Greetings Loopies, Braedon here with a park report. I made my first trip over to the east coast this past weekend to join Clint at a few parks. We visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg, as well as Kings Dominion. We did visit while haunt/hall o scream was going on but I will just focus on the parks their self.
Kings Dominion:
After about 35 minutes driving along highway heading north out of Richmond, VA, I noticed the glowing tower of Windseeker peak over the tree line letting me know that I was indeed close to the park. I arrived too late to enjoy the park Friday evening but did get a good view of the lights and skyline of the park from Kings Quarters where I was scheduled to stay for the next few nights. The “Parking lot” appeal is good and the site of the coaster peering over the tree line is always a nice site. The Eiffel Tower was glowing red and adorned red glowing eyes at the top to let everyone know that Halloween is taking place at the park.
Over the course of the day we rode every single coaster in the park, every maze, and wondered every scare zone. We also took a ride on Drop Tower. I made sure to ride my favorite coasters at night to make sure to take in the whole experience. We all know a coaster at night can really change the ride experience. Below are my quick reviews of each Coaster.
Dominator:A great smooth floorless coaster with a nice B&M roar. Rode second row to the back and enjoyed it. This coaster was relocated from Geauga Lake and was placed at the front of the park. Great warm up coaster when you enter the park.
Avalanche: This was my first bobsled coaster and was excited to ride this. Very smooth, fun corners and a nice ride. I would suggest a new train upgrade as the seating is inefficient and not the best seating arrangement.
Flight Of Fear: I have ridden the one at Kings island so this one was a clone of Kings Island. I had ridden this one in the front seat at Kings Island. This time around I rode a towards the rear which resulted in a much better ride. Still a fun ride but not the smoothest ride still.
Intimadator 305: I am going to just go ahead and say this was my favorite ride in the park. At night was an absolute blast. This is in my my top 5 favorite coasters I believe. I may of just snuck into my top 5. Love the lift hill, similar to Millennium force. A fantastic drop into a fast right hand corner and then begins the air time hills and the whip like direction changes. I feel like this is a Millennium Force and Maverick coming together very nicely. Highly recommend the back and at night.
Grizzly: Love this coaster! In the back of course is fantastic! That first drop really launched me out of my seat. Again, this is a must ride at night. This would be my second favorite ride in the park (at night) The tunnel is fantastic, there are maybe two moments when it gets a bit rough for 1 second but thats it. A very fun woody.
The Hurler: Now I am confused on Kings Dominions choice to open another woody coaster right next to grizzly. It was a decent ride but boy is it rough! The first right hand fast corner and final right hand corner was very rough. Again, fun ride but its showing its age.
Rebel Yell:Was excited to ride Rebel Yell knowing about it from the movie Roller Coaster. Have to admit this was a very fun woody as well. Great ejector air time and was not too rough. They were only running the right side and was not able to right the left side there.
Ricochet: Fun mouse coaster located back by The Hurler. I am a fan of mouse coasters and always recommend the front seat.
Woodstock Express: This is a clone of the same coaster at Kings Island so It was very familiar. I love this ride and wish I could have this in my back yard. If I was a kid, this would be my favorite ride in the park.
Shockwave: …….Just no. terrible. The worst. What in the world are they thinking keeping this ride open? The harness’s were the absolute worse “engineering” I have ever seen. Once locked in you can just rock the whole mechanism around a good few inches either way. I don’t get why this is even open still. the track its self….not very rough. The corrections and the harnesses make it absolutely awful.
Anaconda: I will admit I was fearing this as it is an Arrow Dynamics built roller coaster but to my surprise It was a fun little ride. It does get a tad rough but not bad. It is the only “under water tunnel” on any coaster ( Or I believe the first? not sure) Dont fear the Snake and give it a ride.
Backlot Stunt Coaster: A fun kids launch style coaster which again is a clone from kings island. To my surprise, all the special effects were working! The ride operator said they had fixed all the effects a few weeks before. I always enjoy the last leg of the ride over the first leg.
Volcano: An inverted coaster launches out of the top of a volcano, you then cruise around the mountain making slow speed heart line rolls. Fun invert ride!
Sadly wind seeker was closed what some reason. It was testing but then sat closed the rest of the evening.
The Park its self was nice and not what I expected. Lots of trees, landscaping and clean walk ways. They had the halloween decorations up but from what I could see the park is taken care of pretty well. I enjoy the park layout and the park its self is over all a nice place to visit. The food was decent and priced a little high. $4 for a 10″ churro is armed robbery! Over all I had a really fun time and it having haunt the same time as my visit gave me a different type of experience then an average day. Stay tuned for a Haunt report coming at the end of the month.
-Braedon
