Winterfest

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In the midst of the Haunt fog, part of the gift shop to the left of Berserker has been transformed into a Christmas wonderland. I haven't had a chance to check it out myself yet (I plan to do so later today or tomorrow), but from what I've seen there's a ton of Coca Cola merchandise. I'm hoping there's more than that and there's a lot of WinterFest merchandise similar to the setups I've seen at Kings Island and Carowinds (I think a KD WinterFest ugly sweater would be AMAZING!).
 
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mtorange said:
Kings Dominion JUST announced everything that is coming to WinterFest this season! There is a LOOOOOT of stuff to go through, I’ll analyze everything and come back with some highlights soon. First thing that caught my eye is SANTA SNOOPY from December 26th to 31st!

Edit: Forgot the link! https://www.kingsdominion.com/play/winterfest/attractions
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That's less rides than what I was expecting, and I already wasn't expecting much. 3 coasters, no Windseeker, Apple Zapple, or Twisted Timbers, about half of Planet Snoopy. I'm hoping that gets fixed for next year.
 
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The lineup of attractions, shows, and activities for Winterfest is truly massive. Check out all of the details here.

Some notes:

13 live shows. Holy moly. Granted, most of them are smaller street performances, but that's still a lot of activity on the paths, especially since the shows range from a drumming group to a roving brass band to a 1920s trolly strolling the park.

There appear to be two main sit-down shows: the Tinker's Toy Factor musical in the Peanuts Showplace and the Charlie Brown's Christmas Spectacular Broadway musical in the Kings Dominion Theater. Oddly, the website doesn't mention anything about Charlie Brown's Christmas Spectacular being an ice skating show as the park advertised last year (a bit disappointing in my opinion).

Several areas of the park have been renamed. Candy Apple Grove is Winterfest Way, Old Virginia is Old Virginia Christmas, and Planet Snoopy is Charlie Brown's Christmas Town. But there are some other areas I can't quite place, like Candy Cane Lane, Polar Plaza, and Tinsel Town- certainly the park has broken its main themed areas into smaller sections for the event.

There will be a 38-animal petting zoo themed to the nativity in Candy Cane Lane, wherever that is.

All of the operating restaurants have been given cutesy Christmas names (many of them with adorable puns), and it looks like many will feature specialty meals and drinks as created by the executive chef.

There are at least three specialty adult beverage locations in the park, serving spiked eggnog and wine, among other things. Other than International Street's Beer & Wine (renamed Belsnickel's Beer & Wine), I have no idea where the other locations are. Fountains & Floats and Grove Bar, perhaps?

Racer 75, Dominator, and a handful of flat rides will be open. No Drop Tower or Windseeker.

The Eiffel Tower will be closed. Really bummed about this one.

There are about a dozen "activities" that range from interactive experiences to experiences that aren't quite shows so much as attractions to upcharge experiences. These range from cookie decorating to a lighting ceremony to an oversized snow globe to nightly snowfall on International Street. I suspect the quantity of interactivity afforded by all these activities will be the defining characteristic of Winterfest.

There are clear, heated cabanas in "Jack Frost's Igloo Village" on International Street for an upcharge. The cabanas look upscale and include a number of luxury perks, like reserved show seating, food and beverage service, and complimentary access to several upcharge attractions.

Carriage rides are mentioned as a perk for the cabanas, but I don't see them listed elsewhere on the website. I wonder if they are an exclusive perk for cabana guests.

All in all, I can't wait for the event to debut; it seems like Kings Dominion is trying to create a more interactive event that is separate from the park than trying to compete with the stellar "beautiful lights and blockbuster shows" focus of Christmas Town. I'm holding my breath to see if Kings Dominion can put on an event as spectacular as they're promising.
 
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If y'all haven't seen the video that's been posted on social media, do it. They advertise 11 "Winter Wonderlands", whatever those are (light shows?), and 12 live shows, which is one less than what @Joe said (sorry... but thanks for that write-up... saved me a lot of time! ?).

