Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread

[tndank]

Grizzly is supposed to open this weekend. Employees who have ridden it say it's great! 

[redfoot12]

I plan to go to the park this evening to give it a whirl. Pretty stoked as Grizzly was my favorite coaster growing up and remained my favorite wooden until I put in the effort to visit more parks outside of Virginia.

[SharkTums]

^Let us know how it is!

[redfoot12]

I haven't ridden Grizzly since 2018 and I can't remember if that's because it was too brutal to ride or just too much of a shadow of its former self to give it any regard. Most likely... both. So tonight I made the trip to see what the Gravity Group did to my childhood favorite coaster and I think their mission to "restore the roar" was largely a success. It probably hasn't run this well in 25-30 years. To me, the first drop was always kind of nerfed a bit because the subsequent ascending hill up to the turnaround sapped all that speed. It still largely does that but with reprofiling  you really feel that first drop and get some good airtime going over it. The rest of the ride just runs great. Smooth, forceful journey in the woods. Although not quite the journey it was during Grizzly's first decade, thank you very little, Hurler. You can definitely notice the parts Gravity Group didn't give attention to. But you know what? I'm fine with that. I don't want my Grizzly TOO smooth. Also of note, a friend texted me after I left for the night  that one train seems to run a little more sluggish through the course. My initial couple of rides were slightly underwhelming and I left to go ride TT and I305. When I came back my rides all had a lot more zip. I did not pay attention to the color of the trains as I boarded each ride because I'm not a psychopath. Also, it was overcast and rainy with temperatures in the mid 60s when I rode. Would love to try Grizzly again on a hot summer night. And that might be the biggest takeaway. Grizzly is relevant again. I  haven't ridden Dominator or Flight of Fear in awhile, but Grizzly now makes a strong case for third best coaster in the park.

Slight touch of emotion tonight as I first rode Grizzly with my dad back in 1983 when I was 6 or 7. As mentioned in my post in the Universal Orlando thread, he passed away back in November.

 

[AmyUD06]

@redfoot12That's great to hear about Grizzly.  Though I don't plan on getting back to KD until Haunt (I actually skipped a CF pass this year.  *gasp!*), I hope it keeps the newness until then.

1 hour ago, redfoot12 said:

I haven't ridden Dominator or Flight of Fear in awhile, but Grizzly now makes a strong case for third best coaster in the park.

Avalanche/Reptilian would like to have a word.

[coasterbill]

We rode Grizzly yesterday. The first half is smooth, the second half is not. The ride is fine. A lot of slower sections weren't touched and they shuffled like crazy but it didn't matter because we weren't going fast enough that it was uncomfortable. I feel like a lot of parks wouldn't have bothered to publicize the fact that they kind-of re-tracked half of a ride. I like that they did it, but people should go in with tempered expectations for how extensive this refurbishment was.

[Zand]

Earlier in the summer I was supposed to take a Missouri trip which I ended up having to cancel due to conflicts that came up at work. I ended up with this week off and wouldn't have had time to do the Missouri jaunt, so I decided to hit up the VA parks for the first time in 4 years. Main reason is obviously Pantheon but Kings Dominion also exists and I really wanted to get back to one of my favorite Intamins. 

After finally arriving in the Richmond area at about 3am due to a late departure and 95 still managing to have a few messes at midnight, I slept late this morning and headed over to the park around 12:30. Parked nice and close as the park was pretty empty despite what most Virginians would consider a comfortable day this time of year in the upper 80s with low humidity.

My first order of business was Twisted Timbers. Like I said, I was here 4 years ago and somehow barely remember my Twisted Timbers rides. Usually that means the ride was very mediocre and unremarkable. But after my rides today, I have no idea why I'm not remembering my rides in 2019. This is truly an elite level RMC. The first drop in back is an amazing zero-G sensation, the camelbacks are El Toro level good, and the rest of the ride is totally relentless with airtime galore and a few other fun moments. I actually think this is better than Iron Gwazi and it rivals Arie Force One. The station wait that it had all day made things even better.

