Episode 28: Kentucky Kingdom (Small Coasters, Big Thrills!)

The seventh stop on my summer road trip was Kentucky Kingdom.  Located in Louisville, this park's had a roller coaster of a history, being operated by local businessman Ed Hart, Six Flags, then Ed Hart again, and now Herschend Family Entertainment.  Rides have come and gone from this state-owned property, but it's now home to a triple-threat of small roller coasters that deliver big on thrills!  Join me for my first visit to this unique park for my opinions on Storm Chaser, Kentucky Flyer, Lightning Run, and more!

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Transcript

Welcome Episode 28 of Coaster Redux.  My name is Erik, and this is the story of my revived roller coaster fandom.  For years, I’d all but forgotten my coaster obsession from high school and college.  Then during the pandemic, I started following the amusement world again, and for the last two years, I’ve been on a mission to ride as many new coasters as I can, and share my experiences through this podcast.

It all started with a week-long road trip back in 2022, and I’m now underway on my third road trip, this time for two full weeks.  I’m down to my last two parks, and I’ll go in-depth on my experiences riding new roller coasters at both.

Yesterday, I drove from Cedar Point to Louisville, KY and made a six hour stop at Kings Island, and it was awesome to get back to this Ohio gem.  I picked up some of the credits I missed the last time like Adventure Express and the Bat, and checked out the new for 2024 Snoopy’s Soapbox Racers Vekoma Family Boomerang.  And of course, I couldn’t help but take another lap or two on their best coasters like the Racer, Orion, Mystic Timbers, and Diamondback.  The park is so well-run, and has an atmosphere that just can’t be beat.

My next stop is Kentucky Kingdom, a park with a very interesting history that’s risen from the ashes by building new signature attractions that are small in size but big on thrills.  Lightning Run was the first Hyper GTX from Chance Rides, and it’s basically a mini hyper coaster, Storm Chaser is an RMC conversion of the old Twisted Twins wood coaster, and Kentucky Flyer is a family wood coaster from the Gravity Group.  They’ve also got an old school wood coaster from the Dinn Corporation called Thunder Run.  Plus, with the park now operated by Herschend Family Entertainment, the folks behind the stalwart Dollywood and Silver Dollar City, I had to check this place out.              

I know as a roller coaster fan that one of my favorite parts of the hobby is getting the reaction of somebody coming off of a ride they’ve never ridden before.  That’s what I want to share with you.

And with that, join me for my first time riding this collection of small but mighty roller coasters at Kentucky Kingdom, coming at you right now on Coaster Redux.

The park didn’t open until noon, and I was fine with that.  I’d been going pretty hard over the last week and a half, and it was nice to sleep in without setting an alarm.  Kentucky Kingdom was visible from my hotel room.  In fact, the dismantled red track of their T3 Vekoma SLC lay in a parking lot just outside my window, and I was almost thankful that I’d missed out on riding one of the roughest roller coasters out there.  Here’s hoping Herschend has plans to put up something awesome where it once stood.

Anyway, I only had a five minute drive to the park, and I hopped in my car to be there for rope drop.  Kentucky Kingdom is located on state-owned property shared by the Kentucky Exposition Center, and the state fairgrounds.  I paid my $12 for parking at the Expo Center which shares its lot with the park and continued on my way.  Then I had to stop at a pedestrian crossing as the main access road to the parking lot runs directly through the middle of the park, meaning that Kentucky Kingdom has two distinct halves.  Guests can either cross a small bridge, or cross the street guided by park security to move between them.

I parked my car near the entrance and stepped out to be scorched by the sun on this massive expanse of blacktop.  The convention center campus sprawls to the right, and the comparably small shaded grove of trees with rides poking above them is to the left.  I made my way to the gate along with a few families with young children dressed in swimwear.  I hear the Hurricane Bay water park is the big draw here with the dry park taking second fiddle.

The entrance is pleasant enough, and you enter the park onto a terrazzo midway with a fountain featuring the logo, with the massive Ferris Wheel way off in the distance.  I turned right at the entrance as I set off to explore, and overall the landscaping looks nice, but the park really gives off Six Flags vibes, and that’s for good reason.   

