Kings Dominion PTR

[Top Thrill Dragster]

Kings Dominion

After a fun ride on Volcano, I made my way to Hypersonic. On the way I took a few pics of the Grove section of the park.

Generic Cedar Fair safety sign.

10:30 came and the security guard walked us down to the entrance to Volcano. I originally planned to go to Hypersonic first, oh well.

 

 

 

 

Volcano The Blast Coaster

 

This ride was just a load of fun. A little on the short side, but fun. The ride had fun launches,great hang time in the rolls, and a great first inversion. Overall the ride is fun, but could have been better If they did not end this ride with a huge drop into breaks. A helix or special effects inside the Volcano would have made this ride great.

Approaching 10:30, the security guard gave a spiel saying that if you run ahead of him, use profanity, or horse play you would be kicked out of the park. This was strictly enforced (a good thing!).

Kings Dominion has a opening time of 10:30 so they were holding people up the entrance to Nick Central.

Once in the park I began my walk down International street, my first impression was that this was a very nice and beautiful park, but that would soon change as my day went on.

When I arrived at the park, I went strait to guest relations and Used my Knotts Berry Farm Maxx Pass to get my ticket to get in.

On 23rd and 24th of July I Visited Kings Dominion. This is my first time to this park since I was 4 years old, so I was very excited.

 

I arrived to the park at 8 and they had yet to open the parking lot so, while I waited decided to check into the hotel and grab a bite to eat before going to the park. After a some what good breakfasts a Days INN, It was time for the park.

[Top Thrill Dragster]

Hypersonic XLC

After 3 rides on Hurler, I made my way to Ricochet. Its a typical wild mouse, but with a large drop at the beginning . But the rest of the ride seemed to be one of the weakest wild mouses I have been on due to the excessive use of trims. Fun ride.

After XLC I made my way to Hurler.

 

Hurler

 

I did not have high expectations for Hurler when walking up to this it. I was going on Hurler expecting to come off with one of my ribs and spine broken. But to my surprise Hurler was GREAT! Great laterals, ejector seat airtime, and floater air time. And it never lets up. I got 3 back to back rides on this ride without leaving the station. Why is this ride not getting any notice? WHY?!?!?

Perfectly engineered transition!

They should really be using the second station.

I have been wanting to go on this ride ever since it was built. And hearing that this will most likely be its last season in operation I thought that I would never get to ride. But thanks to an unexpected visit to VA I would finally get to ride this unique launch Coaster. With only a station wait I joined the queue line. 10 mins later I was on the ride (capacity sucks). I got row 3, right seat. Pulling down the restraint I notice how heavy and restrictive of your lower body these restrains are. You can not move you legs because of the ankle guards. And no-matter how you position the restraint you are stapled into you seat. After a check of the restraints you pull slowly out of the station and make a left hand turn. Stopping in the turn, a safety spiel begins. after a 15 sec wait you train rapidly moves into the launch position. Another safety spiel is played and the drag lights light up. No more than 20 seconds after the spiel, the green light comes on, and the train is launched. This is BY FAR the most intense launch I have ever experienced. It is simply indescribable. Awesome. But sadly thats about as good as it gets on this ride, from here on out the ride goes down hill in quality...FAST. Pulling up into the tower the train shakes and jerks its way to the top of the hill. Cresting the top, you can feel that there is some MAJOR ejector seat air to be had, but because of the restraint design you do not come out of the seat. Coming down the hill the train again begins to bounce and jerk like crazy. Making a long left hand turn around the train is shuffling an bouncing its way through the course. Then you make a sharp right hand turn into a small bunny hill. Once again you can feel MAJOR ejector seat air, but you do not come out of your seat. And then you slam into the brake run, shaking you even more. Over all S&S had a great Idea but failed big time. The ride has one hell of a launch, but the rest of the ride just shakes you around too much to be enjoyable and the restraints don't help. I was very disappointed with this ride, Thank god I did not have to wait in 2hr+ line to ride.

[Top Thrill Dragster]

Part 3

After a fun ride on Triple Spin I went across the midway to Drop Zone. Drop Zone was a fun ride and had a very intense end to the ride. But personally I prefer the S&S drop towers, I like being blasted down instead of just dropped.

After ShockWave I decided to ride some thing I Have never done before, Triple Spin. Triple Spin was a fun and disorienting ride and would fit nicely at Knotts or SFMM.

