Dominator

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I won't throw eggs at you, Nicole, but I must disagree. Dominator is actually one of my favorite B&M's. It's plenty forceful and really rockets through the course. Honestly, I think Alpengeist is much rougher than Dominator.

I've also heard Dominator has "good" and "bad" days. Maybe you just ride on the wrong days, and I on the right ones?
 
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My personal experience with Dominator is that of Alpengeist, really.(That's not to say they're the same, in fact I prefer Alpengeist, honestly) The front is smooth and the back is rough, but unlike Alpengeist, the back delivers the better experience, which really forces me to sit in the roughest area.

The ride experience, I've thought is highly overrated. There are some nice twists to it, but it is more of the same the whole ride. There's really nothing but positive g's on you basically the entire ride and really, I prefer my coasters to have a fairly even mix. And the inversions are nothing special, they're copy cats of all B&M's typical inversions, in a much less interesting layout than most. If they threw in a diving loop or something unique in the least, it would have made the ride 100 times better. But really all I can say is that Dominator is a generic, boring, and rough parking lot B&M. Never have loved it, probably never will.

*Braces self for more eggs than Nicole will probably get*
 
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The few times I rode it I did not particularly jarring. But as I have said before I am a bigger person and I sit higher in seats. Further, I think due to my wrester sized neck my head does not move about much. Heck DF never bothered me.
As always I ONLY ride in the back.

That all being said, the ride was meh. I liked it better then Alpie but it was predictable.
 
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Every time I walked away from Dominator this season I brought along a head-ache. It rattles throughout the whole layout unlike Alpie where it's only for a second or two at a certain point. Do I hate it? No. Would I ride more than one time in a row? No.
it's not terrible but it's below B&M quality.
 
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My impression is that Cedar Fair has a systemic problem with attraction maintenance (in terms of ride-ability). Their coasters seem to get rough faster than other parks'.
 
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Nicole said:
My impression is that Cedar Fair has a systemic problem with attraction maintenance (in terms of ride-ability).  Their coasters seem to get rough faster than other parks'.
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Maintenance in general...it's not like I305 wasn't down for 4+ weeks. Sure that's a lot on Intamin's end also, but CF maintains the ride itself.
 
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John said:
Nicole said:
My impression is that Cedar Fair has a systemic problem with attraction maintenance (in terms of ride-ability).  Their coasters seem to get rough faster than other parks'.
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Maintenance in general...it's not like I305 wasn't down for 4+ weeks. Sure that's a lot on Intamin's end also, but CF maintains the ride itself.
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I'll be frank, there's nothing either of them can do when a critical part fails on the ride. It's not like Intamin has tons of spares on them at all times and can happily ship one to them immediately, either. B&Ms, Arrows, S&S, you name it, they all have issues that just can't be deemed simple "proper daily maintenance" and pinned on them not taking care of the rides. B&Ms have gone down for lift motors, cracked footers, whole sorts of things. Arrows for broken chains and computer servers deciding that they've had enough and want to burn in hell. S&S air launchers have an uncanny reliance on tanks that are basically gigantic bombs, Nurburgring learned what happens when they're pushed past their already beyond capacity limit. Hell some rides just short the electrical connection and need all sorts of circuit breakers and capacitors replaced in order to run properly again. There's just things that parks and manufacturers cannot deal with in a quick and proper manner, and it brings the ride down for more than a day or two. Big breakdowns are issues in which neither party can expect, and preparing to treat them would cost much, much more than the current (and already sorta steep) production price of a coaster.

But I digress, it's a Floorless coaster. One of the most reliable types of roller coasters in the world. I've been on my fair share of them in my lifetime, Dominator included, but have never experienced anything close to a headache on any of them (B&M as a whole, too). Last time I rode Dominator was in 2013, and the only real "rattle" I noticed on the ride was the train's lateral shift going into the first loop. Nothing major enough to bang your head through, but visible when sitting in the back row. I am genuinely surprised that a ride could change that much in a year.

Also in regards to Cedar Fair's maintenance, I find it WORLDS better than what Universal has done with the Hulk:
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I dunno what Dominator everyone else was riding but I rode this back row last Haunt and it was smooth as glass. There was a slight rattle in the second half of the ride but it wasn't headache-inducing.

Its a pretty smooth, forceful ride. Got a few nice pops of air here and there too. Only gripe is the disabled waiting area is a wind tunnel so standing there wasn't very fun.
 
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I'll admit, when I rode Dominator in the front row opening weekend last season, the ride made my head rattle to the point it was unenjoyable. However the back row was very smooth other than the previously mentioned rattle in the second half.

That being said Dominator is still an awesome ride and my second favorite in the park behind I305. It's also my favorite of the three floorless I've been on (Kraken and Batman Dark Knight being the other two). Also watching that video makes me wish they rebuilt Dominator with the lift hill closest to the parking lot so it could have it's original entrance back (entering underneath the first turn around and cobra roll).
 
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Connor said:
It rattles throughout the whole layout unlike Alpie where it's only for a second or two at a certain point.
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Have we been riding the same Alpengeist the past few seasons? I need your tips, I love its intensity, but it wacks me around quite a bit. I even find Volcano much, much smoother.

As far as Dominator goes, you can obviously tell which seats have good/bad/new/old wheels. Although I love the intensity in the back, I tend always go row 2 for the view and smoothness - best row on the ride for the most enjoyable experience.
 
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Thanks for sharing, Gavin! Photos like these really make me anxious for the theme park season to start. The last few weeks of the off-season really go by so painfully slowly.

God I miss this place.
 
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https://youtu.be/DZ_X6VsALi8
The female in the video has the best reaction to dominator I've ever seen!
*Please do NOT take pictures and/or videos on any attraction at any amusement park without prior approval***
 
Um.. No its not me. Every few days I go on YouTube and search Kingsdominion. I go to filters so it shows me only things posted about kings dominion from the past week. I just happened to come across it and thought it was rather funny. And dozy, I'm white
 
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