July 25, 2019

Kentucky Kingdom

Welcome to Kentucky Kingdom

The Giant Wheel towers over the park

Skycatcher is a great way to get a bird's eye view of the new addition for 2019

This is Kentucky Flyer, a new Gravity Group wooden coaster

While not a very big wooden coaster, it features lots of good pops of air.  It's honestly a great ride that will quickly become a favorite for the younger thrill seekers

T3 continues to be one of the worst SLC coasters out there.  I honestly think that its the train that's the problem, but it is not fun to ride.

Thunder Run on the other hand was a lot of fun this time.  After taking some advice from a few frequent park visitors, I found the next to the last seat on the train to be pretty smooth.  Best rides I have ever had on Thunder Run

Eye of the Storm is where the dragster cars used to be.  It just feels out of place there.  It would have been better if they had just torn out all of the remnants of that old ride before the installation 

Storm Chaser continues to be the top ride at the park

My only complaint is that it seems to run out of steam quickly and just sort of crawls through the last part of the ride.  Still a quality ride though

Mile High Falls continues to have crazy tall waves

Since it was National Carousel Day, I had to take a ride on the Bella Musica Grand Carousel

Since I grew up at Worlds of Fun, I always get excited to see rides like this.  Unfortunately this Flying Dutchman is not run as fast as the one at WOF.  The boats barely even swing out it turns so slowly.

Roller Skater is a great kiddie coaster.  Seriously a lot of fun.

Since my last visit to the park, they have removed their Enterprise and replaced it with an Endeavor.  This is the same model that Six Flags St. Louis got this season.  They call it Scream Extreme here

I took time to visit the 5D Cinema on this trip.  They were showing Escape 2 Mysterious Island today.  It was honestly a lot of fun

Himalaya.  Makes me miss Rock'n'Reeler at Worlds of Fun

The park has a great sea lion show.  Definitely worth watching

FearFALL continues to be one of the scariest drop rides I have ever been on.  I'm still not sure how I feel about the straight to plunge once it reaches the top.  No sitting around at the top, just down

Bluebeard's Bounty has to be one of the largest rocking ship rides out there.

Cyclos.  The program it was running this time didn't do as many complete loops as I remember doing last time, but it is still insane going all the way over

Professor John's Flying Machines.  They run it so slow, there's no chance of getting your flyer to snap

Breakdance.

Final coaster in the park is Lightning Run

I still don't understand why other parks haven't built something like this.  It is a lot of fun.

Had a great time at Kentucky Kingdom.  I definitely will be back in the near future

Hurricane Bay


Welcome to Hurricane Bay at Kentucky Kingdom

The park has quite a few extreme slides.  This complex features Calypso Run (the Topsy Turvy slide - ends in blue), Kilawaya (the bowl slide) and Waikiki Wipeout (ends in green)

This is a family raft slide called Plummet Summit

This tower features a camel back body slide called Wave Runner and a drop capsule body slide (the tall slide) called Deep Water Dive

Adventure River.  I found it interesting that they give guest pool noodles instead of rafts for this particular lazy river

The park has a water coaster called Deluge

It features several magnetic launches during the ride

Splash Zone is the park's water fortress, which features several slides and a tipping bucket of water

This is Mega Wedgie, another raft bowl slide.

There's a complex of three raft slides on the island created by Castaway Creek.  This lazy river uses rafts

Tornado dominates this side of the park

It's pretty much like any tornado water slide out there, but it is still a lot of fun

Finally the park has an awesome wavepool called Big Surf.  At 3 times during the day, the park ramps up the waves in what they call the Big Kahuna.  These sessions are awesome and definitely worth trying out

July 23, 2019

Moonlight Madness (SDC)


Welcome back to SDC and the second of their two summer festivals

Moonlight Madness is a series of days where the park is open later during the summer

The focus of the festival is more on the riding aspect, but they do have evening souvenirs for purchase.

With most of the other shows running during the festival being hold overs from Star-Spangled Summer, we'll focus on some of the new ones.  Hits from the Hollow is performed nightly in Echo Hollow

The show features a house band and then a collection of 7 performers that rotate in and out between songs.  This also includes Tracey on piano, vibes and other percussion instruments.

The show ends with a patriotic melody, which is always a fan favorite

At 9:10pm the park's "Fireworks Finale" lights up the sky

If you view the fireworks from Echo Hollow, they are synchronized to music (I personally feel that this music should be piped all over the park during the fireworks) 

One of the coolest locations to view the fireworks from is in the Grand Expo


Very nice fireworks show

Most people will head out after the fireworks, but the park is still open until 10pm


Don't mess out on your chances to ride the big rollercoasters after dark.  Our favorite is PowderKeg

On the square you will find the sounds of Prince Ivan performing for the Moonlight Madness Street Dance.

This seemed to be a very popular way for families to end their evening.
Moonlight Madness runs daily through August 4th.