Park Review
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania June 3, 2001 My first trip to Kennywood came at the trail end of a weekend that included CoasterRania (sic) and another rainy day @at Six Flags Worlds of America, where I finally got to ride X-Flight (freakin� intense ride!). Anyway, there have been so many reports about Cedar Point & SFWoA that I wont bore you all with details of those days (if you really care, look on coasterbuzz.com for CP and refreshinglook.com for SFWoA, under the nicknames 2hostyl and hostyl1 respectively). In any case, I am specifically doing a trip report for KW here primarily for Adam as well as any other "traditionalists" on the list. I arrived at the park about 10:20am (gates open at 10:30, rides start at 11), park in the free parking lot, and meet up with my buddy Greg. KW is Greg's home park, so he offered to show me around. It was a little weird standing there at the gates to buy tickets because I usually either have ticket in hand (via AAA) or a season pass. There were a lot of people out due to some company picnics, but we were through the gates in mere-micro-mini-moments and Greg asked, "Where to?" As if he really had to ask! We went straight over to the Phantom's Revenge queue and were about the seventh and eighth people in line. After a brief testing delay, we walked into the station and directly into the last seat of the train. (First train out!) The first drop is one of those annoying curved drops ala Shockwave @ Six Flags Great America (I strongly dislike those), followed by a ground level flat section (another pet peeve of mine). Then comes the famous drop through the Thunderbolt. The drop is (to borrow a phrase from Nate K. & Chris K.) "a total ramp", but my butt was out the seat the whole way down. The pullout turn gives some good positive G's. Then there�s a wide fan-like turn and another dive into the ravine and we were now ready for some of that Sweet Morgan Air (TM) that I have heard so much about. The first two bunny hills gave some nice out of the seat action. Then we hit a part of the ride I didn�t know was there: a double down. It basically felt like ejection-SLAM-ejection into a hard right turn and a couple more hops into the station. That double-down sequence felt a lot like the double up on The Legend. In order for a coaster to be a favorite of mine, it has to do something that sticks out; for PR, it's not the "ThunderBolt drop" but rather that double down. We ran around and copped a front seat ride. With the single train operation, it took a while, but I think it was less than an hour. (NOTE: the second train was sitting patiently on the transfer track so it is ready for use). The front seat ride actually felt faster to me than Millennium Force. Of course it isn't, but I think the ravine trenches create some sort of wind tunnels so it feels like you are moving faster than you really are. There was a little more floatage in the front, but not as much ejection. The double down gave great ejection on the second drop, but the middle SLAM wasn't as good. I preferred the backseat. After that, I wanted to do the "just for fun" coaster: The Exterminator. The line was rather short (so Greg said). The ride itself wasn�t too much to me. It was a lot longer than your typical mouse, but the spinning did little for me. However, I thought this would be a great ride for kids. After spending some time the week before with my self-appointed God-daughters (four & six), who I hadn�t seen since Thanksgiving, all I could think of was how much they would enjoy this (I spent Memorial Sunday watching last year�s coaster specials with them and they were so excited). After getting off, we hopped on the Whip. I had never seen an adult-sized whip in a park. The ride is very simple and deceptively tame, but there are some forces to be felt there. A ride tame enough for the Rugrats, but with just enough umph to keep big kids entertained. Greg then suggested that we grab something to eat. I, of course, said that I wanted to go to the Potato Patch, since everyone raves about the fries. He suggested the Small Fry instead, as they have the same fries, but a shorter line. The fries there were good (I had garlic salt and BBQ sauce), but nothing to write home about. I don�t see what the big deal is, but I guess they were above average "for park food". The next thing on my list of "must dos" was the Noah's Ark attraction. Now, I'm slightly claustrophobic and I don�t like walking around in the dark too much, so the attraction was still effective on me. Not to mention that I was the first one walking through everything. I still wonder why walkthrough funhouse fell out of vogue. We next went over to the other two operating coasters, Jackrabbit and Racer (Thunderbolt was still closed). We got put in the first car of Jackrabbit so I didn�t get the full scare of the double dip, but I thought the ride was fun. Another ride approved for all ages. Racer was about the same. No real big thrills, just enough to be entertaining. Having tackled the coasters, I wanted to take in more of the "Only at KennyWood" experiences. I passed on the Areo 360 as, to me, it just looks like any looping starship and I'm sure one will pop up at a carnival in the near future. Instead, we went for the Kangaroo. WOW! What a nice little ride! You circle up a little ramp, and then just fall! You only fall about six inches, but it was enough to eject little kids and even gave my big butt a breather from the seat. A great thriller-in-training ride to get used to the sensation of airtime. Next we hit two other dark rides. First was the Old Mill, an old school "Tunnel of Love" type boat ride. Sure it had some "old west" scenes, but there was a lot of "in the dark" time, so you know how that goes. The Goldrusher, on the other hand, had more things that are meant to scare. Okay, the effects weren't very effective on me, but they were nice and I, as a dark ride fan, appreciated it. Again, I don�t know why dark rides have lost love, too, though the Sally Corperation is helping to change that. Keeping with �stranger� rides, we rode the Turtle, a themed tumble bug. A fairly relaxing ride that the whole family can ride together (notice a trend yet?), and I mean literally together, as like six-seven people can fit into one of these. We also got to squeeze in a ride on the Bayern Kurve, Schwarzkopf goodness - YUM! At this time it was about 3:30, and I had planned on leaving the park around 5pm to drive back to Cleveland for my flight home. However, I also wanted to pick up a souvenir or two. I figured I'd just ride PR until about 4:30, shop, then call it a day, as lines had been pretty short all day. When we went over to PR, the sign outside the queue said 1.5 hrs, which would put me right at 5pm, cutting things closer that I wanted (even though I allowed for foul up time). Greg said that they tend to estimate on the high side, so I decided to risk it. The risk was worth it, as within an hour I was re-planted in the back seat of the coaster. Again, the eject-SLAM-eject sequence got me. Not quite as good as Raging Bull or S:ROS (SFA), but a little bit more impressive than the well-running Magnum and sluggish Millennium Force of CoasterMania. On my way out, I stopped at a gift shop and got both a PR tee-shirt and an Exterminator sweatshirt (I realized that I didn�t have a coaster sweatshirt), all for less than I would have paid at most parks for the sweatshirt alone. I also grabbed an order of buffalo chicken strips and fries (with cheese this time) for the road, and bid Kennywood adieu at 4:50pm. Now, everyone knows I call myself a Six Flags brat and I love Six Flags parks. Kennywood is supposed to be pretty much the anti-Six Flags, but I didn�t see a whole lot of this traditional atmosphere. It felt very much like a corporate park to me (though, IMO, that is a good thing). The ride ops weren't what I would call friendly (though they weren�t rude by any stretch of the imagination). I didn�t notice much trash (though I rarely notice it anyway). I will say that things were cheaper there than at most parks, but that might be a function of being in Pittsburgh (Even the shops at the Pittsburgh airport are not allowed to gouge customers). So I'm still not sold on the anti-corporate sentiment that many so-called enthusiasts have. What was different was the eclectic mix of rides. There were plenty of cross-generational thrills. It's one of the few parks that I've been to where everyone could have fun. You could take a non-coaster rider there and not feel like you wasted money. It's kinda� like a thrillseeker's "starter" park. I really want to take my God-daughters (and my kids when I have some) here.
lata,
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