Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread

[The Geek Mojo]

My wife and I are going to Kings Dominion for the first time this coming Saturday and Sunday. Just wanted to know what kind of crowd to expect. We'll probably buy the fast lane for Saturday but figured Sunday crowds would be less and there would be no need. Never been here, so I don't really know what to expect. We went to Kings Island last week and the crowds wasn't that bad at all...all though it was raining which probably helped keep crowds away. Anyways, we're traveling 10 hours to get here, so we're going to spend two days to make sure we do everything the park has to offer. Wished we had enough time for BGW but we only got two days. Thanks for any info.

[cfc]

I think getting Fastlane for at least Saturday is wise. The park will probably be very busy because of Haunt.

[The Geek Mojo]

I just talked with someone who works at KD and they said that I305 is down again. Does anyone know more? Why or if it might be back open this weekend?

[BotanicalStig]

I just talked with someone who works at KD and they said that I305 is down again. Does anyone know more? Why or if it might be back open this weekend?

 

Maybe it was just a day thing? The site says it's still open... I hope they get it back up. I'll be there next weekend.

[coasterbill]

I just talked with someone who works at KD and they said that I305 is down again. Does anyone know more? Why or if it might be back open this weekend?

 

So if the ride was open Sunday, when did it have time to break down between then and now since the park has been closed every day since? I'm really not buying this.

[BotanicalStig]

^Were you there Sunday? Vigil was there Friday but I didn't see any reports from sat/sunday. Hopefully that was bad info...

[The Geek Mojo]

I called customer service to inquire if they were going to add I305 to the fast lane, and they were told by management that I305 was down and that they had fast lane plus, but discontinued it. I going there Saturday but didn't want to spend $130 for two fast lanes if I305 wasn't on it...But to hear that it wasn't going to run was even more disappointing. I'm hoping they have it running Saturday and that those people were misinformed.

[coasterbill]

Are you sure they didn't mean that when I305 was closed most of the year they took it off Fastlane? They discontinued Fastlane Plus this summer when the ride first went down... it's been that way ever since.

 

^^ I was not there Sunday but had a group of non-enthusiast friends who went down to Virginia for the Zach Brown concert and went to KD on Sunday. They were all posting a ton of pictures and raving about I305 on Facebook.

[cfc]

I'm planning to head down there this weekend some time for Haunt--I'll let you know.

[coasterbill]

I just called the park (I feel like I've reached a new level of nerdiness for calling them but we're going down this weekend and it's a 6 hour drive, 2 nights at a hotel and Fastlane for 2 people so I wanted to make sure there was no truth to this before booking everything) and they said that the ride was open.

[The Geek Mojo]

Perfect! I've been trying call them all day and have got no answer...But I'm glad to hear that somebody else got a answer. I'm going to be there Saturday, but I'm still questioning buying a fast lane. There are only 6 coasters out of the 14 on the pass so I'm wondering if it's worth it. Sure I'm going to want to ride Dominator and Volcano a lot, but regardless, I305 is not on the fast lane...So I may just take my chances waiting for the few rides they make you pay extra for. Thanks for calling and getting that info. My outlook on this trip has greatly improved knowing that I305 will be open.

[xmichellex]

Perfect! I've been trying call them all day and have got no answer...But I'm glad to hear that somebody else got a answer. I'm going to be there Saturday, but I'm still questioning buying a fast lane. There are only 6 coasters out of the 14 on the pass so I'm wondering if it's worth it. Sure I'm going to want to ride Dominator and Volcano a lot, but regardless, I305 is not on the fast lane...So I may just take my chances waiting for the few rides they make you pay extra for. Thanks for calling and getting that info. My outlook on this trip has greatly improved knowing that I305 will be open.

 

i305 is on Fast Lane, you just can't sit in the front row with it. I was there Sept. 28 & 29 and had FL both days... We rode i305 a disgusting amount of times. It's worth it even without being able to access the front row, because if you do decide to wait for the front a few times you can still walk right in to the 2nd row or back with FL.

 

Also, I called the park before my trip to confirm i305 was a FL ride because it wasn't listed as one on the KD site.

[coasterbill]

Perfect! I've been trying call them all day and have got no answer...But I'm glad to hear that somebody else got a answer. I'm going to be there Saturday, but I'm still questioning buying a fast lane. There are only 6 coasters out of the 14 on the pass so I'm wondering if it's worth it. Sure I'm going to want to ride Dominator and Volcano a lot, but regardless, I305 is not on the fast lane...So I may just take my chances waiting for the few rides they make you pay extra for. Thanks for calling and getting that info. My outlook on this trip has greatly improved knowing that I305 will be open.

