Celebrating Labor Day weekend at Kennywood

On Sunday we headed down to Kennywood. Being that 2013 season passes were now on sale we decided to give the season passes a try. They were discounted to $80, and they are also good for the remainder of 2012. When we entered the park, we headed for season pass processing. We were the only ones there, so no waiting in line. In fact because of the dark cloudy skies the whole park was empty. We took advantage of the rare non existent lines. Around 2:00 the sun came out and the people started to pour in. We stayed until 9:00 last night, even with a moderate crowd we still were able to find some short lines.

Being that I purchased season passes, I intend to use them a lot. We headed back to the park today. In the morning there seem to be a lot of people in the park even before opening, but the park never did get crowded today. It would take me forever to review every ride so here is a quick rundown of the last 2 days.

Coasters
Phantoms Revenge: 5 rides
Sky Rocket: 4 rides
Thunderbolt: 4 rides
Jack Rabbit: 3 rides
Racer: 2 rides
Exterminator: 2 rides
All the coasters seem to be running exceptionally well, except for Racer. Racer feels very jerky and slow. It still a great ride, but not running like it usually does. We did draw the back seat of The Jack Rabbit twice and the front once. One of those back seat rides was a night ride. For those of you who aren't familiar with Kennywood operations, you can't wait for a specific seat on Jack Rabbit or Racer because of the design of the 1920's loading stations. It's all luck of the draw. Kennywood actually had multiple trains running on every coaster on both days. I hope they continue this, because it makes the day so much enjoyable.

Flats and other rides
Swing Shot: 5 rides
Bayern Kurve: 3 rides
Cosmic Chaos: 2 rides
Aero 360: 2 rides
Turtle: 2 rides
Paratrooper: 2 rides
Turtle: 2 rides
Whip: 2 rides
Pirate: 2 rides
Merry-Go-Round: 2 rides
Noah's Ark: 2 walk throughs
Kangaroo: 1 ride
Log Jammer: 1 ride
Ghostwood Estate: 1 ride
Garfield's Nightmare: 1 ride
Wave Swinger: 1 ride
Auto Race: 1 ride
Bumper Cars: 1 ride
Now the new Black Widow, Volcano, and Raging Rapids were down both days for the entire day. Anyone who is not familiar with Kennywood and don't know what type of rides that I list are, I'll be happy to explain in further detail. Kennywood has one of the best collections of flats, with the classic unique and the modern ones mixed in.

All in all we had an awesome 2 days. It was the best time I've had at Kennywood in 11 years. I hope next season is like this. The park looked great. I do have several complaints about the employees, but nothing major. At least I didn't have to complain to guest services, so that's a plus. The whole Kennywood experience was great on both days. That's how it should be. As of now, really glad I purchased those passes. Maybe Kennywood is headed in the right direction. If we keep having experiences like these, maybe I'll finally quit complaining. Then again, probably not.

Thanks for reading.
Ken