This article has been edited since it first appeared in print.
Kings Dominion is home to 400 acres of attractions and rides.
Twenty miles north of Richmond, Kings Dominion amusement park’s steel coasters climb to 300 feet and whip many of its more than 1 million annual visitors up to speeds of 90 mph. Its 400-acre grounds in Doswell feature more than 60 rides and attractions, including a waterpark.
In 2023, Kings Dominion will remain open year-round. The new schedule adds weekends through early March, accommodating an increased demand for guests to experience the park and its additional entertainment.
“There’s a lot of cabin fever around that time of year. People have been in their houses a long time,” says Mark Riddell, the park’s director of communications. “A place like Kings Dominion is great even if you’re not riding rides; you can walk around, you can have a meal.”
The decision reflects an industrywide trend, according to Michael Shelton, executive director and vice president of the International Association for Amusement Parks and Attractions. “We feel like our industry is growing now, we’re kind of back after the pandemic — back and then some,” he says. “Most parks are seeing explosive growth and really great crowds and a really great return to normal, and Kings Dominion is no different.”
The park opened in 1974 as the 280-acre Lion Country Safari, a drive-thru zoo of sorts, with various animals in the open along a route that visitors could experience through their car windows. That park also had the Kings Dominion site’s first ride, the Scooby-Doo Ghoster Coaster roller coaster. In 1975, Kings Dominion opened the full park and its 15 attractions to 20,000 guests.
A steel coaster, Tumbili debuted in 2022 and spins guests back and forth.
Kings Dominion has shifted over time from operating as a partial animal park to a full-fledged theme park. An ownership change in 2007 from Paramount Parks to Cedar Fair led to major transformations, as new themes and names were added and prominent coasters were revamped. One of the areas added last year, Jungle X-Pedition, features Tumbili, a 4D spin coaster on which riders spin around independently from the track.
“That whole area has gotten sort of a face-lift in this new theming,” Riddell says. “The restaurant location that’s down there is the Outpost restaurant; that’s where you can get prime rib in the park. We have vegetarian options at all the restaurants. It’s quite an extensive overhaul of the food program.”
Much of the fare served at Kings Dominion is handmade and locally sourced, Riddell says. Offering a farm-to-table menu, Grain and Grill has also taken over the former Panda Express.
“Things aren’t brought in and heated up, it’s made right here,” Riddell says. “The chicken tenders are organic and sourced from a farm that’s 200 miles from here and hand-breaded here at the park.”
The Grizzly is a popular wooden roller coaster at the park.
Kings Dominion has plans to retrack and reopen The Grizzly, a popular wooden coaster that debuted in 1982. The park is also in the planning stages for a celebration to commemorate its 50th year, according to Riddell.
Since its inception, Kings Dominion has remained a favorite of families from Washington, D.C., to Hampton Roads.
“We see these multiple generations of families come back to the park every year, and there’s a great deal of nostalgia,” Riddell says. “You talk to the average person that’s lived in Richmond their whole life, and they can rattle off what ride was open when and what changed to what.”
Powhatan resident Norman Shumake, the managing director of Kings Dominion Fanatics, an online group he developed for park enthusiasts to share stories and experiences, has visited Kings Dominion almost every year since it opened. He can remember watching the U.S. bicentennial fireworks set off at the park in 1976 when he was just 3 years old. Shumake and his family visited the park nearly 50 times in 2022 alone.
“We’ve kind of raised our own kids at the park,” Shumake says. “It’s a multigenerational thing now.”
