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Kennywood Fun! Fun! Fun! Kennywood Park

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This year our vacation consisted of taking one day and going to Kennywood. I know one doesn’t think one day can be a vacation but sometimes that’s all finances and time allots. So that’s what we did. Kennywood is located in West Miflin PA which is only about a 20 minute drive from Pittsburgh PA. We totally enjoyed ourselves at a good amusement park. They keep trying to improve the park and they are doing a good job.

It is a substantial amount of money at least for us it was. We had a coupon off a Pepsi can which allowed us to get four admissions for the price of three. We paid $96 with the coupon to get four of us into the park. Now admission does include riding as many rides as you can except for a few which you have to pay extra for. I will discuss these later. The admissions gate attendant was friendly and helpful. I did have to tell her to give me my change, but we can all make those mistakes. Our group of four included two twelve year-old boys, my wife and my self (no age required for us.)

I will start by talking about the most important, and the only real reason, to go to an amusement park the rides Kennywood has many rides of different types for you to enjoy. We did not ride all of them, but did partake in the fun of riding many of them. I will discuss some of our favorites. Kennywood separates their rides into several categories so this is how I will proceed in telling you about them.

The Coaster

Roller Coasters which are the most fun rides. Kennywood puts five of the rides in this category. We rode all of them and enjoyed them all. I will briefly discuss them.

Thunderbolt This is one of the older rides and at one time the main roller coaster at Kennywood. It is a wooden coaster which does allow for some thrills. This probably was my least favorite but the others disagree. It was a little jerky for me and actually caused a little neck ache for me.

Jack Rabbit Another wooden coaster which is rather small compared to many of the more modern coasters. It is fun and nice for those who have trouble with the larger coasters, but want a taste of excitement.

Racer Another and the final wood coaster at Kennywood. This coaster has two sets of cars which race against each other on the track. I was intrigued and tried to figure out where we crossed over each other. However I was not able too.

The Exterminator This coaster is in the dark with many spins and twists which make for an exciting and scary ride at times. I am not the best at spinning rides so this one was not one of my favorites but it was fun. Ryan actually says this one was his least favorite also.

Phantoms Revenge Now that’s what I am talking about. This is the number one coaster at Kennywood. I do believe that we all felt this was the cream of the crop. The second drop on this coaster is 230′ and reaches speeds of 85 MPH. This baby is fast and the ride does not last long because of the speeds you reach, but it certainly is worth the ride. I have been told to add a little more about this ride. It does afford for the scare factor also as you climb the first hill. My wife trying to keep Ryan’s mind off the height offered that the view was very nice as you climb up the hill. Ryan wasn’t buying it he did not care for the height but did enjoy the ride after the first hurdle. As for me I took time to get right with my Lord and Saviour Jesus.

That’s all of the rides they put in there roller coaster category. Now let’s talk about our favorite types of rides the Water rides.

Log Jammer This is one of the older water rides built in 1975. I believe these types of rides are known as flume rides. You don’t really get to wet on this ride, but it is fun.

Pittsburg Plunge this ride is base on rides that they had in the Luna Parks back in the days when Pittsburgh was spelled without the H. Hence the spelling of the ride. This ride is a lot of fun and how we started our day out. It is a boat that goes up and plunges down 50′. You will definitely get wet on this one and if you get to sit in the front seat you will get the most wet. It certainly is fun. This was one of the rides we did several times that day.

Raging Rapids Prepare to get wet. You will not escape this one without getting very wet to totally drenched. It is supposed to simulate a white water raft trip. It has waterfalls, geysers, and if people pay a quarter a station to squirt people. Our boys enjoyed doing that. No Mom and Dad did not partake in the squirting of people. However, we did enjoy riding the ride even though I was thoroughly drenched both times we rode it. I can’t pick the safe seats. Ryan’s buddy the second time purposely sat next to me so he could get extremely wet. A fun ride for all.

Thrill Rides

Not our favorite category of rides though the kids rode more of these than we did they have quite a few of these rides. I am only listing a few.

Pirate Ship Is a classic and is at most amusement parks. This ride has been around for a long time. I remember riding it at another amusement park 20 some years ago. I personally did not ride it but the boys enjoyed it.

The Cosmic Chaos This UFO ride is on a track that goes side to side while spinning around. Kathie and the boys really enjoyed this. I sat it out because I know that my stomach and spinning don’t get along. (I know Wusssss). This ride also is Kennywood’s most recent addition to the park.

Musik Express This is the caterpillar ride at Kennywood. They also play classic rock and roll music as the ride goes speeding around. As many know if you sit on the outside of the car plan on being squashed. We all rode this and had a good time with it.

