Ptr- Kings Dominion/sfa 8/23/17-8/25/17

A little background before I begin- Kings Dominion is a park I have only visited once, way back in March/April 2005. Since that time, a lot has changed at KD. The park has seen a change in ownership/management plus added a variety of new attractions, including Intimidator 305, which has been a bucket-list coaster of mine for 7 years now. My opinion of KD based on my 2005 trip was that while it was a good park, it seemed to be missing...something. Keep in mind, I caught the park very early in the season with Drop Tower and Grizzly down for maintenance and Hypersonic broke down at about 11am right before I boarded (and never reopened). Still, I never felt compelled to travel back to the park, despite the park having no significant flaws.

Anyway, on a random night 2-3 weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to take a small roadtrip to end the summer.. I had already visited LC and SFNE this summer on a mini-trip. I hit Hershey last season as well. That left Knoebels or a KD/SFA combo. Considering I needed that I305 credit and had never visited SFA before, the choice was easy for me...KD/SFA it was.

PSA-Up until Sunday night, my plan was to stay at the Centerstone Inn (basically an on-site hotel) from Tuesday-Thursday. We booked the hotel two weeks in advance. With the weather report showing scattered thunderstorms all day Wednesday since early last week, we decided we would try and play things safe and book Wednesday-Friday (arriving Wednesday, visiting Thursday, then hitting SFA on the way back home on Friday). However, the Centerstone Inn was very shady about re-arranging the dates. At first, they said that they had no rooms with a queen bed available on Thursday. Then, they said that they had no reservations booked for us on the original dates. This was bull as when I initially gave them my last name to retrieve booking info, they confirmed that my first name was Alex. After arguing with Expedia over this hotel's shadiness, we got our refund and booked the Days Inn across from the park instead.

Day 1:

Considering the weather in Doswell today, we decided to hit SFA instead as the forecast seemed more clear. However, while driving down the NJ Turnpike, we noticed that Superman was showing up as closed, so we chanced buying the 2-day ticket for KD instead to get in a couple of rides tonight before our all-day stay tomorrow. This turned out to be an amazing choice. After an uneventful 4.5hr drive from central NJ, we arrived at our hotel about 3:30pm. The hotel is very meh, but for $60/night we weren't expecting much. The shuttle to the park is extremely convenient and saved us from the usual, pricey parking upcharge. Anyway, we ended up with 3.5 hours for the night...

Ride count:

Intimidator 305- 7x (2x front row, 4x back row, 1x 3rd to last row)
Flight of Fear- 1x
Volcano- 1x
Backlot- 2x
Drop Tower- 1x
Dominator- 1x
Avalanche-1x
Eiffel Tower- 1x


Notes:

-After reaching 150 coasters tonight, and being an enthusiast now for nearly 20 years, there isn't many coaster experiences out there that are new or different for me. I305 is definitely an exception. For 7 years now I have pretty much known the layout front to back. And while I have seen the POV's and many glowing reviews, on the surface it never really grabbed my attention. Still, I knew there had to be something more to the experience than what meets the eye, so it always was near the top of my bucket list. After 7 rides tonight, I can safely say that this ride is an absolutely INCREDIBLE, completely unique experience. There is no coaster I can really compare it to. It surpasses Skyrush's overall intensity with raw speed and positive G-forces instead of airtime. What caught me by surprise was the random pops of ejector in the back rows, in spots I didn't think there would be any airtime. This was most noticable in that middle twister section, where you get a dazzling array of speed, positive g's, laterals and sprinkles of ejector all in one.

I am not ready to rank I305 yet, but it is definitely in my top 5, possibly top 2-3. I can't tell if I prefer the front or back row. The front row gave the best sense of speed and had the best positive g's on the first turnaround (I stayed grayed out until the airtime on top of the 2nd hill). The back row gave the more intense airtime and laterals during the 2nd half of the ride. I can't wait to try both out again tomorrow!

-The park was DEAD the 3 hours I was there. If I had wanted to I could have marathoned I305 all night without getting off. The longest I waited all night was two trains for Volcano. This was especially helpful since it allows more time to focus on family rides tomorrow with my 8 year old step son (Julien) tagging along.

-Volcano was running as well as I remember. Very underrated invert.

-Backlot was a new credit for me and a priority since I knew my step son would love it. As usual, Premier delivered an exceptional ride, and it was a favorite for Julien. Great balance of thrill and pure fun.

