Kings Dominion

Visited: October 12, 2019

Attending: Just Brian

I mentioned that I joined American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) in the summer of 2019; it was a birthday gift from my wife. The discounts came in handy a few times throughout the summer, and I enjoyed getting the newsletter, but I hadn’t done an ACE event proper.

I should also mention that I had intended to take a trip in late August to the Louisville area, where I was speaking at a conference. However, because of my new job, the timing became much too cramped, and I ended up canceling the conference, which meant I canceled my visits to Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World, and Kings Island. The Kings Island visit had been part of my justification for buying a platinum pass to Cedar Fair, so I needed to justify it with some different parks instead. Fortunately, I had a conference in Raleigh in October, so I decided to fit in a couple there. I was already planning to visit Kings Dominion on October 12, but discovering there was an ACE event with Exclusive Ride Time (ERT) made it that much more interesting.

I left my house around 6 a.m., hoping to get to Kings Dominion around 9:15, which I did. I had thought the parking lot was supposed to open at 9:00, but it didn’t open until after 9:30, and I had to wait in line quite a bit. Fortunately, one of the ACE officers was nearby to tell me what was going on. The line to get registered wasn’t bad, and we all headed off to Twisted Timbers for some ERT.

Twisted Timbers

Twisted Timbers was the first order of the day, and the ACErs had it all to ourselves. There were about 125 attendees, I found out later, and being enthusiasts, most of them wanted the front or back cars. So I didn’t get walk-ons; I usually had to wait one or two trains before I got a turn. Given that I had a three-hour wait a year ago when I rode, this was perfectly fine with me. However, the operators were being very careful, especially about ensuring that all riders put their phones in the special RMC zipper pouches, and didn’t have them in pockets (which is what I tried to do). I guess they didn’t trust enthusiasts not to whip out our phones on the lift hill? As a result, the dispatches were on the slow side. I didn’t mind at all, but some of the other riders complained.

The first ride I took was front-car, and the coaster definitely hadn’t warmed up yet. It was borderline slow. But the three rides I had after that were excellent. I went for the back row, which was just as good as I expected, and the front row, which was surprisingly fun. I thought the experience would be the same as row 2, but being the first person on the train meant I was right in the wind, and that was more exciting than I anticipated. After four rides, the park was open to the general public, and the queue was starting to fill, so it was time to move on.

Intimidator 305

The group had scheduled an “informal ride takeover” of Intimidator at 11:00, so I headed over that way. I got a little lost, because I can’t seem to remember to grab a map anymore. When I got there, about 30 or so ACErs were posing for a group photo, and I got in on that. Nobody else seemed to be riding at the time, but there were enough of us that we filled a couple of trains.

I chose to wait for the very back row, as I had before. A year ago, I got a couple of rides, and didn’t gray out, which other enthusiasts have declared was “impossible.” I’m going to believe the ride was running cold that day, because this time, I definitely grayed out on the first turn. Just like most enthusiasts say, the sensation starts at the bottom of the first drop, and lasts until the top of the first airtime hill. It’s not an unpleasant sensation, but I don’t think it’s one I would actively seek, nor one I’d want to experience several times in a row. I’m pretty sure the ride was running faster, because the transitions felt nicely intense, and I was thrown around quite a bit in the back row.

I did another ride from the very front row, and although I didn’t gray out in that spot, I was impressed by the intensity, and having the wind in my face, and no train in front to look at made for an entirely different, and quite fun experience. There were quite a few enthusiasts of around my age there that day, several of whom were attending solo. Which was fine, as they were friendly, and perfectly willing to share a row. Most of the time, my seat partner went their own way after riding, but this time, the guy I shared the front row with hung around, and we struck up a conversation. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch his name.

My new friend and I rode once more, from close to the back, and I once again grayed out, so I’d call that a successful experiment. I was wary of getting a headache from the blood loss, so the pair of us decided to move on at that point.

Flight of Fear

While waiting in line for Intimidator, I told my companion my story about having ridden Flight of Fear in 1996, and my desire for “revenge.” Like last year, Flight of Fear’s queue was being used for a scare maze, but unlike this year, the ride itself was still open during the day, as it rarely gets enough riders to need any queue outside the platform. Since Flight of Fear is right next to Intimidator, my friend suggested we go ride that next. There was a bit of a wait on the platform, maybe three or four trains, but not bad at all. Although I hadn’t ridden this particular coaster in 23 years, I had ridden Joker’s Jinx (the identical, outdoor version at Six Flags America) just a couple of years ago, and I remembered the rough layout, specifically: “an exciting beginning, a boring middle, and a fast-paced end, close to the ground.” In 1996, the launch was amazing, but now that I’ve ridden some more intense launches (Kingda Ka, Maxx Force), the launch here was forceful, but not unexpected. There was enough light to see roughly where the train was going. I don’t know if that was just the building degrading over 20 years, or if maybe it wasn’t as dark as I thought back then. The lack of over-the-shoulder restraints made a huge difference, of course, and the ride wasn’t painful at all. It wasn’t anything special, though. Aside from my desire for a re-ride, I probably would have skipped it. This coaster now holds my personal record for longest time between rides, and I can’t think of anything else that might surpass it.