I got the Tumbili credit but what a waste of time. I didn't get a single flip. The line crawls because it has half the capacity of the Six Flags free spins and I just can't believe what I consider a mid-upper tier Cedar Fair park would put one of these in, especially a half sized model. 

Also wanted to touch upon Grizzly. I rode it back in 08 and thought it was a pile of sh*t and in 2019 I couldn't find the entrance and didn't bother asking because I remembered it being so bad. I was eager to get back on it today with the new retrack, and damn did they do a nice job with it! First drop is great, then that weird turnaround is still insanely slow but the rest of the layout is full of airtime and some good laterals. Even the second half that they didn't retrack...it definitely has some texture to it but I'd hardly consider it rough. This is a very good wooden coaster right now and definitely my 3rd favorite in the park. Would love to ride it at night.

My former 3rd favorite in the park, Dominator, is starting to get a little brutal in a couple spots. The transition from the first drop into the loop provided a nice clock to the head as did a few spots in the second half. It's still by far my favorite floorless as I love the layout with the amazing first drop, fast pace, drop off the mid course, etc. But floorlesses in general just haven't been aging well IMO. Most of them have become skipable to me. This one is worth riding for sure but its glory days are definitely behind it.

I-305 still kicks all kinds of ass. I understand that in the long run as far as return on investment for the park, the coaster was a major mistake but I'm just so glad it got built before they figured all that out lol.

Also hit Apple Zapple, Racer, FOF, Reptilian, Woodstock, the Flume, and Windseeker during the course of the day. Major closures that I saw were Drop Tower, the Eiffel Tower, and the Flyers. I think everything else was running.

I forgot how much I love this park overall. One of the best one two punches in the country but aside from those it still has a great supporting cast and it's just a really beautiful park. I need to start getting down here more often.

Pantheon tomorrow. Oh and Apollos, Alpie, Griffon, etc too. You locals have it rough with these two parks I tell ya haha.

[Ed Farmer]

Checking to see if anyone has any recommendations on a hotel that is fairly central to the airport, KD, and BGW. A buddy and I are flying out for Labor Day weekend, and were hoping to not have to rent a car, and Uber around instead. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[cfc]

KD and BGW are a little over an hour's drive apart. The Richmond airport is pretty much halfway between them, so maybe one of the hotels near the airport is your best bet.

[Zand]

49 miles from the airport to BGW and 31 miles to KD. I feel like round tripping the parks with Uber would be more expensive than renting a car (although who knows how much a car will cost on Labor Day Weekend...so maybe not).

I'm staying in Glen Allen...it's closer to KD but I mainly chose it because there's a million restaurants in the area. Also because there are both a Wawa and a Sheetz within a mile of the hotel

[cfc]

I think you'd be better off renting a car, but, yeah, Labor Day might be pricey. But I imagine Ubers are more expensive over a holiday weekend, too.

[MartinU]

I made my first trip to Kings Dominion last Friday (Labor Day weekend). I knew what rides I was looking forward to riding, but little about the park other than that. I had been to Kings Island, so I knew there would be similarities between the two. I'm also used to going to Cedar Point, so all of these played into my impression of the park. 
 

One theme I noticed that plays into the whole day, KD expects their guests to be smart. At CP there are people everywhere reminding and telling guests what they can and cannot do. Partly it's crowd control, partly just dumb guests being dumb. I'll explain more later...

Starters: I arrived in the parking lot around 10:30am (Park opened at 11). The parking lot expects you to understand how to park your car. Meaning, there were no attendants in vests and whistles telling me where to go. This was surprise #1 of the day. I got a close parking spot and walked toward the entrance. There were no signs, and because of all the TREES  I could not see the entrance. "Where could it be? Oh, maybe toward the giant Eiffel Tower?!" Again, expecting their guests to be smart.

