Reviews: Coaster Zombies invade PKD

Posted at 6:30 PM EDT (2230 GMT)

Apr. 9th, 2006 -- On Saturday the Coaster Zombies gathered at Paramount’s Kings Dominion for their annual VolcanoMania event, featuring an hour of exclusive ride time on Volcano: The Blast Coaster. Though it rained lightly but steadily, Kings Dominion employees got Volcano up and at ‘em at 9:30 a.m. for an hour of Zombie riding.

At 10:30 a.m., most of the rest of the park opened to the Zombies and the general public. As the rain continued throughout the day, keeping many people away, lines remained extremely short, making for a great day of riding. The only unfortunate parts of the day were Hurler being down all day (due to “maintenance”) and the slippery walkways, which caused the writer to sustain many bruises on his rear from running from ride to ride.

Progress continues on the Italian Job Turbo Coaster; most of the track is completed, though the queue, entrance, LIMs, and some more theming have to be finished up before the ride’s scheduled opening in mid-May or early-June. Media day is May 18.

An interesting thing having to do with the coaster, however, has recently sprung up among park patrons. Many, having seen the various Italian Job ads (commercials, soda cans, etc.), have come to the park expecting to get to ride the new scream machine, only to find that it is not yet finished being built! A lot of people have been complaining about this, and it may be something that Kings Dominion will want to check out.