Day 9: Kennywood
Day 9: Kennywood
Peter Jackson ( AKA Duck Man ) L.Y.B
Kennywood was a very enjoyable park. Phantom's Revenge was enjoyable but shorter than I expected. Enjoyed all three wooden coasters: Jack Rabbit, Thunderbolt ( morning ERS ) & The Racer. The rain kept coming but we kept on riding while we could. Lots of walking & got my daily duck fix. At the park lunch as well as the burgers there were meatballs which made a nice change.
Paul Hindle
Another great park. Quite compact - nothing too far away. Enjoyed all the coasters. Exterminator is a mad dark spinning mouse - had me laughing all the way. Phantom 2nd drop superb - and lots of bumps at the end. Racer was my 2nd mobius loop (after Blackpool) - how many more are there?? Best food yet.
Peter Procter
(see above) There's a third mobius racer in Mexico, Paul. Thunderbolt felt a little less vicious for my second Kennywood visit, no bad thing, ran well in the wet (as did everything else - take note Six Flags and Hershey!). Lots of fresh wood in the coasters, really smooth and zippy - Racer (new trains?) was lovely gliding about and Jack Rabbit thundered down THAT drop. Behind the scenes coaster access was a lovely surprise and most welcome - thanks!
Lorna & Adrian Dade
Great park with three great woodies. Jack Rabbit was my favourite with great airtime in the back seat !! Park staff made us feel really welcome and a great lunch.
Val & Derek Cromarty
Excellent rides, great food! Hello Maggie, See you on friday
Steve Davies
The terrain of this park meant the main coasters had some interesting features. Jack Rabbit had an amazing double drop, and Phantom's Revenge (loved it) a tremendous steep second drop down a ravine. The park had similarities with Blackpool pleasure beach-including the weather, unfortunately!
Ole Bredesen-Vestby
Had a great time on Thunderbolt this morning, as well as the other coasters during the day. Didn't do the river rapid due to the cold weather, but got almost soaked on Log Jammer instead. Looks like the weather is clearing up in front of us now on our way to Cleveland. I hope so.
Nina Kleppe
I had a great day at Kennywood. The morning ERS on Thunderbolt was fun, and I liked Phantom's Revenge was good, especially the second drop down the hill side. We also got to do the Sky Coaster, and it was lovely feeling to fly back and foreward. I even got to pull the handle. And it was twice as high as the Sky Coaster in Tusenfryd, Norway. Cool.
Eirik Erstad
I wish more parks could be like Kennywood. We had a great time in this family run park, with welcoming staff, tasty chips, beautiful scenery and fantastic rides. The double drop on Jack Rabbit was so much fun. The coaster looks so innocent and small, but delivers quite an exciting ride experience if you go for the back seat. Thanks Kennywood for a great day! Cecilie og Jonas, vi ses om et par dager, Trolig foer postkortene kommer frem...
David & Susan Ellis
Another great day. Kennywood is a lovely park, graced with three wooden coasters, all very good. The airtime in the back of Jack Rabbit is massive, which is a surprise to novice riders as it only has a seatbelt and no lapbar. Huge thanks to Mary Lou for the behind the scenes tours, which was a real bonus. Shame the weather has continued it's damp spell, but it didn't dampen our spirits in this lovely traditional amusement park.
David Harrington
Kennywood is a traditional amusement park with lots of historic rides including three good woodies. The best ride for me was Thunderbolt, although if you're the biggest rider (i.e. me with anyone apart from Bart!), hard luck as your ribs are going to get bruised on the left side of the train. Other good rides were Exterminator, a brilliantly themed dark spinning mouse and Noah's Ark, which offers a few surprises over the one at Blackpool. Again, a fantastic park with friendly staff.
Chris Simon
Great day at a great park. I've been there three times and each time I rave about it - Exterminator! I love it, one in Gloomy Wood would fit very nicely I think... Phantom also an excellent coaster.
Alan Prior & Carolyn Buckley
This was our first visit to Kennywood and in our opinion it's like a scaled-down version of Blackpool with a decent Arrow hyper coaster. The woodies on this park were a bit on the tame side and we felt it was a bit of a half-day park. Nice park for children though. There were some interesting comedy hats in the gift shops and the shopping up the road was good for the last two hours of the day after we ran out of things to do.
Chris Penn
Kennywood is a lovely, lovely, lovely park (that's for Richard Foster);> Despite the rain and cold weather we all has a good day and the food today was the best so far on the trip. All the coasters here are a joy to ride but my favorite is Jack Rabbit the back seat for airtime.
Tim Tipler
Some Club members have said Kennywood is like Blackpool Pleasure Beach and I can see why with all the old rides, but it's a shame BPB does not have Phantom's Revenge as this coaster is very smooth and a shed load better than the Big One. All in all a good day.