Shock Wave

 

Shock Wave was my first Togo roller coaster, and from what I have heard about Togo I was expecting the worst. Walking into the station, even though there was no wait for any of the rows except the front, I decided to take a front row ride. Shock Wave has BY FAR the most interesting restraint design of any ride I have ridden. After I got into the restraint the train slowly, and I mean SLOWLY begins its climb up the lift. Cresting the lift the train rapidly picks up speed. Making a right hand turn around you begin the drop. The drop and loop were both fun. The loop looks like a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop roller coaster loop, but its not as intense. Exiting the loop the train gose up a hill and transitions into the double helix. At the top of the hill there is a nice pop of ejector air. The double helix was fun, but I bashed my jaw into the shulder part of the restraint about 1/4 of the way through. Exiting the helix the train goes over a bunny hop, providing a nice pop of air. After the bunny hop the train makes a climb into a sharp left hand turn around and descends into another bunny hop. The train again makes another climb and into the brakes. Over all Shock Wave was a lot of fun, and not as bad as I was expecting. It was certainly different than the 2 B&M stand ups I have been on.

After Rebel Yell. I made my way to Shock Wave. Along the way I took one of my favorite shots of the trip.

After Ricochet, I went to Rebel Yell forwards, the backwards side was not open yet. It was a 5 min wait due to they were running 1 train. This was a trend on all of KD's woodies. I rode in the middle of the train and regretfully took a wheel seat. This was by far one of, if not the roughest wood coasters I have ever ridden. I really felt as it was trying to compete with Psyclone for being the roughest coaster in the world. Every time the train would come to a valley on the ride, it felt as if some one had a jackhammer on my spine. Worst ride of the day. But I found out if you ride in a center seat the ride dose give a decent ride. Soon as I got off, they opened the backwards side. So I joined the queue and walked on to a front row ride. The ride was rough, but not nearly as bad as the forwards side.

[Top Thrill Dragster]

After a fun ride on Drop Zone, I headed to Anaconda.

After Anaconda I headed to Fight OF Fear.

 

Fight Of Fear, in my opinion is the best ride in the park. The theming was great and the ride was awesome. After riding I can see why they got rid of the OTSR. Also I have never seen so many people get turned away from a ride because the could not fit.

Personally I LOVE Arrow Coaster, this one was no different. It had a great tunnel and good speed through the first half of the ride. The only part of the ride I found very rough is the transition between the downwards turn and the upwards turn. Also this Anaconda takes its corkscrews at the same speed as Viper, and unlike Viper Anacondas corckescrews are placed over water. Great Ride!

[Top Thrill Dragster]

After 3 great rides on Flight Of Fear, I went to Italian Job Turbo Coaster.

 

 

Italian Job, really caught me off guard on how intense this ride is. The triple helix at the start rivals Goliaths helix at SFMM. The special effects were on and were pretty cool. Overall the ride is fun and is a great family coaster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

!!WARNING COASTER PORN!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a fun ride on Italian Job, I made my way over to Avalanche. Avalanche is a fun family ride and more intense that Disaster Transport. Fun ride.

 

 

 

[Top Thrill Dragster]

After a Fun ride on Avalanche I decided to go to the Kids area of the park. Kings Dominion has a great Kids area. To put it simply its HUGE. Also Kings Dominion has the best kid coaster I have been on.

 

Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster.

 

What a fun little ride, smooth and had little pops of air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I rode the Ghoster Coaster, some lady asked if I would ride with her kid. I said yes only If I could ride with her kid on the Taxi Jam roller coaster.

 

 

 

 

After Taxi Jam, I when to the Scooby Doo Haunted Mansion.

 

It was fun, Knotts should get one of these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Top Thrill Dragster]

fter the Haunted Mansion, I made my way to Grizzly. On the Way I decided to go up in the Eiffel Tower. Here are some areal shots of Kings Dominion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**I WILL FINNISH THE TR LATER**

[Goliath513]

Italian Job, really caught me off guard on how intense this ride is. The triple helix at the start rivals Goliaths helix at SFMM. The special effects were on and were pretty cool. Overall the ride is fun and is a great family coaster.

 

My god that helix must hurt.

 

This is probably the most in depth photo TR I have ever seen of Kings Dominion. Nice job!

[PKI Jizzman]

Wow, I really want to go to KD now that I hear almost -every- coaster has ejector air!

