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Growing up, Kennywood Park was a summer-staple for my family.
I grew up eating Potato Patch fries, being scared out of my wits on the Pitt Fall, and I was even tall enough to ride Steel Phantom during it’s last operating season.
But for me: Kennywood is more than just an amusement park that was less than 30 minutes away from my house. Every year that we went, my parents would tell us stories about when THEY came to Kennywood as kids. My Mom always told us about riding the Log Jammer with her brothers (and them scaring her because they’d rock the boat so violently), how she used to work right around the block, so she’d walk to Kennywood on her lunch break for some Potato Patch fries, and how when my parents were dating, they’d make out on the Old Mill.
Further: my Grandma loved Kennywood and would tell us stories about when there was a swimming pool in the middle of the park (where the Lagoon now is). And we even found photos recently of my Great-Grandfather and his sisters, spending the day at Kennywood.
So, to say that a love for Kennywood Park resides deep within my veins would be an understatement. I come from a long line of generations who loved and enjoyed Kennywood – and it’s a tradition and a love that I’m happy to pass on to my own children.
Since Kennywood is so near and dear to my heart, I wanted to share an insider’s look at the park – including some tips and tricks to get the most out of your day!
OVERVIEW
One of only two amusement parks in the United States to be designated as a National Historic Landmark, Kennywood Park opened as a trolley park in 1898. If you do the math – that means that the 2025 season is the park’s 127th year of operation. What an incredible legacy Kennywood Park holds for the Pittsburgh area.
Kennywood Park is located at 4800 Kennywood Boulevard, in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.
It is just 20 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh, which is why the park is most often linked to Pittsburgh as it’s location.
The park sits on 80 acres of land and is home to over 40 different rides and attractions across 8 different distinct areas including: Lost Kennywood, Steelers Country, Kiddieland, Area 412 (a tribute to the area code of the Pittsburgh area), the Lagoon, Kennyville, the Midway, and the new for 2025: Kennywood Junction.
The park has gone through several years of an extensive renovation and update process with management working hard to streamline much of their signage, their colors, their branding, and their aesthetic to all work together. Many many gallons of paint have been laid down to give Kennywood the fresh, updated look we see today.
Most recently, it was announced that Herschend Family Entertainment has started the process to purchase Kennywood Park, along with its sister parks and waterparks across the country. Herschend Family Entertainment is most notably known for owning Dollywood and Silver Dollar City (both absolutely stellar parks!)
During a recent media event, we got the chance to chat with Ricky Spicuzza, the general manager of Kennywood, about the upcoming new ownership. He said that overall, he is very optimistic and excited for Herschend to come in and purchase Kennywood. The park has been family owned and operated for most of it’s existence (until it was purchased by Palace Entertainment in 2007), so for the park to return to it’s family-ownership roots promises to hold a lot of potential. The sale is an ongoing process – there are many legalities that have to be gone through – similar to the Six Flags and Cedar Fair merger that we watched take place last year.
SEASON
Taking into consideration that Kennywood Park is a small, regional amusement park – it has a surprisingly long operating season.
The park typically opens in mid-April for weekends in the spring and then starting around Memorial Day, the park will open for daily operations. Around Labor Day, the park will go back to weekend operating hours and will be open for three-and-four-day weekends during their Phantom Fall Fest. After Halloween, the park hosts Holiday Lights – their Christmas event that runs weekends and other special days until just after Christmas.
In other words: Kennywood’s operating season runs from April until the very end of December – and all things considered: that’s incredible for the park’s location, size, and guest-base!
EVENTS
Kennywood Park hosts A LOT of events (to say the least). It always feels like there is something going on! In other words: if you are traveling to visit the park, you definitely want to check the park’s website for their specific hours of operation and what events might be taking place during your visit.
Since Kennywood Park remains a largely regional park, they host a lot of school field trips and company picnics early in the summer.
Bites and Pints (the park’s food and drink festival) runs from mid-May through the end of June (I’m going to talk more about Bites and Pints when I talk about food, so stay tuned).
The park hosts several Independence Day events at the beginning of July, including drone shows and fireworks.
August brings Fall Fantasy parades – where local school bands come in and perform in a daily parade around the park.
Phantom Fall Fest arrives mid-September and runs through the end of October – kicking off the park’s spooky season.
And then Holiday Lights rounds out the park’s event lineup as Kennywood transforms the park into a winter wonderland and displays over three million Christmas Lights from mid-November through the end of the year.
Needless to say: it always feels like there is something special going on at the park – which simply makes it fun to visit at any point during the season.
RIDES
To say that Kennywood Park offers a WIDE variety of attractions and rides would be an understatement. From extreme thrills to classic flat rides, from modern attractions to one-of-a-kind rides that my grandparents grew up enjoying – there is truly something at Kennywood for everyone.
Kennywood Park is home to a total of 8 roller coasters, including the newest: Steel Curtain, the oldest: Jack Rabbit, and the most famous: Phantom’s Revenge.
If you are a roller coaster enthusiast, visiting Kennywood Park offers a unique collection of credits that are so fun to collect. Each coaster is unique and the park truly has a one-of-a-kind collection.
