Kennywood Trip Report

The mega-trip begins! Our first stop on our four-park road trip through the Midwest brought us to a southern suburb of Pittsburgh called West Mifflin. Why would anyone drive four hours from another country just to go to West Mifflin? Good question. The answer in our case was Kennywood Park.

Kennywood is a historic park, opening in 1898 and serving the greater Pittsburgh area ever since. The most unique thing about Kennywood is how it embraces its history. Unlike most parks of a similar age, Kennywood still has many of its older attractions with two coasters over 90 years old.

We drove down to Pittsburgh on a Saturday through the rain and got in around 4 pm. It was still raining when we arrived so we waited it out for an hour before heading to the park which was about a 15-minute drive from our hotel.

I knew Pittsburg was famous for its many rivers and bridges but what I didn’t know was how hilly the area is. Like much of the surrounding area, the park itself is built on the side of a hill overlooking a river (not surprisingly with a steel plant across the river). The neat thing about this is a lot of the coasters at Kennywood take full advantage of the park's terrain, diving up and down the natural elevation changes.

We were able to ride all the operating coasters. Steel Curtain, the park's newest coaster which has been plagued with problems since it opened in 2019, is closed for the year for extended maintenance. We’ve known that since April but it still sucked to miss out on it. Ironically Steel Curtain ended up only the second biggest lawn ornament on the trip.

We spent two half days at Kennywood which ended up being plenty. Since it had rained all day driving in when we showed up on Saturday the park was dead. The second day was nice and sunny but by the early afternoon, the park was getting slammed. At that point, we had ridden everything and it's not a huge park so we left and went to the movies (and then Chili’s RIP my dreams of consuming fried mozzarella, thanks Jayme).

Coasters

Exterminator

A very bizarre ride being an indoor spinning wild mouse themed to rodent extermination. It was by no means bad but this ride is almost unnecessarily intense. The tight turns throw you around the car, all drops hit well, and the spinning is probably the most I’ve experienced on any ride. A one-and-done as the one ride we did almost gave me whiplash. This ride brings the heat even if it has no business doing so.

Jack Rabbit

The oldest ride in the park having opened in 1920 is still going strong to this day. There are some quirks due to its age. The cars kind of feel like you're sitting on a couch and the only restraint is a fixed metal bar with a seat belt. Despite its age it still rides pretty smooth, pretty far from the roughest coaster I’ve ridden (cough cough SpineBuster). The layout uses the terrain kind of being built across a small valley on the side of the park. It’s a pretty fun ride but I wouldn’t say the forces are particularly notable. If the line was shorter on our second day I would have gladly done a re-ride.

Phantom's Revenge

The RMC conversion before RMC. This old-school Arrow mega looper got converted by Morgan into a hyper in 2001. This ride is awesome. It's the only ride I’ve ridden where the second drop is way better than the first. You dive 232 ft down the hillside through Thunderbolt’s supports before veering up into a giant banked turn. The first half of the ride is all these huge grand elements before bombarding you with some of the most forceful airtime of any coaster I’ve ever experienced. Your thighs get obliterated in the second half but in the best possible way. Just a phenomenal ride the only thing I can knock it for is it's just a bit short. Phantom’s Revenge ended up being my favorite of the new coasters we experienced on this trip.

Racer

Another classic wood coaster opened in 1927. Kinda similar to Jack Rabbit in the sense that it's a good ride but doesn’t have any super notable forces. It does race which is fun and interestingly it has what's called a Möbius loop. That means that instead of having two distinct tracks for the trains to race on it has one long track that the trains only traverse half of during a ride. So instead of starting and ending on the same side of the station you start on one side and end on the other. I liked this better than Jack Rabbit but not as much as Thunderbolt.

Sky Rocket

Pretty solid ride. The launch and top hat at the start are excellent (despite being trimmed). All the inversions are unique and hit well. Even the dive off the mid-course breaks has some airtime. However after that, the ride kinda just ends. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ride with the second half more phoned in than Sky Rocket. Either Premier ran out of ideas or the park was out of money because the second half of the ride was boring. Sidenote: probably the best Premier train I’ve experienced which makes me more hopeful for the trains on Wonderland's newly announced ride AlpenFury.

Thunderbolt

The third in the classic trio of wood coasters at Kennywood, this being the baby being built in 1968. Similar to the other two, a pretty smooth ride. Also like a lot of rides in the park, it does use the hilly trains to inform the layout. Thunderbolt kind of spans across the same valley that Phantom’s Revenge uses for its second drop. Of the three classics, this has both the best airtime and sense of speed which is always what I’m looking for in a wood coaster. Overall of Jack Rabbit, Racer, and Thunderbolt, I’d say they're pretty close in terms of quality but my favorite ended up being Thunderbolt.

Conclusion

I’m a fan of Kennywood. I think it's cool how it embraces its history. Unlike a park like Cedar Point which is even older but feels very modern Kennywood leans 110% into its old-school charm. There are parts of coming here that do feel like taking a step back in time. Something as small as not having airgates before boarding a coaster may seem insignificant but it's just not something you ever see anymore.

Small tangent on the ride operations here. Pretty lackadaisical but they are a lot less strict on loading procedures which ends up making things faster. Kinda makes me wonder if a lot of the bigger chain parks have gone too far overboard with ride safety. I’m all for being safe but does having all the operators go to the opposite sides of the platform and stick their thumb up before dispatching make things safer? Kennywood would tell you probably not and I think I agree.

Having been here I don’t think I would ever plan a trip around this park but if it ended up being roughly on the route to a destination park I would gladly stop in again for a half day. Two minor gripes. One: for the love of god please add some shade to the queue lines, especially The Old Mill. Two: you have cool shirts, maybe just have some sizes that are larger than a medium.

Kennywood very much feels like a place that generations of locals have experienced without it changing that much. I am by no means a local but it was cool to get to experience that myself.

Next up: Kings Island!