Paramount’s Kings Dominion: Virginia’s Roller Coaster Capital
Written: Aug 13 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: MOST ROLLER COASTERS in EAST COAST, Water Park, Season Pass pays off after two visits.
Cons: Hot, Bad Food, Few Shows, Expensive All-around, Uninteresting Theme, Unhelpful Employees, A little Dirty.
The Bottom Line: Great for Roller Coaster Fans, but everything else could use some work for the pricey admissions fee.
|
|
|
| rodeo7's Full Review: Paramount's Kings Dominion |
At 25 years old, Paramount’s Kings Dominions is only a couple of years older than me, and I have been visiting the park for almost as long. The park has changed a lot in the many years, and although I will always enjoy my trips to the park, this past season has made me see more cons about the place than I had before.
Referring to the title of this review, KD is only a quick 20 minute drive from Richmond, Virginia’s State Capital. A friend and I purchased season passes to KD this past season, which paid themselves off only after two visits to the park. We also purchased a season parking pass, which has not paid itself off requiring five visits to the park to pay of its price. But since the park is open six months out of the year, there’s still hope.
As much as I would love to go into a stroll down memory lane, I decided to stick to the present KD and save stories of Hanna-Barbera Land, Smurf Mountain and Lions Country Safari (all long gone) for another day. Paramount purchased Kings Dominion in the early 90’s and slowly transformed it into what we see today.
The park is made up of seven areas, which are International Street, Old Virginia, The Grove, Waterworks, Congo, Kidzville, and Nickelodeon Central. The areas themselves, have themes but the park as a whole doesn’t really have any continuity with these themes. It does help when looking at the map though.
One of the biggest attractions and trademarks at KD is their 332 foot replica of the Eiffel Tower. An elevator takes visitors up to the observation deck at 285 feet where they’re granted a wonderful view of the park and the surrounding area. The Tower is also easily seen from Rt.95, which is usually the landmark which lets travelers know when they’ve arrived at their exit for KD.
Being the park with the most roller coasters in all of the east coast, KD has something for everyone. Helping KD break more records is their newest coaster, the Hypersonic XLC. This ride is the worlds first air-compressed launch coaster, the world’s fastest accelerating coaster, and is the (complete circuit) coaster with the steepest descent anywhere in the world. To top that off, the addition of the Hypersonic makes KD the worldwide winner of most launch-style coasters in one park (at 3).
Volcano, which blasts hanging passengers straight out the top of a volcano, is another crowd favorite. Classics include the stand up Shockwave, the camel hump racer Rebel Yell, the rickety old Grizzly, and Scooby Doo’s Ghoster Coaster. The Anaconda was the first inverted coaster I had ever ridden and Wayne’s World’s Hurler is a very fast wooden coaster. The Avalanche Bobsled is always good for couples and the Flight of Fear was given new seat restraints.
Other favorites include the swinging boat the Berserker, Diamond Falls, White Water Canyon, Log Flume, and the Blue Ridge Tollway. New this year is Stan Lee’s 7th Portal, a 3-D motion simulation ride. Of course there are also your classic Bumper Cars, Carousel, and Swings. There are many rides for kids in Kidzville and Nickelodeon Central, which include a very high-tech Rugrats Toonpike.
There are many Arcades and carnival style games like the Ring Toss, and the Bushel Basket. Food vendors are everywhere selling a variety of things like pretzels and hot dogs. There are many shops that sell everything from collectibles to clothing throughout the park (but are pretty expensive). One other attraction, which should be mentioned, is the Extreme SkyFlyer, which gives 1-3 people the sensation of flying through the air. Unfortunately, the SkyFlyer is not included with the park’s admission price and you have to pay for it separately. It’s pretty expensive.
Lastly, Waterworks seems to have been an ongoing project to create a water park within a park so visitors get two parks for the price of one. The park includes many slides, a wave pool, Surf City Splash House (very fun and very wet) and the Lazy Rider
Now that you have the rundown of what KD has to offer, it’s time to mention the Con’s I was referring to. One is the ambiance of the whole park. It’s dull. It feels like a very large county fair. As I said, there’s practically no continuity with the theme of the park. The area where the Hypersonic is used to be part of Wayne’s World, an area Paramount created when they first purchased the park (and since partially removed physically and is now part of The Grove when looking on the map). The Hypersonic looks literally thrown into the middle of a walkway, like it’s a moveable coaster that travels with county fairs. The place is also slightly dirty with litter here and there, graffiti throughout all ride line corrals, and run-down areas simply look un-kept and ugly.
KD also tends to be very un-shaded and hot. The white concrete in Waterworks heats up just like an outdoor public pool’s does during a hot summer day. The problem is, there are pretty large distances you have to walk barefoot and not enough accessible water to cool off your tootsies like you could at a pool. Boy did our feet hurt. Most, if not all, the walkways in the rest of the park are dark black asphalt. The lack of shade makes the place sweltering hot. Of course this is what they want because visitors will buy more over-priced drinks (hypothesized by many but confirmed by KD employees I know).
The food as well as the drinks are incredibly over-priced. This is common at amusement parks, but a local competitor is able to pull off lower food/drink prices and give their guests better product. Everything, except the Fudge, at KD that I have eaten has been close to cold and tasting like cardboard. But I do love their Fudge. I get a half pound at the end of every visit to take home with me. Mmmm.
There aren’t many shows at KD which makes it a slightly boring place for one who isn’t into the rides. The line-up consists of five music driven shows, one acrobat show and an interactive show called “Richard Scarry’s Busytown Show”. The Mapapas Acrobats are incredible though. Four guys from Kenya have won many awards with their dancing, acrobatics and unbelievable limbo skills. This one guy took two beer (root beer?) bottles and had them set on the ground with the stick across their tops. He limbo’d it without touching the stick!
