Kennywood and Cedar Point TR

[Wood Dragon 1988]

What's up everyone?

 

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit two of the oldest and best amusement parks in the US. Matt (MS13) from the Behemoth trip wanted to do Kennywood this year, and I wanted to as well, having just moving into a university close by a month ago. So we decided to hook up one last time to ride rides, get scared, and reminisce about the greatness that was the Behemoth trip.

 

I figured since I was as close as I will be to Cedar Point for a while, I may as well go and make a "quick" credit run at "America's Rockin' Roller Coast" while I was there. Matt unfortunately had an urgent calling from the good folks at Burger King, so he had to miss out on the Cedar Point fun , which actually was a good thing for him probably, but more on that later!

 

I ended up having a great time, and didn't spend TOO much money. I rode some great rides, got scared out of my mind, ate some good food, watched some amazing juggling, waited in a few queue lines, got lost in the rural roads of Pennsylvania a time or two, slept at a few service stations on the Ohio Turnpike.........etc.

 

I did make a bit of a revelation following the trip:

 

I realized how privileged I was on the TPR trip, and how much of a hassel amusement park going and credit-seeking can be without the aid of ERT, lunches, lodging, transport, etc. Even a two day, two park trip can be so hard to plan and execute on your own.

 

Oh well, on to the photos:

I will conclude the first half of the Kennywood report with a nice pic of Matt and..........themeing :0

 

 

 

Part two of Kennywood and Cedar Point coming soon!

Or in this case, they effectively "removed" the themeing to make an incredibly kick-ass spinning mouse! I guess with PPN being more of a teenage and adult event, Kennywood thought they would take Exterminator up a few notches by making the indoor room pitch-dark! I have never been on a darker roller coaster than Exterminator that night, and only a few haunted houses can rival its darkness. This worked great, and Exterminator was one of the best rides I rode that weekend.

Kennywood really goes the extra mile in themeing up the park for Phantom Fright Nights. I've now been to five Halloween events and Kennywood's is by far the best for both atmosphere and mazes. I'll get to the mazes later.

Me and the Phantom. I swear, no more pics of anything that has to do with Phantoms for the rest of this TR :0

Kennywood likes their arrows. So, the rest of the pics from the Kennywood half of this TR will be dark, because....well...they don't open the park until 7 in October! So, I tried my best to capture the atmosphere and some of the special Fright Night attractions in the next few pics.

Time for our ride on Phatom...under a navy blue sky.

Now where the fun begins! Kennywood park begins with a long tunnel. They do their best to scare the sh!t out of you in this tunnel on Fright Nights. It wasn't quite dark when Matt and I walked through it this year, but that didn't stop guests from walking as slowly and cautiously as possible!

Two Phantoms

Stealing a TPR trick. :0

One last through the leaves shot.

Noted!

First sign of Phantom Fright Nights.

Got to love Kennywood's entrance.

Looks like it would be fun to ride that one day.

One more pic of Phantom....for now.

Pitt Fall through the trees. Damn you ride for being closed all night.

Including an exclusive "Through the Pine Trees" shot!

I was there a bit early, so expect a bunch of pictures of Phantom

You would think we were in Europe with an escalator of that size!

Now we must be really close

Fast-forward about three hours and ten wrong turns later, and we are almost at the zoo!......er Kennywood!

First time to load up on some real cheap gas in Western Maryland! I haven't seen gas that low in a long time!

[Kennyweird]

Pitt Fall through the trees. Damn you ride for being closed all night.

 

Yeah... it's a little more than closed for the night...

Judging by this picture I took last Friday, it's closed for the rest of the season.

[Wood Dragon 1988]

This seems to be so old, but I still have only done 1/4 of the TR.

Need to work on my speed.

So here is Kennywood part II.