I got in line for the park to open. They have really nice TVs with info on them above each line. I thought these were a nice way to communicate to the guests. 

Once inside the beautiful park entrance with the fountains, music and TREES, I walked over to Dominator. It surprised me that no one (maybe a few I didn't see) ran. Surprise #2

My biggest surprise and at times irritation was the lack of staff running the rides. They may have had 2 checking restraints and on some only 1 staffer was checking restraints. It was not uncommon for a one train to cycle and be waiting before #2 would dispatch. One dispatch took 4 minutes as the guy on the platform leisurely checked restraints, gates and slowly walked to give the thumbs up. 
I only ever saw 3 rides Twisted Timbers, Flight of Fear and Intimidator with staff at the front of the queue. Mostly making sure no loose articles went through. But on multiple occasions I saw kids sit in the coaster, and then asked to stand up and get measured to make sure they were tall enough. Yes, this slowed things down, but they usually gave the child a wristband for their height preventing this from happening again. Also, no station sorters. Once you got to the station it was crowd in as much as you want, and lots of open seats. I saw one TT train go with 6 empty single rider seats.  THIS, This paragraph is my only complaints about the park.

(Again, guests need to be smart and know how tall they need to be, what they can/cannot bring, and what seats to use. There was also almost never a "schpiel" about 'welcome oncoming riders...") 

Even though it was a holiday weekend, the park never seemed busy. Most roller coasters I was able to enter the station before I had to wait (Racer, Dominator and Flight of Fear are the only exceptions). The longest wait of the day was for the log ride, about 20 minutes. 

I love how easy the park is to get around, and that rides are clustered together. You can enter and exit 2-4 rides all within a close distance. I was talking to one couple and they asked me about Cedar Point, I told them great rides, but you have to walk a lot. 

Grizzly was so fun! I sat in the back and you float the whole way down the first drop! It's smooth where it needs to be and bumpy fun in places. Such a fun woodie. (I also found it funny that the exit line is a longer walk than the entrance. Anyone know of other rides where this is the case).  

White Water Canyon is probably the best river raft ride I've been on (Granted, I've only ridden like 6). It was fast, long, and the smaller 6-person raft allows for more rocking and swaying. It also surprised me they dispatched 3 rafts at one! If you've not ridden it, DO! There are no waterfalls to soak you, just good splashes from the rapids. 

TT was excellent! I love the 3 airtime hills and the final roll. 

Intimidator was POWERFUL. That first turn, I know the stories and the redesign of it. I grayed out, and my last time riding it (#5) I blacked out and came back coming down the second hill. I knew that was enough for one day 

Dominator rocks. I rode it years ago when it was at Six Flags Ohio/Geauga Lake. Still runs great. Great layout and pretty smooth (just a little rattle here and there). 

My last surprise... NO DOWNTIME! Not once throughout the entire day did I experience down time on any ride. Every ride I went to or rode was open and running. Not a single breakdown. Going to Cedar Point, that's just part of the experience "Do we wait it out or leave." Great job maintenance crews!

I loved going to KD and cannot wait to come back for Haunts or Christmas events later this year. It's a beautiful park, lots of trees and character throughout. 
I guess, Virginia is for lovers and those who can appreciate a park at a more leisurely pace.

[prozach626]

On 9/6/2023 at 8:47 AM, MartinU said:

Partly it's crowd control, partly just dumb guests being dumb.

There's nothing I like more than making myself feel better than other people who are trying to have a leisurely care-free time at a theme park. I personally try to take it as serious as possible. Since I have less stressors in my life, I wish those who worked hard all week caring for families would be way more diligent. Keeping kids in line and having multiple different things going on at once isn't an excuse for making an occasional mistake. People are fucking dumb.

If everyone went to theme parks all the time, instead of begrudgingly doing it every couple years to avoid the huge pain in the ass with kids, life would be better for me.

