Kings Dominion March 31st with pictures

We made our first trip of the year to Kings Dominion for their Opening Day. Made it in on Friday the 30th and checked into the hotel right in front of the park, Best Western Kings Quarters. The hotel was sufficient and the people were nice.

Woke up on Saturday the 31st and walked over to the park before opening to have our passes processed. It was pretty easy, they just took or temporary ones at the ticket booth and scanned permanent ones to hand back to us. The park was clean and very well manicured. There were still many things throughout the park that had the Paramount name on them though.

It was a pretty busy day in the park and I don't think the employees were ready for it. The rides were running pretty well despite the employees being pretty green.

Volcano and Italian Job were the best two rides there. Hurler and Grizzly were both painful. The line was too long for FoF and Anaconda was down. Shockwave wasn't as bad as I expected but after the recent mishap with Togo stand-ups I don't think I'll ride it again.

Here's a few pics I took while there.

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Pic 4

Pic 5

Pic 6

Pic 7

Nothing like posting your TR two months late. :)

Nice TR, but I'm surprised you posted it considering how you blasted dvo for his Kings Island TR:

http://www.pointbuzz.com/cpplace.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=21056

I'm pretty sure that's why he posted it.

Better late then never, huh?

Does this mean we can expect your TR on Kennywood in August?

There isn't a TR needed for KW.

Everything there is GREAT! Nothing to write about really, the food's reasonably priced, the rides are wonderful and well maintained and people are friendly.

If you want to see my pictures send me a PM *OR* get an INSTANT MESSENGER! :)

*** Edited 5/31/2007 11:06:46 PM UTC by Loopy***

Hey, man, like I can take a hint . . . ;)

We went to Kings Dominion for the first time during spring break and i thought it was a great park! It is very clean and everything is laid out very nice. My son and I loved Volcano and Italian job probably the most! Oh yea, and the wood dueling coaster... i loved going backwards! I have to say, I HATED Hypersonic as it caused me great pain jerking over the top of the hill. I thought my leg was broken! It was awful! Anaconda was also a ride I wouldn't ride again. The headbanging was enough for me for a lifetime! Everything else was great though! I loved the Happy Days restaurant. It is cute how it is themed so closely to the show!

Hey Loopy, we are going to Kings Dominion on Monday for the first time. We would really appreciate any tips on where to eat in the park and what rides that are good, etc. Also, do you have a better way of getting there than the Mapquest directions? Please let me know. Thanks......

My family and I went to King's Dominion for the first in April, now that Cedar Fair owns it. It is a nice park, clean and VERY friendly. The Volcano is one of the best coasters I have ever ridden, it was awesome. Grizzly was good, the rest were OK. We stayed at the econolodge across the street, DO NOT stay there. But it is easy to find, right on 95, literally the exit, I think 98 is solely for King's Dominion.

Yeah, you can't miss the exit, there's a huge Paramount sign looming over Rt. 95, it is exit 98. As far as getting to Rt. 95...I used to live in Jacksonville NC and have driven two different ways. One way is less miles but a little more country driving and the other is a few more miles and going around DC. If you want to time your driving to miss rush hour traffic in DC you can take the PA turnpike to the Breezewood exit. There you'll take 70 South to 270 South to the beltway 495 South around DC. Just south of DC is where you'll catch 95 South, from there you have about an hour. If you want to take the alternate route you'll still get on 70 South out of Breezewood but you'll take 522 South before you get to 270. 522 South into Winchester VA where you meet up with 50/17. Take 50/17 until they split and stay on 17. You'll go around Warrenton VA and it will become 17/15 for a bit until 17 splits off to the left, stay on 17 still. 17 South will take you all the way down to 95 below DC near Fredricksburg. From there you only have about 25 minutes to travel on 95.

Chick-fil-a is the only place we ate in the park, if you go south on 95 to exit 92 into Ashland (6 miles), you'll find every type restaurant there. There is a GREAT authentic Mexican restaurant right on Rt 54 (England St.) just after you get off of 95 in the parking lot of the grocery store on your left. I can't remember the name of it but Jess will read this tomorrow and probably be able to tell you. I have visited Mexico many times and even stayed with some local residents in Mexicali, this food was as good if not better than what I had down there.

Thanks Loopy, we love Mexican food so we will surely try that place.

It's called El Azteca :)

Thanks Jess.

See told ya she'd remember, damn mind like a steel trap.

El Azteca is awesome. I work at KD and I know that during pre and post seasons, when we work during the week days and the park is closed, we all go to lunch at either El Azteca or New China Buffet which is an awesome chinese buffet restaurant in the same shopping center. You can get Mexican, Chinese, Italian and American all in one place. They also have a Jersy Mikes there in that shopping center too.

Just a quick update to loopy's cough ... "current" ...cough trip report.

I was at my home park last week. The Paramount Logo is disapearing in a measured way. Since March, all movie props and posters under and around the Eiffel tower, are gone. The paving stones with the Paramount movie's engraved on them have been flipped over so they are blank. (I would not be suprised if the park takes out all of those stones and the surrounding asphalt and lay down new paving stones in a year or two). As stated in other threads, the rest of the Paramount logo has to be gone by the end of 2007. I would not expect the major park signage to be removed until after the park closes at the end of October.

A good place to eat in the park is the Country Kitchen restaurant across from the Carousel. They have BBQ ribs and 1/2 BBQ chicken, pulled pork BBQ sandwich, and fried chicken. They have 4-5 sides to chose from (of which you get 2 plus a biscuit with your meal). Its the most bang for your buck given that an average meal elsewhere in the park would be about $2.50 less for just a burger, fries, and drink.

Don't forget to bring a bathing suit for the water park! Water Works opened on Memorial Day weekend with 3 new attractions including a 2nd wave pool, a tornado slide, and a mammoth 4-person raft slide. The water park is open from noon to 7 pm on weekdays and till 8 pm on weekends. They have 2 bathouses where you can shower and change clothes.

Have fun!

P.S. Don't forget to drink lots of water while in the park. It has been in the 90's for most of last week. Though, I think you will get a break this week as it will be in the mid-80's.