certifiedcoastergeek

I'll actually take the rumor with a grain of flash-frozen ice cream, thank you. In all honesty, this wouldn't be *that* surprising, although I might expect that this happens at the end of 2019/2020, with a new coaster in the cards for '22ish. KD just got a world-class coaster after ripping two horrible ones out, so I think this progress is inevitable but not anywhere in the immediate future. Speculation for the win!

Great report! (Also realized I made a cameo in the second row of picture #14. ) Great coaster as well - the airtime combined with the exceptionally smooth ride easily puts this one in my top ten all-time. I can't wait for the summer passholder ERT to really stack up those re-rides! Speed - 7/10. Who cares? That's not the point of this ride, although the first drop and its immediate successors are notably faster than Hurler's. Even in the cold weather, TT maintained a decent pace for the entire ride. Intensity - 9/10. Quick, smooth turns that keep you on your toes without giving you a headache. Ejector airtime falls *just* short of the very best like Skyrush, Maverick, and Intimidator 305, but considering the scale of this ride, that's impressive. Smoothness - 10/10. Wow. This is coming from someone who thinks Fury is a bit rough, for comparison's sake. Duration - 7/10. This coaster, like KD's other flagships, tends to be on the shorter side at about a minute and a half, but given that every second not spent on the lift hill or the brake run is consumed by an exciting element of some variety, I would be hard-pressed to deduct additional points for the ride time. Overall - 9.5/10. Waiting for the queue to open - and absolutely worth the wait! Miscellaneous - Yes, the lockers are real, but if you really don't want to pay the two dollars, they can be easily avoided by leaving unnecessary items in your car or in a zippered pocket while on the ride. The loose article policy also now requires that you put all hats and glasses not secured with an athletic strap in a pocket or locker. There are even more season pass drink-refill stations across the park, with one about every 100 yards in every direction. As usual, the upcharge Skycoaster and go-karts were free, which are great perks for passholders. Food prices are about the same at $16 per meal, although the Gold Pass meal and drink passes (a soda every 15 minutes and meals twice a day, separated by 3 hours) come out to about $135 with taxes and fees. Meal pass now includes Chick-fil-A, Panda Express, and Boardwalk Fries in addition to the park's in-house restaurants. Looks like this season will be another great one at KD!

Actually, this is the least regular morning ERT KD passholders have had in years (not complaining, just stating a fact). In the past (at least the past year or two as I recall), generally ERT was available almost every operating morning, with Volcano every day and a rotating second coaster (Intimidator on weekends, FoF on Tuesdays, etc.). I haven't heard anything about the FL+ merge point. However, I understand the change given TT's distance from the previous ERT rides, and from experience there was a fair chance that testing (especially with Volcano) would require the park to delay ride openings to regular opening anyway, so this may actually result more ERT on average than that available in the past ( ). Not that I'm aware of. I would assume that there will be a new one built, as I believe the old Hurler FL entrance was just the exit given the low ridership. If so, it will probably meet up somewhere with the old queue that is being rebuilt according to photos released. There's actually still a strategy to beat the Volcano line even if it isn't offered. ERT means that passholders can enter the areas past Int'l Street 30 minutes before opening, meaning after a quick TT ride you can easily shoot over to Safari Village and be the first to queue at Volcano before non-passholders can get there. Not quite "ERT", but you can still take advantage of the ERT time window to guarantee a spot at the front of the line. No need to despair!

Per KDFans, only $2/hr. To be honest, I'm not surprised about the new policy for TT, as it was rolled out to platform-article friendly CF parks with major coasters à la Fury, but I'm a bit confused as to why I305 and FoF were chosen as well, as opposed to rides with longer lines and more inversions like Dominator and Volcano. Unfortunately, while most of the time this will not be a problem and the fee is minor, I think this will be an unpopular change because visitors are accustomed to KD's former platform policy and may be caught off guard, at least in the short term. (Cargo shorts for the win! )

I mean... so far they made a sign that says the name of the ride in plain, Helvetica font and out it on the roof of a rectangular metal building. Look at the bottom left of the FB picture... they're building a pretty substantial faux-brick entrance there, and apparently some covered structures in that pavilion area as well. All indicators point to some pretty good theme elements, although I sincerely hope that the "covered pavilion structure" isn't cover for KD's first fluffy bunny rental location, and that fluffy bunnies will continue to live in freedom on ride platforms ( ). Otherwise, two thumbs up so far!

