Phantom Fright Nights 10/16

Was a pretty nice night for October in Pittsburgh, and that brought some crowds out but things were not really unbearable. This was a last rides of the year trip and the haunted houses would have to be sacrificed in order for some riding. In doing that you still do get the Halloween feel because Kennywood does a pretty good job with a lot of little things in terms of decorations.

Phantoms Revenge- 1hr max wait for front seat. Despite what seemed like a pretty crowded night, they ran two trains and were cycling them decently fast and the line moved. Was running really well or I was just in a mood to enjoy the ride a lot. Nothing beats a cold ride at 12:40 in the morning in the front seat. It sure helps to keep you awake and was a really great way to end the season.

Thunderbolt- 25 min wait or so. This probably was the longest I had to wait for the Thunderbolt in a long time, but again with two trains and was giving good rides. Liked the orange lights all over.

Jack Rabbit- 20 min wait. Giving good airtime as always and had some good fog effects in the tunnel.

Exterminator- Rode it when it first opened to avoid what probably would have been a long wait later. Had one of my better rides on it in a long time. It was totally dark in there which made a nice difference.

Other rides- King Kahuna which was running a pretty intense start then sort of tailed off at the end and would not be a night for the fountains. Pitt fall which is the routine 250 ft drop, and some of the other flats were open as well.

Sort of missed having Racer to take up more of the crowd and to ride. I know this was talked about a long time ago, but maybe with the new trains at some point they could flip one around but that does not seem likely.

All in all Kennywood seems to have things down for Halloween and people seem to come out for it. The surprising thing is that you probably end up waiting a bit more for the coasters during this time of year than you would on most normal summer days. Still this is another great excuse to go and extend the season past labor day.

EDIT: Date should read 10-15 even though i was technically still there on the 16th whoops! *** Edited 10/17/2005 2:05:24 AM UTC by tservo***

Nice TR!

I really enjoyed my frist Fright Night last weekend post PPP. Nothing like riding Phantom is the cold Burgh air and Exterminator on "crack" mode. :-P

I kind of regret not spending the time to check out the haunted stuff but oh well. It was a blast!

-Tina

what day did you go cause the 16th was sunday and fright nights are only open friday's and saturdays. Anyways, i work there and saturday it was PACKED!!!!!! I'm talkin an hour wait for the pitt fall, That never happens. The king kahuna Que lines were filled, that never happens. The volcano had a line and that never happens. My parents went that day and only went through 2 mazes and has something to eat. The maze lines were like and hour 1/2 + Someone said there was about 14,000 people in the park. Thats a lot for Kennywood. The line for the food stands were super long. People were waiting a half hour for gyro's. I was suprised to see that the cotton candy line was long. I would never wait in a long line for some cotton candy. Things were so crazy that night. I'm a very impatient person, so i could never wait an hour + for any ride. I'm glad i work there and know a lot of ride ops so i don't have to wait in those long lines :) well Nice trip report, glad to see that you had fun.

Yeah as I noted I was there on Saturday night and I noticed some of the food lines at the peak being insane, but I knew enough to hit Lost Kennywood when it opened to avoid some of the waits and also only had about a 2 cycle wait for Kahuna.

a 2 cycle wait is not bad. thats just so weird that there was a wait period. usually i never have to wait to get on that ride. It was always a walk on, except for on hot days. There was a little line on hot days cause people wanted to get wet. hopefully next week there are less people cause that day was too packed.

^I went on the 9th. We originally had tickets for Friday night (the 7th) but they closed the park due to the rain. Ironically it never rained at all that evening, at least in West Mifflin.

Luckily my West Mifflin native friend pre-purchased tickets that were good for that Sunday as well.

It was a blast! There was a good crowd but it wasn't overwhelming. When we first got to the park (about 7pm) Phantom's station was empty. We got three consecutive back seat rides. :-) The Halloween stuff had the longest lines though, which we didn't check out. I don't remember the food lines having any wait that night. Exterminator was about a half-hour wait. Jack Rabbitt and Thunderbolt was between 10-15 minute wait.

Where in the park to you work PGH Steeler?

-Tina

i work in the cemetery. *** Edited 10/20/2005 3:01:38 PM UTC by PGH_Steeler***