Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread

[fraroc]

 

Crypt as usual was down. It did have the car attached today. I go to Kings Dominion at least twice a year and have only seen this ride operating once. I think you have a better chance spotting a unicorn than getting on this ride.

 

 

 

And every time I went, it was always open.....weird.

[TB305]

If KD is going to re-theme I305, they should call it Kilimanjaro and theme it to Africa's highest mountain. It would fit in very well with the area.

I love this idea! It still keeps an intense/intimidating name for the ride. King Cobra as others have suggested sounds like a wacky worm, not the most intense giga on the planet. Kilimanjaro, I like it!

 

Also, I've never been to KD when the crypt has been down. And I have been plenty of times!

[JonnyRCT3]

The coaster itself just happens almost too fast and the coaster completely takes control. It's totally neat and you really feel like you're at the mercy of the coaster, but it just didn't leave me with the feeling of wanting more and more and more. For ME I305 really is the definition of too much of a good thing and not enough of a balance of all of the other small things that make up a great ride. I enjoyed the coaster in itself to an extent. If I believed in top 10 lists it would probably be in it just for the experience itself, but if I had a list of rides I just wanted to ride over and over again this ride wouldn't be on it. [...] but it ended up being an empty experience. Call me crazy, but at the end of the day I ended up holding some of my favorites like Banshee and Diamondback closer to my heart than the awesome power of I305. I should have known since "the biggest and the fastest" has never really been my thing. I'm definitely more of an overall experience type of guy.

 

This is exactly how I felt. The coaster lacks in just about everything but speed. Still a great ride though.

[DonkeysWaffles]

If KD is going to re-theme I305, they should call it Kilimanjaro and theme it to Africa's highest mountain. It would fit in very well with the area.

I love this idea! It still keeps an intense/intimidating name for the ride. King Cobra as others have suggested sounds like a wacky worm, not the most intense giga on the planet. Kilimanjaro, I like it!

 

Also, I've never been to KD when the crypt has been down. And I have been plenty of times!

 

King Kobra works for a B&M hyper or invert but I agree not for an Intamin giga.

[grsupercity]

If they rename it, they should call

el mejor

[coneyislandchris]

Hey guys, here's my Kings Dominion trip report from this past Saturday. This is my first TR for this forum, and I'm not as technically inclined as a lot of the experienced posters and aficionados around here, so I apologize in advance for anything I get wrong! Hope you enjoy.

 

---

 

Saturday morning, 3:00 AM. The alarm on my phone rings. I instantly wake up, look at it, sigh "really?" to myself, and set it to snooze for an additional 30 minutes. Then try to get back to sleep. Of course, I can't at this point, so after five minutes, I roll out of bed and hop in the shower, and start getting ready to make the supposed 6 hour drive from Queens, NY to Kings Dominion in Virginia.

 

After some scrambling, my buddy Ryan and I finally head out the door at quarter past 4:00 and get ready to get fueled up. Unfortunately, the local gas station which used to be a Hess and open 24 hours with a Dunkin Donuts inside it recently switched over to a Speedway, and now is closed to anything but credit card sales until after 6:00 AM. SO MUCH FOR MY MORNING COFFEE. After stopping on one of the NJ Turnpike's rest stops to pick up some Starbucks instead, we kick it full speed down. The GPS for some reason decides to put us on a two lane highway with stop lights instead of 95 South. Avoiding construction? Perhaps. I shudder to think what that would have ended up like. Eventually, we pull in about 10 minutes before noon and park relatively close to the entrance gates, which are teeming with people. It's at this point that I start wondering if this is a normal-sized crowd for a Saturday, or if this is something worse.

 

We pass through the gates and take a look at the map. Since Volcano was supposed to have the longest lines, we head in that direction, but encounter Dominator first, and decide… well, since it's right here, might as well get in line now, right? So we walk up, get in line, and… proceed to not move more than fifty feet in ten minutes. Ryan and I look at each other, head back the way we came, and beeline it to the Dominator gift shop to partake of some Fast Lane Plus. It's at this point that the friendly sales clerk lets us know that, apparently, something called "JoyFest" is going on. Which explains the larger-than-normal mass of people crowding every single section of the park, many of them wearing their color-coordinated t-shirts identifying them as part of a church group. So our wallets feel the pain, but we've got the peace of mind that we didn't just drive for seven hours to stand in line all day.

