May 26 and 27, 2023
I caught an Uber from Williamsburg up to Doswell, which was an interesting one-hour drive in a stinky car with a dodgy driver. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I arrived at the La Quinta hotel. Sure, these are known as budget hotels, but my experiences so far were that they were reliable, clean, comfortable, and in great proximity to amusement parks.
I was grateful that the staff allowed me to store my baggage prior to check in, as they did not seem keen at all. They had no specific storage area, so I had to negotiate leaving it a small room behind the desk. This was to become a bugbear of the trip! I walked across the road luggage free, ready for a day at Kings Dominion.
The planning of this trip took several weeks, meticulously rearranging the schedule in an attempt to avoid weekends at the parks while arriving on weekdays that would actually be open. Kings Dominion was the only park I couldn’t find a solution for, so I ended up being there on the Friday and Saturday of Memorial Day long weekend, which was also Military appreciation week (I think this meant free entry for past and present veterans). I was apprehensive about potential crowds, so I bought a fast pass in advance for Saturday, and decided to wing it on Friday.
This was my fourth time visiting a Cedar Fair park, so the vibe felt quite familiar. Planet Snoopy was the standard area for kids, the theming around the park was kind of average, things were clean and tidy with nice landscaping, and there were some cracking rides!
Crowd numbers were low, and every ride was a walk on for the first three hours. I viewed every day I didn’t need to buy a fast pass as a lottery win, as I was saving lots of money! I appreciated a 9am opening after the late start at Busch Gardens. I wandered past the replica Eiffel Tower and fountain area, which took me back to my King’s Island trip in 2011.
I headed left, straight for an imposing looking coaster called Dominator. Seriously, can you buy shares in B&M? I love these giant steel tracks! Dominator had a huge vertical loop and is apparently the world’s longest floorless coaster. The staff working this ride were some of the best that I encountered, appearing to actually enjoy their jobs and interacting positively with guests. This wasn’t one of my favourite B&Ms as I felt it was lacking some airtime hills, but it was still a lot of fun, so I jumped on for a second turn.
I passed through Planet Snoopy, noting that the standard Woodstock Express wooden coaster for kids was down, and I wasn’t allowed on the Great Pumpkin Coaster without a kid (damn these rules!) I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I jumped on to the Boo Blasters on Boo Hill ride. This haunted house themed indoor ride consists of a very slow moving train complete with laser gun to shoot the ghouls. I find these attractions fairly boring, and this one was no exception. I do think that you can find a positive with every ride though, so I guess this would be a good indoor option on a really hot or a rainy day?
Leaving Planet Snoopy, I arrived in the Jungle X-pedition area. I liked the good attempt at theming here, from the tiki hut bathrooms to the bongo drums playing over the loudspeakers. In this area I rode Tumbili first, which was a reasonable back up for the closed Joker at Six Flags Great America. While I enjoy the unpredictability and forceful flips of free spinning seats, the track was so short that the ride was over in about 30 seconds. The Green Lantern coaster at Movie World in Australia has a much better track. It is not often I rate an Aussie coaster over an American one, so you know that Tumbili was a little disappointing. If you could combine the Tumbili seats with the Green Lantern track, you would have a winner!
I enjoyed Reptilian next, a bobsled style ride similar to various models in Germany. These are always a bit of fun once your train exits the coaster track for the gravity slide section. It kind of feels like chucking a toboggan on a waterslide and hoping for the best.
It was nice to revisit the Backlot Stunt Coaster in this area, which I had ridden before at Kings Island. The car themed trains quickly launch from the load station, zipping around a small track before coming to halt. Gunfire and flame surrounds, before being launched again into a tunnel for a fun little drop at the end.
Anaconda was closed at that point, but I wasn’t overly upset since it was an old Arrow model. Instead I went to the indoor coaster, Flight of Fear, which I had also ridden before at Kings Island. Visitors are forced to pay for lockers for this attraction, as the load and unload sections are in different areas. I loved the first launch rocketing away from those pesky aliens, before experiencing various rolls and inversions in the almost pitch black shed. This is still a really fun ride, but I was surprised that it made me quite dizzy. Grey outs, and now dizziness? What was happening to me? I loved Verbolten at Busch Gardens much more than Flight of Fear. More laughs, less head spinning.