The roller coasters, though many, at KD tend to get boring and annoying. Many of the coasters hurt from knocking into the sides of your seat. Flight of Fear used to bash your head into the sides of your restraints, but they’ve since changed this. Now, the ride is very comfortable, if you’re not tall. The new set up looks like it would be very uncomfortable for someone with long legs since you have to squish yourself into these odd leg/lap restraints.
I have yet to ride the Hypersonic. It has had technical difficulties every time I have been to the park and is always being fixed while the line continues to grow. With only one train seating eight people, a very short line can equate to a 30-minute long wait. Last time I considered waiting, the wait was three hours long. No thanks.
My biggest annoyance with KD came during my first visit of the season. My friend and I simply went to pick up our season passes and spend another three hours or so catching some rides. The park had just opened for the season, it was a weekday and kids were in school. We figured the lines would be short. Hypersonic had not opened for the season yet, so we hopped into the Volcano line. From previous visits, we knew the line should only take 30 minutes at the most from the point where we began our wait. 30 minutes turned into 2 hours. It wasn’t until we reached the very end of the line that we found out people were somehow cutting into the line via the exit. What’s going on?!
We were next in line for three consecutive trains before we finally got to board. It turned out that at 10:00am when the park opens on certain days, visitors can get “Express Tickets” at a first come first serve basis while supplies last. There is a designated time when they can show up at the exit with their ticket and they get a free cut in line ride. This would have been okay but the KD staff was letting them on as soon as they got into line, without alternating their line and the main line. This caused much anger in the main line. Many people complained, but the staff of mostly teenagers didn’t seem to care with answers of “Sorry, but I’m not in charge.” It didn’t seem like anyone was stepping forward to admit they were in charge. This was inexcusable and I know many people complained at guest services. What came of the complaints? Probably nothing. Maybe free cardboard tasting food. I personally didn’t want to waste anymore time.
After riding Volcano we decided to calm down and try our luck with some other rides. Guess what. Not a single minute of waiting for every ride. We walked from the line’s entrance to the dividing gates of the train and simply waited for the next train to arrive. We did this for all other coasters we rode that day. We even rode a few times in a row without having to get off the train. I know Volcano’s popular, but a two hour wait for one ride and no wait on the rest is a little excessive. Those little brats screwed up big that day.
The 7th Portal was also pretty boring. The effects were amazing, but no one I know can really make sense of the story. You’re obviously on the “good guy’s” team and are fighting the “bad guys” in a comic book cyber world, but I never got why and how we got to their world. I also never got who I (we) was supposed to be. Was I me? Or was I a superhero? Some of the motion-simulation didn’t really match with what was going on either, and there was too much stop and go. I like motion-simulations when it’s mostly continuous and flows smoothly.
Two final complaints regard the water park, Waterworks. If you had any metal on your swimwear, you couldn’t ride the slides. This makes sense because the metal would scratch the slides, and this rule is common at most water parks. It’s still annoying though. Many swim shorts that have pockets in them have a single hole at the bottom of each pocket, supported with metal rings to drain water. The hole is towards the front of the shorts and would never contact the slide. I went with four friends one day and we all happened to have the metal holes. KD staff actually said, “There are scissors at First Aid if you want to cut them out.” No thanks. I spent a pretty penny on my wakeboard shorts. I’ll have to remember to buy cheap shorts if I want to slide at Waterworks. Well, the reason I’m also bothering to mention all this other than to complain is that we found a simple and effective way to avoid the men and women in red (life guards that bust you for possession of metal). Just roll your shorts up enough to cover the metal. Presto. They never notice and you’re not really cheating because since the metal is covered in cloth, there’s definitely no way it can contact the slide.
The other complaint was the wave pool. Two words. Sweat Water. Eww. That pool was so salty and warm I don’t even want to think about what was in it… or not in it (chlorine). Yuck. On the good side, there are life guards are all around the edges of the pool and keep a close eye on the huge mass of people bobbing up and down with the waves. We even saw one guard dive in after someone. Okay, I guess that’s not necessarily such a plus because since it’s a safety issue, it’s expected and necessary anyway.
Overall, Paramount’s Kings Dominion is a fun park. They have broken many records and have some of the best coasters around. Prices are very steep though and expect to spend a pretty penny for a single visit. Grab your coupons at your local Taco Bell, Giant Food, or whoever else carries them. The park is a great place for the family, but it tends to be a teen and older crowd going mainly for the roller coasters.
I advise packing a cooler in the car and picnicking in the parking lot. They have adequate picnic areas, but we usually find a nice tree and sit under it for shade. I usually try and have a good lunch and/or dinner in the car, but I know that inevitably I’ll buy some carnival food like a funnel cake, or ice cream. I know there’s a good chance it’ll taste like cardboard, but I’m a sucker and buy the junk anyway.
At least one visit to the park is a must if you’re a roller coaster fan. If you don’t like coasters, then the long lines, sweltering heat, bad food, and lack of much else to do is not worth the high admissions ticket. This year, a general admission ticket ran $39 and it will probably go up next year. KD’s local competitor is only an hour and twenty minutes south, and is a much more well rounded park with its own awards and records. King’s Dominion will always be one of my favorites, especially since I grew up with it and had many class trips there when I was in grade school through high school. The park could use some help in many areas though. I’d give the park a 5 on coasters, but only a 1 or 2 in all other areas.
Their website: http://www.kingsdominion.com/
[I knew this would be a long one with all the complaints so I had to cut down on park statistics, rollercoaster descriptions, etc. And boy did this end up being long! Also, if you want to read on the competitor I mentioned, go back to my profile page and read the review I wrote just before this one. Thanks for reading.]
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
rodeo7
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Eddie
Location: Virginia, USA
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 71 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.