Recently, Kennywood announced the new Phantom Fall Fest event. Today, I wanted to look at what this event will include and what I think.
First off, let's take a look at what this is replacing. This is replacing 2 events: Phantom Fright Nights and Happy Hauntings.
Happy Hauntings occurred on Saturdays and Sundays in October. It was a Kids event that included Trick-or-Treating, Hay Rides, Costumes, and family rides. This was mainly meant for younger kids, ranging from ages 0-12 mainly.
Phantom Fright Nights was the big horror event, with Thrill Rides, Scare Zones, and Haunted Houses. It was recommended that anyone going to this event was at least 13, though there were no minimum ages. When I went, I even saw kids that looked as young as 8.
Essentially, what Phantom Fall Fest is doing is combining these 2 events and adding more to them. They will be running the park like a normal day from when the park opens to 6 PM. At 6, it essentially becomes Phantom Fright Nights.
Something that I noticed is mention of the Specialty Treats. These will be Fall based foods and beers. This seems like a Fall themed version of the Bites and Pints festival. I can easily see why the park is doing this. Bites and Pints was an insanely popular event. I'm not even kidding when I say that I saw more people going to Bites and Pints than I did during the opening weekend of Steel Curtain (2 days after the ride opened).
Bites and Pints got a lot of people buying extra food and it was likely very profitable for the park, so I see why they'd want to combine that with the fall events.
Next, let's look at the rides. A full ride lineup hasn't been announced, but they have implied that most of the major rides will be open. We know that the 3 water rides will all be closed, since it will be too cold. Also, due to the partial removal that usually doesn't occur in the offseason, I think that Cosmic Chaos may be closing permanently and likely isn't going to operate at Phantom Fall Fest.
Finally, I want to talk about my thoughts on this event. I genuinely believe that this event will be amazing. They are combining everything good that they can. I had nothing against Phantom Fright Nights when that event was still around. This may be taking away some of the haunts, but it will make up for it with everything else that it is going to do. I can't wait for this event. I think that this event will actually be so successful that Kennywood may even extend it through much of November.
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