Kennywood Park...8/8/05

Kennywood: America's Finest Traditional Amusement Park

Visited August 8, 2005.

I visited Kennywood with two friends who were in Pittsburgh from out of town. One had been there twice before with me, and the other had never been to Kennywood, or Pittsburgh. It ended up being amazing. She was blown away by the park, and the city itself.

We woke up around 9:30 to clouds, rain, and thunder. I was a bit concerned because the night before, the weather was predicted to be sunny and 82. We left for the park around 11, arriving at 11:30. It was still very cloudy, breezy and with a light drizzle. The parking lot was near empty, and a few people were walking in the opposite direction. This opened up a golder opportunity for several walk on rides. When we entered the park, the rain seeming stopped and the sun began peeking throught slowly but surely. Crowds were so small. Several lines were minimal and most rides were walk-ons all the way until late afternoon. Around 4:30 more people began entering, and then into the evening it began getting crowded due to the half price thing I think. Anyway, on to the rides...

Phantom's Revenge

The ride is incredible. I love it. The speed, the elements, the pacing, the uniqueness, the size!!! This is my hometown park and I ride the Phantom alot, but it just blows me away every single time. It's the best hypercoaster in the world. I havent ridden them all but come on, it is! Magnum is great but the Phantom is just too good. Its the boss! The first drop is fast, the second is meaner, longer, and faster than the first. The turn is powerful, and the airtime is outstanding! I love this ride! 10/10

**Note: the entire day, there was only a one-train operation due to maintainence issues with the purple-top train. Toward the end of the day, the lines got 45min to an hour long due to this.**

Thunderbolt

My favorite woodie. Amazing ride. Short lines all day made this even more of a pleasure to ride. I love how the Phantom and T-Bolt interact with each other. Kennywood itself is one amazing feat of ride engineering. The T-Bolt, all day, gave strong, fast, and devistating rides (in a good way!). The lats were strong as usual, and the drops were quick and offered nice air. Amazing classic wooden roller coaster! 10/10

Jack Rabbit

What can I say, the ride is 84 years old. That in itself is amazing! Its small, its kinda short, but the ride is great! Double dip airtime is out of control, the dark tunnel turnaround gave nice lats, and the other drops were nice and fast with good air pops. I was lucky enough to sit in the back all three times I rode. Great experiences. Love it! Classic! 10/10

Racer

Short lines all day. Queue only half full, bout 5 minute wait maximum all day. The sweet newly refurbished trains are looking better than they ever have. The races were all competitive today. Really no lopsided victories. This made it extra fun! Sitting in the back gives the best ride. It really is an airtime machine in the back. Give it a try. Back car...anywhere in the back car...its airtime! This ride was fun all day. I loved it! 10/10

Exterminator

Its not a wild mouse....its a wild goddamn rat. The drops are really big and fast for this type of ride. Its friggen awesome. Lats are intense, especially during the rotating second half. Our first ride didn't spin as much as the next two, but still all three rides on this rat were awesome. Lines bacame longer toward dusk, however no longer than 25 minutes, which is damn good for this coaster. I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of line. Great ride. 10/10

Pitt Fall

Only one ride on this one today. It was enough for me. It was great, dont get me wrong, just wasnt feeling a repeat...unlike some old man who had a shirt on that said he rode it 70 consecutive times. What a goddamn nutty old man! Props to him though. Anyway, it was a great experience, and my buddy actually didnt scream his head off, which was a first for him! haha....I did yell, however, as always, like a little *****, but I dont care, its a 251 foot freefall. Yep. Fun!

Aero 360

Good ride. Not too much to say bout this one. The hangtime at the top was really whack! Fun that is! But yeah, a MUST ride at Kennywood. Have fun with this one.

I'd like to add that the Raging Rapids does indeed hate me and find a way to screw me over every time. You realize that theres one major waterfall on this ride, and that half the boat gets it, and the other half does not. I ALWAYS get it. What the hell. Just once why cant I....I dont mind getting wet, but its like it holds a grudge toward me. Fun ride though.