While my bag was in the locker, I headed down to the main attraction of the park, an Intamin giga coaster called Intimidator 305 (the 305 refers to the height of the drop in feet). Only five feet short of the Millennium Force drop height, the first lift hill looked just as excellent. I questioned the logic of naming a coaster after Dale Earnhardt, a race car driver who was killed in a crash, but as long as the family supported it, I was ok with it too. The coaster had a delayed opening, but luck was on my side and it opened just as I arrived. Woo hoo no queue!
I jumped straight into the back row, noting that I tend to prefer backseat rides to the front row. The revving sound effects were great, followed by “Gentlemen start your engines.” Yep, this was the first gender exclusive ride I had ever experienced which sucked. That aside, the quick ascent on lift hill provided excellent views, but didn’t scare me like the thrill of Millennium Force due to the lack of a lake. The first drop was super fun, and then came an incredibly forceful turn to the right. Sure enough another grey out occurred, and this was the best/worst one yet. The vision in my left eye didn’t just go blurry, it went completely white. It also lasted about 5 seconds which felt much longer than ones I had experienced on other rides. I read that the grey outs and blackouts were so severe when this coaster first opened, that they had to adjust the track. I305 was epic. It was like combining the height and speed of Millennium Force with the whipped turns of Maverick. For my second turn I tried the second row, and didn’t experience any grey outs at all. I guess the back is best after all!
After grabbing my belongings, I retraced my steps and went to the central area of the park known as Candy Apple Grove. I thought that the “lands” were quite free flowing, so you weren’t really sure where one section started and ended. That didn’t detract from the park though in my opinion.
Racer 75 was next, except that it wasn’t exactly a racing coaster since only one train was going. This historic wooden coaster was opened in 1975, and I don’t think the width of the trains has changed since then. It was the closest I came throughout the whole trip to NOT fitting in the seat. The lap bar came down easily, but I really had to push down hard to get my hips in. Honestly the lap bar was probably unnecessary. I wasn’t going anywhere! Racer 75 was not in the same league as coasters like Cedar Point’s Gemini, but those old school, lengthy up and back tracks sure are fun!
I was super excited to see another RMC coaster, called Twisted Timbers. This had been converted from an old school wooden coaster called Hurler. Twisted Timbers looked like a mini Steel Vengeance, as it did not have the height or calibre of drops as my favourite RMC, but sure had some whacky twists and turns which did not disappoint. I loved the theming of a creepy apple grove and can imagine this area being out of this world during Halloween events. Like Steel Vengeance, a metal detector was employed. This is understandable since a lady was hit by a flying phone from this ride and received stitches. There has to be a more efficient way to use the metal detector on this ride though. It really slowed the queue down, but as soon as you got past it, the load station was empty. As a result, there were vacant seats on every single train. After my first turn, I worked out that I needed to lift my buckled seat belt up high, before the lap bar and shin lock came down. Otherwise, it got stuck under the lap bar, causing significant pain when your legs hit it on the airtime hills. I will never get over how smooth these rides are. Love love love!
My next coaster was the first one I waited for all day, and it was just a shiny looking wild mouse model called Apple Zapple. The 15 minute wait wasn’t too bad, considering that these kinds of family rides often have lengthy queues. As mentioned before, their low thrill factor and accessibility makes them suitable for people of all ages, unlike bigger coasters with height restrictions and scary tracks. The first drop was fun, but dare I say it…you’ve ridden one wild mouse you’ve ridden them all…
The final area of Kings Dominion was called Old Virginia. I was hanging out for a wooden coaster called Grizzly, which had recently reopened after significant renovations. This coaster was a replica of The Bush Beast (RIP), a great wooden coaster I rode as a kid at Australia’s Wonderland in Sydney.
