My few notes on Kennywood (8/19/2010)

Was just going to add onto the 8/7 thread but this got too long.

Anyways, first ride was Sky Rocket. Posted wait of 45 minutes, actual wait of about 25. Fun little ride. Awesome floater air through the rolls but didn't feel compelled to ride again. Too much else to do. Great fit for Kennywood.

Just kind of took it easy and enjoyed the day, riding things here and there but also relaxing and taking it in. Weather was perfect, crowd was perfect, light in the AM, building throughout the day. A well behaved heavier crowd in the evening...a "fun" crowd.

Never got a VIP pass, no real need. I did see a few people using them but never heard anyone in the crowd complain about privileged people not waiting their turn. Could have used a single pass for Exterminator. Full queue, posted hour and a half wait, just skipped it for today.

Phantom, again, becomes my favorite steel. I keep pulling it in and out of my top slot. Posted wait time of 30 minutes was actually only a walk into station and a three train wait. Best ride crew we saw today was on this ride. Great job.

Speaking of ops, this is the second year in a row that I felt that the Racer crew sucked. Too busy socializing and with only the two trains, there is NO sense of urgency. Lethargic is the word I use here. There is no reason for those trains to be sitting in the station that long. Heard several people muttering about this.

As always, with Kennywood, the woodies were running great. I can't believe they keep these things running like they do. For those who don't "get" Racer, I feel for you. It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less, great fun. But no hand slapping going on? C'mon, Pittsburgh...what's up with that? I had people looking at me like I was an idiot for trying. (no rude comments, please. :))

I still think that Raging Rapids is one of the best of its type. Nice ride action. Log Jammer. What can I say? The dip and fast paced middle level make this ride. Glad to see it running so well. And just wet enough.

Park looked great, rides were in good shape and like I said, everyone was having a good time. Dropped a lot of coin and never felt like I was getting raped. I feel like I get my money's worth here.

Food? First time I had Patch fries in years, still "meh" to me. Waited too long for dinner and by the time we thought about of it, most of the hot food stands were cleaning up for the night.

Closing notes....

Bayern Kurve...my favorite flat of all time and I thank you, Kennywood, for keeping this classic running so well. This is one of those rides that just beat you up enough that its not violent, but you know you were on a real ride. Do the ops actually "drive" this ride? Seems my second ride was a bit different from my first.

And finally, something my riding partner and I both noticed. Why are there no native wild birds at Kennywood? Usually, at any park I've ever been to, you sit down to eat and there will be sparrows all around looking for handouts. At Kennywood? NONE! Not one bird was seen mooching all day. In fact, there are hardly any birds in the park. Just strange.

Thanks for reading, now go visit this park!

obxKevin said:

Bayern Kurve...my favorite flat of all time and I thank you, Kennywood, for keeping this classic running so well. This is one of those rides that just beat you up enough that its not violent, but you know you were on a real ride. Do the ops actually "drive" this ride? Seems my second ride was a bit different from my first.

I don't think they drive the ride in any way that you would notice. The ride is not on a timer and they have to break it manually, giving it the reputation as being the most difficult ride in the park to run. As far as I know though, from when they press the start button to the stop button is all computer controlled. I'll try and find out for sure if I get a chance this weekend. For what's worth, it's the only ride I've seen with voltmeters and ammeters built into the control panels.

The Kurve is run manually.

Thanks kpjb, it FELT like it was manually driven. It seemed that the speed increases were timed slightly different on both my rides. And I looked for you, wanted to say hi.

More specifically, the tilting of the cars is automatic but dependent on speed, and the speed is controlled by the operator. The braking is also done with an old-fashioned brake pedal. It can be a difficult ride to run... probably the hardest ride in the park to train people on.

Ah ok. I wasn't sure about the speed increases. I knew the cars tilted automatically, so I figured there was a good chance the the ride got up to full speed by itself.

The Racer crew is lathargic indeed. 2 ops up top bs'ing, while 1 less than motivated crew member on the platofrm who can't ount even close to 48 is unacceptable. Period.

I haven't been on Racer all year because of the slow operation. It's much like Phantom with only one train, there is no urgency unless it's closing time.

Well, just so everyone knows, there WERE two people on the platform checking restraints.

They both (slowly) walked down the one side of red train while op #1 checked restraints. Then they both crossed the platform to the blue train and op #2 checked those restraints. They were side by side, socializing, during the entire process. They even managed to throw a good bit of time in between finishing restraint checks and signaling clear.

Pathetic.