Kennywood Park

I recently visited Kennywood with 3 other friends. It was a beautiful day, and there was a medium sized crowd, so lines weren't very long. We got there at about 10:45, and immediately went to the Phantom's Revenge. There was a line outside the entrance as they were not letting anyone on it yet. Other than that and the Aero 360, lines were light.

Phantom's Revenge

Totally blew me away. I have ridden it many many times, but everytime I ride it, it blows me away. Its as if it gets meaner each year. It ran incerdible smooth and extremely fast. The 85 mph turn after the 230 foot second drop was insane. The airtime on the second half of the ride as amazingly strong. I even found myself catching air over the second hill before the big drop. That was awesome! Also, coming out of the tunnel from the ravine, there is a nice pop of air that was a great surprise. Overall, an amazing roller coaster. Hypercoasters really dont get much, if at all, better. Could be the best hypercoaster out there. Haven't ridden one better yet! The uniqueness of the ride combined with its incredible speed and smoothness gets the Phantom a score of 10/10.

Thunderbolt

This is my favorite wooden coaster. Its not the biggest, fastest, longest. Its just awesome. Fast drops, unique layout, strong lat. Gs, and amazing final drop. Sitting in the back seat or the front seat give the best rides. The air is amazing in the back, while the feeling of speed is fun in the front. No matter where you sit, you will either get crushed, or crush your partner in the 'spaghetti bowl' section of this ride. Not at all painful. A little rough but hey, its a wooden! Not painful, just plain fun. Great ride. 10/10

Jack Rabbit

Fun woodie. I love that this ride is 84 years old! Its amazing how nice it is and how well it still runs. It gave a strong ride as usual. Nothing wrong with this ride at all. They did put lights in the tunnel which kind of made me mad because I enjoyed the turn in the darkness. The drops gave good air, and the double dip was amazing as always. Very fast at the bottom too! Also, they installed new seatbelts on the trains which kind of made me mad. They looked like Chrystler seatbelts youd find in a Jeep! They held you in a bit more than the old leather straps which kind of made me mad but its minor. Also, they repainted the trains, they look great! Great ride neverheless, just the few minor changes made it a little different experience than what I'm used to. 9/10

Racer

The Racer isnt the most exciting ride. Let's put it this way, if it didnt have the aspect of racing, it wouldn't be that great. However, the racing element, as well as the good airtime and strong drops make this ride really fun! It is very unique with this mobius design. It's one of only 3 single-track racers in the world. It gave a fast, fun ride, and it was fun slapping the hands of the riders in the opposing train. Good time on this ride. Also, the refurbished trains were amazing. They looked brand new complete with racing stripes and a sparkling new paint. Great ride. 9/10

Exterminator

I hadn't ridden this ride since 2003, so 2 years ago. I really didnt remember it that well, so when I rode it I was blown away. I knew it was a wild mouse type coaster, but its a mouse on steroids haha. It seems to have much bigger drops and alot more airtime than any other mouse coaster out there. Also, the cars are free to spin on their own axis throughout the second half of the ride. In addition, most of it is in pitch darkness which made the spinning, big drops, and hairpin turns very fun! I loved this ride. Mouse coasters dont get any better, and it is a great fit at Kennywood. 10/10.

Pitt Fall

I'm not going to rate this one as a coaster with the scale of 10 rating system. I'm just going to tell you about it briefly. Again, it was 2 years since I last rode the Pitt Fall. I was scared because I'm scared of heights, but thats why I love coasters and tall rides, for the fright! It was very high and when it dropped, i yelled at the top of my lungs. It seems like you fall forever before the magnetic brakes kick in. It was awesome! A must-ride at Kennywood.

Aero 360

One of my favorite rides anywhere. For those who don't know the ride, you sit in these seats that are like those on B&M inverts. Your feet dangle and youre sitting at the end of a long arm. When the ride starts, you swing like a pirate ship ride, but then it goes higher and higher until it spins all the way around. It does this pretty fast and does many loops before it lets you hang upside down at the apex and swings you the opposite direction. What a great ride. Scary and really fun, it is another must-ride.

Water Rides

I managed to get on 2 of the 4 water rides: Log Jammer and Raging rapids. I missed Pittsburg Plunge and King Kahuna. Log Jammer was fun as always and we got wetter than usual. Got drenched on the rapids, no surprise there. Didn't feel like getting drenched again on the plunge, and just wasn't feeling King Kahuna although I usually love that ride.

