Time To Spin at Silverwood Theme Park

© Silverwood Theme Park

Silverwood Theme Park, located in Idaho, has announced that their new thrill ride, SpinCycle, will open to the public this Saturday, May 25th.

The massive spinning, inverting, 100 + foot tall ride has been testing while the park is open, and from that this video has appeared on YouTube.

SpinCycle starts off slowly, spinning the ride carriage as it goes, but once the speed picks up this ride means business!  Several full rotations take place, inverting riders as they spin at over 100 feet above the ground below.

While it certainly looks like SpinCycle is for the brave, or those with a strong stomach, perhaps, I'm sure it will have quite a line of eager riders.  Can't wait to see more video of this contraption once it is open!

Arnolds Park Renovates Their Famous Legend

© Arnolds Park

One of the oldest operating coasters in the world, the 13th oldest according to operator Arnolds Park, will be giving a significantly smoother ride this season.

The Iowa amusement park has spent a quarter million dollars to renovate and totally rebuild parts of the Legend coaster, with another 600 feet of track being replaced for the 2013 season.  A sign of how much a difference the retracking has made can be seen in the ride time being shortened by five to ten seconds - significant for a smaller ride like the Legend.

© Arnolds Park

In coming years the park plans to continue to renovations, eventually completing the whole ride.  The Legend was designed by John Miller and opened in 1927 according to the park. 

To celebrate the reopening of the smoother and faster Legend, Arnolds Park held a Maiden Voyage ride recently.  You can see photos of that event, plus some of this year's renovation at this link.  It is wonderful to see the park putting such time, effort, and cost into keeping a classic ride at its best!

From The Vault: Six Flags Over Texas 1997 Brochure

Let's take a look at Six Flags Over Texas' 1997 brochure!  The park had a big new paperweight, I mean roller coaster, that year - so things were pretty exciting for the park!

I know I called it a paperweight but I really like all the Premier launched coasters, so don't take my comment personally Mr. Freeze.  The new coaster was meant to open in 1997 at both Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St. Louis but technical problems held their openings back to 1998.

I almost skipped this panel at the thought of having to scan it in alone due to awkward brochure placement - but I'm glad I did not.  This sort of gives a nice introduction to the park in text form, something that is commonly skipped in older brochures.  Focus on the photos!  Also take notice of the advertising for the other Texas Six Flags parks, including Astroworld (aka Six Flags Houston per the text).  Sad face.

Remember when Six Flags parks had Batman Stunt Spectacular shows?  Yeah, that was pretty cool right?  I think it is a shame those went away, though most of the arenas built for them are still standing, just use for other (sometimes strange) purposes.  This section of the brochure shows off the shows on the left, stuff for the whole family (your female child may get to have a taco!!!) on the right, and some information on the park's giant new coaster in the center.

When they printed the brochure they were still hopeful for a "late spring" opening for Mr. Freeze.

It saddens me that even though the current Six Flags leadership is better than it has been in a while, the parks still go very light on theming new attractions.  I say that because Six Flags Over Texas was also home to The Right Stuff Mach 1 Adventure, a themed simulator experience, the same as the one I used to love at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Was the theming on the ride the most amazing, life altering thing in hindsight?  No - it wasn't - but it was pretty cool to hear the jet roar while in the queue, building anticipation of your flight, see the movie props around and wonder if the initials printed on the crate props were those of the designer.  Now it seems that the biggest new rides lack theming at all, or if they do it is generic or overtly non-specific (cough Full Throttle cough).  I miss that part of a regional theme park visit, and really only hold parks that once had it to that standard.

Okay I'll step off my soap box now.

I love this concept art!  And I also love how well the building turned out in reality, too.  Mr. Freeze utilizes a transfer track in the station to actually use two trains on a shuttle ride, a pretty neat trick.  This past season the coaster's train was turned around backwards and the tag Reverse Blast was added to the name.

Two other traditions that are still popular today - more than ever I believe - are shown on this page, too - Fright Fest and Holiday In The park.

New Legoland Florida Aerial Construction Photos

© Legoland Florida

With the opening date of the new World of Chima just announced a few days ago, Legoland Florida has also shared some fantastic aerial shots of the new area under construction.

Posted on the park's Pinterest page, the three aerial photos show that the area has made tons of progress since its announcement.  The layout for the new family water attraction, The Quest For CHI, is complete including the two buildings that will contain the "dark ride" portion of the Quest.  Granted the track and theming still needs to be completed, but that can come together pretty quickly.

The rest of the new land still needs work, but with the focus on the new water ride things should come together quickly here too.  If you compare the images to the concept art first released you can see where everything will be from the ride's entrance to the support for the giant floating island.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished product on this one!

New Hints at Schlitterbahn Kansas City's New Slide?

Insane Teaser from Schlitterbahn Waterparks on Vimeo.

It has been a while since we first heard that Schlitterbahn Kansas City was going to build a record breaking attraction for the 2013 season.  At that time, which was back in November, the park would only say that it would be the tallest Meg-A-Blaster slide in the world when it opens, but details would have to wait until the attraction opens.

The above teaser video was just released, which only gives us a few more hints in the form of some flashes of images - like this one:

While not a guarantee, one could definitely assume that this may be the ride's layout - an enormous drop into a big air-time hill, then a quick run-out to the finish.  Now just how high that first part may be will be the question we all have to wait to have answered!

There are some construction images in the video, so the ride is probably well underway at the park.  Tomorrow's airing of "Future Scream Machines" on The Travel Channel at 8 o'clock is said to feature the ride as well.  Interesting stuff!

PortAventura Opens Costa Caribe Expansion

PortAventura has opened their expansion to the Costa Caribe Aquatic Park, and it's no small expansion.  A major part of the resort's plan to become a well defined destination for Europe, the water park expansion is part of 70 million Euros that have been spent on the parks in the past three years.

The new area consists of several attractions, seen spread out above in a shot of the whole expansion.  The entire family was kept in mind when the park decided to build onto the water park, there's rides and slides from mild to wild in the new area.  The area represents an investment of over 10 million Euros alone, almost 13 million U.S. dollars.

The Costa Caribe Aquatic Park features a very large pool area for families, named Playa Paraiso.  The family pool is located one level higher than the children's pool, creating a waterfall when the two meet.  The pool is made for classic swimming and fun, but also relaxation - shallow water beds, complete with "invigorating water effects" like bubbles are incorporated.

Seen in the background of this photo is the children's area, Sesamo Beach.  It consists of two levels for even the smallest kids, and contains the Galeon Pirata, a large pirate ship filled with the Sesame Street characters along with four small slides.  For even smaller guests there's the Cayo Cookie area with water jets and colorful animals.

Thrill seekers will want to head right to this slide tower which hosts the "highest free fall slide in Europe," the King Khajuna.  The tower is 31 meters tall (102 feet) and drops riders down at a 55 degree angle.  The red slide next to it is named the Ciclon Tropical, complete with multiple large hills that riders encounter on the way down.  This slide starts from around 65 feet in the air, and is less intense than its larger yellow sibling.

Finally, Rapid Race is a six land mat racing slide - still quite popular in the industry - that will greatly increase overall capacity at the water park.  The riders race down the hills toward the finish line in order to see who arrives first.

PortAventura is certainly making good on their promise to continue to expand into a mega-resort.  There's speculation that more theme park expansions will take place in the near future, and I know I will be happy to watch them grow even further.