Taylor Finn

Kennywood has announced on Pittsburgh Today Live that the Kangaroo flat ride will be returning for the 2022 season after an extensive refurbishment! https://www.kennywood.com/plan-your-visit/experiences/what-s-new https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/11/19/kennywood-kangaroo-new-attraction-announcement/ A Kennywood Classic Returns A true Kennywood classic will rejoin the park’s world-class collection of rides in 2022.The iconic Kangaroo will return fully refurbished and ready to thrill riders with its unique ride experience – a rite of passage for younger guests seeking bigger thrills. More than a ride, Kangaroo is a timeless Kennywood tradition. Riders have looked forward to the feeling of weightlessness aboard the attraction for generations. Now, the ride that served as the inspiration for Kennywood’s mascot will make its triumphant return 60 years after its initial debut. In partnership with Premier Rides – one of the amusement industry’s leading ride manufacturers and innovators – Kennywood has begun a total refurbishment of Kangaroo. This work will enhance the experience with an all-new LED lighting package, vibrant new colors, and state of the art operating systems while still providing the classic “Flying Coaster” feel. Choose the Roo's New Look We heard you, and now that Kangaroo is bouncing back, we want you to choose the ride's new logo and theming. Vote now between two design options: Classic or Vintage. You can vote once per day through Sunday, Nov. 21 at 11:59 p.m.

I think it's ridiculous to suspend the Virtual Queue. I think Disney would do well to have the most popular ride at each park on Virtual Queue. It's not that hard to adjust your day based on a single Boarding Pass (would get confusing for multiple). I recognize that some folks didn't get a boarding pass, but isn't it a significantly better guest experience to NOT have to wait two hours to ride? I understand that part of the motivation to remove it is so they can make extra $$ selling people Lightning Lane single use passes. But the optics are really sour for me.

Hello! Visited for the first since Phoenix Phall Phunfest in 2019. First time in a while camping on property, which made for a super convenient stay. We opted for tickets not wristbands and including 4 rides on Phoenix and 2 on Twister, the two of used about $90 worth of tickets ($36 each at Weiss prices). Some notes (good and bad): 1. Phoenix was running awesome. We once and for all determined conclusively that we prefer the 3rd row to front row. Night rides are just something else. Twister was solid as well, though I still give Phoenix a large edge. Skipped Impulse. 2. Food was solid as usual, for the most part. Sweet potato fries with caramel sauce and sea salt were a huge hit. Waffle ice cream sandwich stand was closed, so they served them at The Old Mill and allowed any ice cream to be selected, which worked out well. Cesari's is probably a no go for us next time. Unless we are going to be buying a whole pie... it was lukewarm and very average. 3. This is the biggie. 31/68 rides were closed which seems to be the norm for the season. I recognize they have an astronomical number of rides. I also will note that only about 4 or 5 rides that we were interested in were closed. Flying Turns and Black Diamond being the biggies. I have no idea if increasing wages or offering a $500 bonus would have increased their labor force, but they made a very half-assed effort to attract new workers this year compared to other parks. I don't subscribe to the argument that they cannot afford it the same way Kennywood or Dorney can. In my mind, they must believe they'll have better luck next year with their low wages. This sours me a bit, because I know they're making SOLID profits still. The demand to go to the park seems as strong as ever. So, their overhead is lower with 30% fewer employees. Also, their business model (of offering ride tickets) encourages them to operate more rides. I would have thought it smart to at least rotate attendants on some of the rides. For example, Pire Ship open until 4 PM and Swings open 4-8 PM. A simple sign in front of a few rides (same goes for Kiddieland) would be smart. 4. Extension of 3 is that food lines were unacceptably long on Saturday. They had a large number of food stands entirely closed and others closed without notice pretty early in the day (by like 5:00 PM). We waited 40 minutes for lukewarm Cesari's pizza. Lines spilled out and blocked normal traffic flow, considerably. If they want to operate this way, they should cap admission to the park, because I cannot imagine what it was like on Summer Weekends. 5. Really enjoyed grabbing breakfast at the food court at 8:30 and then heading back to get ready for the day. Solid value and solid food. French toast was great! 6. Flyers were running great as ever. Only got one ride as attendant on Saturday was constantly slowing the motor, so I skipped until Sunday. 7. Campground showers should be upgraded. To charge $60/night and not offer reasonably hot water seems a bit questionable. I know they get by just fine and don't have much incentive to do so, and the convenience cannot be beat. 8. The mini golf is a really fun little course. I will note that the actual holes are all sloped down which seriously eases the game. No complaints as I am pretty poor, but I hadn't noticed that previously. Overall, did we have a great time? Yeah! We enjoyed everything we rode and most all of the food we had. But we did go back to our site for an hour or so on Saturday out of frustration. Seeing midways packed and many rides not running is a tough pill to swallow.

