The Saddest Kennywood Guest
Mila's problems are absolutely First World Problems in their truest form. She spends a lot of energy getting mad about things like the wrong kind of cheese showing up on her sandwich, her favorite kitty dress being in the laundry, and me driving home when I'm supposed to be driving to the playground. Her biggest First World Problem, though, is Kennywood.
Hooboy did she have a very sad Saturday.
We've been buying season passes for Kennywood for several years now. They go on sale for Black Friday at a price where we probably need to go 3-4 times to make it the price tickets should be. If we make it a 5th or 6th time, then it's a "good deal." We'll ignore the part where buyng food makes being there a money suck since I could be a bit more organized and manage to avoid that.
Anyway.
Mila's second summer was the first summer when she could ride anything at Kennywood. She was one year old and SO ready for fun.
Except, it turned out that Daredevil Baby was more like Get Me Down Baby and she ended up deciding she was okay with a few rides, but mostly she was happier watching everyone else.
Which, fine.
Another year went by and Mila was definitely more ready to ride some rides.
There was just one problem - the height restrictions for several rides in Kennywood changed. There was no warning when I bought the season tickets; just a change. The things Mila rode when she was one were suddenly out of reach.
But, no worries! She still had a few choices!
Girlfriend loooooooved the baby Whip. She rode it for hour and hours and hours.
And the motorcycles? Man, oh man. She loved them, too.
So when it came time to return this year, I knew Mila would remember those rides. I knew that when she asked where we were going on Saturday, I could tell her "to ride the pink motorcycle." She wouldn't understand "Season Passholder Appreciation Day" or even "Kennywood," but "pink motorcycles" was her love language.
She was so excited.
And then we got there.
Miss Mila currently stands a very average 35 inches tall. Considering she'll be three years old at the end of the month, she's literally "average." Half of kids her age are shorter while half are taller. Once that birthday hits in a few short weeks, she'll also be old enough to need her own season pass for Kennywood.
But she's not tall enough to ride anything in Kiddieland. They changed the height restrictions again so now kids have to be at least 36 inches tall to ride basically everything.
That leaves Mila one inch too short. So, no baby Whip, no motorcycles, no flying elephants ... nothing. There are like three things in Kiddieland that she can go on as long as she's with an adult, but she can't ride any of the kiddie rides, including the ones she has ridden in past years.
Go ahead. Try to explain to a kid who has heard "maybe next year you'll be bigger enough" countless times but yet finds herself too small to ride things she could ride before. Try to explain it while you try to figure out how a kid can be old enough to need a ticket to get into an amusement park, even though she can't ride anything. Also try to explain how she can ride all of those things at other amusement parks - literally all of them. Cedar Point has several rides that exactly match ones at Kennywood and the height guidelines for them say "no minimum."
So it's not a safety thing.
It's yet another example of how Kennywood isn't for families anymore. There are a lot of examples - from ticket prices not being reasonable enough for most families to be able to afford them to the fact that smoking is still allowed in many parts of the park.
It's Mila's First World Problem that has me regretting buying season passes this year. It's also Mila's First World Problem that cost me a crapton of money on stupid stuff because girlfriend wasn't going to quit being sad until I distracted her with shiny things.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Reader Comments (5)
O.M.G. you just broke my heart into tiny little pieces, TWICE. It happened TWICE? And this is ridiculous. I'm outraged and throwing a fit for Mila. HORRENDOUS! (TW suggests putting crocs on her... that may add enough height for her to be able to ride... )
Shoes... yes shoes can make her tall enough. Poor Mila...
I found out about this a few weeks ago when a mom posted about the changes in a local mom group. I immediately posted on Kennywood's page to ask about modifying their admission policies to be height vs age based. They responsed with a canned response and of course my post was deleted. Since then I have seen numerous folks post about the changes. Kennywood has repeatedly released communications regarding new things at the park but nothing about height restrictions.
I'm in the same boat with my almost 3 yo. 2 years ago, she could ride everything. Last year, she was limited to a few rides. And now this year, she can only ride with me. She is going to be so disappointed when she finds out she can no longer ride the whip, motorcycles, ferris wheel w her older sis.
Oh and Idlewild has some of the same rides (airplanes, motorcycles, ferris wheel) and there is currently no height restrictions there. As long as you can walk, you can ride. Both parks are owned by the same owners so it makes no sense.
NO BUENO, KENNYWOOD!