Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread

[anonymouscactus]

6 hours ago, boldikus said:

Its only gonna be awkward if one of you gets a boner.

At least you will have a cool nickname for  when it happens that you will never forget... THE REPTILIAN. Now that's all you're gonna think about. Better get seperate seats.

Look what you got yourself into. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by anonymouscactus
Sorry not sorry

[CoasterNerd87]

9 hours ago, DBru said:

I don't think it's weird at all to want to ride on the same train as your friends. Part of the fun of riding coasters is seeing the in-the-moment reactions of the people you're with.

By staring at the back of their head?  

Unless it's a slow day, or they have someone controlling the amount of people in the station (hint: they won't), I would suggest that you all don't try to ride it all at the same time. People trying to group together is one of the main things that creates a line on this ride.

[boldikus]

49 minutes ago, CoasterNerd87 said:

By staring at the back of their head?  

Unless it's a slow day, or they have someone controlling the amount of people in the station (hint: they won't), I would suggest that you all don't try to ride it all at the same time. People trying to group together is one of the main things that creates a line on this ride.

LOL seriously. Unless you're sitting in each others laps, seeing your friends reactions is going to be pretty tough on this ride. If anything, trying to crane your neck around while riding in order to see your buddies face will be what is going to make the entire experience awkward.

[cfc]

How about just getting on the ride and enjoying it, whether you have to split up or not? I think that's the best policy.

[BotanicalStig]

Meh. Especially on a low intensity ride like this, most of the fun is gone if you can't communicate with your friends. Sitting silently between a group of strangers is much less fun. Just try to take the whole train, nobody is going to care. 

 

On second thought. Just assess the situation. Does it feel appropriate to take up the whole train? How will people judge you? Do you want to sit in your friends lap. What will happen if you ask to sit in your friends lap? Can you still be friends, or is this a road you can't go back on? Think this over very carefully, it could change your friendship forever. 

[rachelmadcow]

reptilian ... tumbili 

 

these all seem like off-brand names. 

 

KD needs to be on the phone with anyone (even Vekoma) for a world record inverted to replace Volcano. 

[teacherkim]

We were at the park last Saturday. We actually didn't get there until about 3 (you can read about why on the BGW thread if you care) and they were only open until 8, but since we had been there before and didn't need to get on every little thing and had FL+ we were able to do everything we wanted. It was not as busy as I would have thought it to be for a Saturday but it did close kind of early and it was a pretty chilly, breezy day. 

I thought the jungle retheme where Tumbili is was fairly nice looking, my son kind of thought it "eh". He rode Tumbili, it's too much flipping for me. He did say that it flipped way more than any other free spin he had been on. Racer only had the blue train going anytime we were near it, Dominator was dead most of the time we were there and of course water rides weren't open for the season yet. 

We got in line for I305 about 7:50 and got a ride on what would have been the second to last train of the night but as we approached the station after the brake run the ops got a no go light on the other train which was in the station; so, they kicked off those riders and sent them out which kind of sucks cuz it was after 8 by then so they couldn't get on anything else but of course that's the chance you take. Anyway now the ride is down, one train stuck in the station and one train with us in the front row and two other people in the back row stuck out on the track outside the station. After 15-20 minutes of messing with it they finally put the first train in some sort of maintenance mode to get it slowly pulled part way up the lift hill so they could get us into the station. There were about a dozen higher ups and maintenance people by the time the 4 of us were able to get off. I have to say even though we have done many many events and left parks very late I think that was the most deserted theme park I have every walked through on our way out. The jungle theme is much more intense when it is dark and the jungle drum music is blaring and there is no one else around, lol! 

[boldikus]

Agreed about KD being freaky at night when its empty. We've walked from I305 to the entrance at 12-12:30 at night after marathoning I305 in the dark during Haunt and between the music and the dark, empty, fog-filled paths I don't know if I've been nearly as creeped out at any other time in a park.

[Invertalon]

Does anyone actually really like S&S freespins? Like, genuinely? 

I've been on both Joker and Batman (SFFT) now and I told myself I won't ever step foot on another. Incredibly uncomfortable, horrid rides. 

Will be at Dominion in a few weeks here and will happily skip this one... Give me a boomerang/SLC any day over these things. Oof. 
 

 

[coasterbill]

I like them, but I like them in the same way that I like a lot of flipping flat rides. They're fun for what they are but I usually don't ride them.

[Invertalon]

I tried to approach it like that, as I do love top spins and other spinny flats... X2 is also one of my favorite rides of all time... But the mix of what these free spins do just doesn't mix poorly, haha. I'd probably prefer if they didn't have the 'kicker' magnetics to initiate spin and just did their own thing, or had a smoother control rail like traditional 4D's. 

I thought maybe I had a bad ride on Joker, so thought I would at least give it another go on Batman the other day, but that just sealed the deal for me. 

[KBrylczyk]

1 hour ago, Invertalon said:

Does anyone actually really like S&S freespins? Like, genuinely?

