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Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread


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^ Forget about June, when I was there May 25th Mantis was PLASTERED with bugs, lol.

 

When I went in June last year, my on-ride DVD on Raptor is just 2 minutes of me getting hit by bugs!

POST IT!!!

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Just to stoke the flames a bit...

Unconfirmed reports on kdfansite have at least some of the trims on the first drop being removed.

Why won't people just listen to me when I say this ride is still being tweaked and to expect to see changes all summer long?

 

Of course you're going to see some trims removed...and probably put back on...and then removed again...and then placed in a diferent area...and then removed again.

 

I feel really bad for KD right now. It's like TMZ following around a famous celebrity and reporting to the world every time they fart.

 

--Robb

 

TPR..TMZ.. whats the difference?

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^ Forget about June, when I was there May 25th Mantis was PLASTERED with bugs, lol.

 

When I went in June last year, my on-ride DVD on Raptor is just 2 minutes of me getting hit by bugs!

 

Addition: My boyfriend got one of those Mayflies behind his eye on Raptor at 1230am last year at CoasterMania. Pleasant, no?

 

Also, I love Intimidator305.

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Many may call this tweaking, but I'm choosing to look at the fact that the ride was tearing through wheels and posing a potential safety hazard to guests to the point of a nearly 20mph slowdown as a major boo-boo on the manufacturer's part. CF obviously ordered a 94mph giga, and Intamin may or may not have promised them that. Now KD has a (supposedly) 79mph giga that is still giving guests issues with sustained high g.

 

Just something to think about: MF covers 13 acres, I305 - only 5

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Many may call this tweaking, but I'm choosing to look at the fact that the ride was tearing through wheels and posing a potential safety hazard to guests to the point of a nearly 20mph slowdown as a major boo-boo on the manufacturer's part. CF obviously ordered a 94mph giga, and Intamin may or may not have promised them that. Now KD has a (supposedly) 79mph giga that is still giving guests issues with sustained high g.

 

Just something to think about: MF covers 13 acres, I305 - only 5

 

True, but...

 

I'm not (and I doubt anywhere here on this forum is) fully informed and armed with all the necessary information to fairly play the blame game. All we have are a few pieces to a large, likely complex, puzzle, and without a full knowledge of the situation, blaming Intamin or KD or CF is probably an unfair assumption.

 

I305 may have been exerting unreasonably high g forces for a sustained period. It may have been chucking wheels. And it may cover only 5 acres where MF covers nearly 3 times that... but it's likely that it was CF/KD who asked to for a 300+ ft, 90+mph giga coaster crammed into a relatively tiny 5 acre space. A coaster of that height, carrying those relative speeds, placed on a plot of land so small was always going to be a very different monster than MF. People are looking too much into the term "giga" as if coaster terms really mean that much. I305, despite being an Intamin giga, is probably as different from MF as any other random coaster.

 

If Cedar Fair and Kings Dominion wanted a 300ft tall coaster, and wanted it in a very specific location, held within very specific barriers, the challenges that result from such a design/build should rest equally on the shoulders of the customer and the manufacturer.

 

Without all the information and full tell-alls by the parties involved, its unfair to point the finger at any one specific party.

 

Besides, the blame game doesn't accomplish much. What's most important is that this coaster is fixed and tweaked and rounded into shape so that it is safe for all guests, isn't a maintenance bankruptcy waiting to happen, and provides an enjoyable ride. Pretty sure that's what a roller coaster is supposed to provide, and how it gets to that point isn't as important as it getting to that point.

Edited by Tchu
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Besides, the blame game doesn't accomplish much. What's most important is that this coaster is fixed and tweaked and rounded into shape so that it is safe for all guests, isn't a maintenance bankruptcy waiting to happen, and provides and enjoyable ride. Pretty sure that's what a roller coaster is supposed to provide, and how it gets to that point isn't as important is it getting to that point.

 

This is so important. I've told countless people who have heard about the trims and were worried that the ride would stink that the ride is more re-rideable and reliable. I'm relieved that the ride isn't another Hypersonic!

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Without all the information and full tell-alls by the parties involved, its unfair to point the finger at any one specific party.

 

 

But that's what message boards are for: arguing about topics where most of the people only know half (if that much) of the real facts.

