Family Kingdom Myrtle Beach Trip Report

All set? All clear! 👌🏼 Aaron here bringing you a trip report and park review for Family Kingdom in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Located a few miles south of the Myrtle Beach boardwalk, family kingdom features 37 attractions, including 4 roller coasters and some classic rides like a Tilt-a-Whirl and Music Express. I attended the park with 2 family friends and we had a pretty good time.

The first thing I’d like to do is discuss each coaster in the park that we were able to ride, then flat rides we got on, and finally odds and ends where I discuss the park itself. Without further ado let’s dive into 2 of the 4 coasters at Family Kingdom.

Twist 'n' Shout, Family Kingdom's wild mouse

Swamp Fox (Park rating #1, overall #20):

Swamp Fox is a classic Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters wooden coaster with a double out and back figure 8 layout. My favorite feature of the ride is that it utilizes the buzz bar style restraints. These are my absolute favorite restraints on a wooden coaster and they allow Swamp Fox to provide excellent airtime. The ride features a few moment of floater airtime but also includes 3 airtime bumps that give great pops of ejector airtime. The final turn is taken at a high speed, relatively speaking, which provides decent laterals as well. While the ride itself is a bit on the short side, there was no wait when we were there and so we were able to walk on 4 out of our 5 rides. I was surprised at how well the ride was maintained, it was one of the smoother wooden coasters I have ridden. Swamp Fox is the marquee attraction at Family Kingdom and it serves this purpose well, as it is a very enjoyable coaster with tons of re-ride appeal.

Swamp Fox's ACE landmark sign

Twist-n-Shout (Park Rating #2, overall #33):

Twist-n-Shout is a pretty standard wild mouse with your typical layout of a few hairpin turns at the top followed by some small drops and more hairpin turns. This was, in my opinion, the worst wild mouse I have ridden. Aside from the awesome classic car style train, the ride was terrible. I was surprised at how rough the ride was, given how smooth Swamp Fox was. The hills after the first turn section provided no value as they gave no floater or ejector airtime. By far the worst aspect though is the way the train slams into the brake run. Instead of trimming to a lower speed the car abruptly stops. We rode it a second time, mainly because there were no other coasters aside from Swamp Fox to ride, and regretted it equally each time.

The 2 other coasters at Family Kingdom are kiddie coasters that adults cannot ride. I was hoping to get on them just for the credit but didn’t want to cause any issues for the ops. To be honest, the ride ops at the park are pretty listless and likely would have let me on.

Twist 'n' Shout's adorable train, the best part of the ride

While the park is certainly carried by Swamp Fox, they have a decent assortment of non-coasters. The park features a kids section as well with some quality rides if you have little ones. Their newest attraction, Vertigo, was not operating when I was there, and I chose to pass on a few other rides. It is a personal preference of mine to avoid fair rides or rides from less reputable companies and most of the high thrill level non-coasters at Family Kingdom are made by fair ride manufacturers. I thoroughly enjoyed most of the rides we did ride though.

Hurricane (Park rating #1, overall #12):

Hurricane is Family Kingdom’s music express and aside from the awkward talk track on it, it is a fun ride. It is one of the few music express models that I have ridden that still go backwards after the forward portion. This is the best part of the ride to me so I was glad to see they kept it.

Galleon (Park rating #2, overall #16):

Galleon is a small pirate ship style ride. Something I enjoy about going to small parks with limited coasters is that I can ride other rides I normally skip. Pirate Ships are an attraction I tend to forgo at major parks, so I was glad to ride this one. Despite the size, it offers some good floater air time if you ride either of the back rows. I might just have to start ridding these again at major parks, it was a lot of fun.

Dodgem Bumper Cars (Park rating #3, overall #19):

Bumper cars are another attraction I tend to skip. Despite the fact that I really like them, the wait times at most parks are not worth it. I could tell it was a while since I last rode bumper cars, as I could not figure out the seatbelt, though neither could most of the people on the ride. We were able to get on with no wait and I’m glad we did. While the island and making the cars all go 1 direction certainly takes away from the ride, we still had a good time. I love the antique car style design for these bumper cars as well.

Quite possibly the best bumper car style of all time

Log Flume (Park rating #4, overall #20):

Log Flume is a decent flume, especially for the space the park has. It features 2 drops, the 1st of which has a small air time hill before a splash down, which was a neat touch. The 2nd drop is a larger drop with a better splash down, getting you decently wet for a flume. Aside from the drops the ride meanders around a bit and without good theming these parts of the ride were relatively boring. It is a fine flume and refreshing on a hot day, but unspectacular.

The Log Flume as viewed from the station

Pistolero Roundup (Park rating #5, overall #23):

Pistolero Roundup is an interactive dark ride where you shoot targets. This was the shortest interactive dark ride I have ridden and it seemed to have some technical issues. Midway through the ride my gun stopped registering that it was hitting targets. It was decently maintained aside from that as the decorations inside the ride were in good shape. The theming in the station was also well done and well maintained.

Pistolero Roundup's station, the best themed station at the park

Antique Cars (Park rating #6, overall #28): The Antique Cars at Family Kingdom are my worst rated ride overall. The ride itself is boring as the cars do not have a gas pedal and you cannot steer them. I generally like these style of rides, but removing both driving elements makes it feel a bit pointless. Aside from not being fun, the course you navigate is in such bad disrepair it was actually sad. Many of the signs were broken or damaged. The paint was chipping off of much of the theming elements as well. The ride needs a serious overhaul and updating.

I would advise park goers to take advantage of the early bird special and get to the park between 3 PM and 4 PM on Saturday and Sunday, or 5 PM and 6 PM on weekdays to get a $30 ride all day wrist band. The ride all day band is typically $48, which is a bit steep in my opinion, but for $30 it is a good value.

Overall, I found Family Kingdom to be an enjoyable park to spend a few hours at. As a roller coaster enthusiast, their lack of quality roller coasters except for Swamp Fox kept my trip to only around 2 hours. I do enjoy riding flat rides and so going to a park like Family Kingdom with limited options for coasters gives me the opportunity to ride other rides. The park, aside from Antique Cars, is well maintained and the staff was decently friendly. They are a little bit lax in my opinion, as I watched multiple riders leave the station for Swamp Fox on their phones and no staff members said anything. For the most part though they were personable and seemed to enjoy talking to guests. Unless they make a major roller coaster addition I would say this is a park that you can attend every few years, though Swamp Fox might be worth a yearly visit if you are nearby.

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