BoddaH1994

I never got the whole "we're no Cedar Point", "we're no Disney World", etc. deal. When I was at Kennywood, I was talking to a couple of employees who recognized my PKIC shirt. One of them said, "We're no PKI, but I'm sure you can find some stuff to do around here." I thought he was nuts. Granted, almost everything about PKI outweighs Kennywood, but KP does pack a per capita bunch that PKI never will. To me every park is unique and his its own brand of entertainment.

I wonder if the occupation of HBL will be a peaceful one, or if the Nickelodeon characters will find it necessary to use force.

As much as I'd love to disagree with you there, after a petition with thousands of signatures, countless bad GRs about the situation, and a generally bad taste in the park resulting from Paramount's decision without PP even reconsidering the decision at all (at least to my knowledge) does kind of leave me unsettled. I hope that in time, they'll realize that the key to success is giving the people what they want, rather than telling people what they want and giving it to them.

WTF? Did we go to the same park today?? Bill and I went up there to take care of some stuff, and by 11 the lines were long. We didn't even ride anything except the Zephyr really all day because of that. We even took a shot at Top Gun when we got bored and the line went all the way from the queue station and stretched to that last set of steps near the billboard. IJ had a full house and so did Delirium. You must have lucked out or just started really early if you had those short waits.

Just e-mail them to me and we'd be happy to host them.

While at the park today, we were able to catch a glimse into what Fearfest has in stock. Not entirely too much to see quite yet, but the sheer fact that they have a good amount of decorations up already shows the magnitude that this Fearfest is going to be! Interesting note: All four projection screens have been removed from the Festhaus. I'm guessing that this is for Fearfest/Winterfest preparation. Behind screen 4, over the main entrance, there is a now-exposed beautiful stainglass window which looks like it's supposed to be of a German design (go figure). I'm guessing that this work of art had been forgotten until recently. Click here for the photos! Brought to you of course by PKICentral.com, and the man who puts the "B. Ware" in "beware" PKIC's own Bill Ware.

Although we haven't really heard anything either way, it's highly unlikely that HBL will disappear after Labor Day weekend. The area just has too many things going on for Fearfest.

I realize that if you're just looking for random photos of the park, it's a little under par on that, but if your're looking for a specific ride or attraction, use the "search" function in the upper right hand corner. It works extremely well, and willl help you on your way.

I changed the layout of the photo gallery slightly. I thought it was unorganized to have several Beastbuzz galleries, and soon to be several Fall Freakout galleries. Now, each of those annual events have their own categories, so if you click on the photo on the main page, it links you to a seperate screen with the albums from the event from the past years. I figure that if Beastbuzz and Fallfreakout are going to be recurring events, it would be junky to have a screen full of albums for the events. Is the look acceptable? Is it easy for you to navigate? Click here to be linked to the photo gallery. Please leave your feedback, Ryan

I did Kennywood in about 3 hours myself. It was even the day that they have their big parade with all of the radio stations there. On their forums, they told me it would be about as crowded as it gets, which was kind of a joke. The longest thing we waited for was Jack Rabbit, which wasn't even a half hour. PR was a walk on and their Racer was maybe 10 mins. The only other longer wait we had was for Noah's Ark, which was about 20 mins, but it would have been worth a wait of several hours in my opinion.

The park is usually in full operation during Fearfest. This is of course with the exception of Crocodile Dundee's Boomerang Bay, which closes for the season on Labor Day, and White Water Canyon which usually starts winte rehab in September.