 

I do agree though this is getting old, and at this point none of us is going to influence any change in the coaster so we might as well move on.

 

I find it strange though (not really) that most people in here are complaining about the ride, and have yet to ride or re-ride the coaster. I got to ride it before the trim install, and I'll just hold off any more thoughts until the time when I can actually ride it again.

 

And switching gears: I personally thought Grizzly was running FANTASTIC a few weeks back when I visited the park. I'm amazed that the park can keep this beauty running like they do, but Hurler can never be fixed.

 

^^I've heard that 305 after dusk is not a fun ride...

 

I don't know why they would say that, unless they can't anticipate the twists in the dark. I rather enjoyed my one dark ride.

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They are actually cooling the wheels down, they installed little mist nozzles lined up on the wheels when it is in the station and brake run.

 

Now lets see if they take the trims off to see if it works (yea right!)

 

JEFF

 

If this method is proving to work then I can see them getting rid of the trims, because they really didn't solve any of the other problems it causes, most notably the extreme forces of the pull-out/turn.

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I'm sure throughout the summer you're going to see a lot of interesting changes and tweaks on the ride, which may or may not include trims being removed, changes around, added again, removed again, etc, etc.

 

I think it's most important to note that no park wants to put trims on a ride "for no reason at all."

 

I would have to think that whatever the final configuration of the ride ends up being, it will be a good compromise between the performance of the ride and what it takes to maintain the ride.

 

--Robb

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Update on I305 Improvements...

 

The ride now is using water sprayers to "cool" the track down. At least that's what I think their doing.

 

I got sprinkled when I rode a few times today.

 

 

It's probably for the wheels. Titan at SFOT (which has also shredded quite a few wheels in its day) has those installed on the brake run to spray the wheels of every train that comes in.

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I've heard yet another unconfirmed report that some of the trims have been moved around or possibly removed?

 

Anyone know anything about this?

Ive heard the same thing... I think it might be just people getting used to the trims and thinking they were moved but I wouldnt be suprised if some were moved.

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Does this create any possibility of the wheels sliding on the track. If so, what would happen then?

 

the coaster may actually be able to pick up a little speed, a ride op once announced that our train clocked 83mph in a slight drizzle on Diamondback at KI

 

this wheel spraying method is really cool IMO, unfortunately they don't change the forces on the riders

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I rode Intimidator 305 for the first time with the trims on the first drop today. Keep in mind that even though KD is my home park, I am in no way partial to it.

 

When Intimidator 305 opened and I rode it for the first time I knew that KD had something good, something that was possibly the best in the world. Despite having the trim on the final airtime hill, everything was perfect. All the very sharp transitions were perfectly engineered so that it didn't hurt your neck/head, the airtime was abundant, and the forces were just amazing. So then the ride melts wheels... who would have guessed it, it travels at 94 mph around sharp turns. Common sense, correct? It happened with Millennium Force and that has very spread out elements. Trims are installed and yadda yadda. There are also little hoses in the station and on the brake run that don't really do much except wash the cars and the riders, they ain't exactly aimed at the wheels.

 

So Intimidator 305 was running one train and I figured hey, how much of a difference could a couple mph make? Wrong wrong wrong. There was absolutely no airtime. Whatsoever. Over any hill. Not to mention the fact that it felt like a holding brake in the manner that it was dragging so hard that it forced you into the restraint. After that the turn had just as much force as a B&M Mega would at the bottom of a hill. The 150' airtime hill had no airtime at all, not even floater. It hardly rolled over the top. After that my favorite element was coming up, the thing in which you exit the banking over a small hill and go back into the same direction of banking. There was mild floater instead of airtime mixed with laterals. The rest was just so un-intense and un-twisty. The 75' hill had the no airtime as it had with the trim on it. The final banking change still whacks your neck pretty badly.

 

So yeah, it's still a good ride... but a B&M Mega would have similar intensity and level of awesomeness. It's positioned wrongly to give the "OMG 305 FEET IN THE AIR!" feeling. The forces only cause blackouts now due to the fact that they're sustained, not because it's that forceful. I still like the ride. I still like Intimidator 305. I just no longer love it as much as I originally did and it's just not the awesome world-class coaster it was is my point.

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