T3 Roller Coaster at Kentucky Kingdom has been in operation since 1995. Designed and manufactured by Vekoma from their SLC line. This is a cult classic of a roller coaster. It is known to be a horrible mess of a coaster by enthusiasts. Yet it remains a very popular ride at the park. So is T3 as bad as advertised? Pretty much yes, but there are reasons it remains so popular at the park.
T3 Roller Coaster Experience
T3 Roller Coaster can be viewed pretty much anywhere in the park. It is tall enough that you can always find it and move towards it just from sight. Once you enter the queue line you will normally have a decent wait time. If not in the line switchbacks, then you will in the huge station. In the station, you can choose any of the rows you would like. Front for the visuals but we find the back gives the best ride. When it is your turn, you will sit down and get your shoulder harness restraint locked into place. Once the ride attendant has made sure you are safe the fun (?) begins.
T3 will go up a 101-foot lift hill. It will bank and fall to the right into an inversion. From here it will keep flipping you upside down a total of 5 times. Also with whippy lateral transitions will make up the course of the ride, and finally into the final break run. Once the coaster has come to a complete stop, they will unlock the restraints and you can exit the ride safely.
T3 Roller Coaster: The Good
From a visual standpoint, T3 looks great. It looks imposing from far away but the closer you get the more intimidating it becomes. The trains themselves look great and the whole red color scheme really pops.
T3 used to be called T2 when it first opened. At that time it had hard over-the-shoulder restraints. Which had the opposite effect of a Tylenol seeing as you were guaranteed to bump your head hard enough on the restraints to ensure a headache. When the coaster had a refurbishment in 2015 they added the much more comfortable, but still safe harness restraints.
The layout is wonderful. Each element comes fast and is very intense. Each inversion flows well from one to the next. Whoever designed the layout is to be commended. All of the coaster’s faults, which there are many, it isn’t the fault of the layout.
The Bad
The restraints are comfortable and the coaster has a great-looking layout which will lull you into a false sense of security. You will find yourself thinking that the rumors about how bad of a coaster this is are nonsense. You will be thinking that until the train hits the first inversion at the bottom of the lift hill. It is at this time that you will have a hard time processing what the heck is going on.
It feels like you are driving with a nervous teenager who has just recently gotten their driver’s permit. The coaster feels like it is going fast but at the same time, someone keeps tapping a break which makes it kick over and over again. You won’t see it from off-ride. POV’s don’t show it either. You need to ride this in order to truly experience what we are talking about.
This constant kicking makes it impossible to “enjoy” T3 in the way that was intended. No element actually works because of this uncomfortable kicking. So why does it do this? It might be from how the track was manufactured with small imperfections. Whatever the reason it is in our opinion that instead of working together the back and front of the train are in constant fighting with how the flow of motion. We have other theories like maybe the steel track on which the wheels sit should be bigger, but at the end of the day, we are just clueless as to the reason. We have never ridden any other coaster that has this issue.
Final Verdict
T3 Roller Coaster is a giant mess for Kentucky Kingdom. But this isn’t all bad. The park even pokes fun at this coaster. Also to their credit they have done everything they can to make it at least as good as it is going to get. They didn’t have to make it look pretty, or add the great new restraints but they did. While we don’t think that this is a good roller coaster there is something to be said about how bad it is, making it a fun experience. Like watching a cult classic movie such as Plan 9 from Outer Space. You won’t describe it as good but you will not be forgetting your experience that is for sure! Because of these reasons T3 Roller Coaster gets a three out of ten.
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