It was around 10:45 on Saturday morning when we finally left Wayne, NJ for PKD in Virginia. I had been wanting to go here for a few years now, and chose to visit this park over BGW. I decided that Drop Zone, HSXLC, and Volcano would be a better choice than the 4 BGW coasters. And after Volcano and HSXLC, I still had about 9-10 coasters to choose from. So, PKD was a no-brainer.
During the drive, we didn't hit much traffic, but a crapload of rain through Washington. Only notable is that I couldn't see KK from the turnpike. After about 5 hours of driving, I finally saw the huge Eiffel Tower and Drop Zone in the distance. It killed me to pass the park, but we needed to check in to the hotel. After about 20 more minutes of driving, we arrived at the Embassy Suites in Richmond. Nice hotel. After an hour of watching tv, we left for PKD for an hour and a half of coaster riding. After another 20 minute drive back up north, we arrived at the parking lot. We made a right turn into the parking lot, but I noticed something: No cars. Dammit. Park closed due to rain earlier in the day (which stopped around noon). So, I made another 20 minute drive back down south to the hotel. I saw the Incredibles, which was actually very good, and got some dessert. I fell asleep around 3am, and was ready for a great day at PKD the next day.
We woke up around 9am, and arrived at the park around 10:15. After paying for tickets, I hung a left at the Eiffel tower towards the beserker so I could take the shortcut to Volcano. When waiting to be walked down to Volcano, we ran into this couple that were also coaster enthusiasts, but I ignored them while mom talked to them. I was trying to figure out my day in my head. I had it perfect. At 10:30, the employee walked us down to Volcano. We walked passed Scooby Doo's Ghoster Coaster, and walked up a long pathway before being let out by the Volcano sign. I made a left,a nd beat out most others to the entrance. before actually entering the queue, I noticed Tomb Raider on my left. Looked like an excellent ride, but first up was...

Volcano: The Blast Coaster-

After passing Tomb Raider, you see the entrance to Volcano in the distance to the left. I quickly ran to that. First thing I noticed about the ride was how much taller than I imagined it. Second thing was the brand new paint, which looked great. Last thing I noticed was the immense theming, even from the first few feet of the queue. The first portion of the queue is in an indentation in the volcano, and you walk up an incline. After this, you make a right, and now parallell to the volcano. After going through to covered sections of the queue, which had tons of unused switchbacks, we make a left into the actual volcano. We then make another quick left and the queue starts to decline. On the left is the brake run. We then make a 180 degree turn to the right, and after a long straighaway, we are in the station. I chose the front row for my 1st ride, as I wouldn't get the chance later on. After a 10min wait, I boarded the Intamin trains.
After a quick check of the restraints, we were off. We made a left, and headed into the volcano. After the whole train was on the launch, BAM! Much more intense launch than I orginally thought it would be. After a few seconds of pure speed, we make a huge left turn, which is 270 degrees. After the turn, we straighten out, and head back into the volcano. And once again, we launch, this time even faster. And soon enough, we start to ride, 90 degrees up. We shoot right out of the volcano, and twist to the left. We are now on top of the volcano, which is very interesting, and gives great views of the park. We then make a left turn, and head into the first of 3 heartline rolls. Great airtime in these rolls. We then make a 180 degree left turn, and head into another heartline roll, the one being the most memorable, as it sits right on top of the volcano. We then make a 180 right turn, and head into the final heartline roll. We then bank right into the largest drop on the ride. Unfortunately, it is also the last drop on the ride, as it heads into the brakerun. Once the train comes to a stop, we unbuckle the seatbelt, push up on the OTSR's, and make a right out of the station into the souvenier shop.

Rating: 8.5/10

Positives: Great LIM launch(s), great theming, great airtime on heartline rolls, great use of volcano, and good pacing.

Negatives: Short ride, slow dispatch times, and capacaity is pretty bad.

Notes: Probably in my top 20, a very good ride. Theming is great, and actual ride is fun and at times intense. Only drawback is capacity, loading times, and just how short it is.
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I didn't even search the souvenier shop after the ride, I went right to Tomb Raider, as time was a factor before the people started pouring in. I quickly walked out of the shop, and walkedacross from Volcano to Tomb Raider. The entrance is to the right of the ride, and they were still loading people. So, I went right into the entrance of....