Kentucky Kingdom opened in 1987 as an expansion of the fairgrounds intended to give locals a theme park to call their own.  The first iteration failed, and local businessman Ed Hart took on the challenge of expanding and improving the park.  He did just that, adding new attractions to the park including the Thunder Run wood coaster, the Hurricane Bay water park, and the T2 (Terror to the Second Power) Vekoma SLC. For the 1997 season, Kentucky Kingdom added their largest investment yet, the $12 million Chang, a stand-up roller coaster from B&M which took the records for the tallest, fastest, and longest of the type from Cedar Point.  Clearly this park was going places, being one of the fastest growing amusement parks of the day.  

In fall of 1997, Hart sold the operating rights to Premier Parks, who were scooping up small regional amusement parks across the country during this time known as the coaster wars.  It was during that winter that the company also acquired the Six Flags chain from Time Warner.  The park opened for the 1998 season as Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom with another new addition, a dueling CCI wood coaster called Twisted Sisters, which was later re-named Twisted Twins due to copyright issues with the rock band..  The park operated under the Six Flags brand until 2010 when the company was unable to settle on lease terms with the County Fair Board, and was experiencing money trouble due to rapid expansion prior to the financial collapse.

The Coaster Wars were over, and Six Flags was out.  They relocated Chang to Six Flags Great Adventure and brought whatever other rides they could, leaving the remainder of the park abandoned.  After a few years, fans of the park feared it may be lost forever, and rallied to form a grassroots effort to save it.  Ed Hart returned to spearhead this new effort and Kentucky Kingdom reopened in 2014.  The park saw new investment to replace and re-imagine many of the attractions from the Six Flags era, and in 2021, Herschend Family Entertainment assumed majority control.  To say the park’s had a roller coaster of a history would be an understatement, yet here I was, excited to see what Kentucky Kingdom was all about.

The midways were quiet on this Thursday afternoon, and I made my way across the street I’d driven shortly before as I headed for the back half of the park.  I wanted to start my day on Storm Chaser, so after I crossed the street, I continued back and to the right.  Water dripped down from above the trough of the Mile High Falls Shoot-the-Chutes ride and the bright orange track stood in front of me.

Storm Chaser opened in 2016, and designer Alan Schilke used parts of both sides of Twisted Twins to create this attraction.  You walk directly under the trick track double-up en route to the station.  The area is surrounded by bright orange IBOX track held in place with the steel supports from the original coasters.

I walked into the station and found it mostly empty.  Only a handful of other guests joined me as we climbed into the blue train and prepared to ride.  You leave the station and turn around to the right without any of RMC’s typical pre-lift maneuvers, and engage the lift for a climb up to 100 feet.  At the top, you dip down and bank left before entering the barrel roll down drop.  You get a great combination of hangtime at the start which then transforms to airtime and whip as you pick up speed.

Next up is a large camelback airtime hill that provides delightful sustained ejector before a hard left overbanked turn.  You level out and head into an outerbanked hill to the right before snapping back left, and then up into a twisting airtime hill leading into a second overbank tucked in beneath the first.  You slam into another sweet airtime hill above the countryside followed by a perfectly balanced zero-G roll with your hands up!  Next comes the trick track double up and a straight double down, and your thighs’ll be screaming from these sharp ejector airtime moments.

Then you dive down to ground level for a 270 degree helix to the right, and pop back up and to the left into the brakes.  

So it was early in the operating day with an empty train and this ride was aggressive.  I thought Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England was a punchy small RMC, but this one is even more so.  Every element hits really hard, but the ending may be too much as far as repetitive ejector hits.  Still, Storm Chaser was awesome, and I’ll be back after I ride the other coasters.

Next I wanted to switch things up and try out Kentucky Flyer, but this wasn’t the easiest coaster to find.  It’s tucked away in the back left corner of Hurricane Bay, and you have to walk through the water park to find it.  Now this was where the majority of the guests were, and with good reason.  It’s a nice looking water park complete with tons of slide complexes, wave pools, and lazy rivers.  It was so hot, I contemplated grabbing a locker and taking a dip as I passed the massive wave pool.  I continued left, passing the water park’s food stands, and found the coaster’s entrance just past the Scream Extreme Star Flyer.  It’s themed to aviation, and I love the way it forms a backdrop against the waterpark.  Almost makes it look like a beach boardwalk with a white wooden roller coaster wrapping around the wave pool.   

