How was opening day at Kings Dominion today?

Anyone wish to share? All rides open? I plan on going tomorrow Sunday 4/3 and just want to hear about your experience at the park.

What about Dominator 305?? How is the new first retooled turn? Did they remove the trims from the first drop?

Thanks!

Grizzly is closed until late May.

^Hard to believe that's for a refurb/retrack considering the way Grizz was running last year...one of the better coasters left from its era.

Heard I-305 is blazingly fast again (may be too fast again, even). First-drop trims suck - "man up" or don't ride, folks...LOL! :)

palwine said:

What about Dominator 305?? Thanks!

Do they cross-breed coasters in the off-season? Is this the spawn of an illicit tryst between Dominator and Intimidator-305?

I really need to get there this year and ride I305...Does anyone else like the Grizzly? That ride is awesome at night. The tunnel is the best part!

I didn't make it to the park this past weekend, but based on rider reviews of the ride and restraints along with this new video of the ride, it appears Timmy is be back to EPIC form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-BEYSsjr98"]http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-BEYSsjr98

Here's a better way to get to the video. That link got messed up somehow.

I would just like to point out that before people discovered what KD was going to do to make I-305s turn more tolerable, I predicted just exactly what they did to fix it. lol

KD is on my list of parks that I must visit sometime soon. Last time I was there, Anaconda was the new ride.

Ha! Not sure why I called I-305 "dominator" last night. oh well. My bad.
Went today, rode I-305 for the first time so I cannot compare to last year but my gosh is it fast. I have only had the "black out" sensation a couple of times on coasters...once or twice on S:ROS (Six Flags America in MD) and on Titan (SFOT) and the main reason probably because of multiple back to back rides and being hot & not enough water. I-305 is FAST and the turn and incline after the first drop is incredible beyond words. Get out and ride it before any changes are made....I am serious. This is your chance. I like it the way it is, but unfortunately the general public may not.

In other news, the drop tower was closed today. Anaconda is in sorry shape, and Volcano is still a crowd pleaser with long lines. I was able to get two front row rides on Volcano first thing in the AM before the lines got too long. The second ride took about 45 minutes to get through the queue. I noticed at the start of the day the last two rows were purposely kept empty (to prevent rollbacks?) but by the end of the day they started filling the second to the last row but kept the back empty. I thought they fixed the LIM power issue a while back but I guess not.

I-305 was basically a walk on all day, except for the front row.

Kings Dominion is a great park. I will miss it. I am moving back to MA later this spring.

^^Travis, last time I was there *Shock Wave* was *going to be* the new ride ;) I was busy riding King Kobra, which had a nasty bite ;)

So for us, it's almost like a brand new park. lol

^Exactly! I remember that HUGE lake was soo cool - riding the sky ride; the Rebel Yell looked so big back then... and the singing mushrooms :)

We were there Saturday and Intimidator 305 was running well. The rework is a good compromise. I rode it opening day last year and loved it. My complaint then was how hard the mid course brakes hit. Visited again in the fall and the trims on the first drop were disappointing after riding it wide open on opening day.

Now with the rework the coaster is returned to its glory. First drop trimless with the change being at the bottom when you bank right about a quarter of the way through the turn it begins to elevate. When you come out of the turnaround the elevation is about the half the height 2nd hill. You still get the nice pop of air on the 2nd hill.

The rest of the ride is taken at a good and still intense speed. The midcourse brakes don't grab near like they did opening day last year. It makes for the best ride you can get without it being too intense for people.

My wife still experienced the grey out on the turnaround, but I didn't. I am happy with the way it's running now, and am hoping that they don't make anymore modifications to it.

Any POV's yet?

I've wanted to get back here for a while. It just never works out for me. Last time I was at the park, Avalanche was new and Anaconda hadn't been built. If RCDB is correct, that means it was between 1988 and 1990.

Last time I was at BGW was in 1992 during those 3-4 weeks when Drachen Fire actually ran well. I need to road trip those 2 one of these years.

I took off ride pics. They were warning people not to take video or will be banned from riding.

The thin crowds were nice. Toward the end of the day we went up to the top of the Eiffel tower and there were more cars in the employee lot than there were in the parking lot.

Drop tower, shockwave, and grizzly were down. They were cycling empty trains on shockwave. It also got a new paint job, and looked similar to Raptor at CP.

One train op on stunt coaster but with the light crowds it didn't really matter. Other coasters opened later. Overall it was a good opening day. $4 bottles of water are the downside! ;)

I was there opening day (4/2) and have to say I'm very pleased with the changes to I305. I hadn't ridden it since early weekends last year, so I had not experienced the new OTSR's (a win in my book; more Intamin coasters need to have those kind of restraints) or any other changes they had tried throughout the season.

Last year, when I rode I305, I got off and said "ok, one ride was enough", which is something I rarely say about a new coaster. This year, I would definitely put I305 in the re-ride category. Great job KD!

Some friends and I were there yesterday. We hadn't been there since the Coaster Zombies event (with Gator and Tina)last summer before all the changes started. We didn't care much for the ride last year, especially me. But this year... The new restraints make a world of a difference for me. I no longer have to hold on tight and brace for impact on every turn like I did last year. I can just sit back, not even hold on, and enjoy the ride like I do on every other coaster, even with my eyes closed and my neck doesn't get beat up. The last "roll" before the turn up to the brake run is still a little viscious, but the rest of the ride is super smooth.

There is a bit of a drawback of the new soft restraints (at least for taller/bigger riders). It fits more snugly than the old loose restraints and thus can limit your mobility to enjoy the airtime. For me personally, I could have the lap bar hovering over my legs yet the shoulder straps would be keeping me snug against the seat. So because of that the airtime on the first two drops seemed a little less intense as the beginning of last year, but otherwise it's an amazing improvement over last year. The "midcourse" trims don't seem to grab as hard anymore, but the rest of the ride from that point is still weak IMO in comparison to the craziness before it, so that is still a major negative for me. But overall it's a really fun ride now. It's still not one of my favorite coasters by any means, but something I really enjoy riding.

I knew Grizzly was going to be down (it's on their website) and I considered not going because of that, but I was really curious about giving Timmy another shot after not liking it much last year. I will have to go back sometime this season and get my Grrizzly fix. It's been insanely good the last few years. I much prefer it to anything else at the park, except for the Flyers. And I got a really good ride for my first flyer cycle of the season. :)

I saw something on another site that Shockwave was down. Yes? No? Maybe?

I was quite displeased with the I-305 restraints, but thought it was otherwise very powerful and with a fun layout (lack of abundant airtime hills notwithstanding). Given what I've been hearing, I might want to get back there while we have a trimless ride (and the better restraints). If the forces on the riders and the wheels haven't been changed THAT much...I kinda expect KD to start trimming the first drop again (until they can re-re-profile the turn again)... ;)

I heard Shockwave was closed opening day Sat 4/2, but when I was there Sunday it was running by 12 noon.