![]() It’s a bit of a tight fit for most adults and a little rough on the knees, but the family ride remains the perfect first coaster for many kids visiting the park.ħ) Hurler: The unusual name references the 1992 Paramount film “Wayne’s World,” whose characters often used the word “hurl.” The ride originally featured a queue that passed through Wayne and Garth’s basement hangout. Woodstock Express was the biggest surprise of my visit, offering a lot of hop for a little ride. Allen and built by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters. Grizzly was the popular “new” ride when I was a kid and still holds up pretty well after all these years.Ħ) Woodstock Express: The 1974 wooden coaster was also designed by John C. Grizzly was built by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters in 1982 with a design based on the defunct Wildcat coaster at Ohio’s Coney Island park. During my recent visit to the park, I found Rebel Yell to be a little slower than I remembered from my youth but just as fun as it was a quarter-century ago.ĥ) Grizzly: The wooden coaster with the double-figure eight layout races for more than 3,000 feet through a wooded forest. Rebel Yell was named an American Coaster Enthusiasts Coaster Landmark in 2003. #INTIMIDATOR 305 G FORCE MOVIE#Featured in the 1977 movie “Rollercoaster,” the 85-foot-tall ride reaches more than 50 mph over twin tracks each stretching nearly 3,400 feet. Allen and built by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters in 1975. I loved the twin passes through the interlocking corkscrews.Ĥ) Rebel Yell: The racing wooden coaster was designed by renowned ride builder John C. After starting life in 2000 as Batman: Knight Flight, the coaster was relocated from Geauga Lake following the closure of the Ohio amusement park in 2007. The ride’s 135-foot-tall vertical loop remains one of the tallest in the world. For a first-timer like me, Volcano was packed with unexpected surprises and near-miss elements that left me wondering what’s next.ģ) Dominator: The Bolliger & Mabillard floorless coaster features five inversions, including a cobra roll and interlocking corkscrews. ![]() A unique roll-out element at 155 feet in the air remains one of the tallest inversions in the world. Following the second of two launches, a vertical section of track simulates an eruption with the train shooting out the top of the man-made volcano. The drop was steep, the turns were extreme and the twists were tight.Ģ) Volcano: The Blast Coaster: The $20-million ride built by Intamin in 1998 was the world’s first launched inverted coaster. During my visit, I found Intimidator 305 to be relentlessly intense. Since the ride’s 2010 debut, Intimidator 305 has remained in the Top 25 of Amusement Today’s Golden Ticket Awards for best steel coasters. Following the first season, a high-speed turn was widened to reduce the G-forces experienced on the coaster after riders reported greying or blacking out at the bottom of the initial 300-foot drop. #INTIMIDATOR 305 G FORCE DRIVER#The ride pays tribute to the late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, known at The Intimidator, with trains themed to his black No. The $25-million ride built by Switzerland-based Intamin is known as a giga coaster, a designation for coasters over 300 feet tall. ![]() Let’s take a closer look at Kings Dominion’s top 10 roller coasters:ġ) Intimidator 305: At 305 feet tall and with speeds reaching 90 mph, Intimidator 305 is one of the tallest and fastest coasters in the world. With 14 roller coasters, Kings Dominion ranks just behind North America’s coaster capitals: California’s Six Flags Magic Mountain (19), Ontario’s Canada’s Wonderland (16) and Ohio’s Cedar Point (16). Sign Up Now: Subscribe to our weekly theme park newsletter But, like long-lost friends, we became quickly reacquainted, reminisced about the old times and made a few new memories. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised at how unfamiliar the park was to me - both of us are more than a quarter-century older now. I remembered Grizzly being more shrouded in trees, Rebel Yell being faster and Anaconda being scarier. ![]() But mostly I was taken by how much even the familiar things had changed. When I was growing up in Virginia in the 1980s, Kings Dominion offered me some of my first and most memorable roller coaster experiences - from Grizzly’s rumbling ride through the woods, to Rebel Yell’s head-to-head duel, to the forward and backward shuttle loop of the now-defunct King Kobra.ĭuring a recent visit to Kings Dominion, I expected the fleeting summer memories of my once-a-year trips to my “home park” to come rushing back to me. ![]()
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