Let Your Imagination Run “Wild” at Idlewild & Soak Zone

Looking to ride some iconic amusement park rides? Or maybe a place to cool down from the heat in the summer? How about a place you can take your kids and find that there’s endless amounts of things for them to do? There’s one place I know that fits the bill: Idlewild & Soak Zone in Ligonier, PA.

Now, I should mention, Idlewild is not technically a part of Pittsburgh, per se. It’s located in Ligonier, which is in Westmoreland County (which neighbors the county where Pittsburgh is located, Allegheny County). However, it’s quite a popular attraction for people from all over Western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh. So I thought to include it, and I may include other attractions that are not directly in Pittsburgh, but are still easily accessible from Pittsburgh, in future posts.

Idlewild & Soak Zone, also known as Idlewild Park or just Idlewild, is an amusement park that was opened in 1878 by the Mellon family, a wealthy and influential family that owns a vast amount of property in Western Pennsylvania. In 1983, it was purchased by the Kennywood Entertainment Company, which also owns Sandcastle Waterpark and Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh. This purchase led to expansions of the park, most notably Soak Zone, Idlewild’s waterpark. Idlewild is a place that’s very, very dear to my heart. While it’s a little over an hour away from the city of Pittsburgh, it’s only about 25 minutes from Johnstown, which is where I’m originally from. It’s very popular where I’m from, and I absolutely loved going there as a kid with family and friends. I went there often as a teenager as well, because my high school’s band used to do a private performance for our parents at Idlewild’s ball field every summer. We were able to do this because our band director was also the catering manager at Idlewild. A lot of my friends used to work at Idlewild as well. But anyway, I’m going to break down most of what Idlewild has to offer, based mainly on my own experience, because I’ve been there several times.

The most iconic area of the park is Olde Idlewild. This is my favorite area of the park because it just has a classic, theme park-like feel to it. It contains several of the park’s most popular rides, including the Wild Mouse and the Roll-O Coaster. The Roll-O Coaster was one of Idlewild’s first rides. It also contains classic theme park rides such as a Ferris wheel, a carousel, bumper cars, etc., as well as classic carnival games. The concessions stands in this part of the park are really good as well. Idlewild’s corn dogs are some of the best corn dogs you’ll ever have. The Hillside Theatre is also located here; this is where performances are held throughout the day, either put on by Idlewild or by local performance groups. Olde Idlewild is certainly fun for all ages.

If you’re going to the park with younger kids, you should definitely check out Raccoon Lagoon. It’s an area of the park designed explicitly for younger kids. They have rides that kids are sure to enjoy, such as go-karting or motorcycling in EXTREMELY small karts/bikes, and a teacup ride. You can also hop on or off the Loyalhanna Limited Railroad here, which is a quick way to get to or from Hootin’ Holler, another area of the park. This section of the park also contains a show and a ride based on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, a show on PBS Kids that was spun-off from one of my favorite childhood shows, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I’m sure most of you have heard of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, but depending on where you’re from, you may or may not know that it was made entirely in Pittsburgh. Fred Rogers, AKA Mister Rogers, grew up in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, only minutes away from Idlewild. As part of the Kennywood Entertainment Company purchasing the park in the 1980s, a Mister Rogers-themed ride was added, courtesy of Rogers and the teams at both Idlewild and his TV show. The ride involved riding a trolley around the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe”, and inviting the various characters you meet to a “Hug-and-Song Party”, a party for “hugging and singing.” The trolley would stop at each of the various buildings from the TV show, and the riders got to interact with the characters, who appeared in animatronic form as opposed to the TV show’s puppets. The characters were voiced by Rogers himself, who played most of the puppets in the show, as well as the show’s other puppeteers. The ride was first opened in 1989, and it was closed in 2013, ten years after Rogers’ death. This was one of my absolute favorite rides at the park growing up. It may be the one ride in the park that I’ve gone on the most, in fact. A lot of my friends really enjoyed this ride as well; in fact, just to reminisce, we even went on the ride as high schoolers during one of our performance days with the band. The ride was closed to make room for the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood ride. This ride has the same premise as the previous one, however the characters have been replaced with characters from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. The ride opened in 2015, and the area’s Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood stage show opened the previous summer. You can see a video of the original Mister Rogers version of the ride below; I won't be spoiling much by showing it to you since it's no longer there, but as I said, the Daniel Tiger version is set up almost the same way. Raccoon Lagoon is the best part of Idlewild for the kids and kids at heart.

