This past Saturday & Sunday (June 3-4th), Olivia and I jumped in the car to make an early morning trek to visit two of our favorite home amusement parks: Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg!
See below for a recap of both of our amazing park visits:
We had such a blast at both parks and were very satisfied with all that we accomplished over our two days in Virginia. The weekend started with a 10:30am arrival (for an 11am park opening) at Kings Dominion. This granted us a spot towards the front of the security lineup, so we were able to race back to twisted Timbers for two incredible rides on this world-class RMC. So much airtime and ridiculous pacing even for first rides of the morning.
From there we made the short walk over to Grizzly, one of the main reasons for our visit this time around. The classic woodie was recently re-tracked by the Gravity Group, and we were very impressed by the renovation. There is still a bit more work to do as the last 1/3 or so of the ride was left untouched, but the coaster is so much more enjoyable now and I’m hoping they’ll continue the process and address the last portion in the coming offseason.
Our next coaster was a brand new credit for me in Tumbili, a new for 2022 free spin located in the newest themed section of the park, Jungle Expedition. Although the free spin didn’t do a whole lot for me, it was an intense little filler attraction that I was happy to get on—particularly with a short wait. The theming in this area is really the highlight, and I’m hoping Cedar Fair continues this trend moving forward.
Our last two coasters of the day were Backlot Stunt Coaster and Intimidator 305. The former was just fine, nothing super special, but the latter was (and always is) the most intense coaster experience I’ve ever been apart of. I305 is relentless from start to finish, and honestly it feels like it’s trying to euthanize you as the forces can be a bit overwhelming at times. Nevertheless, it is such a unique attraction and one I recommend for any true coaster lover.
After some shaved ice and Auntie Anne’s pretzel bites, we were on our way to Williamsburg for Saturday night + Sunday morning at BGW. Just as we expected, we arrived to a relatively busy park but we’re able to get on Finnegan’s Flyer with just a two cycle wait. From there, we went on a tear enjoying some of the food and drink offerings. Our trip aligned with the park’s annual Food and Wine festival, so we started with some tacos and margs from the Mexico booth that were delicious. From there, we indulged in some bacon & cheddar fries from the legendary Les Frites, and we capped it all off with a strawberry shortcake funnel cake. Of course we split all these items, but we were more than stuffed after this endeavor. What better way to settle your stomach than with roller coasters! We closed out the night with rides on Griffon & Apollo’s Chariot, with plans to return early the next morning for a special treat…
Sunday began bright and early from the employee entrance at BGW, as we had to arrive at the park by 8:45am for our Roller Coaster Insider tour that we booked about a week prior! The tour was everything I expected and more, beginning with a walkthrough of the Verbolten show building and drop track/final launch area. We were also able to get the first rides of the day on the coaster which was super cool. From there, we made our way to the maintenance areas of both Alpengeist and Griffon, getting two rides on each along the way. The final stop of the tour concluded at the Loch Ness maintenance area; unfortunately that coaster was down so we were unable to ride but they did give us a remittance pass to come back which was nice.
All in all, the tour was a fantastic experience. It was awesome to be some of the first in the park and see it without any visitors, in addition to seeing and learning so many things about BGW and its collection of coasters. It was only $55/person with our membership discount and the tour lasted about 2.5 hours.
With our energy running low, we got two incredible rides on Pantheon and finished with my all time favorite, Escape from Pompeii. Our one miss of the weekend was the all new DarKoaster as it consistently had wait times north of 100 minutes. I’ve heard it’s a fun coaster but definitely not worth that long of a wait, so we decided to bag it as we know we will be returning soon enough.
To sum it all up, we had an incredible day and a half bouncing around the amusement parks of Virginia. We are so lucky to have these (and Carowinds) within a 3 hour drive, and I’m glad we got to take advantage of it this weekend. The Roller Coaster tour was definitely the highlight, and I would highly recommend this experience to anyone that loves the park or coasters in general. We’ll be back in action soon enough but thank you so much for following along on this adventure, we’ll see ya in the next one!
– Walker
Texas-Ranger Travels 