Best Rides at Kings Dominion + Money Saving Tips
Updated: May 22, 2022
Kings Dominion is an amusement park located in Doswell, Virginia, 20 miles north of Richmond and 75 miles south of Washington, D.C. It’s home to some of the fastest and best rides of any theme park on the East Coast.
Contents
· Here are some tips to save money at King's Dominion:
Theme parks are awesome. I’ve lived on the East Coast for 6 years, and I’ve never been to one here! So I was really excited about finally making it to King’s Dominion. Now I’ve got my list of the best rides at King’s Dominion and some ways to save to share with you!
I teach at a school with an extended school year—there are some perks to this, yes… But, a not-so-great part is that I went back to work almost four weeks ago. The last week before heading back, my friends Adam, Christina, and I had the same day off (THIS IS RARE! We’re all travel bloggers and work crazy different schedules).
When you almost never have the same day off and it’s summer AND you find out you all love theme parks, what do you do? Head to a theme park known for its roller coasters, of course! We spent an awesome day at King’s Dominion, and I’m excited to share some of my favorite rides with you!
Before I do, let me give you a few insider tips to save money on your trip to this theme park (and theme parks in general), because what is a good post on my blog if it doesn’t tell you how to save a little money?!
Here are some tips to save money at King’s Dominion:
1. Bring your own water bottle. They allow you to bring in an empty water bottle and refill it at every soda/water fountain inside the park. This kept us hydrated, and we didn’t spend money on water bottles.
2. Check Costco, AAA, Groupon, or your local discount store for discounted tickets. They most likely exist. We got ours for $30 off, which was awesome, through Costco
3. Pay for parking ahead of time. We saved time and money (okay, just $2 but still!) by buying ahead.
4. Going to take a lot of pictures or want to buy a souvenir pic on a ride? Plan ahead, buy the photo package. It’s only $20 and covers all photos you want plus, you get digital copies! Each photo is $14 to purchase so it will pay for itself if you want more than one picture.
5. Make it a full day and take advantage of the water park. too. Two parks for the price of one! It makes the day even more fun!
Now that you know how to save on your awesome day, let me tell you about some of my favorite rides there! I’ve organized them in order from least thrilling to most thrilling because I know everyone feels differently about rides, and well, I love being organized.
The Water Park
There are quite a few rides in the water park, and yes, I am lumping it all together in one. Mostly because we didn’t want to spend the whole day there, it was the perfect thing to do in the hottest part of the day and to get ourselves nice and relaxed after being in the heat. We rode some okay rides in the water park.
Our favorite was the double tube ride, Thunder Falls, because it was so fast and pitch black so we had to guess what was coming next. We also loved Soak City because what is better than getting drenched in water when you’re already so hot?!
Shenandoah Lumber Company
I really loved this log ride! It was super short but had such a pretty view and two really nice drops that were not too intense. The line also moved really fast for this one, which is a plus.
Backlot Stunt Coaster
This roller coaster doesn’t have loops, but it’s tons of fun because of its theme and how fast it goes! On the coaster, you go through a bunch of stunts that are set up like a movie set—it’s so fun! Definitely fast and thrilling.
Rebel Yell
This is the only wooden roller coaster that was open the day we were there and tons of fun! You can see it in the picture above on the right. Two sides of the ride are sent at the same time so you are basically racing the other roller coaster along the track. It was fun to essentially race each other along the track!
Drop Tower
This was a complete thrill. This ride goes seriously high… It’s the highest Gyro height drop in the world at 272 feet! You can see so far from the top, and it is definitely intimidating but really awesome when you make that drop. It does a single drop so the ride is over really fast. Be prepared for a split second of fear, then it’s over!
Flight of Fear
This roller coaster seriously surprised us! It was all indoors and went way faster than I expected. It was dark the whole time, which meant we had no clue what was coming next, keeping the ride fun and exciting. It does have loops and starts off really fast, which means people scream as it shoots off. It can be scary for the little ones (even the ones tall enough to ride!).
Dominator
This was a really fun coaster! We road this and then the Anaconda right after (which is probably why the Anaconda is not on my favorites list). It actually holds a world record as the longest floorless roller coaster at 4,210 feet. It is definitely a long coaster and worth a ride!
Intimidator
This is the tallest roller coaster on the East Coast and seriously feels that way! You go so high—they actually had to slow down the speed of the roller coaster after it first opened because people were blacking out! How crazy is that?! It is definitely thrilling and tons of fun to ride.
After this ride, we were basically done for the day because we rode too many coasters in a row and were just so tired. Loved this coaster though!
So there you have it! Those are my favorite rides and what I would say are the best rides at King’s Dominion. Have you ever been to King’s Dominion? I’d love to know your favorite rides or which ones sound like the most fun! Let me know in the comments below!
Want to see Christina’s list of best rides at King’s Dominion? Head over to Our Sweet Adventures to check her post out, too!