Trip Report
Master's Scholarship Day 3: Kings Dominion 18/08/14
As I explained in the previous write up, Cedar Fair, the huge American amusement park chain, has a ‘major’ and a ‘minor’ tier of parks. Whilst I feel Dorney fits into the upper range of the ‘minor’, Day 3’s park is very much a ‘major’. Being located in the south of Virginia, Kings Dominion is a good three and a half hours’ drive from Harrisburg, but despite the early start I was feeling fresh and after some beautiful Maryland countryside I arrived in rural Richmond.
The park is effectively sat in the middle of a field, far away from any civilisation, yet despite looking so open when you’re in it, it feels very enclosed. Like a number of current Cedar Fair properties, Kings Dominion was formerly owned by Paramount, and so the remnants of fairly high quality movie theming has remained. Obviously they have had to remove all intellectual property, which makes some rides look like cheap knock offs of films, but still it’s a far more immersive experience than your run off the mill American thrill park.
The park is effectively sat in the middle of a field, far away from any civilisation, yet despite looking so open when you’re in it, it feels very enclosed. Like a number of current Cedar Fair properties, Kings Dominion was formerly owned by Paramount, and so the remnants of fairly high quality movie theming has remained. Obviously they have had to remove all intellectual property, which makes some rides look like cheap knock offs of films, but still it’s a far more immersive experience than your run off the mill American thrill park.
Kings Dominion's oldest icon is a third-scale Eiffel Tower replica. It's one of four attractions that top 300ft
I am the kind of person who, once an idea is my head, runs with it until the bitter end, and since I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I wanted to maximise the number of parks I was doing. As if doing six on six consecutive days wasn’t enough, I had a few farfetched ideas that I could attempt if I was running ahead of time. The only one which I tried would be today, and it didn’t quite go to plan. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the sister park of the better known Busch Gardens Tampa in Florida, is located about an hour and a half south of Kings Dominion, and with the collection of roller coasters that they have (it’s arguably better than in Florida) I felt it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss, especially since the park is more quality over quantity, meaning I wouldn’t even need that much time. I was under the impression that Kings Dominion gets extremely busy, so I purchased my one and only fast track of the trip in order to get through the rides as quickly as possible. As it turned out the park was nearly dead, but that didn’t matter.
Dominator
The first ride of the day was installed after Cedar Fair took over, and is therefore literally plonked in the car park. Dominator, like Possessed, the Impulse Coaster at Dorney Park, was relocated from Geauga Lake in 2008 and is a B&M floorless coaster (the same model as Hydra at Dorney). When I reviewed Hydra I whined about standard floorless coasters following a generic pattern. Dominator starts in the regular format with a drop and a loop, but it then mixes things up brilliantly: the loop, which is one of the very biggest in the world, is followed by a close to the ground banked turn, which is navigated incredibly speedily, before a weird raised turnaround. The train then plunges into a cobra roll, inverting twice, before a midcourse brake run. The fairly standard pair or corkscrews precedes a surprising pop of airtime as you crash back to the station. I was completely blown away; at big parks like these multilooping roller coasters have become so common that they generally fail to deliver much real excitement for me, but Dominator has such a creative layout that it has jumped right into my top 15.
Dominator
The first ride of the day was installed after Cedar Fair took over, and is therefore literally plonked in the car park. Dominator, like Possessed, the Impulse Coaster at Dorney Park, was relocated from Geauga Lake in 2008 and is a B&M floorless coaster (the same model as Hydra at Dorney). When I reviewed Hydra I whined about standard floorless coasters following a generic pattern. Dominator starts in the regular format with a drop and a loop, but it then mixes things up brilliantly: the loop, which is one of the very biggest in the world, is followed by a close to the ground banked turn, which is navigated incredibly speedily, before a weird raised turnaround. The train then plunges into a cobra roll, inverting twice, before a midcourse brake run. The fairly standard pair or corkscrews precedes a surprising pop of airtime as you crash back to the station. I was completely blown away; at big parks like these multilooping roller coasters have become so common that they generally fail to deliver much real excitement for me, but Dominator has such a creative layout that it has jumped right into my top 15.
