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Volcano Refurbishment

ECG

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
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Volcano - The Blast Coaster, the Intamin suspended catapult coaster at Kings Dominion, will be closing from for an unspecified period this season for an overhaul of the station & queue line. Not only will they queue line be rerouted (it will now also use part of the gift shop), but the station will be changed from single to duel loading. This will also mean a third train will be in operation.
Currently the new Fast Lane passes are being restricted to just one ride on Volcano (they punch your wristband to prevent Fast Lane pass re-rides) & the Cedar Fair big wigs were in the park last week to see what could be done to increase capacity & keep the queue line moving while allowing multiple Fast Lane pass re-rides.
This is great news, but let's hope they put off construction until after the CF-Live. Would be a shame for everyone that doesn't have the cred to miss out on it when we're there in June.
 
If they close it when I'm there I'm gonna be very angry, been waiting to ride this for years now. Don't they have a closed season for this sort of thing?
 
Well.. as the Fast Pass thing is a recent thing.. I'm sure they just thought of this now. I must admit though, ANYTHING to increase capacity on that ride is a welcome change.
 
This is still unannounced, so we don't know the dates yet. I guess it all depends on when the materials needed can be delivered. If they can get it done before the peak summer period or have to wait until a later date.
 
I hope early summer Means after we are there. The live may be my only time at Kings Dominion.

I'm sure we'll hear about concrete dates in the next week or two if this is happening.
 
peep said:
If they close it when I'm there I'm gonna be very angry, been waiting to ride this for years now. Don't they have a closed season for this sort of thing?
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My thoughts exactly - they've just had over 3 months to do this, so why announce it before the season's started?
 
^I can't tell if you're being to sarcastic or not....

Though if it was such a problem it could have been done before the season or it's been like this for a while and one more season couldn't hurt. What changed to make it such an issue it has to be changed now. That's what I'm trying to figure out.
 
^
ECG said:
Currently the new Fast Lane passes are being restricted to just one ride on Volcano (they punch your wristband to prevent Fast Lane pass re-rides) & the Cedar Fair big wigs were in the park last week to see what could be done to increase capacity & keep the queue line moving while allowing multiple Fast Lane pass re-rides.
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Since Volcano is the only coaster in any Cedar Fair park that has restricted Fast Lane access, this decision was made to correct the situation.
You have to keep in mind that the information about the refurbishment has been confirmed by various sources, but no exact time frame has been given. We don't know how long this would take nor what needs to be done before construction can begin.
I imagine that the management would want it done sooner rather than later - to appease the large summer crowds who will be purchasing the Fast Lane passes for the first time. If they have a great experience, they continue purchasing the passes on return visits to the park.
If it can't be done right away, they could shoot for the low period between Labor Day & the start of their Halloween Haunts (if that's enough time to get the job done).
 
Will it be open for next week?
I may be going next week so hopefully it will be. If I go to any park it will most probably SFA though as that's closer to where I'll be.
 
Huzzah!

Great news! Three train operation and dual-loading? When has anything this positive been done to a major attraction so long after its original opening? (At a non-Disney park, that is.)
 
Fast Lane passes... :roll:

If this unannounced refurbishment was just decided upon a couple of days ago, there's sill a large amount of time that needs to be set aside for design and fabrication before installation can even occur. Who the hell knows when they are going to close the ride!?! They could even wait for next off-season. Lets not jump to such bold conclusions!
 
What is the issue with Volcano? That it doesn't run 3 trains? Would that really make a difference, wouldn't the ride time just increase because people would be out on the breaks for **** forever...?
 
I do find it odd that the ride has this low of a capacity. The ride doesn't take THAT long.. trains should be zipping through the station. Hell, Wicked Twister's line moves faster.
 
Joey said:
What is the issue with Volcano? That it doesn't run 3 trains? Would that really make a difference, wouldn't the ride time just increase because people would be out on the breaks for **** forever...?
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Station flow sucks. The floor is too low from the seats for a lot of people. The loose article system sucks. There's just not enough room on the load side. The acoustics are garbage and nobody could hear the pre boarding instructions even if they wanted to.

With dual-loading, they wouldn't have to delay launches while waiting for the train to be ready as often as they do now.

If this is side-by-side dual-loading like Air, it will help plenty. If it is in-line like Dragster, it won't help at all.

In a side-by-side, they wouldn't be on the brakes any more than they are currently. (which isn't actually that long.)
 
Apart from Intimidator, this is my favorite ride at Kings Dominion ...
But every time I go, the wait is always very long and its so annoying.
You'll wait no more than 15 minutes for Dominator and Intimidator, but have to wait near an hour for Volcano. I am all for them refurbishing the station and set up and adding a third train! Even if they have to close it temporarily, I'm just happy to see them putting an effort into fixing up how the system on this coaster operates. I'm actually hoping to go this saturday, so I will let everyone know whether or not it is running!
 
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