The entrance looks much the same, minus the old Intamin drop tower.
Yesterday afternoon our trip took a hit before it had even started. Due to circumstances beyond our control we were forced to leave at 11pm rather than the intended 4pm. The net result was the elimination of our first overnight stay in Athens, GA. In a larger sense this meant we would be driving straight through 14 hours to Kentucky Kingdom, visiting the park, and driving another 2 hours to Cincinnati for our first hotel stay. As such, I’m writing this after having been up for about 40 hours straight. Excuse the incoherencies.
After a surprisingly uneventful 14 hours of driving through the night and into the next afternoon, we arrived at Kentucky Kingdom. I had visited on two occasions previously when the park was under Six Flags ownership. After failing to reach a lease agreement with the fairground the park sits on, Six Flags pulled out in 2009, taking many of their rides with them. Ed Hart, Kentucky Kingdom’s original owner, stepped in and reopened the park 5 years after Six Flags left. It’s wonderful to see the park reopened, especially under the original owner, but it still has a long way to go before it’s ready for the big stage.
A tale of two parks.
The picture above best explains the current status of Kentucky Kingdom. It is filled with bright and shiny new and refurbished rides that are set amidst a backdrop of apparent construction or abandonment. Let’s first look at the positives.
The new owners put the lion’s share of new capital into the waterpark. There are more slides (including the regions’ tallest dropbox slide form Proslide) and a number of new pools, rivers, and beach elements. While this was not our focus today, it’s clear that a large number of guests had come for the waterpark alone. A number of flat rides all sported shiny new coats of paint and new themes—the park opened with an ample children’s ride area and some classic teen favorites. Coaster-wise the park put quite a lot of effort into restoring the wooden coaster Thunder Run. It was running quite well today with only a few jarring moments but also an abundance of airtime and a very fast pace. Six Flags’ former SLC and Dueling wooden coasters still sit dormant, but they are listed on the park map as coming in 2015 and 16 respectively. These additions will bring much needed dry ride capacity to the park, something which we found to be desperately needed today…
The waterpark saw a large portion of the park guests today.
Thunder Run is running great once again.
The drop tower is a new addition to the park and provides a good non-coaster thrill.
Small details like this really boost a park’s quality in my eyes.
…which brings me to some negatives. We were lucky enough to get to the park at 2pm.. earlier than expected. With the park closing at 7 we knew we would have enough time to ride the coasters and explore the park. We did get that, but not much else sadly. Operations were nothing short of terrible for most of the rides. The park’s signature new coaster, Lightning Run, was operating with only 1 train and a dispatch interval every 5 minutes (which was sometimes generous). The queue is quite short however the operations created unnecessary waits of 45 minutes or more for the park’s star attraction with queues spilling out onto the main pathway. Aside from operations, Kentucky Kingdom ended up becoming almost two separate parks depending on where you looked. Lightning Run is a bright and colorful coaster which is currently sitting on top of mostly dirt with small signs saying ‘pardon our landscaping’. The picture that I referenced earlier showing the unfinished elements and razor wire is not uncommon around the park perimeter. Unfortunately, many of the rides and theming elements removed by Six Flags are obviously missed in the new park where sections look awkward or even abandoned. The good news is that all these problems can be fixed with a little bit of capital and a little bit of employee training. I understand the rush to get the park open, so it’s excusable that there are bugs during the first season… I only hope they can get it all sorted for next year.
Some park areas just feel abandoned. (some still actually are)
Twisted Twins sits closed at the back of the park. The sooner they can get this ride open, the better. The capacity will be a major boost.
I purposefully left out Lightning Run under the park positives because I believe that it deserves a category of its own. This roller coaster is nothing short of exceptional. Chance-Morgan’s first venture into a large coaster within the last decade is an absolute winner and blew away any expectations I had about the ride. Though only 100ft. tall, the coaster packs in some of the strongest airtime of any ride out there and smooth turns and transitions that look like they couldn’t possibly track as well as they do. Thankfully the entire ride is remarkably smooth for the amount of tight transitions along the 2500ft. layout. While the fiberglass seats are a tad uncomfortable, the lap bar is molded to fit to rider’s thighs and h old them securely. With an effect reminiscent of Skyrush, you will come off this ride with sore thighs if you decide to ride in the back seat. It’s absolutely worth it, however, and are the best seats in the house. The last small airtime hills can’t be more than 20ft. but generate a strong and abrupt ejector airtime that’s hard to find on many other coasters. This was the first installation of Chance Ride’s “Hyper GT-X Coaster” and I certainly hope that other parks will take note and make sure it’s not the last. Lightning Run has currently slotted into my top 5 coasters… a complete surprise that I never would have guessed at the start of the day.
While the restraints are tight they are still relatively comfortable.
Very tight transitions.
Incredibly strong airtime!
As a complete package, the park still needs some work but if I’m ever in the area I will make sure to swing by for at least a few rides on Lightning Run. As they get the two additional coasters open over the next two years, the park will become much more well-rounded (even though I expect their SLC to still be awful). Hopefully Ed Hart and his team will continue to update the rough edges and missing pieces to remake this park into a complete whole. It certainly has the potential. Give the park another top tier coaster to pair with Lightning Run and we’ll have a winner.
As I finish up this post I’ve just past 40 hours of being awake—after a hopefully great night of sleep we will tackle Kings Island and Stricker’s Grove tomorrow.
Trip Coaster Tally:
- Lightning Run (Chance Rides airtime coaster)
- Thunder Run (Summers & Dinn wooden coaster)
On A Rail 