You can see here the tiny, intense banked turn after the massive loop on Dominator
I proceeded to follow the park around clockwise mopping up every coaster in my path. The winding trail that runs around the whole park is very reminiscent of Alton Towers, and although I’ve seen a lot of flak for Kings Dominion and its atmosphere as a whole, I thought it was really well presented and maintained. I headed through the kids Camp Snoopy area and got a quick ride on Woodstock Express, a tiny wooden coaster. It was perfectly enjoyable but I was obviously not quite the target demographic. Next was the park’s bobsled coaster, Avalanche. I have been on a few of these, including the unique wooden Flying Turns at Knoebels a few days earlier. They vary between being very forceful and being very lame; this was one of the better ones, it’s pretty long and picks up some good speed by the end.
Don't let it's seductive curves deceive you; Avalanche delivers some decent force
Volcano
The major ride in this area is Volcano: The Blast Coaster, which was apparently actually based on a 90s disaster film of the same name (I hadn’t heard of it). It’s one of the most unique and unusual large rides around; like the impulse coasters I mentioned earlier it is an inverted roller coaster built by Intamin that uses magnets to accelerate the train to high speeds. But unlike them it completes a full circuit and inverts a number of times. You start inside a huge man made volcano and are rocketed off at 70mph into the sunshine outside and through a huge swooping turn. The train is then accelerated back up to 70mph and into the mountain, before climbing a huge immelman inversion out of the mountain again. This part was all very fun; the launches aren’t that powerful (with magnets they never are) but they were exhilarating, and the swooping turn was a particular highlight. However from here the train proceeds to meander around in the air, occasionally throwing in weird, slow inline twists before dropping back to the station. It’s a horrible waste of track after a great start, and it left me quite disappointed.
The major ride in this area is Volcano: The Blast Coaster, which was apparently actually based on a 90s disaster film of the same name (I hadn’t heard of it). It’s one of the most unique and unusual large rides around; like the impulse coasters I mentioned earlier it is an inverted roller coaster built by Intamin that uses magnets to accelerate the train to high speeds. But unlike them it completes a full circuit and inverts a number of times. You start inside a huge man made volcano and are rocketed off at 70mph into the sunshine outside and through a huge swooping turn. The train is then accelerated back up to 70mph and into the mountain, before climbing a huge immelman inversion out of the mountain again. This part was all very fun; the launches aren’t that powerful (with magnets they never are) but they were exhilarating, and the swooping turn was a particular highlight. However from here the train proceeds to meander around in the air, occasionally throwing in weird, slow inline twists before dropping back to the station. It’s a horrible waste of track after a great start, and it left me quite disappointed.
The mountain is pretty, the launches are fun, but all that meandering is just plain weird
Flight of Fear
Kings Dominion have built so many launched roller coasters that for a while their claim to fame was being the launch coaster capital of the world. At one point they had four at the same time, and although that count is now down to three it’s still a clear focal point for the park. The oldest remaining one is Flight of Fear. This was the original magnetic launch roller coaster, and considering it’s a prototype it’s very impressive. Originally themed to the Outer Limits TV show, the ride is themed to an alien abduction and is done very well. It’s very similar to the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster rides at Disney parks, in that it is indoors and features multiple inversions, but quite frankly it’s far better. The theming is more thorough, the launch is better and the layout is much more exciting. The train first blasts through a huge cobra roll before slowing coasting around up in the air, it then falls back to earth continually accelerating through curves, dives and inversions. It’s truly pitch black, which is so much more effective than near-darkness, and with only lapbars it allows the rider a great deal of freedom.
Kings Dominion have built so many launched roller coasters that for a while their claim to fame was being the launch coaster capital of the world. At one point they had four at the same time, and although that count is now down to three it’s still a clear focal point for the park. The oldest remaining one is Flight of Fear. This was the original magnetic launch roller coaster, and considering it’s a prototype it’s very impressive. Originally themed to the Outer Limits TV show, the ride is themed to an alien abduction and is done very well. It’s very similar to the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster rides at Disney parks, in that it is indoors and features multiple inversions, but quite frankly it’s far better. The theming is more thorough, the launch is better and the layout is much more exciting. The train first blasts through a huge cobra roll before slowing coasting around up in the air, it then falls back to earth continually accelerating through curves, dives and inversions. It’s truly pitch black, which is so much more effective than near-darkness, and with only lapbars it allows the rider a great deal of freedom.
