Forums

I might be the only one who tends to comment sometimes. . but trust me, many read your reports. and I LOVE them.   y'all are freaking hilarious, and I loved spending some time with you both.    great pics.

And so at last we come to the final update of the longest trip report I've ever written, about the longest vacation I've ever taken, to the farthest place I've ever gone, to experience the worst roller coaster I've ever ridden. (Tornado at Bakken.) But let us not dwell on the negative, but rather focus our attentions on the very best things we encountered on this amazing trip....   28: Big Finnish   Up with the sunrise to catch our flight. And this is Helsinki, so sunrise is probably earlier than you think.   And back home to the little strip of land we share with 750,000 other people near the Pacific Ocean.   Time to reflect. Sometimes Smisty and I agreed as to what was the best of a particular thing, and sometimes we didn't. For example: Erik's Park of the Trip - Gröna Lund I really struggled with this one. Yes, I rate Gröna Lund as my second favorite park (with Europa being #1) but Liseberg was just so good on this trip. What I ultimately decided was this: If I can count the Grand Curiousa Hotel as part of Liseberg, then Liseberg wins--and if I can't, then Gröna Lund wins. And since it seems weird to me to count a hotel as part of an amusement park for this purpose, well...Gröna Lund wins.   Smisty's Park of the Trip - Power Park I get it. I rated this one quite highly as well, and I skipped the crazy flat rides that Smisty cited as being particular highlights of Power Park. She also mentioned the Devil's Mine Hotel dark ride that gave you a limited number of shots.   Best Wooden Coaster - Rutschebanen at Tivoli Gardens According to RCDB, Rutschebanen's elements are: Tunnel, Cable Lift Hill, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel, Tunnel. But I think that's selling it a bit short. There are a few drops. And, of course, a brakeman. Normally, I don't distinguish between wood and steel for purposes of judging rides against one another, but doing it this way kept Misty and I in agreement. Otherwise, my favorite coaster overall would be her second favorite, and vice versa. Which, come to think of it, wouldn't really have changed very much in terms of presentation here.   Best Steel Coaster - Fønix at Fårup Sommerland For me, it's not even close. I have Lech as my #1, and this now at #3, with Mako sandwiched in-between them, but probably just because I subconsciously don't want two such similar rides right next to each other at the top of my list. It's like someone took an MRI of my effed-up body, sent it to Vekoma, and challenged them to design a ride that specifically I would enjoy. And they did it twice (at least). Oh yeah, and Smisty likes it also.   Best Coaster Collection - Liseberg Is this here just to make me feel better about choosing Gröna Lund over Liseberg? Yeah, probably. But there's not a bad coaster in this park, even if Balder is a bit overrated.   Best Dark Ride - The Flying Trunk A weird multi-level dark ride that travels through narrated Hans Christina Andersen stories? Yes, please. I wouldn't say that there were a lot of dark rides on this trip, but many of the ones that did exist were relatively strong.   Best Dark Ride Collection - Linnanmäki Witches and clowns, man.   Erik's Favorite Water Ride of the Trip - Ragnarok at Tusenfryd On a trip without a lot of good log flumes, a rapids ride sneaks in and pillages my watery heart! (Or something.)   Smisty's Favorite Water Ride of the Trip - The Three Hour Buffet Ferry Ride from Denmark to Norway Smisty, I don't think you're taking this very seriously. I was thinking more like an actual ride at a park. Maybe the log flume at Liseberg? No? *sigh* Fine.   Erik's Favorite Walk-Through: Lustiga Huset at Gröna Lund I may be old and overweight, but I'm pretty sure-footed, and I love a good fun house. And this is the goodest.   Smisty's Favorite Walk-Through: Gasten Ghost Hotel at Liseberg I'd love to show you a picture of it, especially the awesome flooded room--but photos are not allowed inside. So, instead, here's a picture of Smisty's favorite dessert of trip, Strawberry Shortcake Cake at Power Park's Road House.   Erik's Favorite Flat Ride - Lake Carousel at Särkänniemi Yes, it's a Schwarzkopf. Yes, it's also very much a family ride. But it's just so gentle and fun! They don't make them like this anymore, but they should.   Smisty's Favorite Flat Ride - Aquila at Tivoli Gardens A nicely themed Zamperla Air Race on top of a building. What more could a Smisty want?   Transportation/Observation Ride of the Trip - Safari at Kolmården Zoo When I told Smisty first draft nominee for this category, her response was, "That's it?" So then I threw in Särkänniemi's observation tower and Linnanmäki 's monorail to pad it out. But, really, what other possibility could there by besides this?   Erik's Best Park Food/Restaurant - Spökbaren Gasten at Liseberg While food was perhaps not on balance as good as on our two previous European trips, there were some highlights. Such as the Danish Smørrebrød, or Liseberg's haunted pub. Of course, part of this choice is the atmosphere. After all, everyone knows that food tastes better when you're scared.   Smisty's Best Park Food/Restaurant - The Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö, Sweden Smisty, you're making a mockery of this whole idea. This isn't even at a park and the whole point of the place is that the food is bad. Why do you hate me??   Erik's Best Non-Park Thing - The Paternoster Elevator What more can I say? Except that Smisty knew full well this was a category when she named a place that serves "three penis wine" as her favorite restaurant, and a buffet as her favorite water ride!   Smisty's Best Non-Park Thing - Tropicario (or, as we call it, the Snake Zoo) Oh, I get it. By calling the Disgusting Food Museum your favorite restaurant, you got to mention both that and this. Cheater!   Fine! I'm changing my favorite wooden roller coaster to the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum! How do you like those apples?!   She likes those apples fine.   I'd like to thank the following weirdos: Myself, for writing this trip report and taking most of the photos. Smisty, for proofreading it and being the B-camera. Bert, for being the only one who reads it. Goodballs, for being our pal. Elissa, for organizing the trip and herding the cats. Robb, for hating mango lassi. Peter Ellis, for inventing the Paternoster Elevator. And Hans Christian Andersen, without whom, we would be left with a dark ride themed to Mads Mikkelsen.   Actually, that sounds kind of awesome.   Goodbye forever!  

