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Twice all the way in front, twice all the way in back. But don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved the ride.

So I have badly wanted to visit Kennywood for a couple years but it's just outside of my daytrip range, and has eluded me on two tightly scheduled Cedar Point trips. Finally I got the chance to take a Monday off work and spend a long weekend hitting up Idlewild and Kennywood, with a stop at Knoebels on the way back for good measure. I even spent the 11 minutes at Lakemont on the way out that it took to get a ride on Leap-the-Dips. (Actually I also did a few laps on Skyliner because, frankly, it rocks.) Hopefully you won't mind a few non-Kennywood pics to open. Made it to Idlewild just before 4pm on Saturday for their discounted evening ticket. The guy at the ticket booth seemed genuinely torn whether to grant me the cheaper ticket three minutes before 4:00, but did. I headed right for the Storybook Forest since it closes early and did a brisk walk through, attempting to be as minimally creepy as possible. Checked out the waterpark next and did one slide, but the lines were pretty long, and nothing seemed outstanding, so headed back into the park. Main objectives here were their Flyers ("Flying Aces") and Rollo Coaster. Flying Aces is an interesting ride. Apparently it was manufactured by Premier (what?!), new for the park in 2007. However - to appearances at least - it is a near exact clone of the old Bisch-Rocco design. Unfortunately, the ride experience itself was marginal - virtually un-snappable and a very short cycle. But the ride does look great in it's simple, rugged military fighter pilot theme. Attractive rides is a common motif at Idlewild - they keep their equipment beautifully maintained. Onto Rollo Coaster, right across from the Flyers. The wait appeared fairly substatial, filling up the small queue and spilling deep into the walkways. Everyone in this photo was waiting for Rollo. But it's a very short ride, and with good ops running one train, I was boarding in maybe 20-25 minutes. I <3 manual brakes. The trains were completely awesome! Spotless, classic, and incredibly comfortable with big, soft, immaculately upholstered cushions. So how is this tiny little coaster? It is GREAT! I rode backseat. There isn't any wild airtime or big forces, or stomach-churning drops, but it put a HUGE smile on my face. It's totally a baby Boulder Dash, and while it doesn't offer that kind of thrill, it is a completely adorable little gem of a ride in a quaint, charming setting. 8/10. Next I headed over to Wild Mouse, expecting to see a standard-issue wild mouse-type coaster. What a surprise I was in for upon seeing this wacky 1985 Vekoma ride that first ran at Prater! It has some mouse elements to it, but it's definitely an interesting ride with some bigger drops. The setting is also great, tucked into the woods, with a great rustic paint scheme that blends right in. I waited about 15 minutes and was about halfway through the line when, unfortunately, the operators got the call on the radio to shut 'er down due to an incoming storm. So .... ended up missing out on the first mouse I was actually excited to ride. I also now regret somehow not knowing about the handcars and missing those too. But no matter, bigger and better thing ahead for the next day! After rolling into the Pittsburgh area, I checked into my hotel and made a beeline for the (unfortunately not original) Primanti Bros conveniently just down the road. With a 24oz Yuengling and an incredibly tall sandwich full of fries and slaw in front of me, I took a deep breath and dug in.... Holy. Crap. I really did not expect to enjoy this so much - more of a "just have to do it" thing... .but, no! It was delish! The craziest part is how absolutely impossible it appears to eat, but once you get your mitts around it, totally works! I absolutely devoured the sandwich, headed back, and somehow got some sleep amid my excitement for the day to come. Kennywood. I was excited beyond words and up for a day of heavy riding. So my first stop was the skip-the-line booth where I waited first in line for it to open up at 11:00. I wanted to ensure getting one of the 26 unlimited passes they sell each day. As long as you get into the park by 11:00 I can't imagine having any trouble snagging one of these. The booth is across from Sky Rocket. Let's jump right into the rides. I had no plan of attack and took a wildly inefficient course through the attractions, doubling back all over the place and walking from one end of the park to another on a whim. It was great! Didn't take all that many pictures, but I'll mix in a few as we go. Gran Prix (bumper cars), x1 - This was a rather modern bumper cars ride, so not too special. But they let you drive wherever you wanted, instead of in unidirectional laps, which made for a few good hits and laughs. Drove with a fun group. 