 

Except I305 (assuming it's not on Fastlane since everyone has a different answer on that), the only coasters not on Fastlane are mediocre at best. Having the drop tower, flyers and flume on there are pretty cool too. I'm definitely getting it on Saturday since it will be our only trip of the year.

 

By the way, it's nice to see a park actually keep the flume open into late October (according to the website). More parks should do this.

[cfc]

 

Yep--it's open.

[IneedTPforbunghole]

Except I305 (assuming it's not on Fastlane since everyone has a different answer on that)

I305 is on Fast Lane Plus, so if you are planning on using FL, you should probably get FLP.

[Intimidator305]

Well after 2 fun days at Halloween Haunt XIII (the best one yet in my opinion) here are my rankings for the mazes and scare zones.

 

Best to worst mazes:

1) SlaughterHouse

2) Zombie High

3) Club Blood

4) CornStalkers

5) No Vacancy

6) The Doll Factory

7) Miner's Revenge

8) Outbreak

9) Medieval Macabre

10) Blue Ridge Bloodbath

 

Best to worst scare zones:

1) Necropolis

2) Cleaver Bros. Carnival

3) IronWorX

4) Feary Tales

5) PrimEvil

6) The Lair

 

Haunt was absolutely spectacular this year. The only disappointing mazes to me were Medieval Macabre and Blue Ridge Bloodbath. I'd like to see Medieval Macabre replaced next year.

[cfc]

^I'd like to see Medieval Macabre and Outbreak replaced. Those mazes in the Flight of Fear queue tend to be the weakest of the event.

[Intimidator305]

^ I felt like Outbreak was much better than the former Alien Outpost when it first opened, but now with the changes and over the years it is just mediocre compared to the detail and great quality of the others now. I would be welcome to a new theme and/or a completely new maze in the Congo area.

 

Medieval Macabre definitely should be replaced because it has been there for years now, doesn't have too much detail (besides an awesome facade outside of it), and is by far the busiest maze due to its convenient location. I hope next years new big maze is here.

 

Also, with the new Grove Stage near WindSeeker being used for Blood Drums instead of a temporary stage in the Drop Tower plaza... I'd love to see a new outdoor maze in the WaterWorks entry way plaza area. They could definitely get it done from the time the water park closes (Labor Day) until Haunt opens.

 

On a different topic, I said my goodbyes to the International Street fountains, Grove decor, and Congo decor as they'll all be gone/changed next season. I can't wait to see the new entry fountains, Candy Apple Grove, and Safari Village!

[cfc]

Having that annoying photo in the Medievel Macabre queue doesn't speed up the line much either (and fools people into thinking the line is shorter than it is).

[coasterbill]

We went to KD over the weekend and had a great time.

 

We got a hotel near the park Friday and Saturday night so we made the 6 hour drive Friday night and got there right before midnight. We spent all day Saturday in the park (10:30 am - midnight) and stopped by on Sunday morning for a few hours before we drove back home (and stopped for an hour or two at SFA to ride Batwing, Superman and get my Roar credit) on Sunday afternoon / night.

 

I'll save everyone the long TR but I wanted to mention a few things.

 

Fastlane: Since there is some confusion, I305 is on Fastlane (I know a few people mentioned that) and they did away with Fastlane Plus. The park was absolutely slammed on Saturday. Volcano's line was back to the store, I305's was out near Flight of Fear and even Windseeker was all the way back to the Skycoaster ticket office. That being said we got more rides in than I could count and never waited more than 10 minutes for any ride all day with the exception of Volcano. Even with the crowds you got instant access to the stations on every ride... there was never a Fastlane queue (except for Volcano which I understand). Even on Volcano the wait would have been 20 minutes if we didn't wait for the front (it was still only about 30). On I305 you could always get on in 5 minutes or less.

 

I know ideally you should avoid Saturdays in October but when you're coming from far away it's not always possible. Thanks to Fastlane we got on more rides than we can count. Every ride had queue lines spilling out the entrance and even rides like Backlot and Avalanche were hour + waits but with Fastlane it wasn't an issue at all, even when most stores had sold all of their Fastlane wristbands.

 

A few notes about the rides:

 

Dominator - I want to preface this by saying that I know I sound like a crazy person right now, but Dominator was running INSANE on Saturday and besides the older inverts I've never had a more intense ride on a B&M coaster. This is definitely a back seat ride, the way it yanks you down the first drop and through the second half of the loop is incredible. I remember riding this last year during ECB ERT and it was a lot of fun, but nothing like this. I can't believe I'm saying this about a floorless coaster but this is a really intense ride and it really blew us away.

 

I've had hundreds of rides on floorless coasters and I've enjoyed all of them, but wouldn't consider any of them overly intense, they're just fun re-rideable rides. Dominator in the back seat is a serious exception to the rule.

