TR - Kings Dominion 8/25/07

[cygnusx1]

I'll post this to KDSource and Theme Park Review.

 

I went to Kings Dominion with my folks today. We really wanted to take some people with us, but we must not have given them enough notice for that to happen. So my folks went on their rides, and I wandered around the park all day and went on a few rides myself.

 

We got to the park around 11, and after getting a locker for my stuff I went straight to Flight of Fear. There was about a 2 train wait for it. I rode in the third car the first time and had the front car to myself the second time. The line was just in the loading area, not into the rest of the queue, so I just got back in line in the loading area and rode it the second time. The ride was a lot better than I remembered it. The corkscrew at the end is still my favorite part of any spaghetti bowl coaster! (I went on Poltergeist at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in July.)

 

I find it interesting how SFFT and KD have such different ways to present the same coaster. At SFFT the station is a peaceful-looking German house, and when the train comes to you there are people in it. The track is outside, and except for not having a midcourse brake run it's basically the same coaster. (I thought it was better without the MCBR.) With Flight of Fear I like the setting a lot better. The spaghetti bowl layout and the black track really make it "work" as an indoor coaster. Riding it in the front seat today might be the best experience I've had on a ride all year. The people behind me weren't screaming (or at least they were in cars behind me - I had the "Theme Park Review POV" seat), and it was just me and this big ball of track. Also, the rumbling sound that KD has on FOF before the launch is not on Poltergeist and really adds to the intensity of that ride.

 

Next I went over to Italian Job, which was down. I was drinking water like a fish since it was 97 out and humid today (that's not that hot... Radhames Liz is throwing harder than 97 for the Orioles tonight!... heh). So I got more water and headed back toward Avalanche. That ride opened at noon, so I spent about 10 minutes waiting for it to open and had about a 3 train wait. Again, I had no one to ride with; so I got the front seat and basically rode pkdcoaster's Avalanche video, which is in my Winamp... cool. The ride itself didn't do much for me though, aside from its uniqueness as the only ride of its kind in the US. It could have been longer.

 

So after Avalanche, I got back in line for Italian Job, which broke down again soon after I got in line. I was about 5th in line for the front seat, and a few people in front of me left while an attendant was checking the ride and watching 2-3 test runs. So I ended up being second or third in line for a front seat... pretty good deal. I found the helix was appropriately intense (didn't black out but got some decent G forces) and the second launch and the dark part of the ride were really good. That overbanked turn was fun too! In all, I consider that ride fun, although it could have been longer especially since it has multiple launches.

 

After that, I headed back to Ricochet. I got the back of the car for that one, which was pretty much a walk-on. I wanted to ride Ricochet since I rode the new Gerstlauer spinner at SFFT (Tony Hawk's Big Spin) and wanted to see how a regular wild mouse compared. The first drop on Ricochet was pretty nice; but I found the brakes were on way too strong, especially in the last couple brake runs. That said, if the brake runs are the only thing you don't like about Ricochet, ride one of the new Gerstlauer spinners if you can... they're a lot of fun, and you get a different ride every time. It's like a ProSlide Tornado compared to a regular water slide of the same height.

 

By then it was a little after 12:30, so I wanted to get one more ride in before lunch. I went with the Flying Eagles, which I thought was a good choice for my first flat of the day. Lunch at the Wayside Grill was decent; but I could have used more food considering that I was hungry and that a 1/4 pound hamburger, fries, and small Vault was $10.75. I then visited the Action F/X Theater for the SpongeBob SquarePants movie. That was the first time I've ever watched SpongeBob out of my own free will (I was desperate for a motion simulator ride after all of this actual motion). All I can say is that KD needs to get a new movie in that theater. The "ride" itself was still pretty fun. Then I got ready to head to WaterWorks.

 

At WaterWorks I noticed that Tornado had a huge line just to get tubes. Baja Bends, likewise, had a line off the tower. Spiral Chute and Shoot the Curl were both closed even though the waterpark was packed and it was pretty hot out. So I headed back to Pipeline Peak. The Peak, which I'd say has the best slides in the water park aside from the Tornado, had a relatively short line of about two flights of stairs for any of the 4 slides on it. I went on Rip Tide but was disappointed when the lifeguard wouldn't let me ride solo on Turbo Twister. Rip Tide was a pretty good ride today. Power Plunge was disappointing, however. I got a lot of water up my nose, and I had to concentrate on keeping my stuff together (hat, water shoes, and shirt - which I had to remove for the ride... why?) rather than the ride itself. Without my shirt on, the slide was very bumpy. I guess ProSlide body slides don't age well.

 

I also got a ride on Zoom Flume with a pretty cool couple. That slide's rather fun. The double-down at the end gave good air. I rode a ProSlide Mammoth at Fiesta Texas, which was OK (fun but not nearly as good as their great CannonBowl!), and thought this one was significantly better.

 

After some time in Big Wave Bay, which is bigger and was less crowded than Tidal Wave Bay (which KD did a great job on - it's a very nice-looking wave pool!), I went back to Tornado. I went ahead and waited in line, riding with another cool couple (not the girl and her boyfriend who was *smoking in line* in front of me... grrr...). I really enjoyed this Tornado. I rode a Tornado at SFFT earlier this year; it was taller and had a great drop on it. The spiral down to the drop was cool on KD's Tornado, even though the drop itself was shorter. We still got a great angle in the funnel; we went back and forth a bunch of times; and the girl that I was riding with almost crashed into me. After that, I went with them to FreeStylin', which I liked as much as I ever have. Of course I went down FreeStylin' backwards.

 

I was done for the day in the water park after that and headed for Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion. I didn't ride it, though, because the line was pretty long (it went out of the building). By then it was 5:30, so I only had time for one more ride; I chose Nickelodeon Space Surfer based on some recommendations from people at KDSource. I enjoyed the ride. I'm normally afraid of heights, but in this case I had fun looking down at the trees and little people. After a full day in water shoes, it felt good to take them off for the Space Surfer. That ride is one of the park's out-of-the-way, well-kept secrets. There was a 1-load wait for it.

 

After that, we left around 6 so that we could get back home to watch Radhames Liz make his major league debut with the Orioles. (We're Baysox fans and have seen him pitch 3 times in person already; he puts on a great show!)

 

I didn't get to have my first-ever ride on Volcano today; the line almost went out of the station when I went over there around noon to ride Avalanche; and when I came back after leaving the water park, it was down.

[yankees15]

Nice report sounds like you had a great time! It's a shame you didn't ride Volcano or any other of the parks great rides. When you say Volcano's line was out of the station do you mean it was just out of the building? If so that's only a 10-15 minute wait and Volcano is well worth that wait!

[cygnusx1]

Yeah, I'm afraid of heights and don't ride many coasters. After BTTM at Disney World as a kid, I didn't ride another coaster until Flight of Fear two years ago (I didn't like it then; I must have been too tense when I rode it)... and then didn't visit another park until I went to some San Antonio parks in July. So the small- to mid-sized coasters were good enough for me today. Thanks for that bit of information about Volcano's line. I thought that building had about an hour and a half of queue, like FoF's would if all of the switchbacks were in use.

[yankees15]

^I can see how you would think Volcano's que would be like Flight of Fear's.

 

I used to be afraid of heights but now I'm not. A few years ago I went to Dorney when I was terrified of height's, but I just sucked it up and went on the tall rides like Steel Force and that's when I got over the fear. I think you should just tell yourself that nothing bad is going to happen and ride the big rides, you will love them!