Day 7 - Kennywood
Kennywood is just a short 15 minute drive from the
@Mad Dog resort so we were soon at the park after a quick breakfast of coffee and danish pastries.
The park opened at 10.30 with rides starting from 11.00, we made our way into the park and got in line for Phantoms revenge,. Just a short wait late we were seated, strapped in and making our way up the lift hill.
This is a fun ride with two fantastic drops, some awesome airtime and some killer views of the area, I really enjoyed the the spacious cars and the smooth ride, Phantoms revenge is a solid coaster that gives a smooth ride with just a few jolts here and there, mainly dropping into the bunny hops
The park was relatively quiet so we had no trouble getting rides in on all three woodies.
Thunderbolt was first up followed by Racer and Jack Rabbit. Jack rabbit was my favorite of the three with thunderbolt a close second and racer third.
These are all good old fashioned woodies dating as far back as the 1920s, they all give a good ride and are surprisingly smooth for their age, sure they thow you around a little bit that's to be expected with such old rides but it wasn't too much to put you off repeat rides.
The ride attended on racer was a young lad named Ryan, this guy was awesome. He as running the ride like a trooper, loading, unloading strapping in and checking the safety of each and every ride all in his own. This was no mean feat as this is a racing coaster and Ryan was attending two trains every run. Ryan, if you are out there buddy, you did a great job and are a credit to the park. I also intend on emailing Kennywood to mention him.
Jack rabbit was the longest line of the day, this was probably due to its location at the front of the park and a small through put even so 30 mins on Labor day weekend wasnt bad at all.
Thunderbolt lines were around 20 mins and I soon passed the time learning Pittsburghsee from the back of a guys shirt, the shirt had all the pittsburgh slang on it so I'm now speaking like a local.
After the bumps and the thrills we all took a much easier ride in the parks beautiful, good ole old fashioned carousel.
Lunch was skin on fries with cheese sauce.
After lunch the crowds were still light so whilst the girls went on the Garfield ride we got two walk on rides on phantoms revenue and once on the swinging flat ride.
We headed back to meet the girls only to find them still in line at Garfield, this thing was only loading two to a boat and boy was it backed up.
We rode racer again where Ryan was still running the station. We then wandered the park and saw the new Steelers area, work is well under way here with footings going in for what's sounds like a decent new coaster for the park.
It was nearly time to leave but as the line was short we decided to hit thunderbolt one last time. Not long after being in line it seemed to stop moving, the problem here was you have to ride with a partner, no single riders here, but one guy had gone through the line and sat in the car in his own. They operators wouldn't send the ride and the guy wouldn't move. The dude we getting booed but he didn't give a rat ass and sat stubbornly in the car. No other singles were around and after repeat requests no one in the station would ride with him. From the back of the line I shouted up "I'll ride" this was greeted by loud cheers from the waiting riders and I got pats I the back as I made my way through the line to sit in the car next to the official dick of the day. We finally set off to more cheers and I got high fived all the way out of the station.
After the ride I hoped the fence to get back in line just in time to go again with
@Mad Dog.
It was now late afternoon so decided on Johnny rockets for dinner, thing was the park was steadily getting busier and busier so Johnny rockets was queuing out the door so we decided to leave the park and head elsewhere to eat.
To be cont....