 

 

Voodoo Bayou was the first maze we did. The park made coaster and rapid enthusiasts quite happy, by placing this maze actually inside the regular rapids ride's trench! Was quite an amazing concept, and I only kept thinking what would happen if the water started gushing in "Ten Commandments" style. Would have made the maze a lot scarier for one, as it wasn't that good. Overall, just a cool theme and awesome unique location, but not much of a maze.

 

 

Me and Thunderbolt, my favorite wooden coaster at Kennywood.

 

 

Matt before the ride: "I don't think this is a squishy ride, is it?" Dude, this IS your local park, right!?

 

 

Ah, mine at last. After going to three parks with these Potato Patch fries available, and never braving the long lines to purchase them, I finally got my hands on these famous greasy things. Pretty good, not the best fries I've ever had, but pretty good. Perhaps if it wasn't for the fake cheddar cheese....

 

 

Dark Shadow, I guess this was the maze that was by the kid section.

 

 

Captain Skully's was a maze equip with 3d glasses. I have came to the conclusion that most 3d things fail, as was the case here. It was just too bright inside to be scary.

 

 

Racer was closed if anyone was wondering. I rode it last year and wasn't too impressed, and still only have half the credit.

 

 

Perhaps some people reading this know what Jack Rabbit is famous for? Just a guess.

 

 

Fear Festival really wasn't a maze, but more of a "scare zone" in proper Halloween coaster geek lingo. From what I remember it was in the middle of the park and involved clowns, correct me if I'm wrong. It was pretty cool to walk around at least.

 

 

Don't know why I took a pic of this, but I did I guess.

 

 

Yea clowns were there.

 

 

Enterprise. Obligation.

 

 

 

The lone Kennywood credit I lack.

 

 

This guy was THE MAN!!!

 

 

 

He started off by juggling these glow in the dark bowling pins or something.

 

 

Then he broke out the flaming torches of death! Seriously, this juggling show was very dangerous and impressive, and all done right there in the queue line for random rides. This was a great touch to Kennywood's Halloween event.

 

 

Anyone who was on the Behemoth/East Coast trips knows these are all over the state of Pennsylvania!!

 

 

While waiting in line for a maze, we passed right by where some of Kennywood's rides go to sleep for the winter.

 

 

Another maze. This was so two weeks ago, so I have no idea what the maze was like!

 

 

I SWEAR there was this old scary movie on this screen, and when I took a picture of it, it disappeared! Magic!

 

 

Cool looking covering to a building. This, like much of Kennywood's Halloween stuff, looked completely temporary. Shows that they go the extra mile for their Halloween event.

 

 

Goodnight Kennywood, and I will be back! Seriously, I think this is probably the best non-Florida Halloween event on the East Coast. Probably the most fun I've had at a Halloween event, because we got to do both mazes and rides, both of which were amazing.

 

 

Perhaps the only downfall to Kennywood is that getting to and from the park seems to always result in traffic of some kind. For me, it this was the sight for seemingly miles getting both in and out of Kennywood. Perhaps it was due to road construction (shocker for Western PA), but it was certainly a humbling way to end a great night. Got me ready for another humbling experience the next day. More on that in my next update.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Wood Dragon 1988]

Before I get to the Cedar Point section of this TR (if I ever do), here is a video of the awesome "fire juggler" at Kennywood.

[DenDen]

Perhaps the only downfall to Kennywood is that getting to and from the park seems to always result in traffic of some kind. For me, it this was the sight for seemingly miles getting both in and out of Kennywood.

 

Thats because everyone go the "recommended" route that the park tells everyone to go.

 

A good tip: From Downtown Pittsburgh, take Forbes Avenue, cross Birmingham Bridge (also known as Bradey Street Bridge). Left on Carson Street. Take the 8th Ave./Riverton exit. It's a straight shot from there.

 

An easier way to give these directions is to just follow State Route 837. There is RARELY ever any traffic jams going this route, except when going through the Homestead neighborhood in mid afternoon. But it's not that bad.