Throughout the summer of 2021, Kings Dominion took special care to tease something big coming to the park in the near future. Given the recent exit of Volcano and The Crypt, there was no doubt that whatever the park's next landmark project was, it would be centered on Safari Village and Volcano's vacated real estate. A tantalizing marketing campaign teased adventurous sights and globe-trotting landmarks; ancient temples, pyramids, and a sort of Society of Explorers and Adventurers-stylized organization.

While fans were eager for more, it's easy to understand why there was an undercurrent of irreplacability to Volcano. After all, Cedar Fair has spent the last decade working almost exclusively with tried-and-true coaster manufacturer B&M, whose soaring hypercoasters and elegant dive coasters and oversized wing coasters and dizzying inverted coasters and even 300-foot gigacoasters are wonderful, reliable, marketable, high-quality, crowd-pleasing installations that can do no wrong. And they really are all of those things... but frankly, they're also relatively safe. Standard. Even "cookie cutter." Exact opposites of Volcano and The Crypt. So while a very, very nice B&M dive coaster would be a wonderful addition to any park, rising over Safari Village...? Where Volcano once sat...? In a flat, grassy expansion pad? 

It was practically inevitable. But something else happened instead... 

Jungle X-pedition

In August 2021, Kings Dominion announced one of its biggest projects yet... and contrary to Cedar Fair's typical standards, that didn't include the words "tallest," "fastest," or "steepest." Instead of a mammoth roller coaster – maybe named after a snake and with a barn-shaped station – their investment at Kings Dominion for 2022 would be something much more dynamic... 

Just six years after the Safari Village name had been stored, the space would re-open in 2022 as Jungle X-pedition, a thoughtful, intentional, and sweeping reimagining of the park's most unique land... and for perhaps the first time in Cedar Fair's otherwise coaster-focused ideology, the land is brought to life by a pervasive and delightful original story... 

In this case, it's the story of Professor Gerald Winston Whey – a globe-trotting World War I aviator and member of the Manhattan Explorers Society whose trusty Arvo 621 biplane "The Tin Goose" has fueled a love of discovery and adventure. Setting off into the unknown, Whey's lifelong search for the legendary "Site X" has seen him land here, in the dense, misty jungles of the southern hemisphere...

Like all the best explorers, Whey's wayward explorations saw him stumble across the ruins of an ancient world deep in the jungle, including ancient altars to animal spirits... 

But the time is now, and under the guidance of Whey's granddaught Alexandria, you and I have been recruited to join the Jungle X-pedition, overcome the trials of the temples, and follow the spirits we encounter there to uncover the mystery at the heart of "Site X." Designers have invented an entire mythology underwriting the Whey Foundation and its modern members, and how each has contributed to discoveries in the uncovering of the jungle's mysteries.

Rarely (if ever) has a seasonal, regional park invested so deeply not just in building a visually conhesive "land," but in narratively connecting it – a retroactive wonder previously exhibited by only a few select Disney and Universal projects, like Magic Kingdom's 1994 New Tomorrowland, or Disneyland's 1995 Indiana Jones overlay of Adventureland. 

The "lore" of the Whey Foundation has retroactively swept across everything within the land, finally doing what Paramount's Congo teased. Even in this tiny corner of Kings Dominion, there's a world to be explored... For example, KDFans.com took a look at "in-universe" ride posters for the land, which include nods to Volcano, the Lost World, and other forgotten Kings Dominion rides now "tied" to the overarching frame story of the expedition.

The park's Outer Hank's (a post-Paramount de-branding of Bubba Gump's Shrimp Shack) was been reclad as an airplane hangar housing the Outpost Cafe; the Hungry Hippo restaurant (still standing from 1975) has become the Jungle Market Eatery; even Volcano's queue house (below, still standing when the mountain behind it is not) has been recast as the Whey Foundation Research Base... potentially awaiting a new expedition. (More on that in a moment.)

And throughout the land, new "ruins," ancient emblems, and even Whey's trusty biplane were set down among the paths, creating a land as richly detailed and cohesively decorated as any seasonal U.S. park may have ever accomplished before. With a new, shared aesthetic and even an overarching frame story tying the land's infrastructure together, of course its existing rides also got in on the act... 

The land's existing Avalanche coaster has been absorbed into the story. A new paint scheme and entirely new train designs have transformed it into Reptilian – the trial of the temple of the reptile. Though its course sadly snakes alongside the empty field where Volcano had once risen, the fresh overlay adds life and vitality back to this classic – the last Mack bobsled coaster in the country.

