Jim S.

Dick Knoebel needs to have a chat with Kennywood about the historical signs on their rides. Phoenix has a double-down, and the Kangaroo is not the only Norman Bartlett ride left.

Awesome trip report! You might want to get in touch with the guy who runs RCDB.com about that Jet Star. All he has listed at that park is a Wacky Worm.

If you're only going to be there a few hours, don't buy the handstamp (unless it's the one at night.) Just buy tickets. You'll save lots of money. On days when handstamps are available, they only run one train on the coasters. The lines are never too long, but they don't fly like they do in two-train operations, unless for some reason you don't want the front or back seats. Food recommendations: International Food Court: Anything from the Mexican section. Great size for the price. (None of the prices are bad by big-park standards, but the servings are smaller at some of the other sections.) Haluski if you like Polish food. Alligator Bites if you're adventurous. They really do taste like chicken, although they're a little chewy. The Wharf: Fancy Fries: Waffle fries with cheese, bacon, and ranch dressing. Spud Platter: Waffle fries with cheese and chili. D&D Pita: I don't know what it stands for, but it's a huge cheesesteak made between two slabs of pita bread. It's intended for two people, but I've been known to finish one myself, IF I haven't hit the fries first. And it's only like $5! The Wharf is also a good place to get real iced tea, as in fresh-brewed tea rather than whatever unidentifiable substance Pepsi puts in the fountains as iced tea.

According to Kozmo's Facebook page, they put the sealant on the track this week. I'm surprised they didn't do it a long time ago, some of the track is looking pretty old already. Yeah, big news I know, but it's the only news there is.

Nobody answered the restaurant question yet. To be honest, I have no idea how many restaurants they have there. I went straight to the Panda Express because I knew I could get decent food at a decent price. If you're not into American Chinese food, I have no idea what to tell you.

This is Knoebels we're talking about. The ride will be there forever, as long as they can think of ways to keep it running. They kept a kiddie coaster running for over 50 years because people liked it.

I rode it today. The line was still all the way across the bridge, and it was moving slowly because some kids were actually afraid to ride it! (The lift hill is much higher than HSTC was, I suppose to make up for the chain not throwing you over it violently. But the height requirement is much lower, due to the individual lap bars.) They let one very small girl off after one lap, and then gave the remaining riders three uninterrupted laps. Despite all this, the ops were having fun. In fact, one guy said that he loved running it and wished he could stay there all the time! The lift seemed to be running faster than in the video. Sometimes the train would almost come to a stop in the station between laps, other times it would proceed directly onto the chain. Other than checking for kids in distress, they're probably still trying to get a feel for the operation of the ride. Hopefully they'll get it flying up to their normal standards by Phunfest, when enthusiasts will descend upon it in large numbers. I'm glad to see that it doesn't smash the hell out of my knees since the cars are more open than the old ones, nor smash the hell out of my ass and lower back since the hills aren't as violent. (They're still good, just not insane.) My only concern was that the custom lap bars, which are T-bars, would endanger my crotch. Luckily both the bar and my crotch stayed where they were supposed to. I did keep smashing one thigh against the bar on the turns, but no damage was done. I refrained from suggesting that they pad that section of the bar because I suspect that the thin foam rubber that they used on the horizontal sections will quickly rot away under the influence of weather and skin oils anyway. Moving on, since this is a Knoebels 2009 thread and not a Kozmo's Kurves thread, I have something to report about the bumper cars. I don't know what they did to them, but they're running really slick. Much slicker than I've ever seen them. They glide around like a brand-new set. While this means that you tend to coast through crashes rather than just sitting there, which is good, it also means that it's harder to regain control if you get spun and if you do get pinned somewhere its harder to get out of it. I saw more unintentional head-ons today than I ever have. Luckily, as I said, they tend to keep going smoothly as long as there's space. I don't know when they found the time to do that much work on them, because they were nowhere near that slick on opening day and by the time of my last visit in June when the park was already into daily operation, many of them had actually become quite clunky.

How many laps did you get? With HSTC, it could vary, but it was always a decent number.

Someone said they didn't like the boxy cars. I for one love the fact that they're big and open. The only complaint I have is about the weird lap bars on Phantom's Revenge.

According to Kozmo's Facebook, the ride is OPEN as of 1:40 PM EDT today!

"We have also added a new safety feature, with each rider having an individual lap bar, meaning that the child and parent can have the lap bar for their individual needs." What? A family coaster with individual lap bars? How big are these cars? Conversely, how big of an adult are they expecting to be able to ride? I can only hope that if they think kids need lower lap bars, it means that the coaster will be as good a ride as the one it replaces. Unfortunately, I suspect that they're just trying to lower the height requirement to get more customers.

