Photo TR: Kings Dominion, BGW, and Air & Space Museum

[Condor]

My last trip of the year marked my first visit to both Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Kyle (Gnome) had been to Busch once years ago, but had a few new credits to pick up. We are both also aviation nuts to some degree, so we ended the trip with a stop at the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Flight Center next to Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. We also missed personally witnessing the White House intruder by a couple of hours. True story.

 

I didn't take quite as many photos as on my last trip, so here are my thoughts on the coasters not pictured.

 

Rebel Yell:

Much better than either of us anticipated. This is another one of those coasters you must ride in a middle seat to avoid sitting over the wheels. If you do this, you'll be in for a relatively comfortable ride that does a good job of maintaining its speed with several unexpected pops of airtime. If you don't do this (which we also tried) you might as well be riding SFMM's old Psyclone after a retrofit to square wheels. And why have I never heard about how great the first drop on Rebel Yell is? Probably the second best airtime moment in the park after I305.

 

Grizzly:

There seem to be two popular, conflicting internet opinions on Good Grizzly. (1) It's a genuine top 20 wooden coaster that gets overlooked due to age, manufacturer, association with its west coast sibling (Bad Grizzly), or some combination of the three. (2) It's nearly as bad as Bad Grizzly, only faster and less of a family ride. I felt it was much more the former. I won't go as far as to rank it top 20, but it was the most thrilling of KD's woodies and not too rough for me to enjoy. This one surprised me with its ferocity. I wish I had time to ride it more.

 

Hurler:

A perfect candidate for RMC topper track. Laying those heavy-duty rails down over the ground-hugging turns might allow the park to deactivate the trim breaks and deliver some legitimate airtime over the camel backs. The straight sections are fine, only the turns were painful. Kentucky Kingdom's Thunder Run doesn't even have topper track and it still shows how good these layouts can be if taken care of.

 

Avalanche:

Only bobsled I've done besides Disaster Transport. It's slow, short, and trimmed, so there's not much for us enthusiasts. A good family coaster though.

 

Backlot Stunt Coaster:

Definitely the surprise of the trip. We were too busy repeatedly sacrificing ourselves to I305 to ride this more than once, but it would be a regular must ride for me if KD was my home park. A lot of fun with some interesting forces.

 

We both had mixed feelings on Volcano. The launches and first inversion are great, but after that it just felt too slow to be very exciting.

Even if it's not as intense as later Intamins, I appreciate anything as unique as Volcano. And wow was the advice you guys gave correct. You simply MUST do Volcano first thing in the morning. Low capacity just ruins this things re-ridability later into the day.

Like Maverick earlier this year, Intimidator 305 had virtually no room for failure. Anything less than a top-5 quality ride would have felt like a disappointment.

Our first lap honestly left us a little concerned. It was REALLY, REALLY good, but it didn't exactly elevate either of us to the hightened plane of existence that we were hoping for.

But there is a pattern I've noticed with elite Intamins as my credit count has grown. I often feel this way after my first ride on them. Maverick did it, Skyrush and Storm Runner did it...

And now I305.

The thing is, it usually takes me 2-4 laps to truly initiate myself into each Intamin's individual cult. But once that happens, I just can't stop drinking the Intamin kool-aid. I305 is now my #3 steel coaster, behind only Skyrush and Maverick.

Fun fact: If Lebron James had signed with the Washington Wizards for some odd reason, Cedar Fair was going to rename this park "King James Dominion."

I was not prepared for how nice this park was. I wasn't expecting SFMM circa 2001 or anything, but I had no idea KD was as well landscaped and presented as it is.

This is my Kings Dominion face.

In my best Jeff Goldblum (clears throat): "Ah, now you eventually do plan to have DINOSAURS, on your--on your dinosaur tour, right?"

I rode Dominator back at Geauga Lake in 2004, but I barely remembered it. It rattles just a bit like many B&Ms as they age, but it's still a great ride and nicely rounds out KD's coaster collection.

It's my third favorite floorless after Kraken and Superman Krypton Coaster.

With only 5 inversions and lots of turns, Dominator could be the closest thing to how Rougarou will feel next year. We can only hope.

The first drop on this thing is spectacular. One of the steepest, best twisting drops out there.

Ugh, Shockwave. For reasons I can't defend, I was honestly really excited for my first Togo standup, tough I strongly doubted that I'd retain my enthusiasm post-ride. I was right. The weird thing about Shockwave is that it was painful in such a particular way that it actually became funny, and oddly enough, therefore kind of fun.

It's amazing how even simple banking transitions create ejector air on this thing. Everything about it (original first turn exempted) is just so carefully calculated to maximize each foot of track.

Anaconda is far from the worst Arrow looper out there. It has some likable qualities. And by "some" I mean "one." And by "qualities" I mean "location."

