Volcanomania
King?s Dominion
April 8, 2006
Weather: Rainy and cold most of the day
The day started out OK, it was cloudy, a little rainy but still relatively warm. I had stayed the night at my sister?s house in Lexington Park, and got to the park at about 9:00, finding a very close parking spot.
The event was a Coaster Zombie run affair, always a good event. I found the Zombies near the gates and lended a hand passing out the event materials.
The park was also holding a cheerleading competition, and there were about 10,000 screaming twelve years olds running around. (1) At 9:30, we went through the gates and headed into the park and towards Volcano.
Volcano was prepped and ready to go. I was ahead of most everybody, so I got in line for the front seat, as there were only a few folks there, and got on the second train out. Volcano?s crew was fast and efficient, keeping dispatch times down. I got five or six rides in varying seats, not really sure, and then headed out to see the rest of the park.
The park was, at this point, open to Gold Pass members, so all the rides were open. I went straight away to the Flying Eagles, easily my favorite flat in the park, and proceeded to get my own personal ERT on them. I had them snapping like crazy, and throughout the day, I had managed 20 or more laps on the ride. Later in the day I would be joined by Brian Watts, another Flying Skooter devotee, and we would really go at it. The ride ops got a kick out of it, snapping is a rarity at this park, and we were doing some hard, loud snaps. It is truly interesting the see people?s reaction. On one ride, a woman standing by watching the ride, covered her mouth and yelled ?Oh my God? when I first got it going. Brian and I each managed to make someone cry. Yes, it was a good day on the Flying Eagles. (2)
I sort of wandered the park at this point. I headed to Drop Zone, where I ran into Bubba and his friend. We rode together and then headed for Hypersonic XLC. They were looking for single riders, so I boarded a few trains ahead of Bubba and lost track of him. I had a pretty good ride on it, managed not to bang my head, and rode it two other times later in the day, also good rides.
Got a few more FE rides and headed for lunch. For the group photo, I stood at the top of the hill with Bob Ziems making funny gestures and generally carrying on. After lunch we rode Scooby Doo?s Haunted Castle for some warm-up, and then went and rode Avalanche and Anaconda. Avalache was running fast and furious. I rode it several more times later in the day. Anaconda was, well, Anaconda. It is an Arrow looper, and you know what to expect.
We returned to the Haunted Castle for the shooting contest, where I scored 2280 (3) and then rode the Ghoster Coaster, which was running very well.
While in line for Ghoster Coaster the wind had picked up and it started to rain pretty steady. It also turned much colder. I had to go to the car to get a jacket. We then went up in the tower, which was very cold, rode the FE?s some more, and then the Grizzly.
They tore out some trees near Grizz to build a go-cart track. I think it is a good plan, go-carts make good money, and it doesn?t take away from the ride, Grizz is still back in the woods, and is still fast and intense. The tunnel on the Grizz is still one of my favorite moments, and is only heightened in its intensity at night. You enter the tunnel and it just seems to roar through, throwing you around like a rag doll. At night you have no clue where you are going. I love it.
I spent most of the rest of the evening riding the FE?s. I did see the Hanna-Barbara simulator, if only just to warm up. It wasn?t too bad, not great, but better then some. I also got a ride on Tomb Raider, with full effects running. This is perhaps the best Top Spin outside of Astroland I have ridden, very intense, with lots of fast flipping.
The night ended on the Grizzly, two back to back rides on the wild coaster.
While the weather was not the best, the day turned out great. The park stayed open all the way to closing time, and should be commended for that, because by the end of the night, there was nobody in the park. The staff was fantastic throughout the entire day, friendly and helpful, and kept upbeat. I even left a good comment for the FE crew, who were having as good a time as we were.
Footnotes:
1. OK, maybe it wasn?t 10,000, but it sure seemed it. It actually turned out to be a good thing, they were back in the arena for most of the day, so the park crowds stayed pretty light.
2. I took pretty much no photos in the park. Don?t know why, guess it was just the weather and the fact that I have shot so many photos here already. However, Bob Ziems has a great photo of me on the Flying Eagles, and I will post it as soon as I get it.
3. I scored 2280, which I believe was the high score, but I am not sure it was recorded correctly, as we are being told the high score was 2130 by Chuck Robbins.
Topic: Volcanomania, PKD, April 8, 2006 (Read 1235 times)