Kennywood (KW) Discussion Thread

[PKI Jizzman]

Visiting for the first time in 7 years next month. Looks like there's only 2 options for their Fast Pass: 

$130 VIP 

$59 skip the line on the coasters once each. 

For a Saturday in October and Steel Curtain only one train is the VIP pretty much the only way to get multiple rides on it? I'm assuming it's gonna be slammed on a fall Saturday. 

[BRTeller]

4 minutes ago, PKI Jizzman said:

Visiting for the first time in 7 years next month. Looks like there's only 2 options for their Fast Pass: 

$130 VIP 

$59 skip the line on the coasters once each. 

For a Saturday in October and Steel Curtain only one train is the VIP pretty much the only way to get multiple rides on it? I'm assuming it's gonna be slammed on a fall Saturday. 

Steel Curtain has the absolute slowest operations I've experienced on any coaster ever. The staff is slow, the one train operations are slow. I don't understand it at all since other coasters in the park are perfectly fine, it's like they put the worst employees on the most popular coaster and said "hey we don't need both trains, what's an extra 3 minutes per dispatch on top of the 15".

So while you could get a few rides on it, I would plan to buy the VIP pass if you want re rides. I pretty much skip the coaster every time we go unless we have a pass for it. Even the one time the ride had a small wait outside of the station, the wait for that was 45 minutes to an hour for essentially 5 to 6 trains worth of people and that was with two train operation.

[PKI Jizzman]

And as we approach fooseball season, I am assuming it will be ever more popular than usual. 

I'll be curious to see if they are worse than the Valravn or Cheetah Hunt or Falcon's Fury crews, haha. Those deserve as special place in theme park hell this year.

[BRTeller]

34 minutes ago, PKI Jizzman said:

And as we approach fooseball season, I am assuming it will be ever more popular than usual. 

I'll be curious to see if they are worse than the Valravn or Cheetah Hunt or Falcon's Fury crews, haha. Those deserve as special place in theme park hell this year.

Well my experience this year at Valravn and Cheetah Hunt were lightning fast compared to Steel Curtain. I do remember those two coasters being a bit slow this year, but nothing like how horrible Steel Curtain is. Even SFA wait times and operations were better every single time we've went, even with 1 train operations on Superman with very similar conditions as I described with Steel Curtain it was still quicker.

I do want to emphasize this is only for Steel Curtain, I can't think of any other ride in the park that has bad operations. Everything else is lightening fast and particularly the Phantom's Revenge crew is amazing. I highly recommend marathoning that one at night if you have the opportunity. 

[KPfan]

Curtain and Thunderbolt were expected  to be single train all season.  But there have been days where Curtain has been running two trains.  Hopefully the planned work for this off season will resolve the issues. 

[Taylor Finn]

2 hours ago, CenturyFlyer said:

Phantom's Revenge is getting a full repaint of its track next season. They're letting you vote if you want the color to change to purple or teal: https://www.kennywood.com/choose-the-color I'm sure that this will be just one of many cosmetic changes next year, as the park will be getting "rebranded" like Lake Compounce was. 

 

Also... this

 

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

[KPfan]

It’s photoshopped.  There’s only one report of someone claiming to have received the survey.  If it was legitimate, there would have been many more. 

[SharkTums]

2 hours ago, BRTeller said:

Steel Curtain has the absolute slowest operations I've experienced on any coaster ever. The staff is slow, the one train operations are slow. I don't understand it at all since other coasters in the park are perfectly fine, it's like they put the worst employees on the most popular coaster and said "hey we don't need both trains, what's an extra 3 minutes per dispatch on top of the 15".

So while you could get a few rides on it, I would plan to buy the VIP pass if you want re rides. I pretty much skip the coaster every time we go unless we have a pass for it. Even the one time the ride had a small wait outside of the station, the wait for that was 45 minutes to an hour for essentially 5 to 6 trains worth of people and that was with two train operation.

Don't forget it also has the slowest lift hill so it just takes FOREVER!!!

[grsupercity]

Hopefully Phantom gets painted purple. The world needs more purple coasters lol 

[dankeykang]

^Especially ones that are operational.

