Black Widow at Kennywood is a Zamperla Giant Discovery. Recently, after the ride reopened, I got to get on the ride for the first time. As of now, I've ridden it twice. Today, I want to give you my review of the ride.
First, I want to talk about boarding the ride. The ride loads extremely slowly. It takes several minutes to load the ride. They often will have the restraints go down and up multiple times when loading. They also will usually not fill the ride. There are usually only around 35 people on of the 40 seats. This is also while loading extremely slowly.
Next, let's talk about the restraints. Before I rode Black Widow, I had already ridden Aero 360. Aero 360 has a more bulky restraint than Black Widow. Black Widow has a less bulky over the shoulder restraint, but it isn't better. It is much easier to get stapled on Black Widow and the restraint is much less comfortable. On Aero 360, it is easier to get room. There is one advantage of these restraints, though. Some larger riders that are unable to ride Aero 360 are able to ride Black Widow, so that is good.
Now, let's talk about the ride experience. In my opinion, the ride is split up into 3 main sections.
The first section is pretty forceless. It does start spinning and it starts the swinging, but there isn't much force.
Next, we get to the second section. This is the good part of the ride. This is when the swinging gets much higher. You're going to experience airtime every time the ride reaches the top of that swing. In some parts of this section, you get flojector and ejector airtime.
The final section is basically a repeat of the first section, just slowing down instead of speeding up. This section is also forceless and it gives you time to catch your breath.
Now, I want to give my final score. I give this ride an 8/10. I prefer this over SwingShot, but that is only because SwingShot ends so quickly. If SwingShot was even half the length of Black Widow, SwingShot would be the better ride.
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