The park has many weaknesses. #1: Its competitors (such as Holiday World and Kings Island) have more room to expand, while Kentucky Kingdom's size if it uses all the land for expansion, would be around 80 acres, far smaller than those two other parks. #2: Height restrictions, given its proximity to the airport, restrict KK from ever building attractions taller than 150 feet (which, as far as I'm aware, is the max height they're allowed to build), which limits the park if they ever plan/want to compete by building new thrill rides as they did during the 1990s. #3: (This is a minor one, but no one I've seen really talks about it as a negative) The park layout is terrible. The road cutting the park in half, King Louies Playland being in the middle of the front half of the park, and Hurricane Bay being in the middle of the second half of the park make KK unnecessarily difficult to navigate (especially when compared to Kings Island, for example). The back half specifically feels dead in most places, such as the area between Thunder Run and Taco Tequila, which is connected by a long, narrow path, with only one attraction (Raging River Rapids Ride) and almost nothing going on back there. #4: KK, despite its best efforts, has so far struggled to make a profit. When Hart reopened the park in 2014, he believed that KK in the 2010s could have 1.2 million visitors in a season, which were the same attendance numbers from the '97 season. These days, Kentucky Kingdom gets around 700k visitors per season, which is not terrible, but far less than its competitors who average over 1 million guests per year. The issues with making a profit limited the park in the 2010s when it came to new additions (such as not being able to afford a dueling RMC, instead opting for a single-track Storm Chaser). The emergence of Holiday World may be a reason to blame their attendance struggles, as I know that park has taken a large bite out of out-of-state visitors who now go to Santa Claus and not Louisville, I should mention the park of course also has its strengths, its location in Louisville and friendly relations with the local and state governments definitely help it. But barring some serious investment from Herschend or some other operator, I don't understand how Kentucky Kingdom can stay open without heavily relying on the state and local governments to help bear the cost of keeping the place afloat. Although I wouldn't entirely blame Herschend's few investments for the current state of the park, because aside from the 1990s when Paramount was not expanding Kings Island as much and Holiday World was not much of a competitor, it seems that Kentucky Kingdom has struggled to really compete as a regional amusement park.  

Rode TT2 for my first time this morning and all I can say is wow. Went in with low expectations, came off so pumped up I got right back in line for another lap. To me, it seems like more of a complete ride now. The backwards launch is unlike anything else I have been on and the trip up and over the top hat now is absolutely crazy. CP has a major hit on their hands and I am looking forward to riding again soon. 

What makes you say the future doesn't look bright for the park?