"This is the vault. Or as some of us like to call it, the freak show..." (awkward laughter)

You can't really photograph Flight of Fear, so these pics will have to do.

 

Busch Gardens pics coming soon!

Edited October 15, 2014 by Condor

[DoinItForTheFame]

Such amazing photos. I can NOT wait to see more!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

 

PS: I really loved this photo!

Seriously this to me is a perfect coaster photo!

[Intimidator305]

Glad you enjoyed the park and Intimidator 305 - it's definitely a one of a kind!

 

Nice photos, thanks for sharing.

[Gnome]

I miss I305

[rcjp]

Nice photos!

The first drop on this thing is spectacular. One of the steepest, best twisting drops out there.

Having never ridden Dominator I've always been intrigued by its sharper/steeper than usual swooping drop. I imagine it must be great fun.

[cfc]

^Dominator's first drop really just hurls you into the loop. It's the best moment of the ride.

[rcjp]

^I like how banked the twist into the drop looks. I also wonder how a vertical swooping drop would look like.

[Condor]

Wow this is overdue. I actually had it written and all but posted more than a week ago, but that ended up not happening for reasons I’m not secure enough to mention on an online discussion forum. Because it’s so overdue, I have decided to post much more in-depth reviews for all of BGW’s coasters than I did for Kings Dominion. I’ve decided to do this for the following two reasons: (1) BGW only has six coasters compared to KD’s fourteen, and (2) I had an infinitely easier day at work today than when I wrote the last part (Seriously, I didn’t do anything. I left after two hours then went to an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ with my bosses).

 

We went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg on a Sunday, the second week of Howl-O-Scream, so I bought quick queue passes in preparation for HOS crowds. This turned out not to be a good decision because every ride in the park was a walk-on or 1-2 train wait all day from opening to close. I think we actually benefited from the passes only twice when we used them to skip a combined total of approximately five people going into a couple of mazes. Neither of us had been to HOS before and we both felt the event was just okay. Beyond that, I'm not really in the mood to defend my opinions on HOS right now, so I just won't share them!

 

Loch Ness Monster:

Each manufacturer usually has at least one outdated coaster that transcends the limitations of its era and is still a quality ride experience long after its contemporaries have become obsolete. Many of Loch Ness’s contemporaries (Orient Express, Shockwave, GASM) have even been removed altogether and 1978’s Nessie is between two and eleven years older than all of them! I only got to ride this twice, but the reasons for its longevity were still very clear to me. It has an amazing setting, it’s as smooth as this type gets, forces and airtime are all there without being painful, the layout is unique, and it has a long ride time to enjoy it all. I’ve been on two old Arrow coasters that I think transcend their eras. One is Magnum XL-200 (I will argue and support this against anyone) and the other is Loch Ness Monster. I hope Busch can continue taking care of it for years to come.

 

Griffon:

I have a theory that B&M dive machines will one day be looked at the same way we look at S&S towers today: They were really cool at first, but as time went on, we all became more and more aware that they were one-trick ponies that offered little in the way of variety and substance to keep them relevant as they aged (btw, I hope this theory proves wrong). The pairs of vertical drops are great, but the way B&M had to marginalize the rest of the layout to accommodate the wide cars and make this model distinct from the basic sitdown/floorless layouts hurts them once you get over the initial splooge of the first drop. I remember Robb made a comment once about how Griffon makes you basically take the same ride twice. Up, vertical drop, immelman, turn, stop. I’d have to agree. You’d assume two inversions would put this one above Shiekra, but for some reason, it doesn’t. It might be the simple repetition or it might be that Shiekra is much better immersed in its environment than Griffon is. It’s hard to say exactly why, but something about Shiekra is organic to its surroundings while Griffon is simply a well-landscaped roller coaster. I like both, but Shiekra is better.

 

Alpengeist:

My favorite coaster in the park. The raw power behind this thing is something I have not felt on another inverted coaster. I don’t only mean positive g’s, but some combination of those along with the height, speed, and terrain. Alpengeist just feels like bodybuilder of B&M inverts. But even then, it still seems like only a shadow of what it could be. This is another Busch B&M that the parks have decided needs excess trimming. The weird little trim on the pre-drop coming off the lift probably doesn’t affect much, but the mid-course practically destroys the second half. This should be nothing new and is all stuff I knew to expect, however actually riding the thing makes it more frustrating because I otherwise liked it better than I thought I would. Alpengeist could honestly be my favorite invert if it ran without the first drop trim and with the mid-course dialed back 50%. BGT does the same thing with theirs and Montu is in the exact same situation as Alpengeist. At least Kumba still roars through the second half fast enough to make the mid-course inconsequential. I feel like all three could be top 10 steel coasters for me, but with how Busch runs them only Kumba gets there.

