Kennywood applies for beer permit

Really, for beers that are creeping closer to 9/10/12%, you're not going to find that on mass-market amusement-park draft.

More's the pity.

I'd be all for it, but those are the ones that people drink and don't realize they can't handle. People think "hey, it's beer - it's pretty low in alcohol", but that's a mistake.

I'm not saying that's a *bad* thing, in the right place. :)

I made that mistake once with some Dirty Bastard. One of my more enjoyable mistakes, I must say. :)

Raven-Phile said:

I'm not saying that's a *bad* thing, in the right place. :)

Josh's house would be an example of the wrong place. ;)

TJinPgh said:

Not sure how I feel about it. I have yet to find a day when Kennywood isn't packed to the gills with people. To be honest, as many people leave that park angry as happy. Not because of anything the park does wrong, just due to the crowds and subsequent hour plus waits for most popular rides.

I'm not sure when you're visiting Kennywood, but crowds and lines like that happen about twice a month.

I do drink beer when I go out with my kids. In fact, I actually feel it's important to do so. Took my son to a Pirates game last night and had a Brooklyn Brown Ale. I think it's good to show him what responsible drinking is at a young age, without even having to explain it to him. Daddy can have one beer with dinner and not be a lunatic, and also not need 12 more. I hope it's a lesson he remembers when he gets to high school/college.

I don't get this idea that it's impossible to touch alcohol without getting totally intoxicated. Frankly, if I wanted to get drunk, an amusement park or sporting event is exactly the wrong place to do it. Who can afford to get loaded at $6 or $7 a clip?

Using their logic, if having one or two beers makes a person a raving, drunken lunatic who can't go anywhere without needing to drink, wouldn't that make these people who have one or two kids raving nymphomaniacs and sex addicts who can't go anywhere without needing to canoodle (as Carrie would say)?

RatherGoodBear said:

I don't get this idea that it's impossible to touch alcohol without getting totally intoxicated.

When the legal definifition of impaired - at least in terms of operating a vehicle - is low enough that it takes just a few drinks to reach that level, it's easy to see where those attitudes might develop.

Couple that with the fact that authorities like the CDC says things like

"Note: Legal limits do not define a level below which it is safe to operate a vehicle or engage in some other activity. Impairment due to alcohol use begins to occur at levels well below the legal limit."

and I can easily see why people get weird about the alcohol issue.

I sound like such a teetotaler. :)

Raven-Phile said:
...It's not like people are going to be pounding back a liter of Jack Daniels, then going and getting on the scrambler. Really, for beers that are creeping closer to 9/10/12%, you're not going to find that on mass-market amusement-park draft.

Besides, Kennywood doesn't have a Scrambler. :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

kpjb said:
I'm not sure when you're visiting Kennywood, but crowds and lines like that happen about twice a month.

With all due respect, I find that difficult to believe.

Last time I went was on a night rider pass on a Tuesday. No Holiday. Nothing unique about the day.

Stood in line over an hour for Exterminator. Over an hour for Ghostwood Estates.

Line for the Phantom was fast enough to ride twice in short order.

All totaled I got to ride 6 rides in about 5 hours.

Now, admittedly, I don't go there every year (and the crowds are the primary reason why). I do work with about 4 people though who take their kids every year. They go mid week and do not go as part of any group.

I haven't heard them claim to not have a similar experience in the last 10 years that they've been going.

So, if there is some magic time that they should be going I'm sure we'd all appreciate knowing about it.

I do drink beer when I go out with my kids. In fact, I actually feel it's important to do so. Took my son to a Pirates game last night and had a Brooklyn Brown Ale. I think it's good to show him what responsible drinking is at a young age, without even having to explain it to him. Daddy can have one beer with dinner and not be a lunatic, and also not need 12 more. I hope it's a lesson he remembers when he gets to high school/college.

Well, the the fact that the logic of trying to associate responsibility with consuming a $7 watered down beer escapes me aside, they are your kids and you are well within your rights to expose them to the environments you deem acceptable.

I'm not sure I quite buy the notion that parents NOT wanting to expose their kids to that are somehow being unreasonable.

My comment about Sandcastle was taken to indicate that having alcohol there isn't an issue.

That's not quite what I said. I said I haven't seen anybody get out of control. That doesn't automatically translate to there not being an issue.