 

 

-J "Mmm....orange Drop Zone...." Z

[hemmy]

Very nice, there are very few KD TRs on here.

[yankees15]

Awesome report! I feel the exact same way with Hurler! I thought the ride was awesome and one of the best wooden coasters I have ridden (even though I have only been on 15). The ride was smooth but had a good wooden feel to it, had nice pops of air on every hill, and has some sweet laterals. Your report make me want to go back to Kings Dominion right now!

[Mr.Six]

Very nice TR! But I'm rather confused, "my first impression was that this was a very nice and beautiful park, but that would soon change as my day went on. " Going by your TR and photos it seems as if you really enjoyed the park?

_six

[Groteslurf]

Very nice TR and pics.

Next year June I will visit this park for the first time so found your tr very interesting.

The line at the entrance looked so huge, while in the park the crowds seemed ok : was this the line for purchasing tickets ?

[calcajun]

Awesome!

I was sad to get to the end.

 

Thanks

[itsme102]

Very good TR. I went to KD a few weeks ago and had a good time there. One problem I had, though was that operations were horrendous (Apparently an op talking on a cell phone is not limited to SFMM). How were they when you were there?

[Top Thrill Dragster]

Very nice TR! But I'm rather confused, "my first impression was that this was a very nice and beautiful park, but that would soon change as my day went on. " Going by your TR and photos it seems as if you really enjoyed the park?

_six

 

I will get into that when I finish the TR. Kings Dominion Had some very weird attraction placements and most of the park felt like a glorified carnival. And coming from Busch Gardens a few days before, really set my expectations very high. Because this park is very rarely shown on this and other sites, didn't give me a great Idea of what this park was going to be like. International street is VERY nice and really gives you the impression that the whole park is going to be the same.

 

^^^ The crowds were not bad at all, the line looks huge because you go through the turn stiles first and then you go through the bag check and metal detectors second.

 

^Operations were OK. They were running multiple trains on every thing except their wood coasters.

 

 

Thanks for every one who has commented, I am still not done with the TR.

[asr]

Nice TR. Very in-depth and big, and nice pictures too.

[ms13]

What a great Trip Report.

I was just there this summer, and had a great time.

Flight of Fear was also my favorite ride.

Can't wait for the rest!

[TheRapidsNerd]

What everybody else said. Great job on the TR!

 

Haven't been to KD since 8th grade (1988?) and they had just gotten Avalanche with Sky Pilot (rolloplane?) the year before. Wow has that place grown! Great to see Shockwave still going strong, except for the new colors. Oy!

 

Vaguely remember Avalanche being a good ride. Glad it's still running. White Water Canyon was decent too.

 

Again, great job on coverage!

[alpengeist04]

Very nice PTR, but you lost creditability when you called Anaconda a great ride. Just Kidding.

 

I do have one question, where's all this ejector air you're talking about. Anyway, very good job. Thanks.

[Top Thrill Dragster]

^Ejector air

 

Front Car of Shock wave the transition into the double helix.

 

Hurler first bunny hop.

 

XLC First hill and bunny hop although the restraints really restrict you form coming out of your seat.

 

Mr. Six Posted

 

Very nice TR! But I'm rather confused, "my first impression was that this was a very nice and beautiful park, but that would soon change as my day went on. " Going by your TR and photos it seems as if you really enjoyed the park?

_six

 

I will get into that when I finish the TR. Kings Dominion Had some very weird attraction placements and most of the park felt like a glorified carnival. And coming from Busch Gardens a few days before, really set my expectations very high. Because this park is very rarely shown on this and other sites, didn't give me a great Idea of what this park was going to be like. International street is VERY nice and really gives you the impression that the whole park is going to be the same.

I did enjoy my day.

 

**My Photo-bucket Bandwidth has exceeded, please check back later to see pictures, sorry.**

[Team Thriller]

looks like a very nice park. Volcano Is AWESOME!!!

[CommanderLock]

I went there early this summer, and it was definatly a good time. There were little lines, the crowd wasn't too obnoxious, the woodies were great, the waterpark was meh, though..

Overall, good park.

[almightyfire]

Why is it I cant view any of the pics? All of the pics are saying to upgrade to photobucket.

[arrowfanman]

^ He's exceeded his monthly bandwidth at photobucket so they wont show his photos for now.

 

 

 

It goes without saying, but I highly recommend hosting your photos on Theme Park Review.

 

-Jahan