Kennywood-8/13-Day 3 - CoasterBuzz

Since this park has been talked about alot in the past couple of months, I won’t bore you with alot of details.
The wife and I started our day early for this park (our first visit) I couldn’t wait to ride Phantom’s Revenge. Upon arrival we were surprised to see 100’s of cheerleaders, this was not a good sign. Apparently they were having a cheerleading competition. After a lengthy wait, we got our tickets and we were ready to ride but first we had to go through metal detectors. What’s up with that? Oh well, it didn’t slow us down too much. First stop the Jack Rabbit. I was surprised by the first drop-I was expecting to go up the lift hill first. We both enjoyed this John Miller classic. Next the racers—great ride for the both of us. But why is it that all the parks that have racing coasters are unable to have them actually race? The Exterminator was quite a nice surprise. I was expecting a little coaster camouflaged by a building trying to make a bad ride good. This was not the case—we both had a giggling good time on this ride. Finally we made our way to the Phantom’s Revenge. Everything that has been said about this ride is true—it lives up to the hype. We opted to wait for the front seat. I wanted the view over the airtime however I got both on this ride. This is an awesome coaster. It was worth our trip just to ride it. Last coaster of the day, Thunderbolt, kudos to the crew for maintaining a 2 train operation smoothly.
We had a good time at this park and definitely will return. Actually our visit to PA was great from start to finish. I haven’t spent alot of time in this state and it is worth the trip.
On a side note, this park knows how to maintain and lube the tracks and Ohio parks could learn from this.
End of Day 3 and back to Work.

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Born to Ride - Forced to work!

we were surprised to see 100’s of cheerleaders, this was not a good sign

I guess it all depends on your perspective.
As far as the racing of Racer is concerned - the park usually races them. In fact I have never been on a non-racing ride.

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"Looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately"
"Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob."

The metal detectors are necessary, as some of Pittsburgh's worst neighborhoods lie within 3 miles of the park.

Wiredog said:
"Next the racers—great ride for the both of us. But why is it that all the parks that have racing coasters are unable to have them actually race?"

Kennywood's Racer always races. On the turns you can slap hands with people in the other car. Glad you liked PR and the park. Too bad it was cheerleader day.

I guess the one ride that I had time for... the timing was off. The blue train was running quicker maybe the red train had a wheel dragging.
I don't know I was just enjoying the ride.

The Racer has to race every race as both sides are one big continuous track (that is, unless they took a train off the track completely).

As for Neil's comment about some of Pittsburgh's worst neighborhoods being close to the park, I think I saw one of them on the way home from the park on my last visit. There's a spot where South Braddock road veers left and my friend missed it and turned off onto another street which dumped us in a not-so-nice neighborhood. Now maybe it was a combination of the fact that I am a country boy with the fact that it was dark, but this did not look like a place we wanted to be at all. Thankfully, it was only about 10:00 and we were able to turn around (amist much gang graffiti on the walls) in a parking lot to some really dive-looking place and get the hell out of there!

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It's a simple equation: CCI + CP = #1 Wooden Coaster!

Too bad it was Cheerleader day??

Bwahahahah!!

I had originally wanted to go on Cheerleader Day, but ended up with other plans (PKI/HW). If only Kennywood would get a stand up free fall...

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Joe Cernelli
Head Webmaster, Kennywood Boulevard
http://kennywood.coasterbuzz.com

Metal detectors are a fact of life at many parks. Be thankful that the park cares enough about your safety to have them installed. My trip on The Racer didn't race either. The other train got way too far ahead.

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Batwing-Bow Down

Stand-up freefall, Cheerleaders..

DING DING!!