During the LunaRides event, Kennywood had Season Passholder Exclusive Ride Time on Phantom's Revenge. This lasted partially into the night. Because of being Line Jumped, I got on in pretty dark conditions. Today, I wanted to talk about my experience of Phantom's Revenge at Night.
Unfortunately, I was only able to get one ride. Fortunately, it was the best row: The Front.
For this review, I am not going to look at individual categories. Instead, I am going to look at positives and negatives and make my decision based on those. For this review, though, I have no negatives. I only have a lot of positives.
First, let's talk about dispatch time. The park didn't run both trains, unfortunately, but that came with an extra effect: the only train being run was hauling. The park starts daily testing around 7:00 AM and this was 9:25 PM, so it was running for over 14 hours. The dispatch times were fast, so the line moved relatively quick, even with 1 train ops. For a coaster with 14 rows, this had very fast dispatches.
Next, let's talk about that lift. During the daytime, I enjoy the views off this lift. At night, there are fantastic lights throughout the park. The ride gives some fantastic views and I love it.
The third thing I want to talk about is the drop. Now, for reference, I haven't even ridden in the front since August of 2014. This was my first time in the front in almost 7 years. The ride slows down at the top of the lift, allowing for a fantastic view up front. This leads up to the drop very well. The drop is very forceful and I would argue it is almost as good up front as it is in back.
The fourth thing is the airtime hill. In the back, it gives 2 pops of ejector. In the front when it is hauling, it is sustained ejector with a slight break with floater in place of ejector. It was an amazing element.
Next is that helix. The helix is amazing anyway. This helix was so much more forceful when I rode. That combined with the wind in my face was when I realized that this is the best coaster experiene I've ever had.
After the helix are the 5 ejector (plus 1 floater) airtime hills. In the back, the turn into the airtime hills followed by abrupt ejector airtime is kind of uncomfortable, but it wasn't like that up front and the transition was much better. The airtime was also stronger and more sustained.
After I got off, I immediately said that this was the best coaster experience I've ever had. If this was how it always ran, I guarantee that it would get to most peoples' top 10 lists.
After thinking about it, I realized that this was the most fun I've ever had in my life. Front row Phantom night rides when it has been running 1 train all day is the best thing I've ever experienced.
Something else to mention that applies to any row of the ride at any time is that it has one of the best restraints in the world. For those who haven't seen these restraints, it is hard to describe, but I'll try. Imagine if you wrapped a 2 Liter Soda Bottle around paper and attached that to ratchets. Add a seatbelt and you get Phantom's restraints. That is the best description I can give. These restraints are designed for max comfort and max airtime.
For the final score of the ride, I have to give this experience a 10/10. It couldn't have been better. As I alredy said, this is the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. Of course I have to give it a 10.
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