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Kennywood Park

Heh, that be me. Have to live up to my Mad Dog name ;)....and......Never doubt the power of Kenny Kangaroo. :lol:

Did you go over and mess up this new coaster's track? Seems like they just completed installing the final piece and I figured that you were to blame for the length of time involved. You probably kept bringing drinks to the construction crew.
 
Did you go over and mess up this new coaster's track? Seems like they just completed installing the final piece and I figured that you were to blame for the length of time involved. You probably kept bringing drinks to the construction crew.
LOL....Too much, and too often, rain this year. ....Believe it or not, I actually drink very little. Rarely ever more than two drinks But the IU people that are my good friends are a whole other story. They are a bad influence on me :toast::lol:
 
LOL....Too much, and too often, rain this year. ....Believe it or not, I actually drink very little. Rarely ever more than two drinks But the IU people that are my good friends are a whole other story. They are a bad influence on me :toast::lol:

Oh, I believe you. Man, it has rained nonstop. We at least 12" above normal for rainfall. I try to go to KI once a week at least and this week is in jeopardy due to the nonstop rain.
 
Oh, I believe you. Man, it has rained nonstop. We at least 12" above normal for rainfall. I try to go to KI once a week at least and this week is in jeopardy due to the nonstop rain.
I'll be going to Kennywood on Sat. for the first time this season , since it's supposed to be sunny. Weekends have been terrible all year...Funny thing is I doubt I'll ever ride the new coaster. 9 inversions is about 6 too many for my tastes. But I am interested in the rest of the Steeler Country area once it's completed...The park is kind of in a state of flux right now with the sale of all the Parque Reundio parks pending. They've been doing the typical cost cutting that companies do when they're turning the books over to an acquiring company. And Kennywood is the flagship park of the chain, even though it's just a 40 acre 'amusement' park.
 
Yea I head they were having staffing problems because the economy is good and they dont want to or can't pay up. I kinda always thought kennywood was almost too cheap and relied on the pittsbutgh area being cheap to live in on a pretty low wage.
 
Yea I head they were having staffing problems because the economy is good and they dont want to or can't pay up. I kinda always thought kennywood was almost too cheap and relied on the pittsbutgh area being cheap to live in on a pretty low wage.
Actually, until a few years ago when the percentage of high school kids working dropped drastically (good article, a couple of weeks ago, on that in the Washington Post), Kennywood had no problems staffing wise. In reality, that was always one of the toughest summer jobs to get here in the Mon Valley.I've lived in the general area most of my life. In most cases you had to know someone to get hired. It was a highly desirable job. They were able to fill almost all their staffing with college kids (who also don't work in the numbers they used to) and basically just utilizing three local high schools for the remaining staffing. Now they recruit from high schools in the entire tri county area and can't get enough employees even though they've raised wages a good bit. These aren't the types of jobs most adults will work, so they don't get many of those. They've resorted to attempting to get the foreign students like BGW & Cedar Point do, but they're late to the game and the new quota system numbers make it tough if you're not an employer that used them in the past.
 
Recent pics and media relevant to this thread's interests (unless you don't like these types of coasters). Coaster's looking (and running) incredible. It's a bucket list coaster for me, to be sure. :grin::grin:

Looking out at the coaster from the station (care of cduarte125 on the r/rollercoasters Reddit). This is probably my favorite picture of this coaster so far. I love these sorts of shots.
td1nieuwsk531.jpg


Test runs from early this morning:


Test run shot from a different angle. That first drop, though... It's a thing of beauty and dreams!


And, finally, from user Mr Kevinwood over on Youtube, another video taken from the Midway, with the coaster roaring through its zero-g stall right above it (first pass is around the 30 second mark, second pass--the zero-g stall--around 40secs) . Can't wait to see the pics of this element with riders--imagine being on the ground and looking up as the train roars right above you. :exclap::exclap: (High fives, anyone? :lol::lol::tease:)


And one last picture, again from the r/rollercoasters Reddit, taken at dawn by user HerpDerpinAtWork. The steam behind the coaster is from the Edgar Thompson Works (a working steel mill) beyond the park, which is especially fitting. I love the industrial look of Steel Curtain a lot more than I thought I would :)
w3T2Qgr3wYgNicsCsA3WdCVxhrYSjz_pb5PhElay2zo.jpg
 
Recent pics and media relevant to this thread's interests (unless you don't like these types of coasters). Coaster's looking (and running) incredible. It's a bucket list coaster for me, to be sure. :grin::grin:

Looking out at the coaster from the station (care of cduarte125 on the r/rollercoasters Reddit). This is probably my favorite picture of this coaster so far. I love these sorts of shots.
td1nieuwsk531.jpg


Test runs from early this morning:


Test run shot from a different angle. That first drop, though... It's a thing of beauty and dreams!