Yes, I absolutely love them.  They're friggin wacky and I hit the brakes with an ear-to-ear grin every time.  No ride has ever made me scream with terror and laughter as much as a freespin.

[dankeykang]

I'm not the biggest fan of the free spins either, but lately I've been taking the approach of stapling myself to oblivion on them to prevent sliding around, and it's actually helped.  Tumbili was an enjoyable ride.  

[njcoasterguy34]

3 hours ago, Invertalon said:

Does anyone actually really like S&S freespins? Like, genuinely? 

I've been on both Joker and Batman (SFFT) now and I told myself I won't ever step foot on another. Incredibly uncomfortable, horrid rides. 

Will be at Dominion in a few weeks here and will happily skip this one... Give me a boomerang/SLC any day over these things. Oof. 
 

 

I rode Joker at Six Flags Great Adventure once, and that was one too many times for me.  I go on rides to have fun, not to be scared out of my wits.  I didn't find it uncomfortable, though.  I just found it to be too unpredictable.

[coneyislandchris]

On 4/4/2022 at 12:39 PM, teacherkim said:

We were at the park last Saturday. We actually didn't get there until about 3 (you can read about why on the BGW thread if you care) and they were only open until 8, but since we had been there before and didn't need to get on every little thing and had FL+ we were able to do everything we wanted. It was not as busy as I would have thought it to be for a Saturday but it did close kind of early and it was a pretty chilly, breezy day. 

I thought the jungle retheme where Tumbili is was fairly nice looking, my son kind of thought it "eh". He rode Tumbili, it's too much flipping for me. He did say that it flipped way more than any other free spin he had been on. Racer only had the blue train going anytime we were near it, Dominator was dead most of the time we were there and of course water rides weren't open for the season yet. 

My son and I ended up visiting KD on Sunday! It also ended up being pretty dead during the four hours we were there (11 to 3). Fast Lane was not only not necessary, it would have been a total waste of a purchase. With the exception of Twisted Timbers and Tumbili, we were able to get on every ride on our list as either a walk-on or a station wait.

At opening, we power walked over to Tumbili to get it out of the way before the lines got too long. Apparently this only has two trains on the track, which was a little surprising to see. I absolutely agree that Tumbili flipped a TON. I've been on the similar free spins at Great Adventure, New England, Discovery Kingdom, and the Texas parks, and the only one that came close to this was the one at Fiesta Texas. And this was more insane than that! After getting some hangtime on the first dip after the lift, we did four full rotations in a row going over the first major drop, then got another two full rotations in the opposite direction on the second major drop. It legitimately felt like we were on a Zipper on rails. It's easily the most intense one of its kind that I've been on to date, and was a real shock to the system considering I went in with zero expectations. Definitely works as a good replacement for the Crypt... now here's hoping they can get a replacement as equally good for the missing coaster across the way.

Once we got off, we hit up Reptilian (first public train of the day). Love the repaint! Clearly though there must have been a sale on orange paint this past offseason, between Avalanche and their Scrambler getting the orange coat, not to mention all the random rides throughout the Six Flags chain that have gotten orangeified. Afterwards, we made our way over to Flight of Fear to be greeted with a completely empty queue. We got a front row ride with a station wait, then a reride in the back row with no wait at all. 305 was up next, and I guess I must be getting soft in my old age because I'm finally starting to grey out a little on that pull out from the first drop. Still, two rides in a row here as well! Love this beast of a coaster.

Afterwards, we knocked out Anaconda and Backlot Stunt Coaster in short order. My son wanted to do Delirium as he hadn't been on a pendulum ride in some time, and we got on with no wait, only for the ride to shut down due to another rider accidentally dropping their crutch over the edge of the platform. They had to completely turn it off and wait for maintenance to retrieve it, otherwise it could have been crushed when the platform lowered. Rather than waiting around for that, we ended up heading over to Racer (1 train wait, only 1 train on the blue side running). Not a ton of airtime on it this year, might have just been because it was still relatively early in the day and early in the season. Hopefully when we visit again in the summer it'll be back to its usual self.

Next on our list was Twisted Timbers, the only ride to have a significant line all day. When we entered through the queue, the line was back to where the wrecked pickup truck is, and it was pretty slow moving. Couldn't help but notice that most of the trains being sent out had between 3-5 empty rows in them. Unfortunately after about 10 minutes of waiting in line, it started moving quick... and that was because the ride went down for maintenance and they were clearing out the line. Instead, we took a short detour over to the antique cars, then back to Delirium which was up and running once more. While on Delirium, we saw that TT sent a test train through the course, so after we got off the pendulum, we hightailed it back to find a completely empty queue. This was also our first experience with the new locker system, and suddenly, it made so much sense as to why most of these trains were being sent out with empty rows. Only two of the three kiosks were active, and the process to rent out a free locker took about 60 seconds. I can definitely see this being a huge bottleneck on busier days.