Tomb Raider: Firefall-

The queue itself is very uneventful, as it is just a bunch of covered switchbacks. After traveling through like 3 sections of these, I am at the ride. I chose the backside of the ride, and got the last seat on the end. After checking the restraints, we were off to go.
The ride starts off with a creepy creeking sound, and the platform dropping. The ride then starts to move a little, and moves up to its highest point. The car stops swaying, we move head first towards the ground, and soon we are totally upside down! This is a great feeling. The rest of the ride is quite amazing, as it flips upside down 7 times, all the while with water spraying towards our faces, mist covering the ride area, and flames shooting out of a broken statue head. It is cool because you can feel all these effects during the ride. I wish I could go into more detail, but it is hard to memorize a ride like this. The ride then comes to a slow stop, the platform raises up, OTSR's unlock, and we exit to our left.

Rating: 9/10

Positives: Great theming, great effects, and great ride program.

Negatives: The restraints neutered me.

Notes: Great flat ride. Theming was excellent, and took the ride from a cranival ride to a theme park attraction.
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Once I exited Tomb Raider, I made the decision to go ride Volcano again before the lines got bad. This time, after a 15min wait, I opted for the back row. The ride was much more intense in this row with higher forces and better airtime. After the ride, I made a left towards Flight of Fear. I heard mixed reviews of FoF, and was interested to ride. I made another left, and saw the huge building in the distance. I walked passed one building, and found the entrance to the queue just to the right of...

Flight of Fear-

The first section of the queue is outside, but covered, and is full of switchbacks. These were never filled throughout the day. I made a quick left, then a quick right, and headed into the building. The first section inside the building is a small straightaway, that leads into a large room, with a space ship in the middle. There is also many switchbacks in here. I made a left, then a right, and headed into the inside of the ship. In here, you find a small, twisted section of the queue, and head into another section of the queue, which is a very small straightaway. make another left, and we arrive in the station. I chose a middle row, as mom can't handle way too intense rides because of her back. Restraints checked, and we are ready to go.
After a 0-60mph launch, which felt more intense then Chiller's, we head into pitch black darkness. I can't tell you much about the actual layout, as it is in darkness, but it is a clone of several LIM bowls like THIS one. We then exit in the unloading station, and head out into the entrance plaza.

Rating: 8/10

Positives: Great launch that is only 60mph, intense first half, great theming, good corkscrew at end of ride.

Negatives: Little rough in few spots, second half is way too slowed down by MCBR, and not enough inversions.

Notes: Much better than I expected. It was very intense in the first half, and the darkness adds to the elements of surprise. The theming is also neat, but the movie that they play is extremely corny.
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After FoF, I knew it was time to get to Hypersonic. I walked out of the plaza, passed Anaconda, and entered the main midway that leads from one end of the park to the other. While walking on this pathway, you pass many rides. To the right, Shockwave. On the left, Rebel Yell, Anaconda, Hurler, Ricochet, and Drop Zone. Drop Zone is one of the 3 main reasons I came to the park. 300ft Intamin gyro-drop=awesome. So, I made a left towards the Drop Zone bsign, and saw it was...CLOSED! I asked, and the employee said high winds. I understood, and was optimistic for a opening later in the day (which never happenned). So, I kept walking toward Hypersonic. Once approaching the ride, I was thinking that it is smaller in person than in pics. I walked underneath the turnaround, passed the hill, and saw the entrance just straight ahead. I was expecting huge things...

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

Hypersonic: XLC-

After entering the queue, it takes a right turn, then a left turn, into a long straightaway. Halfway through this, we meet the actual line. After about 15min of waiting, we enter the station. I decided, since it was my 1st ride on HSXLC, I would ride in the front row. HUGE mistake. After about a half hour of waiting, we are only 5 trains away from our ride when the operator announces the ride is having technical difficulties. After 25min of working on the ride, they open it back up. 2 trains complete the circuit with people, then they announce due to winds, the ride would be down for the day...YOU GOTTA BE ****ING KIDDING ME!!!! All day....WTF! They said we would get exit passes for any attraction of our choice, so that was cool. I asked the attendant if winds died down, would the ride reopen. he said yes, so I was happy. I took the pass, and we exited the ride.

Rating: 0/10

Positives: Looked cool

Negatives: Do I really need to say?

Notes: With this closed, my 2 main reasons for coming to the park were not operating.
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By now I was pissed beyond imagination. But, I couldn't do anything. So, I made a right towards Hurler, as Grizzly was closed due to retrackment.

Hurler-

The queue for this ride is wayyyyyyyyyy too long, and uneventful. Just some long straightaways. The station is a huge metal box, which is also interesting. The inside of it is like a prop stage. Anyway, after a 15min, 2 train wait, I opted for the back row (mom doesn't ride woodies).The ride starts off with a 180 degree right turn, then a 100ft tall lift hill. At the top, we make another 180 degree right turn, and get a great view of the park. After the 1st drop, the layout clones itself. We start off with a few camelbacks, a big 180 degree turn, and it repeats this several times throughout the course. Nothing else to this ride. After the ride ends, we exit to the left, which leads us right next to the next coaster on the lineup's entrance.