Some other things that caught my eye were that St. Nick's Pics is an upcharge and that the lighting ceremony isn't until 5:30 each night (this is 30 minutes into the event and an hour and a half into the event during those 4pm openings). Also, no information about the New Year's Eve festivities just yet, but I wouldn't expect anything until we're closer to that date (remember, the park will be open until 1am that night!).

All in all, I think we're in for a very special event. I'm so excited that I wouldn't mind if Haunt season sped up a little bit... and y'all know how much I love Haunt!
 
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I really hope it is as good as Caro. The lights were breathtaking; the carriage ride was charming; and the cookie decorating was the best of the several I have tried.

Also, I so see a cabana in my future.
 
It's gonna be hard to top the experience I had at Hershey's cookie decorating.
 
I'm interested in seeing how Busch Gardens tries to one-up this announcement...
 
mtorange said:
I'm so excited that I wouldn't mind if Haunt season sped up a little bit... and y'all know how much I love Haunt!
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I feel like the Haunt season DID just speed up with this announcement. But it's good to find out. It's a wake up that October is passing very fast and is still in most respects the end of the season.

Dominator will be the best coaster running in this region, but the choice of Racer is a disappointment as it has so little airtime now, it's only fun when they race it properly. Maybe more grease?
 
Not entirely on topic, but out of my own curiosity, what is the majority consensus on which park has the best Winter event?
 
lce729 said:
Not entirely on topic, but out of my own curiosity, what is the majority consensus on which park has the best Winter event?
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Because this is the first year of Kings Dominion’s Christmas event, they’re really isn’t a consensus yet. With that being said, unlike the Howl-O-Scream/Halloween Haunt debate where there is a clear winner, ChristmasTown can actually put up a fair fight against WinterFest this season since it has been around for about 10 years now and WinterFest is starting from scratch.

With that being said, WinterFest is going to come in swinging real hard, real quick. There are high expectations for this event and I have a feeling the park can achieve them.
 
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lce729 said:
Not entirely on topic, but out of my own curiosity, what is the majority consensus on which park has the best Winter event?
Click to expand...

In this area, my preference is Six Flags America with more coasters open. I doubt that agrees with the majority -- frankly all the family, shows and tons of eating and drinking with shopping emphasis makes me feel unwanted, for good reason because I'm definitely not the target of these events. CT does do a great job with that and will be hard to beat.

In a wider view, Disney and Dollywood both beat CT and SFGAdv beats SFA with running Nitro and Batman including below freezing. SFNE has probably gone the furthest to run rides in the cold with extensive added heating systems.
 
mtorange said:
Kings Dominion JUST announced everything that is coming to WinterFest this season! There is a LOOOOOT of stuff to go through, I’ll analyze everything and come back with some highlights soon. First thing that caught my eye is SANTA SNOOPY from December 26th to 31st!

Edit: Forgot the link! https://www.kingsdominion.com/play/winterfest/attractions
Click to expand...
The Santa Snoopy after Christmas makes alot of sense. I always found it odd at Christmas Town that you could visit santa clasue after christmas. Winterfest fixed this by changing out Santa with Snoopy.
 
There’s been a fair amount of criticism regarding the ride lineup for WinterFest. Do people not realize that most rides can’t operate under 40 degrees Fahrenheit? Also, this event is meant for the entertainment and the experience, not the rides. I don’t know about you, but I’m probably not gonna ride anything at WinterFest because the wind is gonna make them unbearable on this frigid night, anyway. I’m surprised Racer 75 and Dominator are open, anyway.

I wish people would be grateful that we’re getting a Christmas event at all rather than complaining about most of the coasters not being open.
 
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Oh, I'm happy they're having it, and I'm happy my all-season dining and drinks extend to Winterfest. I understand about the coasters and operating temperatures as well, I just wish they'd make an effort to open every ride they can. I can't believe they're not opening the two indoor rides. My main beef with CT is that because there's little to do besides walk around and look at the lights, the paths are insanely crowded. We don't even bother going anymore. Opening whatever they can should help draw people off the paths. KD has more open space, so maybe it won't be as bad there as CT can be. I guess we'll find out.
 
