Having grown up in western PA for nearly my entire life, I’ve always had a soft spot for my nearby home park of Kennywood. As I’ve grown older and gotten into the hobby of visiting amusement parks and riding roller coasters, I’ve come to discover just how lucky I am to be so close to a real gem of a park. Kennywood, along with their owners, constantly maintains a beautiful balance between old and new, as you can find rare and priceless older flats there alongside some of the newest thrill machines. That same philosophy applies to their coasters as well. For the longest time the biggest "calling cards" of the park were their 3 old-fashioned (and wonderful!) wooden coasters. They had the steel coaster Laser Loop when I was a kid (which actually scared the crap out of me! LOL), but never anything jaw dropping. That all changed in 1991, when my little home park jumped right into the thick of the "coaster wars" by introducing the revolutionary Steel Phantom. As a teenager, I was awe-struck by this mammoth steel beast that was being erected here. It plunged 225 feet (the biggest drop anywhere, at that time) and went a ridiculous 80 mph! Kennywood could finally lay claim to something "big", and it was a ride like no other! I loved that thing when it opened, and it was the coaster, I feel, that launched me full-bore into the roller coaster fanaticism that I possess today. For that, Steel Phantom, I will always be grateful.
As the years passed by, however, the ride began aging, and aging poorly, as most Arrow "Mega-Loopers" tend to do. I had gotten to the point where I could only ride the thing twice when I’d visit – once when I got there, and then once right before leaving. In between I’d deal with the head pain that would often result. The wonderful ferocity that it had, and I loved when I was younger, was beginning to tear itself apart. Fast forward to 2000, when the park announced that Steel Phantom was to be no more; and I like many others was disheartened to lose this park icon. But then, park management made one of the best decisions they ever made. A new coaster would be reborn out of the old Phantom’s ashes. This new coaster would retain the real highlights of the old one – the first 2 tremendous drops, while discarding the head-banging inversions and constructing a rejuvenated second half that would be inversion free. The park would now have a hypercoaster, and Phantom’s Revenge was born. I was an ecstatic coaster dork!
Phantom’s Revenge towers over the park with its mighty first hill. The Phantom acts as guardian of the park, overlooking all corners of it. During reconstruction, the park decided to repaint the coaster as well, and selected one of the most aesthetically appealing color schemes I’ve ever seen on a coaster. With slick black supports and a vibrant lime green track, the whole coaster just looks "Phantom-esque". The queue goes under and alongside the lift hill, and you enter the station passing under the Phantom himself and his mighty cape. The crews here on Phantom work very efficiently and the line moves at a brisk pace, keeping waits to a minimum. On busier days the park runs both trains and the line absolutely flies, with waits for this stellar coaster often only around 10 minutes! After a slight wait, it’s time to board the wonderfully redesigned trains by Morgan. These are some of the best coaster trains around, as they are very roomy with just a seat belt and a lap bar from the side. This comfort is a blessed change from the OTSRs that plagued the original. After an efficient and quick check of restraints, it’s time to depart on our journey with this wonderfully amusing (and equally sadistic) Phantom. Bwah, ha, ha, ha!!
The 160 foot lift hill remains from the original installation, and it provides a slow and methodical climb to its peak, providing plenty of excitement and anticipation to build. This phantom wants you to think long and hard about the journey he has prepared for you. Like