*cough* Iron Gwazi *cough*

[coasterbill]

I feel like this is a great excuse for them to paint it in the spring and open it for the season somewhere around mid-August. lol

[disownedpear]

Looks like purple is heavily in the lead. Why would someone photoshop that thing about Kangaroo, so cruel! Do we know where the ride is now?

[Taylor Finn]

^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.

[KPfan]

What’s old is new again. 

[PKI Jizzman]

Welp, guess I'll be canceling my trip.

"https://www.kennywood.com/ We regret to announce the Steel Curtain will be closed for maintenance for the remainder of the season. Our park team will be working closely with the ride’s manufacturer to ensure a roaring return next spring.

 

 

Sorry the text is dark. Steel Curtain closed for the year. 

[boldikus]

LOL when can we start calling this thing a lemon?

[BRTeller]

29 minutes ago, PKI Jizzman said:

Welp, guess I'll be canceling my trip.

"https://www.kennywood.com/ We regret to announce the Steel Curtain will be closed for maintenance for the remainder of the season. Our park team will be working closely with the ride’s manufacturer to ensure a roaring return next spring.

 

 

Sorry the text is dark. Steel Curtain closed for the year. 

This is probably the best news we've heard on the coaster in awhile. Hopefully this means fixing whatever kinks it has to get it to a somewhat normal operation. Whether that's retraining, second train, or a quicker lift, all together would result in amazing operations but even just one of those things would at least cut down 5 minutes on each cycle. 

[tndank]

They had over a year to fix the coaster. Now another 8 months? 

Maybe S&S will build Vortex as an apology. 

[coneyislandchris]

Kennywood and extended ride closures go together just like chocolate and peanut butter.

They haven't closed Phantom's Revenge yet for the repainting, have they?

[KPfan]

9 hours ago, coneyislandchris said:

Kennywood and extended ride closures go together just like chocolate and peanut butter.

They haven't closed Phantom's Revenge yet for the repainting, have they?

Revenge is not expected to close for painting.  And yeah, the new management team is not happy about some of the prolonged downtime or repetitive issues with certain rides.  Obviously not everything can be addressed at once but expect to see more work being done to improve.  

[coasterbill]

I don't know the specifics of what's wrong with this thing, but considering it's Kennywood I think it's fair to assume that the park probably shares in the blame along with the manufacturer. I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt on anything.

[bert425]

the moment they pulled out Kangaroo and Bayern Kurve ?  

this park went from "must do again next time in Pennsylvania" to "eh . . been there, got to ride the unique rides and classics before they retired several of them (including the log flume).. no rush to go back"


Would I like to ride Steel Curtain?  sure. . but not making a trip just for that.

[BRTeller]

5 hours ago, bert425 said:

the moment they pulled out Kangaroo and Bayern Kurve ?  

this park went from "must do again next time in Pennsylvania" to "eh . . been there, got to ride the unique rides and classics before they retired several of them (including the log flume).. no rush to go back"


Would I like to ride Steel Curtain?  sure. . but not making a trip just for that.

You're smart for that, because every year this park manages to take away something I love about It. I'm still a bit hostile on the Garfield's bad acid trip being remodeled, I mean sure I miss the other classics, but nothing ever has given me a "WTF" moment like that ride and it'll be forever missed. Steel Curtain is good, I'd even say REALLY good, but it's not enough of a pusher with all of it's issues to go to the park, you'll just be angry that you enjoyed it so much and realize you don't want to wait in a 3 hour line to do it again.

[partycat]

Cassy and Travis's Trip Report for Phantom Fall Fest Preview :

Yesterday Travis and I attended Kennywood's Preview event for their new halloween event, Phantom Fall Fest. We have spent a lot of time at Kennywood, but have not been to their halloween events, so we didn't know what to expect! From my understanding, they used to have two separate halloween events; one for kids in the day, then they would close and reopen for the haunt event in the evening. Kennywood's new event Phantom Fall Fest combines the two events and lets families enjoy the festivities during the day and at 6pm the haunting starts, so families with small children know when to leave if they needed to. 

