Hanna-Barbera and the Shadow of Kings Dominion

We visited Kings Dominion this past Friday and even though we had a good time, it's sad to say but Kings Dominion is really only a shadow of it's former self. There's still lots of fun things to do there but it seems that so many of the things that made Kings Dominion unique have been ripped out and replaced with thrill rides or something or other to promote a Paramount owned movie or TV show. The park isn't even owned by Paramount anymore, it's now owned by Cedar Fair (a company that also runs Cedar Point, Dorney Park, and Knott's Berry Farm). They've done very little yet to change the park or get rid of the Paramount logo plastered everywhere.

While I was there I took plenty of pictures to supply me with about a week's worth of bloggin'! My first subject is the use of the Hanna-Barbera characters. The childrens section of the park used to be known as Hanna-Barbera Land/ Yogi Bear was practically the park's mascot throughout the 70's and 80's. While Paramount owned the park they slowly started to take Hanna-Barbera stuff out, replacing it with Nickelodeon themed stuff. Now, instead of Hanna-Barbera Land, we've got Nickelodeon Central. (Lame!)

However, some of the very small kiddie rides have kept their Hanna-Barbera Land names all this time. The rides are pretty generic, but the signs are cool little blasts from the past:

More KD to come....