Kennywood · US & Canada · typical hours 11 AM–9 PM
The one-minute version: be at the gate 30–45 minutes before opening and ride Steel Curtain first. Waits peak from late morning to mid-afternoon — do shows and meals then. The final hour is often as quiet as rope drop. There is no headline evening show, so the final operating hour is usually the quietest time to ride.
Not sold here: Kennywood sells no paid line-skip.
See today's live waits free Ready-made touring plans12 rides open, 9 closed · average posted wait 16 min, about typical for the park.
| Attraction | Posted wait |
|---|---|
| Ghostwood Estate: Open House 5 above typical | 35 min |
| Exterminator | 30 min |
| Steel Curtain | 25 min |
| Black Widow 10 above typical | 20 min |
| Jack Rabbit | 20 min |
| Kangaroo | 10 min |
| Phantom's Revenge | 10 min |
| Racer | 10 min |
| Sky Rocket | 10 min |
| Turtle 5 above typical | 10 min |
| Aero 360 | 5 min |
| SwingShot | 5 min |
Closed right now: Gingerbread Express, Noah’s Ark, Old Mill, Pittsburg* Plunge, Raging Rapids, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Experience, Spinvasion, Thunderbolt, thunderbolt.
Posted waits as of 1:55 AM park time, refreshed every few minutes. Posted waits are the park’s own figures via Queue-Times.com. Plan around them in the app →
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| Day | Park hours (local time) |
|---|---|
| Fri 23 Oct | 6 PM – 11 PM |
| Sat 24 Oct | 12 PM – 11 PM |
| Sun 25 Oct | 12 PM – 10 PM |
| Fri 30 Oct | 6 PM – 11 PM |
| Sat 31 Oct | 12 PM – 11 PM |
| Sun 1 Nov | 12 PM – 10 PM |
| Fri 13 Nov | 5 PM – 9 PM |
From the park’s published schedule. Hours change, and evening events can close the park to day guests early — check with the park before you go.
Queues here follow a predictable daily shape. Lines are shortest in the first hour and the last, and peak 3 PM–5 PM — that is the window to spend on shows, meals or indoor attractions rather than headliners.
Typical shape of a Kennywood day, shown as each hour's share of that day's own peak wait. Actual minutes vary by season and day of week — check today's live waits.
| Hour | Typical wait level |
|---|---|
| 11 AM | 30% of the day's peak |
| 12 PM | 49% of the day's peak |
| 1 PM | 73% of the day's peak |
| 2 PM | 91% of the day's peak |
| 3 PM | 99% of the day's peak |
| 4 PM | 99% of the day's peak |
| 5 PM | 87% of the day's peak |
| 6 PM | 68% of the day's peak |
| 7 PM | 46% of the day's peak |
| 8 PM | 30% of the day's peak |
Be at the gate 30–45 minutes before opening and ride in this order. Steel Curtain has the most downtime and the longest line when running; Phantom's Revenge follows.
The first hour is the cheapest capacity of the day — no pass, no fee, and typically the shortest waits you will see.
Red = busiest, green = quietest, grey = moderate.
Expect the year's longest waits during the summer holiday and Phantom Fall Fest weekends.
The best value for short lines is May and June weekdays and September weekends.
Scores are the crowd forecast, 1 to 10, averaged over the stretch. Visiting in a busy stretch anyway? Be at the gate before opening, and ride the big ones in the first hour and the last. Every day is scored on the crowd calendar.
Not sold here
Kennywood sells no paid line-skip. It is a compact historic park where arriving at opening and riding the classics first is the whole strategy.
Maben Parks shows every wait live with a "vs typical" marker, and your magical fairy will run the numbers for your party and date — including telling you to keep your money when the answer is no.
Check today's waits before you buyPlanning ahead? The free Kennywood crowd calendar scores every day for the next twelve months, 1 to 10 — no sign-up.
Median posted wait across the rides we track, on moderate days — the crowd level most visitors get. The shaded band is the middle half of readings at that hour.
