I've noticed a major problem that Kennywood has. For the most part, I have been defending them, but now that I am really thinking about it, now that I am trying to put bias aside, I realize how bad this issue is. Today, it is finally time to acknowledge it and discuss what the major problem is.
For this, we need to look back 14 years to 2007. That year, Kennywood Entertainment Company was bought by Palace Entertainment. Formerly, Kennywood Entertainment Company was run by 2 families, who had been operating Kennywood since 1906.
The previous owners clearly cared about the charm that Kennywood was known for. They understood why Kennywood was famous, so they maintained their older attractions for as long as possible. They sometimes had to make sacrifices, but there was only one that people were very upset about (Removing Dipper).
2009 was the main year that the problem began. They announced the removal of Turnpike, which was a classic Arrow Development Antique Cars ride. What made it worse, though, was that they promised the soon return of the ride. Fast forward to February 2021, and there have still been no announcements of Turnpike's return. The cars are just sitting in the Railroad Storage Building, waiting to be used for more than just Entrance decorations.
Now, we fast forward to 2010. People were still upset that Turnpike had to go, but they opened Sky Rocket, which is still popular to this day.
There was no real problem with opening Skyrocket, though the ride was SBNO for over a year in 2018 and 2019, which upset a lot of people.
There was no major problem with removing rides until 2017. From 2010 to 2016, they only removed Pitt Fall, which was a super unreliable Intamin Second Generation Free Fall Tower.
In 2017, though, they removed a classic and completely re-did a classic. Olde Kennywood Railroad was a classic train ride that had nice scenery and signs about the history of Kennywood. They announced A Journey with Thomas, though. This would be the main attraction in Thomas Town, which was opened with room from moving Raging Rapids' Queue. This makeover included adding Thomas the Tank Engine based signs to replace the ones based on Kennywood History. There would also be a new Thomas themed train to replace the old Gimbels Flyer train. The old train is usually in storage, but they do still have it.
They also decided to remove Log Jammer. Log Jammer was in a bad condition, and they needed to make room for Steel Curtain. The ride was a well loved, classic ride, though. It was the first ride at Kennywood to cost more than $1,000,000. I see why they needed to remove it, though, so it made sense.
What didn't make sense, though, was the year where, in 2 off seasons, they removed 7 rides! 2 of them were kids rides, which I understand why they removed. They were unreliable, and they wanted to make more room in Kiddieland. 3 of the other ride removals were just, too.
Kenny's Parkway was a Ski Lift, connecting levels 1 and 3 of parking. It rarely operated, though, and it didn't look good at all. It was costly to run, so they rarely did. It took a lot of staff, they had staffing issues, and it only would run on busy days, where they needed operators at other rides to increase capacity. It hadn't run in years.
Bayern Kurve was a fun ride, even being my favorite flat ride there, but it was closed for the first few weeks of the season. It also needed to be inspected more often, and the company that made it has been defunct for decades. It was definitely going to be removed soon.
The last just ride removal was Volcano. Volcano was an older ride, but it was very costly to run. People were upset about the removal, but it never really had a line, and people have been asking for the return of Enterprise at Lake Compounce, so it only makes sense.
Despite these being justified ride removals, there were 2 completely unjustified ride removals: Kangaroo and Paratrooper. These rides made no sense to be removed. They may have been made by people who died decades ago, but they were popular, low maintenance, classic attractions. They always had lines, and it sucks to lose these rides. They were some of the best rides in the park.
Kangaroo had supposedly lost a wheel, but after looking at pictures from when the ride was taken apart, it had all the wheels. They removed most of it before the season ended, and for no apparent reason.
There was seemingly NO reason to remove Paratrooper. It was reliable, it worked, it had no major maintenance issues, and so many people loved it. I have no idea why they thought that this removal was a good idea.
In my opinion, this shows how Palace Entertainment doesn't care much about the history of the park. They seem to be looking at costs, but not thinking about how much this will anger people.
It does seem that an amusement park in the UK called Lightwater Valley may be getting Kangaroo, as they have a new ride coming in called Jumping Kangaroos. Paratrooper and Bayern Kurve aren't being scrapped, but it seems unknown where they are going. A Bayern Kurve is going to Knoebels, but that is likely to be a different Bayern Kurve. I have no idea where Paratrooper may go.
Now, it seems that Palace Entertainment is removing these older, classic attractions to get new attractions, which is a bad idea for a park like Kennywood. Yes, rides like Steel Curtain, Phantom's Revenge, and the Thomas Town rides are draws for the park, but at a park known for older attractions, it is a bad idea to almost exclusively remove older rides.
I am looking forward to seeing what may come next to Kennywood, and I won't stop supporting them in the near future. Supporting them is necessary to prevent them from needing to remove these rides. I hope that supporting them will allow rides like Turtle, Auto Race, and Whip to stay as long as possible.
On Palace Entertainment's end, they need to stop removing these classic rides with no warning. If you are going to remove a ride, give people time for last rides if possible. I know that something new will be replacing some of these rides, but removing rides and not replacing them very fast is an awful business decision. This is going to limit capacity at the park, and people are going to be upset.
Finally, I want to go over rides that people won't really care about being removed.
Red Baron and Elephant Parade rarely operate, and they are very similar to Harold's Helicopter Tour in Thomas Town.
Raging Rapids is down all the time, is costly to run, and is high maintenance. It only gets long lines because of poor capacity, so it should be removed and replaced with a thrill coaster from RMC.
People wouldn't really care if Pirate was removed. Even at Holiday Lights or Phantom Fright Nights (on weekends), I never had to wait more than 5 minutes. Even on days where the park reached capacity, it never had a line. This, along with the plots from Volcano and Bayern Kurve, can be used for a new Air Launch Coaster from S&S, and it could even break the acceleration record.
People wouldn't really care much if Skycoaster was removed. It is an upcharge attraction that most people don't want to ride. I've never even seen it run before. People don't want to pay extra for it, so it might be able to be used for a part of a new coaster. It would be good to see a Vekoma Suspended Thrill Coaster at the park.
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