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Apr 17, 2017
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We know what Kings Dominion did for their 40th anniversary back in 2014-15, and in my opinion it was more intensive than what other major Cedar Fair parks did for their anniversaries. The singing mushrooms returned. Rides were repainted and old signage was brought back. Grove and Congo (sort of) retained their former glories as Candy Apple Grove and Safari Village. Volcano's replacement is still a while away but given how Kings Dominion had previews in 1974 (which was cause for KD40 to start in 2014), I think we're getting very close to the start of the park's 50th anniversary celebration. Could it be the same caliber as KD40 or better? I'm not sure, but I've been thinking plenty about what will happen on the 50th birthday while we wait for the empty Jungle-X lot to fill. So what could Kings Dominion possibly do for its anniversary this time?
 
I don't see how they could add one - the original route has vertical clearance issues and would need a new southern station, there also doesn't seem to be reasonably enough space and vertical clearance for other routes through the park.
 
What I would personally like to see for the 50th, would be expansion of southside Soak City, removal of northside and a restoration of Lake Charles. That sort of goes with what they did for the 40th.
 
Here is a list of possibilities, not saying that all of these are happening, that could occur for KD50:

  • Update the park entrance facade
  • Refresh parking lots (it looked like it had seen better days when visiting last year)
  • Updates for Soak City (I wish they could move everything south of Racer 75 and make a new entrance between Apple Zapple and TT)
  • Do something with Victoria's Pizza as some forum users have brought it up
  • Restore the Peanuts Amphitheater or at least do something with it
  • Repaint Racer 75 (the crest of the lift hill hasn't been painted white to match the rest of the coaster; they could even repaint the rails red and handrails blue like Racer at Kings Island)
  • Upgrades for Boo Blasters like Carowinds is getting; new blasters, targets, scoring systems, and hopefully replace the rest of the blacklights that overexpose everything
  • Repurpose the Action Theater for a new attraction or show
  • New small flat ride in Candy Apple Grove near Delirium (Nebulaz? Endeavor? Disk'O?)
  • Jungle X-Pedition Phase II: retheme Backlot, FoF, and I305 to fit the area with some refreshes for Anaconda (new thematic touches, repaint back to original dark green track color, could it get retracked? Only time will tell)
    • FoF/I305 could also be separated from Jungle-X to become Area 75, but based on references to those rides on in-universe maps, they could form a sub-area different from the "temple" theme of the main area
    • Paint refresh for I305 because that red track is turning pink
  • Successor to Volcano: The Blast Coaster: new top 3 coaster and flat ride
What else could they do?
 
I am wondering if the potential new centerpiece for jungle-x is going to be for the 50th park aniversary in 2025, or for 2024, or for something that is spread over 2 years 24-25.

For Kings Island 50th celebration last year, they did not get a major attraction. They received a good number of general improvements in the park as well as special aniversary events and activities throughout the season.
 
All the other CF parks that got new front gates came with some type of coaster being built. I wouldn’t mind seeing them do the same with a hyper out of OV that turns around at the gate. A dive turn that goes under the pathway would be really visually cool.
 
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All the other CF parks that got new front gates came with some type of coaster being built. I wouldn’t mind seeing them do the same with a hyper out of OV that turns around at the gate. A dive turn that goes under the pathway would be really visually cool.
I thought there was a discussion here already about the potential for a front gate coaster. We know that CP and CW received coasters that interacted, in some form, with the refurbished front gate at each park. I believe CF management did not want to do that with KI, KD, or CWon because of the scenic grand International Streets at each of the park entrances. Not saying the front gates themselves could not get a refurb; just that there would be no front gate coasters.

Plus, if a coaster is coming in '24 or '25, then the current expectation was that it was going in the volcano spot in the Jungle-X area.
 
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Tbh I'd really like them to figure out how to better incorporate Dominator into the park - that's effectively their gateway coaster given it's prominence to the parking lot, but it's really isolated to everything else.

Not sure what they could do to make that happen without a massive change to PS and opening up some more pathway intersections plus adding maybe some flats and/or shops/food. But that'd basically be adding a whole new area.
 
