Jeff -- yes, using the parking lot has been talked about several times. Kennywood's main problem is that the entire lot fills up as it is, let alone losing some space. Preview day made it difficult to judge, but that lot gets PACKED (that ski lift is a godsend on busy days, it's NOT fun parking way up in the upper lots and walking down... :) )
In fact, there used to be a small pay lot where the Plunge, Exterminator, etc., are now. The entrance used to be there, under the Laser Loop (which ran where the first hill of Steel Phantom sits, you can still see the old LL footers from the Phantom's queue). The entrance gate was moved to the other side of the road and the walkway UNDER the road added when that lot was closed. My friends and I STILL refer to that area as the "front" of the park, actually ;)
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--Greg
http://www.pobox.com/~gregleg/
*** This post was edited by GregLeg on 4/19/2000. ***