I'm sure that's the plan but I'm not sure how you expect a definitive answer on this. Media Day will be on Thursday 3/22, although I don't know if TPR members/admins will be allowed to attend as it appears that another group got the primary invitation ( ). Barring major technical issues, I would consider TT also soft-opening on Friday's (3/23) Preview Day confirmed at this point.

Kings Dominion officially released the height of TT: https://www.kingsdominion.com/blog/2017/twisted-timbers-its-not-just-hurler-reborn Previously, they had only mentioned the 109-foot drop in press releases, but here it explicitly mentions an "extra 28 feet" of height, which, when added to the Hurler height of 83', gives a confirmed height of 111'. Not that big of a deal, but interesting nonetheless. (In other news, grass is green; water is wet.)

Congrats on one million! You should bring the Gold Play Button on a celebration ride!

No they cant! It's sill stands out after 15 years! That would be tragic. That's my favorite Accelerator model! However, removing it for 2018 space might make sense, given that I have a suspicion that this is the biggest announcement of the day (separated by a few hours from the others, Robb is on-site, etc.), and Knott's is pretty much maxed out in terms of space. Let's wait and see what happens before we succumb to Dippin' Dots rumors.

Ten years ahead of his time...

KD's website describes the rides to be open as "family rides and attractions", so that probably quashes any hope of Winter Twisted Timbers or Winter I305. Regardless, WinterFest is a great addition!

The POV if I'm looking correctly makes it seem they have extended the structure beyond the original Hurler layout? I could be wrong but can't wait to see the actual layout! I think the additional length comes from the extra height added to the ride, especially on that insane airtime alley after the first overbank.

Looks like a terrific and intense layout, and the 1950s/Candy Apple Grove theming looks to be top-notch (classic pickup truck trains, probably station and queue theming)! Can't renew my gold pass fast enough!

Sounds weird, but yeah. FoF has an additional staffing requirement of two due to its separate unload platform, and is of similar intensity to Dominator. You may well be right, families are a big draw. But with your plan, considering Twisted Timbers likely won't be open for this winter, that leaves families and holiday enthusiasts as the only draw since there are one or two adult-sized coasters left open. Either way, I agree, it will be interesting to see what they do. I305 has more crew than FoF, to my best recollection. I305: 1 booth op, 4 restraint ops (1 at each corner) FoF: 1 booth op, 3 restraint ops (1 on each side to load, 1 at unload) Personally, I think coasterbill is right, and we shouldn't expect more than 1-2 coasters to be open, if at all. Dominator is the most logical choice, especially since the activities will center on the fountain-turned-giant ice skating rink ( ) on Int'l St. I would say FoF for the other, as it will put the least stress on the climate-controlled ride, but that does require opening large swaths of Safari Village. We may just have Dominator, although I'd be fine with that as it would essentially be offseason ride time. Keep in mind that KD opens the earliest of any of the Winterfest parks (late March/early April), so the maintenance turnaround might eliminate the winter coaster prospects.

I wonder how Twisted Timbers will be in terms of ride capacity... Obviously, the ride will now be 54 MPH (a slight increase over the original 50 MPH), so even though it will be longer (3351 feet vs 3157 feet) the trains should traverse the track faster, and combined with a probable increase in chain lift speed I think the TT duration will be closer to 1:45 as opposed to the original 2:00. Unfortunately, the leaked train image apparently has 6 cars of 4 compared to the original 7 cars of 4 (although it looks like we're keeping the lap bar ), and the brake run does not appear to have a third train storage track, so it seems that TT will keep the 2-train format. Assuming perfect operations (train 1 dispatched as train 2 enters station, and vice versa): Hurler Theoretical Ride Capacity: 30 rides per hour * 28 people per train = 840 riders / hour Twisted Timbers Theoretical Ride Capacity: 34 rides per hour * 24 people per train = 816 riders / hour Either way, this may be the Achilles' heel of the otherwise fantastic ride, and would make adding this to passholder ERT *that* much sweeter. However, despite its probable low capacity, Twisted Timbers will distribute the lines away from Safari Village, which is a MAJOR upside for I305/Volcano megafans! Let me know about your thoughts on this, and feel free to roast my math!