coasterf42
Posts: 626
Registered: 10/3/2005
Rank: Gold Critic
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 8/10/2007 3:28:55 PM
I'm going to try and keep this short. (Okay, it isn't short, sorry)
Alright, so I went to KD for the third time this year on Wednesday in the 103 degree heat of Doswell, Virginia. Overall, I think it was my worst park trip of the year and kind of a waste of my one day-off this week. It wasn't bad, but I took my family with me (my father and 10-year-old sister) who are indecisive thrill seakers to say the least. Oh well, they had fun, and I had a little.
So we get there late because my dad never goes to a park on time. Around 11:15 we arrive at the gate, and when we get to the ticket booths we are the second in line. Then, the computers decided to crash, so we were standing outside helpless for nearly a half an hour in the Virginia heat! Talk about a horrible start to the day. I could have gone in with my season pass, but waited 'till my family got their tickets at 11:45.
I used my walk-on-Wednesday pass for my second ride (my first was the typically okay ride on Tomb Raider, but both the fire and water were working which was a first). The Walk-on-Wednesday promotion is a decent gimmick, but seemed poorly executed. I would have had a fit with KD, had it not been that I got to skip the line for Volcano at noon. Basically, season passholders are given four blue coupons to use for one on walk each for four specific rides. On Wednesday they were Tomb Raider, Volcano, Drop Zone, and Grizzly. Volcano was the only one even remotely needed that day.
So I walked into the exit area of Volcano with a bunch of other season pass holders as confused as I was. Finally, I gave my coupon to the ride opp in the unloading station, and he let us on right there, which was cool. The only problem was, almost the entire train was filled with season pass holders! I felt so bad for the GP waiting helplessly in line that almost filled all the switchbacks. It had to be at least 1.5-2 hours, if not longer. As I said, it was a good idea for a promotion, but just not executed well. The public that paid 50 dollars for admission should not wait that long for a ride because of a new park promo. Perhaps every few coupons should have a different time that it can be spent.
The ride was great, and there was no headbanging. I even TRIED to bang my head a few times, but I couldn't. Last time, there was lots of headbanging, but today Volcano was back to being the best ride in the park.
Alright, so other memories from the day were:
-My dad rode IJTC with me, but my sister rode no major coasters.
-Did Scooby Doo dark ride for the first time and thought it was good.
-Spent time in the very hot water of both of KD's wave pools. When I was waiting for one to open up for the first time, it was one of the hottest memories of my life. I was litterally sitting in the shade of a fence, but sweating like crazy.
-Did Zoom Flume-the park's new water slide and thought it was good. Our raft really flew up the banks of the curves, which got us soaked. It was a lot faster than I thought.
-I almost forgot, but I believe I finally got a flyer to snap for the first time!!! It scared the crap out of me, but I heard a snapping sound, the "bird" was moving like crazy, and I was scared to death. It was during a strong gust of wind. Hopefully this was a true snap, and even more hopefully I will get to ride better ones at Knoebels soon.
-The Paramount sign in front of the International Street pool is halfway gone. This is pretty cheap of Cedar Fair. They simply took the "Paramount" part of the sign down, and left the "Kings Dominion" up without changing the logo. International Street is still a grand entrance though, one of the best things KD has going for it.
-Hurler, which is somewhat sadly my second favorite ride there, was not ridden because when I tried it was under a "temporary delay." However, I noticed a huge slab of concrete in the middle of the ride where grass used to be. This is going to be used for the Haunt
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