Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread

 

For the flagship parks of Paramount being KI, CW, and KD, they sure screwed CW and KD in quality and longevity of a ride experience.

 

CF seems to be continuing this with KD with I:305. Behemoth, Intimidator (Carowinds), and Diamondback all have much shorter heights, yet longer track...following me yet, why does this make sense to them? Less than 100 miles away there sits S:ROS with 5350 ft...197ft high...

 

That said, looking at I:305 really makes me think it could be quite an experience. I'm not knocking I:305 as much as I am knocking the park.

 

I already said this once about track length, but the reason I305 is shorter than the B&M hypers is because it doesn't have the amount of airtime hills that they have. Airtime hills have way more track length than low to the ground turns. And I don't think I could say this enough, but NOBODY in Virginia cares about Six Flags America.........NOBODY. I used to live in northern VA and I could tell you without any shadow of a doubt that if you asked them where they would want to go for a theme/amusement park, they would say KD or BGE 100 times out of 100. I guarantee you KD doesn't see SFA as any kind of competition at all.

Thats a bold outragous statement. There are several people on here even that prefer SFA to KD...I feel SFA is not even known in the DC-Richmond area. I'm from VA and nobody knows SFA is right there. Everyone remembers Adventure World. Somehow nobody knows about SFA.

Never say NOBODY, because thats asking for trouble on these boards

Chuck, I've seen Volcano with a 3 hour line on weekdays in the summer for no explainable reason, although of course they should be better than Saturdays. I left the park and returned to Yorktown with a wasted trip that day because the park was so bad.

Lines. Reason 2 I prefer SFA to KD.

^ I'm from DC and SFA is infamous for being the crappiest park in existence.

So S:ROS is longer......that is because of the 2 half mile(sarcasm intended) long helices connected by straightaways with a hump???? I305 at least changes direction at what seems to me will be a hellacious speed so that is definitely a plus. Length as said before doesn't necessarily matter to the ride experience. The shorter rides of today can be attributed to the launch which probably reduces track length by almost 1000' when you factor in the lift and first drop. I for 1 still prefer the old fashioned drop opposed to the launch which I305 looks like it is going to deliver in that department!

As far as KD's lines, as long as I can remember back they were always long. When Shockwave opened we were there and waited over 4 hours to ride it! I have found that early spring and late fall Sundays are the best time to go as people seem to have other stuff to do.

Thats a bold outragous statement. There are several people on here even that prefer SFA to KD...I feel SFA is not even known in the DC-Richmond area. I'm from VA and nobody knows SFA is right there. Everyone remembers Adventure World. Somehow nobody knows about SFA.

 

Never say NOBODY, because thats asking for trouble on these boards

 

Chuck, I've seen Volcano with a 3 hour line on weekdays in the summer for no explainable reason, although of course they should be better than Saturdays. I left the park and returned to Yorktown with a wasted trip that day because the park was so bad.

 

Lines. Reason 2 I prefer SFA to KD.

I think the GP vastly outweighs the opinion of a few posters on here.

 

For the flagship parks of Paramount being KI, CW, and KD, they sure screwed CW and KD in quality and longevity of a ride experience.

 

CF seems to be continuing this with KD with I:305. Behemoth, Intimidator (Carowinds), and Diamondback all have much shorter heights, yet longer track...following me yet, why does this make sense to them? Less than 100 miles away there sits S:ROS with 5350 ft...197ft high...

 

That said, looking at I:305 really makes me think it could be quite an experience. I'm not knocking I:305 as much as I am knocking the park.

 

I already said this once about track length, but the reason I305 is shorter than the B&M hypers is because it doesn't have the amount of airtime hills that they have. Airtime hills have way more track length than low to the ground turns. And I don't think I could say this enough, but NOBODY in Virginia cares about Six Flags America.........NOBODY. I used to live in northern VA and I could tell you without any shadow of a doubt that if you asked them where they would want to go for a theme/amusement park, they would say KD or BGE 100 times out of 100. I guarantee you KD doesn't see SFA as any kind of competition at all.

