The day started out rainy and cool. I was debating if I REALLY wanted to go or not. I decided that even if it kept drizzling, that'd just keep the crowds away, and I could always take the liner out of my ski jacket and use the waterproof shell. So that's what I did.
Off to the park, arriving around 1 in the afternoon. Before I got there, I was debating if I wanted to do General Admission (in case the rain started again and I had to leave), or Ride-All-Day. RAD was a steal at $17.95, so I went ahead and got it. Then I tracked the number of rides I took, to see if I was "saving" anything. In a nutshell, I got a bargain, and I didn't even push myself for rapid rerides.
WOW. What a great day. I was there by myself initially, and had a great time. By around 3, the sun was coming out, so I decided to go back to the car and ditch the jacket and PR shirt I'd bought. On the way out I encountered Brian Peters on his way in. He said he was going to grab lunch at the Potato Patch first. I told him I was headed to the car, I'd see him inside in a bit. We met up at Jackrabbit, and I had a ride partner for the rest of the day :)
The weather remained sunny and comfortable, and the park closed around 8:30. My tally:
Exterminator -- 4 laps (3 tickets)
For some reason, Exterminator wasn't spinning. Odd. This was still a fun ride, but very different without the spinning. This was the first ride I hit, 5 minute wait. I walked back around, and it was a walk-on! I've never seen that on this ride before. The other two laps were later in the day, and involved longer waits. The line was never more than 3 levels down when I saw it, though.
Pittfall -- 6 drops (3 tickets)
My first 4 drops were in rapid succession, as it was a walk-on. Interestingly, on those 4 drops I managed to hit each of the 4 sides once. Later in the day we took 2 more, and there was a bit of a line, but nothing significant. PR looks VERY cool from way up there. I noted that there's actually quite a bit of PR track stacked up near the Turtle, back where you can't really see it from the midway ("behind" the Turtle if you're standing by the Potato Patch).
Gold Rusher -- 1 lap (1 ticket)
What the heck :)
Swing Around -- 1 cycle (2 tickets)
This seemed a bit more jerky than I remember it. Still fun, though.
Aero 360 -- 1 cycle (3 tickets)
A walk-on for an "outside" seat? Unheard of. They're STILL very slow on the cycle times for this one.
Racer -- 4 laps (3 tickets)
A little bit of handslapping, but not much. I rode twice on each side (as much as that matters ;) ), and "won" twice.
Jackrabbit -- 4 laps (3 tickets)
One-train operation all day made for the longest wait of the day. A full 20 minutes for the first ride, shorter as the day went on. :) Interestingly enough, EVERY time I got on Jackrabbit today I managed to get the back seat. I'll take that as an acceptable trade for Exterminator not spinning ;)
Old Mill -- 2 laps (1 ticket)
I rode this once before I met Brian (with 2 screaming boys behind me, very annoying), then Brian wanted to ride it. I figured why not, my first ride had been basically ruined anyway.
Kangaroo -- 2 cycles (2 tickets)
This little flatride is deceptively fun.
Noah's Ark -- 1 pass (2 tickets)
Brian and I agree that this is still good, but we liked the old Ark better.
Flying Carpet -- 2 cycles (2 tickets)
This is still my favorite flatride at Kennywood. It actually seemed to be running better than last year (less jerking as it goes around on the full cycles)
The Whip -- 1 cycle (2 tickets)
It's always funny watching the reactions of kids on their first "big kids" ride :)
Merry-Go-Round -- 1 cycle (1 ticket?)
I forgot to note how many tickets this ride needs. Whoops. 1 or 2, I'm guessing 1 for purposes of ticket count but I'm probably wrong ;)
The Enterprise, Bayern Curve, Pirate, and Roll-O-Plane were all down, or I'd have been sure to hit those. Hopefully next time... Wipeout requires a partner, and Brian wasn't up for that, so that'll have to wait as well.
Overall, not a bad day at all. I also bought a PR shirt (actually the shirt on Kennywood's site that shows all 5 coasters), and a Kennywood window sticker for my car. And of course a funnel cake (first of the year).
So how did I make out with the RAD vs. tickets? RAD was $17.95, General Admission would've been $7.50 + tickets. Tickets are $0.60 each. Looking at the tally above, I would've needed 75 tickets. That works out to $45 for the tickets, or $52.50 total! Today, at least, there's no doubt RAD was the way to go... :)
Next on deck -- Knoebels' Opening, 4/28...
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 4/21/2001. ***
