Joel Burton

Review of King's Dominion-Cedar Fair Ent...

Dated, dirty, poor maintenance, rides need paintin...

Dated, dirty, poor maintenance, rides need painting and PM. Employees are rude. Having worked there myself as a high school student it's obvious things are not what they used to be.

Parking:

Starting your day with parking will be anything but pleasant, especially if you have a season pass and want to park in the "special lot" for pass holders. Parking attendants will gladly take your money or scan your season pass, but that's where your interaction with them will end. No "hello" or directions where to go will be offered.

If you use the phone app for your season pass, best of luck using it for the "special lot" for season pass holders because the gate opener won't scan your phone, only the paper pass will scan at the gate, but that's assuming you know where the "special lot" is to start with.

If you are unfortunate enough to find and get into the "special lot" good luck navigating through the unmarked lanes. As a special treat, if you go down some isles in the "special lot" you will have to backup the entire way you came into the isle to get out. Try doing this with multiple other vehicles as equally lost as you trying to find a parking place down a lane no bigger than a single car.

Once you have parked you then need to find your way to the main entrance. No signs will assist you with that. Best suggestion would be to follow someone who knows where to go.

It will become obvious throughout your stay that directions and more importantly signs will be few and far between to lead your family around the park. As a matter of fact it will most likely end up being the most annoying part of your visit.

Food:
While allowing national food chains such as Boardwalk and Chick-fil-A into the park sounds like a good idea, in reality it is awful if you don't have the staff or facilities to pull it off efficiently. Almost two hours in line for fast food is ridiculous.

If you think eating at one of the regular park venues is any better you would be wrong. Our meal experiences throughout the day were horrible. The burger place in safari village was dirty, out of every carbonated beverage, had no "toppings" at the toppings bar nor any ketchup or mustard.

Rides:
The biggest and most serious issue with any of the coasters I rode was what is known as "slamming". This happens when a train abruptly stops in the e-brake section of the brakes when a train arrives in the station. Slamming was a major no-no when I was working there in the 90's. This was prohibited because of several reasons, first of all for the safety for guests to help prevent neck and back injury. Second to speed up dispatch to maximize capacity to reduce wait times for guests.

My experience on every coaster was identical, slamming in the e-brakes and waiting in the trim brakes, as long as five minutes before dispatch of the train in the station in front of us. This "policy" seems dangerous and counterproductive to efficiently moving guests, however maybe there is some good reason for them doing this.

I have had many great experiences at KD and I hope to have many more but over the years things have unfortunately made a turn for the worst. I am hopeful someone with the ability to effect change in KD will read this and take to heart my genuine experience/criticism of a Virginia institution that will hopefully be around for years to come.

I will update this review with more information when time allows.