^I have no idea. But I will just note this: The Bayern Kurve ride has been replaced with a wooden fence to hide the vacant area. Paratrooper ride has been replaced with some green space. Again, does a pretty good job of hiding what was there. Volcano still has the theming there, but that whole area is very dysfunctional, so not surprised. Kangaroo, though? The operator booth and physical line are still there and nothing has been put into the center space where the ride sat. The optimist in me wants to think the ride is sitting in storage and that they just couldn't justify paying the person who knew how to maintain it this season (or additional employees to operate it). It would be a great "new addition" and I'm certain they understand it is the most missed of the four rides and always was going to be.

Was this a survey sent to select guests? I’m a season pass holder but didn’t get this! Holding out some hope.

Man, I hope this ride sticks around. Nothing will probably ever be built like it again. So intense and super grateful I got two laps on it (though I wish I could have gotten a front row ride).

I mean, you're not wrong. But it's absolutely $60/family of four per day price increase to get a service that essentially used to be free. If too many people purchase it, it will become a necessity. I get why they did it, but I cannot really be convinced this is a net positive. There's unfortunately just not enough Disney to go around and that is what this all comes down to.

I'm definitely not on board with this. I totally understand that other parks have largely gone this way already. And I get the Pay 2 Play model, but I've always felt a certain level of equality existed in Disney Parks when it came to access to rides. Sure, Disney has offered loads of add-ons like the After Hours events, Dessert Parties, and extra magic hours for resort guests etc. but the core experience at the park was pretty equal. When everyone could use FastPass and FastPass+, when folks were in those lines, I knew it was something available to me. And conceptually, it was just a means to spread guests out on rides throughout the day, which was super smart in theory. Disney is already charging more to get into their parks than any other place on earth, so it's not Apples to Apples to compare this to Fast Lane. Guests may choose to visit Cedar Point or most other US parks for a single day and splurge on the Fast Lane pass. Disney is a 4-10 day trip for many people. What is already a very significant investment to the park has most certainly gotten more expensive. I get that Genie + is significantly less than those options, but it also doesn't offer nearly the same level of access (less rides, limited uses in practice). The main concerns I have are this: 1. They have priced this "affordably" for now to soften the blow, but will steadily increase the price above and beyond. And because it's a per person per day commitment, that will add up significantly. 2. If they sell too many, it will essentially become a necessity. If the lightning lane line is 25% as popular as the standby line, they would need to take equal people from both lines and the standby line would effectively double in length so that lightning lane can still be "fast." 3. If they for some reason don't sell that many, they'll just be justified in increasing the cost more because of the large advantage it will provide. 4. Unlike the previous FP system, psychologically I was always comfortable with some longer lines throughout the day because I knew I would get a few very quick lines using FP to offset that. The main advantage for Disney was this psychological aspect and also spreading out the crowds. Now, if I don't pay for the Genie+, I don't get that and I'm stuck watching people get on rides very quickly while I'm delegated to the slow way. 5. Why couldn't it just be that Genie + offered you a single tier A ride and then unlimited (within the rules of the system) tier B rides. Why do they need to offer a separate pay per ride cut the line pass? It's confusing and rude, to be honest. To pay that much and still be a class B park guest? 6. I recognize that I have the option to not pay for this, but I am absolutely getting a worse park experience without it than I would if they just existed with/without the old FP+. One caveat to all of this is that it is true that there's a relatively level playing field now for on/off resort guests if you decide to splurge on this service. So maybe you save $60/night staying off property and splurge on this adder for your family of 4. But I could still use FP+ staying off property and get most attractions with the 30 day window last time I went, so it really wasn't a problem. I know not everyone here agrees with my view on this, but thanks for hearing me out.

