Kennywood Review

I recently took a nice trip to Kennywood for my first time ever, and I must say, I am very impressed. The park while having a pretty ghetto feel to the place turned out to be very awesome.

The best way I can describe this place is like an European park in America. The entire park felt very rustic with old school flat rides and classic coasters you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else. In fact, there was only 1 ride I saw in the entire park that had air gates separating the queue lines from the boarding platforms. This is a very surprising thing to see in sue-happy America, especially when one considers that even Disney recently had to add air gates to the classic Space Mountain down at Magic Kingdom.

Speaking of the rides, the coasters in this park are magnificent. Steel Phantom is an amazing ride full of high speeds and a crap-ton of airtime. Sky Rocket, their new for 2010 coaster, is a very impressive ride from Premier that feels half like a classic Premier ride and half like a Gertslauer Eurofighter. Thunderbolt is the definition of a classic wooden coaster, and it now sits as my second favorite woodie, right under Thunderhead. Racer is the only Mobius woodie still alive in America and it is full of hand-slapping goodness. Jack Rabbit is a nice little wooden coaster with a devious double down into the ravine that packs a huge airtime punch. And finally Exterminator is probably the best themed wild mouse I've ever seen, plus its a Reverchon not a Zamperla (Reverchon makes these rides better IMO).

After that star studded line up of major coasters, you might be wondering, what else is there to ride at Kennywood, well my friends, the answer is a lot. They packed so many flat rides into this park that it almost feels like you're at a state fair instead of an amusement park. They have the awesomely classic Whip, a decent S&S Screamin' Swing named SwingShot, a giant Zamperla Disko named Cosmic Chaos, a classic, last-of-its-kind, Turtle, and my personal favorite, their Bayern Curve. Other than that there are several, not-quite-as-note-worthy flats such as their pirate ship and enterprise.

I didn't get a chance to try out their dark rides or water rides, but hey, that just gives me incentive to go back sometime. Overall, I give this park a 9/10 meaning, get your butt out there now and check it out.


Ride Ratings:
Phantom's Revenge: 10/10
Sky Rocket: 9/10
Thunderbolt: 9/10
Racer: 8/10
Jack Rabbit: 7/10
Lil' Phantom(yes I'm a credit whore): 3/10