Kentucky Kingdom to reopen as Bluegrass Boardwalk in 2013, operated by Koch family

New rolling stock on a Koch woodie?

Twinberliners, anyone?

Wait for it...

And 2 (much needed) trains finally on Thunder run. I wwonder if the PTCs from Holiday World will go to BB once Voyage (and the others?) get Timberliners.

I'll bet T2 finally gets full length trains as well.

It'll be interesting to see what they do with the water park.

bjames said:
How is this a boardwalk? Will the Kochs be installing a waterfront?

Well, GAdv and HersheyPark are not exactly "on the waterfront" ( I could been a contenduh..) and they both have Boardwalks. So I guess the water is not a pre-requisite.

In all fairness, though, both of those parks DO have bodies of water in/around them.

Gravity Group reprofile + Timberliners for Twisted Twins?

*fingers crossed*

Those guys are the epitome of thrill-seeking perfectionists, and having Twins in their current form (especially Stella) on their resume has to gnaw at them a bit. I bet they'd kill for another crack at those.

jimvid said:
Twisted Twins needs a lot of work considering it hasn't operated in 5 years. It wouldn't shock me to see if got some much-needed tweaking; particularly considering they will have to get new rolling stock. I always thought it was ride that could have potential had it not been so poorly executed.

I always considered the ride(s) "interesting", but not thrilling. The interactions between the two sides never really wowed me, and even though Stella was *the better side*, I figure separately they're just....meh - properly cared for and maintained, it could very well be a nice attraction that people like. But the really solid layout and design is the park's *other* woodie.

Stella was better? Isn't that the one with the helix at the end? I always thought that that one felt like they designed the other side to be a coaster, and then went "Ok, I need to build another coaster next to it that crosses it here, here, and here".

It felt like what happens when you half-bake a dueling coaster in RCT... inevitably one of the rides shines and the other one, well, it makes it to the dueling points on time, but it may as well not be a ride on its own... lots of slow turns and odd pacing all around.

I could be way off but I'm guessing Twisted Twins will re-open in 2014. That will give them time to build "new attraction" and "re-opening" hype. If they try to fix up everything by 2013 it might be too much to chew off. Putting off the one coaster with the most in need improvements might lighten their plate, as well as making their 2014 addition spoken for. It's a killing two birds with one stone strategy. That being said I'm probably way off, and have this all wrong. Just seems like if they re-open it to be really good for 2013 too much time, and money would be needed.

As for a boardwalk at Kentucky Kingdom...

Have you ever been there?

The boardwalk...and there really is no other term for it, the way it is constructed...starts at the end of the Damn Bridge (where the stairway should be) and goes down the hill all the way past the side of the waterpark to the picnic grove and Go-Kart track, then doubles back and runs past the Giant Wheel, under the Damn Bridge, and past the other side of the waterpark, past where the Quake used to be, to the bridge leading to Swampwater Jack's. It's not a beachside boardwalk, but it is most certainly a boardwalk!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

What kind of condition are Twisted *s really in, aside from being short a couple of trains? I mean, they've got galvanized steel construction, so structurally they should be okay; the track probably needs some work (I remember Lola having that same problem as the Villain, where the train bounced down the first drop...) but how extensive even is that? I thought Six Flags mothballed the coaster mostly because with Top Eliminator and Mile High Falls both out of commission, and with the Bee Bee and the Zeppelin both moved to Geauga Lake, they had created a voided space between Twisted *s and Thunder Run very reminiscent of MarineLand, only without the lovely brick pavers. With low attendance and a really long walk it didn't make sense to have that whole midway for only one (or two depending on how you count it) ride[s]. That Thunder Run kind of bisects that chunk of the park anyway is more than a little inconvenient as well. That Six Flags so blatantly avoided bowing to common sense with the entrance to Twisted *s didn't help matters either, and given that there is a similar customer-hostile fence at Holiday World, that's one thing I don't see being fixed by Bluegrass Boardwalk. Unless, of course, enough people are riding back there to justify having the queue block.

Put more generally, the entire layout of Kentucky Kingdom absolutely stinks, and there isn't much, really, that can be done about it. Thunder Run is basically a "back end" ride, but it's sitting right in the middle of the park. Dealing with that problem is the reason that the big T2 sign faces the "wrong" way.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I've heard Greezed Lightnin' is in pretty bad shape too, with lots of down time in 2009. Luckily for me I got to get some great ERT on one day that summer.

Who remembers Boardwalk And Baseball? The former Circus World in Florida. I think they constructed a boardwalk around the entire park; I don't think there was any water involved.

I remember seeing it (B@B)...but sadly never went. I was a young lad.

...now all the "BB" names are getting ironic...

RideMan said:

starts at the end of the Damn Bridge (where the stairway should be)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Please, please, please put a stairway in. It would at least help the inadequate layout of the park a little bit.

^+2... ;)

keep dreaming about the Twins. I doubt it happens.

For more hilarity, go to the WDRB website and read the comments. That will give you a good idea of just what the Koch's are facing with this project. The sad reality is that the Louisville market while a feeder to HW, is, well Kentucky. (And I say that as someone who was born in that state).

800 seasonal jobs sounds like a lot though. How many does HW have?

^Some of the comments at WDRB are crazy! But they do make a point. I wonder if they will charge for parking to try to keep out some of the riff-raff. And maybe no season passes for the first few years - to prevent becoming a babysitting park.

They will have different challenges because it's a park in a major city. That said, they've consistently priced their season passes in Santa Claus the right way, and it has been Six Flags' inability to do that, across the board, that has led to some issues with what you might call "customer quality."

I've spent a bit of time in Louisville on business lately, and honestly the city is not just a bunch of "Kentucky people." There are a lot of big employers there, including UPS, Humana, a bunch of hospitals, Zappos, Ford, GE, Papa John's, etc. It seems like they have a pretty solid economy there. They also have the Derby and their big fireworks thing every year.

Louisville is a surprisingly happening place between the major businesses there, some solid museums, and a very diverse food scene.

I think the best thing to come out of Kentucky is Bourbon. At least, (and I'm gonna regret this tomorrow. ha)that's how I feel right now!