Samuel

Just got back from the park tonight, and I have to say that I haven't had so much fun in years. I gave my niece her first Racer, Jack Rabbit, & Log Jammer rides, and she loved them all. Although not quite tall enough for the other coasters, she's totally game & now her stated #1 goal is to grow before next year. She's hooked. There were just a few slow operations here and there, but there were also plenty of employees hustling and being accommodating on a busy day. The park looked lush with flowers and landscaping, and I noticed lots of music, live show performances, and even a magician around the park. There were marching band parades and fireworks at night, as well. The whole place felt alive. What's more, the rides were running superbly. Phantom's Revenge is still a Top 10 steel coaster in my humble opinion (airtime out the wazoo), Sky Rocket was a lot of fun, and all of the woodies were very smooth. Whatever it is that Kennywood has learned about wooden coaster maintenance & applied over the years, other parks should be taking notes! When in Kennywood...eat food! The Potato Patch fries w/ cheese on the side were awesome. I enjoy them soggy and crispy, and I had a good mix of both in my order. Some people don't like the soggy fries, but I find that I'm served this style more and more at restaurants. Potato Patch fries are also similar to the "almost famous" ones served at Pittsburgh's Primanti Bros restaurants. I also had a pretty good funnel cake, dip cone ice cream that was amazing (seriously, go for this ice cream over the others in the park -- it's near the Auto Race), tasty popcorn, and the classic pillow-poof of cotton candy. The $9.99 souvenir cup + refills was a better value than Cedar Point's souvenir offer, and I had plenty of refills that made it worth it. It was a really magical visit. Five or six years ago, I was worried that the magic was starting to slip: paint was chipping all over the place, ops could be painfully slow, I'd see a lot of rowdy teens and fewer families in general (maybe a subjective thing, I know), the wooden coasters were becoming a bit rough, and I feared that a disappointing run-down quality was creeping in across the park. I'm glad to say that my full faith has been restored. The park felt healthy and vibrant, and this trip reminded me that Kennywood is still one great amusement park. My biggest Kennywood takeaway still holds true: If you can spare the time, don't fall into a "bang out the credits and hit the road" mindset. Like Knoebels & Waldameer, stick around and really make a day of it, see the lights come on at night, eat slowly, go on the dark rides, water rides, and flat rides, blow $2 on a game and then try again, buy big blocks of fudge before you head for the exit, and just really relax in between the coasters. I couldn't have asked for a better day!

The argument or topic in itself seems pointless to me. There's nothing indicating that Time Traveler will have fixed cars or cars that spin at different rates. It seems incredibly unlikely that it will happen. The spinning car on Blue Fire was nothing more than a very temporary prototype turned advertisement for Mack. I don't see where we're in disagreement; Time Traveler is going to exclusively be a spinning coaster, and that's why I wrote "choice isn't being offered here" by SDC. My other point wasn't speculation about Time Traveler. I was responding specifically to another poster who contended that the concept of modifying the trains or offering more than one way to ride would be a logistical and PR nightmare. In truth, Mack does offer options, and I pointed out that plenty of other rides also offer different experiences or have been modified successfully.

You're right that this is a dedicated spinning coaster, but Mack does offer a lot of vehicle configurations. Sure, you'd need clear signage and/or split the queue at some point, but Mack successfully ran Blue Fire with regular and spinning cars -- proof that you can have it both ways. The forward/backward rows on Swarm didn't suddenly create a "total logistical nightmare" and were an asset to PR. S&S combo towers aren't public bedlam when you get to choose which side you want to experience. People also figure out which side they want to ride on a racing coaster. Choice isn't being offered here, but I don't think the idea is as repellent as you're making it out to be.

I absolutely love this idea of being able to visit the station and get a photo opportunity with the first drop. It's such a cool way to preview a ride, and I think it'd be neat if more parks built the station first and let it be a hype house for renderings and maybe even a kiosk of limited-edition early merchandise.

^ I think he's simply saying that he's buying a 2018 season pass because of Steel Vengeance.

