One of Kennywood's Greatest Dark Rides, Page 2

Dave Hahner

Ghost Ship

The facade for the roof for the ride featured a giant wrecked sailing ship washed ashore upon the rocks. A hideous skeleton of some large crab monster with a huge human skull for a head sat over the signage for the ride while its ugly face rocked back and forth. Underneath, the whole front of the dance hall building was transformed into a nightmarish underwater graveyard for lost ships. Passengers boarded their two person ship-shaped vehicles on the left side of the platform. Just to the right of the boarding area, a raised sloping platform sat in the middle of the loading/unloading area. Two cave like openings, the left side slightly higher than the right, flanked each side of the sloping platform. From time to time, a large wheeled dinghy would appear out of the left cave and roll down the platform and enter the right cave. Riding within the battered boat would be a hideous skeleton-like figure resembling the Grim Reaper giving waiting passengers and passersby alike a hint of what was in store for adventurous riders.

After boarding their vehicle, passengers waited for the ride operator to dispatch them into the Ghost Ship's winding dark labyrinth. You knew it was your turn when a loud buzzer sounded off in conjunction with the operator's signal light above the tunnel entrance. As the car jerked forward, it moved rather rapidly for a dark ride vehicle and had a strange chain driven motor sound to it. The car made a quick right turn throwing passengers together to enter the tunnel. Once inside, the cars went up a slight inclined ramp and "bashed" through two sets of black doors to enter the building. After your eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness, you noticed that you were in a long mine shaft with eerily glowing green supports. The mine shaft appeared to go on forever as your car sped rapidly down the long corridor. Then suddenly, the car made an abrupt right turn and crashed through the mine wall (another set of double doors). Now, you were in the first of two revolving barrel rooms. The motion of the barrel around the track was quite dizzying and convincing. Immediately at the end of the barrel was the first animated scene, an old, evil looking fisherman or pirate sitting at a long banquet table about to eat some rather unappetizing looking food. What was unusual about this scene was that the whole scene rocked back and forth like Kennywood's famed Noah's Ark attraction. The lights within the banquet scene suddenly went out with a large banging noise as the car made a quick left turn into the captain's quarters of a ship.

In earlier years, only large crates and a treasure chest opening and closing were located here. In later years, a large animated polar bear was located here as if ready to pounce on passersby (anything can happen in a traditional amusement park dark ride it seems!). Within this room, the cars made a quick right handed U-turn and then sped down a series of dark winding passageways. Another left handed U-turn, and a hideous lobster man appeared from no where. A quick right handed U-turn, and there was an outhouse with a skeleton sitting inside. He pulled the door closed as the lights went out again and the car followed another long dark hallway. At the end of the hallway, a hideous ghoul appeared to be floating towards the car straight towards you, but an abrupt right turn brought the car out of harm's way.

Again, the car crashes through a set of doors, and up over the door frame of the next set of doors was a skeleton with a paint brush and pail. The whole platform that he was sitting on suddenly rolled over as you passed underneath and the paint can's contents of fluorescent red paint appeared to be spilling out right on top of you! (Actually, it was just a red painted piece of canvas attached within the can that fell out to make it appear that the paint can was spilling.) Through the next set of doors, the cars found their way into a red, horizontally striped room. The red stripes on the walls, however, were on conveyor belts moving slowly downward which created the illusion that your car was rising in elevation. Another well done illusion by the ride's designers.

Another left handed U-turn placed the car into the second spinning barrel room, offering more dizzying illusions just after the moving wall room. At the end of the barrel, the next scene was aboard the deck of a ship at sea. A poor, unfortunate pirate was haplessly lashed to the ship's wheel, spinning in the same direction as the spinning barrel you were in which helped amplify the spinning illusion. As you approached the pirate when you exited the barrel, another right handed U-turn occurred and you were approaching what appeared to be the tentacles of a giant octopus underwater. As you came closer, the creature's monstrously deformed head appeared with a strange noise, and then the car whisked away in a quick left turn into an underwater graveyard room. Skeletons of dead fish hung from the ceiling and were painted on the room's walls while bubbling sounds echoed around you. A treasure chest sat on the sea floor where it was being guarded by some sea creature in the far corner of the room. The car made a left turn along the edge of the room as you entered the strobe lit mirror maze. This short, curved mirrored hallway ended very abruptly. At the end of the hallway, two skeletons in a row boat were rocking back and forth among the rocks. Another abrupt right turn, and you were face to face with a large dragon which blew its hot breath at you. Finally, another right turn and the car was headed down another hallway, this time with cracks of light ahead. You could make out what appeared to be the final doors and the exit to the ride. But separating you from the doors was a huge wall of water pouring down from the ceiling. Just when you thought that you would end up soaking wet before you got off the ride, the waterfall magically stopped, and only a few drops of water landed upon you as you crashed through the final set of doors and back onto Kennywood's midway. (A similarly great illusionary finale can be found today in Knoebel's famed Haunted House dark ride.)

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This article ©2000 Dave Hahner and NAPHA. Special thanks to NAPHA News for giving us permission to reprint this article.
All photos ©copyright, and generously provided by, Kennywood Archive; all used with permission.