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Here are some of the coasters, and what
we think of them, at Kings Dominion.
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- Volcano: The Blast Coaster
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This coaster, with a LIM launch like The
Chiller, has great theming. The train is first launched out of the
station and out of a mountain at 70 miles per hour. Without any change in
elevation, the train U-turns back into the base of the mountain, where the
track suddenly curves upwards. You then come up out of the top of the mountain,
amidst smoke and fire effects, and into a rollover to begin flowing, like lava,
back down the outside of the mountain.
Once on the outside, the ride loses a little of its excitement. There is not
much speed, and there are no significant drops (except the last one that leads
back to the station). There are three heartline rolls that look similar to B&M
zero-g rolls, but instead, these rollovers occur very slowly. It feels more
like a stunt plane barrel roll.
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- Flight Of Fear
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Another LIM launch, this time on a heavily-themed indoor coaster with the same
layout as Joker's Jinx at SFA. From a standing
start to over 60 miles an hour in about 3.5 seconds, into the "spaghetti bowl"
of tangled twisted steel track that includes 4 inversions and a whole lot of
tight curves. This coaster also started the craze of having looping coasters
without OTSRs (over-the-shoulder restraints). Without the headbanging these
restraints cause, this ride is so cool!
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- Not as rough as its reputation, Anaconda is kind of fun, but not quite good
enough for rerides. Like most large Arrow loopers, this ride looks impressive
with its twisting looping track, here a pretty hunter-green perched high above
the water. There's also an "underwater" tunnel that makes a nice splash effect.
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- Grizzly
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Grizzly is a wooden coaster nestled in the woods with one huge design flaw: the
second hill (right after the first drop) is too high. The train just barely
inches it's way up over the crest of that rise. We're surprised that we don't
hear about this coaster valleying often.
Once the train makes it through the turnaround after this fiasco, though, the
ride is OK. It's a little wild as it picks up speed again, with a nice tunnel
and one or two quick direction changes to add to the fun. But it just feels too
short, especially since the ride doesn't really get going until halfway through
it.
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- Hurler
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This is the "most excellent" woodie in the park. It's a multilevel out and back,
with short straight stretches and highly banked turnarounds to maintain good
speed throughout. Good dips and hills provide occasional air time, and the fast
curves are exciting.
The Hurler's PTC trains feature painted-on flames on a robin's egg blue ground,
to look like the Pacer from the Wayne's World movies. Very cool.
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- Shockwave
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A stand-up coaster that starts nicely with a load of positive g's down the first
drop and vertical loop. But then the ride's true colors begin to show. The
train jerks, bumps, jostles, and rattles through the rest of the course,
similar to Knott's Windjammer. And just
like that already-demolished waste of steel, this coaster was built by a
company called "TOGO," which we're beginning to believe stands for "Try once,
get off."
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- Rebel Yell
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This is a wooden twin racing coaster with a simple out-and-back layout. It's
kind of fast, and kind of rough, especially at the bottom of the larger hills.
There's some faint floating air time. It's not a bad coaster, but not up to
today's standards. It'd be worth riding if it was the only wood around, but
this park has better coasters to choose from.
One side usually runs with the trains backwards, so that's another fun and
uncommon feature.
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 - Another PTC out and back woodie, but this one is a rarity:
a kiddie coaster that's a real coaster. It's not a toy, it's just small. But
Scooby Doo's Ghoster Coaster uses real elements like a full-size coaster:
drops, turns, bunny hops, and yet another set of PTC trains. So even though
this is called a "family" coaster, this ride is not just one for the count.
There are actually some real coaster moments (air time, laterals, positive g's)
to be felt here.
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- Avalanche
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This is a fairly fun bobsled coaster, where the trains run on tires in a
trough, rather than on steel wheels rigidly attached to a track.
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- Ricochet
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An unusual mouse coaster, Ricochet begins with a full drop right after the
lift. The hairpin turns that follow are, for some reason, a little less scary
than in other mice. But even the lack of midcourse brakes cannot make this mild
coaster rise above the quality of the fine wood coasters at this park.
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