 

We head back over to Dominator and, effectively, walk right on. We're the only people there with a Fast Lane, and we're on in the middle within three trains of people. An extremely smooth ride with next to no head banging, comfortable seats even for a couple of bigger guys such as Ryan and I (I'm the Hardy to his Laurel, if that makes sense). I haven't been on too many floorlesses, but this one gave awesome sensations of flight on a long ride, and was a definite great start to the day. I think an [8/10] is appropriate.

 

Dominator under overcast skies.

 

Next up, we head over to The Crypt. As we were waiting in line at the entrance, the signs said this was not in operation today, but we see it running and flipping people around. As we're waiting for one load to finish up, we hear a blood-curdling SCREEEEEEEECH-CRACK. They bring it down slowly, get everyone off the ride, and then proceed to announce that it's down for maintenance until an unspecified time. We just kind of look at each other, and agree that maybe a SCREEEEEEEECH-CRACK generating ride is not the wisest choice for us, and then hightail it the hell out of there. Oh, what's that, Volcano? You're looking pretty good right about now.

 

The Volcano, looking ominous.

 

Again, a practical walk-on to Volcano with the Fast Lane makes us feel much better about the sudden lightness in our wallets. Within five minutes, we're sharing the front seats, and getting launched through a face-gurning trial of barrel-roll after barrel-roll. I'm laughing hysterically and loving every second of it! My only complaint? It ends way too soon. Was expecting it to continue for a little bit longer, but nope, it just kind of… stops. Even still, it's enough to get a [9/10] out of me.

 

We make our way out the gift shop and head back in the direction of Avalanche at this point. My initial impression from looking at it from afar? I thought it was a flume / water ride. It's not until we bust through the Fast Lane line and walk into the station that I discover a set of bobsleds staring back at me. Oh crap! It's a bobsled coaster! I didn't know this existed here! Super excited to try it. I get the third car of the train, while Ryan takes the second from the front, and we prep ourselves for an epic bobsled adventure. And as we crest over the top of the lift hill and start coasting down… my excitement level slowly drains from me, almost as slowly as it makes its way down the twists and turns. What an utter disappointment. I was hoping for something with some speed and a little bit of uncontrollability, but it just felt weak. I couldn't get into this one at all. [2/10] overall. Maybe my kid would enjoy this. Not so much me.

 

Ryan is German. Ryan got the German bobsled. This made him much more happy than it possibly should have.

 

Finally, it's time to try the one that everyone's been hyping. Ryan and I follow the path around Volcano, past the Scrambler, and we're over in Intimidator country. Disclaimer: I'm not a NASCAR fan in the slightest. I can't get enthused about it even a little bit. I dig F1 racing, sure, but NASCAR has never been a thing to keep my attention. That being said, I really don't mind the theming on the ride. The "Gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES!" sample during the lift hill? Totally fits. The replica car and signage leading up to the entrance lines as well helped me make sense of why it's called what it is. So, we get in the FP+ line and are in the second car within five minutes. Ascending the lift hill, Ryan (who is not the best with heights, but he makes an effort) peers over the side, and suddenly starts to freak out just a little bit. Does he have time for a full freakout? Not really, because within seconds, we're over the top and rushing towards the ground at 90 miles an hour. Huge smiles from me! I'm feeling some airtime too as we get to the camelback section, and then those sudden banks just whip me from side to side. I'm grinning like an absolute maniac. This is my first giga, but already I know, this is enough to become my new all-time favorite for now. A perfect [10/10] from me.

 

Intimidator 305, looking every foot of it.

 

I want to immediately hop back on, but Ryan tells me he blacked out for a few seconds while he was on it, so not knowing that this is actually something that affects a lot of people, we get concerned that maybe we haven't been drinking enough water and/or eating enough food, so we round the corner and grab some lunch from the Chicken Shack.

 

This turns out to be the biggest mistake of the day.

