The Queen Diva of snappage invades PPP!

[Guest]

I will start off my TR with this note. After the amazing time I had last year at PPP, I know I had to go again this year. I was hoping that Flying Turns would be open, but after the flood I knew it was inevitable for it to be even remotely done by PPP time.

 

For those of you who don’t know what PPP is I will tell you. PPP is known as Phoenix Phall Phunfest. Every October Knoebel’s Amusement Park has this swap meet the first weekend of the month and has a good bit of the rides open for its last weekend of the season. Basically, everyone in the area comes out for the swap meet more then the rides. Most enthusiasts do more of the rides, hehe.

 

So let me start my TR already. Friday was going to be the start of this very long weekend. My son was picked up at 3pm and I was expecting my Cincy boys soon after. They arrived at 5:30pm with horrible traffic patterns in tow. We made our way towards Kennywood for Phantom Fright Nights. (For those of you who didn’t know I was there the weekend before working as a scaracter and doing the ITL podcast). This was my night to play! We headed for Giant Eagle first for discount tickets to the park. The tickets were only 16.50, which is a great deal and then parked fairly close to the gate.

 

We got into the park with it already hopping quite a bit. Normally, Friday nights aren’t as packed, this night we were proved wrong! Lol! We went down the ramp towards the tunnel and it was already fogged up and young girls were screaming bloody murder already. Turns out Jason (The famous chainsaw dude) was poised and ready at the end of the tunnel waiting for his victims. We laughed him off and walked by and headed towards Phantom’s Revenge. What a way to start off the night. Phantom was good as always and it had very little line. We were on in about 5 minutes.

 

We next headed towards Noah’s Ark because Lost Kennywood didn’t open until 7:30. Noah’s Ark is a walk through dark ride and is normally a lot of fun. Tonight was down right scary and friggin hilarious. They really decked out the ride from years past. There were many scaracters within the ride itself. My group which consisted of Rob, Chuck, Pat and I weren’t very afraid. That is until Chuck got extremely scared and jumped like five feet off the ground. I don’t think I ever laughed as hard as I did in Noah’s Ark that night. It was really the story of the weekend.

 

We then headed off towards Lost Kennywood to get in line for Exterminator. We really got on the ride in less than 15 minutes which is a real record for me. We spun so hard throughout the ride that we were staggering like a bunch of drunks. As soon as we got off the ride, it was really a must for us to jump on it again, seeing as we knew the line would grow extremely long.

 

After long we had to eat, and the Baby Patch was where we decided on. The food was extra yummy with the Patch Fries flowing! After eating we needed a T-Bolt ride which had NO trims on it tonight! We love no trims on coasters! We hit all the major rides as much as we could before we decided to call it a night. Jack Rabbit was running great as normal. Racer for some reason on the right side was running really sluggish through the entire course and was actually a disappointment in my eyes. T-Bolt was only running one train the entire evening and the line grew really long. We also didn’t get on SwingShot because the line looked over 45 minutes.

 

We called it a night around 11:30 and headed back to my place so we could sleep a little bit before our long drive to Knoebels in the morning. We got up butt early on Saturday morning, and headed for some food and gas and were on our way. It didn’t take us long to realize PA sucks! I am from here and yet hate driving through the state because of all the construction. It seemed like EVERY 20 miles a road was torn up. Go figure. We tried to check in at the hotel before we headed to Knoebel’s but to NO dice we weren’t allowed. We decided to head to the park a little early and it was down right pandemonium! The parking lot was hell on earth. Getting there and finding a decent spot took over a half an hour and pure frustration. We finally made it into the park and got our stamps and we were ready to ride.

 

Our group (CNA) decided to meet at the Phoenix at around 12:30. As we were waiting it was too good to pass up a ride, so we headed up into the station. We then found Bruce and Tina waiting for the front seat. We headed for the back seat. I am glad we took the ride then, because it got busier and busier throughout the day. We got off a decent ride on Phoenix and met up with our group to chat for a few minutes. How I missed a lot of these people! I got to see almost all of my great buddies this weekend and I am missing them terribly as we speak.

 

We were in desperate need for some major SNAPPAGE. PPP is really the place to be when it comes to the Flyers. All of the professionals were in town to show everyone how snappage can get. We got on our first ride and right off the bat we were snapping the cables to the flyers without getting yelled at. Though later we heard many people getting screamed at for snapping. Hey if you can’t ride the flyers without snapping why even have the ride, right? We got many many rides on the Flyers on Saturday. It was insanity at its finest. This is where I also saw Ted “King of Snappage and the Fat Bat” Crowell and Craiggers “That Token Yankee Guy”! It was very nice to meet both of you! We were getting some seriously great rides on the flyers but we also noticed that the ride cycles were getting cut way down and it was not making people happy.

 

My friends told me I had to do the SkyRide. It was closed last year when I was there. So I knew I had to do it. Just to let people know, I have a mild fear of heights. Roller coasters don’t bother me, but going up really high and really slow down right TERRIFIED me. Bruce and I would NOT let each other go until we HAULED ass off the ride. My friends whom I love dearly have video and photographs of me on the skyride. It is down right funny what I did….but hey I was scared damn it! We also did the High Speed Thrill Coaster. I SO love that ride. Airtime galore!! Plus, credit ho’ing at its finest.