Anaconda

I hadn’t planned to ride Anaconda on this trip. In fact, I’d be satisfied if I never rode it again. However, just before this event, news broke that Vortex at Kings Island would be removed at the end of October. This was unexpected news, and the enthusiasts were talking about it a bit while waiting in line. Anaconda is an old arrow looper, like Vortex, and Kings Dominion unexpectedly announced the removal of Volcano just about a year ago. So it wouldn’t have been a huge surprise if Anaconda were suddenly removed as well (spoiler, that hasn’t happened, as of this writing). Although my new friend and I didn’t particularly care for Anaconda, we reasoned that it might be a good idea to sneak in one ride, just in case. It was a station wait, so we wouldn’t lose much time.

We rode from somewhere near the front, which was OK by me because I’d ridden from the back the previous year. The experience was pretty much the same as last year’s. The first drop is shallow, the tunnel is boring, the two vertical loops are all right, then there’s some odd transitions before the amazingly slow corkscrew loops. If you enjoy the sensation of hangtime, the corkscrew provides some, although I don’t think that was the intent. On the whole, it wasn’t a great ride, and we agreed that there was little point in riding it, except for the possibility that may have been the last time.

Intimidator 305 again

After Anaconda, it was time for the other enthusiast event of the day, a backstage tour of Intimidator. We met up with a group of about 50 ACErs, and were led to a gate in the fence between Intimidator and Anaconda. This allowed us to walk on a dirt trail alongside Intimidator’s lift hill and first drop. Being enthusiasts, everybody stopped and took photos and video as trains crested the main hill. That area also borders the main turnaround for Racer 75 (the former Rebel Yell), which is quite long and forms the border of the park. The pretty curves of white wood made for a nice backdrop. We continued on to the grassy area inside Intimidator’s massive first turn, which was honestly closer than I thought we’d get. It’s a reasonably safe place to be. Although the train comes quite close to the ground right after the drop, there’s a fence around the area where it would be close enough to touch. When you’re on the ride, it feels like it hugs the ground through that entire turn, but when you’re standing back there, you can see that it rises up again fairly quickly. Some of the local enthusiasts delighted in pointing out where that curve had been reprofiled after the first season specifically to make it rise up, to reduce the g-forces on riders. We were back there for several cycles, and I wondered if the riders were confused by all the people standing around so close to the coaster, but based on my experience, they were too busy graying out to notice us. There was a lot of enthusiast chatter, mostly telling stories about rides they’d had on Intimidator, or others (like me) with fewer rides on it, comparing it to other things they’d ridden. After about half an hour, we were all shepherded back to the gate where we’d entered. It was great to go in a place where the public isn’t normally allowed, especially such an iconic element of a famous coaster, but we actually didn’t go all that far, nor did we see any of the mechanism. I imagine it wouldn’t have been safe to tour the mechanical areas while the train was actually running, but I’d love to get a tour like that sometime.

The Rest

I lost my companion at some point during the tour; I hope he had a good time. I spent a while after that just taking pictures and video of Intimidator, and chatted with someone who (oddly, given where we were) remembered going to West Point Park. Then I wandered back over to Twisted Timbers to take some more photos from the queue, but I didn’t ride. I had thought about riding Grizzly or Backlot Stunt Coaster, but the lines seemed to be lengthening. They weren’t bad, by any means, but longer than the station waits I’d been getting all day. After a little while of that, I headed over to the picnic area to have the lunch provided by the meetup, which was more extensive than I anticipated, and quite a nice picnic lunch. I didn’t stay very long, though, because I wanted to get to Raleigh by evening. On my way out of the picnic area, I passed an older woman and a young girl, who were apparently waiting for someone inside (I didn’t get the story). I had a couple of “skip the line” passes that were provided by the event, and since I wasn’t going to use them, I gave them to the woman. My plan was to ride Dominator on my way out, but when I got there, the line was quite long, as it was now after 3:00, and I think the Haunt crowd was starting to arrive. It occurred to me that I could have skipped the line, if I hadn’t just given away my passes, but oh well. I like Dominator, but I didn’t particularly mind skipping it.

On the whole, I only rode a handful of rides, but I very much enjoyed the ERT on Twisted Timbers and near-ERT on i305. It’s always good to have a few more rides on those. The backstage tour of Intimidator was a great experience, and I’d be happy to do that again sometime.