Thats it for my trip report. Do enjoy. Get out to Kennywood ASAP for all of you who have never been there or those who haven't visited yet so far in 2005. Get there! The rides are running great. Always an amazing trip, never a dull moment. Fun scenery as well as incredible rides. Enjoy the park. Take care. I'm out.

-Jeff

Great TR Jeff. I will be there Sunday. I miss my PR!

And Raging Rapids, FORGET IT, I won't ride it. I always get the waterfall. I particularlly hate walking around wet all day. I'll ride the Log Jammer 50 times in one day, I don't care. I hate the rapids. And King Kahuna. I hate if you are in the front you get hit in the face with water jets. Ask Tina how hard she laughed when Bill and I got that.

Katie

I'm a little confused by your rating system. I've never been to Kennywood, but still have difficulty thinking that all the coasters are worth 10/10.

I'm going tomorrow for the first time though - I'll make my own judgments then I guess :)

Awesome Richard! Let us know your first impressions. I am curious. And please try the PP fries. ;-)

Yes, Katie...you guys got it good on King Kahuna. That was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. You could actually hear the water smacking against your faces. LOL!

Jeff,

Glad you had an awesome time! Great TR. Personally I could ride Pittfall until the end of time. :-P

-Tina *** Edited 8/9/2005 11:52:12 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

Just got back from a trip there a couple of weeks ago and I have no problem with his rating scale. It is a great sleeper park. They have great rides, food and employees. But what is up with having to ride 2 people on the old fashioned cars. I just dont get it? When asked they say to speed up the line but what about a family of 5 on a slow day.... Come on. PR still kicks butt and I think is better than the old Steel Phantom. This is a must do park.

Glad you liked my TR.

Richard, you will find all the coasters deserve 10/10. The woodies are all classics and the Phantom and Exterminator dominate their respective coaster genres. Have a great time when you go, and dont forget to ride all the classic rides. (ie: Whip, Gold Rusher, Noah's Ark, Auto Race etc....) These oldies are part of Kennywoods roots and blend well with the newer stuff. The park is great, have fun!

Katie- The Rapids are a pain in the ass haha. Jammer was really fun though. Forgot to mention it in my TR. Had a great time on that. Fun ride, minimal drenching. haha.

Take care,

-Jeff

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Richard Bannister said:
I'm a little confused by your rating system. I've never been to Kennywood, but still have difficulty thinking that all the coasters are worth 10/10.

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Hehe, let's see how Richard rates Kennywood's coasters when he returns! ;) :)

Honestly, the *only* disappointing things about the coasters were that Exterminator: 1) didn't spin enough, and 2) was too dark to really appreciate ALL the great theming work.

Haha yeah. I did get good spin the 2nd and 3rd time around on the Exterminator though. I enjoy the darkness cuz it makes you wonder what's next. haha. But yeah I can see what you mean. Seriously, Kennywood is the only park I've ever been to where all the coasters are 10/10.

I'm looking foreward to their expansion too. It has been said they plan to add a new woodie and a new steel. That will be cool. I'm sure those will me 10/10s as well. lol. Take care.

-Jeff

CoasterDaddy -

The old fashon cars your referring too is the Turnpike. I worked on that crew May-July 2005. I'm not exactly sure why we require 2 people but it's a policy that we must enforce to keep a safe and efficent operation of the ride. If a family of 5 all want to ride then 2 groups of 2 can ride and when they come back another person can ride with the 5th person without waiting in line again.

It's strange but it's kinda like the Thunderbolt. In the morning and night the crew members all take a test run and sit one in a seat, but we require every guest to have a partner to ride.

As a side note - I just heard a new rumor going around the park that the Racer will receive some upgrades for next year. Including the entrances for each train being where the exits are now and the exit will be the center where you enter now. Queue lines for each row of the trains will be added to each side. Also heard new controls on the way too. Keep in mind the Racer is the only coaster left in the park with manual controls. But please take this with a grain of salt.....

Jack Rabbit 10/10? Racer 10/10? Really? I found the Racer somewhat slow and rather boring. There's not much to the Jack Rabbit besides the double dip either. Oh well, as long as you enjoyed your trip than 10/10 for all of the coasters is fine.

