Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom
Louisville, Kentucky
By Nate Kohlrusch
May 12, 2001
Note: I use the Griswold rating scale of �3 to +5, with 0 being slightly favorable
THE PARK: General Impressions. +3.5
Just a few notes here, as we didn't spend much time at this park; basically, we were running from coaster to coaster to make it on
all of them before park closing. We did get a ride on Blizzard River
(rapids ride), and though it was still fun, it seemed slower than last
year (and many of the effects were not working). I'm hoping that's
because it's not yet summer, or else I can throw in my famous "That's Six
Flags for you" comment. Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom has a horrible layout, but much of it isn't the park's fault (it's built on a fairgrounds for crying out loud).
Some of it, though, is downright frustrating. For instance, the walk
from Twisted Sisters to Blizzard River is horrible; it's simply a path
between two 8-foot-high walls! There isn't even any grass or
landscaping, as the walls line the edges of the path. It feels like
they're construction walls, though they're not. The park wasn't overly
dirty (in fact, I didn't have a problem with that at all) but loading
times were slow. Chang constantly stacks, and they only run two trains
(I can imagine what a three train operation would be like). One loading
time for Chang was almost four minutes. The Twisted Sisters team could use
some work, as they weren't exactly "speedy". The guy running the Roller
Skater needed an injection of caffeine, as it took him about five minutes to
load the train (much of which was his slooooooow walk from the rear of
the train to the control booth). The Thunder Run team was terrible, and
the people checking lapbars had to yell at the ride op to hit the button,
as he wasn't paying attention at all. The teams on Roadrunner Express
and T2 were fine. It's not the worst Six Flags park I've been to, but it's not
the best, either. On to the coasters.
CHANG - 1997 B&M 4-inversion standup. +4.5
Chang is a beautiful coaster, and moved up on my top ten list from #8 to
#7 (now ahead of B:KF). This is everything Mantis should be - the
layout is very similar, but it's smooth, fast, and intense. There's some
wonderful hang time in the vertical loop, and the diving loop is (as
always) great fun. The banking transition between the inclined helix and
the helix into the block brake is one of the best B&M transitions out
there, and is almost as good as Hulk's (just before the helix into the
block brake) and Iron Wolf's (between the helices in the second half). The bonus is
that it occurs in the middle of a small hill, which gives some nice air as
you're being whipped from right to left. The two flat spins are fun,
though the train was doing some odd sort of shifting when entering the
first; it almost sounded like the front car was slamming into the second. In my opinion, this ride alone makes a visit to SFKK worth it. I can't
understand people saying "I like Mantis, but I don't like Chang" but I
understand "I like Chang but not Mantis". Take away the headache of
Mantis and add another flat spin and you have the masterpiece that is
Chang. I need one of these closer to me.
ROAD RUNNER EXPRESS - 2000 Maurer Sohne Wild Mouse. +1
I am not a fan of wild mice, and this one is no exception. I get no
pleasure from being slammed back and forth in the laterals section. Still, this
is my favorite of all the wild mice I've been on (save Kennywood's
Exterminator) because second half is just fun. The drops are steep
and quick, as are the sharp inclines. I've noticed that this ride has
gotten much bumpier than last year, and it's on its way to being just
plain rough. Not a good sign at all.
ROLLER SKATER - 1994 Vekoma steel family coaster. +1
The Vekoma roller skater is my favorite model of all the family coasters
I've ridden. The rides are short, but there's a decent drop and the
final helix is fun. There are some nice headchoppers throughout the
course. Now if only SFKK wouldn't have put theirs in such a dumb
location (a roadside ditch) and had gotten some better trains (instead of
the standard gigantic roller skates).
T2 - 1995 Vekoma SLC: +3.5
I checked out this model more closely this time and it is different
than the rest. There is, in fact, an extra dip/hill before the final
brakes, and the layout is slightly altered, as there are less
footchoppers. The order of the elements is the same, but if you look
closely, you can see how it differs from other SLCs. I realized how much
I really like these rides; to me, they're not intense but they're fun.
This one was quite rough, but the bangs didn't bother me. I hate the
interruption in the flow of things, though (which occurs at the top of
every inversion and causes the banging) but I still like SLCs. Give me a
B&M inverted coaster first, though.
THUNDER RUN - 1990 Curtis Summers triple out and back woodie with PTC
trains. +4
Whatever they did to this ride this past year is simply amazing. The
roughness is completely gone, and it's actually quite fun now. Even the
usual shuffle is kept at a bare minimum, and the airtime is great and
abundant. We only got one ride in the middle of the train, but I'm
hoping to get back to SFKK later this year. A back seat ride may very
well put this coaster in my top ten list. It's obvious that some work
was done (the newer wood is very noticeable) but I cannot believe how
much it improved the ride. I hear this ride is similar to the Hurler,
and I'd like to see how they compare. I really love Thunder Run's
airtime hills, and (as said above) was really surprised by the lack of
shuffling (it's even gone in the large turn after the first drop!). Six
Flags has finally done something right!
TWISTED SISTERS - 1998 wooden CCI twister with Gerstlauer trains: +2.5 /
+3
I can never remember which side is which (Stella or Lola) and they're not
marked on the trains (which really annoys me). Both sides feature a
combination of airtime and laterals, and the laterals totally kill the
ride. The Gerstlauers here are not well maintained, and you can hear the
squealing and squeaking from across the park. The airtime on both sides
is great, but it seems that when designing the ride, CCI was more focused
on making the single duel work than on creating two really good rides. I
like the ride, but the laterals are painful enough to ruin the overall
impression. I'll take the newly redone Thunder Run.
Thanks for reading!
-Nate
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