I look at it like this: if Steel Vengeance is so long and insane that I'm satisfied after only a couple of rides per visit, that's fine. If you're served a really high-proof drink, there's no rule that says you must chug it. Raptor is an intense coaster that makes me a bit queasy after a few laps, but I still love it; I just wouldn't ERT marathon it all day. I feel the same way regarding Dragster's craziness and Magnum's wacky fun/painful airtime. A few rides and I'm satisfied. Cedar Point is leaving nothing on the table here, and I think that's the best thing for which we could have hoped. It wouldn't have been totally unacceptable if the plans simply nixed the MCBR and the course headed for the brakes after the second lap or an abbreviated third; NTAG and Rattler both lopped off decent-sized lengths of track, and it's reasonable to say that those two are still both beloved. However, Cedar Point is trying to go for best-in-class, and that's laudable.

It's almost like Cedar Fair got the benefit of letting the designers get several years of experience converting rides vs being the company that took a leap of faith on an unproven company back in 2009. Why are you using the word almost? Yep, that's been Cedar Point's M.O. more often than not; observe the prototypes, and then come out with a steroidal record-setting version a few years later. Raptor, Mantis, Power Tower, Millennium Force, Dragster, Wicked Twister, Gatekeeper, Valravn, etc. followed this kind of approach. Agreed! The second half seems like an even more relentless version of Wicked Cyclone combined with Lightning Run's finale of small bunny hills. This should be one for the coaster ages.

Mercy. The layout looks strong enough that I may just have to come out of spinning retirement, but I'll be popping extra Dramamine and likely have a lifetime one-and-done policy toward it. I wish that spinning was just an option, like turning a few rows of a train backwards, instead of the main gimmick. Still, kudos to Mack & SDC for making something totally unique & pretty ballsy!

Not trying to be an A$$... But have you ever been on Millennium Force?? Those tunnels aren't really "short." You're popping out of them as soon as you're popping into them, a testament to the ride's speed. I didn't define whether short referred to measurable tunnel dimensions or brevity of experience, to keep discussion open to different avenues. And you were being an ass. I remember some reading or maybe even watching a doc that mentioned that the tunnels on Millennium Force were put in to help preserve the relative ambiance of Frontier Trail as it twice travels over the path. The park did a really good job of having such a giant coaster roar past a sleepy part of the park and not disrupt the atmosphere.

Yikes, lol, like Philrad I was sifting through the comments to see how Voyage has been recently! Gravity Group has done some fine coasters, but its rides sure can develop a feral bite. I've had some real Jekyll/Hyde experiences on GG coasters, and Voyage, to me, can make you appreciate the school of "less is more." A nice litmus test is that if a GG coaster train comes back to the station and you see smiling kids and their parents, it's a good sign. If a train comes back and the only people aboard are from that small fringe group that marathons water rides alone on cold nights, you best buckle up for a wild ride. Loving the report!

One more thing I want to add from viewing the new Mean Streak video is that the second inversion (the Stengel dive-looking element) stood out to me as seeming much weirder and intriguing in the animation than I thought it'd be. It's somewhere between Maverick's Stengel dive, an RMC stall, and Wicked Cyclone's first flip rolled into one. The quick directional change into it should be snappy, but the cutback part actually hangs there in this graceful upside-down moment before it dives out of the element. It's very cool.

Thanks! I think Fury & i305 (also Leviathan) are awesome, as well. I know that ranking the giga coasters always seems to fire people up, so I'm certainly hamming it up a bit . I've read some reviews charging that Millennium Force doesn't quite do enough, but I think the relative simplicity of the layout helps to make it such a re-rideable hands-up coaster for me. I also like that it has no trims. The relative freedom and overall ride experience in a lapbar-only Intamin mega coaster is another thing that it has going for it over the other gigas. I wish more mega/giga coasters had been built around 2000 when Intamin was going with those T lapbars. And yeah, I'm not sure what didn't wow me this time with Maverick; it still checks all the boxes and is a great ride. With coasters, some days there's just just a little bit of extra magic that surprises you or elevates a ride in your mind, but I didn't quite get one of those rides this time around.