-FoF was running a lot rougher than what I remember. It was still a blast and instantly made me miss Chiller at GAdv, but I definitely had to brace myself quite a bit.

-Finally got my lost Drop Tower credit after 12 years! Zumanjaro definitely killed some of the experience for me as it felt exactly like a scaled-down model of it. Still, it was very fun, despite the very abrupt braking which crushed my man-region. I had the side that faced the Twisted Timbers construction site which was cool.

-Speaking of Twisted Timbers, it's amazing how much action they will pack into that footprint. It will be even more compact than the animation suggests. I remember very little of Hurler, but I do remember it was rather uninspired and unenjoyable. Twisted Timbers will be the perfect, airtime-filled counterpart to I305 that the park needs. Super excited for that addition.

-Dominator was interesting as I had ridden it back in 2003 as Batman: Knight Flight. The coaster is still my 2nd favorite floorless next to Kraken. It is unusually intense for a B&M floorless and breaks the standard layout protocol. Unfortunately, the 2nd half has the worst B&M rattle I have ever experienced, but it didn't kill the experience for me. I'm very glad CF salvaged this ride.

-Overall, the park seems to be in much better condition to what I remember from 2005. CF seemed to have put in a good amount of work into fixing the park's aesthetics and has infused some amazing thrills for good measure. Everything about my 3.5 hours tonight was fantastic and I cannot wait to spend a full day tomorrow!

Pics:

Awesome trip report and pics. Out of all the CF parks i've been too this one to me is the weakest. My favorite coaster in the park is Avalanche, did you get a chance to ride it? I plan to be at this park next june to ride twisted timbers.

We like KD way more than Dorney. We do find CP, KI, Canada's Wonderland and Carowinds superior to KD. We haven't been to any other CF parks.

Sorry my suggestion of Cornerstone didn't work out for you. It was a Best Western last year when we were there so maybe they declined in operations.

We found Intimidator very intense. I had a little gray out on many of the rides we took and it was awesome so very much agree with your assessment.

Nice report. I've been to KI, CP, KD, Carowinds, Dorney, Valleyfair and Michigans Adventure and KD definetly takes the cake for me. Next year is only gonna make it better.

Day 2 ride count:

Intimidator 305- 5x
Grizzly- 2x
Woodstock Express- 2x
Volcano- 1x
Flight of Fear- 1x
Dominator- 1x
Rebel Yell- 1x
Ricochet- 1x
Anaconda- 1x
Flyers- 1x
Delerium- 1x

Notes:

-Had a very good, but exhausting day at the park. Was there from rope drop until the very last ride of the night on Intimidator 305. Crowds were low-moderate. Most rides were walk-ons. The rides that had waits never saw lines past 20min or so. One thing that went unnoticed last night due to the extremely low crowds is the very slow ride operations throughout the park. Almost every ride had slow operations staffed by uninspired employees. Every coaster with 2 trains was stacking, and coasters with 1 train were taking forever to load and dispatch. I305, Grizzly and Rebel Yell were all running only 1 train.

-Got some better looks at the Twisted Timbers construction site. They seemed to be working on the brakerun area throughout the day. That stretch of 3 straight camelbacks is going to be absolutely amazing.

-Finally got my Grizzly credit after 12 years, and I found the ride to be fantastic! Some really solid airtime moments, great setting and it was acceptably smooth. After I305 and Volcano it was possibly my 3rd favorite coaster in the park. Very underrated. Sidenote- who the hell thought it'd be a good idea to make you walk through the Dinosaurs Alive gift shop to get to the Grizzly entrance? It took us far too long to find the ride, which is already hidden by trees as it is.

-Rebel Yell was just as forgettable as I figured it would be considering I had 0 recollection of it from my 2005 trip.

-This park has some fantastic offerings for families and guests of all ages. My step son loved Planet Snoopy and could have spent all 10 hours there. Woodstock Express is a great coaster to transition little ones from baby rides to the moderately thrilling coasters. We saw two shows; "Jump" which was a dog show, and "Cirque" which was a take on "Cirque De Solei." Both shows were well-done and broke up the day for us nucely. The Kings Dominion Theater was really nice for your average theme park show theater.