Kentucky Flyer is the newest roller coaster in the park, opening in 2019.  It’s a family wood coaster from the Gravity Group, and there are several similar installations around the world known for providing very decent airtime, just on a small scale.  This would be my first coaster from the Gravity Group, and my first time riding in their Timberliner trains.  They’re like GCI’s Millennium Flyers in that each row is its own car making them capable of tight maneuvers, but these trains are also capable of inversions.  Obviously, I wouldn’t be experiencing those today, but I was still intrigued to check out this new ride type.

You board in a bare bones station with the six car train in front of you.  The zero car has the profile of a World War II fighter, complete with propeller, and it looks really cool.  I climbed into the back row, and the lap bar is unusual as it’s U-shaped and swings across your lap from outside.  It’s super comfy and feels open enough.

You leave the station and immediately begin the trip up the 47 foot lift hill.  This is a family coaster, remember, so it’s not all about stats, it’s about how the elements are profiled.  While the white supports are steel, the track is 100% unpainted wood, and the railings are painted red.  This is a sharp looking coaster, as we reached the top quickly.  From there, it was a quick turn to the right, and we headed down the 44 foot drop at 52 degrees.  

I got a quick pop of airtime in the back and while we’re topping out at a mere 35 mph, the wood track makes it feel faster. We hope up, bank left and climb up the second hill.  There’s more airtime with each elevation change.  It’s not crazy strong, but it feels so good.  You bank right and hop up while passing beneath the structure of the return run, then take another quick airtime hit before turning around and climbing left.

The return run is actually a quad down, and while it’s got nothing on Lightning Rod, you get solid airtime pops combined with laterals as the track drops just a bit lower after each hit while closely mirroring the outbound run before slowing into the brakes.

Kentucky Flyer is a great blend of family thrills.  It’s not too intense for younger kids, but still leaves some fun for enthusiasts.  Absolutely everybody can enjoy this roller coaster, and it’s another small ride delivering big time fun at Kentucky Kingdom.

I was still in the back portion of the park, and decided to grab a ride on Thunder Run next.  This is the oldest operating roller coaster at Kentucky Kingdom.  Manufactured by the Dinn Corporation, it opened in 1990 as the park’s first major coaster.  It’s layout is similar to the much maligned Hurler at Carowinds, a coaster I rode exactly once and have no intention of riding again.  That ride was exceedingly rough and has an uninteresting layout.  Then it also shares its Dinn DNA with TimberWolf at Worlds of Fun which I rode last week and left me pleasantly surprised.  I decided to roll the dice, not knowing which experience I would get.

With every coaster  thus far being a walk on, I wasn’t surprised to walk right into the station and board the next train out.  Thunder Run features PTC two-bench trains that were replaced in 2017 with the standard orange ratcheting lap bars.  These trains are always comfortable and well-padded, and I slipped into row 2.  

You turn around to the left upon leaving the station and climb up to 90 feet.  There’s no brand new wood here, but it’s obvious that the lift hill has received trackwork somewhat recently.  At the top, you turn around again, and drop to the ground to navigate a low banked 180, just like the opening maneuver on TimberWolf and Hurler, and it’s smooth enough.  You then enter three consecutive airtime hills, and there some float on all of them.  Not bad at all!

The rest of the ride peters out with another turnaround, some straight track leading into a quick bunny hop, then another turnaround, into a final short hill leading into the brakes.  And while I didn’t feel a need to ride Thunder Run again, I left with a similar opinion to Timber Wolf.  It was fine.  I got a couple of moments of airtime, and it definitely didn’t beat me up.  It’s amazing what designers like GCI and Gravity Group have managed to do with wooden roller coasters that just hadn’t been imagined in the 1990’s.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Thunder Run, it just didn’t do much to get me excited.

And with those first three rides complete, it was time to ride my most anticipated coaster at Kentucky Kingdom, but first, I’d have to cross the road again.  There is a pedestrian bridge leading from the heart of Hurricane Bay back to the north side of the park giving an awesome overlook of Lightning Run.  

This coaster caught my eye when I happened upon its POV video on YouTube during the pandemic.  It’s an ultra-compact micro hyper coaster promising unbelievable airtime in a small package.  To say I was intrigued was an understatement.

