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Park News - (7/28/10) Kennywood has set new rules in place for tall riders on Sky Rocket. If your over 6 ft, you can’t ride in the 4th row. It’s just not comfortable for those with longer legs it seems.
    (7/27/10) A nice trip report from Kennywood, including lots of Sky Rocket footage, has been posted to Theme Park Review.
    (7/24/10) We’ve heard word that the rumors about the planned return of the Turnpike attraction to a new location is supposed to be true. No word on when this will happen however, since they still want to redo The Old Mill to get Garfield’s Nightmare out of there and get that ride back to it’s roots a bit as well. You can see the older rumors for both projects down below for 2011/2012.
    (7/17/10) A 19 year old woman involved in a fight at Kennywood was sent to the hospital afterwards with a 3 inch long slash that required stitches after getting into a cat fight with another girl near the exit.
    (6/23/10) ACE has named the Jack Rabbit and Racer at Kennywood official ACE Roller Coaster Landmarks. The park was presented with plaques to honor the coasters by ACE during the annual Coaster Con event this past weekend. Kennywood also earned the honor of being the first park to host the summer Coaster Con event four times.
    (5/18/10) A good photo trip report from Kennywood has been posted over at the Theme Park Review forum. Meanwhile you can see a construction update for Sky Rocket at Kennywood Connection.
    (3/10/10) Kennywood has confirmed that King Kahuna (Huss Top Spin) was sold to Parque de Diversiones in Costa Rica. There are no immediate plans to replace the ride with anything new yet. Look for the Kahuna site to be turned into a temporary “green space” for the next few years. Also, if your wanting to buy a Kennywood season pass, do so quickly, as apparently they will only be selling 10,000 of them.  Once they are gone, your out of luck.
    (2/20/10) A reader who passed by Kennywood the other days tells us that it looks like cranes on site have removed the King Kahuna ride and it is no longer listed on the website. The ride has been listed as being For Sale since last year, so it’s removal was foretold.
    (1/27/10) According to the local news today a lawsuit has been settled for close to $2 million over the collapse of a pavilion structure over The Whip ride at Kennywood that resulted in the death of a woman. The structure collapsed during a freak storm in 2002 that saw sudden 100 mph winds whip through the area.
    (1/18/10) Kennywood has finally caught up with the times and will offer a season pass for the 2010 season. However… the park reports that the number of passes up for sale will be limited, so it’s a first come basis, so if you want one, buy it as soon as they go on sale in March.

2010 - Sky Rocket - (7/1/10) Updates from the opening of Sky Rocket can be found at Coaster101, CoasterForum and Coaster Force who also posted a YouTube video.
    (6/24/10) It sounds like Sky Rocket is nearly ready to open as the coaster did open for a private after-hours session during the ACE CoasterCon event last weekend. Each rider was allowed to take one spin on the coaster, though the station and surrounding area around the ride was still under construction. According to one positive report, Sky Rocket could be the sleeper hit of the season.
    (6/23/10) Kennywood has posted a new POV video from Sky Rocket on their Facebook page.
    (6/17/10) Several reports confirming that testding has begun on the Sky Rocket have come in over the past couple of days. You can see it in action already on YouTube.

