A while ago I did a post on TV commercials for Kings Dominion and how they must have been filmed before the ride was built because the actual ride usually looked nothing like the way it was shown in the commercial. The same must have held true for KD's print advertising as well. Here we see an exaggerated preview from the parks brochure of 1985's new ride Diamond Falls. First off, the picture makes it look like you're trekking through the Amazon River or something like that when in reality the ride was a basic chute-the-chutes ride with little themeing built right in the middle of the park. Second, "the surprise at the bottom" was not a cave...nor did it have monsters in it...nor was it a surprise since you could see the entire layout of the ride while waiting in line. After the boat went down the chute, it almost immediately entered a shack-like building where you quickly passed some scenes of skeletons digging for gold. This was not to be confused with the "skeletons digging for gold" tunnel on White Water Canyon or the entire ride of "skeletons digging for gold" called The Haunted River. I guess someone at the King Dominion art department had a thing for skeletons digging for gold..and really, who doesn't!?
I've read that Diamond Falls joins Smurf Mountain and so many other rides in the big amusement park in the sky. They tore it down a while back to make way for The Italian Job Stunt Coaster. I really wanted to make it to Kings Dominion this season but that didn't happen. This Sunday is their last day of regular operation for the season, so unless someone out there wants to go with me Sunday I guess I'll have to wait till next year.
Kings Dominion's owner, Viacom, sold the park (and 5 others) to Cedar Fair LP, the company that owns and runs Cedar Point, Dorney Park and others. Cedar Fair has been running KD most of this season, but it should be interesting to see what changes are made to the park now that it's in the hands of another company. Cedar Fair is an amusement park company not a multi-media corporation like Viacom so hopefully Kings Dominion will be used for more than plugging Paramount movies and CBS and Nickelodeon shows.
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