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News & Rumors

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Kings Dominion
Doswell, VA
Cedar Fair Entertainment

 

 

 

 

icon_STOPPark News - (2/28/2024) It seems that whatever licensing agreement Cedar Fair had with Dale Earnhart’s family has now expired, because the world famous INTIMIDATOR 305 roller coaster has now been rebranded as “PROJECT 305””. The description is a little vague, and says the coaster offers the same thrills that you rember but “the experience is something you’ve never, ever seen. And definately something you can’t unsee. Details are comig. But in the meantime, brace yourself. This ain’t your mama’s 305.” Based on this, I can only guess that Project 305 may be a temporary name until they are ready to release a final branding idenity.
 
    (2/10/2024) I think I missed this over the last fall season, but apparently Kings Dominion attempted to turn their Halloween Haunt into a separate ticket event for the first time, closing down and clearing out the park of daytime guests for an hour or two, only to reopen for Haunt only operations. According to the official 2024 Halloween Haunt page, “In 2023, Halloween Haunt was a separately ticketed event. Not this year! We are returning to how things were before 2023.“ Two Experiences, One Ticket!
 
    (12/24/2023) Kings Dominion Rumored To Get Launched B&M Wing Coaster for 2025
 
    (10/25/2023) Cedar Fair has changed their mind about offering year-round operations at three of their parks after just switching over to weekend operations during the colder months just last year. This list would include Carowinds, California’s Great America and Kings Dominion.
    The official word would seem to be that all three parks failed to attract enough attendance on those new dates, which are mostly weekends in January, February and some of March. However, based on guest reactions from those who did attend on those dates, guests frequently reported encountering those parks with what appeared to be a limited staff, a good number of rides unable to operate (due to a mix of limited staffing or maintenance closures) and a couple of days where the weather was just too iffy and the parks opted to close early for the day.
    Of course, all of these reasons were also anticipated to happen when Cedar Fair first announced that these parks would be switching to year-round operations, so I’m not entirely surprised by this move. After all, even in Los Angeles where competitor Six Flags operates Magic Mountain year-round, but only on weekends in the colder months of the year, that park also suffers from many of these same issues, but in an environment that typically offers better weather.
    Now if any Cedar Fair park was going to have a good go at it, I’d give the nod to California’s Great America, but the park’s attendance numbers have always been a little limited, and some potential guests may be less likely to visit with a pending permanent closure looming by 2033, limiting the number of new attractions we might see added there. Carowinds stood a chance as well of making it happen, but as I live in the region, the off-season weather can be a little fickle… sunny and warm one day and freezing cold, feeling like snow is about to fall the next. So the success of off-season weekends at Carowinds would definitely be something that varied from year to year. Kings Dominion in Virginia is a bit further North and East from Carowinds, so I’d expect even colder weather with a greater possibility of snow.
    So according to the park schedules posted for the months after WinterFest, look for Carowinds to open for the 2024 season on March 9 where it will begin Fri/Sat/Sunday operations, and California’s Great America and Kings Dominion will begin weekend operations two weeks later on March 23rd.

 

2024 - Nothing is known at this time...

 

???? - Jungle X-Pedition Phase 2 - Rumor - (7/11/22) While we know that eventually in the next couple of years the plan for Kings Dominion was to replace the former Volcano: The Blast Coaster with the park’s next major roller coaster, but we honestly don’t know when. The addition of Tumbili was sort of a Post-COVID stop-gap measure to buy a little more time for this project by adding a smaller coaster and by creating a little new theming in the form of the Jungle X-Pedition area.
    To be honest, having just visited the park myself, the Jungle X-Pedition area actually looks pretty great. Nice theming all around the new Tumbili area, including the transformation of the former Avalanche coaster into Reptilian along with turning the Scrambler into Arachnidia. Along with the new light theming to the restaurants, food stands and the rest of the infrastructure in the area, this area of the park looks pretty good right now and even Anaconda fits the overall theme.
    Around the one corner you do have the slight oddity that is the plaza that features both Flight of Fear and Intimidator 305, but I’ll let that one go for now. The one attraction that does sort of stick out like a sore-thumb is the Backlot Stunt Coaster (formerly The Italian Job: Stunt Track). While as a coaster, the ride still works great and is a lot of fun, but the theming has been better days. Currently most of the ride’s once highly-touted special effects are dead and broken.
    But would you believe there may be a plan to change all that? According to a new rumor sent in, there may be a “Phase 2” of new theming and additions planned for Jungle X-Pedition to come before the next big coaster project. Our source claims that this could possibly include importing the Berserker (Bayun Kurve) from California’s Great America as a way to bring back Kings Dominion’s lost Mt. Kilimanjaro attraction. Even more exciting however may be a possible plan to revamp the Backlot Stunt Coaster to have new ‘jungle’ appropriate theming, new effects and to retheme the cars to look like off-road jeeps instead.
    Just a rumor at this point, but I think it would be great to see more additions brought to fill out this section of the park if any of this ends up happening.

 

icon_STOP2025 - New Large Roller Coaster - (12/24/2023) A new post at KDFans reveals a potential layout for what they believe could be a new B&M Launched Wing Coaster intended for Kings Dominion as early as 2025. Their analysis of the plans indicates it appears to have an enclosed launch track that may start off with a pre-launch scene of sorts, before launching out into a series of twists, turns and what looks like as many as five inversions, crossing over much of the Jungle X-Pedition land, taking up most of the space between Flight of Fear, Reptilian and Tumbili.
    They’ve posted a whole bunch of artwork based on how they believe the layout might go, along with an animated video rendered in NoLimits that is worth checking out.

 
    (2/28/20) No details known, but the next big coaster is expected to replace the park’s Volcano: The Blast Coaster site, but this wont happen until a couple of years after a smaller coaster is added in 2022 to replace The Crypt.

 

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Track Record

Kings Dominion
Doswell, Virginia
Cedar Fair LP

Read our trip report & reviews of the 2007 Halloween Haunt

Abbreviation: KD
Formerly: PKD


www.kingsdominion.com

Newest Developments
2022 - Tumbili

2021 - Coconut Shores

2018 - Twisted Timbers

2017 - Planet Snoopy Expansion, Toy Racer 3D

2016 - Delirium

2015 - Soak City Expansion:

2013 - Planet Snoopy

2012 - Windseeker &
Dinosaurs Alive

2011 - Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular

2010 - Intimidator 305 & Planet Snoopy

2009 - Americana & El Dorado

2008 - Dominator and New Ride Names. Tomb Raider is now The Crypt, Italian Job is now Backlot Stunt Coaster, Drop Zone is now Drop Tower.


 

 

 

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