Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread

Found a new vid on youtube of the offride footage.

 

Holy crap at 0:49.

Just incase any KD local TPR members are in the area. May 15-16th I will be at the park. If you want to hang out PM me , or let me know on here.

Went for a few hours tonight, very cool but sunny day, park was dead!

I305 seemed to be running a little faster, airtime seems more forceful.

Volcano was down (and on the board at the gate) might have been all day, I got there at 5. I did not see anything unusual.

Shockwave was supposed to reopen this weekend but was still missing the chain cog and chain. (if anybody cares)

JEFF

We was also there yesterday. My boyfriend got there around 2:30,I got there around 3:45. Went to I305 for a while,then to Backlot Stunt Coaster. Notice the changes to the trains. Anyway,back to I305..the practice of assigning seats was gone,you could sit anywhere you wanted...overall,it was a nice 4 hours...going back this weekend to ride everything else.

I went there on Sunday too There were not very many people there but I wished Shockwave was open. i305 broke down maaanny times. Volcano was running one train earlier in the day and then it broke down for the whole day I assume. Drop Tower was closed some of the day...I hate that Flying Eagles doesn't have eagles on it anymore.

Anyway,back to I305..the practice of assigning seats was gone,you could sit anywhere you wanted...overall,it was a nice 4 hours...going back this weekend to ride everything else

That's good, though I could see them doing it again on the real busy days this summer.

I hate the fact that the Q dumps into the front of the station, cause of course you have inconsiderate people waiting for the front and taking up the whole Q!! Is it really that hard to stand to the side or at least let people know to go by.

At least they did some planning for Dominator's Q in this regard.

BTW I saw you Shannon, I was wearing my red BBW shirt waiting for the 2nd to last car and you just came in on the back car. I will say Hi next time now that I know what you look like (cross referenced you with Danny's facebook page )

I was there with my kids and Aidan was dying for some Rebel Yell (his new #1 he just turned 48")

JEFF

I was there sunday and Dominator was a walk on. Volcano was'nt to long about 30-45 mins. Intimadator was practicly a walk on execept the front seat. Anaconda was a walk on. Rebel Yell and Grizzly we're only running 1 train. Drop Tower was a short line. The Crypt a walk on and also Berserker. Ricochet and BLSC had short lines. Flight of Fear was about 15 minutes waiting. I did everything from 10:00 am-6:00 pm

I heard that the single rider line on Intimidator 305 is gone now. Can anyone confirm this?

Its not "gone" (sign is still there) They are just not using it since they are not assigning seats anymore.

Might go to a Saturday only thing but who knows.

JEFF

The single rider line was barely faster than the regular line during my visit, so it doesn't really seem to be too much of a loss there...

^It wasn't really meant to make someone's wait any shorter, it was just meant to fill extra seats when odd numbers of people came through. Empty seats on a train are a long line's worst nightmare.

I meant it wasn't much of a loss as far as being selfish and wanting to get through the line much faster than the regular line.

There don't seem to be a great deal of groups in odd numbers where one guest doesn't have someone to ride with, so I'm not sure it made much of a difference all in all, even on opening weekend.

^I disagree. The single rider line worked perfectly the two days I was at the park (April 2 and 5). Its success relies on the person at the front making sure only singles (and not sneaky groups) are using the line AND the grouper is on top of their game.

On opening day the groupers would use the singles to fill in space, but would also occasionally fill a couple rows with a pair of singles if that line was getting a bit long. They were cranking through trains, so the regular queue never suffered.

During slow times I agree there is no need for the singles line, but during busy time, it serves its purpose. The regular queue doesnt seem to be long enough to hold all the regular folks, PLUS the singles.

^Agreed. Derek and I used the single-rider line a few times a week ago, and it worked just fine.

To me it does not make scence that Intimadator has a single line while they did not add one to the rides that already have longer lines(FOF,Volcano)

^It's more convenient to build a single rider line for a brand new coaster than it is to build one for an existing coaster. Plus, Volcano's queue would be very difficult to rearrange to fit in a single rider line.

Personally, the times that I used the single rider line other than opening day didn't cut down on the wait time. A lot of people abuse it and go in as a group then complain when they get separated.

However on Sunday, they were using the regular queue as front row only and single rider line for all other rows.

^This is why the initial burden lies on the greeter. They have to make that call as to whether or not that person is really a single or merely part of a group that has no intentions of seperating when they get to the front.

