Lay it all on me. (Kings Dominion 2016 Part 1)

On Friday morning we woke up a little later than planned, but headed north to Kings Dominion. This weekend would be 2 new parks for Isaac, and a new credit for me. Traffic was a problem for the first part of the weekend, but we finally made it to the park around 1pm. The park wasn’t very busy and the weather was overcast but the temperature was great. We got in to the park and beelined to Volcano. I wanted to check out the way they re-worked the entrance. Sadly, the ride was down. Instead, we headed over to I305 instead.

I think Fury is probably my favorite giga coaster but I305 is really very good. It has ejector air, speed, and even though it’s really compact, the ride is a lot of fun. Very intense. There was barely a wait.

Next I believe we went to Flight of Fear. I have to say, I like that they shortened the queue, but could they please just repaint it, add some lighting, dust it, and make it look less trashy? The ride still runs great. I wish it’d been moved to Carowinds as planned. The Flights of Fear both tend to launch as designed. The Six Flags versions, for the last few times I’ve ridden them, have most certainly not.

We walked over to Delirium. It looks great, and the ride is a lot of fun. The cycle doesn’t seem as long as the 2 Huss Giant Frisbee rides that Cedar Fair operates, but it’s still really good, and we got a decent cycle. I hope Carowinds gets one of these. And the lighting package is great.

We went over and had some issues finding the entrance to Grizzly (you have to go thru the Dinos Alive gift shop, it seems like a cluster, and no-one was over by Grizz). The station seems like it’s gotten some love, and there was new wood on Grizzly. I thought it was running great as ever. I love that ride.

We walked around to the Eiffel Tower and went up top to get some pictures before heading down to get some food.

Now that Thunder Road is gone, I feel very nostalgic riding Rebel Yell. Isaac never got to ride Thunder Road, so he was happy to get to ride Rebel Yell. Only one side was running at this point, and it was running mostly well. The return trip was a little rough, and it could use some work like Thunder Road had received.

We went over to the other side of the park and decided to put our stuff in a locker to ride the flume, but Isaac noticed he didn’t have his phone. We trucked it over to Rebel Yell, where they thankfully had found it. Then we went back, put our stuff in a locker, and rode the log flume. It’d been a few years since I’d ridden the Shenandoah Log Flume, but it’s a lot of fun.

We wondered around the park and then hit up the line for Volcano since it wasn’t long. Unfortunately, not long before we would have gotten on, the ride broke down. We waited for quite a while, but then the park was going to close soon and we got out of line. That at least gave us the opportunity to get a nite ride on I305 (my first nite ride) before heading out to Williamsburg.

We got to Williamsburg around 10pm. I had Hotwired a 3 star hotel that day at Kings Dominion. We booked some Colonial named conference center. It was decent. And older property (but clean and nice). Unfortunately there were tons of kids there for a volleyball tournament. They were leaving the next day and we were staying two nites.

I was hungry and tired. They had a pub that served food till 11pm, so after we dropped our stuff off at the room, we hit it up. Well, at least we tried. We sat at the bar and the bartenders purposefully ignored us. As one guy brought out some food, he sighed and asked if anyone had helped us. I asked for a menu and he sighed again. The food stopped at 11 and the drinks at 11:30. On a Friday Night. With a bar FULL of parents trying to get away from their kids.

Sensing they didn’t want our business, we just left. I’m not giving money to someone who doesn’t want it. Seriously, we were prepared to buy food, and since we didn’t have to drive, likely a few drinks. Oh well. We drove to Wendy’s down the street and I got a couple burgers.