I thought there was a discussion here already about the potential for a front gate coaster. We know that CP and CW received coasters that interacted, in some form, with the refurbished front gate at each park. I believe CF management did not want to do that with KI, KD, or CWon because of the scenic grand International Streets at each of the park entrances.
Canada's Wonderland does have a front gate coaster, it is called Leviathan. Okay, maybe it is a pre front gate coaster, but it should still count.
A front gate coaster at kings Island would not be hard to pull off; you have an abandoned restaurant over the enterance, a subpar spashdown ride (Congo Rapids) and Invertigo. (Invertigo only still seems popular because it is the lowest capacity major in the park, I only ride it because each visit because it might be my last ride.)
To bring this back to Kings Dominion, I think the best option would be to put the station where Cornstalkers is, and run the ride behind International Street towards the parking lot, and run over the entry plaza and turn around near Dominator. (Might need to move a couple of bus parking spots.)
The problem with putting the station in Old Virginia is the ride path would have to pass over the matenence / warehouse buildings. The park has too many good places to build a ride to build over backstage buildings.
 
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Canada's Wonderland does have a front gate coaster, it is called Leviathan. Okay, maybe it is a pre front gate coaster, but it should still count.
A front gate coaster at kings Island would not be hard to pull off; you have an abandoned restaurant over the enterance, a subpar spashdown ride (Congo Rapids) and Invertigo. (Invertigo only still seems popular because it is the lowest capacity major in the park, I only ride it because each visit because it might be my last ride.)
To bring this back to Kings Dominion, I think the best option would be to put the station where Cornstalkers is, and run the ride behind International Street towards the parking lot, and run over the entry plaza and turn around near Dominator. (Might need to move a couple of bus parking spots.)
The problem with putting the station in Old Virginia is the ride path would have to pass over the matenence / warehouse buildings. The park has too many good places to build a ride to build over backstage buildings.
I get what you’re aiming for here, but KI still uses that restaurant on top of the entrance for specialty events, especially during Winterfest.

As for KD, while I would like to see a gate coaster, Dominator sort of fills that void already with its large presence in the very front of the park. Additionally, there’s also a lot of foliage up there that I’d like to keep. Same deal with Old Virginia. Anything new going on Old Virginia, I would like to see in the place of the go karts.
 
While Gatekeeper looked great in original pictures, by the time I got there it needed some paint it really didn't look that great. And the view from the ride is mostly ugly due to all the buildings in the front of the park. Looking at videos of other parks, I really appreciate how rides at our VA parks have minimal view of roads or parking lots. It's still worth it have something close to the entrance, despite aesthetics more than for them.

Parks rarely make major additions during anniversaries, so this could more an obstacle than opportunity.
 
Over the most recent years, Cedar fair has decided to focus on theme in and park atmosphere instead of just building giant coasters down on top of other things.

Gate coasters are probably not part of that plan now. Fury was before they headed this direction. It has hardly any theming.
 
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To get back on topic, I can see for 2024, volcano replacement and blsc retheme. And for 2025, front gate upgrade, BUILD A NEW BATHROOM SPECIFICALLY NEXT TO FOF, repaint racer 75 and anaconda, and maybe throw victorias in there.

Also I feel like dominator doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the park is because it doesn’t have a theme, it’s not tied to anything it’s kinda just there. They should tie it to berserker and give it a kraken theme or maybe to a shark, and like @Jonesta6 said add a flat or two so it can be it’s own little under the sea area.
 
Also I feel like dominator doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the park is because it doesn’t have a theme, it’s not tied to anything it’s kinda just there. They should tie it to berserker and give it a kraken theme or maybe to a shark, and like @Jonesta6 said add a flat or two so it can be it’s own little under the sea area.
I feel like there’s enough space on the outter path from Boo Blasters to Dominator that they could do a smaller themed area like that. Put a small flat by Dominators turn around, Something by Boos queue, maybe make Boos fit that new theme, something across from Dominators brake run, all while redoing the front gate, pulling it more to the parking lot, would fill out the area and give a new walkway to it.
 
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My biggest problem with Dominator is that it looks very exposed sitting right in front of the parking lot with only the restricted area fence separating it. It doesn't give the appearance that it's within the park. What they could do is add some shrubbery and/or planters along the outside of the fence. Even Intimidator at Carowinds has trees between its fence and the parking lot. A great example can be seen with SFFT Goliath here:
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With 2024 season passes announced for Kings Dominion, is it still possible that they will do a 50th anniversary celebration like they did for the 40th, including area and ride spruce-ups?
 
I like the suggestions of the original post. They are reasonable, would improve the park and are within the parks budget.

I agree about dominator. It’s sort of stuck in the parking lot and that area does nothing to add to the atmosphere of the park.

I know that this will not be corrected, but they installed the coaster backwards. At Geauga, the entrance to the ride was under the cobra roll. It was quite a grand entrance. It just feels backstage the way the lift hill faces the park
 
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