You are correct in that the mountain was created to house a flat/dark ride complex. The park was over-budget for this attraction when it opened in 1979. The original plans called for a second flat ride and another indoor scene for the Vouage to Atlantis water ride. The park dropped the 2nd flat ride ride and the final indoor scene for the water dark ride was added the following year when the ride was renamed to the Haunted River in 1980.
Volcano Goes Extinct
- Thread starter b.mac
- Start date
You are correct in that the mountain was created to house a flat/dark ride complex. The park was over-budget for this attraction when it opened in 1979. The original plans called for a second flat ride and another indoor scene for the Vouage to Atlantis water ride. The park dropped the 2nd flat ride ride and the final indoor scene for the water dark ride was added the following year when the ride was renamed to the Haunted River in 1980.
A
A new roller coaster legitimately can make the area look great. Look at Fury, Chocolatetown, Timbers, Sheikra, Copperhead Strike, etc. The coaster and the newly designed area around it work in uniscent for a nicer atmosphere. That’s how it works if you aren’t Disney, Universal, Europa, Busch, etc.
You can revamp the area AND add a new coaster. In fact off the shelf flat rides are just gonna make the area look worse. See, California Adventure. An enclosed dark ride isn’t gonna help either unless they go all Busch Gardens and have an elaborate exterior design, which they won’t.
A new roller coaster legitimately can make the area look great. Look at Fury, Chocolatetown, Timbers, Sheikra, Copperhead Strike, etc. The coaster and the newly designed area around it work in uniscent for a nicer atmosphere. That’s how it works if you aren’t Disney, Universal, Europa, Busch, etc.
Honestly. Not seeing a great reason why it has to be a coaster in that plot. Entrances to Avalanche, BLSC, Anaconda, FoF, I305 are all writhing 400 yards.
You point out areas that got a coaster and a revamp. Ok? Doesn’t mean that’s what has to happen.
If I had a choice between a new coaster in Olde Virginia in DA plot, or a new one in Safari in the VBC lot, give me the one in Olde Virginia in a heartbeat.
I doubt they build a coaster on the Dinos plot if they want to preserve the trees.
It should be noted that now Volcano is gone, that area of the park has a ton of excess power available to use. The mountain also houses one of the park’s two air compressors that are used to maintain park wide air pressure.
Can you go into detail about the air compressors and their use? I have never heard this fact before. Thanks
Instead of each ride having it’s own air compressor, the park uses two massive compressors to provide park wide air pressure. Like I said, one is in mountain and the other is in Hypersonic’s old station. The majority of the rides will collect that air pressure locally in tanks, and use it for things like braking.
I didn’t realize many rides or attractions would use compressed air from a centralized location in their operation. That seems like a lot of underground piping to maintain. I thought the compressors could be to power chillers for air conditioning in nearby attractions.
Kings Dominion is the only park that does this to my knowledge.
To be rather honest I’m kindve suprised no one has mentioned this area possibly used for Haunt space. Volcano in terms of event space is absolutely massive and could easily fit a maze or two within the physical mountain or maybe even the queue space. While a completely different space, Wonder Mountain at Canada’s Wonderland fits two mazes in the bowels of the mountain. Being that Volcano may never run again the possibility that this space being converted to Haunt space seems very possible. I imagine a house could be situated in the bottom on the floor of the attraction weaving between the attractions supports.
EDIT: Whoops, just read the Haunt thread.
EDIT: Whoops, just read the Haunt thread.
Having been inside that mountain myself, there's definitely a lot of open space for a terror trail of some sort but the concrete is super uneven and there's a lot of pipework sitting on the ground as well. It'd definitely be an interesting idea in practice.
I would be curious if presented correctly to KD Exec's if A group would be allowed to explore the mountain and look for the supposedly still there remnants of The Lost World. According to some articles the Time Shaft is still inside one of the Mountain Structures. Mt. Kilimanjaro not sure really as It's been since the Drop Zone time frame since I have been.
I for one as someone who still remembers all the various ways The Lost World was redone over the years and personally have been on all of the various rides in all of there versions think this would be A great Idea and would be A willing participant.
Any thoughts from anyone on whether Kings Dominion would let someone "urban explore" the site before any deconstruction or demolition would begin.
Any one with info they don't want to post here can PM me.
Just my thoughts
I for one as someone who still remembers all the various ways The Lost World was redone over the years and personally have been on all of the various rides in all of there versions think this would be A great Idea and would be A willing participant.
Any thoughts from anyone on whether Kings Dominion would let someone "urban explore" the site before any deconstruction or demolition would begin.
Any one with info they don't want to post here can PM me.
Just my thoughts
These are my two cents on this debate. The only concern I have with them replacing Volcano with a flat or two is I'm afraid it might start a dangerous trend we've seen too many times. KD has gotten 2 coasters in the last 10 years (one of them just being a remodel of an old coaster), while they've taken out 3 (4 if we're counting Hurler). I'm not saying it's an entirely awful thing considering these 2 coasters are the best ones in the park (maybe even in the state), but I don't want to see King's Dominion's coaster line-up continuing to shrink. I know Cedar Point is the big kahuna for the Cedar Fair chain, but they need to do a better job in dispersing funding for attractions imo. Even if it takes 5 years for them to add a new coaster to this plot of land, I'd honestly rather see that than shoving a couple flats there quickly to make everyone forget.
My counter is there's plenty of spots at KD for other coasters TBH. But it does lack a good flats collection. So if this were to be replaced by flats, I think it's actually a good thing for the park.
Plenty of spots? Uhhh what?
And the park has plenty of flat rides lol. They have one of the best drop towers out there, a frisbee, a looping pirate ship, a top spin, a ferris wheel, a scrambler, a monster, and multiple swings/