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Kennywood Park

With the quote from Reilly (the new CEO), I'd guess this was something of a forced retirement. It sounded anecdotally like last year's operations of the park were dismal and they're looking to turn that around with some new blood.
 
Pushing out an operations focused GM with 40 years history sounds really short sighted. I'm reading this as mixed news, there's no doubt they bungled the Steeler Country opening (still not fully open yet!) but cleaning hose like this makes no sense.
 
Kennywood is celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Jack Rabbit roller coaster this year....Amazing, when you consider how short the shelf life is of many coasters, or they get so rough they become almost unrideable.
 
Kennywood is celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Jack Rabbit roller coaster this year....Amazing, when you consider how short the shelf life is of many coasters, or they get so rough they become almost unrideable.
It's incredible how well taken care of the positively ancient coasters of Kennywood are. Gwazi opened in 1999 and got so rough it barely ran for over a decade and a half before needing to be replaced.
 
Palace Entertainment, the U.S.A. division of Parques Reunido, is moving most of their Executive support headquarter operations to the Pittsburgh area, near Kennywood Park. Only the Finance and Information technology will remain in their present Newport Beach, Ca. location. Palace Entertainment (Parques Reunido) owns and operates 21 major entertainment venues in the USA and Australia. ......Press Release from Palace Entertainment's Chief Operating Officer John Reilly who will also be relocating to Pittsburgh;..."Positioning our support teams in the Steel City better aligns our company to create great guest experiences at Kennywood and across our unique portfolio of twenty one parks and entertainment centers in the United States and Australia" ............Palace operations will be temporarily locating to offices in Monroeville (Pgh. suburb) while they are completing the renovation of the former Kmart site (property owned by Kennywood) that is located across the street from Kennywood Park in West Mifflin (Pgh. suburb)..............My personal feeling is Parque Reunido has big future plans for Kennywood. Kennywood, a number of years ago, bought considerable property acreage adjacent to the park, which they haven't developed yet. Presently, Kennywood is difficult to get to since it's far away from any major highway. But with the approval of the Rt, 43 highway extension, that should be completed within the decade, Kennywood will have easy access from the Pa. Turnpike and the Parkway highway, since the new highway will pass within a few blocks of Kennywood and have a major exit fairly close to the park. With the Rt. 43 highway, Kennywood would have the ability to expand their operations to that of a Regional Park, instead of the largely local park that it is at this point in time.
 
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Here is confirmation.



I am glad they are bringing back the original name and theme. It is one of the first rides of it's type. We wouldn't have PotC if it weren't for The Old Mill.
 
I believe the plan is to open it in 2020.
Yes. :thumbsup: ....Nick Paradise, Kennywood spokesman: "Start of the season or very soon after"....... I'm hoping they fix the boats, or the on board weight issue in relation to the water canal, also. They were having a terrible time with load weights , often limiting each boat to two people and splitting up families, even people that weren't heavy. That was causing the attraction to have 'nightmare' like low capacity issues.
 
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Yes. :thumbsup: ....Nick Paradise, Kennywood spokesman: "Start of the season or very soon after"....... I'm hoping they fix the boats, or the on board weight issue in relation to the water canal, also. They were having a terrible time with load weights , often limiting each boat to two people and splitting up families, even people that weren't heavy. That was causing the attraction to have 'nightmare' like low capacity issues.

Like Flight of Passage? KIDDING. Or am I?
 
Like Flight of Passage? KIDDING. Or am I?
Funny you said that. I almost used that as a comparison, but it's too off kilter. The capacity of Garfield had to be in the low hundreds, it was that bad. Most of the time I saw the ride, the queue, which isn't all that large, was pretty full...and it would take what seemed forever to slowly snake through it......and the ride, as I said above, was really terrible.Perfect example of why using a popular IP doesn't necessarily mean a bad ride is a good ride....The ride has a great location at the park's entrance. It's right after you pass the SkyRocket Coaster. A nice little launch coaster but way too short at under one minute.
 
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Kennywood just announce they, and their sister parks Idlewild & Sandcastle water park, will open July 11th to the public. They will open a week earlier to AP's.......Kind of like most other parks *Reservations needed for day of visit *Masks *Social Distancing......and a twist on masks. I can't find this on the Kennywood site but this is a quote from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette of the story, "Masks will be required for all staff & entrants, except chilren under three or with a medical condition. They are not to be worn on any attractions or pools and are not necessary while waiting in line or walking between attractions".
 
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Kennywood just cancelled their Phantom Fright Nights (A poor man's version of HHN, though hugely popular) for the Fall. But the park will remain open on Fri. Sat. & Sundays in Sept./ Oct., nonetheless.
 
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