The Exterminator is a steel roller coaster located at Kennywood amusement park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The coaster was manufactured by Reverchon Industries.
The ride is heavily themed around the concept of the rider as a rat attempting to escape from exterminators. The concept is a pun of the term ''Wild Mouse", which describes this type of coaster, characterized by small cars (4 people/car for Exterminator) and sharp turns. Much of the theming takes place in the line for the ride, which includes such elaborate media as fake news broadcasts. The ride is very dark and unique, as the introduction says "unlike any ride you've rode before". Like other spinning wild mouse coasters, the cars face forwards for the first half of the ride, but are free to spin during the second half.
History
In September 1998, Kennywood officially announced the Exterminator as their sixth roller coaster and the park's first ever indoor coaster, complimenting the park's history of iconic dark rides. Described as "a subterranean roller coaster adventure", the tracks are fast, rough, include a few sudden falls, and end with a fast finale that includes flashing lights, and the car seemingly spinning out of control. The coaster itself would be created by French manufacturer Reverchon while the ride's storyline and theming were developed by R&R Creative Amusement Designs and the ride's four exterminator animatronics were designed by Sally Corporation. The Exterminator is also notable for being the first ride in Kennywood history to be built outside of the park's original boundaries.
The ride soft-opened on April 16, 1999 to media personnel and members of roller coaster enthusiast organizations such as the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) before officially opening to the public on April 18. When the attraction first opened, the exterior of the showbuilding was bare concrete until receiving a more detailed brick exterior with fake windows as well as a larger, three-dimensional entrance sign in 2000.
The ride is rather popular among park guests and is usually has one of the park's longest lines, being usually over an hour wait.
Since the ride's opening, some of its theming has deteriorated over time. The news broadcast pre-show that played in the queue line was deactivated some time in the late-2000's. Also, there was previously a pest control van parked outside of the ride's entrance. The van would play pre-recorded dispatches from a panicked team of exterminators over its radio. For unknown reasons, the van was moved to the park's storage lot where it was parked for many years but, as of 2023, it is no longer there. The four exterminator animatronics no longer move as much as they used to, though the audio lines from the animatronics are still operational.
When the park introduced their Speedy Pass virtual queue system in 2022, some of the props in the queue room were removed to make room for a separate line for guests using Speedy Pass. The same year the park began requiring that a maximum of two adults (one on each side of the car) can ride together, whereas previously it had always allowed up to four.
Ride experience
Queue
Riders enter the queue line through a concrete tunnel passing underneath the ride's logo. Turning right, the riders walk down a short ramp and then turn left into the main queue room themed to an underground electrical substation decorated with electrical cabinets, fuse boxes, gauges, and meters. A red button located on the far side of the room can be pushed by guests and after a certain number of pushes, it activates two sirens mounted to the ceiling which light up red and sound a loud buzzer.
In the earlier days of the attraction, a looping pre-show would be played on two TV monitors featuring emergency news broadcasts from the fictional WKIF news station. A news anchor would explain that 8-foot tall mutant rats had breached the underground utility tunnels beneath the fictional town of Kennyville and were causing many buildings to collapse due to damages in the foundations. It is reported that employees of the Kennyville Power Company that had been sent to investigate the situation have mysteriously gone missing and that a team of exterminators from a high-tech pest control company, Vermin Inc., were now being sent into the tunnels to kill the rats. The anchorman instructs the viewers to stay in their homes and only to evacuate if they feel tremors beneath the foundation.