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Were these visits the earlier or later timeslot? I want to visit so badly and we might be able to carve out a couple hours Friday evening. Curious whether it's much busier in the later slot. It's so wild this place actually exists.

Found the contrast to a 4hr wait interesting. It was a bit surreal to ride a brand new B&M for the better part of a half hour without seeing another guest. Not everyone's preference, granted. I enjoy raucous full trains and Zen solo rides alike.

^That's a tough one to follow! Mine actually surprised me, memory failing. Turns out I hadn't ridden KI FoF, so that was it, couple weeks ago.

Too bad if there’s really no holiday lights? Last Hershey holiday season I went to was 2016 and there was a spectacular lights show set to music in the Hollow. And boy am I glad I visited on a summer weekday this year. Park was empty. Rode Candymonium completely alone 5x. Those wait times are nuts.

I keep my eye out for any unusually short food lines as even on busy days there can be the odd lull. Lucked out at the chicken place last Saturday at like 11:45, just two groups in front of me and it moved fast. An hour later there was a huge line out the door. Brewhouse only had a few people on Sunday around noon. Really nice relaxed stop and the burger/fries so much better than I would have guessed. Food for my trip was A+!

My visit this past weekend was great, even with Saturday being very busy and me missing out on FL until Sunday. I went into Orion not having followed its construction or watched a POV or even really knowing the layout. Also haven't been watching the reactions to it. I thought it was great. No surprise here that the huge new B&M is a smooth, fun, smile-inducing, infinitely-rerideable, gentle giant. I think it packs a little lighter punch overall than Fury or Leviathan, and I actually love it just like that. The setting is beautiful, especially this time of year and in particular just before and through the big overbank turnaround, just a breathtaking view out over a sea of vibrant foliage. Back left was my seat. Something about first drop in the back felt a little more special than Fury or Leviathan to me. Oh and the light package on the ride at night. Holy poopoo it's so freaking nice. Mask compliance was really quite good. Operators were actually pretty on top of asking people to wear or correct how they were wearing, and I saw only one case where such an interaction went sour. Distancing in the queues wasn't always great. Two impressively motivated operators actually forced the line to space out on Banshee and Invertigo. Their efforts were effective and appreciated. Got lucky to get a backseat night ride on Beast. My only previous ride was a front seat night ride. Woah that descent into the tunnel off the second lift, in the pitch dark, just one of the most sublimely out-of-control feelings on a ride I can imagine. Think I actually enjoyed it more in the back. Sunday morning I ended up on a third row ride and found that quite uncomfortable. Speaking of seat selection, operators were actually really friendly about, and generally accommodating, whenever groups asked about preferred seats. FastPass greatly increases your opportunities for front or back seats. Mystic Timbers was a pleasant surprise, more fun than I'd imagined. It makes some cool maneuvers with nice forces, while also retaining that overall terrain/journey feel. It felt a bit like a big brother to Wooden Warrior with the tunneled turnaround. Banshee was absolutely rippin' thru the course and so much better than I recall my one previous ride. Just kept wanting to go again. OK the beer. So look. I'm really not into pumpkin flavored stuff. But I am into coffee, and I have grown to occasionally appreciate dark complex beers, so I gave the Elysian Punkuccino they had on tap a shot. Wow! It's great, really great. Not in a "hmm that's certainly interesting and I'm going to pretend I like it to look refined" type of great, but a genuine "dang I want to chug this and then spend eleven more dollars on another one, immediately" kind of great. The bar between Mystic Timbers and Diamondback was a super relaxed stop off for a decent burger and brew early Sunday afternoon while it was not at all busy. Also tried the Original Sin Black Widow cider. Tart and blackberry infused, really liked it. Great selection of boozin' absolutely all over the park. Oh and the fried chicken and fries by Banshee are solid. Love this park! Clean, pretty, great ride selection, food, drinks, and friendly people. Two-day ride totals: Adventure Express x1, Backlot Stunt x1, Banshee x4, Beast x3, Diamondback x5, FoF 1x, Invertigo 1x, Mystic Timbers x4, Orion x6, Racer x1, Delirium 1x, Boo Blasters 1x, Woodstock Gliders 1x

Saturday was pretty busy, I overheard one ride op say busiest day of the year. Most coasters were consistently over an hour wait and Mystic Timbers was 100min mid-afternoon. I only rode Orion right at opening and waited ~45min. Got a Fastpass for Sunday and still totally worth it even though crowds were much lighter. I’ll post some more thoughts and pics tonight, it was a great visit with amazing weather.

It was cold today. TTD rolled back two of the first three runs they filled the trains on. We were first row for the second rollback, my first. So awesome!

Jake's Place in Ashland less than 15min from King's Dominion. Vintage gas station refurbished as a BBQ joint. Sampled the pulled pork, brisket, and ribs. I often like vinegary BBQ but wasn't a fan of their vinegar sauce so didn't go that way for the pork. Their sweet sauce was simple and solid. Brisket fantastic, ribs and pork decent. Really cool place to check out, great history, friendly people. Nice variety of interesting beers on tap. I will get a few photos posted, they're on my partner's phone as mine wasn't on me. Also just had a KICKASS visit to KD. Park was dead Wed due to intermittent showers. Backrow night ride on TT watching an otherwise empty train was surreal. Thu was a bit more lively but still NO lines.

They just told me at Sky Snacks that I can walk around with my beer. No more beer prison!! Got four straight rerides on Toro earlier too. Really nice day at the park.

In front of me..... Behind me.... Beside me... Life is good

When brakes bite hard

Coasters are open. Crowds are light to moderate, weather dependent. Generally a good time to go if you don't mind the possibility of a chilly day.

This is just tooo frickin' funny. The first thing that comes to mind, as a comparison, was an old B&M documentary that claimed their track dimensions are stringently QC'd to something like +/- a millimeter or so. ^ Umpteen potential points of failure for this sort of thing. My guess would be poor engineering controls of CAD data at S&S. And yes, I do sit behind a CAD workstation in the professional world every day.

Sure... we just bought the tickets at the park. I think the event started at like 5:00, and IIRC we got in maybe 1/2h earlier with Platinum Passes, so there was no wait. As long as you showed up towards the beginning, getting tickets on site was no sweat.