[MartinU]

Planning on making our first Winterfest trip. I've not seen many reviews. How crazy are the crowds for this event? Any tips for those who have gone?

The pictures look great that KD has put out. I love Christmas lights, and would love to get on a few coasters. I cannot wait to see it all up close. 

[AmyUD06]

I went on opening night; the place was dead.  My longest wait of the night was 5 and a half trains for the back row of Twisted Timbers.  I should have my TR from it up soon.

Be sure to check the weather forecast before going, since they don't run Twisted Timbers or Dominator (the only two thrill coasters open for Winterfest) if it drops below 40 degrees.

[Zand]

On 11/21/2023 at 12:33 PM, AmyUD06 said:

Be sure to check the weather forecast before going, since they don't run Twisted Timbers or Dominator (the only two thrill coasters open for Winterfest) if it drops below 40 degrees.

Lol.

I guess I better enjoy the crap out of Nitro on New Year's Day this year because if this is what Cedar Fair is bringing to the Six Flags parks, then it will probably be the final time we can do that. SFNE might as well just shut down in mid October.

[AmyUD06]

1 hour ago, Zand said:

Lol.

I guess I better enjoy the crap out of Nitro on New Year's Day this year because if this is what Cedar Fair is bringing to the Six Flags parks, then it will probably be the final time we can do that. SFNE might as well just shut down in mid October.

I'll trade freezing coaster rides for the everything else that CF does better than Six Flags any day of the week.  There's more to parks than coasters.

[DannySixFlags]

Going here this summer. Can't wait for I305; I'm sure it's gonna be my #1.

[prozach626]

If you like really intense rides, you'll love I305. It was a little much for more than a few rides for us, but we're in the minority.

Enjoy.

[BitterOldHag]

Just had a “premium” time at Kings Dominion today.  I sincerely hope the Six Flags era isn’t starting early. 

Took me 9.5 hours to get to Doswell from my place near Cleveland Hopkins airport. The number of crashes on I-495 and 95 is just mind boggling.  Now I have not been to KD since 2009, and I have been visiting Kings Island numerous times a year since 2020, so for me, it was like walking into Bizarro Kings Island.  I will say that KD’s International Street is really quite nice.  The extra trees add a nice touch, and the fountain doesn’t seem to be as long, so it is much easier to traverse.  I Got my FL wristband from a friendly girl at one of the gift shops inside the front gate, which saved me from having to wait in a rather large line at the “Upgrades” counter and headed to get the 3 credits I didn’t yet have.  

First stop, Twisted Timber (credit #277).  Posted wait time for standby was 75+ minutes. Unfortunately the same prison-style shakedown in effect at Cedar Point’s Steel Vengeance is in effect here too.  Also rather unfortunate- single train operations. My FastLane wait was 30 minutes, so I can only imagine what the standby wait was.  My opinion of this ride is that it is completely insane. The first drop inversion was crazy and the constant airtime and quick direction changes made me completely forget this was once a Hurler. Good ride, and I was hoping to ride it again, but the line never seemed to die down. 

The main reason I wanted to visit KD was for Project 305 (credit #278), the lone North American giga I hadn’t yet ridden. One train ops here and about 4-5 minute dispatches resulted in a 30 minute FL wait here also.  I was excited as the train climbed the 305 foot lift, and I was preparing for the much discussed grey out turn.  And yes, it did indeed cause quite the vision blur!  The rest of the ride is basically just high-speed s-turns, which is cool and very Maverick-esque, but as a whole, the ride just didn’t impress me. I’ll take Fury, Millennium Force and even Orion (I know, “not a giga” lol) over this any day.

