Yesterday, I visited Kings Dominion for the first time. The weather forecast predicted some rain. Nevertheless, I went there hoping for low crowd levels. And, wow, the park was absolutely deserted! I honestly think there might have been more people belong to the staff than guests. Every attraction was a complete walk on. Coaster paradise...
However, the park closed very early due to an anticipated worsening of the weather conditions. Still, we had a good 2.5 hours with just a light drizzle and to my surprise all coasters including i305 were operating.
So, I was able to ride i305, the last US-giga that remained on my bucket list. I must say, I've always been a bit scared of this coaster, due to its reputation of being even too intense for some enthusiasts and the reports of people blacking or even passing out. So I was not so sure whether I'd actually enjoy the ride or if it would be over-the-top. Actually, my expectations leant more towards the latter.
But I was pleasantly surprised. This is a very good ride! I still think that the initial 270-degree curve is a bit too much (meaning: just too long). But other than that ...and, ok, maybe the trim is another issue... but other than that, this coaster is great! It's surprisingly smooth considering its blistering speed and intense maneuvers. The low-to-the ground sections are actually not that low to the ground as it looks from further away. These sections undergo quite some height differences providing a good variety of airtime pops between the s-curves. I really think these sections of track are one of Intamin's finest works at least from that era. In particular, I like the fact that this coaster is very consistent from start to finish, in a sense that it commits to a certain style of ride and does not aim at being the jack-of-all-trades. In that sense, it's very well composed.
Now, is it my favorite coaster in the park? Yes, easily. Twisted timbers is a cool ride. The three consecutive airtime hills are fantastic and the barrel-drop is much better than I thought, but over-all I'm just not such a big fan of the smaller RMCs, their endings often seem to fizzle out a bit - not in the sense that they are forceless but they just feel somewhat random and uninspired. So, yeah, i305 is king at Kings Dominion IMO.
Is it my favorite giga? Well, I think it could easily be, if that initial 270-degree turn would be shorter, say, a 180-degree one or so ...and if you'd leave out the trim. That would be a perfect layout IMO. But as it stands, the relatively strong gray-out experience in the last third of the turn is not perfect for me. I think it overshadows a bit the otherwise amazing first airtime hill. I'm pretty sure that it would feel freakingly awesome without graying out that much before. Yeah, and of course the trim... (I was actually surprise how hard it hit given that the coaster most probably did not run anywhere near its peak performance on that rather cool day.
) So, all in all, I'd probably give the edge to Fury which does not really have any design flaws I could think of. But it's much closer than I originally would have thought and I really like i305. And I like the park it's in.
