Kings Dominion Goes Year-Round in 2023
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
Arguably better than what’s open most days at SFA’s dry park.
Went a couple weeks ago on Saturday. Crowds were light, but not dead. Comparable to a non-busy weekday in terms of the park felt.
Including today, I've been to the park every operating day this month (with the exception of Sunday 1/8). And on each of those days, the crowds have been incredibly light - to the point where three main coasters (Timbers, Dominator, Apple Zapple) are generally walk-ons (provided when the temps allow them to be open of course).
When the temps reach into the 50's, more people show - as the coasters are open. But as @rswashdc mentioned, even then it's comparable to non-busy weekdays. But when the temps are in the low 40's/ high 30's, it's almost a ghost town.
What's funny is on average, there are more employees walking through the park, than patrons -- where just about each day I overhear KD staff joking to themselves how there are more of them, than customers. And how most of the customers are only showing because they have the meal plan... which is likely an entirely true statement.
And BTW, when Timbers is open it's generally hauling due to the colder weather. So for anyone who likes the faster ride, it's fun. And when riding the coaster, it's also the best way to see all the fresh new track on Grizzly.
^-- Timbers is slower in colder weather, which I prefer. It also can get a wait because of one train operation, and it didn't help last Sunday that Dominator was closed (wind? but that improved later?). The other train was on site 1/8 but is now gone. The other possible wait is Borders. I haven't seen it get into the 50s so I can't say what that would do.
If they still had the cinnamon bread they'd get some money from me every visit but it's gone. Have seen a bearded (!?) Jack Frost each visit.
If they still had the cinnamon bread they'd get some money from me every visit but it's gone. Have seen a bearded (!?) Jack Frost each visit.
They had the green train on Timbers today. Was running pretty decent. Rode that a couple times, rode a few flats, got food from Jukebox, which was surprisingly good, as the last time I had eaten there it was…. Meh. And then I was headed to dominator and went down as I was in line. The other train got stuck on the lift. I stayed to ride it out, so to speak, and was able to ride one more time before the park closed. Talked to one of the ops while waiting for it to come back up and found out KD had implemented a policy regarding phones that CP uses—if you have your phone out, your ride will be stopped, you will be removed from the ride, and the park.
Here today for a little while so far I count 4 cars in the lot just prior to opening.
I’m surprised they even would open today with the forecast as it is. Cold and rainy isn’t going to attract much of anyone.
They closed for rain and 42 degree weather 1/22. There is no way this will be successful if they are depending on clear 50 degree days every winter weekend. Nobody is going to come on rainy days because of their reputation for closing for the rain and they don’t have enough indoor attractions. They dug their own ditch with this.
Their fun guide and website states “ATTENTION: Kings Dominion will remain open in most weather situations; however, weather affects each ride differently. Rides may close due to cold temperatures, threat of lightning, high winds, or heavy precipitation. No refunds or rainchecks.”
That appears to be an outright lie with todays total park closure
Their fun guide and website states “ATTENTION: Kings Dominion will remain open in most weather situations; however, weather affects each ride differently. Rides may close due to cold temperatures, threat of lightning, high winds, or heavy precipitation. No refunds or rainchecks.”
That appears to be an outright lie with todays total park closure
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Though today's early closing of the park was frustrating - as why even open the park at 11am, and close it two hours later at 1pm - I can see why it was justifiable.
That is, when I drove up at noon, there were a total of 10 other cars on the left-side lot; and of those 10, 2 of the cars were about to leave.
The park was also minimally staffed today where a number of the standard shops, restaurants, and even the skating rink never opened. So a far cry from the other days I've seen this month, where the staff levels have been insane.
But honestly I've grown used to these early park closings; where if it's a rainy day, with few visitors, I just pretty much assume that the park will close early, and am thankful for as much as I can get in before that time, with zero lines. However with that said, the park is only a 20-25 minute drive for me, which is not too big of a deal; though if I lived farther away, I would be very frustrated each time.
That is, when I drove up at noon, there were a total of 10 other cars on the left-side lot; and of those 10, 2 of the cars were about to leave.
The park was also minimally staffed today where a number of the standard shops, restaurants, and even the skating rink never opened. So a far cry from the other days I've seen this month, where the staff levels have been insane.
But honestly I've grown used to these early park closings; where if it's a rainy day, with few visitors, I just pretty much assume that the park will close early, and am thankful for as much as I can get in before that time, with zero lines. However with that said, the park is only a 20-25 minute drive for me, which is not too big of a deal; though if I lived farther away, I would be very frustrated each time.
Hey I see my car in that photo don't be stalking me like that.
In all seriousness I fully excepted an early closing when I drove up I was excepting 2 to be closing so that they would have been open at least half the day. But I still enjoyed my short visit and got lunch and 5 coaster rided in. I have to hand it to the staff they were all friendly and wonderful despite the weather and almost every posted ride opened for guest. I went out of my way to spend some money as a little thank you to the park for being open.
That’s exactly it. They are chasing off any customers that have to drive a distance by doing this. I’m not 25 away and would never make the trip this winter because of their reputation for closing for low attendance. Your photo pretty much proves it was for attendance not for the weather. I wonder how the social media person feels being forced to lie
These winter months are pretty much all directed at the people that are relatively local to KD. They’re not really going to have a lot of people coming to spend their day that are from out of town. I went yesterday because I looked at the weather and decided yesterday would be better than today. Lo and behold, I was right.
I really don’t understand the point of view when they’re calling for constant precipitation for 100% of the remaining operating hours and the park is a ghost town, the confusion for why it closes early to be frank. It seems like every once in awhile somebody always comes on here to blow a gasket about the park closing early due to inclement weather and low attendance the vast majority of regional parks do this. It you frequent amusement parks it’s largely reasonable to expect a park to close early when they’re calling for bad weather the entire time it’s open and attendance is low. Does it suck if it happens to be the day you selected to go? Yes your problem is bad luck with weather not the theme park.
Perhaps what you're indicating is only partially true - given that the park has never operated year-round before and the presumed justification isn't extra revenue as much as to retain staff and/or increase full-time staff counts and operational knowledge, any profit on the day is icing on the cake.
However, if during the operating season the attendance is so low that they're paying staff for basically doing nothing most of the day, and the weather would make the guest experience miserable for all but the most die-hard and is expected to get worse, it becomes beneficial for both the park and possibly the employees (depending on how reliant they are for hourly wages) to close for the day.
And, as was previously mentioned - at least right now, they appear to not be making the effort to attract guests from outside the local market. Heck, anecdotally I'm hard-pressed to find anyone that knows the park is open past Christmas... Which in itself WF is only starting to get more notice since more people are familiar with BGW operations in general. Of course, that mostly seems to tie to each park's reputation amongst casual guests, so YMMV.
I don’t see how cutting staff hours at the last minute is beneficial to retaining employees. I want guaranteed hours/pay for any job that I would take
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If they're salary, then they just got their day back with no change in pay. I'd be happy with that scenario if it were me tbh.
I will throw out that while there today I heard several staff members say that they had inventory tonight for merch and culinary and that they were excepting a late day. I am sure those employees were happy for an early close to get a head start.