Since I had to pass Flight of Fear on the way out of P-305, and the posted wait time here was 75+ minutes, so I asked if it too was one train operations.  the guy at the entrance said “no, two!”.  So I figured I’d give it a whirl.  25 minutes later, I was boarding my train. The family behind me said they had waited 90 minutes.  Ugh!  Anyhow, I think this FoF is better than Kings Island’s as the train doesn’t sit on the mid-course for 5 seconds, and it seemed overall darker inside the spaghetti bowl, creating a very disorienting ride experience. Good stuff, but someone needs to turn the volume of the music and sound effects down a bit.  It was truly ear splitting!

My final new credit was Tumbili (#279), my first S&S free spin. Two cars were being used (not sure if there are any more) and the FastLane line was only 10 minutes, so that was a plus. I actually kind of liked this ride. I got 2 full (and very forceful) flips and while the ride is insanely short, it’s smooth and it made me smile after the park was kind of a let down thus far.  

Reptilian was closed when I first arrived, but it was open after I exited Tumbili.  The app said a 60 minute wait, and the FastLane line looked like there was only about 20 people in it so I got in line.  40 minutes later, I was climbing aboard. One train ops and the limited capacity made this a slow moving line.  Too bad because I absolutely love this ride. Why didn’t we get more Mack bobsleds in the States?  Fast, smooth, and the second half feels like you’re going to slide ride out of the trough.  Great ride, but that line… the standby line stretched way back to near Tumbili’s entrance. Yikes!

The singing mushrooms never sang. Boo!

I wrapped up my visit with a one cycle (FastLane) wait for Flying Eagles, which run VERY fast, and a walk-on FastLane ride on the Blue Ridge Tollway antique cars. This had to be the worst antique car ride I have ever done as the steering wheel did absolutely nothing. I bounced off the rail through the whole course. 

Other things that sort of irked me: Racer 75 had one train and one track operating. Grizzly’s line said <15 minutes on the app. The line stretched all the way to the gift shop with, yes, one train.  Don’t think that was 15 minutes! Delirium, Anaconda, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Drop Tower, Windseeker, and the Log Flume were all down. There were no “merger people” for FastLane and ant Tumbili annd Reptilian, no one was even checking.  And lines for food were just ridiculous.  Yes, I know it was Good Friday and the weather was quite nice. But this was a pretty bad day all around and I sincerely felt sorry for people without FastLane as they probably didn’t get on much at all.  

So that’s my review of Kings Dominion. Doubt I’ll be heading back again anytime soon… and that’s a shame because it is a nice park that has a lot of good things going for it. Thanks for reading…
 

 

[haydn12]

We got lucky a couple years ago when we went in late May.   The weather was threatening and so the park was empty.  We rode I-305 3 times for early ride time and then it went down.   We were able to get 5 rides on Twisted Timbers.   That ride can get brutal with that many rides! 

We were surprised about Tumbili and really enjoyed it. 

We did have a thunderstorm in the middle of the day which lasted for almost 2 hours.  We spent that time eating a sit down lunch. 

We enjoyed the park quite a bit especially since the waits were no more than 5 minutes all day.

[MarkyBee]

On 3/29/2024 at 9:09 PM, BitterOldHag said:

Just had a “premium” time at Kings Dominion today.  I sincerely hope the Six Flags era isn’t starting early. 

Took me 9.5 hours to get to Doswell from my place near Cleveland Hopkins airport. The number of crashes on I-495 and 95 is just mind boggling.  Now I have not been to KD since 2009, and I have been visiting Kings Island numerous times a year since 2020, so for me, it was like walking into Bizarro Kings Island.  I will say that KD’s International Street is really quite nice.  The extra trees add a nice touch, and the fountain doesn’t seem to be as long, so it is much easier to traverse.  I Got my FL wristband from a friendly girl at one of the gift shops inside the front gate, which saved me from having to wait in a rather large line at the “Upgrades” counter and headed to get the 3 credits I didn’t yet have.  

