kentuckycc

Yeah that was really strange. Now the pirate ship is reallllly by itself back there. I bet they put another ride or two there next year. There is space for a small flat where the train and fear fall queue was, and a large space behind lightning run. Idk what they should add though. They have a solid lineup of flats as it is.

Nice write up! I cant wait to go when they get the waterpark running! The ride ops have never seemed very good to me, but hopefully they'll get better. I takes time to develop good training strategies, and get the right mix of new and returning people each year. Good to hear that they're still drawing a crowd, even on these hot days with no water park! Maybe there is a bigger market for the dry side that I thought.

Except they're not really fun. I'm all for keeping good rides around, but this one was kind of a miss. Not very speedy, very little airtime, and uncomfortable lateral Gs. This ride desperately needs some tweaking for sure. A Gravity Group remake would be great, but 3million dollars won't get more than new trains and new track. It seems like KK is doing more each year than we expected initially, so who knows!

That's some sad sad news... I was really pulling for a complete RMC overhaul :/

Looks like they're gearing up to open. Here is their press release: http://www.louisville.com/content/kentucky-kingdom-2015-season-opens-april-25 They also have updated the park map on their website. All the kingdom7 attractions are accounted for, plus a few new things. Notably, The rio grande train has been moved to King Louie's Playground, leaving Bluebeard's Bounty very alone. I bet they add a new ride over there and connect that area to the cyclos area next season. They also added a much needed handicap access to the other half of the park, near Enterprise. Most importantly, Twisted Sisters has COMING IN 2016 across it! They've been pretty silent on its future, so its good to see that a refurbishment is still on the agenda and it's not getting the axe. http://www.kentuckykingdom.com/park-info/park-map/

Has anyone seen any construction on cyclos? Or testing on T3? I feel like they're cutting it super close haha.

This would be a nice change. More families enjoying the park together and not treating it like a daycare, and less unaccompanied kids/teens causing any ruckus at the parks.----- Sorry to break it to you guys, at my place of work we have dealt with this problem since season passes have been introduced, and free parking and even free general admission doesn't seem to make a difference one bit. Even on the days we restrict free general admission for unaccompanied minors, they still arrive with parents and the parents seem to turn them loose on the place. Management addresses the issue the best they can by threatening and following through with revoking passes either temporarily or for the entire season for those who misbehave (our wristband bar-code system tells us which season pass each wristband belongs to). I haven't been to KK to see how well they handle it, but I have found that you need to set the standard early and follow through with it to keep the "daycare" kids from thinking they run the place. Local parks that are reasonably priced and easily accessible from major residential areas are never going to fully eliminate the daycare problem, but they are forced to have make the best of the situation. Without giving names, I do know of one park that severely put a dent into this problem by outright jacking up the prices for season passes. Pass volume was reduced obviously, but many of the problems that they believed ruined the value of the park for others were reduced to a minimum. I went many times last year and it wasn't really too much of a problem. I know KK got a bad reputation in the past for having lots of uncapponaied kids, but this year it didn't seem any worse than Kings Island or other major parks. It is worse than Holiday World, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the park in any way. I did see one instance of line cutting and security took the kid out. I also saw one kid being taken out of the park (or appears to be) and this was in 10 or so full day visits. I'm not sure I would even have noticed otherwise. So whatever the park is doing, it must be working to some extent. I think we will see lots of small noticeable improvements this year, especially in the food offerings. I talked to someone in management there and they said it was very hard to even know how much food, cups, plates, etc to order. Which caused them to run out of stuff occasionally. We talked about some of the food and they said they cooked a lot more things in house than most parks, which I really appreciated. They had fresh pita chips, tap beers, good salsa, and lots of things I didnt find at other parks which have chains taking care of the bulk of the food. Plus the prices were good if you have a season pass. I'm still just impressed that they took that overgrown, pillaged, shell of a park that six flags left behind and made it into KK in a year.

I feel the same way. Its hands down the best season pass deal anywhere around. I've told so many people this morning as well and I know six of my friends bought theirs today after the news. Several were people who don't live in Lousiville were on the fence about purchasing them, but went ahead after this. I can't believe they left the price so cheap and added free parking. They easily got 100$ from me in parking last season, so I would expect changes in the season pass prices later/next season, but this is a very nice perk this year! Hopefully this will encourage parents to stay with their kids instead of dropping them off! I always thought the parking prices had a little bit to do with the amount of unaccompanied kids in the park

I'm sure more people will be buying them now. Many were complaining about that problem. Even at its best, KK never offered free parking. I would say the Fair Board a lot easier to work with lately, since they've lost pretty much every other major attraction at the fairgrounds. This is way better news for locals than any of the kingdomseven things

Woah! Check the FB page. Free parking to all season pass holders!! That's a game changer there.

That's something to ponder about. They said Skycatcher is fully erected. So, what could this be? . . . It's been really cloudy for a few days in louisivlle, so that pic cannot be from the last day or so. I think that's probably still skycatcher.

