Kennywood, 5/20

So this morning was a "media event" for the official opening of Phantom's Revenge. As it turned out, just about all that showed up was local ACE members :)

Phantom's Revenge (9 laps) -- This ride was worth the wait. Period. The airtime is incredible, the feeling of speed is SO much better than on the old Steel Phantom. The new trains are incredibly comfortable, and the side-mounted lapbars and retracting seatbelts make for pretty quick load/unload times.

The Phantom's Revenge Frequent Phanatics card is much like I'd predicted over on Kennywood Boulevard -- a small plastic card with a barcode on it. When you get in line, you scan the card. The website (phantomphanatic.com) tracks the number of times it's seen a serial#. The scanner is a bit tempermental, it sometimes takes a few tries to get your code to scan.

While I was there, I also took quick laps on Jackrabbit (back seat), Racer (good handslapping), and Exterminator (complete with spinning). Then I had to leave early, since I had a birthday party/dinner to go to. I'll be back...



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--Greg

http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 5/21/2001. ***

How local did you have to be? I live 30 minutes away and I heard of no such event. I wont complain about ACE though...

Yes the airtime on PR is incredible. So much in fact, it sucked my wallet right out of my pocket! Make sure you keep thinks secure, I wasn't happy with that. EVERY elevation change, in every seat, results in pronounced airtime, with some decidedly delicious float. The bunny hop section is nuts, lots of involuntary standing up!

I have to say this is one of my favorite roller coasters, if not my favorite. The speed this thing packs is insane, and it constantly changes direction and g-forces. It really seemed to be flying when twilight cast it's glow later in the evening, with the back seats throwing you around quite a bit! The double dip is violently sharp.

One of many wonderful features of this surprise gem, the lap bars are curved in such a way that you can't be stapled. The far end of the curve touches the middle so that you have plenty of room where your legs are. To top it off, the bars consistently released a few clicks when the train hit the lift! Quite a wonderful ride we've got here.

I got 17 laps throughout the day, which is pretty good considering it's opening weekend. 30 minutes at the most the whole day! Won't be coming back till June though, it might get worse by then. *** This post was edited by Ed on 5/20/2001. ***

I don't think it was an official event. I think Greg just meant that a bunch of local ACErs just happened to be there.

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Matt Lynch
Co-Webmaster, Kennywood Boulevard
http://kennywood.coasterbuzz.com

Correct, there was nothing "official" about it, ACE-wise. I found out about it from a friend LATE Saturday night/early Sunday morning (depending on your perspective ;) ), and passed it on to another friend. The impression I had was it was supposed to be a media event, but I didn't see much "media" there other than coaster nuts with their cameras...


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--Greg

http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/