    (6/5/10) According to the Kennywood website, Sky Rocket is on track to open sometime the week of June 21st.
    (6/2/10) While this doesn’t lock down the exact date Sky Rocket will open, I’ve been told that the park will hold a VIP Media event to promote the ride on Sunday, June 27th. I’m told that the invitation says that guests will, “be one of the first to ride Kennywood's newest coaster”.
    (6/1/10) Insiders tell us that Kennywood is shooting for a June 19th openeing for Sky Rocket right now. Current schedules apparently have the ride crew down for training starting around June 12th. The one train on site is currently on the tracks but was seen split up, with sections in the station and sections on the launch track, but it’s assumed that launch testing will begin any day now if all is well.
    (5/28/10) Don’t count on Sky Rocket opening this weekend it seems, as the park apparently just got the trains the other day and needs time to test them. At this point Sky Rocket isn’t likely to open until around the middle of June at the earliest.
    (5/22/10) I’ve got a couple new shots (see sidebar) from Premier Rides sent in that show off Sky Rocket being topped off, as the final track piece was slid easily into place.
    (5/19/10) Kennywood has installed the final pieces of track on Sky Rocket yesterday. (Photo Link Removed due to content being removed)
    (5/14/10) Several new construction pictures (see sidebar) of Sky Rocket were sent in today by a reader, taken from outside the park.
    (5/12/10) According to an insider Kennywood is actually hoping to have Sky Rocket far along enough to offer rides to the park staff during an employee only event sometime around Memorial Day Weekend. If they manage to make this a reality, you can look for the ride to open to the public around the first week of June. There are still a lot of “if’s” in this story however, so don’t book any vacation plans yet.
    (4/30/10) According to this news article Kennywood is planning on opening Sky Rocket in early June. The opening was delayed from May when construction fell behind due to excessive snow fall in the area this past winter.
    (4/26/10) Kennywood Connection has posted a new big construction update for the Sky Rocket coaster. Quite a bit of twisted track is now up and in place over the park.
    (4/22/10) New commercials are said to be airing for Kennywood’s 2010 season that mention Sky Rocket opening in June as well as some new nighttime laser show.
    (4/20/10) You can take another look at the construction progress on the Sky Rocket can be found here and then an even newer report over at Kennywood Connection where the launch track has been installed.
    (4/15/10) The spotted track on I-70 is indeed for the Sky Rocket it seems. An previous update over at Kennywood Connection shows off a bunch of identical looking track that arrived about a week ago. Meanwhile you can see a new construction update over at Kennywood Connection.
    (4/14/10) A reader claims they came across a truck hauling blue roller coaster track (see photo in sidebar) along I-70 in Dallas Pike, West Virginia on Sunday. Given that the color matches that of Sky Rocket at Kennywood, and the sighting wasn’t too far from Kennywood either I can only assume this new style track with a spine is for the Sky Rocket as well.  Interesting note… I-70 runs all the way to Utah… where all Premier Rides track is manufacturer.
    (12/11/09) According to the local news, Kennywood has confirmed that the name for their new coaster will indeed be Sky Rocket, as was uncovered a few weeks ago by one of our readers.
    (8/17/09) NewsPlusNotes has posted an update on the Kennywood 2010 launched coaster project after talking with the park. They even have a couple of raw artwork pieces that show off the basic layout and location of the new coaster. The good news is that they were told that the trains would only have lap bar restraints. In other news you can watch video of the big announcement posted to YouTube in two parks. Part 1 and Part 2.
    (8/13/09) Kennywood announced a brand new steel coaster yesterday, but so far have declined to give it an official name. The new steel coaster is actually quite interesting, since at first glance you may think it is a Gerstlauer, but it is really a Premier Rides creation. The coaster will kick things off with a 3-second 0 to 50mph LSM launch that will take you right into a 95 foot vertical climb up a Top Hat tower. You’ll drop down the other side at 90º and head into a series of three inversions as well as a second vertical drop track section.
    The new coaster will be placed in the current location of the Turnpike, but as the press release says, you will only be saying, “See you later” to the Turkpike as the park already has plans in the works to bring the ride back to life in a new location in the future. Turnpike’s final day will be August 16th, 2009.
    Now the stats: 2,100 feet long, max speed: 50mph, ride time: 65 sec, 2 trains made up of 2 cars and able to hold 12 riders per train. I’m kind of surprised by that last bit considering how Hypersonic was criticized so much for only holding 8 riders per train.

2011/2012 - Old Mill / Garfield’s Nightmare Renovation - Planned - (7/26/10) From what I’ve been told so far, Kennywood is paying a fee every year they keep Garfield’s Nightmare in place, and they’re ready to rethemed the ride to ditch this unnecessary payment sooner than later, so look for a new version of The Old Mill to return next season most likely. One possible new theme I’ve heard is that they may go with some kind of “old steel mill” theme as a way to get back to using The Old Mill name once again. I’ve also heard a rumor that Noah’s Ark could get some kind of upgrade next season as well.
    (9/8/09) According to an update at NewsPlusNotes, Kennywood has confirmed that within the next two years we will see the former Old Mill ride, currently known as Garfield’s Nightmare, rethemed into yet another new experience, likely returning it to something more in tune with it’s roots and history as the Old Mill, which incidently is about 108 years old at this point. Not too many rides can say that!

2011/2012 - Turnpike - Rumor - (3/10/10) I’m told that Kennywood is looking into possibilities to bring back the Turnpike in a new location. No promises yet, but I’m told that it could come back as early as 2011 or 2012.