TR: 2 Intimidators and a little Busch Gardens 4/2-4/3

[Delirium_Guy]

Last weekend, I missed an opportunity to ride up with a friend from Orlando for the opening of Carowinds' Intimidator. Bummed out after hearing such glowing reviews of the coaster, I decided that the second weekend would be just as good as the first to check the coaster out. In typical fashion for me though, one park is never enough and it was confirmed that Kings Dominion's Intimidator 305 would infact be opening with the Park on April 2nd. Perfect. So my friend Steve and I left Orlando Thursday around 7PM, drove over night to Kings Dominion and arrived around 7AM. Took a quick nap in the car before heading to the parking lot. I still had to process my pass, fortunately they began processing around 845AM that morning. So that gave us plenty of time to get lined up to make the dash to I-305.

Before I get into Intimidator 305, I'd like to say a few things about the Park. First of all, if you look at any of my prior trip reports for Kings Domininon, you'll find that I've always been a huge fan of the Park. It still reminds me of what Kings Island used to be like back in the good days. The Park still has a lot of charm with it, no one can argue how wonderful the entire Congo area / Volcano area is. The Park itself is situated in dense groves of trees, aside from the the Shockwave / Rebel Yell midways. Operations are *usually* decent, though the wood coaster operations leave a lot to be desired as they typically are only running one train every time I go. I've never really had a bad day at KD....then again I hadn't been since before Cedar Fair took over the Park. Ugh. To say the least, opening weekend this year was not a great time to be showcasing the Park:

* One train operation on Volcano, FoF, Avalanche. Two train operation on Dominator, with the third train no where to be found. The third train for Volcano also appeared to be missing from the storage area. Volcano attempted two train operation Saturday morning, but train 2 was removed after it rolled back with guests on the first ride of the day. So back to one train.

* Incredibly slow dispatch times

* Many rides suffering from frequent periods of downtime

* Strange event at Intimidator at the end of Friday. The ride was taken down to one train early in the evening due to an issue. We hopped in line around 7PM, knowing only one train was operating which was fine. The ride went down. People bailed, we continued to snake our way slowly through the queue before ultimately ending up in the final run to the station when the ride finally started to operate. Great, no problem. I'm guessing that there were *maybe* 7-8 train loads of people behind us in the queue, not a terribly large amount. They apparently fixed the issue with train 2, so they shut the ride down AGAIN to add the second train on. If this were the middle of the day, I'd completely understand and be very happy about this.....but why shut the ride down for another 10 minutes or so after it was already down for close to an hour to add a second train for a minimal amount of people still in the queue?

I understand that it is opening weekend, so somethings can be overlooked. Employees are still training and learning, fine. Rides suffering from some minimal downtime, fine. My issue I think comes from a maintanance stand point with Dominator and Volcano. Each coaster missing trains from their transfer tracks, which would seem to indicate they aren't done with their off season maintanance. Really? Why is it that Busch Gardens Williamsburg was able to have every coaster open and operating at MAX capacity, but Kings Dominion was not? Dominator's line was spilling well beyond its queue line due to a very slow two train operation. Volcano was one train operation with no hope of a second train because it was having maintanance issues and the third train wasn't even a potential back up plan because it wasn't on site. I didn't even attempt FOF, I had already heard it was one train operation. I personally find these types of problems inexcusable, especially when you are opening your park on a very, very busy Holiday weekend. One would hope that things will smooth out later in the season, but this is a big reason why we spent fewer than 3 hours at KD in the 2 days we were in the area. We did finally manage a Volcano ride though and I'm happy to report that its just as awesome as ever....I've always been a huge huge fan of it.

OK, Intimidator 305. I know there will be other reports coming in so I'll just make some bullet points:

* First and foremost, the restraints were perfectly fine for me and my friend both....and we are built quite the opposite of one another in terms of body proportion. The ride was incredibly smooth and I had zero head/neck banging.....and I feel these restraints are absolutely necessary on this ride!

* Lift hill seems much faster than the cable lift on MF, though that may not be the case.