 

Thats a bold outragous statement. There are several people on here even that prefer SFA to KD...I feel SFA is not even known in the DC-Richmond area. I'm from VA and nobody knows SFA is right there. Everyone remembers Adventure World. Somehow nobody knows about SFA.

 

Never say NOBODY, because thats asking for trouble on these boards

 

Chuck, I've seen Volcano with a 3 hour line on weekdays in the summer for no explainable reason, although of course they should be better than Saturdays. I left the park and returned to Yorktown with a wasted trip that day because the park was so bad.

 

Lines. Reason 2 I prefer SFA to KD.

Your mileage may vary. Volcano, in general, will have the longest line of any ride at the park on any day, thanks to slow operations. (Not a knock here--I think KD runs this ride about as well as they can.) So, rule of thumb--Volcano first, Dominator later. Intimidator will probably change this equation, though.

As for the SFA vs. KD debate, I think these are parks that are best visited in the spring, before the hordes of summer show up. I've had good times and not-so-good times at both parks.

^ I'm from DC and SFA is infamous for being the crappiest park in existence.

Yep, everyone I know in this area chooses Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, or even Hershey Park when they go to parks. Its safe to say the majority of people in Northern Virginia see SFA as being a far less worthwhile park than the others in the area; and they will go out of their way to drive further and stay overnight if necessary to avoid SFA.

^It's a shame too cause Six Flags America has okay coasters. Just needs more! I do love going to that park because the attractions after you pass under the Wild One are so spread out!

I did hear from John Winkler that a MAJOR attraction will be coming to Six Flags America for 2011!

Everyone has heard that from John Winkler.

^Yea well I saw a twinkle in his eyes when he said it! Just kiddin, didn't know everyone spoke to him!

^ I'm from DC and SFA is infamous for being the crappiest park in existence.

I guess you've never been to Kentucky Kingdom??

John Winkler has also gone on record adding that the new coaster will be steel and not wood.

I'm praying to God that it's not more Vekoma.

I still think Chang winds up at SFA. SFA already has two defunct coasters sitting on it's property, why add a third?

I would see why people travel the extra miles to go to Kings Dominion & Busch Gardens. Kings Dominion is awesome and now with this monster, I think I will be there a lot this season!

Trackwork was finished in the last few minutes.

Pagel passed on this info to KDfansite.

What? I have not heard that on Facebook or Twitter. HCL, do you know Pagel Personnally?

They couldn't wait to do it in the day so we could see it!? Just kidding!

"Pagel says the last piece is going in place on I305!! Sorry I could not be there to take pics for you guys"

about 8 hours ago from Tweed (coastercrew)

I present some ariel completion pictures of Intimidator 305!

Edited to acceptable 800x600 size to conform to TPRs TOS

I believe the word for this is..."oooh"

Awesome photo, boy is it flat but maybe the flat trajectory of some of the airtime will give airtime like Millie's last hill going past the station.

This ride really does not look all that impressive to me...but I do like to go fast!!

The ride does look very short, but super impressive I think. Hopefully I can make it over there this summer.

Wow Thanks KDcoasterMan Imo that is one awesome looking coaster! It looks to have everything I personnally look for in a coaster, an amazing first drop, insane speed, and Airtime.

Call me a skeptic tank (clever right?) but it seems like with that speed and the weight of the trains, that it could be a close call with slowing the train down on the brake run. That said, I'm certain that it will come to a proper stop as Intamin engineers are smart enough to NOT make that happen.

It does look pretty awesome, too short, but pretty awesome.

Wow. The ride looks massive there.

I think I've come to the conclusion that the OTSR's won't really hurt the ride. You'll still get air-time and the turns are large and drawn-out enough that you will just glide through them.

I for one am personally psyched for this ride and am in the process of planning my trip out there, hopefully for opening weekend. This ride is going to be bomb, and the drop is going to be awesome.