Kings Dominion Photo TR; my first visit ever

[JDo217]

Some of you may remember that I posted a topic a week ago about bringing a DSLR to KD. Well, that was kind of a bad idea. Since it was my first visit to the park, I was way more intent on getting rides and re-rides than actually staking out pictures. The good: I got a bunch of somewhat decent pics of i305. The bad: I was rushing really badly, didn't have a tripod, and didn't have time to really review how the shots were coming out.

 

Trip Report

I left NY at 3:30 AM since Virginia is pretty f***ing far. We arrived at 9:15 so I'd say we made pretty good time. The only traffic we really hit was along the Balt-Wash Parkway, but it was minor at worst. I was running on 4 hours of sleep though, and having to do the 6-hour drive was really draining.

 

We headed to Volcano at opening and rode in the back. The queue was pretty awesome, as was having the ride ops come around and take your loose items from you. My friend was discussing how he thought the ride would go based on how it looked when it just up and launched The second launch was way more powerful than I was expecting too. After that, we went to Intimidator, which had a station wait and was only running one train (which I'm told is the norm for weekdays). We went on twice in a row.

 

The first time I rode near the back and my first impression was honestly "wow, I don't see why this thing has so much hype." I literally did not feel a thing on the first drop. El Toro's and MF's first drops take my breath away, but I didn't so much as get the butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling on i305 the first two times. I did grey out really badly both times (I think I might have blacked out the second time, but I just closed my eyes on the turnaround and opened them on the airtime hill). The directional changes were awesome and I actually really liked being thrown into the restraints each time. The OSTRs were very comfortable and there was no headbanging at all. First impression: great ride, but not sure why so hyped.

 

I did ride i305 4 more times later in the day (more on that further below).

 

After that I was pretty exhausted considering lack of sleep and the long drive, so we just got lunch and took it easy for a while. We went on Backlot Stunt Coaster since we were still partially digesting. Can I just say how painful I thought this thing was? This ride is actually harder on small/skinny people since the seats are so hard that your back/spine really take a beating. The line was just halfway across the bridge so we waited about 20 minutes.

 

Then we headed to the other side of the park to hit up the woodies. I was fully expecting a Rolling Thunder-esque experience on Rebel Yell but I was pleasantly surprised. There was virtually no airtime but it was a very smooth ride to say the least. There was only a station wait, but since they were only running one side and one train, it was actually a decently long wait. I didn't think Hurler was that bad in terms of roughness, but the turns were killer and the ride was just very boring. They were only running one train but even then, there was no one on line. Grizzly was pretty good. I wish I could've ridden it after dark but they closed at 8. The queue entrance was kind of difficult to find, since it's really far from the ride itself. They were running one train and the line was only in the station.

 

Flight of Fear was my first spaghetti bowl experience and it was very good. The line was almost out into the outside area but I didn't mind since the queue was pretty cool (and fans + AC are always a plus). I rode once towards the front and it was a very smooth ride, but after the MCBR was pretty laggy. I rode again in the back and the ride was a little more jerky, but still good. I thought FoF was very well themed, especially when you consider how gaudy Disaster Transport is.

 

Break Time

After that we decided to check into the hotel room around 2(Best Western), which was probably the best possible decision we could have made. We were all drained from the early start to the day so we took a nap then went back to the park at 4. It was just so much more enjoyable after being rested.

 

When we went back, we finally got around to Dominator. The loop was really menacing being right there at the very front of the parking lot. Everyone here said the line would clear out after 3 and it did, so we got on without waiting. I thought it was very enjoyable and smooth. I love how B&M's drops after the MCBR are so sudden and give a nice pop of airtime. The corkscrews were taken very fast (or maybe I just got accustomed to watching Anaconda crawl through its corkscrews?). After that, we went back to re-riding stuff.

 

We went back to Volcano and it had a 30 minute line, which we gladly waited on since it was just about the longest we waited all day. The anticipation for the launch is great since you never know when it's going to come unless you're in the last car. We also re-rode FoF, which still had a 20-30 minute wait.

 

Rides we skipped: Ricochet, Avalanche, Ghoster Coaster, Anaconda and Shockwave. My brother rode Anaconda and Shockwave though and said they were pretty painful, so I don't regret it at all. Drop Zone was down all day. A shame, since I was really looking forward to it too

 

Intimidator - Take 2

We went back to i305 around 5 PM and they added the second train! We saw from Rebel Yell earlier on that the line was getting kind of long. With both trains on, the wait almost never left the station. Even with a one-train operation though, the line moved pretty faster. Faster than SFNE Bizarro's queue with two trains >_>

 

We rode twice in one of the middle rows and then once in the 2nd row and once in the last row towards the end of the day. They have a weird policy where they force half the front row line to move to other rows near closing. But they still leave a ton of people on the front row line so that the last 5-6 rides of the day are literally just two people in every train. I'm used to operations at SF GAdv where they force everyone to move so that the trains are all filled at the end of the day. Anyways, I was hoping that the ride would warm up as the day went on and my early morning rides were just not in full gear yet.

 

Wow, the ride way more than delivered! The first drop was much more intense, the black out was the same, the 2nd hill had more airtime and the turns were more intense. Basically, everything was better. I love how every row was a different experience too. In the back the first drop was the best, but in the front the first airtime hill was much better. I was a little let down by the trim on the 3rd hill though. I know it needs to be there but it was slowed to the point where there was really no airtime. The front had nothing and the back had a little floater airtime, but you could feel the effect of trims much more. All in all, Intimidator went from a 7/10 first impression to a solid 10/10

 

Summary

This was my first time at KD and I really loved it. It's a step up from the Six Flags for sure. Hell, any park that provides any sort of shade on their queues is already better than Six Flags IMHO. Despite it being pretty far from me, KD is definitely on my list of parks to return to next summer.

 

Here are the photos. I was a little disappointed at how they turned out. I took these in a span of like 20 minutes since we were really rushing to get in 2 last rides on Intimidator. Mind you, I had to run back and forth to the locker to get the camera then return it before getting in line.

 

 

 

 

 

Rapid fire shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy riders:

 

Okay so I tried to get some blurred shots to accentuate the speed of the train, but it didn't work out so great since I only did two takes and didn't use the zoom lens. The gist of it was supposed to be train in focus, track out of focus. Regardless, here are a few:

 

 

 

 

Close-ups:

 

 

 

Night shot of Dominator without a tripod

 

My friend actually took this one - the school sticker on my car:

Edited August 18, 2011 by JDo217

[Intimidator305]

You got some awesome shots of 305, I really liked the ones where you captured the train well and everything else was blurry because of its speed! I'm glad you really enjoyed Kings Dominion and Intimidator 305!

[JDo217]

Thanks! Also, if any of you guys have any tips for roller coaster pics w/ DSLRs please do share them! God knows I need them

[Fooz]

Great looking stuff.