Soak City is the 20-acre water park located at the back of Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia, and admission is included with a regular park ticket. It first opened in 1992 as Hurricane Reef, was expanded and renamed WaterWorks in 1999, and took on its current Soak City branding after a major 2015 expansion.
Owned and operated by Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, Soak City has grown over three decades from a modest slide complex into a full-scale water park with a wave pool, a quarter-mile lazy river, a dedicated children’s area, and a cluster of high-speed body and tube slides.
Stats at a Glance
- Park: Kings Dominion
- Location: Doswell, Virginia
- Opened: 1992 (as Hurricane Reef)
- Renamed Soak City: 2015
- Size: About 20 acres
- Wave Pool: Tidal Wave Bay, about 450,000 gallons (added 2007)
- Lazy River: Lazy Rider, about a quarter-mile long
- Admission: Included with Kings Dominion park ticket
The Ride Experience
The park’s signature slide cluster arrived with the 2015 Hurricane Heights expansion, which added Aqua Blast, Paradise Plunge, and Thunder Falls. Aqua Blast is an enclosed tube slide, roughly 450 feet long, that sends riders through a series of tight spiral loops, while Paradise Plunge is a AquaLaunch-style capsule slide from WhiteWater West that drops riders through horizontal loops and S-curves. Thunder Falls rounds out the trio with steep drops on twin tube slides.
Older attractions remain part of the lineup too, including Pipeline Peak, a set of four enclosed slides launched from platforms as tall as 77 feet that date back to 2000. For families, Splash Island offers gentler slides and interactive play features, and the park expanded again in 2021 with the Coconut Shores area, adding Lighthouse Landing’s multi-level aqua play structure and the shallow Sand Dune Lagoon wave area.
History and Growth
Soak City’s story traces the broader evolution of Kings Dominion itself. It began in 1992 as Hurricane Reef, a modest collection of body and tube slides. A 1999 renovation rebranded it as WaterWorks and refreshed many of its attractions. The name Soak City, shared with other Cedar Fair-operated water parks nationwide, was adopted in 2015 alongside the park’s biggest expansion to date.
Since then, Kings Dominion has continued to invest in the water park, removing older attractions like the Tornado slide in 2018 and adding new family-oriented zones in 2021. Today it operates seasonally from May through September as a companion to the main Kings Dominion amusement park.
Explore more: Explore more water parks.
Soak City FAQs
Is Soak City included with Kings Dominion admission?
Yes, access to Soak City is included with a standard Kings Dominion park ticket at no extra charge.
When did Soak City open?
The water park originally opened in 1992 under the name Hurricane Reef, later becoming WaterWorks in 1999 and Soak City in 2015.
What are the main slides at Soak City?
Highlights include Aqua Blast, Paradise Plunge, and Thunder Falls from the 2015 expansion, along with the earlier Pipeline Peak slide complex.
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Photo by Drew Hastings on Unsplash.