Hey everybody! I'm supposedly going to KD tomorrow for my sis cheer competition and the weather says 60% chance of rain all day. Does anyone happen to know KD's bad weather policy? Will they shut down the park? Also I plan on buying my ticket online to get a discount, would they give me a refund or a ticket to come back if they close the park? Also if the park stays open, will they run the coasters? (especially Intimidator(if its open yet), Dominator, and Volcano)

Sorry for asking sooo many questions! But thanks in advance to anyone with answers

The grouper should NEVER let singles ride together if they are indeed part of a group, or put singles together just because the single riders line is getting too long. If the SR line is taking too long, people will leave it on their own. Even at Disney when I worked at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, our answer at grouper was simply "No, you can either split up or exit." Our managers strictly told us to not let anyone abuse the SR line. People tried all day long to skip the standby line and ride together using the SR line, claiming that they "didn't know". Really though, I don't have a problem with people using the SR line if they are indeed part of a group so long as they are willing to split up once they get to the station. It still makes the standby line shorter.

^ If it is "drizzling" they will keep as many rides open as possible. It it begin to out right rain expect many closures.

Hello all,

This is my first post on these forums, however, I'm a long term reader of these boards. I am taking a trip down the Virginia this upcoming weekend and I'm stopping at Kings Dominion on May 1st (my birthday). I was wondering what to expect from I 305. The only other Intimans I have been on are El Toro, Kingda Ka, and Volcano. As you can see, all these coasters are really in separate categories and are hard to compare. So what I really want to know is does I 305 really give you that same feeling like El Toro does through its "twisty" area or am I trying to compare apples to oranges? Also, I'm curious to how filled up the queue gets and what the wait times are like. It sounds to me like Volcano and FOF still have longer wait times and I understand that I305 has a larger capacity. Would you say the line is about the same as Dominator?

Sorry for so many questions but I'm eager to ride my first giga and still don't know how I'm going to drag my girlfriend on it. (She cried on KK but loves El Toro )

Hello all,

This is my first post on these forums, however, I'm a long term reader of these boards. I am taking a trip down the Virginia this upcoming weekend and I'm stopping at Kings Dominion on May 1st (my birthday). I was wondering what to expect from I 305. The only other Intimans I have been on are El Toro, Kingda Ka, and Volcano. As you can see, all these coasters are really in separate categories and are hard to compare. So what I really want to know is does I 305 really give you that same feeling like El Toro does through its "twisty" area or am I trying to compare apples to oranges? Also, I'm curious to how filled up the queue gets and what the wait times are like. It sounds to me like Volcano and FOF still have longer wait times and I understand that I305 has a larger capacity. Would you say the line is about the same as Dominator?

Sorry for so many questions but I'm eager to ride my first giga and still don't know how I'm going to drag my girlfriend on it. (She cried on KK but loves El Toro )

Hey John,

Welcome to the boards. The first thing I'd do is probably read about the last 10 pages of this thread and I think you'll find a lot of your questions may already be answered just in people's trip reports over the past few weeks with i305.

Enjoy the coaster!

--Robb

(I'm sorry admins if this post is a bit long as I just wanted to address an issue I've been hearing regarding SRL's lately.)

The grouper should NEVER let singles ride together if they are indeed part of a group, or put singles together just because the single riders line is getting too long...Really though, I don't have a problem with people using the SR line if they are indeed part of a group so long as they are willing to split up once they get to the station. It still makes the standby line shorter.

So if me and a friend walk through the single rider line and 2 seats next to each other are available, we're not allowed to sit next to each other because we "know" each other? Because to me its seems like it doesn't even matter. Things are probably different at a company like Disney because I know the have their set ways, but I have had the blessing of working single rider lines in my day, and I never had an issue letting 2 people stand at the SRL and wait until 2 seats opened up next to each other. Sometimes it took 2 minutes, sometimes it took 15, sometimes they were better off waiting in the regular line, either way it was a risk on their part and I had no problem with it.

This relates to other threads where discussions regarding ride ops these days have a problem with crowd control/moving things along efficiently. As long as you communicate with guests and let them know whats going on, a SRL can be run efficiently and believe it or not even more effectively if a good ride op is staying busy and filling available seats in any way. This doesn't seem to be the case with ride-ops these days whether it be KD and other parks where this is a constant issue. Because it doesn't matter if theres a group of 4 waiting for a B&M row to open up, or a group of 2. Let them stand there and wait as long as they want, while pulling single riders in from behind them in filling in spots. Its not that complicated.

Most of the time from my experiences both working and visiting parks, some SRL groupers (and ride ops in general) are too busy riding their "high horse" of authority, and therefore restrict these practices instead of offering good "customer service," filling up trains as much as possible. In fact it I found it took less time going the extra mile and providing guests with these opportunities when it doesn't make a difference either way. Eventually, (like you said SouthPuddle) for some waiting in the SRL, if the wait begins to get too long, they just split up and ride alone anyway, but in my experience it's always nice (and not hard) to give them the OPTION of trying their luck. I wish it was this easy for all the other parks too!