Visited the park Saturday evening (preview) and Sunday (11-7). Overall, had a nice time and managed to get on all the coasters plus a few more rides. Here are my rankings on the coasters and musings on the park: Storm Runner - man, what an intense ride. Just front to back AWESOME. Great Bear - also reasonably intense, especially on the tail end. Unique layout, of course helps. Fahrenheit - reasonably intense moments and a fun layout. Running well! Candymonium - glass smooth and a pretty solid hyper! Lightning Racer - running pretty well. Got a superb race the second lap we took which made the whole thing a bunch of fun. Laff Track - just a blast! Solid addition. Super Dooper Looper - it's a one trick pony. I'm happy it's around, but the trims for the back half really neuter the ride. Comet - just meh. Runs smooth enough, but doesn't do much of anything. Trailblazer - it's honestly a bit of a disappointing mine train but glad it's around! Cocoa Cruiser - fine Wild Mouse - okay Sidewinder - not a fan, as usual. Wildcat - just brutal and not a lot of fun Thoughts on park in general: I recognize I was at a park on the weekend in the tail end of summer, but I think this park is getting a little too crowded for it's own good. Super super congested Saturday evening, especially at intersection to enter the hollow. Feeding off of this, I realize staffing is at a premium, but it seems unacceptable for a park this size to be open 8 hours on the weekend. With as many coasters as they have and the crowds they draw, the park ought to be open 1-2 hours more, at the minimum. Especially for the ticket price. Just my opinion, is all! Fast Track was a real bummer in some cases. Fahrenheit was loading 4 fast track and 6-8 standby (depending on if folks were in even groups, etc.). That means they were pushing through ~200 standby people / hour. Only 1,600 people could ride in a day. I realize the ride is low capacity, but fast track really sucked the fun out of a few of the lines we waited in. I would rather subsidize the $$ they make from fast track and not have it. Just my two cents. Overall, operattions were pretty good. Comet was rough, but that seemed to be the exception not the rule. Loose articles and compact areas in station make this tough. Some rides had gates open quickly, others would take forever. Mobile ordering lunch worked out pretty well Would recommend, though options for it are still limited. Don't rely on the HP app for lines. Waited 10 minutes for Sooper Dooper Looper and it suggested it was 120 minutes. Rarely updated. Candymonium line filled most of the indoor quene and was about 45 minutes. Moved reasonably fast, but was still double-stacking. The Zoo portion is.. okay. New entrance area is functional, albeit a bit bland. I know they tried to throw some character into it (plaques on ground marking history, carousel, etc.) but it's not the most exciting area. It gets the job done.

Hello! One more follow-up question for our visit on Sunday 10/10. Park is due to close at 6:00. How typical is it that they stay open beyond that this time of year? Just trying to see whether I should plan to be in there until 7:00 instead or? Looking at trains that night, is all. Thanks!

Hey guys, Going to the park this Saturday evening (preview) and Sunday (whole day) for first time in like 9 years. A few questions: 1. Does Hershey keep lines open on rides until park close? Ie- if I want to ride Candymonium on Saturday evening, can I get in line at 6:50 or something before park close? 2. Does Hershey let evening preview folks in before the two hour mark? Like if I get there at 4:45, would they let us in? Just asking from folks experiences. I know it is 15 minutes but figured I would check. 3. Reasonable to think we could do all of the coasters between the day and change? Good strategy for the evening Saturday / AM Sunday? Thanks!