Classic Rides

We did not ride many of these but they include the traditional rides such as the merry-go-round, train ride and auto race. We did ride the Grand Prix which is the bumper cars. A trip to the amusement park just would not be the same if you didn’t ride the bumper cars at least once.

Dark Rides

These rides have the potential to be awesome however at Kennywood they fall short.

Ghostwood Estate This ride was added this year replacing the Gold Rusher. What a disappointment. This ride you ride around a hunted mansion with laser guns to shoot the spirits within. The lasers guns shoot and you can see that you hit the target. The targets smoke when you hit them but on some of the guns the point counter does not work. Therefore you cannot really compete against the others in the car. The car we had only had one functioning point counter. For a new ride this was really disappointing and an area where Kennywood can improve.

Garfield’s Nightmare Another replacement ride of the Old Mill which was a lot of fun. Garfield’s Nightmare though lacked something. It says on your wait for the ride you will get 3D glasses which we did not receive for the ride. This may have helped. The images of Garfield and his pals where amusing and being on of my favorite cartoon characters he certainly brought some chuckles to me, but it was not the best ride in the world. It also had a fowl smell which detracted from the ride.

Noah’s Ark The best of the dark rides but I would not say one of the best. It is a fun house type ride shaped like a ship. It really does not have anything to do with what most people think of when they hear Noah’s Ark. Don’t expect to see all kinds of animals.

They also have a kiddieland which has a minutiae steel phantom, and smaller versions of a lot of the rides. Our kids being 12 now we did not go into this area, but remembering back eight years or so Ryan did enjoy the rides at that time.

The Sky Coaster which is a bungee cord type ride and the Paddle boats cost extra to ride. I could not find the prices on the web site and we did not ride on these so I cannot say how much they are.

That’s all my comments about the rides, they do have a nice selection and they are fun. Let me comment on entertainment at the park. Don’t go to Kennywood for the shows. They have a Lumber Jack show and that’s all. While they do a good job and are talented it is not the type of show I expect to see at an amusement park. I really don’t understand how it fit’s in at Kennywood either. I am remiss I didn’t realize another show is offered. We did not see it so I cannot comment if it is good or not. It may be a really good show. It is Jason Pipatone master entertainer. They also had a wondering brass band the day we where there. The band was good and played mostly polka’s and marching songs. I did enjoy listening to them. The nice thing about the band you could ride or play games while still listening to their music.

Food glorious food. They have some very good food stands. If you like french fries you will have to stop and get some at the Potato Patch. The ice cream and sausage stands are good too. We also cheated and had a funnel cake which was great. Ryan enjoyed fried Oreo’s. The park does offer a cafeteria style restaurant which has dishes such Stuffed Chicken, Chicken finger, a seafood offering these meals sell for about $10.99. For a main course one potato dish and a side you would think that the price is pretty good. However, for the garbage you receive the price is outrageous. The meals lacked taste where overcooked and just all around awful. My suggestion is stay with the stands and avoid their restaurant.

The park has a multitude of games that you can spend extra money on to try and win prizes. Of course we let the boys play some. They have your typical array of fishing, shooting, and throwing balls games. The boys seemed to really enjoy a game which kind of reminded me of the Plinko game on The Price Is Right game show. Only you had to catch marbles after you shot them up using a pinball type shooter. The only game I participated in was the guess your weight game. I paid extra so the lady running the game would have to guess my exact weight. I one but she did come within a few pounds. I was impressed. Overall the games are good and help make your day enjoyable at Kennywood.

A few last thoughts about the park. They have lockers for $1.00 a day which is a pretty good deal. I suggest you rent one and park some of your valuables in it if you have them. I highly suggest you put your eye glasses in the locker. While riding the Raging Rapids my eye glasses actually fell off. I didn’t realize it until we where leaving the ride. So I went back and the attendants where very helpful going through checking each raft. They did find them for me praise the Lord. They suggested the locker and I do believe that it is worth getting. Another article you may want to check into a locker or just not bring is your cell phone. Mine got ruined due to the water. Of course, it was my own stupid fault so it cost to replace the phone. I should also comment on length of lines to get on the rides. We went on a Wednesday to avoid lines. We where correct in this assumption the average wait for us to get on the rides was probably about 6 minutes. Some of the more popular rides like the Steel Phantom had a 15 minute wait, but this is still not bad. So I would say this was another thing in Kennywoods benefit.

On the whole we had a fabulous time at the park. Kennywood certainly is worth visiting for a family fun day. They have room for improvement in some area’s but the rides make the park. I suggest giving Kennywood a try.

Thank you for reading my review and I hope that you have found it helpful. God Bless.

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