I don't go there often enough to have any clue as to what issues have occurred over the years.

I haven't seen any fights or anything. But, I have seen some behavior from those who were clearly drinking that I wouldn't classify as appropriate for all ages.

For that matter, I think any time alcohol leaves the designated area it becomes inappropriate. And, that happens frequently.

I have little doubt that there is underage drinking that goes on because the rules aren't enforced.

Like I said. I, personally, am not opposed to the idea but I can also understand why there are those who are. And, yes, I do know some who aren't at all happy about it.

Frankly? I think the decision to do it is another in a long line of decisions that parks of this size category make in an attempt to make the rest of the world think that they are bigger than they are.

I'm certainly not old enough to have been around when some of these parks started. So, I can't say what they did or didn't do back then. But, I have been around long enough to say that alcohol hasn't been allowed in any Western PA park (that I'm aware of, anyway) in the last 50 years.

Given the admiration that we in this area have for beer (Pittsburgh, the drinking town with a football problem), I have to think that there must have been a reason why it was avoided all those years.

I suspect that it's one of those things that ends up being more of a pain than it's worth. Especially if parents decide to spend their dollars elsewhere. Justified or not.

I was at Kennywood on a Saturday in late June last year and never waited more than 30 minutes for anything. It would have been less if they ran both trains on Phantom. We got our fill of rides and actually left the park early-ish so we could enjoy a beer and dinner. If they had the beer garden, we probably would have stayed longer. :)

TJinPgh said:

Well, the the fact that the logic of trying to associate responsibility with consuming a $7 watered down beer escapes me aside....

Brooklyn Bown Ale is most definitely not a watered down beer. You're thinking of Bud Light.

I'd tend to believe kpjb when he comments about Kennywood. the guy works there. :)

Don't know.

Must be the unluckiest people in the world to all randomly pick the 1 or 2 days a month when it's that busy year after year.

At any rate, it doesn't really change the point I was making. There's never a shortage of cranky people anywhere, amusement parks or otherwise. The reasons are not really relevant.

Alcohol rarely improves the situation.

Who can afford to get loaded at $6 or $7 a clip?

The people paying to cut, of course! What else would they do with all that extra time that they don't spend in lines with "the little people"?

/rimshot

TJinPgh said:

With all due respect, I find that difficult to believe.

You do realize, that kpjb would know better than any of us, right?

TJinPgh said:

Alcohol rarely improves the situation.

False. Alcohol improves /any/ situation.

And honestly, people with closed minded opinions of what people enjoy, much like yourself, are the reason there is never a shortage of cranky people..

Jeff said:
You do realize, that kpjb would know better than any of us, right?

So I've been told.

I've already conceded that the percpective of anybody who has found it to be overly crowded is one of perpetual bad luck.

Our local newspaper commented on the crowds a couple of times over the last couple of years. They suggested a Tuesday or Thursday.

I guess everybody else must have decided to follow the advice of the newspaper on the days we went.

Like I said, I would appreciate advice on when is typically a better time to go.

Raven-Phile said:

TJinPgh said:

Alcohol rarely improves the situation.

False. Alcohol improves /any/ situation.

And honestly, people with closed minded opinions of what people enjoy, much like yourself, are the reason there is never a shortage of cranky people..

Let's see.

I said that I, personally, don't care if they serve alcohol but can understand why others might have issues with it.

Yet, I am somehow the close minded one.

Ok. Got it.

I won't bother to try to figure out whether or not the comment about alcohol improving any situation was an attempt at humor or not nor will I indulge the curiosity of where such a statement would come from if it wasn't.

If i didnlt know any better, I'd think that was a thinly veiled attempt to call me an alcoholic, or at lease insinuate that I have a dependence on alcohol.

I'm hurt and offended. I need a drink.

Kennywood is almost always busy in some respect. Even when it rains they manage to keep a healthy crowd of people.

Steady crowds, yes. Hour plus waits for most rides, no.

Sundays in May and June are usually slower, as are Mondays and Wednesdays in July and August. Weekends in July are some big corporate picnics and are pretty busy. Weekends in September are moderate to slow.

Pittsburgher's grouse when they have to wait more than five minutes to get on a ride at Kennywood. It's okay to wait for hours when they go to Disneyworld, because it's Disneyworld.