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Honestly, there should be some blowback. The park previously announced (ACE Fall ThrillFest 2017) that most of Safari Village would be closed, but any other attractions that they could operate, they would operate as long as temperatures allowed.

So... Which coasters are outside of Safari Village?
  • Great Pumpkin Coaster
  • Woodstock Express
  • Racer 75
  • Twisted Timbers
  • Apple Zapple
  • Grizzly
  • Dominator
They have announced that Great Pumpkin, Racer, and Dominator will be open.

I can accept that Woodstock could be prone to valleying in cold weather. This is suggested by similar rides across the country remaining closed for winter events in colder climates.

Twisted Timbers gets a pass too. We already know all about its issues in cold weather...

It's far harder to justify the closer of Grizzly though. Racer will be operating right next door and Six Flags America operates Wild One (another classic-styled wooden coaster running PTCs). As far as I can tell, Grizzly should be open considering what Kings Dominion previously stated.

Apple Zapple is even harder to put aside than Grizzly in my opinion. Carowinds operates their Mack Wild Mouse for WinterFest. Spinning mice from other manufacturers run at Six Flags America's and Six Flags St. Louis' Holiday in the Park events. Even Worlds of Fun operates their spinning mouse.

Lastly, though I haven't done a deep dive into which non-coaster attractions should or shouldn't be running at KD's WinterFest according to their Fall ThrillFest statements last year, there is a glaring omission that I hope to see corrected: Boo Blasters on Boo Hill.

Yes, it's a ghost-themed shooting dark ride. And yes, I think it should be open for WinterFest. Why?
  • It is almost inside of Planet Snoopy—an area of the park that is open for the event.
  • It is climate controlled and protected from rain/snow.
  • It's an attraction with a very wide target demographic.
  • Its sister rides at both Carowinds and Kings Island are operating for WinterFest.
 
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Zachary said:
Honestly, there should be some blowback. The park previously announced (ACE Fall ThrillFest 2017) that most of Safari Village would be closed, but any other attractions that they could operate, they would operate as long as temperatures allowed.

So... Which coasters are outside of Safari Village?
  • Great Pumpkin Coaster
  • Woodstock Express
  • Racer 75
  • Apple Zapple
  • Grizzly
  • Dominator
They have announced that Great Pumpkin, Racer, and Dominator will be open.

I can accept that Woodstock could be prone to valleying in cold weather. This is suggested by similar rides across the country remaining closed for winter events in colder climates.

It's far harder to justify the closer of Grizzly though. Racer will be operating right next door and Six Flags America operates Wild One (another classic-styled wooden coaster running PTCs). As far as I can tell, Grizzly should be open considering what Kings Dominion previously stated.

Apple Zapple is even harder to put aside than Grizzly in my opinion. Carowinds operates their Mack Wild Mouse for WinterFest. Spinning mice from other manufacturers run at Six Flags America's and Six Flags St. Louis' Holiday in the Park events. Even Worlds of Fun operates their spinning mouse.

Lastly, though I haven't done a deep dive into which non-coaster attractions should or shouldn't be running at KD's WinterFest according to their Fall ThrillFest statements last year, there is a glaring omission that I hope to see corrected: Boo Blasters on Boo Hill.

Yes, it's a ghost-themed shooting dark ride. And yes, I think it should be open for WinterFest. Why?
  • It is almost inside of Planet Snoopy—an area of the park that is open for the event.
  • It is climate controlled and protected from rain/snow.
  • It's an attraction with a very wide target demographic.
  • Its sister rides at both Carowinds and Kings Island are operating for WinterFest.
Click to expand...

These are surely valid points that I never really thought about. Do you think this is more of a staffing issue than anything else? We all know that KD has staffing issues in the fall, I can only imagine they’ll be worse after Haunt.
 
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Im sure some rides are not running because of the risk of a breakdown in cold weather as well as problems with restraints and bulke winter cloths. Not giving them a pass just saying this could be a possibility.
 
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