Flight of Fear is house in an Area 51 style warehouse
Intimidator 305
By the end of Paramount’s tenure things were getting a little ugly for all of their parks due to a lack of serious investment, and Kings Dominion was becoming little more than a pile of mid-sized launch coasters. Their flagship ride, Hypersonic, was plagued with downtime since its opening in 2001, and was removed completely by 2007. Cedar Fair took the initiative and in one fell swoop transformed the park from one struggling to maintain its status to one right at the top of the pile: they installed Intimdator 305. Intimidator was the nickname given to legendary late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. (whose son, Jr., is also a hugely accomplished driver) and unsurprisingly the ride is themed to a race circuit. At 305ft tall (hence the name) it’s the 8th tallest roller coaster on the planet, and hitting 90mph at the bottom of the 85 degree drop makes it one of the top 10 fastest too. Designated a ‘gigacoaster’ by its excess of 300ft, most would expect the ride to follow the huge lift hill and first drop with some massive hills and swooping turns. Instead, the ride barely gets above 100ft again for the whole ride, and this means it is almost literally blisteringly intense. Straight after the drop is a 270 degree turn flat to the ground on which virtually everybody, me included, completely blacks out. A lot of people don’t like the experience but it’s so powerful and terrifying that it’s pretty enjoyable really. So brutal was the ride that when it first opened it actually melted the wheels and part of this first turn had to be physically rebuilt. After the turn is the only large hill, where you regain your vision, before you plunge into the diving, darting second half. This finale is almost as intense as before, and snaps the train back and forward, all perfectly smoothly, throwing in the odd camelback hill before finally hitting the brakes. I had simply never done anything like it. All of my previous favourite rides were pretty relaxing, with drawn out drops and airtime hills, a few with some forceful and sometimes painful inversions, but this is just completely different. By the end my eyes were streaming and I felt like I’d just been mugged. Despite the intensity there’s no roughness at all, and it was such a frenetic experience that it leapt straight into my number 2 spot (I still rank airtime over intensity, so Goliath maintained number 1).
By the end of Paramount’s tenure things were getting a little ugly for all of their parks due to a lack of serious investment, and Kings Dominion was becoming little more than a pile of mid-sized launch coasters. Their flagship ride, Hypersonic, was plagued with downtime since its opening in 2001, and was removed completely by 2007. Cedar Fair took the initiative and in one fell swoop transformed the park from one struggling to maintain its status to one right at the top of the pile: they installed Intimdator 305. Intimidator was the nickname given to legendary late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. (whose son, Jr., is also a hugely accomplished driver) and unsurprisingly the ride is themed to a race circuit. At 305ft tall (hence the name) it’s the 8th tallest roller coaster on the planet, and hitting 90mph at the bottom of the 85 degree drop makes it one of the top 10 fastest too. Designated a ‘gigacoaster’ by its excess of 300ft, most would expect the ride to follow the huge lift hill and first drop with some massive hills and swooping turns. Instead, the ride barely gets above 100ft again for the whole ride, and this means it is almost literally blisteringly intense. Straight after the drop is a 270 degree turn flat to the ground on which virtually everybody, me included, completely blacks out. A lot of people don’t like the experience but it’s so powerful and terrifying that it’s pretty enjoyable really. So brutal was the ride that when it first opened it actually melted the wheels and part of this first turn had to be physically rebuilt. After the turn is the only large hill, where you regain your vision, before you plunge into the diving, darting second half. This finale is almost as intense as before, and snaps the train back and forward, all perfectly smoothly, throwing in the odd camelback hill before finally hitting the brakes. I had simply never done anything like it. All of my previous favourite rides were pretty relaxing, with drawn out drops and airtime hills, a few with some forceful and sometimes painful inversions, but this is just completely different. By the end my eyes were streaming and I felt like I’d just been mugged. Despite the intensity there’s no roughness at all, and it was such a frenetic experience that it leapt straight into my number 2 spot (I still rank airtime over intensity, so Goliath maintained number 1).
Intimidator 305's staggeringly tall first drop makes for a face-meltingly intense ride
A quick go on Anaconda, the old Arrow multilooper, brought me back to average-coaster earth with its neck-banging roughness (although it does have a very original submarine dive) and it was about now that I realised I needed some food.
Chick Fil A
Although I eat quite sensibly most of the time, I do love a bit of fast food (you may have realised) and there is nothing quite like McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets, well not until now anyway. I am lucky enough to have an American friend at university, and this allowed me to run food ideas by him before I went to check if they were worth it. Not only did he feel I should go there, but he also claimed their chicken nuggets were even better than McDonald’s. I had to go. I grabbed the regular chicken sandwich, the nuggets and a cookies and cream milkshake. The sandwich was good, but the nuggets and shake were out of this world. The best of each I have ever had, handsdown. You can see the cooks actually tearing up pieces of chicken in the kitchens and putting them in the fryer, so it’s clearly not the same reformed sludge McDonald’s uses. Time was of the essence however, so I downed my shake, glace cherry and all, and got in the queue for Shockwave.