 

After downing the chicken and fries, we head back over to Flight of Fear. All I know about it is that it's an indoor dark coaster and has an alien abduction theme. Okay, cool. That's good enough for me. We cruise in, and… oh, what's that? Air conditioning? Can we just stay in here for the rest of the day? We get in line for the front car, and just spend a dozen or so minutes chilling out and watching the hilarious looks on people's faces as they're launched out of the station, with special kudos to the ride operator who was clearly having fun with them. "Okay, you guys have been waiting here long enough already. *click*" WHOOSHHHHH. Finally, we board, and I notice it's a very… shall we say, "cozy" fit. But no shoulder bars, so it should be a pretty straightforward ride, right? "Three… two… *click*" WHOOSHHHHH. Intense launch down the tunnel! OH CRAP ARE THESE LOOPS?! I feel like I'm being twisted every which way, and I love it. Not at all what I was expecting, so it gets a [8/10] from me for a combo of that launch + the loops + the theming, and overall pure awesomeness.

 

Ryan feels like he's okay with trying Intimidator again, so this time we head through the Fast Lane and grab a seat in the front of the last car. WAY more airtime this time around (and it wasn't like it was lacking in the front, either!). No blackouts from Ryan this time. Still a solid [10/10] from me. What a rush!

 

Next in line is Anaconda, which as we discover fairly quickly, does not have a Fast Lane access line. So after waiting for a couple of minutes, we decide to put this one off until later, and hopefully the line will thin out. What's next in our path? Backlot Stunt Coaster… which is down for maintenance. Crap. Okay, well, how about the entire raison d'être of the trip? Let's head over to Shockwave! Aaaand… it's also down for maintenance. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME. Is it going to be back up and running soon? "If I knew, I would tell you, but I don't know, so I can't tell you." Thanks for the very zen answer, random park employee!

 

I guess we'll have to hit some of the wooden coasters in the meantime. Ryan has said he's not a fan of woodens, primarily because of the sensation of being thrown out of the seat. I'm like… "yeah… that's airtime. That's what makes them great!". He isn't convinced, but he decides to give Rebel Yell a try with me. Once again, no Fast Lane, but there's hardly anyone on this, so we've only got about a ten minute wait for the front row. About five minutes in, Ryan's looking a little under the weather, and he decides he's going to pass on it. I'm not one to force someone into something they aren't comfortable with doing, so he walks through the car and waits for me at the bottom while I ride. What was that I was saying about airtime? This coaster is nothing BUT airtime! Maybe a little bit dangerously so at the top of the turnaround! I loved it, and added bonus, our train won the race! Suck it, blue train. This gets a [7.5/10] from me. Nothing complicated, but does what it does very reliably. And I do love me some racing coasters.

 

The line for Shockwave had reopened, and the skies had finally cleared up.

 

As I meet up with Ryan down at the bottom, we notice cars are running on Shockwave once again. Is it actually taking riders? We can't wait around to find out! We head on over and sure enough, there's a line of people all the way past the signage for it. We hop in line and slowly inch forward. Obviously, no Fast Lane for this one either, which is a shame. We finally make it up top to the station, and head for the front car. All of a sudden, Ryan says "Nope. I gotta run. Sorry." and hightails it out of the station. I find out later that it ended up being the BBQ chicken sandwich from earlier that did not agree with him, and he spends the next few minutes in the facilities. I'm left waiting by myself for the front car, and it's at this point that I discover why there's a lot of hatred for this coaster. Many mechanical issues cause several trains to go through without any riders, or with certain seats closed. With only three groups in front of me, it's about seven trains before I'm able to even set foot on in a car. On top of that, after the ride, people are being held back at the final brake run for nearly ten minutes before returning to the station, due to the length of time it takes to get people unloaded, reloaded, and make sure everything's correct. Well. Finally I'm strapped in, standing up, and ready to go. The ascent isn't bad. The top turn isn't bad. The loop is exhilarating. And then it all goes downhill from there, literally and figuratively. I should have listened to you guys. So much pain from being knocked around every time the track banked. It was not a pleasant experience. I give this a begrudging [4/10] for being TOGO, for being a standup coaster, and for having a fun loop, but everything else about it makes me glad it's coming down. I just have no idea what they'll manage to fit into that small of a footprint.

 

For those curious...

