Kings Dominion will remove Volcano: The Blast Coaster

Not surprising since it spent most of the last two years not running. Shame that they just redid the station to a much better flow a couple years ago.

I hopw they keep the mountain.

I'm not surprised either. It was so unique. It was also one of my first "launch" coasters next to KI's Flight Of Fear.

-Tina

Maybe the existing mountain structure will be reused for a future attraction. Dark ride, flume, or combination of both.

The Facebook comments on the Kings Dominion page are comically outrageous. How dare the park do this? TIME TO BOYCOTT!!!11!!

Oh, and there’s this:

https://www.change.org/p/cedar-fair-save-volcano

I like the indignation at the announcement coming at 10:00pm on a Friday night. I'm assuming that means they would have been much more rational had this happened at mid-day on Wednesday.

Rats. Total bummer. Love VTBC. .. why can’t Intamin be brought in for a refurb with modern components? So weird.

Isn't that ride the second thing to live in that mountain? I don't know my KD history.

I thought it was originally occupied by the Smurfs.

Wrote this in the closed thread:

That is most definitely a ride of two halves. The launches and...whatever the first inversion is called were amazing. The rolls were pretty meh though I never personally had a problem with the huge dive into the brakes. I don't know why they couldn't come up with a better second half, but I'm sorry to see the truly unique beginning get scrapped. I'm at a point in my coastering life where anything novel or unique, even for just a few hundred feet of track, is interesting to me. Then again, capacity and reliability.

Jeff, there VTBC is at least the 3rd ride there. There was the Smurfs thing already mentioned and there was a Rotor in there too (Time Warp, Time Shaft something like that). All this was before my time in VA but I've heard tell of them (I'm sure a Google search would help, but 'Aint nobody got time fo that!') :)

For the record, I never really like Volcano anyway. It might even be fair to stay that I actively *disliked* the barrel rolls though I did like the launches.

For those not playing along at home, Volcano closed suddenly early in the season last year, either late May or early June. There's a lot more to this than the park simply wanting to retire the ride -- something major broke or another issue came up that they were not expecting.

The mountain opened in 1979 with The Lost World of Atlantis (flume/dark ride that became the Haunted River the next year), the Land of Dooz (weird kids’ train ride that became Smurf Mountain in the early 80s), and Time Shaft (Rotor).

Sucks that Volcano is done, but...oh well. I kinda hope the mountain stays, it’s pretty iconic.

The mountain opened in 1978. The original 4 rides were The Land of Dooz, an indoor family train ride that towed up and down hills, Time Shaft, a Chance Rotor, Haunted River, a themed boat ride with a final splashdown drop, and Mt Kilimanjaro, a Bayern Kurve. The Safari monorail station was nearby. It was impressive that Taft, with the help of Arrow for the two majors, was able to fit 4 attractions into/onto one structure. The Haunted River was especially interesting. It was flume-like with three or four major scenes in high ceilinged rooms. It sort of lived in the “basement”- there was a small drop to start off the ride. I remember a pirate scene with a massive ship and maybe skeletons for occupants. The Dooz ride wound it’s way through an upper level and the load station was accessed by ramps, platforms, and bridges. I was always amazed at how much they packed in there- the two track rides weren’t short or skimpy at all

Over the years things changed somewhat, the Doozys were replaced by Smurfs, and the Kurve went away. Eventually it all went away when Volcano came along to occupy the entire building. Avalanche still operates along side of the mountain. I always thought it would’ve been fitting for the park to have extended the mountain facade to at least partially cover the coaster to make it seem even more bobsled like.

I really liked Volcano, in spite of the long wait and slow op. It was fraught with trouble from the beginning with a delayed opening and then it ran for a while with a seat removed from each car, cutting already abysmal capacity in half. I guess there was a weight/launch issue. When I was there last spring to try TT, the ride was already down for the long-term. That part of the park was really dead on what was a slow day anyway, and I thought it would’ve been a good time for a couple of laps on Volcano. Oh well.

I’ve read sob stories from those that always passed on the ride because the line was too long, and now it’s too late. Moral: never pass if you value credits.

I visited the park for the first time in many decades last October. I knew Volcano was down, but I expected that I would get to ride it sometime this year if I went to the park.

I read a rumor a while back that the track just after the second launch, that was inside the mountain, needed replaced due to hairline fractures. The ride was closed down because it was going to be a difficult and expensive job. I don't know how true it is, but it does make sense.

What makes up for me never getting to ride it was having the experience of riding Haunted River about a hundred years ago. It was a really interesting ride.

I shrug and look forward to whatever the park puts in its place. Like others have said, I really hope they keep the mountain. I can't imagine the park without it. I think they will, because it seems like it would be really difficult to dismantle it.

ApolloAndy said:

I don't know why they couldn't come up with a better second half...

I didn't realize that B&M designed Volcano.

The Taft mountain in VA is also kind of unique in that KD has both a tower (like KI) and a mountain (like CW). Like Hypersonic XLC, V:TBC is FUBAR. Painful, when such brutal and uninspiring attractions like Anaconda soldier on. Seems there is a Coaster curse in Doswell. Same can be argued for King’s Mills I suppose.

Maybe a Mack triple launch will fill the void in an upcoming season. One door closes...

Get it all torn down and cleaned up, maybe they can build a new mountain complex in the future. Modern technology and great ideas, it could all be better than what was there. And reliable. A new coaster/tribute to Volcano with good capacity, a flume and/or dark ride, a family ride, etc.

The real killer here is we are losing something unique and well loved. Cedar Fair isn't big on unique stuff, but that doesn't mean they can't do it in the future.

I guess I really lucked out for a change b/c ironically, when I arrived at Kings Dominion on April 14 of last year Volcano was operating but Twisted Timbers was not. (Fortunately, they got TT up and running sometime in the evening, as that was the primary purpose of the trip.) As usual, it was a blast. One thing I particularly liked about it was the element of surprise. Unlike Maverick or Cheetah Hunt, there was nothing to tip you off that a 2nd launch was about to happen. Being flat on my back at an elevation of 155 feet wasn't too shabby, either. I will really miss Volcano; it stands out as one of the most original coasters I've ridden.

RCMAC said:

The mountain opened in 1978.

My first visit was in 1978, and at 5 years old I still have memories of riding the Safari Monorail and seeing the steel superstructure of the mountain under construction. Disclaimer: the photo of that map is not mine, but I do still own that map.

My first time on Volcano in 1998 was the longest I've ever waited for a ride: 3 hours. That year they ran a single train with half the cars removed. That's 8 passengers per ride. People complain about capacity, but that year Volcano took the prize for lowest ever. Add occasional breakdowns to 8 seats on one train, and I got to know that F****** autospiel pretty well. "Please secyoor all loooos ahrticools. Loooos ahrticools ahr not pehrmeettid." I guess I got lucky, because I can certainly believe 5+ hour waits for a coaster of that magnitude that can only entertain 8 people every 5 minutes, give or take. I swore I'd never wait even half that long ever again for anything, even if Paul Reuben says it's the best damn ride on the planet.