Chick Fil A
Although I eat quite sensibly most of the time, I do love a bit of fast food (you may have realised) and there is nothing quite like McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets, well not until now anyway. I am lucky enough to have an American friend at university, and this allowed me to run food ideas by him before I went to check if they were worth it. Not only did he feel I should go there, but he also claimed their chicken nuggets were even better than McDonald’s. I had to go. I grabbed the regular chicken sandwich, the nuggets and a cookies and cream milkshake. The sandwich was good, but the nuggets and shake were out of this world. The best of each I have ever had, handsdown. You can see the cooks actually tearing up pieces of chicken in the kitchens and putting them in the fryer, so it’s clearly not the same reformed sludge McDonald’s uses. Time was of the essence however, so I downed my shake, glace cherry and all, and got in the queue for Shockwave.
Chick-Fil-A's advertising involves cows holding signs reading "EAT MOR CHIKIN". I complied.
Shockwave is an old standup roller coaster built by infamous Japanese manufacturer Togo. If you asked someone to describe Togo in a single word, it would almost certainly be “Ouch”. Their rides are sometimes even hilariously painful, and on top of that stand up rides are never comfortable for men. But I was pleasantly surprised: the harness comes from each side like a life jacket, and the first drop and loop were actually really fun. Just as I was thinking this to myself it all ended; my neck was violently smacked against the restraint. I spent the remainder of the ride wincing and clinging on for dear life and was very glad when it was over. These rides are getting removed quite frequently now, and I have a feeling Shockwave may be soon on its way.
Shockwave starts so well...and ends so poorly
The Rest
Paramount’s last addition was Italian Job: Stunt Track in 2006. The ride is a premier built multi-launch coaster. It only reaches speeds of 40mph, making it very family oriented, and at the time was well themed to the film’s iconic Mini chase. It is now known as Backlot Stunt Coaster, and as I said earlier it honestly looks like a poor rip off, but the ride itself is a good fun transition coaster for kids.
Paramount’s last addition was Italian Job: Stunt Track in 2006. The ride is a premier built multi-launch coaster. It only reaches speeds of 40mph, making it very family oriented, and at the time was well themed to the film’s iconic Mini chase. It is now known as Backlot Stunt Coaster, and as I said earlier it honestly looks like a poor rip off, but the ride itself is a good fun transition coaster for kids.
Seem vaguely familiar? Backlot Stunt Coaster's theme now seems rather tacky
I will often skip rides which are present at multiple parks and I know to be fairly average, as I had done with drop towers on the first two days, but Kings Dominion’s Drop Tower (yes, that’s its hugely creative name) is a little different. Firstly, it’s what’s known as a gyro drop. This means the carriage is a huge disk, with the seats mounted on the edge of it, so you’re suspended far away from the tower itself. The disk rotates as it ascends the tower, giving stunning views of the Virginian countryside. Secondly, it’s 305ft tall making it one of the very tallest in the world. Unlike most towers this high it wasn’t brutally intense, presumably because of the air resistance on the unusually shaped carriage, but this actually meant you could really enjoy the whole drop without it becoming overly intense. (For those intensely curious, the final attraction standing over 300ft tall is Windseeker, a dull and omnipotent chair swing ride suspended high in the air)
Drop Tower's unusual trains prevent it from being overly intense
The Wooden Coasters
About three quarters of the way around my clockwise park path reside all three of the park’s wooden roller coasters. This portion is the only really disappointing part of the park as all three rides are very poor and cover a large amount of real estate. Rebel Yell is the oldest of the three and a duelling out-and-back style coaster. It has an aggressive, fast layout, but it was much too painful to enjoy. Its similarity to Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain makes me feel RMC could do some great work converting into a racing steel coaster, but it is a little small.
The newest is Hurler, which was apparently originally themed to the Mike Myers movie Wayne’s World, but even that is 20 years old (not that old age makes for a bad roller coaster, it just demonstrates a lack of investment). It was very rough in patches and even when it wasn’t it just didn’t have anything interesting to speak of after a fun first drop.
