Winterfest

Register or Login to Hide This Ad for Free!
More WinterFest information has been announced! The link to the blog post is below, but I'll go over the new information! https://kingsdominion.com/blog/2018/7.25-christmas-in-july

WinterFest Hours: Opening night is November 23rd from 5-10pm and operates on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until December 9th. "Daily" operation begins December 14th (with the park closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), and beginning December 21st, the park opens an hour earlier at 4pm. The most interesting detail is that WinterFest operates from 4pm to 1am on New Year's Eve, which may mean that the park might do something special on that night to ring in 2019. I'm not sure if any other Cedar Fair parks have done this before.

Ice Skating on Snowflake Lake, baking cookies with Mrs. Claus, and the 300 foot Christmas tree have all already been revealed. However, it looks like Kings Dominion will be getting THREE trees; in addition to the 300 foot one, we're getting a 70 foot and a 40 foot Christmas tree. I assume one will be inside the park for the lighting ceremony and the other will be at the front gate. Not sure which one will go where, though.

Santa Claus is visiting each night and there will be performances on the Holly Jolley Trolley, which will be travelling around the park each night.

Tinker's Toy Factory and Cole Yule Christmas will be coming to the park as part of the event's long list of shows for the season (I think I heard we would be getting 13 shows... WOW.). Not sure if Holly Jolley Trolley will count as a show or not, but the other two shows have been at other WinterFest events.

Appearances from Jack Frost, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the PEANUTS gang, and many more characters will roam the midways!

Exclusive Christmas merchandise (including Snoopy Santa dolls!) will fill the stores and there will be handmade gifts at Crafter's Corner.

BUT WAIT! Even MORE information will be announced soon enough! Only 121 days until WinterFest!
 
  • Like
Reactions: MAZ, Jesy, Unagi and 11 others
RollyCoaster said:
So it looks like our very own trolley car has came in:
View attachment 12420View attachment 12420
There is currently no signage on it whatsoever. I'll do a before and after once it is decorated.

EDIT: For those of you who don't know, a same style trolley car is used at Kings Island/Carowinds as a show space. It houses a singing and dance show utilizing the trolley as a giant prop.
Click to expand...

VERY excited to see the Holly Jolly Trolley! Now that the WinterFest warehouse has been completed, I’m sure we’ll be seeing even more surprises soon. This event will be unlike anything Virginia has ever seen, I’m sure if it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: jeffh, wombat96 and Zachary
Pretzel Kaiser said:
I'm still optimistic that I'll enjoy this event more than CMT. That being said, it would be really nice for KD to release details.
Click to expand...

I fully agree. They released a fair amount on July 25th, but I wouldn’t expect anything else until at least after Haunt stuff is formally announced. I was looking back at when King’s Island announced their WinterFest details and they didn’t do so until late September last year. Wouldn’t be surprised if KD did the same.

EDIT: Spelling
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: jeffh and Zachary
BTW concrete footers are clearly visible around the fountain now, the ice rink will be built on top of the fountain.

It also looks like Joe Cool's Driving School will be getting some Christmas stuff as well since a few of the props have been removed from the ride area and what I can only assume are the metal Christmas Trees from the movie are there right now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jeffh, Zachary, Mushroom and 3 others
b.mac said:
BTW concrete footers are clearly visible around the fountain now, the ice rink will be built on top of the fountain.

It also looks like Joe Cool's Driving School will be getting some Christmas stuff as well since a few of the props have been removed from the ride area and what I can only assume are the metal Christmas Trees from the movie are there right now.
Click to expand...

I’ll have to take a look during my next visit! Should be interesting to see little things being tweaked as WinterFest gets closer! I’m hoping they have a fair amount of it put up with the Haunt stuff (stuff that can’t be seen easily, that is), similar to Busch.
 
So Kings Island just announced some more info about THEIR WinterFest event, but some information about their New Year’s Eve celebration caught my eye. Since Kings Dominion will also be open until 1am that night, I wonder if KD will copy this lineup on closing night.

