I never knew Opryland had standards!
Written: Jun 21 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: A couple of good coasters
Cons: Too many too list -- see full epinion
The Bottom Line: DON'T - REPEAT - DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY! Dirty, crowded, barely-open attractions in a poorly designed wanna-be theme park.
|
|
|
| HaggardFan's Full Review: Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom |
After watching a coaster special on a cable channel my husband and I were "jones-ing" to catch some G's on a coaster or two. With the closing and disassembling of Opryland here in Nashville we were left with the arduous task of finding the closest theme park.
My sister lives in Louisville and most of our relatives there have season passes to Ky. Kingdom so I thought this would be an excellent choice for a day of small-time coaster riding or so I thought.
My husband even initially suggested we spend both Saturday and Sunday there and I explained that seeing the park from the interstate before, it did not visually appear there were enough rides and interesting amusements in the park to fill two whole days. AND BOY WAS I RIGHT!
We used the family birthday party on Saturday as an excuse to visit Ky. Kingdom on Sunday (6/17/01). We chose a hotel (Executive Inn) right at the park entrance to be as close as possible on Sunday.
We arrived around 10:30AM (park opened at 10:00AM) and hadn't eaten breakfast thinking we would eat a meal in the park -- although expense -- it would be convenient and closer to the rides. WOW! We encountered a barely 15-year old employee sitting in an information booth that directed us to a Pizza Parlor and various other eateries around the park, completely helpful -- WRONG! We descended on the Pizza Parlor thinking one slice for breakfast would be fast and totally put us in true "theme park" mode. Upon opening the Pizza Parlor door we were instructed by another teenage employee that they didn't open until 12:00 Noon. And that was pretty much the same song and dance with every eatery we came to.
We finally decided that someone was maybe trying to tell us that the coasters would be so awesome to ride them first and then eat. So we did. I recall CHANG as the first coaster we rode and it was a fairly impressive ride (for those of you that are coaster addicts -- it wouldn't be -- we just rarely get to ride coasters). This continued until we finally were starving and by 12:00 Noon found a restaurant open and ate a $12.00 meal each.
Several of the rides had signs that stated, "Attraction not open today" or "Attraction not open, try again in a few hours". First off I want to know just what kind of THEME PARK puts signs up like that? It was then I realized that Opryland (however, cheesy) did have STANDARDS! When the park opened at 10:00AM -- EVERYTHING (including restaurants) was OPEN AT 10:00AM! Even the MAJORITY of KY. Kingdom's "state fair" type attractions (ring toss, etc.) had their garage type doors closed and locked -- NOT OPEN!
I also noticed while waiting in LONG lines that there were areas near the rides that were extremely dirty and large amounts of graffiti (including profanity) were written everywhere. Now I am as liberal as the next person -- and we don't have children -- but while standing on a staircase headed up toward the top landing to board a coaster, we actually overheard a small child ask their parent what the (F) word meant from reading the graffiti! Now, that's bad by anyone's standards! Not something I want to explain to a small child.
I will add insult to injury in this epinion by making myself feel really old saying... I don't think we ever saw an ADULT employee over 16 the entire day.
We added an extra hour to this non-sense by standing in line to see the "BATMAN" stage show! (oh! I'm excited!!) Words cannot describe how horrible this show was. There are not enough adjectives to put it into perspective for you. Bad timing on poor stunts, actors that appeared to not really want to be there and a tired, hot crowd that was made stand in line 10 minutes longer than they should have been. Basically the straw that broke our backs, we escaped to the car and headed south on I-65 to come back to drive down Briley Parkway to pay homage to our once cheesy, but always clean and smiling Opryland -- now Opry Mills SHOPPING MALL. May Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff and the Walbash Cannonball Rest in Peace.
To close, I was appalled at the amount of money we spent on admission, food, etc. only to find it in an unclean, unkempt, crowded, barely open, cheesy, wanna-be "THEME PARK".
Please folks DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. If you need that thrill of catching some G's this is not your place, if you need it close to Nashville, try Six Flags over GA - but NOT KY. KINGDOM.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
HaggardFan
|
|
Location: Nashville, Tennessee USA
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 26 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.