They had five mazes:

1. Villa of the Vampire-vampire themed maze that takes place in the arcade building, they clear out all the arcade machines and build this maze inside the building, very well themed! (I liked the skull wall) 

2. Shady Grove Memorial Hospital-you are going undercover through this maze, to see what's going on with the patients and hospital staff, there's rumors of an evil doctor (where did all their eyes go?)

3. Dark Shadows- this is their "blackout" maze, which was the first of these that I've been in that was outdoors, and we went when it was slightly light outside and we still couldn't see anything! (I love these kind of mazes)

4. Kennyville Cemetery- Very cool cemetery themed maze, located at the front of the park (loved the ghost in the water!)

5. Voodoo Bayou-cool voodoo themed maze that takes place in the rapids ride, they empty out the water and you get to walk around where the water was which I thought was really cool! Also we were told they use their old dying plants from the season as decor for the maze!

They also had four scare zones: 

1. Fear Fest- this is a carnival themed walkthrough section where the kangaroo used to be (rip kangaroo)

2. Manor Estate Sale- cool little area that makes it seem like you are in someones house looking at their belongings

3. Hellbilly Hollow-name says it all, your classic hillbilly-zombie themed area, some very good scare actors! (they were always chasing someone)

4. The Departing-the final walkthrough, this takes place in the tunnel when you leave the park, they put scare actors in the tunnel and pump up the fog! (this starts later in the evening, I think 90 minutes before they close)

Here are pictures from our evening:

Kenny was in his halloween best!

love sky rocket! such a fun ride

next was phantoms revenge, loved the theming of decor since they are currently working on painting the track

the purple track looks cool!

sad that this ride was blocked off, but thought it was funny they decorated the blocked off area

had to try the "scary waffle cone" you could choose the ice cream flavor, then it had orange sprinkles and gummy worms

for the preview we tried some of the new seasonal offerings they have this year such as roasted corn, turkey legs, hamburger steak, and spooky desserts!

Noah's ark is one of my favorite attractions here, its so unique!

have to ride the whip! such a great ride!

Lots of photo-op areas everywhere!

picture of the voodoo bayou sign in the day, this was my favorite sign for the mazes

I loved the effort they put into theming the haunt decor to what was going on, these guys are doing a little construction!

 

Next for the preview event, we went on a behind the scenes tour of Villa of the Vampire. Like I said before, this maze was inside the arcade area and is built from scratch every year after they move all the arcade machines out. Super cool to see all the detail you don't get to admire when the maze is dark (and avoiding vampires).

I thought Laffin' Sal was scary as she was! Now she's hanging out with the vampires!

this is the main room where they explain the rules of the maze

we got to go where the scare actors go, and see all the doors and windows they use

Mark showing off one of the secret doors

my favorite area! I want the skull wall for my house!

the woman in the picture on the wall was an employee for that attraction for years before she passed away and they honor her by putting her photo in the room where she worked the most

gotta take that spooky mirror selfie!

one of the cool effects they use for the bug rooms is they have fishing wire that brushes against your face and hair making you feel like you're walking through webs

 

Then we got to go behind the scenes and see makeup being done on scare actors, and look at some of their masks and props they use to transform scare actors for the the night! 

had to get some pictures back there too!

this is where they work on everything for the upkeep on their wooden coasters

RIP

Also RIP (I really miss this one)

Glad we went on this earlier in the day cause the whale was full! 

love seeing real chainsaws being used for haunts!

they pumped fog into the carousel, I thought this was a really cool touch!

we left a little earlier than when they started this walkthrough area, but there were some scare actors at the end of the tunnel

had to take a spooky tunnel selfie

 

Overall we had a good time, and really enjoyed the night! Our favorite maze was Voodoo Bayou, and we loved that all the areas had a ton of fog and really good scare actors! This is a great family event, with something for everyone to enjoy!

[PKI Jizzman]

Great report! It's a shame how many rides are closed, but at least the Halloween event gives some new things to try. Black Widow down again?! Damn, that thing is so much fun.