Link: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/bl...-now-but-winterfest-is-just-around-the-corner

New Year’s Eve Celebration

Ring in 2019 at Kings Island with a brand-new way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Guests can enjoy the final day of WinterFest from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m., then celebrate the coming New Year from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. This family-friendly event includes Midnight Fireworks, live music, Snoopy’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve party, Charlie Brown’s New Year’s Eve Celebration show and family friendly activities.
Click to expand...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Coasterguy154, Nicole, Jesy and 1 other person
Apologies for the double post, but I thought it would be good to duplicate a little of what I wrote in the Dinosaurs Alive thread since it has to do with the event.

The Dinosaurs Alive gift shop is closing after Labor Day (the attraction will stay open until October 28th) so that the WinterFest elves can begin to build an attraction for the event. My prediction is that this will be the home of “St. Nick’s Pics,” which is the typical “pictures with Santa” attraction that has been seen at all other WinterFests in the chain. Seems like a good place to put it.

This also means that Old Virginia will be open for the event!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zachary and Mushroom
Now I’m at the point of triple posting, but I was at the park today and noticed that there were some small bits of WinterFest construction. They added a sign to the construction next to Trick or Treat and there were doing something in the middle of the midway, but I couldn’t figure out what they were doing. I assume all of this is electrical work.
 

Attachments

  • 4DDEC0C9-62FE-427C-A354-C224AA4CD443.jpeg
    4DDEC0C9-62FE-427C-A354-C224AA4CD443.jpeg
    1.8 MB · Views: 1
  • A13630CC-C2F6-4F49-88FE-FF382799E142.jpeg
    A13630CC-C2F6-4F49-88FE-FF382799E142.jpeg
    2.9 MB · Views: 1
  • Like
Reactions: Mushroom
It is 100% electrical work. A few days ago they had electrical lines poking out of the ground in the midway.

In the Center Pathway area you should've noticed some lights being placed down for both Haunt and Winterfest, and they were also assembling part of the lighting system for the Eiffel Tower. It's those green scaffolding pieces that also were apart of the stage for Summer Nights.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wombat96 and Nicole
b.mac said:
It is 100% electrical work. A few days ago they had electrical lines poking out of the ground in the midway.

In the Center Pathway area you should've noticed some lights being placed down for both Haunt and Winterfest, and they were also assembling part of the lighting system for the Eiffel Tower. It's those green scaffolding pieces that also were apart of the stage for Summer Nights.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I didn’t notice those things, as I didn’t walk down that pathway. Do you have pictures?
 
Like @b.mac said, Center Walkway is now lined with light fixtures at the base of the trees that look a lot like the old Starlight Spectacular lights, but they have a slightly smaller, rounded design instead the old larger, boxier design. Looks like we will be seeing a new, albeit updated, version of Starlight Spectacular this winter!
 
  • Like
Reactions: luseendesi
Now that I’ve thought about it, I do remember the green scaffolding surrounding the Eiffel Tower!
 
Eiffel Tower will be closed, all of Safari Village will be closed. Log Flume won't be open.

Major coasters will likely depend on the weather, but I'm pretty sure Planet Snoopy will be the only section 100% open.
 
Flight of Fear's location is likely what is keeping it closed. It's pretty simple for the park to put a barrier up at the Safari Village and Soak City entrances and keep the rest of the park open. I'm assuming the Eiffel Tower will be closed because of the light package on it for the 'tree', but I hope they'll keep WindSeeker or Drop Tower open to get a view of the lights from above.

I'm curious of the 'themes' each area will have? Will they be generic Christmas themes or if they'll be a bit more specific to fit the areas of the park that they are in? For example: Wilderness/country Christmas theme in Old Virginia. Retro 1950's blow mold theme near Twisted Timbers/WindSeeker. etc.

For comparison last season at Kings Island they had:
International Street: International Street/Artisan Village
Planet Snoopy: Charlie Brown's Christmas Town
Rivertown: Rivertown Wonderland
Central Walkway: Winterfest Way
Coney Island: Coney Elf Village
Oktoberfest: Coca-Cola Polar Bear Plaza
Action Zone: Action Ice Zone

Hopefully, KD puts a little bit more creativity in it so we don't just get "Old Virginia Wonderland", "Winderfest Way", "Elf Candy Village", etc.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Mushroom
You must log in or register to reply here.
Consider Donating to Hide This Ad