June 30, 2019

Kennywood


Welcome to Kennywood

This park has an amazing collection of flat rides.  This is the Bayern Kurve which is sort of a powered roller coaster

Pirate

Volcano - check out the cool facade that it pops out of

Cosmic Chaos

Kangaroo - this is the ONLY ride of its type left in the world

Paratrooper

Swing Shot

Wave Swinger

The Whip

The Exterminator is an indoor themed spinning mouse coaster.  This thing is top notch.

Pittsburg Plunge

Musik Express

Turtle

Noah's Ark - this is the only one of its kind in America.  This is an awesome walk through fun house that is a "must experience" when you visit the park

Ghostwood Estate (this is your typical Sally ride Boo Blasters ride)

Auto Race is another antique ride at the park

Honestly there's nothing else like it out there in the states.  Another "must ride"

Aero 360 - have to love the Kennywood Arrow theme of the ride

The park's grand Merry-Go-Round

Another antique ride is the Old Mill which is currently themed to Garfield's Nightmare

This is a relaxing float trip in a boat (as scene in the lower left of the photo) through a very long indoor tunnel past show scenes.

The park has some amazing roller coasters too - including the Phantom's Revenge

This hypercoaster towers over the park

The more wild of the park's historic wooden coasters is the Thunderbolt

The RACER is the park's racing wooden coaster

The interesting fact about this coaster is that it is one big loop.  Your train will exit one side of the station and enter back on the other side of the station.

The final historic wooden coaster at the park, is also the oldest - the Jack Rabbit

The Jack Rabbit is best known for its double down, which you can see the train navigating here.  That particular element creates an insane amount of airtime.

Coming soon to the park is another steel looping coaster known as the Steel Curtain

While it was testing when we visited, it was not quite ready for its public debut.  I guess we'll have to catch it next time we are in the area.

This is a beautiful historic park, and always a fun stop when in the Pittsburgh area.

June 29, 2019

Six Flags New England


Welcome to Six Flags New England - this is a brand new park for us

This is a beautiful 1909 Illions Grand Carousel

The park's historic wooden coaster is Thunderbolt

This is a fun little coaster that produces some great pops of air.

Goliath is the park's Giant Inverted Boomerang.  This imposing structure towers over Crackaxle Canyon.

Houdini - The Great Escape is a Vekoma Mad House ride.

Tomahawk

Flashback

Wicked Cyclone is the park's RMC twister coaster

The coaster really whips around the course while inverting numerous times.

I wouldn't place it in the upper echelon of RMC coasters, but it is definitely a fun ride.

Pandemonium

Gotham City Gauntlet Escape from Arkham Asylum

Kryptonite Kollider

Cyborg Hyper Drive - this is the new ride for this year.  Inside this building is a themed "Freestyle" ride that features lots of special effects

Catwoman Whip has to have one of the longest coaster trains out there.

The obvious marquee attraction of this area, and honestly the park, is Superman the Ride

This Intamin built hypercoaster is consistently ranked as one of the best steel coasters in the world

Unfortunately, the restraint system for the ride is anything but "tall person friendly" - while we did appreciate the layout and the ride for what it was, it was not exactly fun due to the restraint.

Scream! is the park's 3 tower S&S complex.  They had one tower running the space shot program and the other running the turbo drop program.  The third was never open.  The peculiar thing about the operations of this ride is that you have no choice on which tower you get.  It is just "luck" of the draw as they fill one tower than they fill the other. 

Fireball

Tea Cups

Kontiki - I have to say this is the most random theme for an area that is supposedly themed to the 1950's.

Harley Quinn Spinsanity

Riddler Revenge

The Joker

Gotham City Crime Wave

Batman the Dark Knight is a B&M floorless coaster and was the final USA B&M coaster that I had not ridden yet.

Overall the park was a fun place to visit.  I have to admit that the park is not "tall person friendly" - I have never been to a park where I was literally measured on almost every coaster to see if I was "short enough" to ride.  Perhaps if they are that worried,  they need to have a wristband for "yes I am short enough to ride" at the official height measurement station.