Quick review from the weekend: Millennium Force (10 rides): It's still my #1. I think it's a perfect coaster, and that hasn't changed. Rode in the back every time, and had nothing but smooth, fast, exhilarating rides. I could ride this all day, forever. There was airtime galore on the big hills and bunny, and the first drop still can't be beaten. It has been and always will be better than Fury and i305, haters! 10/10 Magnum (2 rides): I'm a fan and forum defender of Magnum, but I don't have any excuses for it this time: It was just bad-bumpy. The first drop was smooth and the bunny hills were still hilarious, but there were jarring potholes all over the layout. Oh well, that's all part of Magnum's charm. I know I'll get good rides on it again. 5/10 Rougarou (2 rides): I thought the back might give an intense old-school B&M experience, but it was just rough, and did nothing that could be considered thrilling or fun. I was beaten up whether I tried to fight the coaster or just relax and let it toss me around. There's nothing redeemable about riding in the back. The front, however, was pretty good. Much smoother, the visual floorless effect held some value, and suddenly I thought the whole ride was decent. 2/10 (back), 7.5/10 (front) Dragster (2 rides): For my second ride, I rode in the front seat at dusk, one of the biggest bug-related mistakes of my life. My lip was bleeding after the ride from one particularly nasty bug pelt. The coaster itself was great; I've always loved Dragster. It's still holding up well in the smoothness department, and if you get a fast launch, blasting over the top and down the drop feels like it should be illegal. The only downside was a pair of breakdowns while waiting, as usual. 9.5/10 Raptor (1 ride): Left me at the brakes feeling nauseous, but lord knows that I appreciate the heck out of this ride. It's true that the cobra roll and entrance into the brakes can be borderline-violent, but I admire how aggressive, long, and diverse the layout is. That first drop is still one of the best on a B&M invert, and I was grinning ear-to-ear in the helix. It's a really fun ride, even if it's not a coaster that lends itself to marathoning. Can't get this stuff no more. 8.5/10 Maverick (2 rides): I really like Maverick, but it was just *good* for me on this trip. There's nothing wrong with it, but it didn't feel neck-and-neck with MF in my books like it sometimes does. The airtime hills and wacky Stengel dive are still awesome. Like with TTD, there were a couple of breakdowns while in line. 8/10 Gemini (1 ride): Gemini has always been Gemini: mostly smooth, but with odd little back-thwacking jolts at the bottoms of the drops. That helix was definitely eyeballed when they built this ride; it's wonky like some of Excalibur's (Valleyfair) elements, but overall the coaster's held up pretty well. The first drop is steep and fun, and there's a surprise head chopper hill that still gets me every time. 7/10 Valravn (5 rides): The surprise ride of the trip! The first drop is just a ton of fun. If you don't giggle on the way down that drop, there's something wrong with you. I'd also read reports that the third row had become rough, but I had multiple rides in the back that were butter-smooth. It's true that I prefer Raptor's fast pacing over the slower rolls of newer B&Ms, but I didn't mind the inversions here. I didn't mind the trains, either. The vests don't tighten as they do (or did) on Gatekeeeper, and there's more elbow room over the old B&M trains. The only thing that could have been better is Valravn's multiple abrupt brakes and hard stops; they aren't too graceful. 9/10 Blue Streak (1 ride): Ibuprofen time. Someone on TPR wrote a scathing review of Blue Streak earlier this season that surprised me. Now I know. This is beyond smoother rides exposing Blue Streak for being a more traditional wooden coaster; it was down-right atrocious. In addition to the bruise on my left thigh, my back and elbow are sore today. It was worse than any ride I ever had on Mean Streak. The track actually seems okay, but the trains were just jack hammering throughout the entire layout. It bothers me that this is a coaster that families will choose as a nice starter ride, as well. What the heck happened? 1/10 Power Tower (2 rides; each side): I usually prefer the space shot, but it was running pretty lethargically. The initial launch slowed down considerably near the top, and I didn't get that enjoyable pop of airtime. On the other hand, the turbo drop felt forceful and took me by surprise. I prefer Intamin 2nd generations over the S&S towers, but I do love this ride's presence, location, and lighting package. 5/10 space shot, 7/10 turbo drop Wicked Twister (1 ride): I think WT's intensity is completely underrated. The pullouts deliver serious positive Gs, and the back spike can be genuinely terrifying when you're riding in the back. Like Raptor, I don't think WT would be easy to marathon, but I like it. I think it's a bit unheralded among all the great coasters at CP, but it's still one of the more intense coasters in the park. 8/10 It's the first time I skipped Gatekeeper. I don't outright hate it, but it maintained a pretty good line, and I've ridden it enough to know that I'd rather get one more extra ride on MF.