* The ride, hands down, is the most incredible ride I've ever been on in my life and immediately took its place as my #1....out of 460 coasters that I've ridden so thats saying something.

* First drop is unreal no matter where you sit and all seats deliver incredible ejector airtime.....the backseat is down right insane in terms of air. The drop on I305 craps all over Millennium Force. I personally find Millie's drop on the tame side.....fun but not incredibly forceful. I305 truly has the best first drop on any coaster, IMHO

* The first turn was incredibly intense to the point that I grayed out everytime I rode

* By the time you get your bearings back from the first turn, you are launched out of your seat as the train rockets over the second hill. Blissful is a great way to describe this hill, for what seems like a good 5 seconds of sustained ejector air all the way up and over it.

* After the second drop, all hell breaks loose. The ride delivers pops of ejector air on every little bump the train flies over. The transitions are quick, powerful, intense and very smooth.

* Trim brake up the last camelback brakes the train significantly, but the train still careens on through to the finish and still dishes out large amounts of airtime.

* The ride is the most intense thing I've ever ridden. Its fast, powerful, relentless and an absolute blur.

* The track length may seem short, but honestly I'm not sure i could handle much more on it. It flies through the course in 1 minute, including the lift hill. Each ride simply left me breathless.

* Night rides. OMG. Zero lighting on the course, except the awesome red chaser lights on the lift hill.

* Get to KD ASAP and ride it, simple as that.

* Single rider line worked well for us, we rode 4 times in an hour Saturday

On Friday afternoon, we hopped over to BGW for a few hours. Kings Dominion should check out their competitor for some tips on how you operate a park. BGW's parking lot was completely full, the Park was busy, yet our longest wait was 30 minutes for Apollo....thats with the queue almost completely filled. All coasters were running all trains, even Loch Ness Monster was running 3. Operations were flawless, I give serious props to all the ride crews and BGW for taking pride and making an effort to pump people through the rides. Apollo in particular had an amazing crew, the train was usually checked and ready to dispatch BEFORe the train in front of it had crested the lift hill. In 4 hours we did all the coasters twice, took a spin on Dar Kastle, strolled through the entire park and had a beer before heading back to get our night ride on I305.

Saturday we did go back to KD, thats when we got our Volcano ride as we went there first thing since we knew that the line for I305 moved very fast. We took advantage of I305's single rider line for about an hour, catching 4 rides before we decided to head on down the road to Carowinds. Its amazing that these two parks operate under the same banner. The operations are Carowinds were far superior to what we encountered at KD. We arrived at the park around 6PM, they closed at 8PM. I've been to Carowinds a number of times, I essentially was only concerned with catching a few rides on Intimidator, Afterburn and our beloved Flyers of course. A few things:

* I rode both Intimidators within a matter of 5 hours of each other. Poor Carowinds' ride just didn't stand a chance after coming from KD. There just isn't a comparison between the two.

* Carowinds' Intimidator IS a great ride and I will say that I prefer it very much over Diamondback. I found the airtime to be much more along the lines of ejector during our front seat ride. Second hill was too much fun and the turnaround was awesome! Trims were off (pay attenion, Kings Island). The ending is horrible, but like others have mentioned so is Diamondback's ending. I read a post from someone that said there aren't any bad seats on the ride....I must disagree. My first ride was dead center of the train. Talk about a snoozefest. Front seat was great, never got to try the back so can't compare. Great addition to the Park! As far as ranking the B&M hypers for me: Goliath, Apollo, Intimidator, Diamondback, Nitro, Raging Bull

* Afterburn was terriffic as usual, but I still prefer Alpengeist.

* God how I have missed the Flyers! Rode 4 times and happily closed the night out on them instead of Intimidator. I was very pleased to see that the ride operator was ENCOURAGING people to snap the cables. I will never, ever forgive Paramount/Kings Island for taking these away for that piece of garbage that now resides in the middle of what was a very beautiful section of Kings Island.