 

One of the ride attendants was more than happy to take this photo for me! Always a nice surprise.

 

After catching up with Ryan down below, we decide the best course of action to settle his stomach is about a half-hour of rest and some water ice. We pick up a small Rita's each and it settles his stomach and gets him back up and running for the rest of the day, thankfully. After feeling bad about bailing on Shockwave (and my reassurances that, probably, what he experienced in the restrooms was more pleasant than the ride on Shockwave), he decides to try the remaining wooden coasters. And so we're off to Grizzly! …if only we can find it. They sure don't make it easy to get to. I was not expecting to literally walk through a gift shop in order to get to the entrance. But we make our way up, and… well, what can I say? It's a huge wooden! It's awesome! Ryan's even enjoying himself and throwing his hands up in the air! Then he sees the dark tunnel approaching, freaks out, and keeps them on the lap bar for the remainder of the ride. Good call. You're gonna need those hands, buddy. I give it a [6.5/10]. While the seat wasn't as comfortable as I would have liked, it was a great experience with some great views.

 

Ryan and I preparing to depart the Grizzly station.

 

Only one wooden left! Let's head over to Hurler!

 

This turns out to be the SECOND biggest mistake of the day.

 

We walk through the Fast Lane and are greeted by… a practically empty station. We do not have anyone in front of us at all for more than half of the cars on the next train. The very first hard bank on this sends my ribs hard into the side of the car. I spend the rest of the ride with my hand bracing myself against the edge of the car. Nope. No fun. I hate it. Burn it to the ground. A lot of non-enthusiast friends of mine like to crap all over the Cyclone for supposedly being a rough ride. I imagine that this is kind of what they think they're experiencing when they ride it. One thing is for certain though, both Ryan and I agree that "Hurler" is not an appropriate name for the ride. He suggests "The Bully". I suggest "The Ow, My Motherf**king Sides". [0/10], will not ride again ever in my life, peace out and deuces.

 

Die. Die in a fire, Hurler. You will not be missed.

 

Let's go over to Ricochet next. Seems like a classic Wild Mouse style option, right? Yeah. I honestly don't have much to say about this. It was more fun than Shockwave, it was magnitudes of order more fun than Hurler, but it's nothing to go crazy over. What you see is what you get, and if you like being turned around frequently like Wild Mouses are wont to do, this is your thing. I'll give it a [5/10]. Pretty average overall.

 

Ricochet from underneath!

 

At this point, we're both pretty hot, so we decide a trip to a log flume is in order. We head over to Shenandoah Lumber Co. and proceed to enjoy ourselves with a rousing rendition of the "We Are On A Log Flume" song, and catch some water in the process. Ryan attempts to get high-fives from the employees walking alongside the flume. He fails on every single count. But still, we were on a log flume, and in the end, isn't that enough? [Log Flume/10].

 

So now we only have the others that we skipped over earlier left to go on our checklist. We swing back towards Backlot Stunt Coaster, and hop on in the front. Love the theming, but I'm sure it made even more sense when it was still part of The Italian Job. A speedy launch out of the station and straight into that spiral was perfect, and twisting and turning through all those areas was great. The brief stop in the middle by the gas pumps kind of killed the momentum, but that moment of busting through the billboard and into the water was enough to put a smile back on my face. I'll go [7/10] on this one. Wouldn't mind riding it again. I'm not sure if something was supposed to happen at the gas pumps? I'll have to save my wonderment for the next time I ride it.

 

Finally, the only one left to cross off the list was Anaconda, and we couldn't put it off any longer. So we head on over to the line, and even though the sun's beginning to set at this point and most shaded areas are cool, thanks to the swamp that this sits on it's humid as crap and I feel mosquitoes being attracted to me like fat guys to free cookies. After about 20 minutes of waiting and slapping our arms and legs, we make it up to the station, where once again we're left dealing with some ride ops that appear to be less than experienced. A lot of sitting and waiting in the brake runs while people are being loaded and unloaded. It felt like we waited almost as long in the station as we did outside of it. That being said, once we finally get strapped into the last car and get on the ride, it's a total blast. A little bit of head banging, but the inversions were awesome. Overall I give it a [7/10] for the ride, but man oh man, seeing it in the setting sun reflected against the swamp, I give it a [10/10] for being so damned pretty.