Nope that's incorrect this was posted today by ScreamScape Park News - (3/11/15) According to Kentucky Kingdom, the old Dragster cars once at the park were sold off to another park, and the Greezed Lightning trains are no longer on site either, so it seems the photo sent in was a bit old. Shame... Clearly still on site!!! When someone asked about the trains, KKs exact facebook response was: "We do not have the trains for Greezed Lightning. The dragsters in the picture on screamscape were sold to another park." You can see the post on KKs facebook. Idk why they would lie about this? It's obvious that they're there. Just say something vague like "stay tuned" but don't just lie about it lol

I'm okay with that. The dragsters were cool, but also expensive, loud, and took up a lot of valuable space that could allow for several flats, or maybe a smaller shuttle type coaster. As for the trains, I hope they go to good use! Those rides are classic, but an old Schwarzkopf really isnt what KK needs.

Wow that would be unexpected if they did something with those trains. IDK what, but I love that style of lap restraints. I've always thought it would be cool if parks had an onsite "park history museum" type of thing. It could be a themed restaurant or something that had old ride trains, pictures of old attraction, park maps/memorabilia, etc. Since parks change so much, it would be cool for people to see/ remember how parts of the park used to be. Even a relatively new park like KK could fill up a place like that easily.

That sounds pretty plausable; an new ride promotion per week. I've never heard of a park keeping their new attractions secret this long, let alone until two weeks before opening. Wouldn't they want to use them to drive season ticket sales/ keep up interest in the off season? I think kindgomseven must not be anything major other than what's already been announced. Or it could be hinting at next years attraction, which could mean big things if they're teasing this early! Are we sure kingdomseven is sometjing for this season? I thought I remembered them saying something on FB confirming that it's realted to something this season, but I'm probably misrememberingn that...

Although I have no real knowledge of these things, I think 6 million seems doable. I mean Lightning run was 7mil and they had to remove an old coaster. With this one, they would not have to do much, if any, footer construction. Plus they get to reuse some of the existing support structure. But I'm sure there are lots of variables that make this kind of project more expensive/difficult as well. One this is sure though; when they start on it, we will get to take plenty of construction update pics since its right on crittenden haha.

I didn't even consider a water slide. Thats a big draw for KK, and literally half of the park is a water park. They seem to have one of everything there already though. The water park is almost on par with Holiday World, and much better thank Kings Island's, so I could see them investing more into it.

I'm 99% sure it doesn't. I like the light packages, but I have mixed feelings about them on permanant attractions.

The park has always been leased from the Fair Board and Hart and his investors have planned to spend $70M over the term of the lease. Yes KK is between 2 major parks, but that doesn't mean it can't carve out its own Niche. I've said all along that KK needs to install unique rides. People may not choose to go to your park OVER their annual trip to Kings Island or Holiday World, but they may choose to go instead of other local non-amusement park attractions if you offer them something different. The biggest problem that the current staff is fighting against currently is the Six Flags perception of the park. It's not one that is easy to shake, but given time, I think that will change. Kentucky Kingdom is never going to overtake either of the surrounding parks as a "destination," but I do believe it can be a great park that serves the city of Louisville and provides visitors with a fun way to spend a day. I for sure think there is room in the market for KK. Kings island is a good 2hour drive from louisvilke, so it's had to make a day trip there. I bought a season pass for KI once and just couldn't go often enought to really justify it. The water park expansion was a grea idea. Locals get tired of rides, but a good waterpark will keep local families buying season passes year after year. Holiday world also had a terrific water park, but I don't want to drive so far when I just want to spend a few hours Putin the sun on a Saturday. As far as the dry park, I like where they seems to be going. KK doesn't need a 300ft BM or anything. Smal unique rides will rides could really put the park on the map. Lightning run was a GREAT start! But it wouldn't have worked out for KI or holiday world anywhere near as well IMO

Worse than removing/not adding any rides, they let the park go to crap. It was dirty, faded, rides had half finished themes and advertisements. There just was nothing good going for the park during the six flags era, and the park got a terrible repuation, which was well deserved. Really the whole six flags brand got a bad reputation during/prior to the premier bankruptcy. It will take a few seasons of good rides and atmosphere to turn this around. This year seemed like a good start though!

The dragster area is perfect for some good flats, but I could see them holding off on opening that up with the twins. What rides would go good? I want one crazy flat that is new to america. Cyclos will be an awesome addition no mater what

i cant see them adding a lot more to the front side of the park unless they expand the front side of the park. I bet one of the new rides goes by bluebeards bounty or whatever the pirate ship is called. Might as well finish off the last open, easily accasable spot in the front of the park so they can start landscaping and stuff. It's all dirt right now.

Are we 100% sure they are new attractions? I mean I saw the news report, but local news stations have shared some misinformation before about KK (recently they mistakenly said the twins and lightning run were to become one coaster).

I would bet the'yre adding some more new rides to the area around T3 to get more people over there. They mentioned a new restaurant called Taco Tequila thats going over there, so I bet a ride or two will make it as well, hopefully filling that ugly hole from the top eliminator dragsters. As for what rides they are... I hope they add some simple, fun carnival type flat rides. A tilt-a-whirl or a scrambler would be great. A zipper would be amazing since its my favorite all time flat ride! Cant believe they are pulling all this off. Its amazing what you can do with taxpayer backing haha. EDIT: Also Zamperla also makes some WILD flats, and since they are buying something from them anyway....

#kentuckyseven on their facebook page (vii). Wonder what it means?! It seems like an odd time to start hinting at a ride, unless it's something like what they did at holiday world last year for the bug new coaster. Maybe it's something to do with the twins? They did stop operating after the 2007 season so it's been seven seasons they've been down?