-After 5 more rides on I305, including on the last train of the night, I officially have put it in my top 3, behind El Toro and Wicked Cyclone, above Skyrush, and neck-and-neck with Superman: The Ride. After some more rides I do think I prefer the front two rows compared to the back of the train. I can't wait to get on it again next season. Considering how highly I value Wicked Cyclone, the I305/Twisted Timbers duo should pack a serious punch!


Tomorrow I will be visiting SFA for the first time so look out for that update. I am very curious to see how it goes considering its reputation, but either way it will provide new credits and break up the 5 hour car ride. Crossing my fingers that Superman is open since it appears to have been down the last couple of days!

Pics:

Yes Ed your right as i forgot all about Dorney and i've never been to Michigan adventure which im sure is weaker then Dorney.

Haven't been to Michigan Adventure and forgot we had been to Valleyfair. I would put KD ahead of Valleyfair too.

Enjoy SFA for what it is. We consider it a partial day park with a couple good coasters. And you are right, it does break up the long drive home from VA.

I honestly think Dorney is insanely underrated and is definetly a big step above valleyfair and worlds better than Michigans adventure. (That park is on its last legs anyways)

But I'm happy you liked Grizzly! I think that ride is so much fun! The tunnel is INSANE!
I miss KD so much! March can't come sooner!

Day 3- Six Flags America

Ride count:

Superman: Ride of Steel- 3x
Joker's Jinx- 1x
Wild One- 1x
Apocalypse- 1x
Roar- 1x
Pirate Ship (don't remember the name)- 1x

Notes:

-Being my first time at the park, it was hard to go in without certain expectations. I've been hearing about the sketchy clientelle, poor operations, ugly aesthetics and mediocre lineup for nearly two decades now. After my visit, I would say the park met all of the negative expectations I had. It was definitely a rough park atmosphere, although everyone seemed to be relatively well-behaved despite very little security presence. The operations were beyond terrible. Everything had a 1 train wait, which was understandable since every ride was a complete walkon. But it still took almost every ride a minimum of 5min to dispatch, with some approaching 10min. Some ops were cursing loudly, an op on Joker's Jinx missed securing a rider's seatbelt during his check, guests were getting borderline yelled at for touching their lap bars on Roar, and also on Roar they were very loud about hoping for a thunderstorm they could go home. Aesthetically, the front of the park is rather nice, but the back half is hideous.

-Superman was honestly better than I expected! The airtime was great, the helices were forceful, and the straightaways didn't bother me as much as I thought they would. A lower/mid tier hyper for sure, but definitely a very good ride. I did notice a fair share of rattle and shuffling in the back of the train, but it didn't hinder the experience at all. If anything, it gave the helices and straightaways a little wildness that they would have otherwise lacked.

-Roar was closed upon entering the park but opened later on. I had no idea they had recently done a fair amount of trackwork to the ride. We got front row and had a really good! It was relatively smooth and had solid pacing and laterals.

-Wild One was slightly disappointing. Don't get me wrong, for a 100 year old ride it runs amazingly well. Nice speed and some great pops of airtime. However, it has a serious shuffle/some jackhammering, notably in the 2nd half of the ride. I enjoyed the ride, but was missing why some people hold it in high regards.

-After riding FoF yesterday and Joker's Jinx today, I think I prefer Joker. The lack of MCBR makes the 2nd half very intense and I felt it was considerably smoother as well.

-Apocalypse was as I remembered ut from its Iron Wolf days. It gets more hate than it deserves. Solid, forceful little standup. A bit of a chore to prevent headbanging, but not enough to kill the experience. I lol'd at how long SFA designed its queue.

-Batwing was closed most of the time I was in the Gotham City area. I got in line inside the station when it was testing, however it broke down when one of the rows wouldn't rise (pic down below). Never felt the desire to check on it at any other point of the day.

-Overall, I do not plan on coming back unless they make some major upgrades, which is doubtful. My 3-4 hours there were decent enough, but uncomfortable at the same time. The lack of shade, bad operations and rowdy atmosphere were kind of distracting, especially after 2 great days at KD. Glad I lucked out with Superman and Roar considering they were down the last few days, though. I'm glad I got the new experience and credits.

Pics below. Sorry for the quality, we were in a time crunch so I had little time to find good angles or wait for 1 train every 10min to come thru:

Yep - pretty much par for the course for SFA. Our first time there many years ago was followed with our first visit to Busch Williamsburg the next day. Talk about a night and day difference! LOL Sounds like you had a successful trip, glad it worked out for you!