 

I finally got over to Twister at the start of ERT and holy crap was this beast being plain hurtful this time around. I rode it close to the back and it hurt like hell. So, a glutton for punishment I decided to try up front. We rode in the second seat, while it wasn’t as bad, it still hurt like a *bleep* use your own expletive here. I was so done with Twister so we headed for the Skooters.

 

We rode the Skooters earlier in the day and had a great time, but during night time ERT we had drivers who knew what they were doing and had so much more fun. The cycles were a little longer and so much fun. And yes I have bruises to prove it.

 

After many rides on the Flyers, I needed one night time ride on Phoenix. It was worth the wait for the front seat and I got some very good Phoenix air, including some very surprising ejector air on the second hill. It was a great ride. The line got longer after we got off so we headed back for the flyers for one last ride. I didn’t ride, but watched as these guys kicked some butt! I was getting COLD and down right in pain and tired. So we headed back to the hotel and checked in. It was quite a pain as well.

 

Checking into the hotel was a pain in the ass. We were tired, hungry, cold and hurting. The hotel had all of my info WRONG. At ten thirty at night I wasn’t taking any prisoners. We got everything fixed and we loaded all of our crap onto the hotel cart and went up to our room. We got settled in and Bruce called. He came up to the room as did Gary and Tina. We decided to watch all of our footage that we collected that day. Thanks go to Gary for providing me with some Jack Daniels for my coke. MMMM mmmmm good.

 

We got up the next morning and I was not looking forward to the long drive and another park. Oh well! We finally found some gas and tried to get some Subway at like 10am. Big mistake on our part. The girl at the Subway was rude and wouldn’t even acknowledge us. Total bitch if you ask me. We left and headed to McD’s for some breakfast. That was just as bad. There were like 15 people waiting for their food and a wait that shouldn’t be McD’s standards. We waited about 15 minutes for food and our mood was getting a bit worse.

 

We passed Lakemont and DelGrossos on the way to Idewild. I, the navigator, should have been paying attention and messed us up going to the park. After getting turned around and headed towards the park we hit the very long line to get into the park. It was completely packed. This was not looking good. After waiting 30 minutes to get to the admission which was 16 bucks, we took another 15 to get parked. We were really getting agitated at this point and finally found a spot. We headed into the park and saw that Wild Mouse was closed. This was looking more bleak. So we get in line for Rollo Coaster and waited about 20 minutes. It was cute. I had been on it before. It was really for Pat because he was credit ho’ing this weekend.

 

We walked over to get on Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. It was closed to. We were really getting ticked off at this point. So we waited in a good 30 minute line for the train. We finally got off the train, and decided to walk down the hill and get some video footage and leave.

 

So basically, we paid 16 bucks for one ride on Rollo Coaster and a half ride on the train. What a waste of money. I just wanted to get home and relax. We got out to the car and got situated and started driving. After a lot of road rage and filming antics in the car we got back to my house.

 

I let the guys relax for awhile. We ordered some pizzas and chilled and finished the watching the Nascar race. The boys decided to go home since they had a long drive ahead of them. I laid down and watched the horrendous Steeler game. That was it. It ended on a peaceful note at home. With nothing major that went wrong this weekend, except the lack of sleep, we had the best time that I can remember.

 

Thanks to everyone that I was with this weekend and everyone that I met. I had a blast and can’t wait to do something with everyone again sometime next year. Sorry for no photos, I didn’t bring the camera, and as soon as everyone posts them to my sites gallery I will link to it. Thanks for reading I know this was a pain to read. Until next time everyone!

[mdosh]

Hi Katie,

 

Thanks for the nice e-mail the other day regarding GCII. About the Phyler's, obviously you weren't there when the Snap Nazi was on duty. He was a piece of work yelling at everyone. Can't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday, but on one ride Todd Long actually got kicked off by the guy. In typical Long fashion, Todd yelled back and him and said: You're kicking me off because I'm black, aren't you!"

 

On Sunday when the Snap Nazi was on the Phylers were pretty much empty. When he'd go on his break the hi-phylers returned. I had probably my wildest ride ever earlier in the day on Saturday. It was jsut one of those rides where every move of the sail resulted in major snappage. One for the record book for me.

 

Katie, why don;t you chack out the RRC threads on PPP and chime in with your opinions on Phunfest. There's a few interesting conversations going on there.

 

MARK

[Dailey Enterprizes]

Aww that sucks that Idlewild wasn't running at full tilt when you went. As for PPP, haha I'm jealos because I've never been there before. Anyway it's cool that you ran into some people that you knew and I hope the crowds at Fright Nights this Saturday are better, but it is Saturday isn't it? Haha, well we'll have fun because I'll be there with cool people and I've experienced most of the old fun houses over the previous years, so I won't have to spend the entire time waiting in lines.

[TAZville]

nice trip report katie, thanks