The way the park is situated at the top of a hill that dives down to meet the Monongahela River not only offers unique views, but the ability for several roller coasters to use the surrounding terrain to host their unique layouts. It’s really amazing and what makes Kennywood Park such a bucket list destination for many roller coaster enthusiasts.
Even if roller coasters aren’t quite your thing, the park is also home to a number of extremely unique “flat ride” attractions – some of which are the only kind left in the whole world.
The Turtles, Noah’s Ark, and Kangaroo are just a few of these extremely unique attractions that the whole family can enjoy together. These rides are meticulously maintained by Kennywood’s in-house maintenance team and they are just so much fun.
Kennywood Park has a large section of kids’ rides in the form of two distinct areas: Kiddieland and Kennywood Junction. Kiddieland offers more rides that kids can ride on their own, while Kennywood Junction offers a selection of rides that parents can ride with their kids.
In other words: even if you are coming to Kennywood with a little baby – there are a few rides that even the youngest can ride and enjoy.
A few rides I’ll especially highlight:
The Olde Kennywood Railroad is a train ride that the park has recently refurbished and updated. The ride features a narration that gives the history of Kennywood Park and gives not only beautiful views of the Monongahela River and US Steel Works, but features a lot of old pieces of Kennywood’s history in the form of photos, posters, signage, and old ride cars.
The Turtle has been operating at Kennywood since 1927 and is the last operating tumble-bug in the entire world. This ride offers no seat-belts and will swing you up and over a series of hills and dips that will have you swinging around in the circular seats and laughing your head off.
And lastly, The Old Mill is the park’s dark boat ride – this ride has gone through multiple themes and revisions over the years, but most recently, the park returned it to it’s more original story-line of skeletons and wild west shenanigans.
FOOD
We have been to A LOT of amusement parks, and time and again we say that Kennywood has some of the best food – the park has a great variety of food options but the real winner for the park is that their food prices are not extravagant. We’ve been to parks where we’ve paid out the wazoo for just a slice of pizza and it simply makes us so thankful that Kennywood has kept their food price points in a more manageable (and easier to swallow) place.
There are two food items that Kennywood Park is famous for: Potato Patch french fries and Golden Nugget Ice Cream. Both of these are a MUST when you visit Kennywood Park.
The Potato Patch is located at the base of the Thunderbolt, next to the Turtle, across from Noah’s Ark. This is the only place in the park where you’ll find these world-famous, fresh-cut french fries. There are several different options to choose from and every Kennywood local will tell you that their particular order is “the best”, but our favorite is simply the cheese & bacon option. The park loads a tray up with straight-out-of-the-fryer french fries and then douses them in hot, melty cheese – finishing the dish off with a hearty scoop of bacon. Is your mouth watering yet?
Sitting and eating these french fries, licking the hot cheese off your fingers, while listening to the roar of the Thunderbolt fly by – that’s a Kennywood moment – for sure!
The Golden Nugget is located just outside of Kiddieland – next to the fountain and Pizza Warehouse. This is not your normal ice cream – it is SQUARE.
These square blocks of ice cream are dipped fresh into chocolate, and then rolled in either sprinkles, peanuts, or both, and then topped with a cherry. This is a one-of-a-kind Kennywood delight that is the perfect way to cool off on a hot afternoon. And, there’s just something about this ice cream – it’s just vanilla ice cream, but it tastes SO GOOD. The hard chocolate crunchy outer layer, the sprinkles and peanuts, that cherry on top – it’s pure Kennywood bliss.
While those are just two of the food items that Kennywood is famous for – there are PLENTY of other food options in the park.
Carousel Burgers opened with the 2024 season and offers a wide variety of burgers, chicken fingers, fries, and these MASSIVE milkshakes that are literally made to be shared.
The Parkside Cafe is the park’s largest indoor dining location – and their menu changes with the season! For example: during Holiday Lights, they have a variety of soups that you can get in a bread bowl, they do turkey dinners, it’s truly a-typical amusement park food – so if you’re looking for something different (and a chance to cool off from the heat), definitely take a peak at what Parkside is offering during your visit.
Pedro’s is a mexican restaurant in Lost Kennywood – sometimes it’s open and sometimes it’s not – it’s the biggest hit or miss restaurant at Kennywood. Think of them like a mini Moes or Chipotle (again, we love it when they’re open because it offers just another a-typical amusement park food!)
The Pagoda stands right outside of the new Kennywood Junction – on one side – the side painted blue: you can get soft-serve ice cream – while the other side – painted red: offers sausages, hot dogs, fried cheese, and more.
The food options just go on and on – I could literally make a whole video centered JUST around Kennywood Park’s different food offerings (would you be interested in that? Comment below if that would be helpful!)
The last thing I’ll highlight is the park’s Bites and Pints food and drink festival.
This is one of our FAVORITE Kennywood events every year – it is truly outstanding!
The park has booths set up all around the Lagoon and the center of the park that offer a selection of different foods and drinks from different countries. This is so much fun because not only do you get to sample completely different foods and drinks (potentially things you’ve never tried or even heard of before), but it’s all done in this fun, festive way. When Bites and Pints is going on, the park takes on this whole new level of a beautiful, alive, summer festival feeling. It’s so much fun, so delicious, and we LOVE spending an evening at the park, eating and drinking our way around the Lagoon.
