Ape Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 (edited) I have been drooling at the chance to ride Intimidator 305 for the last 5 years. I cannot tell you how many times I have watched videos of it and annoyed the crap out of my wife with my obsession of wanting to ride this thing. This year would finally be the year. We had decided originally to do a trip to Busch Garden Williamsburg and Kings Dominion. After we had got everything planned i realized we would be at Kings Dominion the same day as Coasting for kids and decided to sign us up. This was my first time doing Coasting for Kids and it will not be my last. About a week after i had booked and finalized everything with the trip we got the awesome news that my wife Courtney was pregnant again. We were (and still are) through the roof with excitement, but then realized she would not be able to ride anything. She decided not to go (and I don't blame her), but I would still go and do Coasting for Kids and cancel the other plans for that weekend. I enlisted my friend Sean to take her place and my brother decided to join us and make the drive to meet us from Charleston South Carolina. Sean Lives an hour west of Holiday world, since i live in Cincinnati we decided to meet up to make the trip in Louisville. This action prompted a stop to try out Lightning Run and Kentucky Kingdom. On Saturday 6/6/15 I headed out the door towards Kentucky Kingdom. We only had a few hours tops to check out the park if we wanted to get to Kings Dominion at a decent time. We arrived to a pretty light crowd at the front gate and a sign stating that T3 would be coming soon and not opening that day. We were fine with this as our concern was Lightning Run. As soon as the park opened we went straight for the little blue coaster. DO NOT let the size of this thing fool you it packs a major punch. Lightning Run was such an insane little ride that i could not stop laughing as it caught me by surprise so much. Videos do nothing for this ride and its ejector air, we have some bruises to prove it on the legs. After Lightning Run tried its hardest to launch us off the coaster we started to check out some of the other things in the park. Clyclos has a short line and being right next to Lightning run we decided to get on it. This little flat also packs a nice punch and I really enjoyed the hanging upside down parts. Next we headed towards Thunder Run with a stop at Enterprise. Thunder Run was fun, I enjoyed the front seat on this not so much the back. With two rides on the woodie we went back to the insane little blue coaster for one more ride before heading out. Overall in my short bit of experience there i enjoyed Kentucky Kingdom. I thought the park was very clean and the people were nice. I will make another trip back as we got season passes. I want to check out that water park and maybe get a ride on T3 if it is open. Ride count : Lighting Run 2x Thunder Run 2x Enterprise Cyclos Since we were in Louisville and our areas don't have them built yet we stopped at Raising Cane's for lunch and what i figured would be the only meal of the day so i pigged out. The amazing and extremely filling caniac! We got to the Best Western Kings Quarters at about 10:30 that night. I would recommend staying here if you go to Kings Dominion as the room was clean, the people were nice, and there was a lot to do with everything staying open until at least midnight. Ooo and it's in the parking lot for Kings Dominion so you don't have to pay to park! Sunday 6/7/15 Coasting for Kids and Kings Dominion. We woke up bright and early to get registered and go into the park an hour early for the Dominator ride time. Before we made it into the park we met Chuck (cfc) and Jason (bubala). They were both very nice and we had a good time with them for a bit at the park. Well it was finally time to enter a park i have dreamed of visiting for 5 years. I did my best to try and break everything i rode. Dominator was a very fun coaster, I think i have only been on one other floorless in Kracken and i enjoyed Dominator more thanks to the tight layout. I found the backseat to be the smoothest ride on it. We did manage to break it for about 20 minutes during that hour. Next we headed to Volcano to make sure we didn't have to deal with a line later in the day. We were the first to ride and got on the front seat. For those wondering I fit on everything I rode, If you have seen my other posts you know my size. This is where I experienced two things that I never have before, A ROLLBACK! AND AN EVAC! I was very satisfied with this. They gave us a voucher to come back later and skip the line since we had to head to the Lunch and Ceremony for Coasting for Kids. After we ate they were going to take us to Rebel Yell for our marathon on it. I just couldn't wait any longer though and had to leave lunch early to get a ride on I305 first. As we were walking up i couldn't contain my excitement, i have so many expectations for this thing i have dreamed about for years. We were going to do front seat but given we had to be across the park at Rebel Yell and front was the only spot with a line we went for the back. This ride was everything I had dreamed of and more. As we were going around that first turn I started seeing stars and was just in bliss going up the airtime hill. Then it was time for all of the awesome twisties and i was loving every second of it. My favorite ride was (keyword) Maverick I love intense tight turns and maneuvers so this was even better. When we hit the break run all I could thing was WOW! Thank you Intamin for this Millie and Maverick combination baby you have produced. There was no line for this all day. Now it was time for our second marathon session and this time it was at Rebel Yell. We have one of the sides to ourselves for Coasting for kids for 90 minutes. I did my first ride on the C4K side then jumped to the other side for the credit. When I got off that side my friend had received some unfortunate news