Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103300027
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAT LACKEY/ LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Christine Thompson of Springfield, Va., remarked, "That's neat."
And from the bottom of his thrill-seeking heart, Roy Brashears of Fort Washington, Md., hollered, "Yes!"
We were upside-down aboard King's Dominion's newest ride, a $5 million, 2,700-foot steel roller coaster that is the only looping coaster in the world that includes an underwater tunnel.
The theme park, which is now open for its 17th season, introduced the ride last week to reporters, public officials and guests, including a couple of dozen members of the American Coaster Enthusiasts.
Brashears, 35, is one of the three founders of ACE, which claims 3,850 members worldwide. He has ridden more than 250 roller coasters, he said, and he ranked this one - called the Anaconda after the largest snake in the Western Hemisphere - among the top 10 steel roller coasters in the world.
Thompson, 35, also an ACE member, has ridden 240 other coasters, and she, too, gave the ride the thumbs up. She and her husband, Steve, 43, plan their vacations around roller-coaster rides.
The Anaconda starts with a 130-foot rise, followed by a 90-degree turn and a drop of 144 feet, directly into a 126-foot underwater tunnel. Next, a vertical loop rises 100 feet off the water, followed quickly by a 90-foot-high sidewinder loop, two loops that form a butterfly configuration and a twisting corkscrew. And you're going more than 50 mph.
After a ride in the last of six cars, I was wobbly-legged. After a ride in the front car, I was wobbly-legged and woozy. But the ACE vets were chattering happily away about the ride's good points.
The pace is good, they said. The cars zip from start to finish. "There is always something happening on this ride," Brashears said. For a steel coaster, Steve Thompson said, the ride is smooth.
"It didn't have any part of it that was tremendously intense," Brashears said, "but it was all reasonably exhilarating."
The whole object of a roller coaster is to thrill you, Steve Thompson said, adding, "This is a good thrill ride."
The Anaconda is King's Dominion's fourth roller coaster. The others are the Rebel Yell twin racing coaster, the Grizzly wooden roller coaster and the Shockwave stand-up looping steel coaster.
King's Dominion is located in Doswell, 20 miles north of Richmond on Interstate 95. The park is open Saturdays and Sundays through May 26, plus April 2, then weekends through Oct. 13.
Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is $21.95 for those ages 7 and up, $13.95 for children 3 through 6 and $16.95 for people 55 and older.
by CNB