Influential Coasters of My Childhood is an ongoing series on We Were Inverted showcasing the rides I grew up enjoying in the 1980’s & 90’s. Some of these rides sadly no longer exist and some are far from what I would deem as a “good” coaster nowadays. Nevertheless, these are the coasters that hold a special place among my memories and helped make me the enthusiast that I am today.
It’s 1991. A commercial for Kings Dominion plays on the television. It shows their brand new coaster, Anaconda. And oh my god, it goes under water! How? What? Seriously? As soon as that commercial ended, I had to tell my parents. Long story short, Kings Dominion became a destination for us during our summer vacation that year. Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW) and Colonial Williamsburg would also get added to that legendary coaster-filled vacation of the summer of ’91.
In the mid-80’s I took my first-ever trip to Kings Dominion with my Aunt Cheryl. With Anaconda now at the park, I was very much looking forward to returning. Oddly enough, even more so than visiting BGW for the first time. My neighbor, Andrea, had went to BGW the summer prior and I heard all the tales about Loch Ness Monster and Big Bad Wolf. Still, Anaconda… I had to ride this brand new coaster.
Heading Into the Park
After checking into our hotel, the one right next to the Kings Dominion parking lot, we made our way into the park. I couldn’t tell you how excited I was! We made our way throughout the park, stopping for some flat rides along the way. We also grabbed rides on Rebel Yell (Racer 75), Grizzly, Avalanche, and Scooby Doo (Woodstock Express). I don’t recall riding Shockwave that day, although I had rode it with my Aunt Cheryl years prior. We also got in some rides on The Haunted River and Smurf Mountain, which were the last time I rode either before the park gutted the structure for Volcano: The Blast Coaster. As much as I loved Volcano, I also adored those rides that came before it.
Then it was finally time…
Growing Anticipation
Getting into the Long Line
We made our way back into the Safari Village portion of the park. We walked past Diamond Falls, where Back Lot Stunt Coaster now stands, and got into the line for Anaconda. And boy, was it a line! Do you know that long queue that winds, just like a snake, along Lake Charles, all the way up to the loading station? Well, we weren’t even in that for our first ride of the day. Our line started, I’d say, maybe 100 feet out into the walkway? Thankfully, however, once we were in line, the queue gave such amazing views of the coaster. I just stood there the entire time in awe of all the inversions and seeing the train “splash” into the water after the first drop.
Then there was the paint scheme. It was amazing. Until Anaconda, I feel like most of the coasters I experienced didn’t have multi-colored track and support structures. Maybe one color for supports and another for tracking, but three colors just felt so much more detailed. Anaconda’s green supports, red track spine, and yellow rails fit the jungle and snake theme perfectly. To me, it was a beautiful coaster.
A Worthwhile Wait
I honestly have no idea how long the wait took for us to make into the ride station. I’m guessing an hour or so? It’s almost 30 years ago, so that part is a little fuzzy. One thing I do know, however, is once I was standing inside the station, I sat there staring at it for a minute. That’s when I realized that Anaconda had moved into another’s snake’s home. King Cobra, the park’s former Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop used to occupy the same space as Anaconda’s station and lift hill. I don’t know how I didn’t realize that sooner. Five years prior, in 1986, I had rode King Kobra with my Aunt Cheryl. Little did I know that it would be the ride’s final season at the park before making its way to Jolly Roger in Ocean City, Md. At the time, I had no clue they were the exact same coaster. I just thought Jolly Roger had a coaster with the same name and format as the one at Kings Dominion. Again, I was young. Thankfully, I rode it at both Kings Dominion and Jolly Roger.
That Very First Ride
Then it was time. Time to take our seats and pull down our over the shoulder restraints. I was so ready too. This coaster was so much bigger than any coaster I had ever experienced, with way more inversions. Not since my Aunt Cheryl and I went to Dorney Park to ride Hercules in 1989 had any coaster advertisement caused so much excitement within me. This was going to be good! I just knew it!
The 'Tunnel'
Up the lift hill we went and down the curved drop we fell. That’s when I saw it. The “under water” element was a concrete tunnel in the water. It had splash effects that fired off when the coaster made the “plunge.” In the back of my mind, I knew the coaster couldn’t technically go into the water and there had to be some trick to it. I had no idea how they pulled it off in the commercial, but just like with magic tricks, it was kind of a let down seeing how they pulled that off.
My ride had just begun, however, and before I could reflect too much on that “underwater” element, we were shooting right back up in the air again. Right into a 100 foot tall vertical loop.
A Huge Inversion
It was nuts. The few looping coasters I had ridden in my limited coaster experiences at the time were Hersheypark’s SooperDooperLooper, Dorney Park’s Laser, and the nearby Shockwave, and of course, King Cobra in the same park. None of their loops came close to the height on Anaconda’s first inversion. I was eating it up like a snake swallowing its prey. Sorry for the snake pun. Just felt appropriate.
From there we entered the sidewinder element (hey, look, another snake-themed term) and into a brief moment of calm on the mid-course brake run. That was the first time on the ride where I could look around and see just how far out in the middle of the lake we were. There was nothing but water below and it made me really love the ride’s location. Seriously, if/when this ride ever gets removed, I only hope its replacement makes use of the same location. There’s just something so cool about being out over the water.
A few turning elements later, which I’m sure are the parts of this ride that everyone finds to be boring, and it was time to experience my favorite elements on this ride. The corkscrews!
Feeling All Screwy
Man, those corkscrews got me good. I had only ever experienced vertical loops up to that point. The sensations those back to back corkscrews gave me were all I could talk about once the ride was over. Just feeling that twisting hangtime, especially as a much smaller person than I am now, was unmatched for me. I know a lot of other coasters had corkscrews, such as Great Adventure’s (SFGAdv) Great American Scream Machine (GASM) and Arrow’s Corkscrew models. I, however, wouldn’t ride either until much later. I don’t quite recall what year I rode GASM for the first time with my Aunt Cheryl, but my first Arrow Corkscrew model didn’t come until 2010 during my first visit to Cedar Point.
Once that bizarre new feeling of the double corkscrews subsided, Anaconda made its way back under the lift hill and back around the station’s backside.There our ride came to an end. I knew while the train slowly returned into the station was that I wanted to ride again. Luckily for me, we rode it a couple of more times, even getting in one final night ride as the park closed. Now that was awesome! Talk about a way to end the night.
My Favorite Coaster of the Trip & My Life
While I’d go on to ride another amazing Arrow Custom Looper during that same vacation, at a park located just an hour away, Anaconda easily stole the show. Loch Ness Monster, which will be the focus of a future installment of this all-new blog series, was also amazing. Loch Ness is easily the coaster I’d prefer to ride today in both ride’s current conditions. I’m pretty sure 12 year old me would have picked Anaconda, however.
I hope you enjoyed this look back at my first experiences with Kings Dominion’s Anaconda. Although the ride is far from my favorite coasters today, it still holds a special place in my heart as a ride that helped shape my enthusiasm for this hobby – long before I even considered it a hobby. I just liked coasters and Anaconda was badass! Kind of wishing I could ride it now after writing this.