About three quarters of the way around my clockwise park path reside all three of the park’s wooden roller coasters. This portion is the only really disappointing part of the park as all three rides are very poor and cover a large amount of real estate. Rebel Yell is the oldest of the three and a duelling out-and-back style coaster. It has an aggressive, fast layout, but it was much too painful to enjoy. Its similarity to Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain makes me feel RMC could do some great work converting into a racing steel coaster, but it is a little small.
The newest is Hurler, which was apparently originally themed to the Mike Myers movie Wayne’s World, but even that is 20 years old (not that old age makes for a bad roller coaster, it just demonstrates a lack of investment). It was very rough in patches and even when it wasn’t it just didn’t have anything interesting to speak of after a fun first drop.
Hurler: A solid first drop and not much else
The final one, Grizzly, is the best and by far the most interesting. While the other two sit completely exposed right in front of the woods, Grizzly actually heads into the forest and makes great use of the surroundings. Once again it is uncomfortable, but it has its moments and a lot of potential. Clearly the park was attempting to emulate the success of the Beast at its sister park, Kings Island, in Ohio, but this isn’t even of nearly the same scale to achieve that.
The area covered by these three coasters is huge, and if they were torn down and replaced by one large, state of the art woodie, and perhaps a smaller one as well to ensure ride capacity didn’t drop too dramatically, they would not be missed at all. Having done twelve coasters and a drop tower in four hours I was more than satisfied, and I headed out and onwards.
The area covered by these three coasters is huge, and if they were torn down and replaced by one large, state of the art woodie, and perhaps a smaller one as well to ensure ride capacity didn’t drop too dramatically, they would not be missed at all. Having done twelve coasters and a drop tower in four hours I was more than satisfied, and I headed out and onwards.
One last panorama of the stunning Intimidator 305
Intimidator 305: 10/10
Dominator: 9/10
Flight of Fear, Volcano, Drop Tower: 8/10
The Rest: 5/10
Overall: 8/10
Day 3 Part 2: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
I left Kings Dominion feeling very content, and once I had topped up the gas half an hour later the time was about 3, with the satnav telling me I had another hour to drive. With the park closing at 8, I would have four hours of riding time. Considering how empty Kings Dominion was, I wasn’t particularly worried, especially since there are only four major roller coasters. But as I left the gas station the heavens opened. This was my first case of rain, and I wasn’t sure of how American parks deal with it: in the UK parks are very much open in the rain (as is the case for most of the operating season), although rides will close in severe weather conditions. The rain was not ridiculously heavy so I continued on my path; I had nowhere else to be so I felt I needed to commit to the task. With half an hour to go the rain cleared, as did my head, foggy with doubt, but as I got very close it became completely torrential. It made for a very unpleasant drive where I legitimately could not see the car in front of me, and although I safely made it to the parking lot, it was very clear the rides were not open. There was now full on thunder and lightning, and people were pouring out of the park and into their cars. I had a full view of Apollo’s Chariot, the B&M hyper coaster, and needless to say I didn’t see a single train run. After about 20 minutes of the weather worsening I abandoned my mission and began the five hour journey home.
Dominator: 9/10
Flight of Fear, Volcano, Drop Tower: 8/10
The Rest: 5/10
Overall: 8/10
Day 3 Part 2: Busch Gardens Williamsburg
I left Kings Dominion feeling very content, and once I had topped up the gas half an hour later the time was about 3, with the satnav telling me I had another hour to drive. With the park closing at 8, I would have four hours of riding time. Considering how empty Kings Dominion was, I wasn’t particularly worried, especially since there are only four major roller coasters. But as I left the gas station the heavens opened. This was my first case of rain, and I wasn’t sure of how American parks deal with it: in the UK parks are very much open in the rain (as is the case for most of the operating season), although rides will close in severe weather conditions. The rain was not ridiculously heavy so I continued on my path; I had nowhere else to be so I felt I needed to commit to the task. With half an hour to go the rain cleared, as did my head, foggy with doubt, but as I got very close it became completely torrential. It made for a very unpleasant drive where I legitimately could not see the car in front of me, and although I safely made it to the parking lot, it was very clear the rides were not open. There was now full on thunder and lightning, and people were pouring out of the park and into their cars. I had a full view of Apollo’s Chariot, the B&M hyper coaster, and needless to say I didn’t see a single train run. After about 20 minutes of the weather worsening I abandoned my mission and began the five hour journey home.
The worst sight you could see: Apollo's Chariot's hills remain dormant in the deluge
