RE: Winterfest-- Christmas Event at Kings Dominion
Malsdad said:
I used to live in Lancaster growing up, so I'm very familiar with Hershey Park.
I used to go there like I now go to BG.
Comparing Hershey Park to Kings Dominion, from a Christmas theme perspective, isn't really fair. Hershey doesn't have another large park near it doing a xmas theme. (and don't even say Dutch Wonderland) They can get the draw, not only because their the only game in town, but because they have a lot more to offer than just rides. Hershey is more of a 'destination vacation' than a one day amusement park visit.
Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion are two totally different parks, and it may always be like that. They both have their good and bad points.
To explain my original quote, KD can put down all the pavers they want and plant bushes and trees til the cows come home, its infrastructure will never match the charm of BG. AND... That's really not a bad thing. KD is an awesome coaster park. If you want to have fun, it's the place to go.
They could pull off something for xmas. Would it be as nice as BG? Hard to say, but I highly doubt it.
At least KD has a drop tower that works. I don't know if theirs has a slow view mode like Mach Tower, but that would be cool to go on.
That could actually be their Xmas slogan.....
While other parks 'work on rides', we have 'rides that work'
Malsdad,
Your perception of King Dominion is one of the topics that we have talked about in this forum (not this particular thread). I am not sure of your age and you did say you lived in PA for a time. If your perception is based on visits to Kings Dominion from 1993, say though the 2010 season, then your perception is spot on.
BUT, Kings Dominion was NOT that way in the "Golden Years" of park operations (1975-1992). It was a more well rounded park with a good mix of kiddie rides, gentle family rides, thrill rides, and coasters. The park offered 7 to 8 hours of entertainment options during the prime summer season in those days [If you set a goal to see every performance that the park offered, in one day, you would need 7-8 hours to do that]. The quality of the shows back then was on par with what you could see at a Busch or Herchend park today. Each of the five areas of the park had a central theme that tied the employee costumes, rides, shops, restaurants, and entertainment facilities together. Each area did have a more distinct, cohesive theme back then
Course, Kings Dominion is not like Busch Gardens Williamsburg and vice-versa. They came down two totally different paths from conception, design, construction, and operating philosophy.
To me, the Busch Gardens parks were the Busch Family "Playgrounds". They were conceived to show the Busch corporate ideas of quality, taste, and conservation philosophy. They wanted to tie their operating philosophy, in the way they make beer in the brewery, to the way they created and operated their parks. The parks were their Corporate advertising vehicle to a certain extent. For Busch Gardens Williamsburg, it was recreating 14th to 17th century European Hamlets to enfold the rides, shops, restaurants, and show facilities within the park. They could go into great, detailed themeing because the hamlets were somewhat small and distinct, separated from each other by woods and ravines. I am sure other on here can point to the Busch Gardens history and operations.
For Kings Dominion, it is a legacy of the Wachs family in Cincinnati, Ohio. They owned and operated a popular large amusement park, Coney Island, along the Ohio river. The park had big, open midways that contained the rides and attractions for people to enjoy. One of the family members, Gary Wachs, dreamed of having amusement places on a much larger scale than what they currently had with Coney Island. Because of several damaging floods over the years from the Ohio river in the 1950's and 1960's, The Wachs family was looking to move the park somewhere else. The floods also propelled Gary Wachs to pursue his dream of going big. Gary approached Taft Broadcasting, which owned the rights to all the Hanna-Barberra stuff, to build a large "Theme" park. Taft agreed and a couple years later King Island in Mason, Ohio opened in 1972. Kings Dominion followed in 1975, and finally Canada's Wonderland opened in 1981. Those were the 3 parks that Family Leisure/Taft/KECO built from scratch. Carowinds and California's Great America were existing parks that the company bought/took over and "made them into their own image". Carowinds was purchased in the early-mid 1970's. CGA was first managed by the company and then purchased in the mid-late 1980's.
So, you can see why Kings Dominion has large open midways, they reflect some of the old Coney Island park, especially Candy Apple Grove/The Grove area. Go over and find the Kings Island history video I imbedded on the 40th Anniversary thread. It is about an hour and 25 minutes long, so you might want to watch it 25-30 minute increments if you are pressed for time. But, it gives a lot of information that explains about Kings Island's conception, construction, and operating philosophy that reflect heavily on Kings Dominion as well (and Kings Dominion is referred to many times in the video).
The bottom line is that Kings Dominion was distinct from Busch Gardens, even in the "Golden Years"; it still is; and will be in the future. BUT, Kings Dominion was NOT always described as "The Coaster Park". That name tag is due to the "lovely" things that happened to the park when it had "Paramount" over its name. :s
Be thankful that Busch Gardens has had the unbroken continuity of operational philosophy and quality since 1975. Kings Dominion was not so lucky.
Cedar Fair is trying to bring back some of the charm and atmosphere of those "Golden Years" and I think they want to do way more. Its just they are hampered by the huge debt load they are carrying. But, I sincerely applaud them for what they are attempting to do for 2014.
Now that I have thoroughly highjacked this thread, back to your original programming.
