Kings Dominion Set To Remove Volcano: The Blast Coaster

Sad news came out of Virginia the other day; their legendary inverted dual launch coaster; Volcano: The blast Coaster is never going to reopen and will be demolished for future park improvements. The mighty flames of the Volcano have been permanently extinguished. No longer dormant, but now permanently inactive, this is a very sad day for rollercoaster enthusiasts all over the world.

Volcano was opened on August 3, 1998, and remained closed for most of its final season in 2018 due to many mechanical problems. The ride was designed by Werner Stengel, a German coaster engineer, and built by the manufacturing company Intamin. The ride was the only type of its kind in the world, and the only style ride like this built by Intamin. ( This is not including other inverted Intamin rides such as Tornado and Wicked Twisted ) It took rides from 0-70 right out of an active fire breathing Volcano.

Here is the office al statement given by the park on the rides closure

“

The 2019 operating season is on the horizon!  Before we make a quick announcement, let’s take a look at what we accomplished in 2018. The addition of Twisted Timbers, the area’s first hybrid roller coaster, brought more fun, thrills and memories. And we lit up the park for a new season of fun for the first time ever with WinterFest in November and December, ending the year with a bang thanks to New Year’s Eve fireworks. We’ve heard not only how much you love only Twisted Timbers and all the changes in our Candy Apple Grove section of the park, but also the immersive magical family environment we created with WinterFest. Major thanks goes to our talented and dedicated team for pulling out all the stops to create experiences you won’t soon forget.

Part of getting ready for a new operating season includes an expert evaluation of our rides and operations. As a part of that evaluation, every aspect of our rides and attractions are analyzed, from guest satisfaction, throughput and rider capacity to reliability, uptime and maintenance. After thorough evaluation, the decision has been made to remove Volcano: The Blast Coaster. This wasn’t an easy decision for us, because we know that people love this one-of-a-kind coaster; however, over time it became nearly impossible to keep the ride up to our high standards of reliability and guest satisfaction, and for these reasons we had to make the tough call. We apologize to anyone who is inconvenienced by the removal, but hope they will understand that it was done to enhance the overall guest experience here at Kings Dominion.

2019 is going to be a great year at Kings Dominion, and we have some exciting announcements up our sleeves that are sure to thrill our guests and associates alike. Stay tuned for more information, and thank you for your support.”

Well… Thats that I guess. Very sad to see such a great coaster bite the dust.

The main selling point of the attraction was being shot straight out of the top of a fire spiting volcano into multiple inversions.

Volcano: The Blast Coaster once held the record of the highest inversion on a rollercoaster in the world at 155 feet. But, In May of 2013 Cedar Point would break this record by introducing Gatekeeper; a wing coaster with an inversion that stands at 170 feet.

While not being the longest ride experience, or holding any records anymore; Volcano was a star in its own right. This was one of the most unique rollercoaster experiences ever created in the United States. I got lucky enough to have Kings Dominion as my home park for a few years , and I really loved Volcano: The Blast Coaster.

Words and videos cannot describe what a fun and crazy ride this was. The inversions after the initial launch were taken extremely slow, so there was a weird feeling of hang time that came from that. If you rode in the back the last inversion into the drop really snapped you through it.

We can only bee hopefully for what the future will bring to this area. You will be missed Volcano. Until we ride again someday.