Rating: 4/10

Positives: Good view of the park from lift hill, and decent airtime.

Negatives: Terribl;e queue, terrible station, bad layout, bad loading times, terrible capacity, and unmotivated ride op's.

Notes: Boring, rough woodie.
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After the ride, we are left off near the entrance to Ricochet. So, while lines are small, we walk across the pathway to the entrance of....

Ricochet-

AS with most of the queues for this park, it is uneventful with quite a few switchbacks. But, it is still decent because it goes ride under the queue. With no wait whatsoever, we enter the station. We walk right into our own car, and get ready to ride. Ricochet starts off with a turn into the lift hill. After a quick dip after the lift hill, we go through about 6 quick turns, which are allf orceful and fun. After these turns, we go down 2 or 3 drops, and make a few turns before entering the brakerun. Adter the ride, we exit out the left of the station, which brings us back around the entrance area.

Rating: 6/10

Positives: Great turns, good drops.

Negatives: Not many for a mouse.

Notes: One of the better mouse rides out there. It was pretty long, had some great laterals, and a fun ride altogether.
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I am tired right now, so I am not gonna bother with writing anything else. Quick summary:

Anaconda: 6/10. Better than expected, had some great airtime on corkscrews.

Rebel Yell Backwards: 6/10. Fun to ride a woodie backwards.

Shockwave: 4/10. Meh...

Avalanche: 5/10. Meh...

Scooby Doo's Ghoster Coaster: 6/10. Classic old woodie, still fun after all these years.

Scooby Doo and the Haunted Mansion: 7/10. Didn't have much to do with the Scooby Doo gang at all. Still fun, ride is like MIB.

Eiffel Tower: 9/10. Cool experience. Very windy up there, and some great views.



# of rides per coaster/ride:

Volcano: 4x
Tomb Raider: 2x
Flight of Fear: 3x
Both Scooby Doo rides: 1x
Avalanche: 1x
Hurler: 1x
Shockwave: 1x
Rebel Yell: 1x
Eiffel Tower: 1x
Anaconda: 1x
Flying Eagles: 1x

Other trip notes: Didn't do much after I rode everything, just rerode Volcano 2 more time, FoF 2 more times, and kept checking up on HSXLC, but never opened. Left the park around 7:30pm.

Paramount's Kings Dominion Overall: 7/10

Positives: Great theming in Congo, many coasters, some good flats, Eiffel Tower area is really nice, great employees, and Volcano is a top 20 coaster.

Negatives: Not enough quality in coasters, terrible capacity on all rides, HSXLC should've opened by 2pm, park had no character, and too many mediocre rides.

Notes: Very dissapointed in the park,a nd the fact that HSXLC and Drop Zone never opened. The park itself was ok, but nothing special. I will visit here for a few hours at night in the summer when I go to BGW/SFA/DC just for Volcano, DZ, FoF, and HSXLC. Dissapointing....

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

Don't be too dissapointed. The Hype has been taken out of Hypersonic. The park has completely ruined the ride with all the train & Restraint changes.

XLC is 100x worse now that when it opened so trust me you didn't miss much.
Same with DZ. Not a big deal if you didn't get to ride. If you've ridden the one at PKI then you didn't miss much. If not i'll say DZ is an awsome ride.

I hope to go to PKD sometime on the next month to ride Tomb Raider. Looks awsome.

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Carolina Panthers 2008 NFC South Champions! 12-4
Divisional Playoffs: vs. Arizona
Go Panthers! The only NFL team with a PURRFECT 8-0 home record!!
#1 North Carolina Tarheels: 13-1

Nope never ridden DZ.

I highly suggest TR, very good ride. When you go, try to get a nighttime ride, it will be even better then.

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

Oh yeah. I'm not even going to attemp to ride it in the day time. I persoanlly feel it was a dumb idea to make it an outdoor model. The daylight takes away from the ride greatly i'm sure although i have never seen PKD's but i'm sure it's not very good at daylight.

I'll wait till dark to get in line. I will also have less to do the next time i go since i'll never ride XLC or Shockwave again. 2 rides the park needs to destroy.

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Carolina Panthers 2008 NFC South Champions! 12-4
Divisional Playoffs: vs. Arizona
Go Panthers! The only NFL team with a PURRFECT 8-0 home record!!
#1 North Carolina Tarheels: 13-1

You're funny. You think a top spin is better than Volcano, and you're upset that you didn't ride Hypersonic. Hypersonic is quite painful, a bar is jammed into your shins for the duration of the ride. I don't recall a second of that coaster as enjoyable. Stick to the Intamin Accelerator coasters, they are a much better experience. So keep riding, go get some experience, and then come back and give us opinions that maybe even a single person would care to hear.

