This past Labor Day weekend, Olivia and I were lucky enough to visit one of our three “home parks” in Cedar Fair’s Kings Dominion, just north of Richmond, VA. This is a park that I have grown up with, and it’s been interesting to see its transformation over the years. Take a look at the video below for the recap of our trip to Kings Dominion:
Being what we thought would be a very busy holiday weekend, Olivia and I purchased Fast Lane for the day. Since we knew we had to head back home later in the afternoon, we wanted to be sure we could get on everything in a timely manner.
My last visit to KD came in 2019 on a work trip, while Olivia’s last time had been in 2018, just two weeks after the infamous Volcano went down for the season. A short time later, we found out this coaster would not be returning due to rising maintenance costs and increasing downtime. I really wish Olivia had gotten a chance to experience this one of a kind coaster, but I’m sure she hears enough about its awesomeness from yours truly. As a kid, I was fortunate enough to get this credit, in addition to the also defunct Shockwave and Hypersonic XLC. I will forever miss these attractions, but I am very pleased with the direction that KD is heading in and I’m confident they will make up for the losses of these past thrill machines.
Starting our day off early at park opening (11am), we were greeted with a modest crowd waiting to enter the main gate around 10:30am. A short wait later and we were in the park heading towards our first attraction. I love how a lot of parks are handling the opening phase of their daily operations, and KD was no different. The front of the park was opened around 10:40 or so, but we were blocked off from the back of the park until 11. This allowed people to begin heading in comfortably, it avoids a ridiculous line at security and turnstiles, and overall just makes for a much more enjoyable experience in the morning.
After the quick ten minute wait on the barricade behind the Eiffel Tower, the running of the bulls commenced and we were off towards our first coaster of the day, Twisted Timbers. This is a magnificent Rocky Mountain Construction creation, and it spawned from one of the classic woodies at the park, the Hurler. RMC is known for their innovative approach to retracking and re-structuring old woodies to breathe new life into them, and this design is no different. It has all the trademarks of a great RMC: ridiculous airtime, a smooth ride, and an all around forceful experience. So forceful in fact, that I sometimes get some bruising from the restraints used in the ride vehicles. I have recently learned how to sit in the RMC cars a bit better without receiving so much pressure on the intense airtime moments. For taller individuals, if you sit with your heels all the way to the back of the vehicle (almost raising them off the floor of the train), this allows for more room within the lap bar and provides a much more enjoyable ride.
We were able to ride this coaster twice, once in the front and once in the back. The front row ride was good, but the back is definitely where its at on this attraction. The rear of the train seemed way more forceful, with some downright violent airtime over the three successive airtime hills. The new locker system the park has instituted on this coaster is a welcome upgrade over previous seasons, and we were able to keep our belongings stored for both of our laps on Twisted Timbers. An excellent way to start the morning, we were off an headed to our next coaster.
Since the day was still young and crowds had not filtered to the back area of the park just yet, we decided to take a spin on the parks wild mouse coaster, Apple Zapple. This is typically a skip for us, but with such a short queue we decided to give it a shot. Nothing super special to write home about, but Olivia and I had a good time on our ride, and I’m sure this coaster is a hit with the kiddos. Two down and on to the next.
Opting to get our “less-smooth” coasters out of the way, we hit the park’s two woodies, Grizzly and Racer 75 in quick succession, followed by a lap on Anaconda, the parks 90’s era Arrow looper. Grizzly was the roughest of the bunch, and even though it is a tolerable ride, this attraction could definitely use a re-tracking. The coaster has a great layout and is in an even better location, it just is a bit too uncomfortable and detracts from the ride experience a good bit. I’m sure a good re-tracking effort would do wonders for this coaster, as it would probably bring back a good bit of speed and airtime.
Racer 75 on the other hand was a relatively smooth experience. This coaster has received a re-track in recent years, and you can certainly tell with how this nearly 50 year old coaster traverses its out and back layout. Unfortunately for our visit, they only had the south side running, so we missed out on the best feature of the attraction, but it was still an enjoyable ride nonetheless. Even got a few pops of airtime on the outbound trip of the course.
Anaconda was the last coaster of this bunch, and even though it gets a good amount of hate from the roller coaster community, I didn’t find it to be all that bad. Yes, the twister section of the mid-course brake run is odd, but that doesn’t take away from the powerful first two inversions and the great hangtime moments in the double corkscrew finale. I think this is a fine ride, nothing special but definitely worth keeping around for a few more years. It’s a classic Arrow looper as well, so I would think coaster enthusiasts would be all for saving a historic steel coaster that just celebrated it’s 30 year anniversary.
We took a quick ride on Backlot Stunt Coaster which was nearby. Nothing to right home about. We had just ridden a much superior version of this coaster just a few short weeks ago at Kings Island, so this one wasn’t too impressive. It was still fun, and we got a front row ride; but literally none of the special effects worked on this coaster and it just seemed super neglected and sad. This thing needs some love.
From there, we headed to the crown jewel of the park in i305. We headed to the rear of the station for a back row ride. This was a hell of a choice, because I have never greyed out harder on this coaster before. It was incredibly intense, and I didn’t regain visibility until after the camelback. The ride is such a beast and I am such a fan of it, but unfortunately it was a one and done for us on this visit. We should’ve ridden further up the train, in retrospect. I always love coming back to ride this attraction.
At this point we needed some sustenance, and (of course) we hopped in line for some appetizer pretzel bites from Auntie Anne’s. Next, Olivia and I shared a grilled chicken plate from the newest restaurant in the park called Grain and Grill. The chicken had some great flavor to it, was cooked nicely, and came with a side of au gratin potatoes that were delicious as well. We highly recommend this dining location for some healthier food options.
We digested our food with a ride up to the Eiffel Tower observation deck for some epic views of the park. From there we headed back for a spin on the classic antique cars attraction. These are always a blast and it was fun to compare this one with the others we’ve done recently. We are such kids lol.
We finished off our day with another spin on Twisted Timbers in the back row (our best ride yet); and finally a ride on the park’s B&M floorless, Dominator. Both coasters were running extemely well, both rides were super intense, and we were spent from our full day at the park. We headed for the exit, which was thankfully just a few short steps away.
We had such an unbelievable time at this park, and we were pleasantly surprised by how clean everything seemed, how well maintained the guests areas were, how kind and speedy ride ops were–pretty much every expectation was exceeded on this visit. Our Fast Lane helped in multiple scenarios and we were happy to have purchased it. I would recommend it on most weekend visits, holidays especially, as it allowed us to get on everything in the short timeframe we had available (in addition to a few re-rides).
We always have a blast coming to Kings Dominion, and this time was certainly no different. Thanks for reading along on another theme park adventure, and be sure to stay tuned for our next episode: a visit to one of America’s most historic theme parks, Kennywood.
– Walker
Texas-Ranger Travels 