6/10. Bayern Kurve, x2 - Awesome, wild ride. Rode in the front and back, both were excellent. The greatest part is how the pitch of the drive tires hitting the train gets higher and higher as the ride speeds up. After the first few laps, I was all "that's it?" when suddenly the drive tires start HOWLING and I'm all "holy &^%$% this is fun!" Also, I had no idea about that little... er... "surprise" halfway through the cycle. Just an awesome overall experience! 9/10. Swingshot, x2 - This was a complete walk-on all day long which was perplexing. Screamin' Swings are great, and with a fantastic view of Phantom right in front of you, this did not disappoint at all. 8/10. Whip, x1 - A very whippy Whip. I like the lack of a roof. Whiptastic. 8/10. Kangaroo, x1 - Ba-hahahahaha. This still has me giggling. Boing....boing....boing.....lol. The line got long quick and stayed long all day, so I didn't snag any rerides, which I'd have totally been up for. Goofy as it looks, DO NOT MISS Kangaroo! 9/10. My coaster tour wristband was really tight, and at this point started to bother me enough to go get one put on more loosely. Since this brought me right next to Sky Rocket, I hit this up next, and had really bad first experience with my pass. Line was pretty significant, maybe 30-40min. Walked up the exit ramp and ride op was very attentive, immediately gave me choice of any seat except back or front on the next train. I chose row 4, hopped on, pulled the restraint down ... and then the girl whose ride I intruded on started tearing into me, loudly. I had broken up her group of four so that half would be on my ride and half on the next. She was seriously pissed, I was embarrassed, and if she hadn't been so rude, would have asked to get back up and let them on. Luckily, this was my only bad experience with the pass all day. It worked out amazingly and drama-free in every other case. I highly recommend it! Sky Rocket, x2 - Great launch, great first few elements. Kind of peters out after the mid-course brake, although I actually loved the slo-mo trick-track section. 7/10. Flat track inversions are beautiful! Noah's Ark, x2 - Best walkthru I've done. Don't miss this one either. 9/10. Potato Patch Bacon/Cheese Fries, x1 - No line! And, meh, they were good-ish, at least the cheesy, bacon-ey part. Fries toward the bottom were pretty soggy and got tossed. 5/10. Phantom's Revenge, x9 - I had incredibly high expectations for this coaster and could not imagine it exceeding them. But it ..... BLEW. THEM. AWAY. The combination of huge drops, insane ejector airtime, magnificent terrain usage, interactions with other rides, head choppers, and overall relentless intensity makes for a ride simply beyond description. I also managed three magical night rides. Still figuring out where it will fit in my top-10. Strangely, the line for this was basically nil most all day, and I was often better off using the regular queue than the fast entry bracelet. 11/10. Black Widow, x3 - Yes, this eats up maXair and, figuratively speaking, craps it all over CP. Has got to be the greatest frisbee-style ride out there by far. The queue line was very long for this and being able to ride it at will felt a little wrong. 10/10. Conveluted.nltrack Exterminator, x1 - No idea why I didn't get back for any rerides on this, the themeing made it tons of fun. 7/10. Turtle, x1 - Nicely maintained but Conneaut's Bug runs better, so this didin't meet expectations. 5/10. Racer, x5 - 10/10. Jackrabbit, x5 - Fantastic vintage trains, and a quintessential John Miller design. The double dip fell short of my very steep expectations but the whole experience was a real winner. 8.5/10. Thunderbolt, x2 - First ride worked out great as there was another single rider to pair up with. I ended up as the squishee. My second ride was a bit embarrassing as they had to call out for someone to ride with me, and a girl queued for front row got to ride twice. Thankfully I was again the squishee. Great ride, very intense for its era. Love how the station is set up with the ops working from a lower level. NAD FTW. 9/10. Aero360, x1 - Eh, these rides are alright. The arrows are cool. 5/10. Volcano, x1 - Enterprises are great and this one ran very nicely. I was talking to Waldameer ride op who was visiting the park and he mentioned that Kennywood actually swapped out Enterprises over the off season with the one they got from Lake Compounce, since they were having so much trouble with their old one. He claimed to have helped get the ex-LC ride set up and running. 7/10. Cosmic Chaos, x1 - Big fan of Disk-O's, and this one didn't crush my man parts too badly. 7/10. Beer Garden, x1 - Took me forever to find this, and just made it in for last call. Beer guy was pretty funny. Carousel, x1 - Great, authentic "survivor" Carousel. Needs ring dispenser. 7.125/10 Then I had this crazy looking ice cream and rode Phantom, Racer, and JR deep into the night. Afterwards, another Primanti sandwich and Yuengling finished off an incredible journey to Kennywood & Idlewild. Standing here is the most intense moment at Kennywood.