You had to enter through the shop to get to the ride, which was a little odd. The queue area was lovely and shaded, which was welcomed since I waited 30 minutes. Only one train was being used, which I suspected was due to staffing shortages once again. This gave me time to admire the track. You could see which planks had been replaced by newer wood, and online reports suggested the coaster was now much smoother. You could also see some significant swaying of the track and support structures as the train went around the curves. Kudos to the engineers!
Grizzly was a really fun ride that took me back to my childhood. I must admit The Bush Beast model seemed much bigger and scarier to a 10-year-old, whereas today these coasters feel like solid family coasters.
I thought I would check on the Woodstock Express as I headed back to the front of the park. I could tell from far away that it was open…the line was huge! With only one train running, every parent and their child was showing signs of frustration and boredom in the 30-minute queue. I must admit the wait went quickly, because I was stunned by some family drama. A girl aged about twelve and her brother who looked about six, were engaging in a full-on punch up about 5 people in front of me. There was hitting, kicking, headlocks, hair pulling and pushing to the ground. I looked around at various parents who kind of raised their eyebrows in a disapproving way but didn’t actually say anything. At one point I made eye contact with the sister and asked if they were ok. Both kids ignored me. 5 minutes later, their mother comes pushing through the line without so much of an “excuse me.” Her manner was almost as loud as the g-string that was hanging out of her jeans. She was dragging 3 small children along with her. The youngest boy who looked about four had a massive meltdown, with the mother trying to handle him in a rough way. In tears, he wandered back through the queue system again. I bent down to redirect him to his Mum, but he kept going. Nobody else said anything. A couple of minutes later, Mum realised her son was missing and hurriedly pushed through the queue again. The older two kids returned to punching. During a reprieve I looked sympathetically at the sister, saying that it can be hard being a big sister sometimes. Again, I got no response. Glad to get away from the drama, I jumped on the train for a surprisingly fun little wooden coaster.
I think there are about 7 coasters with this name at Cedar Fair parks, but each feels a little different. I don’t really know why, but the Kings Dominion model felt a bit more intense than the other ones I had been on.
I was heading back down to Intimidator to finish the day off, when I noticed that Anaconda had opened. Like Loch Ness at Busch Gardens, and the Gold Coaster in Queensland, the head/brain/neck rattle was not pleasant. Online, people seem to have so much love for these historic Arrow coasters. There has to be a way to extend their life without causing concussions though. Perhaps taller people have a better experience? All I know is that my ears seem to be the perfect height to cop a bashing from the harness every time! The novelty of Anaconda was that it had an underwater section. This looked cool from the queue area, but when onboard just felt like a regular tunnel.
So with 16 rides in just over four hours, I had done everything I wanted to and decided it was time to call it a day. The crowds were also building due to a large number of choirs and bands that were performing. My timing was perfect!
The park was so nicely laid out, that my step count was very low compared to other days. The signage was good, the pathways efficient, and the space used well. I went back to the hotel for a rest and to catch up on some blogging. The fun wasn’t over for the day though! One of my favourite people was flying in from New York to meet me that afternoon, for Kings Dominion round two. Mez and I were in the same calisthenics team in Canberra many years ago, and she is just a gem of a human being. We chatted for hours and hours, catching up on life at La Quinta. We ordered in for dinner and had such a wonderful lazy evening. I couldn’t wait to take Mez on all the great rides the next day!
Day 2
The park didn’t open until 11am on Saturday. Mez and I arrived just before 10.30am, and the queues to get in the front gates were already massive. It was also the first day of the season that the water park (Soak City) was opened, so we hoped that some of the queue would be heading there instead of the main park.
Once through the gates, we enjoyed a military band playing in front of the fountains.
Mez wanted to work up to the bigger rides, so I suggested we head to Grizzly and Apple Zapple first. These two rides were not included on the fast passlist, so I thought it made sense to get there early. Woodstock Express didn’t accept the fast pass either, but since the line was stupidly long all day, we didn’t bother.
