Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Kennywood, Pittsburgh's Largest amusement park, had a late opening in July, 2 months later than usual. Kennywood opened to Season Passholders on July 8th and opened to the public on July 11th in 2020. I have went almost every week since opening, so here is my review:
Part 1: Operating Attractions
Kennywood has had some attractions closed all year. This year, I first went on July 10th. When I went, most rides and shops were open, with some notable exceptions. When I went, Steel Curtain and Black Widow were listed as "Closed for Season Passholder Preview". Later on, they were added to the "Closed until Further Notice List". As of now, Black Widow is awaiting an unknown replacement part. Steel Curtain is awaiting new seats and a test seat, I have been told. Due to reasons related to Social Distancing, they also closed their Skycoaster along with Noah's ark (a classic walkthrough attraction), their 4d theater, Gran Prix (Bumper Cars), Raging Rapids (Their Intamin River Rapids), Kangaroo (their one-of-a-kind "flying coaster" flat ride model), the Thomas Town Play Area, and Steeler's Experience. Also, due to County Restrictions, they closed down Parkside Cafe and Endzone Cafe, their 2 exclusive dine-in restaurants. Also, due to unknown reasons, they closed Pedro's, their burrito restauraunt
When thy first opened for the season, they completely closed Ghostwood Estate (their Shooting Dark Ride) and their Paddle Boats. These rides have since opened. Ghostwood Estate is open, but without the blasters. The Paddle Boats are only opened on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-5 P.M. All year, they had Johnny Rockets open for takeout only. Recently, they modified operations for Skyrocket, as well. As of recently, Skyrocket only runs with 1 train operations.
Part 2: COVID-19 Protocols
Kennywood is taking COVID-19 Protocols very seriously. When you first enter the park, they have temperature screening at the entrance. If you have a fever of 100.7 degrees Fahrenheit (About 38.2 degrees Celsius), they won't allow anyone in your party into the park for the rest of the day. In all queue areas, Kennywood has social distancing markers.
At all the rides, an operator will tell you where to sit. If you request a row, they will try to get you the row. The main exception to this is Racer, which just has certain rows closed off. Also, when it was open this year, you could pick your car on Kangaroo.
Due to COVID-19, Kennywood has closed all indoor seating areas at Johnny Rockets and Parkside Cafe. Due to the COVID-19 Protocols and the closure of Steel Curtain, the entire Steeler's Country area was closed off.
While most parks are cleaning seats and restraints between every cycle, Kennywood cleans rides on a 2 hour basis. They require that all guests use hand sanitizer before going onto the loading platform. There is also hand sanitizer available at the exits of most rides.
Due to COVID-19, Kennywood has been severely limiting capacity. When they first opened for the season, they had about 1500 people. Later on in the season, when they reopened Swing Shot, they opened it with only one side running and it only being about half filled.
Part 3: Operations
You may expect operations with the COVID-19 Protocols being horrible, but the operations weren't that much worse. Some things to keep in mind:
Exterminator has the same capacity due to one car, single group trains. They had about half the line filled when I rode it on August 14th.
While they can only do around half capacity on most rides, they also have about the same line length with half the line capacity. This means that they have very similar wait times with less the line with assigned seating. Also, fewer restraints to check may make dispatches faster.
Not that many people will want to go to Kennywood, so it has shorter waits.
In general, they have very similar operations to 2019, though there were noticeably shorter lines for Jackrabbit this year.
Part 4: Final Thoughts
In general, Kennywood is still just as fun as it was in 2019, and despite the much shorter 2020 season and lack of any seasonal events this year, it is still Kennywood. It is still amazing to go to, and it is impressive that they were even able to open this year. I'm just glad I got to go at all this year.
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