When Ed Hart re-opened Kentucky Kingdom in 2014, this was the new headlining attraction.  It replaced the Schwarzkopf shuttle loop Greezed Lightnin’ which has been standing but not operating since the park closed in 2009.  Deemed too costly to repair, Hart sought out a cost effective replacement that would deliver big thrills in a small footprint, and he found it in the Hyper GTX model from Chance Rides.  This prototype roller coaster drew from the Chance acquisition of D.H. Morgan Manufacturing, known for building several hyper coasters in the late 1990’s including Mamba at Worlds of Fun.  Its centerline was designed by Joe Draves, credited with subsequent successes such as Maxx Force at Six Flags Great America, ArieForce One at Fun Spot Atlanta, and Wildcat’s Revenge at Hersheypark.  

Lightning Run uses the old Schwarzkopf’s station building, and its name pays homage to both Greezed Lightnin’ and Thunder Run.  I really like that.  The $7 million investment features sky blue track with forest green supports, a height of only 100 feet, and 2,500 feet of track.  As of this recording it’s the only Hyper GTX in operation, and I’m always extra hyped to experience a new coaster style for the first time.

The entrance to Lightning Run is located to the left upon entering the front gate, and you can’t miss it because it’s the only roller coaster visible from the parking lot.  The queue begins just past the Bluegrass Bakery, where Herschend prepares their cinnamon bread made famous at Dollywood and Silver Dollar City.  The station is a simple wood building, and there’s only a handful of groups ahead of me on the platform.

Lightning Run is operating one train, and it’s got five cars with an extra long nose on the lead car.  It’s kinda like a classic Arrow looper train, but with the seats raised up high. Single train ops were sufficient given the crowds on this day, but the operations on this coaster were abysmal.  The attendants spent more time socializing,  and yelling at riders for touching the gates or standing on the yellow line that was well behind the gates than they did checking the train.

The restraints on this coaster are nearly identical to RMC’s and they ask that you buckle your seatbelt upon boarding and allow the crew to lower the lap bar.  People weren’t paying attention, requiring the operators to unlock restraints, to check the seatbelts of those who lowered their lap bars.  Despite only having a station wait, it probably took 20 minutes to cycle the three or four trains needed to clear those waiting ahead of me.

Alas, I finally climbed into the back row for my first ride. The train glided out of the station and engaged the 100 foot lift hill.  It gets you to the top in short order, and before you know it, you’re careening downward at 80 degrees reaching 55 mph.  In the back, the pull over the top is intense, and it’s the first  moment of ejector airtime on this coaster.

At the bottom, you bank hard left and rise up into the largest airtime hill on the ride.  Again, your thighs are pinned to that lap bar for another quick second before you rise up into an overbanked turn around to the left. On the exit, you zig right, then explode over another small airtime hill, and turn around 270 degrees with a quick GCI style hump where you get another bit of air.

The next airtime hill gives a great head chopper as you dive beneath the prior hill before turning right, then a quick outer banked left, before continuing the rightward turn.  It’s like that moment in VelociCoaster’s helix at Universal Orlando but it’s smaller and quicker, then guess what?  It does the same thing again.  

You stay close to the ground and bank through an S-bend that’s super tight and whippy, and enter the grand finale, three killer bunny hops delivering extreme ejector pops before a quick jog to the left and a slight climb into the brakes.

I said Storm Chaser was aggressive, and Lightning Run is even more so.  Its compact layout maximizes every inch of its 2,500 foot track length leaving not one inch of dead space.  The airtime is extreme, and despite being ten years old, it couldn’t possibly be smoother.  What an outstanding prototype for Chance Rides to show the world that they can build an intensity monster with modest statistics.  

If you’ve listened to prior episodes, you know that Joe Draves has taken over ride centerline designs for RMC from Alan Schilke, and you can feel the difference in his two IBOX coasters, ArieForce One and Wildcat’s Revenge.  Those two rides are a quarter step more intense than prior Schilke creations, and when comparing Schilke’s Storm Chaser to Draves’ Lightning Run, the feeling is the same.

I returned to the midway to give my thighs a break.  I contemplated riding the Cyclos inverting pendulum ride located within Lightning Run’s infield, but I’d seen the same ride model get stuck upside down a few days before and decided not to tempt fate.  I spent some time taking video for my Instagram reels, which was painful due to the lack of shade in this area, and the slow dispatches from the ride crew.  

