First Time Ever To Kennywood...

coasterell · #1 08-06-2007, 11:45 AM

Yesterday was my first time ever going to Kennywood. It was about a 2-2.5 hour drive and it was raining. I thought when we'd cross over into PA and get further towards the park the rain would stop. Well it did for a while, but then it just drizzled for about 4 hours.

My father and friend Josh came along for the trip, and none of us had ever been to this park. When we first arrived, we parked over in the free parking area. I believe it's pretty awesome you could pay only $5 and have a "preffered" parking spot, or park for free and have almost as good of a spot.

Anyhow after parking it was down to get Josh his ticket, my cousin had gave my father and myself our tickets. Price tag $31.00. Not bad for the size of the park, but for the rides there, I'd say it could have been about $27ish.

First ride we headed toward. The Jack Rabbit. Now from being at Cedar Point and Geauga Lake as well as working both places, this park blew my mind. They didn't have any que gates, the ques didn't really wrap around 20,000 times. The lines were not longer than 45 min. for the coasters, and most of all there were not any really rude guests.

Jack Rabbit- 10 Minute Wait
The Jack Rabbit surprized me very much. From looking at it, it looks like a plain-jane kiddie wooden coaster, but it was very surprizing. Really smooth, lots of air-time. My only complaint is that the coaster could have been longer. This isn't going to be on my top list anytime soon, but I would still recommend people to ride it. I give it a 8/10.

Next we were off to the Racer, which was almost right next to the Jack Rabbit.

Racer- 15 Minute Wait
A very nicely laid out wooden coaster. This ride yet again surprized me. I like how the trains go and end up coming back into the other station rather than being right back where you started it was a nice element. This ride was very smooth as well and the air-time was insane. As far as racing coasters go, I've only been on 3 (Gemini, Racer-KI, and this one) I'd say this one is one of the better. I give this ride a 10/10.

Off to the Phantom's Revenge. We couldn't find the entrance and the park map was a little confusing. So we ended up going to ride the THUNDERBOLT instead.

Thunderbolt- 45 Minute Wait
Talk about surprizing coasters...right out of the station you go into a pretty decently sized drop. Throughout the whole ride you have some crazy drops and turns because you're following a hill. A great old wooden coaster, with AMAZING airtime. It reminded me of the Big Dipper, but this one is soo much smoother, and it appeared that they had the old hand brake working on this ride. Thunderbolt is taking a Top Spot on my list. I give it a 10/10.

Now we were off to Phantom's Revenge. We took another look at the map and finally figured it out.

Phantom's Revenge- 25 Minute Wait
The most interesting Arrow coaster I have ever been on. It has a drop like most looping coasters do, and from what I understand this coaster did loop at one time. We decided to ride in the very front, and at this point it was still the drizzly/misty rain, and some kid who rode with Josh said that it would feel like we were being pelted with hail. I must say he was right, but that didn't take away anything from the ride. AIR-TIME is the only word that can describe this ride. I thought Magnum was the king of air-time, but after riding this, sadly the Maggie has been unseated. I give this ride a 10+/10

Next stop, the Exterminator. Located right underneath the Pittsburg Plunge.

The Exterminator- 45 Minute Wait....
This coaster was nothing like I expected. I've been on one other Wild Mouse coaster before, but this coaster was a SPINNING Wild Mouse, and not to mention you were nearly in the pitch black for the whole ride. Josh loved this ride. There was a lot of great theming, and the ride was very fun. I give this one a 10/10 as well.

Since we were right by the whip, we decided to hit it up.

Whip- Walk-On
I had always wanted to ride one of these, and I had my opportunity. This was a very fun ride, and like everything else in the park it went beyond what I expected. For a flat ride I give this a 9/10.

Cosmic Chaos- 10 Minute Wait
Themed like a Space Ship, and aliens this ride is similar to Avatar at Kings Island, but it's also very different. Instead of riders sitting on the inside in a skateboard type vehicle and going over a bunny hill, they sit on the outside of a UFO type vehicle and go back and forth while spinning. Usually these rides make me dizzy, but this ride was the right amount of fun. I give it a 9.5/10

Since it was getting late and we had a long drive back home we wanted to compare the back of Phantom to the front.

Phantom's Revenge ride #2-15-20 Minute Wait
By this time it had stopped raining completely, so we were in for a full-effect ride. Went up into the station and headed toward the back. Most lines had 4-5 car waits before us, but surprzingly the back only had a 3-4. We waited about 15 minutes max. Climbed in for one of the most intense air-time filled rides I have ever been on. The back seat of this ride never lets up, and just when you think you had enough air, you get thrust out of your seat once more. This ride is by far one of my favorites. Back Seat gets a 10+/10 as well.

Good-
Clean Park, Not really long waits, Friendly employees, reasonably priced food.

Bad-
Confusing Maps, raining all day, not enough coasters

Ugly-
The route we needed to take home got closed down, ended up having to drive 3 hours home instead of 2, was stuck in Pittsburgh for nearly a half-hour.

Overall Trip gets a 8/10.
The Park gets a 9/10.

epijlh · #2 08-06-2007, 12:01 PM

I hate KW's park map. It makes things more complicated if anything.

45 mins for T-Bolt? That's not short. 45 mins for Exterminator isn't too bad, considering the rides terrible capacity.

So did you like the park?

<<< 100% KW fanboy, and proud of it!

SFGAFan4 · #3 08-06-2007, 04:48 PM

How was PR's line almost the shortest?

coasterell · #4 08-06-2007, 07:51 PM

to answer the questions...

I loved the park and plan on returning as soon as I can...

I believe that people didn't want to ride Phantom because it was raining...

Emann · #5 08-06-2007, 10:00 PM

I'm glad you had a good time at the park, it doesn't seem like the lines were to bad.

**Andrew P** · #6 08-06-2007, 10:25 PM

To coasterell: I've never been to the park. However, sounds like you really enjoyed yourself, plus you gave a GBU to the park when most people tend to include the U with the B in their posts.

According to your TR, I'd like to take a drive past the park first, then maybe visit.

Maybe if I could get another positive KW TR from someone outside of 200 miles...

nitro4lyfe · #7 08-08-2007, 11:39 PM

Ive never waited for the phantom's revenge line more then 25 minutes. And ditto with the thunderbolt. And usually i ride the exterminator early so i can get it in. Anyways, did the PR only have 1 train running when you first rode it or something? And ditto with the thunderbolt? Cause usually both of those lines are a walk-on to the station.

coasterell · #8 08-09-2007, 10:08 PM

The Phantom and Thunderbolt were both only running one train, and the Thuderbolt line probably would have been shorter, but they were doing this really weird loading, where they loaded every other seat, then switched off the seats that were being loaded every train. I'm not sure if that's how the ride normally operates, but it seems like they were having slight mechanical problems with the trains leaving the station..

Jim S. · #9 08-10-2007, 03:54 PM

They do that in the rain. I'm not sure why. If they're only running one train, not stopping on the brakes wouldn't be a problem, and the brake run is covered anyway so it should stop.

rckrazy06 · #10 08-10-2007, 04:33 PM

Sounds like you had fun at my home park.

I'll be there on Sunday. Yah, with all the bad storms yesterday, it was probaly a bad day to go. there was flooding everywhere.