Kennywood Visitors In For A "Whale" Of A Time This Summer

WEST MIFFLIN (KDKA) -- Saturday is opening day at Kennywood Park, but the amusement park is already a busy place.

Workers checked rides for safety, hosed down appliances, and put new faces on old favorites. They've also reconstructed the former entrance to Noah's Ark, that big whale that disappeared 20 years ago.

"The tongue is actually a lot longer than it was in the past," says park spokesman Nick Paradise.

He says the tongue is a 32-foot squishy carpet.

The first room is the crate room, with boxes with labels like "Dogs," "Apples," and even "Mosquitoes."

Referring to the Ark, Paradise indicated that Kennywood is built on nostalgia.

"Go back to 1936, go back to square one. We have a lot of animals, a lot more of those funhouse gags that make you jump. But laugh at yourself and have fun while you're doing it," he said.

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He enters the next room.

"A lot of people will remember, from decades previous, an updated version of the waterfall, the Hippo Room, as we call it," he said.

With a pair of parrots, and of course, pink flamingoes. He says the refurbished ark stays true to the original, with some exceptions.

"The one big difference is that the whale's tail is much more pronounced than it was in the past. "The animals are all new this time around," he added.

The new "animals" actually move. But Noah still shows the stress of hosting an entire world in a boat.

Nevertheless, visitors should have a whale of a time this summer.