printersdevil78 Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 I had a quite a week last week, spending several days in New Orleans (TR coming later this week on the "Random, Random, Random" board) and then flying back to Baltimore to join some friends for a roadtrip to Kennywood. A family friend of one of the friends was hosting his company's picnic at the park on Saturday, and we attended as his guests before retiring to spend the night at his 14,000-square-foot mansion (I slept on a wrap-around sofa between the movie theater, bar and video arcade/casino). Our hosts couldn't have been more hospitable, and it truly was one of the most memorable weekends of my life thus far. It was a great day until around 7 p.m., when a powerful storm ravaged the park, blowing over trees, flooding the pavilion area and knocking out power. Upon being evacuated, we each got a free pass good for re-admittance any day after 5 p.m. this season. At any rate, I managed to get in more than 200 photos before the storm took over. Enjoy the highlights! And so we bid an early goodnight to Kennywood. And some of us secretly hoped lightning would strike Garfield's Nightmare and put it out of our misery. Sadly, it still stands. The power outage forced an evacuation of the park. Nothing from the rides to the cash registers to the escalators to the upper parking areas was operating. The storm felled a tree over the bridge, forcing most of us to take the long way out of the park. Gotta hand it to Kennywood, though. Had this been a Cedar Fair park, they would have closed the rides in May in preparation for this storm. Kennywood kept everything open until the first raindrops fell. And then the storm came. This photo was taken approximately .0000002 seconds before the sky fell out. We took cover under our picnic pavilion... which seemed like a good idea until all the lights went out and water started to pool inside the pavilion. I wish Parques Reunidos doesn't screw Kennywood up too much.... So exactly what do you think the guy who came up with the giant red mushroom fountain was on at the time? We see you, George! ...a whole armful of purple stuffed animals! And a photo that says, "I play with dolls." Paul is good at midway games. In fact, he won... Historic carousel pictures are always pretty. The Kangaroo in all its hoppin', last-of-its-kind glory. Bonzo doesn't have any teeth because he eats garbage. Take a lesson from Bonzo, kids: Don't eat garbage! He's a lumberjack... and he's OK! And a flower clock. How 1970s! Afro fountain! The train was broken down almost all day. It made only two and a half complete circuits that we saw. This was one of them. Laffing Sal is entombed in here. You can tell the train station is historic because of the extra "E" in "Olde." An historic car from that historic ride. Another historic ride. I'm much more excited than I look in this photo. Honest! In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room.... This alien, however, does nothing but stand around the park and take pictures all day. He's a Radial Orbiting Blue Being, or R.O.B.B. for short. So does this alien. Mr. Potato Patch Man agrees. This is what angels eat. Trust me on this. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Heaven. In keeping with its historic tradition (note the sarcasm), Lost Kennywood also featured The Exterminator, an indoor coaster we didn't ride because the wait was 45 minutes while the wait for everything else was about 10 minutes. ...and down this one. And then it made a big splash (big splash not pictured). Lost Kennywood also featured the Pittsburgh Plunge flume ride. Boats went up this ramp... It contained several fountains. This was one of them. This is Lost Kennywood. I found it. They made me give it back. The entryway is based on the one that once greeted guests at Luna Park. And this would be the Phantom seeking his Revenge with a telephone pole in the way. This would be the Phantom seeking his Revenge. I am the Phantom. Please remain seated, keeping all hands, arms, feet and legs inside the vehicle at all times so that I may seek my Revenge upon you. Time to show the Turtle some love! And this would be our Doombuggy. Ain't no ghost followed us home from this ride. Ghostwood Manor. It'd kind of like the Buzz Lightyear rides at the Disney parks. If Buzz Lightyear lived in The Haunted Mansion. And his targets didn't register all that well. But it's still eons better than Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge at Hershey Park. And now the orange one. Because I'm a completist, remember? Whee! Green Thunderbolt car. Signature shot No. 2. Signature shot No. 1. From left: Kenny Kangaroo, Laffing Sal, Cowboy Joe, Noah, George Washington and Laffing Sam. He's a juggler. He juggles things. Like his schedule. Do you know how tough it is for him to make it on time to his second job as a street mime and still work in five minutes for a smoke break? Lay off, people, just lay off! Um, captain? You're doing it wrong! Eh, I've seen bigger. A Noah's-eye view of the park. Well, no fiberglass monkey holding a sign in a funhouse has ever steered me wrong before.... Hello, Mr. Noah! How does it feel to be among the last of your kind in the world? Mmmm... fried Oreos! I, on the other hand, found something MUCH more appealing! Some people got Duble Heders for dessert. Mmmm... picnic food! Even the buffet at the company picnic came with an arrow! Most elaborately themed restroom ever. Kenny Kangaroo also lives in Kiddieland, though he's not a "Garfield" character. Is he? Has anyone actually even read "Garfield" in the past 20 years? Seriously, maybe Garfield and Ziggy need to consider going the reality TV route. Odie's here, too. Because little kids dream of the day they can go to Kennywood and have their picture taken with Odie. This is where Garfield lives. When he's not busy ruining classic dark rides. Next stop: Kiddieland! Um, does Sluefoot Sue know about this? Hey, maybe this is where the museum's going.... Apparently standing equals death. And not just because of the officially sanctioned Kennywood sniper standing over on top of the Jackrabbit with an itchy trigger finger. See the red cars? See the green cars? I'm pretty sure they did that just to make Holiday World jealous. Racer... yeah! OK, seriously, you can stop with the freakin' arrows now! This is Liz and Paul. They were the reason I was able to join this trip to Kennywood. Liz is smiling because Paul's 5-year-old niece convinced him to ride the Jackrabbit, his first and only coaster of the day. Paul is smiling because it's over. And the blue Jackrabbit from far away. Because I'm a completist. The blue Jackrabbit close up. The orange Jackrabbit close up. Ending sentences in prepositions, apparently. Jackrabbit... through the former trees! And speaking of fireworks (look closely; they were advertised on the sign below), this giant example was placed somewhat randomly along a park path. Yay for random odd theming! Still, this historic sign remains in front of the ride as a reminder of simpler times, left over from when gas just cost FUN per gallon instead of $4.17. The cars no longer have gas pedals. Instead, they run on an electric current furnished by the track. You just know Ed Begley Jr. wants one. OK, enough with the arrows already.... The pagoda snack bar is cool because it serves authentic Chinese food. Like Icees and soft-serve ice cream. Fortunately, at least part of the "good" Old Mill remains in the park in the form of these dragon heads at the pagoda snack bar. They used to be attached to the Old Mill boats. (I learned that from the video loop we got to see about eight times while in line for Garfield's Nightmare.) Garfield's all like, "It wasn't my idea, I swear!" ...THIS Old Mill! Cedar Fair could buy Kennywood and turn this building into a trashcan museum, and it STILL would suck less than Garfield's Nightmare. Just look at that old mill. It sure looks a lot better than... You 2008 park map. Apparently it's, like, historical or something. To all who come to this happy place, welcome! Oops, sorry... wrong park. We're finally here. Those big yellow arrows are better than GPS! Yep, definitely close now! What's that I see off in the distance? We must be getting close.... After getting a 6:30 a.m. start, we drove for a couple hours before stopping for an Elissa-approved breakfast in Breezewood, PA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swampfox Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Nice photos! This makes me even more excited for my first trip to the park which takes place in less than 3 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankees15 Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 That was an amazing trip report! There were so many photos and they were all so great! I really wanted to get out there this summer but my plans feel through. Hopefully next summer I can hit the park up. It looks like a great park with some awesome coasters, especially Phantom's Revenge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btp1 Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Great TR! I really, really want to get to this park...great photos make the park look great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rct3man777 Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Sweet TR! P.S Phantom's revenge is huge! Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kennyweird Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Excellent Photo TR. Garfield's Nightmare is the most godawful piece of sh*t in Kennywood. You have good reason to hate it so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KPfreak519 Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Cowboy Joe is back!! Strangely, he was gone two weeks ago when I visited the park. Great TR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastCoastn07 Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Cowboy Joe is back!! Strangely, he was gone two weeks ago when I visited the park. Great TR! You'll notice he has a fresh coat of paint as well...He's been in rehab the past few weeks. Pretty decent trip report, it sucks you got caught in the storm, luckily I was off that day. The weather has been pretty crappy the past few days at the park causing the park to close early several times including yesterday. By the way, the new ride is called Ghostwood Estate, not Manor...I don't know why so many people get that name wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
printersdevil78 Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 ^Garfield told me he wanted it to be called "manor." His will be done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Coaster Girl Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 Kennywood is a fun place, and its in one of my favorite city's, pittsburgh. But you should have road exterminator, to me it would be worth the stand in line. I love that coaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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