Kentucky Kingdom

 

Welcome to Kentucky Kingdom

The reason for our visit is the new Flying Fox rollercoaster

This is a Vekoma Family Suspended Coaster, much like Dragonflier at Dollywood (which is coincidentally also green)

Vekoma is knocking it out of the park with their new coasters.  While this ride might not be overly intense it is a lot of fun and everyone was exiting with smiles on their faces

Next door is Lightning Run - a rare Chance Hyper GT-X Coaster

Basically a mini-hypercoaster, this ride features diabolical airtime moments

The park is currently celebrating their Floral Frenzy festival.  However, other than this canopy and a few signs, I'm not exactly sure what the festival is

and here is the sign.  Maybe it will grow (pun intended) over the next few seasons

Scream Extreme

Himalaya supporting a new look without its normal top

Let's check out their show

Wheels in the Wild was definitely designed for a younger crowd, but the sports bikes did do a few neat tricks.  Maybe this park needs to take a page from its sister parks and have some Bluegrass acts?

In the kiddie section they had this group performing

Again this was definitely designed for the youngest of young park guests

In the weird ride area inside of the waterpark, you can find the Giant Wheel

Skycatcher

and the star of this section - Kentucky Flyer

This from Gravity Group family wooden coaster really makes the most of its short layout.

It is weird that the park now has two airplane themed rides

Last year, Herschend decided it was time to actually put some effort into the park and they created Discovery Meadow

Honestly, if their long term goal is to have fully flushed out lands like this area in the entire park - Kentucky Kingdom is definitely headed in the right direction

Hollyhock and Roll

Garden Carousel

Treetop Drop

The former Thunder Run is now Woodland Run - and I thought it was running really good

Spring Fling

Mile High Falls

Again, they did a great job with this area

Seed Spinner

Nature's Bounty

Honeybee Buzzers

and Storm Chaser is now Wind Chaser

No matter the name, it is still the star attraction of the park.

We had a great day and are looking forward to seeing what Herschend has in store for the next chapters of placemaking as they reinvent Kentucky Kingdom

Hurricane Bay

 

Welcome to Kentucky Kingdom's waterpark 

(We're not really sure if it is still called Hurricane Bay or not so we're just going with it)

Big Surf Wavepool

Tornado

Calypso Run (green), Kilawaya (topsy turvy) and Waikiki Wipeout (bowl)

The tall drop slide is Deep Water Dive.  It is a drop of 121 feet at a 70 degree angle.  The blue slide is Wave Runner

Adventure River

Plummet Summit

Splash Zone

Mega Wedgie

Mt. Slide Hai with Castaway Creek surrounding it

Silver Dollar City - Project 2027

 

PROJECT 2027

Welcome back to another update on the construction progress at SDC

The piers are continuing to get covered in the area just behind Lumbercamp Falls

We're still interested in what will become of this pit.

Water feature?

They have started to add large rocks for landscaping in this area

They have also added these tall wooden poles, which will eventually hold safety netting for the ride

On the WildFire side of American Plunge, they are starting to install lighting features along the queue pathway to the new ride

Additional rockwork has also been added to the area

Here is a better look at the added rockwork and the lighting features.  This one closest to us might eventually hold a sign as large as it is.  Also in this photo you can see the newest addition to the site

Here you can see it sticking up above the safety fence.

This scaffolding appears to be a new thematic element being added for the ride

Some are describing it as a head frame for a mine hoist

You can see here the scale of how big it is

There are lots of parts to be put together for this tower still.

There are lots of similar looking pieces still staged backstage by Outlaw Run

Here is where the tower is in proximity to WildFire and the new station

Speaking of the station, it has received a floor since our last visit

You cannot seet it from here, but they have also constructed another foundation just over the hill.  It is much smaller though.  Could be for a substation or even switch track

This new tower looks "used".  I wonder where it is originally from and if they plan to paint it

One last photo of the tower.

It is going to be fun to see how this progresses

Over at PowderKeg, a new retaining wall has been constructed.  They are now rebuilding the deck that all of the barrels sat on next to the effects building

Here is the end of the retaining wall.  You can also see the line of footers going down the hill.

Crazy that they are still building additional piers.  How many piers will this ride have?

One last photo of this area. You can see the wooden poles we pointed out earlier against the far fence.