Oh and a quick tip about Bites and Pints: while you can buy food and drinks from the different booths individually, the best bang for your buck is to buy a punch card online ahead of time – the park offers a decent discount when you start that way and since you aren’t pulling out your credit card each time you step up to a new booth, it just makes the whole experience more enjoyable.
TIPS & TRICKS
If you’ve never been to Kennywood Park before and you’re looking to get the absolute MOST out of your day, here are a few tips and tricks from a seasoned Kennywood veteran.
1. Buy your tickets online, in advance – even if you’re sitting in your car, out in the parking lot, about ready to head into the park.
This tip applies across the board to every amusement park – but buying the tickets in person, at the park gate is ALWAYS more expensive than buying them online in advance.
Further: hopping on Kennywood’s email list ensures that you’ll not only be up-to-date with what’s happening with the park, but that is where you’ll be made aware of different promotions for buying tickets. It seems like the park is almost always running some kind of promo with discounted tickets, so if you are planning a visit, that’s where I would start when you’re looking to buy tickets.
2. Kennywood has a fantastic and very Pittsburgh-like entrance to the park. You’ll park on one side of the road, go through security and ticketing on the same side, but then you have to cross Kennywood Boulevard in order to actually enter the park. Instead of building a walkway over the road like Six Flags New England did, Kennywood built a tunnel that runs UNDER the road. It’s an epic entrance and it’s so fun.
3. If you are looking to get the very most out of your day at Kennywood, you’ll definitely want to start at the back of the park and work your way forward.
As soon as you come through the tunnel, your eye (and most of the crowd you’re entering with) will look straight down the main midway – past Skyrocket, The Old Mill, the arcade, Jack Rabbit, and ending at the lagoon. Most of the park’s guests will head to Skyrocket, The Old Mill, and Jack Rabbit as their first rides of the day.
HOWEVER – to get the most out of your day, you want to break from the crowd and take an immediate LEFT as soon as you come through the tunnel. This path will walk you up past the exit of Skyrocket, the new Potato Patch bumper cars, Spinvasion, the Pirate Ship, and then you’ll see the entrance to Phantom’s Revenge.
Personally, I would walk straight onto Phantom’s Revenge and ride one of the very first trains of the day. You’ll definitely want to come back and ride this roller coaster again, but it’s an amazing ride to ride FIRST. Plus, when you get off of Phantom, the exit puts you right in the middle of Lost Kennywood – which is the very back section of the park.
From there, I would walk to the furthest back corner to ride The Exterminator – simply because this indoor, spinning, wild mouse roller coaster tends to have the longest line in the entire park. Riding it first thing in the morning means less time waiting in line and more time riding other rides and enjoying the other attractions the park has to offer.
After Exterminator, I would jump on Black Widow – the Zamperla frisbee swing ride that also gets a pretty long line – and then after that, I would head back into the main section of the park. By this time, the crowd that stopped and rode Jack Rabbit and Old Mill will be making their way toward the back section of the park and you can begin to enjoy the park’s other attractions – breathing a sigh of relief that the rides that tend to get the longest lines (Exterminator and Black Widow) have already been crossed off your list.
4. If you can visit on a day when the park is open until after dark – absolutely do not miss the whole new world that Kennywood becomes when the sun goes down. So many rides have beautiful light packages on them and when you combine the lights from the games and the midway string lights – the park simply becomes enchanting. Kennywood at night is absolutely phenomenal and it’s so beautiful.
Additionally: riding Thunderbolt in the dark is a whole new level of thrill. You dive out of the station into a completely pitch black ravine and trust me: that experience is next-level.
Kennywood Park plays the same music and narration as the park is closing today that they’ve been playing for years. It’s 100% pure nostalgia for me as I have distinct memories of hearing that “goodnight” music when I was a kid at the park with my parents – and my Mom would tell us stories of hearing the same music when she was a kid. It literally brings tears to my eyes now to hear because of just how many memories I have tied to the park – and that “goodnight” music is the perfect whipped cream and cherry on top of a super fun day.
5. And lastly: if someone from the Pittsburgh area ever says to you: “Kennywood’s Open” – more than likely they are not referring to the status of the amusement park – they’re actually trying to tell you that the zipper of your pants is down. No one quite knows for sure where this phrase began, but rumor is that it was started as a joke by park employees back in the 30’s and 40’s and it has stuck fast ever since. It’s a strictly regional, insider joke – but everyone in the Pittsburgh area knows it.
As far as I’m aware, no other amusement park has a phrase that only the locals know that is tied directly to the park like: “Kennywood’s Open” – which is pretty special and fun and a great inside joke.
CLOSING
As I said at the top of this video: Kennywood Park holds a literal boat-load of memories for me, and if you’re a Pittsburgh-local, it probably does for you as well! I’d love it if you left me a comment sharing some of your own favorite memories and stories about your time at Kennywood – and if you’ve never been there before? Get ready, because this amusement park truly is a very special place.