I really enjoyed this set of pictures and your commentary! Lots of views I hadn't seen before. Thanks for posting. Can't wait to make it out to Lagoon.... someday.

Even by Dorney standards the park was incredibly empty yesterday thanks to morning showers. Turned into a beautiful day, though.

Probably because their teaser campaign has been placing particular emphasis on the number four, combined with the possibility that plans have changed since that headline?

Finally got my Leap the Dips credit a couple weeks ago, it was closed on my first visit to Lakemont last year. Was a lot of fun! Also, I find Skyliner far from bland. The back and front cars offer some very extreme airtime on the first drop and first hill, respectively (yay buzzbars), and the ballpark off to the right makes for a cool view. It was good enough for 20+ rides my first visit.

So I'll pick up the story of Seabreeze's Carousel in the words of Jim Futrell, from Amusement Parks of New York. Seabreeze was a wonderful visit for me. I arrived about 20 min before their evening discount tickets started (5pm I think), and took a stroll down to the lake, catching a few different views of Whirlwind than were available within the park. First order of business was a long-awaited lap on Jackrabbit, the second-oldest overall and oldest continually operated coaster in the US. The station, lifthill, and brakerun are the only sections of this ride really visible from offride, which is very Miller-esque, and pretty cool. They keep these sections immaculate. I was really blown away how absolutely beautiful this ride looked. It really does deserve more classic trains than these clunky Morgans, though. Next up was the Flyers. This was an example of the somewhat rare, smaller, 8-tub vintage Bisch-Rocco model. Beautifully decorated and maintained. However they were indeed un-snapable on account of some ingenious modifications. Probably for the best, on this model. I'd imagine this ride would tear itself apart quite easily otherwise. Onto this wacky ride—Bobsleds—a (who else?) George Long creation. A really cool little kid chatted it up with me in line and since we were both single riders we rode together. You can't help but smile and giggle on this ride. These were more hilariously "speed-bumpy" than "air-timey", but there were also a couple pops of air, elsewhere, on Bobsleds. How about another lap? Jackrabbit was being run by one operator and she was absolutely rocking it! This coaster still has vintage brake levers and she put just about every ounce of strength into stopping the train each lap. Wish I had caught her name so I could tell the park how hard she was hustling around and cranking trains out. Awesome! Oh, the ride was great fun too, not intense but utterly smile-inducing, and just oozing of nostalgia and history. Onto Whirlwind. Same model as Waldameer's Steel Dragon, but in a much more picturesque setting overlooking the lake from high above it. Spinning coasters are awesome and this was no exception. You've heard all about the carousel so here it is. Errrm, awkwardly, I didn't capture any good shots of the machine itself. You'll just have to get yourself to Seabreeze and see it for yourself! A few pics from the museum inside the carousel building.... So what was, ultimately, the true highlight of Seabreeze for me? The Log Flume!! OMG this thing was fantastic. So steep, so classic, so beautiful. Towards the end of the night there was NO line. The weather was still beautiful and I got in probably 10-15 very zen rides. The train engine is beautiful, and the carved wooden cars (which I also managed to mostly miss in my pics) are charmingly whimsical. The train ride around the flume was incredibly peaceful and enjoyable as dusk set in. And that wraps up Seabreeze. My visit to the State Fair ended up being quite short, but I'll get up a few pics soon to complete this TR.

Holy moly I didn't even realize there were responses here! Glad to hear you're still following along. And I can't believe it's already been a week and a half since I picked this back up. After polishing up a 70hr week at work I'm currently enjoying the $@ out of Kennywood and Primanti Bros. PA is so amazing. I'll get Seabreeze and State Fair pics up soon. There aren't too many so it may be a bit anticlimactic.

Just had a ridiculously awesome first visit to Kennywood. Was skeptical about the primanti sandwich but it delivers!

Furuvik looks welcoming as f#ck. Just... absurdly charming. Northern Europe is so cool.

I wonder if the looping slide project was canned. Never heard any further news and don't see anything on their site. Just sent them a question about it. Anyone been here this year?