The Racer is the most fun with a group of friends. :-)

Jack Rabbitt is very unique and that double-dip STILL freaks me out (in a good way) to this day.

I have had some insane (and not so insane) spins on the Exterminator. The last ride I had (the same one Bill is talking about) didn't really spin at all. I am not sure what was up with that. lol. We had four peeps in the car and I though it would go nuts. Usually it does.

-Tina

*** Edited 8/10/2005 2:08:55 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

If you had four people in the car, you may have been too well balanced... try it with two large people on one side and one small person on the other.

I also disagree that Racer and JR deserve 10/10, but that is just MY opinion. You can rate them however you want.

Are you like partial owner of the park or something?

PR is really great, but you are in the minority when you say it is THE BEST COASTER EVER!

This TR is like an advert for Kennywood. KW is fun, but it's no Hersheypark!

I would agree that Jack Rabbit is a 10. I would not give Thunderbolt a 10 though. That was a big disappointment when I went. It's a good coaster but I just don't see what all the fuss is about.

Jack Rabbit blew me away. There's not much to it but my God that double down is incredible.

Great TR! I'm glad you had fun. :)

We went NUTS on Ragin' Cajun with four of us evenly balanced...the Reverchons I think are just unpredicatble. Gotten good and not-as-good rides in various configurations...

Steel Dragon at Waldy, that *definitely* preferred an unbalanced load... :)

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dexter said:PR is really great, but you are in the minority when you say it is THE BEST COASTER EVER!

This TR is like an advert for Kennywood. KW is fun, but it's no Hersheypark!

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Well, he said best HYPER ever, not best ever...I can't say I totally disagree...no other 200ft -299ft coaster (can't compare Millennium Force to hypers, just can't) has what PR has, really. if nothing else, it certainly finishes harder and stronger than most any other hyper. plus, what the ll kind of coaster jumps off a cliff? none? oh thats right...hahaha to each their own though. I love it anyway...all hail arrow is down there for a reason....(to hell with morgan, arrow had the idea first and the bread and butter second drop wasn't morgan-built so meh. hehe)

razore86 i heard those rumors too, see i work at the racer/rabbit and i also heard that they want to get seat belts on the racer like the PR. People are having a really hard time adjusting the ones we got now. That would be a good idea if they got those kinds of belts.

Ahh, I forgot about Ragin' Cajun (silly me). lol. The mousey at Del Grosso's was on CRACK....HOLY S***! And there were only two of us.

The Maurer (sp?) mouse coasters ARE better with just two people (on one side). I found that out at Waldameer AND Seabreeze. :-P

95% of my rides on Exterminator have been insane. I do hear they "pull the pin" during Fright Nights. Is this correct?

-Tina

Initial impressions (its late, and I need sleep); royally browned off that due to horrible traffic I had a total of three hours to do Kennywood in. Only long enough to do each of the coasters once and Phantoms Revenge twice. I would like to come back to the park to explore it properly; we'll have to see.

Impressions - Phantoms Revenge 11/10 - a fantastic ride. Other coasters fine but not worthy of a 10/10 IMHO; woodies 8-9, Exterminator about a 7.

Ride operations though... 45 minute wait on PR due to one train operation. There's no excuse for that really - and the less said about Exterminators wait (in blazing sunshine) the better.

More in my trip report when I get time.

On an peripheral note - what on earth have Zamperla done to the Reverchon Crazy Mouse design? The one at Martins Fantasy Island was running A FULL THIRTY SECONDS slower than the one at Kennywood!

Kennywood is my hometown park so I may be a little biased....however, I would agree that the Thunderbolt and Jack Rabbit both rate 10 out of 10!

The Thunderbolt is a true marvel. I do, however, think the last dip into the ravine was more fun before they built the Phantom through there.... It was filled with trees and all woods. Really gave a uniquie feeling, like you wete riding in the middle of the woods with the river beside you. The Jack Rabbit's double dip rates a 10 by itself.

The Racer.... eh-h-h-h, I have to concede I have been on much better. If only they would have made the 1st dip go all the way down! (Same holds true with the Comet at Erie's Waldameer Park.... There was room to make the 1st dip deeper, why did they skimp?)