and we thought we may be leaving early (which we ended up doing after going to a couple more rides). We got Chuck and Jason and headed to Volcano to use our front of the line passes. Volcano we sat in the front seat again and success! we actually made it through the course. I really enjoyed this ride as well with heartline rolls and launches. I can see why its so popular with the general public but I don't think i'd wait very long for it especially with I305 having no line. So growing up as a kid and going to Kings Island all of the time I loved King Cobra, I just had to get a ride on Shockwave. I should have let the happy memories be as this coaster was a nightmare of a ride for me especially being a larger fella. I cannot think of one redeeming quality of this coaster. one and done for sure and never again. We got some snacks and wondered around for a short time while my buddy was fixing his phone and worked on getting things straightened out. Snacks were good and i manged to win a giant pig on the quarter game where you land it on a plate. I had only had three quarters and really had no intention on winning just wanted to get the change out of my pocket. The girl was shocked that i managed to win with their extra difficult rules of the arm not being allowed past the rail (which she wasn't enforcing with others they still lost though) and the quarter couldn't touch any of the low hanging animals. I won on the last try. When my buddy returned we agreed to leave early after getting a few more rides in on I305. Before we got there though we rode Avalanche and I loved this little bobsled coaster. I am glad we got on it last minute. I305 just seemed to get better with every ride. It was making me go completely black until the airtime hill on the last few rides. I've got some nice bruises from hands up riding but i still think the restraints are comfortable. With my short visit to the park and only doing about half of the coasters it has definitely left me wanting more. the park is well landscaped and clean with a lot of trees. I very much look forward to getting another visit but it will be at least a couple of years. Ride count: I305- 6x Dominator 5x Volcano 1 1/3rd x Shockwave Avalanche Rebel Yell (each side) now the photos... Entrance Area Waiting to get in! No T3 for you! Welcome! This is why we are here! I love the color of it. Great fun. Cyclos is fun. Thunder Run, I can see why people have trouble finding the entrance. lift hill No lines. Bye bye Lightning Run, I will come back to you! Just one more night until I305 Yay! 40 years We dominated Dominator and broke it. All of the Coasting for kids participants. credit https://www.facebook.com/kingsdominionva?fref=ts Coasting for Kids Team TPR! Team TPR Is this real life or just fantasy? Real Life! OMFG! Zoomed in. We give it two thumbs up! Ewww, Never again! Everyone headed back to Volcano to get in line before the park opened. It was great fun. as was Avalanche I am the champion! Time to head home. I loved this drive through the mountains. I left at 8am on 6/6 i returned home at 3:30am 6/8 this was the total of the journey! Edited June 10, 2015 by cfc
boldikus Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Awesome report and pics dude. Kings Dominion is really high on my park bucketlist, my bro and I have been talking about maybe doing a BGW & Kings Dominion road trip next spring. I feel exactly the way you did about I305, so stoked you got to ride it a bunch, it looks absolutely incredible. This time last year my top three bucketlist coasters were: I305, Millennium and Skyrush (you can call me an Intamin fan boy, I consider it a compliment). Since then I've managed to knock out the last two but I305 still calls to me, even moreso now that I've done Maverick and Millennium.
Ape Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 I would be extremely surprised if you ended up not loving I305.
aaron88stang Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Great report. I see you wisely skipped Hurler...I rode it one time for the credit...I wish I could have got both sides of Rebel Yell but they were only operating one the day I was at KD. I agree completely with your thoughts on Shockwave. I felt tons of nostalgia waiting in line and beat up after getting off.
Ape Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 I didn't really choose to skip it, I just didn't get the opportunity same with 6 other coasters i missed. We were short on time and the people with me mainly wanted to stick with the bigger coasters.
certifiedcoastergeek Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Great TR! I would have participated with Team TPR if not for the fact that I had to work . I see that the world's best coaster has claimed its next victim...
aaron88stang Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 I didn't really choose to skip it, I just didn't get the opportunity same with 6 other coasters i missed. We were short on time and the people with me mainly wanted to stick with the bigger coasters. Either way you did not miss much on that one...Grizzly is not bad but Rebel Yell is the best woodie at KD in my opinion.
Ape Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 Rebel yell was a lot smoother than i was expecting.
aaron88stang Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 Rebel yell was a lot smoother than i was expecting. I love the paint job they put on it too...KI please do this to Racer.
Ape Posted June 10, 2015 Author Posted June 10, 2015 I honestly didn't pay much attention to the paint.
cfc Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 (edited) Well, they did paint Rebel Yell's lift hills and add running lights, but not over the entire ride. Thanks for posting the photos! Edited June 10, 2015 by cfc
Ape Posted June 10, 2015 Author Posted June 10, 2015 No problem. I have about 100 more photos but tried to keep them at a minimum. i may add them all to facebook.
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