Detected automatically from the live feed — each of these reported closed all day, every day, for at least three operating days. Observed through October 23, 2026.
| Attraction | Closed since | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Gingerbread Express | August 27, 2026 | 58 operating days |
| Pittsburg* Plunge | August 27, 2026 | 58 operating days |
| Raging Rapids | August 27, 2026 | 58 operating days |
| Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Experience | August 27, 2026 | 58 operating days |
| thunderbolt | August 27, 2026 | 58 operating days |
| Thunderbolt | September 15, 2026 | 39 operating days |
| Noah’s Ark | October 19, 2026 | 5 operating days |
| Old Mill | October 19, 2026 | 5 operating days |
| Spinvasion | October 20, 2026 | 4 operating days |
| Attraction | Was closed from | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Black Widow | September 29, 2026 | 3 operating days |
| Sky Rocket | September 29, 2026 | 3 operating days |
Generated from wait-feed observations, not an operator announcement: a long closure usually means refurbishment, but we report what the feed shows rather than guessing why. Always check the operator's own page before travelling for one specific ride.
Every wait we have recorded here, grouped by how busy the day turned out to be. The bold figure is the middle half of what we saw — a quarter of the time it was shorter, a quarter of the time longer. Read it against today’s crowd level to know whether the number on the sign is good or bad.
| Ride | Lightlevel 1 | Moderatelevel 3 | Busylevel 4 | Packedlevel 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steel Curtain | 5–105 typical | 10–1010 typical | 25–2525 typical | 30–7575 typical |
| Exterminator | 5–205 typical | 25–2525 typical | 30–3030 typical | 40–6565 typical |
| Ghostwood Estate: Open House | 5–105 typical | 30–3030 typical | 35–3535 typical | 10–6535 typical |
| Jack Rabbit | 5–55 typical | 10–1010 typical | 15–2020 typical | 20–4530 typical |
| Phantom's Revenge | 5–55 typical | 20–2020 typical | 10–1010 typical | 15–4545 typical |
| Black Widow | 5–105 typical | 20–2020 typical | 10–2020 typical | 15–4040 typical |
| Racer | 5–55 typical | 10–1010 typical | 10–1010 typical | 15–4030 typical |
| Old Mill | 5–55 typical | — | 5–3020 typical | 25–3535 typical |
| Turtle | 5–55 typical | 5–55 typical | 10–1010 typical | 5–3520 typical |
| Sky Rocket | 5–55 typical | 15–1515 typical | 10–1010 typical | 15–3020 typical |
| Thunderbolt | 5–55 typical | — | — | 20–3020 typical |
| Spinvasion | 5–55 typical | 5–55 typical | 5–155 typical | 5–2520 typical |
| Aero 360 | 5–55 typical | 5–55 typical | 5–55 typical | 10–1510 typical |
| Kangaroo | 5–55 typical | 5–55 typical | 10–1010 typical | 10–1515 typical |
| SwingShot | 5–55 typical | 10–1010 typical | 5–55 typical | 5–1515 typical |
Minutes of posted standby wait, from our own recorded snapshots — up to 27 days per figure. Cells stay blank until a ride has enough observations at that crowd level to be worth printing. Posted waits are what the park displays, which is not always what you queue.
Aim to be at the gate 30–45 minutes before the posted opening time of 11 AM. The first hour consistently has the day's shortest waits, and arriving even 45 minutes late typically costs you two headliners.
11 AM–12 PM and 8 PM–9 PM — the opening hour and the final hour of the operating day. Waits peak 3 PM–5 PM, so plan meals, shows and indoor attractions for that window.
Steel Curtain, then Phantom's Revenge and Thunderbolt. Steel Curtain has the most downtime and the longest line when running; Phantom's Revenge follows.
May, June and September — May and June weekdays and September weekends. Avoid July, August and October, when the summer holiday and Phantom Fall Fest weekends.
Kennywood sells no paid line-skip. It is a compact historic park where arriving at opening and riding the classics first is the whole strategy.