 

Flight of Fear - They need to seriously re-consider closing this for a Haunted attraction. We knew the ride was closing at 5:00 so we got a ton of rides in, and even early in the day the line was spilling out the entrance. Once it became a maze, the line was never spilling out of the entrance and compared to the other mazes it seemed to be really unpopular. I'm assuming Flight of Fear can put through a lot more people than this stupid maze can so if Flight of Fear had a full queue before the park got really packed and the haunted attraction with a lower capacity had a shorter queue when more people were in the park, why would you close Flight of Fear?

 

As usual, the ride was awesome. I think this ride is highly underrated. The theming is very good for Cedar Fair (I know it's a Paramount ride) and the ride experience is outstanding. This is the only coaster where I really don't know which way is up when I'm riding it. Seriously... why would you close a ride this good and this popular for a Halloween maze?

 

Log Flume - First of all... kudos for leaving this open into October. Second of all, I really enjoyed this flume. It seemed pretty long and went way back in the woods. If you enjoy log flumes, don't miss this one.

 

I305 - Between Saturday and Sunday I lost count of how many times we rode this. Every single ride we had on it was amazing, even first thing in the morning. I always thought the ride was slightly overrated as the over the shoulder restraints take away from the experience of the airtime but the first drop and those 3 twists are really insane. This is definitely a top 10 ride and I'll probably need to move it up a few spots after our night rides on Saturday night. We sat in a lot of different places (including the front) and I can't pick a favorite, it's a great ride in every seat.

 

Overall we had a great time. We usually get to this park once a year and it's one of our favorite parks in the chain. They have a great coaster collection and it's much nicer than a lot of Cedar Fair parks (probably because it still has the feel of a Paramount park). We can't wait to go back next year.

[cfc]

^The maze is Flight of Fear is pretty bad, but it takes up more than half the inside queue, which might make FoF's line seem longer than it is.

[mike541x]

^^Oh man, I'll be at the park this Saturday and considering it's the last weekend for Haunt, I'm not expecting anything different as far as crowds go. I don't think my friends and I have the extra money for FL, but I believe we're supposed to be getting there at opening so hopefully that should give us some time to get some rides in.

[cfc]

You might want to consider spending $35 for Fright Lane if you want to do the Haunt mazes. Lines will be crazy that night.

[BotanicalStig]

Thanks for the mini trip review! I haven't done a haunt even since the 90's. The crowds sounded nuts Glad I preordered my FL passes, can't wait for my trip this weekend!

[The Geek Mojo]

KD TR: This was supposed to be a two day KD trip, but my wife and I decided to make it a one day trip instead and use the second day for BGW...worked out great! We drove all night 10 hours from Alabama to our hotel close to the Richmond Airport and they were nice enough to check us in way early and give us breakfast before we went to KD. Our hotel was pretty much in between both parks, 30 min each way so it worked out perfect. We got to KD at 10am cause I assumed the park was going to open at 10...but only a few rides open at 10. So we rode Dominator over and over until the rest of the park opened. Dominator is the best floorless B&M I've ever rode. Some points of that ride I felt were insanely fast...I loved it! When the park finally opened everything else at 10:30am, we decided to skip the fast lane/fright lane, and just see how much we could get done without it. So, we rode Volcano next, which was our only ride of the day on that coaster because of the long lines, but I was happy to get the credit...It was an awesome coaster. From there, we rode I305 three times in a row and then I had to take a break...My head was spinning. It was cool we were walking up and riding these coasters immediately early in the morning but that didn't last as the day progressed...the lines eventually grew. I'll have to say, out of the nearly 200 coasters I've ridden in my life, I305 is probably my favorite one I've ever ridden. The intensity and speed of it is just incredible...It makes Millennium Force look weak. I have a much better appreciation of Intamin coasters now having rode I305. As for the rest of the coasters, we hit all the big ones early and didn't have to wait long. When the lines started getting longer for the rides in the afternoon, we had almost rode everything atleast once. The only multiple rides we got were 3 times on Dominator and 5 times on I305. The night rides on those were the best. The only coasters we didn't get to ride were Ricochet, Backlot Stunt Coaster and Great Pumpkin Kiddie coaster. I've rode Ricochet at Carowinds and Backlot Stunt Coaster at Kings island so I didn't figure I had missed much. The Crypt was amazing...It was my first Top Spin. I'd missed riding King Chaos at SFGam so I was glad to finally get one of these rides under my belt. We rode a few other flat rides there, they were fun. Windseeker is always a great ride and the berserker and flying eagles are too. Got some incredible pictures up in the Eiffel tower. This time of the year up there is just beautiful. All around a great time at Kings Dominion. We ended our night with a last ride on I305 and it was a great send off. We'll probably be back to this park next year.