Darren and Mary
Darren again enjoyed the woodies in a friendly park, and the Phantom was enjoyed by us both. A few years ago someone told me that to be part of a club trip meant becoming bruised and battered - well today that happened to me I feel that I have some bruised ribs - so am I now a boni fide member of the Club (Ed: You have been for some time Mary!)
Even Stangebye
Thanks to all at Kennywood for making this a great day even though it was grey and rained almost all the time. Cool coasters with awesome drops, excellent Sky Coaster, friendly atmosphere and a great "behind-the-coasters-tour". Also, thanks for the Cheddar Cheese on the burger for lunch - it makes the usual lunch-burger soooo much better!!
Odd Arne Roste
ERS on the Thunderbolt was great, but I can understand why the lightest should enter first. Someone squeezed me a lot! Two coasters with great bunny hops, with a lot of air time. And Justin, why the heck did I have to sit on the side of Racer?
David Elvy
Our day started off with an hour ERS on the infamous Thunderbolt. This one surprised me with the drop from the station, via the Ravine. A really nice ride. The Park uses the ravine to their advantage on some of the other coasters, most notably Phantom's Revenge - that second drop is awesome, and the ride has a fair bit of airtime too - a great fun, smooth ride. Awesome. A great day, a great Park, the best Park food so far, and The Racer, another classic racing woody. Another good day - Thanks to all at Kennywood.
Dave Scott
Managed to convert another skycoaster-phobe into a fruitcake today - I'm sure Paul has had a birthday to remember! Phantom's Revenge is superb - combining a terrain coaster with a hypercoaster really enhances the feeling of speed. We want more of these monster terrain rides please. Kennywood is a very pleasant park, lots of green and flowers; and the hospitality from the crew was unbeatable.
Kim Varde Lassen
Must admit, it's getting harder and harder to tell the parks apart. Kennywood is a great park, but so is a lot of other parks we have been to. In any case, no bad things to say. The catering was better than average and the staff were very hospitable. The coasters where OK. I like bigger coasters better, so Phantom's Revenge took the prize as best coaster of the park for me. Lots of positive G's and high speed.
Terry Jarvis
Forget your big corperate theme parks with their big multi million dollar budgets, Kennywood is a true traditional style amusement park, America's answer to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. A great park with three classic woodies, a hyper steelie, and plently of attractions old and new.
Steve Fagin
Nice park, very hospitable attention to the group at lunchtime and a few surprises on the rides. One of these was the dark ride, Exterminator - it's interesting how a jaded ride concept (in this case a spinning mouse) can be improved simply by sticking a lid over it. Woodies - smooth, and Jackrabbit was a great ride, almost as good as Blackpool's Grand National. Many of us got to ride Phantom's Revenge for the first time - unexpectedly smooth except for a gonad-crushing bunny hop on the return. Defining moment: 2nd dip on the steelie. Worst moment: anti-British comments heard from guests in a ride queue. The latter was very much an exception to the affable American rule.
Lars Sorensen
Kennywood is a great park, unfortunately it was very wet. But we got some good rides on all the coasters. Jack Rabbit had a unexpected airtime hill, a really great ride, and very comfortable.
Bart Van Goethem
Door de wind, door de regen, dwars door alles heen... We had a ride on Phantom in the pouring rain, but we enjoyed it. We had many rides on Thunderbolt and got some oil on our trousers, but we enjoyed it. Kennywood doesn't let you down! Food was great and the presents were so thoughtful!
Tim Herre
After nine years back to Kennywood STOP Great park STOP Unfortunately very busy STOP Thunderbolt is a very special coaster design-wise, but delivers a mediocre ride at best STOP Phantom's Revenge impressive improvement to Steel Phantom STOP Exterminator great example of theming an off-the-shelf coaster STOP Due to bad planning haven't done everything STOP Will have to take lessons at Kragl College, for he has done the whole of park twice by lunchtime STOP Did Skycoaster again STOP Matthias Pies almost wet his pants while careening down from 200ft. STOP Typical onride sissy-boy STOP
Paul Freeman
ERS on Thunderbolt and then a few quick rides on Phantom's Revenge started the day. Most of the rest of the day spent on several vintage woodies including the Jack Rabbit with its lovely airtime and a nice racing coaster. Food at lunch the best so far with a bit of variety from the norm. I still can't figure how I was talked into going on the 200 foot Skycoaster - but it was a laugh!
MICK FK
Keep it short they said, ha ha, the similarities between this Park and Blackpool Pleasure Beach is uncanny. The overall Park is brilliant, some nice coasters with very unusual elements, like out of the station and into the dirst drop - what a surprise. Behind the scenes, and coasters, great photo's, and the hospitality was incredible, some amazing people. Thanks for a great day.
Martin Valt
Fantastic, rounded, atmospheric park. worth a 2 day visit.