We did one lap on TT before realizing we were running up against our self-imposed time limit of leaving by 3 PM. We were trying to make it back home to northern NJ by dinnertime. (Well, 95 had other plans.) And so, we decided to head back towards the front of the park and make Dominator our final ride before hitting the road. Still our favorite floorless! Overall, even though we were only at the park for 4 hours in all, it was 4 hours well spent. Great to get back to one of my favorite parks for the first time this year and hope to be back down many more times over the next few months!

[boldikus]

The trick with free-spins is to staple yourself so you can't move around too much. Once I started doing that I began to enjoy them. I don't love them but I'll ride them if I'm in the mood. The good thing about them is they're all really short. The missus, who is iffy on a lot of rides/coasters absolutely loves them. The one @ SFNE is my favorite so far, it just ran well and I was in the mood for it when we rode. I generally skip ours @ GreatAdv, for the same reason I skip Superman most of the time - we just have better coasters. 

[Invertalon]

Well, for what it's worth, I was stapled both times. My experience with the ride also had nothing to do with me sliding around a seat or anything, it's being spun in random positions and just the awkwardness of the entire thing. I don't mind this on a top spin or something controlled like X2, but the nature of what these freespins do with the magnetics to 'kick things off' isn't for me. The train/restraint itself is fine, no issue there with comfort. It's just what the thing does that sucks. 

[AmyUD06]

3 minutes ago, Invertalon said:

Well, for what it's worth, I was stapled both times. My experience with the ride also had nothing to do with me sliding around a seat or anything, it's being spun in random positions and just the awkwardness of the entire thing. I don't mind this on a top spin or something controlled like X2, but the nature of what these freespins do with the magnetics to 'kick things off' isn't for me. The train/restraint itself is fine, no issue there with comfort. It's just what the thing does that sucks. 

I thoroughly agree.

[bert425]

22 hours ago, boldikus said:

The trick with free-spins is to staple yourself so you can't move around too much. Once I started doing that I began to enjoy them. I don't love them but I'll ride them if I'm in the mood. The good thing about them is they're all really short. The missus, who is iffy on a lot of rides/coasters absolutely loves them. The one @ SFNE is my favorite so far, it just ran well and I was in the mood for it when we rode. I generally skip ours @ GreatAdv, for the same reason I skip Superman most of the time - we just have better coasters. 

Yup. . I not only Staple myself, but then I push back on the restraints to force myself into the seat during the ride.

the "trick" is to flip WITH the seats, instead of being batted around like a ragdoll in the dryer.

[KBrylczyk]

13 minutes ago, bert425 said:

the "trick" is to flip WITH the seats, instead of being batted around like a ragdoll in the dryer.

Don't kink shame.

[VegasBaby]

We are headed to the park on Sunday and it looks a little chilly (high of 58), so I'm guessing it won't be too crowded.  I was planning on purchasing FL+, but I certainly don't want to spend the money if it's not needed.  My thought is to hit up Tumbili/Reptilian first then head to Twisted Timbers.  Are there any other rides that tend to get long lines that we should hit next?  Also, any food recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

[bert425]

1 hour ago, KBrylczyk said:

Don't kink shame.

 

[coneyislandchris]

15 minutes ago, VegasBaby said:

We are headed to the park on Sunday and it looks a little chilly (high of 58), so I'm guessing it won't be too crowded.  I was planning on purchasing FL+, but I certainly don't want to spend the money if it's not needed.  My thought is to hit up Tumbili/Reptilian first then head to Twisted Timbers.  Are there any other rides that tend to get long lines that we should hit next?

I mean, honestly, if this upcoming Sunday is anything like last Sunday was, you'll be good to go without FL+. Take a look on the previous page for my trip report from this past Sunday, and that was on a day where it was in the high 60's. You'll be fine.

[teacherkim]

47 minutes ago, VegasBaby said:

We are headed to the park on Sunday and it looks a little chilly (high of 58), so I'm guessing it won't be too crowded.  I was planning on purchasing FL+, but I certainly don't want to spend the money if it's not needed.  My thought is to hit up Tumbili/Reptilian first then head to Twisted Timbers.  Are there any other rides that tend to get long lines that we should hit next?  Also, any food recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

I'm one that often just buys it ahead of time figuring I will get my use out of it. BUT it was not bad at all last weekend and I definitely think you can wait until you get to the park and decide then, they won't sell out. The only thing that had any sort of line more than 15 min was Tumbili and you can't use FL+ on that anyway, plus the water rides are not yet open for the season.

[VegasBaby]

9 minutes ago, teacherkim said:

I'm one that often just buys it ahead of time figuring I will get my use out of it. BUT it was not bad at all last weekend and I definitely think you can wait until you get to the park and decide then, they won't sell out. The only thing that had any sort of line more than 15 min was Tumbili and you can't use FL+ on that anyway, plus the water rides are not yet open for the season.

Thanks for the advice, I will hold off purchasing it and just see how the lines are.  I think we'll get there early and hit Tumbili first.