Having been uber busy, I've left this TR unfinished for almost a year and every now and then it bugs me... so lets wrap this up! After building up an appetite all morning laughing at the comically woeful Martin's, it was time for some food (and a DRINK!). What better way to celebrate the Buffalo area than with some wings? Duff's on Sheridan Drive has a long history and is renowned for serving up some of the best wings you can get your hands (messily) on. The parking lot was absolutely slammed and I had to wait a few minutes for a table in the early afternoon... good signs! So let's see what they're serving up. We'll heed the warnings and hit up 10 medium-hot wings and a Sam Adams. No sweat, right? HA! WRONG! These were the hottest wings I've ever had, including many other places' "suicidal" or what-have-you level. Within three pieces, I stopped trying to keep up with my severely runny nose and just fully embraced the absolute mess developing all over my face. At seven pieces, the scalp began to lightly smolder; after ten, you could have fried an egg on my forehead. While the heat was a little over the top, these were also PHENOMENAL wings. Perfectly crispy skins ... tender, moist, fall-apart chicken, great sauce flavor. Definitely worth the hype, worth the wait, and worth a stop in should you find yourself in the area. An experience for sure. On to Seabreeze. This entire trip came about around my fascination with the history of Seabreeze, in particular its centerpiece Carousel. I'm not sure if any single family has invested more effort, passion, time, and love into a park - or endured more heartbreak - than the Long family has with Seabreeze, starting in 1904 and continuing right to this day, now in their fifth generation of involvement. The Longs had been building carousels for almost 30 years when George Sr was given the opportunity to move one of his family's machines from Virginia to Seabreeze, right across the boarder from his brother's at Ontario Beach, for the '04 season. After graduating engineering school and leaving a prestigious hi-tech job, young George Jr joined the park's operations for the 1915 summer. The same year - no longer building carousels - the Longs purchased PTC Carousel #36, brand new and of the latest and largest design, and began operating it at nearby Seneca Park Zoo. George Jr poured tireless effort into the park. He hand built multiple carousel pavilions and their first Dodgem building, carved new legs for their ageing carousel so that it could be converted to a jumping horse variety, oversaw construction of a Virginia Reel (an inspiration for later Wild Mouse coasters), and swapped the Seabreeze and Seneca Zoo carousels in 1926, bringing the illustrious PTC #36 to the park. Concurrently, Seabreeze's trolley line owners were amassing one of the finest coaster collections of the roaring 20's. But time marched on, and combined with the mounting Depression, disastrous fires in 1930, 1933, and 1935 nearly brought the park to its knees. George Sr. passed in 1932 and his son took ownership of the park's carousel. By 1937, his legendary work ethic made it clear he was the one to save Seabreeze, and he leased the park from its trolley company owners, immediately initializing vast revitalization. By the end of WWII, Mr. Long was full owner. George Long ran Seabreeze passionately and tirelessly for thirty more years, constantly expanding, improving, and rebuilding. By the late 60's, he returned to his youth and again started hand-carving carousel horses as a hobby. Having inspired in his grandchildren a great love of the park, by the mid 1970's he had successfully passed on the torch. Yet for better than another decade he remained close to Seabreeze, keeping a workshop in the carousel basement, maintaining the carousel, carving both full-size and miniature horses, and building fully functional miniature carousels. George Long passed away in 1988. PTC #36 and its accompanying display of Long carvings and three dozen rocking chairs was the Heart and Soul of Seabreeze, a renowned meeting place for all of Rochester. It "was" ... because in March 1994, the whole shebang burned right to the ground in less than two hours, taking with it an additional 10% of Seabreeze before 175 firemen got the blaze under control. The truly heartwarming part is how Seabreeze recouped from this disaster and paid tremendous respect to the Long legacy. Let's pick up the story tomorrow, and then take a look at my visit! People like this are to thank for our hobby existing. A truly inspiring individual.

I bought three FL+ on Jun 7 and was ready to pay full price when they asked me if I had a Platinum Pass. I showed only mine and she gave me all three passes at FL price. It may have only been an early-season deal, but I'd say good chance still going on. We also drove down to KI the day before and were on the fence about getting FP's for a mildly/moderately busy day. At the end of the day we definitely regretted not getting them.

