Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg — Virginia’s largest amusement parks — turned 50 in May, and they’ve both grown immensely in the past five decades. But for loyalists, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Catina Hadijski’s mother was one of 50,000 people at Kings Dominion when it opened on May 3, 1975, and going to the park is one of Hadijski’s earliest memories. “I remember going when I was just a few years old,” she says. A native of Richmond, she lived in Arlington, Falls Church, and Burke for about 20 years before returning to her hometown in 2021.
A mom of three now, Hadijski accompanies her husband and kids to her happy place often. “They think it’s really cool that they get to do the same thing that Mommy got to do when she was little,” says Hadijski, who worked in food and beverage service at Kings Dominion’s water park — called Hurricane Reef then — during the summer of 1996. “We pulled out some of the old Polaroids that my parents have, and they were like, ‘Mom, you rode that, too!’ I rode those little cars that they still have … that my kids have ridden since they were a couple of years old. So that’s pretty neat.”
Stories like Hadijski’s are common, says Geoff Zindren, a public relations manager at Kings Dominion. “We make people happy,” Zindren says. “People come to amusement parks for the experience, for the memories. And we’re honored to hold that place in people’s hearts.”
Kings Dominion
Kings Dominion sits on 700 acres in Doswell, 430 of which are currently developed. Family Leisure Centers opened it with 15 rides, five of which still run, including the carousel, log flume (Shenandoah Lumber Co.), Woodstock Express (originally Scooby Doo Coaster), and Racer 75, a wooden racing coaster.
Other aspects have gone by the wayside. For example, Wild Country Safari, formerly Lion Country Safari, sat on the property for a year before Kings Dominion opened. It remained until the park closed the exhibit, which included a monorail, in 1993.
Today, Kings Dominion has more than 60 rides and is on its fourth owner, Six Flags Entertainment Corp., which took it over in July 2024. Some of the most popular rides are the coasters, Zindren says, especially the 300-foot Pantherian. But Planet Snoopy, an extensive kiddie area, and Soak City water park are also big draws, he adds.
“You have to add and remove things as people’s tastes and preferences change,” Zindren says. “Amusement parks are living, breathing things, and just like any other organic system, they change.”
The park doesn’t disclose visitation numbers, he says, but Richmond Magazine reported in 2023 that about 1 million people visit each year.
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Building on the success of Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, which opened in 1959, beer maker Anheuser Busch opened Busch Gardens Williamsburg 13 days after Kings Dominion welcomed its first guests. It was adjacent to a brewery and a planned community called Kingsmill, all of which were connected by a monorail.
“They really saw it as outreach, a place where you could come sample [beer] products, buy products,” park president Kevin Lembke says, adding that it was “a more hands-on, personal way that you could interact with the brand of Anheuser Busch.” (In 2009, The Blackstone Group acquired Busch Entertainment Corporation, which is now United Parks & Resorts.)
Initially called Busch Gardens: The Old Country, it featured five hamlets modeled after European villages.
“A lot of the folks who designed the park traveled to Europe and were inspired,” Lembke says. “You could go into France and see traditional French costumes or dress. A lot of that still carries forward today.”
Other original features still found in the park include Clydesdale horses, birds in the Lorikeet Glen aviary, and classic rides like the carousel, the Busch Gardens Railway steam train, the Aeronaut Skyride, and Le Scoot flume ride.
The park expanded quickly, Lembke says, adding the Oktoberfest area — a main hub of the park today — in 1976. One of the biggest expansions was the addition of the Italy hamlet in the early 1980s.
With growth came new rides: The park has tripled the dozen it started with, Lembke says. Like at Kings Dominion, roller coasters are a huge draw. The Loch Ness Monster was the first major coaster when it opened in 1978 as the world’s first interlocking loop coaster. In May, the park debuted its 11th coaster, The Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf’s Revenge.
“I think what makes the park unique is that blend of the animal interactions, the major rides, and then our great live entertainment as well,” Lembke says, such as Celtic Fyre Irish dancing and Elmo’s “Sunny Day Celebration” at the Sesame Street Forest of Fun. “It really separates us from any other regional park in the country.”
Seasonal events like Howl-O-Scream and Christmas Town are also why Busch Gardens Williamsburg attracts millions of visitors each year. Being named the World’s Most Beautiful Theme Park by the National Amusement Park Historical Association every year since 1990 helps, too.
“We’re always planning on the next thing and looking to debut new things that our guests will continue to enjoy,” Lembke says. “I think the future looks really, really bright for this park.”
Feature image courtesy Visit Williamsburg
This story originally ran in our July Issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