Nobody was lining up for Grizzly, so we rode the front carriage first, then went straight to the back carriage without needing to line up again. It was great to see that two trains were operating!
We then walked on to both Apple Zapple, and straight on to the front row followed by the back row for Twisted Timbers.
I had bought a photo pass for the day, so by this point I was brainstorming staged photo ideas with Mez. We tried to get a calisthenics inspired shot on Twisted Timbers, but Mez struggled to lift her arms due to the speed and forces. Several of our photos from that ride are just us laughing our heads off about how we were failing.
We got straight onto Racer (still just using one train), and then used our fast pass for Tumbili. This was a frustrating experience, as operators were loading one side with the fast pass queue, and one side with the general queue. The fast pass queue was just as long as the general queue, so we waited about 30 minutes. Only 4 people could be loaded on each side at a time. During our wait we saw quite a few people not fitting in the harnesses, and so they had to walk away from the ride. This made me feel so sad every time, but also motivated me not to put on any more weight so I can continue to get my adrenalin fixes. Throughout this trip I saw numerous staff working in pairs to jump on harnesses in an attempt to get them down over larger guests. If it ever gets to that point for me, there is no way I would feel safe on that ride!
Mez and I jumped straight on to Reptilian, which is much more fun with a buddy. This was followed by Stunt Coaster and Anaconda (which like yesterday also had a delay in starting). We were getting through the easy and medium level rides really quickly. Mez did not have the luxury of acclimatising to my go go go approach at parks, so she was starting to feel a bit off. She mentioned that she went on about three coasters the last time she was at a park a few years earlier. We decided to slow down and grab some overpriced deep-fried lunch. I got a burger and fries despite knowing better but ended up throwing half of it away. We could have easily shared one meal.
After a bit of a break, we lined up for Flight of Fear. Again the fast pass queue was quite long, but our 30 minute wait was nothing compared to the general queue. I was so grateful to have Mez with me. The waits are so much easier to deal with when you can pass the time chatting and playing games.
Then it came time for Intimidator 305 once more. I was so excited to take Mez on this one! I had told her that I had greyed out on a ride the previous day, but didn’t tell her which one. In fact I didn’t tell her anything about the rides, because I didn’t want to spoil the experiences for her. That first time on a coaster is always the best, particularly when you have no idea what is going to happen! We had a short delay for another spewer, then sat down on the exact same spew train for an epic ride. I spotted Mez closing her eyes every now and then which I could totally understand.
She is a champion though, and not once did she hesitate about going on any of the rides! In the souvenir shop, I bought a shot glass, and Mez purchased some Tylenol.
She needed a lie down, but thankfully rest areas and benches were in plentiful supply. While Mez was correcting her equilibrium, I checked out more of the shops.
We got a second wind, and I encouraged Mez to go on a kiddy ride with me (Snoopy’s Rocket Express) which was a little bit like an open air monorail. We had a little wait, got some nice views of the park, and had more time to settle our stomachs before hitting the big coasters again.
At this point, Dominator had been closed for most of the day. As it was now open, we jumped on board for a couple of turns. We re-rode Flight of Fear and Twisted Timbers, then I finished the day with a solo trip on Intimidator 305.
As it turns out, not many people were at the water park that day due to the cooler temperatures, which kept the crowds at the main park busy. We were still able to ride everything though, and despite the 10pm closing time, we called it quits at 7pm. We knew that the fireworks were scheduled, but just couldn’t see ourselves waiting it out for another three hours. After resting at the hotel, we did wander into the nearby car park at 10pm to watch the fireworks from afar. Note to self: the 7-11 pizza slices are tasty, but not good for your guts.
I spoke more in those 1.5 days with Mez, than I had during the last two weeks. I was sad that our time was over, but thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share my love of rollercoasters with such a great person.
I got an Uber at stupid O’clock the following morning, heading to the Greyhound bus station. Charlotte here I come!
Roller Coaster Ramble 