When I went to Kennywood, I didn't feel unsafe at all. Granted we are fortunate to have the satety system that we do at PKI, but a watchful eye from the employees is really all KP can afford. I agree that KP's staff is tops in my book. On par with PKI's. I remember asking for directions to the Exterminator from one of their eco girls and as it turned out, she didn't speak much English. Despite that, she didn't just try to pass me off onto somebody else, she gladly mixed her broken English with a "hand map" and got me there. Seemed like she was just glad to help. DD, PLEASE tell me that you didn't neglect Noah's Ark. It's seriously one of the best ride experiences I've ever had. I think we can all agree that Phantom's Revenge was one of the best steels ever built. It's always in everyone's top 3. No inversions, no spinning cars, no Blue Angel fly by... just a very well-thought out ride. That Morgan kid must have learned a lot from his daddy. Exterminator is a nutty ride! My sister and I rode it, and due to our uneven weight distribution (sitting 2 in the car instead of 4 must have screwed things up) we spun out of control until we ended up in the station like you guys did. I had seen other cars enter the station spinning, but just a little.. it took 2 ride ops grabbing our car to be able to stop that thing. (by the way, the themeing is that you're a rat who's going through te basement of a building! ) Their little topspin there wasn't bad. It, like many other topspins, spends a lot of time just rocking, which doesn't really tickle your fancy after riding TR:TR. At least you can ride that and know what a top spin was *designed* to do. lol Did you ride magic carpet? The ride looks dumb, but we rode it because a friend suggested it to me. Once that thing gets going in full circle, it's the oddest sensation. It's kind of a mix of airtime and lateral Gs. It's almost like disembodyment. I guess the best way to describe it is, it's kind of like the sensation you get from air time, except without the airtime. It's like you feel your soul is lifted from you and quickly returned. Spooky. The look and feel of the park is excellent. Imagine a several acre park that looks similar to the Paramount Story. Did you also have trouble following those darn arrows? They point in kind of the direction of a fork in the road leaving you to guess where you are going in the mean streets of West Miffin. (And yes, I bought a shot glass with a yellow arrow on it!) Glad you had a good time! Ryan

Fantastic idea! Who's up for meeting outside of the Paramount Theatre before the 6:30 show and giving the show one last goodbye for the season? Let's support the cast and crew of the show and thank them for such great work this season. Ryan

Yeah... I can totally see Charles holding up the place. What did you guys end up doing instead?

You sure about the whole timed belt thing? I remember reading in the concept pitch that you could stop your car, thus blocking the person behind you under a water sprayer.

The walkway disappeared with the 2001 Nick Central expansion, I believe.

That's hard to say... I give you a solid "maybe", but I don't think it will be so bad that if you spend a day there you wouldn't be able to do everything you want.

I always wished they'd do a temporary retheme of the rides and attractions at the park for Fearfest. Why not pass by a monster or something on The Beast? Or even rig a fog machine to the tunnels in the helix? Such things would make Fearfest such a special event.

what coaster? Scooby's Goaster Coaster... Low capacity, painful... no one would care. what water ride? Congo does seem out of place, but I'm still a fan. what thrill ride? Delirium... I love the ride, but it has had more than its fair share of downtime. what flat (not thrill ride)? SR&R... this ride is out dated. what water park ride? Kookobarra Bay (sp?) What was intended to be an adult pool for relaxing has turned into kiddy pool #2.

I highly doubt this would hurt our chances at all. Do you really think the judges from Amusement Today gave PKI the award because of their outdated kiddy rides from the late 1960s that are themed to characters that no one cares about? No. I'm willing to bet anything that we'll see a higher percentage than last year.

Kennywood is my favorite park in the world except PKI. Noah's Ark is the best dark ride that I've ever been on except MAYBE Phantom Theatre. You could really tell the locals from the tourists in the rocking park of the boat because they were all standing around looking at the animatronics while I was loosing my balance and slamming into walls. I'm glad you had a good time. Ryan

From what I understand, it will be more like the Genesis bomb from Star Trek II hitting HBL next season than a CDBB style retheme.

It is true that Nick Central taking over HBL has been the rumor for quite some time now, but we are still left to speculate. Don't quote me on this, but I have heard that PKI is utilizing the fact that they have bought themselves some time with Winterfest to get things 100% set before an actual announcement. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

That's a very interesting take on everything. Why don't you elaborate as to where things would go and how they would be pulled off?

For a park calendar date and time listing, click here.