Six Flags Kentuck Kingdom 7-23

Bear with me my first trip report. Thanks.

Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, I can now say Been There Done that! I had never been to SFKK and was pretty excited to finally hit a park that has escaped me for years. I live in Ohio and have had passes to all the major park chains for years but never made it to this park.

7:30AM-11:00AM~Driving- The worst part!

11:00AM-6:00PM~Now that I am in the park I am able to relax and put the drive behind me. It is time for some fun. Picked up a park map and plotted out my course of action.

Road Runner Express- Running 3 trains waited about 15 minutes. I enjoy Wild Mouses and thought that this one is just as good as any others that I have ridden. Not much more to say about this one.

Greezed Lightning- I love this ride! I enjoyed it in Georgia and enjoyed it in Kentucky. I do miss the great theming that the Que lines had in Georgia though. There was no wait for this ride all day so we rode this 4 times. The launch is nothing in comparison to TTD but it is still fun. I love these Swartzkopf shuttles. This one is second best to Montezoomas Revenge at Knott's.

Thunder Run- This has got to be the best ride in the park. It was running well and had no rough spots or pot holes that I noticed. I was able to get 2 rides in on this. I did not go back after a ride operator stapled me. My lap bar was already touching my legs but he came by and pushed it down as hard as he could. Very unpleasent ride when stapled. Even though that happened it was still a good ride.

Twisted Twins- This was really the entire reason that I wanted to go to this park. Ever since this ride opened I had excitement for it. After all it was the first wooden dueling coaster, if not the first coaster to duel. Correct me if I am wrong. There was nobody on the ride and we got an entire train to ourselves on the pink side. As soon as our train came back to the station they let us get on the other side without going around. So I finally got to ride Lolla and Stella, the Twisted Twins. I certainly enjoyed both sides they ran very smooth and provided an excellent ride. I was expecting a little more dueling though than what we got. I think the coolest thing was having a Boeing 737 fly at eye level while going up the lift. That was very cool!

Chang- Wow does this ride need a new paint job. For all of you that thought Mantis was bad before it got re-painted, think again! Mantis looked new compared to this. I have never seen the paint peel on a coaster to the point of seeing the grayscale primer under neath. To think that this ride was repainted already from the plain yellow that it once was. I can only say Bad Show! Now for the ride. I had attempted to ride this earlier in the day and it had broken down and they walked the people off from the transfer area. Now it had re-opened and it was only running 1 train. The line was not long but because of 1 train it took about an hour. Once on board it was nice to ride and was pretty comfortable. It was great not to have trim brakes half way down ala Mantis. The ride was also not as intense and as rough as Mantis. I walked off of it happy and had enjoyed it. Another fine B&M machine.

Roller Skater- What can I say? Oh, It was fun.

T2- Oh My, Oh My, Oh My. Having never ridden it, and still have not ridden it, I must say that this was the most interesting part of the day. I could not decide if I wanted to ride it or not since it is the original "Hang and Bang". Everyone that I had ever talked to has said nothing good about this ride except that it finally comes to an end. I finally decided thatI must ride it so I can add it to my count. The line was long earlier in the day and they were only running one train. So I bypassed it and went to other things saying that I would come back. Finally I decided to come back and ride it the line was at the base of the platform steps so I figured what the hey. I got on the platform and was next in line when it went down for weather! It poured in sheets! They actually ran it pouring rain untill they heard thunder. People were getting off of as if they had just gotting off of the Penguin. I was nervous about riding it in the pouring rain. Thankfully I did not have to. Anyway in the pouring rain they made us all get off the platform and out into the weather! What a bunch of crap! I was not happy and neither were the other people there. We made the best of it and waited out the rain. When it stopped we went back to T2 and they said that it got struck by lightning and it would be a while before they opened. So we went off to other things. About 15 minutes later I looked over at T2 and it was running loaded. Wrote it off and did not ride it. Oh well maybe another time.

Overall- We had lunch at Casa Mia and they had decent pizza and salads. Typical park pizza. We relaxed in there quite a bit as it was 90+ degrees outside with 100% humidity, at least until it rained. I found that the employees there were very slow and rude. It took about 10 minutes to get a pop with just 2 people in front of me at a funnel cake stand. Did not see any shows as we never got around to it. It will take a lot to get me to go back to this park. I give it a 4 out of 10. It certainly was nothing major, but it was by far the worst Six Flags park I have been to. You will have fun but I see no reason to spend the entire day there. Left early and went to PKI. Took some night rides on Adventure Express, Racer, and Beast! I guess that is a way to end any trip!

Thanks for reading!

Do you remember what the ride operator who "stapled" you looked like? It could have been me, and I apologize if it was. Ever since the HW Raven incident last year where some woman unfortunately lost her life, all of us on these wooden coasters have payed extra close to making sure the lap bars are in fact DOWN. Since TR's lapbars all come down at different levels, it makes it very difficult to keep this enforcement active. I understand that a wooden coaster with such airtime as TR is sometimes more fun with lap bars that arent all the way down, but for safety reasons, and to avoid appearing in someone's obituary, that is not SFKK's style. We will go at all costs to ensure the safety and satisfaction of all of our guests, even if it means slicing someone's ability to have 100% fun at the park.

Again, sorry that you were "stapled", and I will be sure to let my crew know to be a little gentler with the lapbars on thunder run.

Keep up the great work SFKK ThunderRun. It's employees like you who really make a difference in the overall theme park experience. I think I can safely speak for everyone here...we all appreciate it greatly!

Thanks SFKK ThunderRun. I understand the safety issue. I thought even some warning would ahve been nice that my bar was going down further. I have worked at a park in the past and I know safety is the number 1 issue. I am horibble at describing people so I don't know who it was. Hakuna Mattata! (No Worries). I appreciate the apology.

I'm not sure what the deal is with throwing people out into storms. Last year at SFA we had a horrible storm break out, and a father and two of his kids came up into the Wild One station and he was told by a manager that he couldn't wait underneath with the rest of the employees who were camped out there. To me it just didn't make sense and the man was obviously upset.

SFKKThunderRun:

I enjoy visiting this small park and plan to return. The only beef I have with this park is the one-train operations on Chang and T2. Is there a reason why they don't put on the extra train?

Other than that, I have no complaints. :)

The second trains on Chang and T2 are usually operated with on Saturdays, yet on weekdays it is usually rare to see. Most of the reason has to do with budget, and having less people in the park on weekdays.

Incidentally, I got called a F*ing A-hole today for turning away a little girl for being a quarter of an inch too short to ride. I was very polite and offered them an alternative ride, but was still treated very harshly

A word to everyone who enjoys thrills like this. Height restrictions on rides are there for a reason, and should be followed. So please dont take it out on the ride operator for turning away a child that is too short to ride. He isnt doing it to be mean, its just his job to secure the safety of all riders. Thank you.

Glad you enjoyed the park, Chittown! :) *** Edited 8/3/2004 2:05:13 AM UTC by SFKKThunderRun***

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SFKKThunderRun said:
Do you remember what the ride operator who "stapled" you looked like? It could have been me, and I apologize if it was. Ever since the HW Raven incident last year where some woman unfortunately lost her life, all of us on these wooden coasters have payed extra close to making sure the lap bars are in fact DOWN. run.

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Thank you!

I was at Great Escape also owned by Six Flags and on the comet which is an airtime machine ride operators were allowing 1 click rides meaning about 6-7 inches between the bar and my lap. I tried it to see if they'd care or not but they didn't. I just pulled it down on the way out of the station.