Then, I grabbed a soft serve ice cream and walked back to Kentucky Flyer to get a few more rides.  I rode twice more, once in the front, and then in the middle of the train.  It’s great fun no matter where you sit, and I’m happy to see so many parks adding this type of roller coaster around the world.  It’s something everybody can enjoy, and it served as a perfect introduction to the Gravity Group for me, since I’ll be riding their magnum opus tomorrow.

Next, I made my way back to Storm Chaser and took advantage of zero line for this amazing RMC.  As I stepped into the front row for my next lap on this coaster, I was surprised when one of the ride operators asked if she could join with me.  Of course, I was happy to oblige, and I asked her if this is one of the perks of her job.  She replied that when possible, the park likes to have employees ride a cycle every couple of hours to make sure the ride is operating properly.  Sounds like a good safety practice, but it’s one I’ve never seen before.

As we entered the brakes, I asked her how it was running, and she said it was SO FAST!  She was even more surprised that we had that ride on the blue train, since the purple one is typically the faster one.  What a treat to get some of these insights into the daily operation of a roller coaster!  What I’m sure is mundane to the folks who do it every day is fascinating to us enthusiasts.

I spent the next half hour or so walking onto Storm Chaser, and filming video for Instagram.  If you don’t already, I highly recommend following me on Facebook and Instagram @coasterredux.  I post pictures and videos from my travels, and you’ll get a preview of what’s coming to the podcast in the future.  All told, I ended up with six laps on Storm Chaser for the day.  This coaster was so much fun, and I more than got my fill.  It’s got great pacing, amazing airtime, and despite the last few hits in the trick track double up, it was about as re-rideable as can be.

I returned to the front of the park to finish my day on Lightning Run.  The line was a bit longer this time, as it stretched about halfway down the stairs leading into the station.  This ride crew continued their sluggish performance, and it took about ten minutes before I got to the top of the stairs.  I queued for the front row, and started recording my on-ride audio for this ride.  First dispatch was 4 minutes, from when the ride parked in the station until it was cleared.  Second dispatch, 5 and a half minutes. Third dispatch 4.5 minutes.  Then my on my ride they crushed it at 3 minutes.  Come on Kentucky Kingdom, you can do better.

My front row ride was almost as intense as the back as you only lose that yank over the first drop.  The airtime is extreme in all nine moments, and this coaster doesn’t let up for one second of its layout.  That being said, I enjoyed Lightning Run, but the repetitive brief ejector pops aren’t my cup of tea.  Personally, I’d rather see future rides of this type ever so slightly extend the airtime moments, make them a little less intense, and maybe spread them out a bit.  Still, I love what this prototype does, and it’s 100% proof of concept for Chance.  

The question enthusiasts seem to ask over and over again is why aren’t there more of these out there?  I think the answer is that it’s hard to market.  Thrillseekers in the GP want monster stats, and while they’ll certainly enjoy this ride once they experience it, to the untrained eye, it could be mistaken for a family coaster.  That creates another problem as it will undoubtedly be too intense for some.  Regardless, there are two more Chance Hyper GT-X’s coming to the Mattel Adventure Parks currently under construction in Arizona and Kansas.  These will feature inversions and launches, and it will be interesting to see how they compare to Lightning Run.

With my thighs on fire from all the airtime today, and over the last two weeks, I decided to call it a day at Kentucky Kingdom.  It’s a park on the rise that’s added three excellent roller coasters in the ten years since reopening.  Lightning Run, Storm Chaser, and Kentucky Flyer are all relatively small sized and cost conscious coasters, but they make a great one-two-three punch for this park.  Now with Herschend Family Entertainment at the helm, I really hope the third time’s a charm for this place.  Their other parks are some of the highest quality in the country, and I hope they continue to improve the overall experience here.  Maybe shed some of that Six Flags vibe, and create something truly special.  

Plus, with the removal of T3, you gotta believe there’s a new coaster in the works.  Herschend loves working with Vekoma following Big Bear Mountain at Dollywood, and I think one of their modern launched looping coasters would be a phenomenal addition to this park.  I returned to my hotel to relax in preparation for my final park day of the trip tomorrow.  Another bucket list park lies just over an hour west from here, and I wanted to finish this trip out strong.                          

Join me for the next episode for my first visit to the park with arguably the best collection of wooden roller coasters on the planet.  The Raven, The Legend, and The Voyage are all calling my name, and I’m bringing you with me to Holiday World.  That’s next time on Coaster Redux.