Aerial Antics: The Elusive Virginia Parks

Since starting the Aerial Antics series I have patiently waited for great Bird's Eye aerials of Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion.  Well, I guess I finally got the second best thing - Google updated their regular aerial shots with brand new images.

Now we can zoom in on Busch Gardens Williamsburg to see recent additions like Griffon.  I love how there is a train mid-splash, but if you look close something is a little off. There's another train just around the bend from the splash pool, ready to hit the brakes.  I smell some photoshopping.

Along with recent additions are recent casualties.  Here we see the footer remains of the Big Bad Wolf's big finale.  From the view (though not seen in this image) it looks as though the Bavarian village that the track snaked through also met its maker.  That would have been sweet to reuse for the 2012 ride.

And there's also views of the Sesame Street addition that went in a couple years back, tucked nicely in a corner of the park.  Here's a link to Google's images.

When we take a flight over Kings Dominion we can see the expansions that Cedar Fair has added to the park since taking over.

First, they expanded the water park, adding a new wave pool, family slide, and tornado ride.  Here we see only the back half of the water park, nestled snugly in the trees.  It's a nice water park!

Then the thrills came to the park, first in the form of Dominator, which was moved from Geauga Lake.  The ride is technically a "parking lot" coaster but Kings Dominion was smart and planted grass under the ride.

Finally, this past year the park went big - like 305 feet big - when they added Intimidator 305.  The Nascar themed Intamin Giga coaster takes up a lot of real estate.  If you zoom around and take notice of just how huge that first turn is - it looks like a whole wave pool or the park's giant amphitheater could fit in there!

Here's a link to the Kings Dominion photos.