We were actually at the park on Saturday as well. Only stayed from 10-12:30 to get on the coasters (two rides on Storm Runner). It was starting to get much hotter and more crowded and there really wasn't a ton else we wanted to do (water park was going to be too busy). Staff was certainly a low spot. I'm not expecting a ton of enthusiasm but we went to Kennywood yesterday and felt a little bit more life due to the staff. Otherwise, had a decent day, though I doubt I'll have much reason to return in the near future.

We had a heck of a day out in Glenwood Springs. Super busy but man, was it awesome. We drove out from Denver first thing in morning and parked at the visitors center for the Hanging Lake trail. Took a shuttle up to the hike (parking lot isn't big enough, so all hiking is done via shuttle). Did the hike in 3 hours. Came down and grabbed lunch. Went to an incredible Brewery (Casey) who is known for their Sours. From there, spent 4 hours at Glenwood Caverns (did both Caves and all of the attractions a few times). Finished up the day with the after 9:00 pass for the Hot Springs nearby. Hit all the highlights in a day. Easily could be spread out over two. Beautiful beautiful area and the park is a complete blast. Good for them, a big add.

Yup, largely positive and absolutely glad I made it out there. I don't think I missed the point, necessarily. My main complaints with Dragon Coaster reside with the trains and restraints. It was still a classic and unique. Old Mill is a ride I am absolutely glad is still standing. But I don't see an issue in saying that they could add some additional music or something in the long hallways along with a bit of theming. Just something to keep folks interested. The Whip had a huge jolt every time the car finished making the turns, it didn't necessarily look/sound great in that sense. Still enjoyed it, just an observation compared to other ones I've ben on. Derby Racer was indeed excellent! I wish it actually "raced" back and forth, but super glad to have gotten to experience it.

Visited the park on Friday evening for the first time in four years. Deno's new coaster Phoenix was great. Wonder Wheel was fun, but I feel like we used to cycle two consecutive times without any loading/unloading before... not one. Hard to swallow $10/person. Spook-A-Rama is always a hoot. The star of the evening was the Cyclone. Got a front row ride at night. Out of nowhere, this ride shot way up my top woodie list. Such an incredible and unique ride. Air time was *solid* and the laterals into each turn is still super aggressive in the best way. I can honestly say I was so impressed and I know I didn't feel that way after my first ride back in 2010. Thrilled to see it running the way it was intended to run (no brakes, etc.)

Visited the park last Thursday. $20 admission plus $10 to park, so not too bad. A few observations. 1. Dragon Coaster is just quite boring. Nothing horribly offensive about it. Just not super existing and trains are clunky / restraints are not ideal. Also, dispatches are horrible. Lots of scenarios where people can't fit into the seat properly, etc. 2. Ye Old Mill is... long. And really just not super interesting. I had to ride with a mom and two kids because no single riders and they were all bored to death. It's a shame and I recognize the long straight corridors make things very challenging (maybe these long sections were intentional, ie- Tunnel of Love). Could use some more stuff going on. 3. Other two dark rides were honestly pretty solid. Lots of good gags, though sound system is crap and super loud. 4. Kiddie Coaster was a no go. 5. Park overall has a lot of great things on offer. But also a weird mixture of some temporary rides, too. 6. Entrance gardens are nice, but the rest of the park could generally use some TLC. Significant refresh of the buildings and otherwise would do us some good. 7. They literally had no water at the food stands or otherwise. Having to buy a drink and not offering cups of water is borderline a hostage situation. 8. Volares are definitely awful, no doubt about that. 9. The Whip desperately needs TLC. Runs a really aggressive ride for no good reason. Overall, I am happy I made the trip. The park has a lot going for it, but obviously needs some work. Hopefully they do well this year and can do some of that TLC.

