Cyclonic
Posts: 2636
Registered: 7/19/2002
Rank: Experiment 626
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 4/8/2004 8:12:00 PM
Paramount's Kings Dominion
Volcanomania
April 3, 2004
Weather:
Rain early, then sun, high in the mid 50's
Coasters Ridden: 11
New to me: None
This is part one of a three part trip report. I will be going over highlights of the trip, as well as my view of the rides and the park, but I won't be doing a blow by blow report here.
I had decided to do a little tour of parks to kick off the new season, and invited my sister Rachel to come along. She had just gotten back from deployment overseas, and I thought this would be a nice way for her to get away for a weekend. Our first stop was Paramount's Kings Dominion outside of Richmond, Virginia for Volcanomania, an event being heard at the park by the Coaster Zombies club. We drove down the night before and were at the park bright and early for the event.
The event was great. It was kicked off with an ERT on the new Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion interactive dark ride. The ride is a nice addition to the park, giving it a really fun family oriented ride. It has a nice layout and a really cool queue line, with all sorts of animated gimmicks going on to entertain those waiting in line. We rode it three times during the day, with my sister managing a high score of 1560, while I scored a pretty good 1630. It would be cool if they had a tally board to show the day's high score at the exit.
Once the park opened we started to wander about. We ran into Jane (Roller Coaster Talk Yahoo Group) and her family near Scooby Doo. She is a sweetheart, and was already having a good time taking pictures of her kids in the Mystery Machine mock up they hade there. We talked a bit, and then headed over to Flight of Fear. Her son will not ride anything big yet, but since Flight of Fear is indoors, he doesn't really know how big it is or isn't. We get in the station, and they are still running tests. After a minute or so they announce that there will be a delay of an undetermined amount of time, so Rachel and I decided to come back later. I never did get a ride. After lunch we tried again, and it was running, but I am a bit big, and was having trouble getting in. Once in, I was uncomfortable, and decided not to ride. No biggie, my sister rode and had a great time on it, but it is time for me to get back on a diet.
My first coaster of the season ended up being the Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster. We went to meet a friend of mine, Joe (posts as nightride on Coasters2K) and his father Bill, so we decided to go hit the little wooden coaster. New this year is a nice, bright blue paint job, and seatbelts. They are retractable and there is one for each rider. Further, all of the wooden coasters received seatbelt in the offseason. They slowed operations a bit, but did not effect the ride itself, which was surprisingly good. The ride was running well and in the last seat offered up some good airtime.
Next up was Hypersonic XLC. The wait might have been 15 minutes, for the front none the less, if that. That was the most we waited for anything all day. The launch, awesome, the top of the hill, awesome, but the ride as a whole did not seem to be running too well. It was really rough, and it could be due to the yet again changed seats. They just did not seem that comfortable.
A run down of the rest of the park.
Hurler was OK. There was some nice airtime on the first set of hills, but the rest of the ride was pretty lackluster. Rebel Yell was fun. The ride got some major retracking, which was evident by all the new, unpainted wood, and it was giving a good ride, particularly going backwards.
Ricochet was running really well, with very little braking. Avalanche was also running well, fast and fun. I really like the ride, in fact, it is too bad there are not more of these around. Anaconda, well it is an Arrow, need I really say more? And I just don't really care for Shockwave.
Now Grizzly, oh boy. We waited until the sun went down to ride Grizzly, and were not disappointed. The tunnel took<
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zjohn1988
Posts: 1390
Registered: 6/8/2003
Rank: SFGAm Critic
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 4/8/2004 10:25:00 PM
sounds like u had a blast! hope ya had fun. nice pix and great TR!
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Yogurt
Posts: 600
Registered: 9/21/2003
Rank: Gold Critic
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4/9/2004 2:34:00 PM
Sounds like a lot of fun. A few things:
The bright blue paint on the Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster isn't new, it was there last year. I'm not sure when it was painted.
It's really strange that Hypersonic XLC was rough. I rode it last year and it was EXTREMELY smooth.
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Cyclonic
Posts: 2636
Registered: 7/19/2002
Rank: Experiment 626
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4/9/2004 5:08:00 PM
The paint job is new, but it is the exact same color as it was before, just brighter because it is new.
Hypersonic was very rough. Others at the event agreed. As I said, they changed the seats, again, and that may have made the difference.
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Yogurt
Posts: 600
Registered: 9/21/2003
Rank: Gold Critic
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4/10/2004 10:45:00 AM
Ooh. I wonder why they would change the seats. The old ones seemed fine to me!
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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4/19/2004 4:37:00 PM
Nice TR, and great pics, very nice quality. I saw the pic of you and your sister, and I didn't think you looked big. Certainly not big enough to not fit comfortably in a train. (Although those non-B&M loopers often have snug trains.)
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Cyclonic
Posts: 2636
Registered: 7/19/2002
Rank: Experiment 626
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4/20/2004 6:27:00 PM
Thanks 
Know what it was, I had just eaten lunch, and had a soda, which I almost never drink, and it got me feeling a little bad in the stumic. I could have fit, but when I compressed into that "Z" possition, it just was not feeling too good, so it was better that I sit out then to :puke: 
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Animan1
Posts: 5394
Registered: 5/14/2003
Rank: Platinum Critic
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4/20/2004 8:29:00 PM
Quote:
Cyclonic said:
Thanks
Know what it was, I had just eaten lunch, and had a soda, which I almost never drink, and it got me feeling a little bad in the stumic. I could have fit, but when I compressed into that "Z" possition, it just was not feeling too good, so it was better that I sit out then to :puke: |
Yeah, lol, that's probably best.
Boy, you mean it when you say you don't carry grudges. I don't know many people who would be cool after some of the things I've said to you.  That's neat, thanks for that.
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