^^The park wasn't busy at all this morning and early afternoon, if that's anything to go on. It was hot, so perhaps the water park was the big draw. PhobiaFear was station wait at 1:30pm. I think you'll be fine. Boulder Dash always has a line because they don't seem to put a second train on too often, and dispatches have been slowww. Hit it up first because crowds keep building through the afternoon. I basically only sit front anymore. The back is definitely an experience but the triple up is just too brutal for me. Only coaster moment that I find legitimately painful in 180+ coasters. Does not change the fact that BD is an incredible ride. PhobiaFear operations were AWESOME today. Boy did they get their act together here. Bravo. And I got five rides in a row without getting off in the AM. Can't decide if I like front seat or back seat better here. Fourth row is good too. RIDE THE SKYRIDE. Even it you don't like skyrides, just do it. A heads up, it's nearly a half hour on-ride. But it is a magical half hour. Don't read up on it or watch POV, IMO, better going in without spoilers. I'm a huge fan of Flyers yet I'd say these ones are worth a solid pass. Thunder and Lightning is a small Screamin' Swing but I like it. Nice views on the drop tower, otherwise not an exceptional tower. Wildcat is much better for looking at, than riding. But it's OK if you really need to ride. Not painful or anything. Water park is pretty average but fun. Best part is the "exit" from the lazy river onto a raft slide. You go down in your lazy river raft and empty back into laziness. A+.

Remove a day at KI, Hershey, KD, Carowinds. Do an evening->full day at Hershey (free 2.5h at park day before with a day ticket). Add a day at Knoebels. Add a few days of slower drives and other attractions, or at least have some in mind in case the themepark pace gets grueling for either of you. Save up for skip the line passes and just plan on buying them as often as possible. They totally change the dynamic of the day. You're so much more relaxed and this makes it easier to accomplish an aggressive schedule.

I hit up Quassy for 50c Friday nights last week to get in a few laps on Warrior and check out their new ride Reverse Time. Crowds were pretty light up 'til about 7:30, at which point Warrior was sporting probably a half hour wait. It takes quite a long time to pull the train into the station. They pulse the calipers on the brake run before the station about ten times, with the train nudging just a little bit forward each release. If they let it roll in from just a little too far back, it comes in too hot, overshoots the prox sensors, and won't allow the restraints to release without sending it through another lap. Seems even more sensitive than it has in previous years. Bright side: everyone gets a reride when this happens. Wish they had GG work on a solution to this, though. As usual, the ride was absolutely DELIVERING the airtime and big smiles. It amazes me every lap. Reverse Time is a real winner! I hopped on with less than cycle wait. Seats are super comfy, with tons of room for your arms to wave freely. Awesome! Mondial: take some notes, here, eh? The program they were running was fantastic with several direction changes and few different motion patterns, and they do not skimp on the cycle time! The ride experience is definitely unique, and you get some very strong, very funky, sideway-but-not-really airtime. Frantic was down, bummer. After a few cheap hotdogs, a spin on Yo-Yo, and their crazy "drive-wherever-the-#$%@-you-want" bumper cars, it was time to hit the road. Quassy always makes for a fun evening.

Can anyone confirm if Joker is Platinum Flash Pass only?

Contrary to most, I actually really like Intimidator and prefer it to Diamondback or Nitro. Carowinds has three amazing B&Ms IMO.

it sent two trains and then broke hahaha. Bbq & beer fest is an outstanding consolation. We can't even finish our tix.

It's not too windy at the park today. Maverick was down for quite awhile but running again now. The lady at the museum said they were working hard to get dragster up by end of day. We haven't seen it test. Considering what they just went thru the park is running very well. They also gave a free night to guests staying at their properties who wanted to stay an extra day if they missed their visit due to Monday's closure.

^^Yes the rest of the day has been a lot quieter than it seemed like it would be in the morning. It's chilly and the water park is DEAD... tempting.... ^ Truth.

Park is pretty busy today. Queued up at magnum entrance at 8:45. They tried to open the gate at 9 but it wouldn't work. Huge crowd walked down to windseeker entrance and we waited 40 min to get in. Raptors queue is completely full right now and flash pass line is spilling all the way out to the midway.

We're gonna make the best of our vacation time and do a road trip within a road trip to King's Island tomorrow. Fingers crossed for Tues. Watching local Sandusky news right now - ho. lee. crap. - what a MESS!

We just drove though absolute madness getting to the park. Without doubt the most torrential rain I've ever experienced. We were totally confused when they wouldn't let us onto the causeway, and I didn't even put 2&2 together. Got to Breakers Express and checked in, the lady behind the desk was at the park when the storm hit and said she literally thought she might die. No nighttime rides for us this trip. Oh well, time for a beer run!! Hope they get things up and running for tomorrow.

Large families that loiter directly in front their locke.r, chatting it up, applying suntan oil, eating, smoking, etc., thereby blocking the exact 16 locke.rs that the automated kiosk is assigning next (including yours). Automated locke.r kiosks that assign consecutive locke.r rentals to locke.rs directly next to each other, thereby developing unnecessary congestion in said area.