Planning to hopefully visit the park this Thursday around 1:00. Hope to ride the coasters, dark rides, whip, log flume, carousel, and derby racer. How long should I expect that to take on a weekday? Are crowds a concern during the week? Won't need re-rides just looking to get through the hits quickly. Anything else I should not miss / be mindful of? Can I ride Kiddie Coaster? I'm seeing max height restrictions, so I didn't know.

Glad to see you had a nice day at the park. I visited this past week and did have a nice time. The four missing flats left a pretty decent gap in the day for me. The Kangaroo and Bayern Kurve were my two favorite flats in the park. Dip Cone is the way to go, for sure!

I realize he bought the park pretty last minute to fix this place up entirely. But it certainly seems like he could've gotten the mini golf up and running, as well as the Flyers, Tilt-A-Whirl, etc. Putting in these VERY temporary looking rides just seems pretty short-sighted. Clearly not somebody who has any experience running a park. May not have an interest in doing so beyond this year. Ain't no way in the world he will put his own money toward fixing the Blue Streak if he can't be bothered to put the $$ into fixing the flats they still have left. I'd love for the park to succeed. Blue Streak, the Carousel, and Devil's Den are worth keeping around (as were the Turtles).

Thanks for the report! I personally am not a fan of them closing the Canada movie... it’s recently refreshed and to me, it’s an opportunity to replace something that’s “free” with an additional “pay” option. Not a huge deal but that’s just my view. I’m missing some of these tasty bites right about now!

Planning a visit on August 13th to do the after 3 ticket. A few questions. 1. Assume we will pay parking as usual? 2. Possible to ride all coasters, plus Log Flume, maybe rapids, and train in the 4 hours before park closes at 7? We'll probably ignore water park. 3. Any other tips, things we should not miss? 4. Anything been closed ride wise recently? Been years since I've been there. Since before Laser closed!

Planning a visit on August 14th/15th. Plan to do the evening preview Saturday night from 5-7. A few questions: 1. Can I expect to ride a few coasters Saturday evening? Or will crowds still be really rough? 2. Parking at Hershey World is free for 3 hours. Short walk to park from there, right? 3. Best strategy for first few hours Sunday? Need to get on Laff Track and Candymonium, also obviously want to ride just about every other coaster of interest. Any other tips?

Hello! We’re planning to visit on Saturday August 7th. Two of us are from PA, but my friends are from Cincinnati. I know there had been a time where certain folks just across the Ohio border didn’t qualify for the out of state passes. Is that true or would they be eligible? Also, how have the crowds been on Saturdays? We really won’t have the luxury to go another day. We can obviously rope drop the park and head to Lightning Run. But will coaster lines generally be 0-30, 30-60 or 60+ minutes as the day goes on? Water park lines on nice Saturday? Any other tips appreciated!

Well, that's a bummer. I'm not a huge huge craft guy, but it was a nice way to spend some time on the Friday before the evening Phall Phunfest and throughout the weekend.

Thanks for the help here! Wondering what crowds might be like early October on a Sunday? Is it possible to manage rides on all of the rides that are worth riding from your list above? How likely is it that closing time will be pushed back past 6:00? VirtualLine seems like something we definitely want to take advantage of. How many of the six rides offered do you think we could actually get reserved times for during the day? The trouble is that we are flying into Frankfurt Saturday AM and they are flying into Basel Friday evening. They planned to stay (and we may end up following) in Freiburg im Breisgau because Saturday we planned to explore that town. To stay on property, we would need to either store our luggage somewhere in Freiburg and pick it up Saturday once we're done exploring and bring it up to the on property resort. Or we can just stay in Freiburg and drop our stuff off, sleep there that night and then leave it with them Sunday morning to pick back up on way back from Europa park (looks like my public transit down to Basel needs to go through Freiburg anyway). I would love to have time to do a couple days but we just have a lot on the schedule and amusement parks are definitely primarily a "me" thing. Know we will be there from open to close and will make the most of the one day we have. Any tips or tricks on strategy are much appreciated. VirtualLine? Thanks!