First stop, Twisted Timber (credit #277).  Posted wait time for standby was 75+ minutes. Unfortunately the same prison-style shakedown in effect at Cedar Point’s Steel Vengeance is in effect here too.  Also rather unfortunate- single train operations. My FastLane wait was 30 minutes, so I can only imagine what the standby wait was.  My opinion of this ride is that it is completely insane. The first drop inversion was crazy and the constant airtime and quick direction changes made me completely forget this was once a Hurler. Good ride, and I was hoping to ride it again, but the line never seemed to die down. 

The main reason I wanted to visit KD was for Project 305 (credit #278), the lone North American giga I hadn’t yet ridden. One train ops here and about 4-5 minute dispatches resulted in a 30 minute FL wait here also.  I was excited as the train climbed the 305 foot lift, and I was preparing for the much discussed grey out turn.  And yes, it did indeed cause quite the vision blur!  The rest of the ride is basically just high-speed s-turns, which is cool and very Maverick-esque, but as a whole, the ride just didn’t impress me. I’ll take Fury, Millennium Force and even Orion (I know, “not a giga” lol) over this any day.

Since I had to pass Flight of Fear on the way out of P-305, and the posted wait time here was 75+ minutes, so I asked if it too was one train operations.  the guy at the entrance said “no, two!”.  So I figured I’d give it a whirl.  25 minutes later, I was boarding my train. The family behind me said they had waited 90 minutes.  Ugh!  Anyhow, I think this FoF is better than Kings Island’s as the train doesn’t sit on the mid-course for 5 seconds, and it seemed overall darker inside the spaghetti bowl, creating a very disorienting ride experience. Good stuff, but someone needs to turn the volume of the music and sound effects down a bit.  It was truly ear splitting!

My final new credit was Tumbili (#279), my first S&S free spin. Two cars were being used (not sure if there are any more) and the FastLane line was only 10 minutes, so that was a plus. I actually kind of liked this ride. I got 2 full (and very forceful) flips and while the ride is insanely short, it’s smooth and it made me smile after the park was kind of a let down thus far.  

Reptilian was closed when I first arrived, but it was open after I exited Tumbili.  The app said a 60 minute wait, and the FastLane line looked like there was only about 20 people in it so I got in line.  40 minutes later, I was climbing aboard. One train ops and the limited capacity made this a slow moving line.  Too bad because I absolutely love this ride. Why didn’t we get more Mack bobsleds in the States?  Fast, smooth, and the second half feels like you’re going to slide ride out of the trough.  Great ride, but that line… the standby line stretched way back to near Tumbili’s entrance. Yikes!

The singing mushrooms never sang. Boo!

I wrapped up my visit with a one cycle (FastLane) wait for Flying Eagles, which run VERY fast, and a walk-on FastLane ride on the Blue Ridge Tollway antique cars. This had to be the worst antique car ride I have ever done as the steering wheel did absolutely nothing. I bounced off the rail through the whole course. 

Other things that sort of irked me: Racer 75 had one train and one track operating. Grizzly’s line said <15 minutes on the app. The line stretched all the way to the gift shop with, yes, one train.  Don’t think that was 15 minutes! Delirium, Anaconda, Backlot Stunt Coaster, Drop Tower, Windseeker, and the Log Flume were all down. There were no “merger people” for FastLane and ant Tumbili annd Reptilian, no one was even checking.  And lines for food were just ridiculous.  Yes, I know it was Good Friday and the weather was quite nice. But this was a pretty bad day all around and I sincerely felt sorry for people without FastLane as they probably didn’t get on much at all.  

So that’s my review of Kings Dominion. Doubt I’ll be heading back again anytime soon… and that’s a shame because it is a nice park that has a lot of good things going for it. Thanks for reading…
 

 

You don't sound all that bitter, lol. I enjoyed the write up 

[prozach626]

On 3/29/2024 at 8:09 PM, BitterOldHag said:

Just had a “premium” time at Kings Dominion today.  I sincerely hope the Six Flags era isn’t starting early. 

Be honest with yourself. Do you expect it to get any better after the merger?