National Roller Coaster Day 2023 at Kings Dominion
National Roller Coaster Day is probably about the best day to launch a theme park blog. Apparently on this day, August 16th, 1898, the first patent was issued for a vertical looping roller coaster. Fast forward 125 years, it was a great day to go to my home park, Kings Dominion in Doswell, VA.
Our day started about 15 minutes after the advertised opening time of 11:00AM. Being a pass holder and having already been this year, my friend and I were not particularly stressed about time. Also we were certain the lines would not be long on a random Wednesday in the middle of August. This was indeed the case for almost everything we rode today. We didn't go to the water park and stuck to roller coasters and flat rides. Our first ride was on the back row of Intimidator 305, the NASCAR themed Intamin giga coaster highly praised among coaster enthusiasts and somewhat infamous among Virginia citizens for it's first black-out inducing first turn. In fact, the entire first turn was widened after it's 2010 debut season to reduce the positive G forces that caused this. Our first ride was fun but not nearly as forceful as it's reputation would suggest.
Immediately afterwards we hit up Flight of Fear next door, the Premier Rides indoor launching 'spaghetti bowl' coaster that features 4 inversions and twisting turns in a dimly lit and ominous outer space setting. Although this 1996 roller coaster was the first to feature an electromagnetic LIM launch, I strongly believe it stands the test of time and is one of the best launches on any roller coaster. While the launch, first half, and ending of this ride are excellent, the middle section seems to meander somewhat aimlessly through turns.
We had the typically "cuddly" Reptilian ride (1988 Mack Rides Bobsled), and a surprisingly non-flipping Tumbili ride (2022 S&S 4D free spin, where riders normally flip upside down 2 or 3 times at random). We also rode Backlot Stuntcoaster (2006 Premier Rides launched family) and were pleased to see the fire effects properly running. Lastly for the start of our day was Anaconda, the 1991 Arrow Dynamics looper. We picked a random row towards the middle of the train and were mostly spared from the rough ride this coaster is known to give. The first drop was better than I remembered from previous rides, and the double corkscrew ending was surprisingly graceful. We did get banged up once or twice, but not nearly as bad as on previous rides.
We took a break for lunch at the new Firehouse BBQ restaurant. I was still full from my Sheetz breakfast but did find some room for a cup of great Banana Pudding and some bites of my friend's Peanut Butter Pie he couldn't finish. In hindsight I should have had a smaller breakfast to save room for what looked like a great BBQ platter with compelling sides and corn bread.
After some rest and hydration we tried to ride Dominator (2008 B&M floorless looper) only to find it was temporarily closed. We were thankfully informed by the employee in the station that it wasn't a short "unknown delay" but probably a longer one. We headed for the back of the park and grabbed a classic ride on the Blue Ridge Tollway antique cars.
Reluctantly, it was now time to ride Grizzly. This 1982 PTC wooden coaster is the roughest roller coaster I've been on out of over 200. In the past I have found this ride to dole out an absolute beating, making my shoulders and back sore for days on end. from Labor Day 2022 up through Spring 2023, The Gravity Group extensively refurbished the first half of this ride. They reprofiled the first drop to be steeper and the rest of the track to be buttery smooth. Unfortunately there is a stark point where the refurbishment abruptly ends and the old roughness picks back up. The first half of this ride shows so much potential. I'm not sure if the second half of this coaster is also slated for reworking, but I sure hope it is. We took our lumps and scurried away.
We made our way over to Twisted Timbers (2018 RMC referb of The Hurler), our favorite in the park, to find it temporarily closed. We got a nice ride on the underrated Apple Zapple (2002 Mack Rides Wild Mouse). We started to make our way back up the midway and picked up a losing blue-side ride on Racer '75 (1975 PTC Racing Wooden).
Today, on National Rollercoaster Day of all days, I decided it was the day to ride some rides I normally skip in the park. This started with the Ferris Wheel Americana. Although this Ferris Wheel is not particularly tall, it was still a delightful ride that provided some good views. Next we rode the Carousel located close by. I was surprised to find the old calliope seemingly still in the center of the ride but unfortunately withering away. I would love to see park management refurbish this dilapidated music machine. The least they could do would be to replace the old broken drum heads. We found the Carousel ride to be on the short side, but we did appreciate the lack of seat belts. Our last new-to-us and often skipped ride was Bad Apple, a 2002 HUSS Troika spinning flat ride. I felt somewhat vindicated skipping it all of these years. The ride was not bad, but also not particularly interesting.
We took another hydration break after Bad Apple and headed back on Twisted Timbers. We had seen it running on the Ferris Wheel and it had fully reopened by the time we circled back for it. our 10 minute station waits for this ride were the longest we experienced all day. We first rode 2nd row to the front, then circled around for a second ride in the back row. this ride really is absolutely insane, and I'm not just saying this because it's at my home park. This relatively smaller scale RMC conversion is completely packed with insane and unyielding ejector. It's like every air hill on this ride is doing it's best to send you straight into the sun. I found the (2nd from) front row ride to have more intense ejector air, while the back seemed to have somewhat more mellow (but still insane) air.
With our day now mostly over, we made our way towards the front again, stopping for a 2nd ride on I305. I hear other enthusiasts comment on roller coasters warming up during the day, running faster as it operates throughout the day. I have no idea if this is real or not, but I could point to my 2nd I305 ride as proof. The first turn this time was threatening to turn my lights out. The snappy transitions on this ride are also excellent, and while this ride is not known for it's airtime, it also provides some quality floater moments.
We were pleased to see Dominator was now running as we were making our way out of the park. This was our last ride of the day. It was unfortunately much rougher than I remembered. Although not the worst B&M ride, it did fall down my rankings a good bit. We rode towards the middle of the train and I wonder if the front or back would be better or worse. Hopefully I just caught it on a rough day (pun maybe intended).
All in all, it was an excellent day at Kings Dominion. Our longest lines were for Reptiliian, Tumbili, Twisted Timbers, Americana Ferris Wheel, and Bad Apple, probably only 15 minutes at worst. Although I'd already been on every roller coaster this year, I'd say I was particularly impressed with Flight of Fear, Anaconda, and Apple Zapple, and specifically let down by Tumbili, Grizzly and Dominator. Everything else was as I remembered (Twisted Timbers and i305 are still excellent - Reptilian, Backlot Stuntcoaster, and Racer '75 are still ). We skipped Woodstock Express (1975 PTC Family Wooden) and the bumper cars. The Eiffel Tower was not operating or otherwise I would have considered taking in the view. Our visit was about six hours well spent.
