Kings Dominion Tickets in Doswell, VA

I want to love KD. We have been going for about eight years since we moved to the area and have had season passes for two of those years and then going for 2-3 visits in summers we don’t have passes. KD has a good variety of rides for all ages and levels of thrillseekers. I find the ride selection better than Busch Gardens, especially for those under 6. It is nowhere near as pretty as BG, but it’s also cheaper. BG has better shows, but we really don’t care about those, we care more about the rides. However, there are so many little irritating things about KD. First, the customer service in the food service is so awful. KD offers good meal plan options, but the service makes my head explode each time I visit one of their establishments. We just spent 3 days in a row there with the $30/day meal plan where you can eat every 90 minutes. Theme park restaurants should be like machines, churning out food constantly. Each place only serves about 4 meal options, so it’s not complicated. We visited Sharkey’s twice. Both times the employees seemed shocked that people were entering and ordering food. The registers rang people up fast, but then the food was so slow. It’s just chicken tenders and fries! Each day took over 25 minutes from the time we stepped in line until receiving our food. Both times the ketchup dispensers were empty. We went to the chicken and bbq place. There were around 40 people in line. Only one lane was open when two area available. I stood in line for 10 minutes and not one person received their food during that time. I left and went to the pizza place. Probably 60 people in two lines. It took 35 minutes to get two pieces of pizza and a breadstick (at 2pm in the afternoon). We visited the Panda Express and they had the opposite problem. Food was quick, but with only one register open it still took us 25 minutes to get our food, pay, and get out. We also went to the ice cream place near the entrance. Probably 12 people in line. One employee that was scooping ice cream and running the register. We left there. NO ONE wants to spend that much time in a food establishment when you’ve paid hundreds of dollars to take your family to a theme park and enjoy the rides. We probably wasted 3-4 hours each day in line for food each day we were there. The only bright spot was the shrimp place. You order your food on a computer there, and we were in and out in 10 minutes. That’s how food service should work at a theme park! It is easy food made in high volume and it should be quick. Maybe they are moving slow on purpose to discourage people from using their meal plans? This is the most likely scenario, as staffing levels are far below what is necessary. Staffing levels are also low on rides. Many rides are being run with one person. That pretty much doubles the time it takes to get a group through a ride because just one person is unlocking everyone, clearing out the area, relocking, counting people in and checking heights, checking seat locks, running the ride, etc. This is really disappointing as it makes ride wait times excessive. This is especially true on weekdays. You think you’re being smart by going on a weekday. “Oh, it won’t be so busy and line waits won’t be as long.” Ha! Fool you. They just reduce staffing and instead of running 30 people through a ride every 5 minutes, they have one staff member and only run 15 people through every 5 minutes. So your weekday wait times are just as long as the weekend, despite the fact there are far fewer customers. There are also other irritating things. The large rolls of toilet paper are so awful. You pull on it and it rips about 1/3 of a sheet at a time. So not only are you constantly pulling and pulling, trying to accumulate enough 1/3 parts for the toilet paper to do its job, on the floor of the bathroom are tons of paper that people have dropped. So the bathrooms are covered in tiny pieces of wet toilet paper which is just gross. And finally, the parking lot is a hot mess at night. We go to concerts and everyone leaves around the same time. There is NO support from KD staff in trying to direct traffic. They have two people at opposite ends of the parking lot standing there and waving their wands. This is an area where BG really does better. Their parking lot is clearly labeled and they have staff support to get cars moving quickly. KD throws some cones on the ground and that’s about it. One night there were three lanes moving left and one lane moving right, another night it was two lanes moving each direction. I think whatever car gets there first just kind of decides which way the lane is going to go. It’s total mismanagement. The final thing is that while the concert venue itself is ok for music, the facilities supporting the amphitheater are totally insufficient. The main bathroom has 10 stalls for women. I don’t know how many seats the theater has, but I would guess a few thousand. 10 stalls!!! I do expect there to always be some lines at a concert place during down times, but here it is ridiculous. There is a second set of bathrooms but they are so far from the theater. There is insufficient food options. KD does not have any meal plan options in the concert venue. Again, I’m sure this is on purpose as it would allow concert goers to redeem their meal plans and KD doesn’t want that. Another area where they are choosing budget over customer service. So you have to leave the venue and walk a fair distance to redeem a meal. KD has good rides, but they cut costs in customer service and it shows. I think they are doing this on purpose, trying to be a budget Busch Gardens. But there’s a reason that BG has a much better reputation than KD in our area. Because the people who live here and go to both consistently can compare the two. Paying a little extra per ticket would be worth better food service and customer service. I wish KD would pay more attention to these things.

We took a road trip for a long weekend visit to Kings Dominion it's a great park with some solid coasters . The food choices are very good. The park itself is beautiful. The only negative we felt the staff lacked enthusiasm. The Ohio cedar fair parks staff turn the rides alot faster and are more friendly.

Had an amazing time on roller coasters and in the big waterpark they offer. Some of the rides are for those who love the thrill rides! Great time for a family to have fun! Only downfall is the wait times for the rides and food lines. Safety is first and I do give them 2 thumbs up on that.

We stop here every summer on our way to New York and then on our way back to Florida. It is a great park.

Coasters on steroids. My teens were in heaven. We skipped most of them. Be aware that almost all the rides require that you leave your bags behind - either in a locker or just sitting by the ride. I actually took bags for complete strangers on several rides because I was already holding my kids stuff.