A visit to Kennywood brought up some changes ??

Yesterday, my friend Joe (known to most of you as cernelli) and I took a trip to Kennywood yesterday.

It was our first return to the park since opening day back in April. Back then and up until a little over a month ago the King Kahuna was simply a top spinner. And one of the best parts of it was as the ride swung the car, the car also did barrel rolls. But since the addition of water the ride has become a great deal tamer. The car no longer spins while swinging you. Apparently its to make sure the people riding get soaked. But while waiting in line for PR, Joe and I over heard 2 of the PR station op's talking about how a visitor to the park was causing a mjor problem (they didn't say the extent of problem the person was causing [i.e legal action or just complaining]) because they had their mouth open and the water shot them in the mouth and they nearly choked/drown. They went on to say that the water was going to be removed from the ride. Is this true ?? I'm unsure cause it could be one of those he said, she said situations. I guess only time will tell what, if anything will happen.

Another update ... Cowboy Joe has returned !!! You can now come in and have a seat and swap yarn's with Cowboy Joe again. He is looking a little worse for wear though, his age is really starting to show. One one figure with his absence from last year they could have cleaned him up and given him a face lift. But at least he is back.

On a lighter note to all of you who frequent KW, I was greatly disappointed by the absence of "The Phantom Guy". Joe and I were so looking forward to seeing him on our visit, but he must have decided to take the day off due to the possibility of rain.

You know, I haven't seen Phantom Guy all season. I know he preferred Steel Phantom to Phantom's Revenge (proof he's a bit whacked ;) ) so maybe he decided to not ride as much. I do hope it's nothing more serious than that.

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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"Another visitor. Stay a while. Stay FOREVER!"

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Phantom P|-|r34K said:
You can now come in and have a seat and swap yarn's with Cowboy Joe again. He is looking a little worse for wear though, his age is really starting to show. One one figure with his absence from last year they could have cleaned him up and given him a face lift. But at least he is back.

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But I'm not even 21! (only 22 more days though ;)). As for the water thing, I would think that choking and/or drowning is a risk on pretty much any water ride, so who knows.
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Joe Cernelli
Shedding off one more layer of skin, keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within.
-Bob Dylan

Hi, my names Geoff and I work on the King Kahuna crew. The real reason for the change was the fact that the ride was shaking tremendously with the swinging gondola. The ground has been real soft (with rain and what not) and the footers had been shifting. With keeping the gondola stationary on the arms, the shaking has stopped, but the ride is toned down a bit much. The programming of the water jets was, in my opinion, a good effort to keep the ride exciting. But, occassionally, we're told not to use the water fountains, and the ride becomes lame. I've been told that they will fix the ride soon so it swings, spins, and also gets guests wet on hot days. Later guys, Geoff

They need to do something. Because the ride time isnt all that great and with the taming of the spinning and all it doesn;t seem appealing to me anymore.

I hope they get it worked out so it will spin again and make it alot more worth while.

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First off I would like to thank The Cheat ... for helping me cheat.

Ok, maybe I shouldn't say that.