As guests return to the station, they pass through the ride's storage shed, now decked out in '30s explorer equipment and archaeology gear – all simple but wildly effective placemaking that makes the ride feel fresh, reinvigorated, and connected to something larger.

Even the land's Scrambler has been absorbed into the Jungle X-pedition, becoming Arachnidia – a trial from the temple of the spider. The ride has been repainted, adorned with spider talismans, and even the last vestiges of Safari Village – the "Mt. Kilimanjaro" rising behind it – bears the spider's insignia.

Of course, for now, the anchor of the entire Jungle X-pedition is Tumbili (named for the Swahili word for "monkey"). An S&S 4D Freespin coaster, guests positioned on either side of the track are lifted vertically to the height of a vertically-stacked ride, then swing through hills and inversions, freely spinning and somersaulting on their short-but-sweet descent. 

Taking Cedar Fair's standard "lite" queue theming to the next level, guests waiting for Tumbili pass through the ruins of an ancient temple of the monkey. Iconography of two tumbling primates can be found carved into stone walls as guests gaze up at the romping ride and laughing riders as they flip and hop through its bamboo-stylized supports.

Tumbili may not be a groundbreaking coaster or even a headlining one in the long term, but that's another way that Jungle X-pedition was sorely needed for Cedar Fair. In a recent feature here on Theme Park Tourist, we explored what we’re calling the “New Coaster Wars” – an era where amusement parks compete not against each other and to break records, but against themselves, seeking coasters that are custom, uniquely suited for their parks, and filled with personality.

Though we love a nice, graceful B&M hypercoaster and its floater air time, the industry is shifting away from bulking up parks with “must-have” standards to reaching for more unique, colorful, fun, and vibrant coasters that bring a little story along for the ride. That's Tumbili.

So if Tumbili (literally and figuratively) takes the place of The Crypt in the land's lineup, that leaves a much, much larger expansion pad where Volcano once stood... Which brings us to the future... 

Expedition: Unknown

Jungle X-pedition is everything we didn't expect to see from a regional, seasonal park operator like Cedar Fair or Six Flags. It's a coherent, cohesive land where designers have gone out of their way to build a narrative mythology, a shared iconography, and even a bit of embedded viral marketing that hints at the future... Coaster101 took a deep dive into the many nods to Kings Dominion's past – and perhaps, future – that are hidden within the Jungle X-pedition area, but one of our personal favorites is a detail that'll make armchair Imagineers start dreaming...

An "in-universe" map of the area (again drawned by Emory Alvarado) shows all of "Site X" we know... and some that we don't. For example, the legend on the map refers to the three temples we know – the monkey, spider, and crocodile... and a further three believed to be found in the jungle... a serpant, hawk, and tiger... 

Those six totems also align with six insignias found on Flat Rock, a cryptic stone plaza in the center of "Site X." It hasn't escaped fans' notice that those three additional creatures – serpant, hawk, and tiger – might signal the next phase of the expedition's push. Would it be so impossible that Anaconda, the Backlot Stunt Coaster, or even Flight of Fear could be reimagined to enter the Jungle X-pedition properly? And for that matter, how very interesting that the map labels Volcano's expansion pad as "Grassy Plains," and points to a "Far-Off Mountain Range" that looks a whole lot like Intimidator 305's first hill and winding helix... 

Here's the point: in Jungle X-pedition, Kings Dominion has found a "Living Land" all its own; proof at last that even a seasonal, regional park can have the sort of cohesive, "in-universe" setting often reserved only for Disney and Universal. Yes, even a Cedar Fair or Six Flags parks can send its guests back in time, to a believable, "immersive" location where even bare, steel roller coasters take on a new meaning. 

What Kings Dominion has created in the legends and lore of Jungle X-pedition hasn't just added new life and vibrancy to one of the park's opening day lands; it has signaled a new high bar for "local" parks across the country. Whether or not guests know the story of Gerald Whey or piece together the hidden emblems that hint at further adventures, Jungle X-pedition has the sort of heart you can feel.

Of course it's a shame neither Volcano nor Tomb Raider: FireFall lived to be a part of it, but in Jungle X-pedition, Kings Dominion has created not just a ride, but a world guests want to inhabit, a mystery to be solved, and a growing adventure to undertake...