 

[8/10][/b]

Volcano: [9/10] in the sun, [9.5/10] in the dark.

Avalanche: [2/10]

Intimidator 305: [10/10], my new personal favorite.

Flight of Fear: [8/10]

Rebel Yell: [7.5/10]

Shockwave: [4/10]

Grizzly: [6.5/10]

Hurler: [0/10]

Ricochet: [5/10]

Shenandoah Lumber Co.: [Log Flume/10]

Backlot Stunt Coaster: [7/10]

Anaconda: [7/10]

Reflecting on Anaconda. Like I said! Pretty, innit?

[Intimidator305]

Just got back in town and decided to skip out on the park today on the way home since the heat index is over 100 today at Kings Dominion. I still plan to travel back towards the RVA for one last ride on Shockwave before it closes on the 9th though.

 

Lots of great trip reports the past several days - thanks to all for sharing and nice photos! It's nice to see what so many different opinionated non-regulars have to say about the park.

 

Also, anybody been to the park lately notice Intimidator 305's merchandise sales? Just curious if it seems like they are trying to clean house of the Intimidator 305 merchandise or if the sale is even still going on.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Intimidator305

[mike541x]

^I305 merchandise was still 40% off last Saturday.

[I305isadrug]

Hey guys, here's my Kings Dominion trip report from this past Saturday. This is my first TR for this forum, and I'm not as technically inclined as a lot of the experienced posters and aficionados around here, so I apologize in advance for anything I get wrong! Hope you enjoy.

 

---

 

Saturday morning, 3:00 AM. The alarm on my phone ringy dingy ding-a-ling dings. I instantly wake up, look at it, sigh "really?" to myself, and set it to snooze for an additional 30 minutes. Then try to get back to sleep. Of course, I can't at this point, so after five minutes, I roll out of bed and hop in the shower, and start getting ready to make the supposed 6 hour drive from Queens, NY to Kings Dominion in Virginia.

 

After some scrambling, my buddy Ryan and I finally head out the door at quarter past 4:00 and get ready to get fueled up. Unfortunately, the local gas station which used to be a Hess and open 24 hours with a Dunkin Donuts inside it recently switched over to a Speedway, and now is closed to anything but credit card sales until after 6:00 AM. SO MUCH FOR MY MORNING COFFEE. After stopping on one of the NJ Turnpike's rest stops to pick up some Starbucks instead, we kick it full speed down. The GPS for some reason decides to put us on a two lane highway with stop lights instead of 95 South. Avoiding construction? Perhaps. I shudder to think what that would have ended up like. Eventually, we pull in about 10 minutes before noon and park relatively close to the entrance gates, which are teeming with people. It's at this point that I start wondering if this is a normal-sized crowd for a Saturday, or if this is something worse.

 

We pass through the gates and take a look at the map. Since Volcano was supposed to have the longest lines, we head in that direction, but encounter Dominator first, and decide… well, since it's right here, might as well get in line now, right? So we walk up, get in line, and… proceed to not move more than fifty feet in ten minutes. Ryan and I look at each other, head back the way we came, and beeline it to the Dominator gift shop to partake of some Fast Lane Plus. It's at this point that the friendly sales clerk lets us know that, apparently, something called "JoyFest" is going on. Which explains the larger-than-normal mass of people crowding every single section of the park, many of them wearing their color-coordinated t-shirts identifying them as part of a church group. So our wallets feel the pain, but we've got the peace of mind that we didn't just drive for seven hours to stand in line all day.

 

We head back over to Dominator and, effectively, walk right on. We're the only people there with a Fast Lane, and we're on in the middle within three trains of people. An extremely smooth ride with next to no head banging, comfortable seats even for a couple of bigger guys such as Ryan and I (I'm the Hardy to his Laurel, if that makes sense). I haven't been on too many floorlesses, but this one gave awesome sensations of flight on a long ride, and was a definite great start to the day. I think an [8/10] is appropriate.

 

[10/10][/b] from me.

 

Corkscrew(Knotts).nltrack[8/10][/b]

Volcano: [9/10] in the sun, [9.5/10] in the dark.

