Going to Pittsburgh the night before on business, I strongly pushed for a trip to Kennywood on the trip back. Me and my co-worker Gavin, who had driven up with me, got to the park about 2:30pm. Miriam, our associate, meets us around 4:00pm. I went last year and had no intentions of going back anytime soon, but I had to ride PR while in the area. Crowds were moderate, and the weather was pleasant. Employees are very nice, and food prices are very reasonable, as far as that thing goes. The loose item boxes at the rides are also nice. The trip was mostly great, but with a few disappointments also. In particular, one of the park’s policies causes a snag later in the day. Miriam tries to buy the general admission ticket, and you have to be 19 or over to buy it. She’s 29, but had left here ID out in the car (why do you need ID to ride a roller coaster?). After telling them her birth date at guest relations, they let her in. Anyone know why this policy is in place? Following is a run down of our trip:
Phantom’s Revenge. The coaster looks great with the new paint job and Morgan track, but I’m having a little trouble finding the new entrance. They have a hundred flags advertising the ride throughout the park, but no arrows pointing to where the queue is. Finally finding the queue, we wait in an extremely slow moving line without any shade. Unlike the old Phantom queue, they are only letting a small group of people through at any given time to walk on the bridge towards the station. We are getting severely baked standing in one place for 10 minutes at a time. They’ve got to cover the queue like at SFA. Train dispatches were slow, and were also hurting due to one-train operation. (I don’t know why they weren’t using the second train which was parked on the transfer track). As for PR, it’s amazing! The first half still rides almost exactly the same as SP, but the 2nd half rocks! The series of bunnyhills and bumps following the banked turn are taken at almost too fast a speed (2Hostyl, you were right!). In particular, there’s one section by Pittfall where the track has a small fold in it, and your butt goes way out of the seat! If there’s one thing that destroyed the rides beauty though, it was a large mound of construction dirt in the middle of the turnaround back towards the station. Hopefully the park will landscape this section or something. But, seing as many of the coasters need paintjobs, I wouldn’t count on it. Gavin looks completely shell shocked after one ride, and sits out the 2nd later ride. Miriam rides with me on the 2nd trip and is praying to God going up the lifthill, which by the way, you can get a lot of praying in because the chain is so damn slow! She’s loves it .
Exterminator- Again we were greeted with another sluggish line. Once inside though, things moved a little faster in the indoor queue. I still loved the ride, but man does it beat you up! Gavin also gets a little freaked out by this one. On the 2nd lap there’s now 3 of us, and I ride solo in the right half of the car and get more beat up. I make sure to press the green button that triggers the annoying sirens while in line the 2nd time.
Aero 360-I ride by myself earlier in the day, since Gavin can’t do spinning rides (Oops, I conveniently forgot to tell him about the 2nd half of Exterminator). I still loved it, but still can’t for the life of me figure out why Screamscape nominated this as a most boring attraction for 2000. The positive G’s at the bottom of the spins are great and it’s very comfortable.
Thunderbolt-The other two won’t ride the wood coasters here, because they look too rickety to them. I get paired up with someone pretty quickly, but like last year I get the the outside seat which is horrible. I get squashed a couple of times against the thin padding going around the turns. I know it’s a historic coaster, but seat dividers or modern rolling stock would do this coaster wonders. The trains are also not good for my back, which was sore from the day before.
Pittfall-The line was fairly long all day for this one, but I finally bit the bullet later in the evening. Just like Tower of Doom at SFA, one of the towers is out of commission. They have also done the seat belt retrofit since last year. At 251ft., it’s like a really cool observation tower.
Racer-The line got much shorter in the evening, and it was a one-cycle wait. This is pretty good, although the cars are very loose. There’s one very good moment of airtime near the end of the ride. Unlike Lightning Racer at HP though, the trains never are that close to each other.
Noah’s Ark-I love this attraction and so did Gavin and Miriam. The line was much shorter than last year which was a plus also. As with Exterminator, I don’t reveal the key surprises to follow to my associates.
Gold Rusher-A cute darkride that gets rid of one of the Miriam’s general admission tickets.
Closed Rides:
Bayern Curve
Flying Carpet
Roll-O-Plane
Closed Early:
Whitewater raft ride & Log Jammer
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Batwing-Bow Down