__________________
Thank you for riding Reaper! Drop Ride to Doom, and remember to desecrate a sanctuary today.

I thought that Tomb Raider was better than Volcano. I guess Im funny too The effects were great, and the ride got me pretty dizzy, but Volcano only had a launch and some ho-hum zero-G rolls. It was just ok, I'd only give Volcano like a 7. Tomb Raider was the best Top Spin Ive been on, and Volcano was just a mediocre Invert to me. Oh well, I like flats. ...and I thought that Hypersonic was cool until it stopped going strait. The launch accelerated at a greater rate than the Intamin rockets

BGW is the way to go.

I agree with the destruction of Shockwave and i also agree with the selling of XLC to a small park so they can build a roller coaster that lasts more than 30 seconds. Maybe then i will make my way past BGW to get there, because i do enjoy Rebel Yell, FoF, i want to dry DZ.

And i'm curious what is TR? and what did they do to the XLC restraints and when, cause i went on it a few years ago and don't remember the restraints being bad, or the ride really. Just really dissapointing as it is 30 hour wait for 2.8 seconds of fun and 15 seconds of almost fun.

Oh and on Volcano...top 20 maybe, but def number 20...Alpengeist is better, Dueling Dragons is better, they are all better.

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Busch Gardens Visits 05: i lost count
Visits 06:

Over the last 2-3 years the trains and Restraints on XLC have been changed i think 3 times.

TR Is The Tomb Raider top spin the park got this year. Same at PKI just an outdoor version.

I have to agree with everyone and say that TR at PKI was better than Volcano but thats just because i love top spins. They are my fav ride and when you add what PKI has to a top spin that just makes it 100x better. So i would say TR at PKI is better than volcano. Not sure about TR at PKD yet but i will in abbout a month or so.

__________________

Carolina Panthers 2008 NFC South Champions! 12-4
Divisional Playoffs: vs. Arizona
Go Panthers! The only NFL team with a PURRFECT 8-0 home record!!
#1 North Carolina Tarheels: 13-1

I have been to the likes of CP, IOA, HP, SFNE, GADV, DP, LC, and now PKD, I have been to almost every major park on the coast, so don't say I need more experience. I have never ridden HSXLC, so I was dissapointed, especially since I love launched coasters. I have ridden 2 of the 3 American Intamin rocket coasters, so I know what they are about.

PS- I was rating Tomb Raider as a flat, not so much a coaster. Even then, Volcano and TR are close. Volcano is a very good ride, but just makes my top 20 coasters. TR is one of the best flats I have ridden. Volcano is great for the first half, but since it only has one element as an inversion (heartline roll) after the immelman type inversion out of the volcano, it lacks creativity. Volcano isn't an amazing coaster, but TR is an amazing flat.

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

Wow, loose cannon, you need to ride a wood coaster. Have you been to the likes of Knoebels, Michigan's Adventure, Holiday World, or Indiana Beach? Who really cares about the repetitve crap at large parks anyway? So, tell me, how does the boring layout of Hurler at PKD compare to Thunder Run at SFKK?

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Thank you for riding Reaper! Drop Ride to Doom, and remember to desecrate a sanctuary today.

I have not been west of Ohio, so I have not been to many of those parks. My top 5 wooden coasters are: Boulder Dash, Lightning Racer, Wildcat, Gwazi: Lion, Villain.

Going to Knoebels this summer, but tell me: How does that relate to this topic? I have ridden some good wooden coasters (Boulder Dash is my 3rd favorite coaster, behind MF and S:RoS at SFNE). Opinion is opinion, if I like something that you don't I'm not gonna bash you about it or complain. Maybe I'm just funny.

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

Haha, Hurler 4/10. Well serves your right for sitting back row on a wheel seat.

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'08, '07 Area Supervisor Merchandise, Cedar Point, "18/20 Go"
'08 Area Supervisor Merchandise, Six Flags Over Texas, "366 Go",
'06 Batman:TR Ride Op, SFGAm '05 Front Desk, Disney's BoardWalk Hotel,
'06,'05 TL, '04 Merchandise, CP, Coaster Count: 258

Hurler's roughness wasn't the bad part, it was just really repeptitive without anything special about it.

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Top 5 coasters: El Toro, S:RoS at SFNE, The Voyage, Millennium Force, Cornball Express

you're wrong, i'm sorry to say. the volcano is god.

i have to agree the hurler is a boring waste of space, tho..

you should have gone on the opening weekend. i was there, the weather was fantastic, there were almost no lines for anything, and even the extremely painful and overrated hypersonic XLC was running all day.