Another area of the park is Hootin’ Holler. Hootin’ Holler is an Old West-themed area. One ride here is known as the Howler, and it allows you to control the speed of your car by spinning a wheel in the center. Another ride is known as Paul Bunyan’s Loggin’ Taboggan, and, as you may have already guessed, it’s a log flume ride. It’s not very big, so it’s great for young kids as well as older ones. It’s a great way to cool off even you didn’t bring your swimming gear for the water park. My mom and I used to wrap up our visits to Idlewild by riding Loggin’ Taboggan, since it would usually get really hot by late afternoon. Hootin’ Holler also contains Confusion Hill, a tour of a house containing several optical illusions as well as many other peculiar things. As I mentioned earlier, the Loyalhanna Limited Railroad stops in Hootin’ Holler as well. Time machines may not exist, but you can still travel back to the Old West just by visiting Hootin’ Holler.

Another area of the park that younger kids are sure to love is Story Book Forest. This area of the park doesn’t contain any rides, but it’s a great area nonetheless. It allows you to get immersed in your favorite fairy tales and nursery rhymes without even opening a book. You can check out buildings and structures from your favorite fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother’s house, and the Sword in the Stone. And you can also meet some of your favorite characters, from Little Red Riding Hood to Mother Goose herself. If you’re coming to Idlewild with young children and want to start off your day with something simple, I would definitely recommend coming here first. This is what my family and I always did when I was younger. This allows you to simply walk through and not worry about going on any rides or anything like that, and it only takes about 30-40 minutes to walk through the entire area. Story Book Forest is a great place to go if you’ve ever wanted to be transported into your favorite stories.

While Story Book Forest is probably the most “interactive” area of the park, Jumpin’ Jungle is probably the most “active” area. It’s basically a playground for kids. It contains ball pits, slides, jungle gyms, and more. And like Story Book Forest, it does not contain any rides. My recommendation is that you bring your kids to this area of the park last, which is what my family and I used to do. The reason being, your child is going to want to do a lot of running and moving around here, and if they do that too early in the day they may be too tired to enjoy the rest of the park. For a place for children to play and adults to relax, check out Jumpin’ Jungle.

Finally, we’ve come to the last main section of the park: Soak Zone. One thing that makes Idlewild different from its sister parks, Kennywood and Sandcastle, is that it contains both an amusement park and a water park. The Soak Zone waterpark contains two body slides, one tube slide, one mat slide, and one group raft slide. It also contains a tipping bucket, which is probably the best way to get soaked in the whole park. There’s also a lazy river called Float Away Bay. There’s a kid’s play area and a kid’s pool. And finally, there’s the Wowabunga Wave Pool. Previously, this was just a regular swimming pool, but it was converted into a wave pool in 2011. Soak Zone contains both beach chairs and cabanas that you can purchase, as well as lockers that you can rent for your personal belongings. Just like with its sister parks, Kennywood and Sandcastle, you can rent cabanas at Idlewild online. One of my best friends actually used to be a “cabana boy”, if you will, at Idlewild. Soak Zone is a great way to cool off at Idlewild. 

Now that I’ve covered all of the areas of the park, here’s some recommendations to know when planning to visit Idlewild. First of all, like I mentioned in my Sandcastle post, it’s definitely worth getting Season Passes to Idlewild. They get you lots of perks and discounts within the park. They also get you unlimited visits to the park throughout the season. Some of the perks include souvenir cups, meal deals, merchandise discounts, and free admission for your friends on certain days. They also get you free admission to Dutch Wonderland, an amusement park in Lancaster, PA, that is owned by Palace Entertainment, which co-owns Idlewild, Kennywood, and Sandcastle. They also get you admission to Kennywood and Sandcastle for only $15. And just like Sandcastle and Kennywood, Idlewild will be introducing the All-Season Dining Pass in 2018. You can redeem this pass for two combo meals and one snack per visit. Also, Idlewild is GREAT for groups. Many of the trips to Idlewild I’ve gone on have been with groups from school or daycare. Group visits are fun because you can hang out with a lot of close friends or family. Plus, a group ticket is less expensive than a general admission ticket. Some groups also get perks such as special dining passes. If you’re going to Idlewild with a group, it’s best to reserve a pavilion. You can split up for the day, and reconvene at your pavilion for a picnic. This is great for field trips, parties, and more. Plus, the pavilions have volleyball nets and basketball hoops to use as well. And with Halloween not too far away, it seems only appropriate to take about Hallowboo. Hallowboo is an annual event held every weekend throughout the month of October at Idlewild. Not every ride/attraction is open during Hallowboo. However, there are lots of Halloween-related events, such as specific shows, specific meals, and trick-or-treating through Story Book Forest. There are also events that only go on once during every Hallowboo weekend, so check out Idlewild’s website for the schedule of events. I’ve never been to Hallowboo, but what’s great about it is that it’s much cheaper than a regular season general admission ticket, plus you can go unlimited times with a Season Pass. Idlewild also has various other events that go on throughout the season, so check out the website for those as well.

If you and your kids looking for a day of fun a little ways outside of Pittsburgh, Idlewild & Soak Zone is the place to go with your friends, family, or groups.