Didnt get on Sky Coaster as it was sold out by the time we went to buy tickets for it.

We got on many of the flat and static rides and they were all great as usual. Some favorites included the paratrooper, kangaroo, and auto race. Also did the train ride which I havent done in the longest time. It was fun. The Bayern Curve was gone. I was a little upset at that. We did ride Musik Express which was fun as always, and did the classic bumper cars. We had a great time at Kennywood as always. We saw the site of the new ride for 2006. I'm really looking foreward to it. Overall, it was amazing. There were no disappointments, and every ride was fun. The coasters were all in great shape and ran amazingly well. What a fun day. You MUST get to Kennywood soon if you haven't this year! Overall for the park: 10/10 as always.

Enjoy.

-Jeff

Kennywood is a 10 as always I visited it this year, and it was awesome. I just can't beleive how much fun it was to ride all of those rides.
my trip is here on CB 6/5/05: http://www.coasterbuzz.com/forum.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=42158
Oh, and I have pictures of the park on my site, if you care to see at http://hometown.aol.com/dc2beltz3/kennywood.html

I like hearing about peoples trips there.

Well it looks like both of you had fun. I love reading the reports about my home park. Keep visiting!!! It's funny, i work there and i still never went out there yet this summer to ride.

The bayern curve will be back next year, and wipeout will go bye byes!

Great TR thanks for sharing, I would throw up mine, but no one wants to read it. ;-)

The Bayern Kurve won't be back next year. The Wipeout is going nowhere.

Sheesh.

You tell 'em kpjb.

And what a shame that is! Wipeouts are a dime a dozen... not so with Bayern Curves.

The Kurve will return... just not for 2006, unless something unexpected comes up.

It was removed for maintenance, not because we're getting rid of it.

Good to hear. I haven't been on one in a long time, I need a fix.

Very good trip report.

I just want to say I've lost my cell phone three different times while at amusement parks, and the only time I ever got it back was at Kennywood. I love reading Kennywood trip reports, they're never bad. :)

Every Kennywood trip report makes me want to visit more.

I'm still unsure if it's worth the massive trip [6 hour drive] however.

Its a 5 hour drive for me (8 the last time cause I took the long way around to visit famly), and I still thought it was definitly worth it:).

Glad you enjoyed the park! I love reading about other people's overwhelmingly positive experiences at my own home and favorite amusement park.

kpjb, thanks for confirming that the Kurve will return! I had had a hunch (it's been done before, hasn't it?) that its removal was temporary and maintenance related, but I 'll admit that there was a little lingering doubt in my mind. Glad to hear it was unfounded though, & look forward to the Kurve's return and anything else that Kennwood may have in store for us in the future.

- BB

Its only 3 hours from Akron, Ohio...not too bad of a drive. Its always worth it. Glad to hear about the kurve...Kennywood is a one of a kind unique park. I hope we get more excellent reviews!

You live six hours away, and haven't gone "grind your soul"? YOU NEED TO GET UP AND GO. I might be a little bit jaded as I drive 9 hours to go to Marine World, but it's definately worth it for Kennywood.

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I'm still unsure if it's worth the massive trip [6 hour drive] however.

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Heh. Stick around here long enough and a 6 hour drive will be nothing to you. :)

And like the others said, if you're going to drive 6 hours to a park - KW is a better choice than many.

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GoliathKills said:I just want to say I've lost my cell phone three different times while at amusement parks, and the only time I ever got it back was at Kennywood.

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man at the racer we always find cell phones. usually the people who lost them return to the ride and we return them. If they don't come back for them, we take them to the service center. Thats where we tell them to go if they lost something to fill out a report.

Kennywood is the only park I've seen where a friend lost a hat, filled out a report, and a week later got it back in the mail. We were impressed with that kind of service.

Its a great thing...bad thing is a park like Geauga Lake..when i was on thunderhawk i lost a watch and was forever lost to the lake. I'm sure there's alot that gets lost in there. Kennywood has outstanding service.

we even return the smallest things. like if someone loses their sun glasses we'll tell them to come back in an hour and we will probably have them. Usually they are left in their seat thats why we find them so quick. I've even returned some cigaretts to someone because they left them on the ride.Theyare usually left in a seat and we just take them and keep them in the booth with us incase they come back for them. We only do that with cigaretts, cell phones purses and walky talky's. We don't want other people to take those because they are valuble to people. And we don't really want kids taking the cigaretts