Andrew Lamb
Had a great day day today, I really enjoyed the ERS on Thunderbolt. I really like Phantom's Revenge, and I would like to return at some time in the future.
Chris Hull
Yet another great welcome and a great park. Steel Phantom is quite a ride - even more so in the rain! A bit painfull on the face but laughed my way through it. The bunny hops at the end are just insane. Just goes to show what can be done with a rather extreme but necessary makeover and such comfortable trains and lapbars. What a drop too! The 3 woodies (Thunderbolt, Jackrabbit and The Racer) add to the park's appeal. The themed mouse - The Exterminator also shows what can be done with a spining mouse - a great ride. A great park and great hospitality too. Thanks to those concerned.
Mark Riley and Jenny Lamb
Hands down, my favourite US park. Kneobels comes oh-so-close, but there's something magical about Kennywood. All five of the big coasters are full of fun, as are the many traditional rides. The Auto Race and Jack Rabbit are gems. A special thanks to Mary-Lou for her wonderful hospitality as ever. Now, when can I return?
Mark Sebley
You cannot fail to enjoy this park! There is a Wonderful atmosphere as you are walking around, lots of happy smiling faces. The park has an excellent collection of old and new flat rides and a classic selection of coasters. Phantoms Revenge is very smooth with excellent airtime, the woodies although old are all great fun, Exterminator is a fun indoor dark ride. The excellent food and hospitality was much appreciated at lunch.
andycoasterboy
Thunderbolt today was our first ERS for some EBS for others (exclusive bench session!!!!)
The weather was on-off rain but managed to get everything ridden, the Jack Rabbit thankfully still flies over the bunny-hops.
Jeff Holmes
we visited Kennywood today but unfortunately this was the coldest day of the trip so far but still didn't stop us enjoying there good collection of coasters. Phantom's Revenge is a great steelie with surprising amount of airtime. There are three woodies with Jack Rabbit being the best in my opinion with a crazy double down towards the end. Respect!!!!
Viper
What a lovely park. Phantom's Revenge was a lot better than expected. The best coaster however is Jack Rabbit - an excellent coaster.
Paul Orsmond
A lovely looking park with some really good rides and coasters, Phantoms Revenge is excellent, and it's amazing how well you can theme a spinning wild mouse. Jack Rabbit was good as was the Racer and Thunderbolt. Really nice theming everywhere too, and the park as a whole was a joy to visit.
Michael Badelt
What a great park with a surprisingly smooth hypercoaster. Too bad we couldn't stay until it got dark. Would have loved to see the park with all the lights on. Downside of the day: probably the rain, certainly not the park's fault. Personal highlight of the day: The pain in my ribs was much less today so I actually could enjoy the coasters much more again. Yaye!!!!
Matthias Pies
Was fuer ein Tag. Es regnete den Ganzen Tag und Phantoms Revenge war auch (fast) den ganzen Tag kaputt. Trotzdem hat mir Kennywood gut gefallen. Phantoms Revenge war super gut. Die Indoor Spinning Maus war einfach nur super und Jack Rabbit in der letzen Reihe laesst EGF verblassen.
Kennywood ich komme wieder.
Malcolm Marr
In Pennsylvania fire hydrants are to be checked at least one hour before a fire breaks out! No idea how you can do that unless the state is full of psychics. It would have been nice to have had the foresight in knowing how insane Jack Rabbit was going to be. The double down has been the only bit of any ride on the trip to make me scream out in shock and then hysterics, apologies to Tim Galvelis for screaming in his ear. It was also great to see Kennywood running their rides in the rain, something that a certain chocolate themed park should take note of.
Stefan Rothaug
Kennywood's Hypercoaster ist phantom-tastisch!
John Coffield
Phantom's Revenge is amazing and very fast. The Thunderbolt was a lovely run in the rain. And I fell in love with the Jack Rabbit all over again. What a incredible park Kennywood is...
Jeppe Nygaard
Kennywood was the park for today, and we had a nice ERS on Thunderbolt. After that, we headed straight for the Phantom's Revenge and queued up a long time for the front seat. When it was our turn, it rained hard, and I had to cover my face the whole ride to shield myself from the pelting rain; therefore, I didn't enjoy my first ride much. The Jack Rabbit coaster on the back seat was the surprise of the day, and it was awesome as I had major airtime. I rode the other coasters and wanted to ride Phantom's Revenge again, but the ride was down the rest of the time we were at the park. Thanks to the park for the wonderful hospitality and for coming to our lunch time, answering questions, giving us prizes, and appreciating us.
Yvonne Janik
I love Kennywood and fly to the park from Texas every year. I loved the tours around the roller coasters today and really appreciated Mary Lou for allowing us such an excellent experience - that is a coaster lover's dream to walk about around a coaster. WOW! WHAT A DAY!