I have seen the RMC Mean Streak layout video. This might be day-old news now, but I wanted to add some more credibility/clarification to what's out there. The coaster already looks huge; it's going to be awesome! * First drop is completely traditional like Goliath, but looks even nuttier. Extremely steep, 90 degrees or close to it. It doesn't pitch straight down immediately like a dive coaster, but has a really nice rounded curvature that quickly gets progressively steeper. I can't imagine how thrilling riding in the back will be! * The ride will absolutely shred through the layout. The whole ride will be taken with exhilarating speed, aside from the MCBR; it's going to be relentless. * There will be two full bunny hills after the third inversion, followed by some extreme curves/misdirection hills inside the structure, an extra barrel roll (4th inversion), and then a finale of about four bunny hills heading into the brakes. One or two of these finale bunnies are tiny and look a lot like those on Chance/Morgan's Lightning Run. Overall, the last lap reminded me much more of Wicked Cyclone than NTAG. It's going to be an onslaught. This all follows Mean Streak's original layout path. * Every redone section seems like it's on steroids and will be traversed in a "that's just wrong" kind of fast-forward pace. I'm not sure whether the beefier new elements will stretch the layout to 6,000 ft., but there's absolutely no cut section of Mean Streak's layout.

Pretty demented-looking (this is a good thing) Vekoma! Glad to see this is coming to fruition.

I think they're pretty cool in small doses, and the first example photo with Wildfire looks great. They'd get worn out quickly in a big trip report, but assuming that they're never going to replace standard quality photos, I wouldn't mind seeing this style occasionally sprinkled in on TPR's Instagram.

Thanks! With that being the case, it should make quite an impression from the parking lot.

Can someone give me a ballpark of where in the park the new coaster is going in?

These are welcomed features, for sure. It's interesting to see Vekoma stick with the flyers, trying to iron out the kinks and discomforts, and make the design simpler and more efficient. I always thought that the style was an awesome concept, but the ones I've been on (including all of the U.S. Dutchman coasters) have just felt clunky or uncomfortable, and design-wise seem convoluted. Give me a Sky Coaster or an old school B&M invert, but I like to see Vekoma continue to hack away at it. The company's newer stuff looks stellar.

Thanks everybody for the newer Motel 6 recommendation a few pages back. I booked a couple of days for later this month and seriously saved about $300 over the on-site resorts (even though I enjoy them, too). I used AAA to save a bit more, as well. I'd still stay with family/significant other at the resorts, but this trip is for more casual friends, fun, & to scratch my coaster itch. If ride lines end up being out the wazoo, I'll use the hotel savings on Fast Lane+ rather than worry about early entry & hustling around with a strategy before it gets busy. Thanks again!

Nice TR! I'm looking forward to reading your report from the rest of the parks. I think Carowinds, Wonderland, and King's Island are all pretty top-heavy in terms of quality modern coasters. These parks have solid headlining thrills from Cedar Fair & great family sections, but also a lot of middling rides from the Paramount days that haven't aged too well or are just kind of there now. I appreciate Paramount for biting on a lot of prototypes and early renditions of coaster styles, but rides like Vortex and Nighthawk get exposed for how relatively unrefined they are with Fury now in the same park. The 6th- and 7th-best coasters at Cedar Point, whatever your ranked list looks like, are still pretty darn good coasters. At the former Paramount parks, there's a pretty big drop-off after 3 or 4 solid coasters. I think they're all good parks, but they still have some updating/rounding out to do. At Carowinds, the vest restraints on Cobra are a nice example, and I hope there's an RMC Hurler conversion and floorless Vortex before another brand-new coaster is added.

my favorite, and most low traffic one when we were there? the ones next to the Arcade on the main midway, towards the CP Police station. not the cleanest restroom I've ever been in, but the stalls, in particular, were very low traffic and offered some privacy if needed during a day in the park. good question, and one most folks would not think to ever ask outloud. Hope I helped. Yep, that's what I'm looking for -- thanks! I figured that the front half of the park would be better than the midway loops.

Can someone recommend some of the better restrooms in the park (clean/spacious/relatively low traffic)? The restrooms in the more crowded areas, especially those kiosk-style older ones throughout the TTD/Magnum midway, are small & can get slammed. I'm asking for my own comfort.

I thought the same thing at first, but I think they might be referring to the extended corkscrew after that Drachen Fire cutback. It looks like it snaps upside-down quickly and then hangs there for a moment.