On November 3rd, 2020, Kennywood announced the removal of Kangaroo, Paratrooper, Volcano, and Bayern Kurve. Recently, it has also been noticed that they are removing Kenny's Parkway. Today, I want to discuss why Kennywood is removing these rides.
Now, let me make something clear: I do not work for Palace Entertainment or Kennywood. I have reached out to Kennywood looking for answers, so this article is just a set of theories.
First, let's talk about Kenny's Parkway. This is a fairly easy assumption to make. They have come out and said that it requires tons of staffing. It also is only used on very popular days. Usually, they don't even have the top level of parking open. Of tons of visits that I remember since 2013, they have only needed the top level twice, and it is cheaper for them to just use their shuttles.
Next, let's talk about Volcano. Volcano rarely has a line, and it seems to have been much more popular when it was at Lake Compounce. Kennywood does need more rides, and this could be part of a larger plot for a new coaster in the future.
Next, let's talk about Bayern Kurve. Honestly, we could have seen this coming. The park has done so many modifications and so much maintenance that just keeps costing the park money. Schwarzkopf, the company that made the ride, went defunct decades ago. Kennywood has to inspect the ride multiple times a day, and it is just super costly for the park.
Next, though, I want to talk about Kangaroo and Paratrooper. These classic rides were very fun, and they were right next to each other. These were both made by people who have been dead for decades. Kangaroo had reportedly lost a wheel, but I have no idea what is happening with Paratrooper. I have no idea how costly it is, and it is almost always open. I think that this plot of land will be replaced by an RMC Raptor, but I don't know for certain why this is happening.
Now, let's look into why each of these rides are being removed, though. Kenny's Parkway is simply being removed because it is ugly and hasn't operated in years. It requires lots of staff to run this one ride. This could have been expected.
Next, let's talk about Volcano. I tried touching on the fact that they moved Lake Compounce's Enterprise to Kennywood, since the one at Kennywood was in such bad shape. Volcano has become much more reliable, and I think that they are going to move it back to Lake Compounce. Many people were upset about the removal of Enterprise at Lake Compounce, and with them removing Wipeout, I think that they will be trading them, basically.
Then, we have Bayern Kurve. This is just very costly and didn't operate for the first half of the 2020 season. This is likely just going into storage.
Then, we have Kangaroo and Paratrooper. Based on what I have heard, maintenance costs have just been way too high to operate these rides. Kennywood has been having financial issues in 2020. They only got so many guests because of season pass sales and from them lowering prices for the regular tickets. That meant that they weren't able to get as high of profits as usual, and they couldn't afford to maintain these rides. They also want to expand their ride collection, based on what they told me. I can't show you the email because of a confidentiality notice, but they basically said that 2020 didn't make them enough money and they can't afford these rides. They also plan on adding more rides that people will like, and they now need to remove some existing rides to add in new rides.
In the end, we can tell that these rides, while they are classics, are also just expensive to operate. Now, I do want to make something clear: I asked Kennywood if they had any plans for Bayern Kurve, Kangaroo, and Paratrooper. At the time, they said they had no plans, but they did know that they weren't going to scrap those rides. I never did ask about Volcano, so I have no idea what will be happening with this. I ask, though, that we keep supporting Kennywood. We need to make sure they won't get rid of any more classics. Please consider taking at least one trip to Kennywood in 2021, and maybe they won't need to keep shutting down rides.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you will keep reading my articles, as I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
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