 

Apollo’s Chariot:

This was my third B&M hyper after Nitro and Goliath (SFOG). It's also now my third favorite B&M hyper after Nitro Goliath (SFOG). Don't interpret that as me saying I didn't like it. Because I did and that would make you wrong. We liked Apollo enough to ride it 15 times, ending with a nine-lap night marathon to close out the park. Apollo is simply a weaker coaster than either of the others in airtime and g’s, though it bests Nitro and probably equals Goliath in setting/scenery. This one just felt like an all-around milder experience. What I like best about Apollo are all the little nuances throughout the layout. The brief straightaways crossing the river, the pre-drop, and the varying length of the drops on the return run make it more unique and less of a catalog coaster than most B&Ms. Apollo lands just outside my steel top 20.

 

Verbolten:

I love the attention to detail in the station and queue line as well as the presentation in the show building. It’s hard to see from POVs what the layout is like once inside and I’m glad I didn’t know. There’s a nice, long helix in the dark in there that caught me off guard. The drop track doesn’t do a whole lot for me, though it works well enough in the context of Verbolten being a partial dark ride. I hate to be the guy who harps on every single trim brake on every single ride (though I am very much THAT GUY), but with Verbolten I just have to. Why launch us back up to speed coming out of the building if the first thing you’re going to do is slow us right back down before the big drop? I understand that Verbolten is supposed to be suitable for families and isn’t pushing hard for the extreme thrills, but you have to admit the magnetic trims on the bridge are a little excessive. But hey, maybe BGW is simply paying homage to the original on Big Bad Wolf (wink, wink).

 

Grover's Alpine Express:

There's something uniquely satisfying about a roller coaster that 100% fulfills every expectation you have for it. A lot of times when I ride new coasters, they will be either better or worse than I anticipated, so it is rare when I come across one that is exactly as good as I anticipated. Sometimes I don't want to be surprised or let down. I'm a person who likes to think in advance about how I might rate a particular coaster once I ride it and the surprise element of having those thoughts either validated or contradicted is always an adventure. But maybe I don't always want the adventure and would rather be able to just sit down and ride without my mind leaving the status quo. Grover delivered in spades. It was no more or less thrilling, intense, smooth, rough, long, short, or had better or worse airtime than I thought it would. And for people who pretend to not have a sense of humor and insist on interpreting every forum comment literally, please go hit yourself in the jaw with a hardcover encyclopedia.

You can really compare the "old" style B&M inversions with the "new." Note how Alpengeist's track completely inverts at the apex of the half-loop, then snaps quickly into the roll. On Griffon it starts banking out of the immelman before it reaches the top, never fully inverting and lacking the "snap." I miss the snappies....

This is my Busch Gardens Williamsburg face.

And this is his Busch Gardens W... well, never mind.

Alpengeist is so easy to photograph.

So many great angles, unlike Apollo's Chariot which is virtually impossible to see from inside the park.

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy (look him up if you're bored. Guy's a boss.) Center at Dulles airport outside Washington D.C. It's where the Smithsonian brings their aircraft that are too big to easily transport to their other air & space museum in D.C. proper.

If you are like most Americans under age 40 and know nothing about American history, the Enola Gay is the actual B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima to help end World War II in the Pacific.

Boeing 367-80, or "Dash 80." This is the prototype Boeing jetliner and the forerunner of all the commercial 707s and Air Force KC-135 tankers. Probably the most important commercial plane ever built.

Some Nazi swept wing research aircraft.

Korean War rivals: Soviet Mig-15 and American F-86 Sabre. I had no idea how much bigger the Sabre is.

Mig-21, owner of my favorite derogatory NATO call-sign ever: "Fishbed." (Btw, the Mig-15's is "Fagot." Seriously.)

Vietnam era F-105 Thunderchief.

This is the same SR-71 that transforms into that horrible old-man autobot that farts out a drag chute in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen. Shia Lebeouf had to come here to get him.

Lockheed Martin X-35B. Prototype for the Marine F-35B Lightning that will soon be entering service. That's "soon" in aviation years. Which means "late and still 5-8 years away."

The lift-fan system that allows it to take off and land vertically. The turbine at the rear turns a crankshaft that spins the fan up front.

STOVL = Short TakeOff Vertical Landing

[coasterbill]

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[boldikus]

Absolutely awesome photos. Both of these parks are at the top of my list so this is just making me want to get there even more!

[ejot]

Best TR pics I've ever seen! Stunning, man.

 

And why have I never heard about how great the first drop on Rebel Yell is? Probably the second best airtime moment in the park after I305.

Oh heck yes, RY tries its best to throw you out! Best single ride moment in the park IMO. It did this to me!