They claimed it was going to be custom, but so far nobody has figured out exactly what is customized about it. I suppose you'd have to check the measurements. I for one am hoping they speed up the lift hill like they did on the High Speed Thrill Coaster (but without the internal combustion engine, please.)

Someone recently posted on Kozmo Knoebel's Facebook page that they heard that Hershey bought Knoebels, and they were pretty sure that they didn't but they wanted to check. Gee, I hadn't heard that for several years now, but anyway, Kozmo of course said that it's untrue, the park is not for sale. But then, right under that, someone else says that they've heard from reliable sources that it's been bought by Great Adventure. Wow! If this were anybody other than Knoebels, I could understand not trusting an official spokesperson, but a park that's BANKRUPT?

http://knoebels.com/pdfs/HalloFunonline.pdf No prices though. If I remember rightly, last year it was $2.50 per ride no matter what the ride, which is a considerable increase from normal for the flats.

I'm not a huge fan of the Millennium Flyer bars either, unless there are some somewhere that stay where you put them better. (I rode the Hershey Wildcat in its first year with the new trains, but I can't remember if they behaved or not.) The bars on 2-bench PTCs can be about as bad, although riding Twister this year it seems like they've tightened them up decently. As far as Cedar Fair and Arrows are concerned, when I rode Corkscrew at Cedar Point last year I was damned glad that they had a belt on it, because my restraint was so loose that it felt like the belt was the only thing holding it down. Except at the end of the ride, where I instinctively pulled down before trying to raise it and had it lock at a lower position than it had been. Complete junk. They should leave the corkscrews as a decoration over the midway and tear the rest of the ride out.

The track was complete by the end of the season in 2007. They spent 2008 trying to make the cars ride the way they wanted, and at the end of the season they announced that they thought it would be ready for 2009. Then over the winter they tore up parts of the track. Its almost all back together, but I don't know what's going on other than that.

Wow, it must have been in top form that night! I've never lost items, or seen items get lost, on Phoenix. Opening weekend this year though, I managed to lose my sunglasses on the flyers. I think it was the wind, yeah, that's it, the wind... It certainly wasn't anything I was doing.

I hate to break it to you, but none of this is new. That gray car has been around for a year or so, not always on the track though. Merchandise appeared in 2007 or maybe even 2006. The footers between the helix and the road, next to the Flyers, are left over from the first attempt at a storage track (I'm not sure why anyone thought this was a good idea); the set by the brake run are the new location for the storage track. (I'm not going to get worried by the lack of one unless they hold up the opening for it, since the original plan was to open with one train til the other two could be made.) Was any track on-site yet for Kosmo's Kurves? The footers all appeared to be done three weeks ago, so I'm hoping they get it up soon.

I'm going to miss Laser, even though I only rode it once per trip due to the slow ops and the fact that somehow I always end up in the park on a day that its too hot to enjoy such a forceful ride. (You know you're not properly hydrated when you hit Talon at the beginning of the day and still gray out on the loop.)

Starting around 2008, Hydra has had a vibration problem. Not like a Vekoma vibration problem, but nowhere near as smooth a ride as you'd expect from B&M. Depending on your size and shape, you may be able to mitigate it somewhat by sitting in a center seat instead of an edge seat. I don't know why people complain about the shortness of the ride. It's compact, but it's twisty and works really well with the terrain. I quite like the design, I just don't like the way it rides.

I see somebody mentioned the carousel, but if carousels are your thing, don't miss the carousel museum. If you like spinning rides, I recently saw somebody say that Knoebels Wipeout has a better program than some. I've never been on any others, but I can tell you that it's intense! Downdraft is also good for a huge serving of centrifugal force. On the opposite end of the thrill spectrum, the antique cars track is longer and better landscaped than most.

In my opinion, the brake doesn't ruin the ride (like the one on the Hershey Comet does), it just makes it not equal to Magnum. I always ride the front or back though. On the other hand, those people who think that Magnum is TOO forceful (yes, there are some, it must depend on your body shape) should love Steel Force.

The "Three Amigos" Mexican sampler platter at the International Food Court for $5 is a great deal. Its far from authentic Mexican style, but its still tasty.

I wouldn't go to Kennywood if you can't spend the whole day there, because you'll probably encounter long lines. Also, in this weather pattern, I would never pay to go anywhere where I could get rained out. The biggest thing that Kennywood has going for it vs. Knoebels is of course the hyper. The wooden coasters didn't live up to their legend for me for some reason, other than the one killer drop on Jackrabbit, but hey, its one element out of three coasters.

When I was there last June, they washed the windows of the hotel several times. However, in addition to the bugs, the wind was giving them a coating of seagull crap.