster myself, but can't say that area isn't improvable or wanted. P.S. Cedar Fair has yet to RMC ... but KD is one their more "experimental" parks, so the first would most likely would be here or at CP. hurler was mediocre from day one. lousy layout. terrible construction and it's aged awfully. please do not waste money putting topper track on that mess, Cedar Fair. nobody likes Hurler, and nobody will be excited to ride what the GP will see as a slightly modified version of a coaster they already hate.

hit the park on Monday. Not too crowded. Had a blast. observations: - all coasters running very well! i305 remains the best ride on the planet. - said my goodbyes to Shockwave. that first drop and loop are underrated! i won't speak ill of the doomed today. - that 50s diner, i forget what it's called now, used to be Stan Mikita's ... was offering 3 different beers. Coors Light, Bud Light, and Miller Light. like, why bother? that's like offering three different brands of bottled water. other places in the park have stuff like Yuengling or even Old Bust Head (local craft brewery). cart a keg over there, KD! it's not so much that the beers are crappy (i get wanting a light crisp lager) but offering 3 near-identical beers with no variety is no bueno. - also some condiment weirdness at that place. i had to ask where the ketchup was. they had hidden the ketchup in giant yellow mustard containers. alright. also asked for salt (for the completely unsalted french fries) and they acted like it was the strangest, most exotic request they'd ever heard. they had none. they had lots of pepper packets, though. hey, i get that these are kids with summer jobs, not professional restauranteurs. it's fine. they do a pretty good job. i just thought it was funny that a request for salt baffled the employees of a burger and fries joint. - some of the ops for flat rides, particularly in the kids section, were working at a pace i can only describe as GLACIAL. i walked to the other side of the park, rode i305, flight of fear, and Volcano, walked back, and my kids had only ridden 2 kiddie rides in that time (snoopy nests, and the mini train). and it's not like there were long lines - it was a Monday. there had only been one or two cycle of riders in front of them for both rides. these rides were doing like one cycle every 15 minutes it seemed. maybe less. Sadly, we got out of line of Flying Eagles for the same reason. a shame, because it's one of my daughter's favorites. there were only about 2-3 cycles worth in front of us in line, but it looked like it was going to take a good 45 minutes. - the water park was great! my son was juuuust tall enough to ride his first water slides. - daughter rode Ricochet for the first time. loved it! - both rode log flume for the first time. loved that too! overall a great day at the park. can't wait to go back.

heading to the park on Monday. Anything in particularly people want to hear a report about or have me look for?

on a Wednesday, Volcano probably won't be too bad, but i305 will likely be a walk-on or close too it. I don't think i305's line is ever as long as Volcano's pretty much no matter what.

a B&M invert or a B&M hyper would be my choice. either one would be very different experience from Volcano/i305, (anyone that has ridden i305 knows it has almost nothing in common with a B&M hyper ) of course, neither would fit in that footprint - they'd have to travel over and around some nearby areas, but that's not unheard of. i know i'm just dreaming though, it doesn't seem like the rumors are hinting in that direction.

when shockwave opened, my little brother and i bought white Shockwave painters caps, with long flaps down the back, with teal and yellow lightning bolts on them. wish i still had mine.

this is awesome! thanks so much for posting it! i love hearing the "inside" story of a ride. Interesting to read about how Shockwave was so over-engineered for its time. that no doubt contributed to its longevity.

At opening, go to Dominator first. That gets crowded later on. Volcano and I305 also have very long lines. gotta disagree. go to Volcano first, it has a very long and slow line that gets longer as the day goes on. i305 is usually a very short line, except on the most crowded days. Dominator has a long line early on because it's right in the front of the park, but it often clears out in the afternoon.

I mostly agree -- in fact I came hear to post about that facepalm section of Anaconda between the MCBR and the corkscrew. what a total trainwreck! I honestly believe it'd be a very fun and pretty smooth coaster without that one section. one little correction, though: generally, when Arrow coasters opened, the MCBRs were barely on at all. I distinctly remember more or less flying through Anaconda's MCBR in its early years. You can find old throwback videos and commercials showing this as well. there was a time when the corkscrew was taken at a pretty decent speed. take a look at the 7:40 mark of this video, I'm not sure it slows down at all: I suspect the MCBR got ratcheted up incrementally year after year as a response to guest complaints about roughness. kind of a crappy solution -- taking that poorly designed butterfly element at a slower speed doesn't really make it much smoother. it's terrible at any speed. at this point, Anaconda's MCBR brings the train to a near complete stop, which in my opinion makes the second half of the ride even rougher because the elements are actually banked for a higher speed than the train is traveling.

2032: Shockwave closes. replaced with a virtual reality ride that simulates a ten minute process of strapping yourself into a machine that promptly smashes your dangly bits. 2033: Dippin' Dots: The Ride opens to rave reviews 2034: KD fixes the helicopter and flame effects on Backlot Stunt Coaster (breaks down permanently one month later).

The Apple Turnover was my first and favorite thrill ride!!