DC, BGW, KD Spring Break

Hey, my family is doing a DC trip over spring break (April Sat. 5- Sat. 13), and were throwing in a day at Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion as well. We are arriving at DC airport in the evening on the 5th, so we will just relax that night at the hotel. Then the next 4-5 days we will do DC stuff. We will also do Jamestown for part of one of those days. And then either Thursday or Friday we will do Busch Gardens. (The day that we don't go to BGW we will just relax and maybe do a little DC stuff that day)

-Does anyone have any DC suggestions?

Questions for Busch Gardens:

-Which day should we go Thursday or Friday?

-How to maneuver around the park(what order should we hit the rides in). We want to do all of the coasters, Mach Tower, Darkastle, and a few flats.

-Any good food places.

-Any hidden Gems, like a cool animal exhibit, or something like that.

-Crowds?

We are driving from DC to KD the day we go (Saturday, April 12), so that will be an early morning for us. I am pumped for this day because I timed everything perfectly that if I ride all of the 5 Major coasters at BGW, then my 100th credit will be I305! Then we will sleep in Richmond and fly out at 1:00 the next day.

Kings Dominion Questions:

-How to maneuver around the park(what order should we hit the rides in). We want to do all of the coasters, and most of the flats.

-Is fast-lane worth it (Three people). I would like to get many re-rides on the major rides.

-Crowds?

I know this is a lot. And you don't have to answer all of it. But thank you in advance if you do help. This is our biggest trip of the year, and I am pumped! thank you

Drew -Pumped to get his 100th credit- Baker

If you haven't done the National Mall or US Capitol tours, you should. They're pretty fun and interesting. Especially if you're into that kind of stuff. Same with Colonial Williamsburg.

For Busch, go on a weekday. Friday-Sunday will have heavier crowds with band competitions in town and families on spring break vacation. Make sure to check the weather before going too. Nice weather has a habit of bringing very heavy crowds.

Don't expect Mach Tower to be up and running. It's VERY temperamental. Flat-wise, the park just has the typical generic park flats. If you go on the right day, it shouldn't matter how you navigate the park. Crowds will naturally either head to Griffon as it's the biggest thing you can see in the park or Verbolten, since it's still the star attraction. Opening times are staggered with the areas at the back of the park opening later than the areas at the front. If you visit at rope drop, you should be able to clear most of the rides before any significant crowds roll in.

The best place to eat is the Smokehouse in the Canada section of the park. The Festhaus is the crowd favorite though since it's AC, food, and a show. I HIGHLY recommend the pretzel shop. Not really a hidden gem, but a must-visit.

Most of the animal exhibits are on the main path, so they're hard to miss. There's a bird sitting under Alpengeist's immelmann and the lorikeets are always fun to check out.

I haven't gone to KD in a while so this advice might be dated. Volcano is supposedly undergoing renovations to increase capacity, but Flight of Fear will still have long lines. Head to that corner to clear those rides out at rope drop. The other rides should have reasonable capacity, so unless it's crazy packed, lines should be short.

Make sure you try to visit on a weekday. Weekends should be as busy as Busch on weekends. The park will likely host band competitions and school trips on Friday-Sunday like BGW so expect lots of buses filled with middle-high school students.

KD is smack dab in the middle between Williamsburg and DC. I'd stop by on the way down or up instead of making two trips.

^I agree regarding Kings Dominion--if Volcano's running, do that first, along with Flight of Fear and I305. Everybody tends to hit Dominator early as that's the first coaster they see, but lines for are usually shorter later in the day.

You might want to hit Shockwave early,too--the operations are terrible for that ride, and the line tends to be slow. If you're hitting KD on a Saturday, Fast Lane would be worth the money.

Hit dominator on your way out. It is a very efficient coaster and rarely breaks down. Hit up safari village attractions first, then move to the drop tower midway stuff, followed by old Virginia attractions, and by then you'll wind back up at the entrance. It's a very convenient layout circle, so it's not too hard to hit up all those rides. And definitely go to that park on a week day. Lines at BGW will almost always be shorter than the lines at KD, so go to KD on a week way, and it won't be that bad if you have to go to BGW on a weekend. For Busch, I recommend going to apollos chariot, then to verbolten and curse of Darkastle, then to Alpengeist and griffon, then to Loch Ness. And eat at trappers smoke house in Canada.

I think if you go to kings dominion only use fast lane on volcano as the line takes forever as it is always huge, i305 you never wait longer than 30 mins for and ive been to the park 5 times.. sometimes flight of fear has a long line we waited an hour for it but the line was moving regularly..Anaconda and shockwave are normaly walk on or at the most 10 mins as not many people go to those rides..Dominator and rebel yell lines go down quickly but they can be upto an hour, we waited 40 mins for dominator and 30 mins for rebel yell.. crypt, drop tower and wind seeker all take 30-50 mins, wind seeker can be upto 60 mins at times, but go on a thursday as the park is less busy, fri sat and sunday you wait at least an hour for most rides.

when we spent are first day at KD, we started at the front and waited long for most rides, like dominator had a huge line,but on the 2nd day we went straight to the back of the park and waited alot less, so if you get there before the park opens and have bought your tickets so you dont have to wait, run to volcano and saves you money:) from volcano go to i305 then do what ever is in the area, stay at the back of the park then start to progress round the park so volcano, i305, flight of fear ,anaconda, crypt, back lot stunt, domiantor, plannet snoopy if you want, shockwave, drop tower, wind seeker, grizzly, hurler, rebel yell, ricochet then do what ever you want, there is some flat rides i forgot out like that 360 pirate ship thingy i think that is behind dominator but we went on everything then went on that then went to i305 avalanche and flight of fear and for last time riding we went on volcano and got on it it dark cos the line was so long

hope this helps if you use it, it did when i went to KD

And now time for bg.. dosnt really matter what day, cos everyone goes straight to griffon and maybe verbolten as its new and the vertical drop so yea.. so go to appolos chariot and do the rapids and then yo down to mach tower and if its running go on that, then verbolten as it normaly dies down during the day, if it isnt leave it to last and go to alpengiest, lockness monster and griffon, then go back to verbolten as the line dies down.. But verbolten gets the longest lines as alot more people can go on it so familys go on it and that makes the line always seem long, but do it once then go to your fave ride, probs appolos chariot... at lunch time you should be neer griffon or alpengiest so there is plenty of good food there..

Both parks are amazing and i hope you enjoy your holiday there

Thank you so much for this information! And also on the website, for fast-lane, it doesn't say that I305 is on there, yet in the info it says that there is no front seat access to I305 while using fast-lane. Can anyone clear this up for me?

^Not sure what's up I305 and Fast Lane. It was definitely part of it last year, and it has a separate entrance in the queue. Maybe it's part of Fast Lane Plus.

I305 is on Fastlane but the front seat isn't included because of the fact that the line for the front seat starts outside the station so you can't really get in line for it from the Fastlane entrance which is inside the station. Fastlane rules at Kings Dominion, they let you right into the station on pretty much everything.

We used it at a Saturday in October last year when the park was mobbed and they sold out of Fastlanes and it still turned an hour plus wait for Stunt coaster, I305, Avalanche, Windseeker and Flight of Fear into a one train (cycle) station wait. On Volcano, it turns a 3 hour wait into a 20 minute wait and the most you'll wait for Dominator is 10 minutes.

I couldn't recommend Fastlane enough.