And, finally, from user Mr Kevinwood over on Youtube, another video taken from the Midway, with the coaster roaring through its zero-g stall right above it (first pass is around the 30 second mark, second pass--the zero-g stall--around 40secs) . Can't wait to see the pics of this element with riders--imagine being on the ground and looking up as the train roars right above you. :exclap::exclap: (High fives, anyone? :lol::lol::tease:)


And one last picture, again from the r/rollercoasters Reddit, taken at dawn by user HerpDerpinAtWork. The steam behind the coaster is from the Edgar Thompson Works (a working steel mill) beyond the park, which is especially fitting. I love the industrial look of Steel Curtain a lot more than I thought I would :)
w3T2Qgr3wYgNicsCsA3WdCVxhrYSjz_pb5PhElay2zo.jpg

Just got back from the park. We were riding the Thunderbolt and I got a see of one of the test runs from up high. This coaster really looks awesome from ground level. It's absolutely massive. The only negative is that the supports are ugly as all hell.....On another note, Premier built Sky Rocket is still broken. It's been down for 14 months and it's a relatively new coaster. And they're still having issues with their 3 year old Black widow ride. It rarely runs. So they've had really bad luck with new attractions. So one can't blame Intamin for everything (Hagrid issues) . It's going to be interesting to see what the new park owners do with Sky Rocket when they take control in a few months. A shame, since that was a nice smooth fun coaster that had a small footprint....And Kennywood was slammed today. Parking lots 100% filled. Lines long but staffing was good. The lines moved fast.
 
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I'm going in about 2 weeks... crossing my fingers it'll be open by then!
That's probably pushing it. The area around the coaster is not close to being done....and the Steeler Experience area is still pretty early stages. Might want to hold off a bit and monitor the situation..... The park spokesperson, Nick paradise, is on record this week saying they want to do 1,000 test runs.
 
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I'm going in about 2 weeks... crossing my fingers it'll be open by then!
Kennywood just now announced July 13th as the 'opening date to the public' for the Steel Curtain Coaster. Thought you'd be interested in that information concerning your upcoming trip.....BUT, only the coaster will open on that date. They're saying the Steeler Experience portion of the land won't open until later this summer. Lots of work to do there. It's pretty bare bones around the construction site. I'll be there again Sunday to see if much progress has been done. Taking the little ones for the kiddieland stuff, which Kennywood has a lot of.
 
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They’re running Steel Curtain a ton today, super awesome to see in person.
Yes. I got to see a run from on uo high last week. It's going to be a heck of a coaster, but probably too tough for me. Looks like lots of thrill. The only thing I don't care much for is the supports, kind of ugly. Phantom has somewhat similar supports but they're hidden by the woods it travels through for the most part. The Coaster fan groups really like Kennywood, so I'm sure they'll all be showing up in a couple of weeks.
 
I'm going to be there on the 11th and 12th, but I have to leave the evening of the 12th, so I just miss it. :curse: Unless anyone would like to pay for my change of flight and an extra hotel room? Which I'm semi-seriously considering at this point, lol.

If they have softs, please let me know. I'm also an ACE member, so I'm sort of hoping there'd be some sort of media event I could attend, but I'm not usually in that region, so I'm not sure if I'd get on that list if there is one. I did tweet at ACE, but haven't heard anything yet.
 
I'm going to be there on the 11th and 12th, but I have to leave the evening of the 12th, so I just miss it. :curse: Unless anyone would like to pay for my change of flight and an extra hotel room? Which I'm semi-seriously considering at this point, lol.

If they have softs, please let me know. I'm also an ACE member, so I'm sort of hoping there'd be some sort of media event I could attend, but I'm not usually in that region, so I'm not sure if I'd get on that list if there is one. I did tweet at ACE, but haven't heard anything yet.
If I hear of softs I'll relay that info. I'd guess they'll have some event with ACE. Thoseguys are always around the park.
 
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