After months of teasing, Kings Dominion made their biggest announcement in park history today, announcing the all-new Twisted Timbers coaster as well as the addition of Winterfest for the 2018 season!
Twisted Timbers is a Rocky Mountain Construction conversion of the former Hurler wooden coaster, which operated at Kings Dominion from 1994 to 2015. RMC’s design process uses the latest technology to combine wood supports with a steel track to give riders an exhilarating experience with maneuvers previously unimaginable on a traditional wooden coaster.
One of the more unique elements of Twisted Timbers will be a 109 foot tall barrel roll drop, similar to that of Storm Chaser at Kentucky Kingdom. The coaster will feature over 3,300 feet of track, and reach a top speed of 54mph. After the inversion on the first drop, Twisted Timbers will include two more inversions, three overbanked turns, and 20 airtime moments.
Twisted Timbers will be located in the Candy Apple Grove section of the park and is themed to an abandoned apple orchard on the edge of town. The story behind the coaster is that an unknown force – supernatural or natural– destroyed the harvest years ago and froze the orchard in time; now the strictly “off-limits” orchard has reopened for tours, with Twisted Timbers as its highlight.
Check out the highlights of Twisted Timbers and a Virtual POV of the ride below!
Kings Dominion also announced the debut of Winterfest in November 2018. Like similar events at other Cedar Fair Parks, Winterfest is an immersive holiday experience in which the park will be transformed into a winter wonderland complete with uniquely themed areas, multitudes of Christmas trees, millions of lights, ice-skating, entertainment, food, crafts and hands-on activities.
A nightly tree lighting ceremony will kick off each evening of the imaginative holiday event. The park’s fountain on International Street will be transformed into Snowflake Lake, an area where guests can enjoy ice skating in the shadow of the iconic Eiffel Tower; the tower will be converted into a 300-foot Christmas tree complete with a state-of-the-art light show as snow falls over the midway.
“2018 is going to be an amazing year for our guests,” said Gary Chadwick, vice president and general manager, Kings Dominion. “Twisted Timbers raises the bar for Kings Dominion’s high thrill level, and adrenaline junkies everywhere will crave experiencing its astonishing twists and revolutions over and over again. This, added to the immersive Winterfest seasonal event, will let our guests experience the park in an entirely different way, creating new family traditions. These investments demonstrate our continued commitment to position Kings Dominion as a dynamic world class destination.”
Coaster101 attended today’s announcement, and here’s what we saw!
The stage for today’s event was located in front of the Eiffel Tower. All of the stage was crafted in-house, complete with trees constructed out of wooden boards.
The Hanover Hill Orchard truck paid extra for Preferred Preferred parking.
These lovely folks gave us a little bit of the back story of the Hanover Hill Orchard and its rather troubled past.
After the announcement of Twisted Timbers via video, Kings Dominion’s VP/GM Gary Chadwick and PR Manager Katelyn Sherwood took the stage to tell us a little more about Twisted Timbers.
SANTA! I KNOW HIM! He mentioned that he wanted to be one of the first riders on Twisted Timbers. I’d ride with him.
After the announcement, VIPs and members of the media were treated to a quick reception behind the Eiffel Tower. The food all had either a Winterfest theme or a tie-in to Twisted Timbers. I tried the Farmhouse burger with Bacon and Fried Egg — it was amazing.
After the reception, I hopped in an elevator to the top of Kings Dominion’s Eiffel Tower to get a look at the layout of Twisted Timbers and the progress that’s been made on the track.
So, how close were we on our final guesses?
Name: Rotten Apple — WRONG, but Twisted Timbers is a better name anyway.
Manufacturer: Rocky Mountain Construction — RIGHT. This one was obvious, but count it.
Trains: Themed to some sort of vehicle. — RIGHT. The ride vehicles have a truck theme to them.
Height: 111‘ — RIGHT — even though the drop is 109′, the total height of the coaster is 111′.
Drop Angle: Somewhere between 80-90 degrees. — WRONG — but we got a barrel roll drop, so I’ll call this a win.
Inversions: 3 – RIGHT.
Banked Track Elements: 20 — WRONG — 20 Airtime Moments.
Additional Elements: Double Up and/or Triple Down & some sort of “knot” (which could also be one of the three inversions) — INCONCLUSIVE — I bet if you pulled the track layout tight enough, it’d form a knot somehow!
I can’t wait to get back to Kings Dominion next spring to experience Twisted Timbers first hand — and I think I’ll have to work on a trip for next Winter as well for Winterfest.
For more information about Twisted Timbers or Winterfest, be sure to visit Kings Dominion’s website, and follow the park on Facebook and Twitter!
This is going to be so cool!Twisted Timbers is definetly going to be another wild rmc like storm chaser!
So terrible that KINGS ISLAND couldn’t wait one more year and get one of these wood / steel HYBRIDS instead of the crappy, rough, ALL WOODEN Mystic Timbers it built last year…