Kennywood’s Old Mill turns into nightmare
WEST MIFFLIN – Fans of Kennywood’s Old Mill will be in for a surprise – or perhaps a nightmare – this summer when they visit the park. Garfield’s Nightmare is the newest attraction at the park, which is open daily beginning today. The ride, housed in the former Old Mill, which is Kennywood’s oldest ride, has a reconfigured entrance and looks nothing like the haunted boat ride that has been a staple of the park for more than 100 years.
“The boats are the same and they still move as slowly, but everything else is different,” said Mary Lou Rosemeyer, Kennywood’s director of public relations. “This ride features all of Garfield’s worst nightmares.”
Before entering the building, riders must wear 3-D glasses to fully appreciate the horror that Garfield encounters after doing what the fictional fat cat does best – overeating and sleeping. He’s tricked by the pizza delivery guy, chased by large mice, scared by spiders and even forced to endure a trip to the veterinarian, all before he wakes up and realizes it all was a figment of his apparently vivid imagination.
Black lights illuminate the bright colors that replaced the darkness of the old mill, but riders will still enjoy the close spaces and cool water as they rush through the maze, experiencing what adventures await Garfield before the nightmare ends.
Riders can now have their photo taken at the end of the ride or while driving the Turnpike, which is adjacent to Garfield’s Nightmare.
According to information from the National Amusement Park Historical Association, Kennywood’s Old Mill opened in 1901 and originally featured a small chute at the end – the forerunner to the park’s Log Jammer. It was renamed the Panama Canal between 1911 and 1913 and was completely rebuilt in 1926.
The ride changed themes and names a few more times over the years until the Old Mill name returned in 1992 before changing to Garfield’s Nightmare for the 2004 season.
This marks the first major overhaul of the ride in three decades.
Garfield was created by Jim Davis, whose comic strip was launched in June 1978 and can now be seen in more than 2,500 newspapers worldwide.
Recently, Guinness World Records named Garfield “The Most Widely Syndicated Comic Strip in the World.”
While the new ride will have people anxious to visit, friends of The Potato Patch will also be looking forward to the newest addition to the lineup – bacon and cheddar French fries. Not for those with a small appetite, the fries that have long been a Kennywood staple can now come with melted Cheddar cheese and pieces of fresh bacon sprinkled on top.
Rosemeyer said visitors will notice the new ride and may sample the new food, but many other subtle changes are made every year prior to the park’s opening to keep it looking fresh. Flowers were being planted this week and many ticket, game and food booths got a fresh coat of paint this spring before the gates opened.
“There are a lot of things that go on here that people take for granted,” she said. “They think the place looks the same every time they come back.”
Last summer was one of the worst weather seasons in recent memory for the park, but Rosemeyer said the park opened a week later this season, but will be open Sept. 11 and 12 and Sept. 18 and 19 for two late summer bonus weekends. The park is known far and wide, and was even mentioned on a recent episode of hit television show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” but the people who come back summer after summer like to think of it as theirs.
“We had people on television one time say ‘We went to Disney World and liked it there, but we like Kennywood better because it is our park,'” Rosemeyer said. “We couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The park is open daily through Labor Day, with the rides opening at 11 a.m. From Aug. 30 through Sept. 5, the park will open at 5 p.m.The Grand Victorian Festival will be held June 30 through July 6, and the Fall Fantasy Parade will run nightly from Aug. 17 through Sept. 5. For more information about Kennywood, visit the Web site at www.kennywood.com.