A final note. Both Kings Dominion and Carowinds both were assigning rows, as others have stated. I have a HUGE, HUGE issue with this. If people are waiting in line for an hour plus for a ride and you have an EXTENDED queue built for the front or back seats.....for god's sake let people wait! Even the Orlando parks, which draw far larger crowds than Kings Dominion or Carowinds could ever dream of, let people wait for the front seat or back seat if they ask. Its bad guest experience, simple as that, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised....I've come to expect nothing less from Cedar Fair these days.

Great trip. 1800 miles in 2 days. We were exhausted after returning to Orlando, but are already planning a return visit for some more I305!

- Todd

[catzdrummer09]

Sounds like you had a great trip! I definitely want to check out the Intimidators. Also, I'm glad you had a good time at BGW. I was in Virginia Beach all last week and we were there opening day. It was my first trip and I was totally amped...then it rained...hard. SO, needless to say, things were not very enjoyable. However, the park is absolutely stunning!

[corn4ahead]

WOW, Great TR! I am so excited to get down to I305 now. Holy Crap! I sounds like Millenium's speed with Maverick's air and turns!

[gad198]

Good TR! I was at Great Adventure on Saturday and saw two people with Intimidator 305 shirts. I asked about the ride and they said it was a night and day experience between the front and back. They said the front was awesome but the back was just merely good. Did you find that to be the case as well?

[Delirium_Guy]

Good TR! I was at Great Adventure on Saturday and saw two people with Intimidator 305 shirts. I asked about the ride and they said it was a night and day experience between the front and back. They said the front was awesome but the back was just merely good. Did you find that to be the case as well?

That's interesting to hear. We felt the opposite. I found the back to be my favorite, the first drop was out of control in the back. I'll say though, our one backseat ride

we got was also at night.....when we couldn't see or anticipate anything coming. In the end, I can't say ANY seat on the ride was merely good.....I will say ANY seat is amazing. We rode front, middle and back and each area of the train delivers. For me, there is no bad or dull seat on the ride.

- Todd

[BoddaH1994]

Cool trip report! I do agree that the fact that it's still an atrocity that the Flying Eagles were replaced by the Italian Job Stunt Track.

Then again, I look at the Back Lot Stunt Coaster now, with it's beautiful splashdown, raging fire, chasing helicopters, and bouncy downstairs run and think to myself, "I wouldn't trade this ride for anything in the world!"

Oh yeah, I was being sarcastic.

[The Interpreter]

The old Ryan's back! Huzzah!

(What a difference a trip to Florida makes.....)

[gigacoaster2k]

Todd, I must wholeheartedly agree with you on your detailed raving about I305. That coaster is just incredible. This 4-park trip I went on this past weekend brought me from 56 to 89 coasters. I305 completely blew me away and sits proudly atop my favorite steel coasters as #1.

[StalkerChick]

WOW, Great TR! I am so excited to get down to I305 now. Holy Crap! I sounds like Millenium's speed with Maverick's air and turns!

That is the perfect way to describe it actually... only faster than MF

Good TR! I was at Great Adventure on Saturday and saw two people with Intimidator 305 shirts. I asked about the ride and they said it was a night and day experience between the front and back. They said the front was awesome but the back was just merely good. Did you find that to be the case as well?

That's interesting to hear. We felt the opposite. I found the back to be my favorite, the first drop was out of control in the back. I'll say though, our one backseat ride

we got was also at night.....when we couldn't see or anticipate anything coming. In the end, I can't say ANY seat on the ride was merely good.....I will say ANY seat is amazing. We rode front, middle and back and each area of the train delivers. For me, there is no bad or dull seat on the ride.

- Todd

I'm with you Todd... i rode towards the front in the middle and it wasn't bad but then sat i got on the very back seat and OMG!! it was nuts! and totally worth the 5 second blackout

[rotag]

i dont recall seeing you todd, didja see me? i was hard to miss in my big green wig.

[BoddaH1994]

The old Ryan's back! Huzzah!

(What a difference a trip to Florida makes.....)

There is no old Ryan and new Ryan. Things are what they are.

[The Interpreter]

Uh huh. Perception is reality. And none of us is who we were even yesterday. Change is inevitable. Even nickels.