Avalanche: [2/10]

Intimidator 305: [10/10], my new personal favorite.

Flight of Fear: [8/10]

Rebel Yell: [7.5/10]

Shockwave: [4/10]

Grizzly: [6.5/10]

Hurler: [0/10]

Ricochet: [5/10]

Shenandoah Lumber Co.: [Log Flume/10]

Backlot Stunt Coaster: [7/10]

Anaconda: [7/10]

Awesome report. I pretty much agree with all of your ratings.

[coasterbill]

Great report, I always hear people complain about Flight of Fear and Anaconda and figure I must be riding different coasters than everyone else... I love them both (although of the 2, Flight of Fear is significantly better and smoother).

[disownedpear]

I'm not sure if something was supposed to happen at the gas pumps?

 

The helicopter is supposed to move and look like it is shooting at you, and there are supposed to be fire effects. It's often all broken though which makes it pretty awkward when you just sit there and nothing happens.

[cfc]

^There used to be water effects to simulate bullets ricocheting off the pipes, but those haven't worked for years.

[Intimidator305]

^^ Although the fire effects have been broken before, often they are just turned off because of 'wind' since the riders are so close to the effect.

[RollerManic]

Funny, I could have sworn they were on when we visited Thursday - not on my train, of course, but as we were exiting.

 

Side note: That first helix is really strong for a family coaster. It caught me completely off guard.

[TB305]

Funny, I could have sworn they were on when we visited Thursday - not on my train, of course, but as we were exiting.

 

Side note: That first helix is really strong for a family coaster. It caught me completely off guard.

Agreed, I gray out on it half the time! Backlog is such a fun little coaster. It has gotten somewhat rattly now.

[Propeller Factory]

I grey out of backlot and black out on i305. Loose my vision in the turn, regain it at the top of the first hill. I don't really like blacking out. I would rather see where I'm going.

[Bmanscool]

I hope Kings Dominion replaces all the asphalt in

Candy Apple Grove with new brick pavers with next year's

"Project Remove Shockwave" Candy Apple Grove expansion!

Edited July 21, 2015 by Bmanscool

[DonkeysWaffles]

I really don't get why people want Backlot removed. It's a pretty intense ride in a small space.

[DonkeysWaffles]

I hope Kings Dominion replaces all the asphalt in Candy Apple Grove with new brick pavers with next year's

"Project Remove Shockwave" Candy Apple Grove expansion.

 

They probably will. It seems like Cedar Fair is trying to get KD to be the nicest looking park behind Canada's Wonderland.

[coneyislandchris]

I'm not sure if something was supposed to happen at the gas pumps?

 

The helicopter is supposed to move and look like it is shooting at you, and there are supposed to be fire effects. It's often all broken though which makes it pretty awkward when you just sit there and nothing happens.

 

Ah. That does make a lot more sense then. Maybe it'd be better if those effects aren't running, for it to skip the stop and just push right through into the dark part, but even still, it was pretty good.

 

I really don't get why people want Backlot removed. It's a pretty intense ride in a small space.

 

People want it removed? I can't understand why. Shockwave, sure. Hurler, YES PLEASE. Backlot though? I would have liked to re-ride it but I'll save it for next time, and I have a feeling my kid will really enjoy it too (especially the helix!).

[coasterbill]

I really don't get why people want Backlot removed. It's a pretty intense ride in a small space.

 

Does anyone want it removed? It's ridiculously popular and has mass appeal. Good luck with that... lol

 

Personally I love it.

[Ape]

I like those rides, just not the lines associated with them. I maybe ride Backlot once a season if that.

[mike541x]

^^Well said, Backlot is such a fun ride. It's always a must ride every time I visit the park.

[chargersmichael]

I believe I rode Backlot Stunt Coaster 3 times in a row when I was there. I went to Volcano right at Park Opening and we already rode Intimidator 305 like 10 times the day before so we went to Backlot next and no one was on it! Definitely a very unique ride that shouldn't be missed!

[Propeller Factory]

I really don't get why people want Backlot removed. It's a pretty intense ride in a small space.

 

If you were responding to me, I love backlot stunt coaster and I don't want it removed. While we're on the subject I think the theming is getting a bit old, don't you think?