I love Mine Trains

I really do love mine trains a lot, and here is a nice detailed fact sheet for the River King Mine Train at Six Flags Over Mid-America, or Six Flags St. Louis if you prefer.

Really Loving Knott's Sierra Sidewinder

This ride looks great!


Over at themeparkreview user Top Thrill Dragster has posted a bunch of updated photos of Knott's Berry Farm's new coaster, Sierra Sidewiner.

I know I've said it before but I really hope this ride is a hit and Cedar Fair puts them in a bunch of their parks. I've love for Dorney to get one!

Click here to see all the update photos!

Dorney Park Podcast

Just noticed that the Lehigh Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau has a Podcast with Heather Kramer of Dorney Park.

There's nothing really earthshaking in the Podcast, but it's worth a listen. They cover what's new for 2007 and lots of other information about the amusement park.

You can check it out on LVC&VB's website.

Dorney Park 2007 Season Update #12

A week from today the park opens. So I suppose this might be the last update for the 2007 season. I'll have a park opening update as well.

First for this update, the park's 2007 billboard is up:

New Dorney logo minus Snoopy, and that 2-great-parks-for-the-price-of-1 logo again.

This area is done, I guess they planted grass and everything is set for the season.

As you can see, they have the slide pieces on most of Aqua Racer.

If you look close you can see that the two inner slides are the teal color. The two outer slides on each side are the dark blue. And the yellow seems to be used down at the bottom.

Another view. You can also see the teal slides in the middle in the larger version of this picture. They were (obviously) working today, a Saturday.

That's it! Next week the park will be open at this time!

Six Flags' Future

I was reading the written version of the slides that Six Flags presented yesterday on the SEC's website today. They cover a lot of stuff in there, some of it far more interesting than the rest.

Like this, for example. This is in the section where the break down how they plan to improve their food, merch, games, rentals, and such in the '07 season and beyond:

The Product and the Guest

o Reduced capital program

o Increased opex to fund labor initiatives, including those aimed at hiring, training, incentivizing, and retaining better guest-facing employees

o Focus is now on "software"

o Get back to theming

o Storytelling, storytelling, storytelling

o Make rides and retail initiatives experiential

That makes me happy to see those three things I bolded on the list. Those are traits of Warner Brothers Six Flags, which I miss greatly. I hope they mean it!

You Pick (still)

BUMP!

Okay I know a lot more than 23 people read this site, and that's the number who have voted.

I thank them greatly, but I'm really trying to keep NewsPlusNotes relevant to its readers! Please take a second and vote - I really appreciate it. Thanks!

Six Flags Sneaks out Some Numbers

Yesterday Six Flags let out some numbers regarding their first quarter 2007 results. Since this is such a key season for the company, the numbers are worth reading.

· First quarter revenues were up 16% over the 2006 period.

· Attendance is up 6% in the first quarter even with 10% less operating days.

· Per cap revenue is up 12% as well.

Now, those numbers all look really good. Thing is, only their biggest parks were open during the first quarter, so that skews things. With the bulk of their parks not factored in, it's sorta hard to start screaming that Six Flags is kickin' butt.

Still, it shows some signs that all the changes management have made might be paying off.

Great Escape Hit by Tornado

No not in that way!

The Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom's new attraction for 2007 is the Tornado water slide. Now common in water parks, the ride is a big "oooh" and "ahhhh" type of attraction.

The photo above is from the Times Union, which has an article today about the new ride.

You can click here to check it out.

They also say that the attraction is "the first new ride at the Great Escape in 10 years." So watch out, the fact checkers at this paper seem to have had yesterday off.

Worlds of Fun 2007 Brochure

I know that the park is already open, but I thought I'd share this anyway. Worlds of Fun never put it on their site so here we go:

They've adopted Cedar Point's slogan from last year: Ride On.

Nice, nice.

This reminds me of Dorney's brochure last year.

I'm so very jealous of how much expansion World's of Fun's Halloweekends event has seen in the past few years. They're up to 7 haunts! That's awesome.

Six Flags' New Commercials

VFXWorld has an interesting article covering the new Six Flags commercials and what went into creating them.

It's cool to see just how much it took to make the new spots. I've seen the Great Adventure one several times and must admit that it's very nice. If only the park were really like that, but I digress.

You can watch the Fiesta Texas version of this commercial on Six Flags' site!

Click to read the article on VFXWorld.

Kings Island is Open

Kings Island opened this past weekend. Of course Firehawk is not ready, but all in good time.

The above photo, taken this past weekend, is from user PKI ManJZ's photo trip report on ThemeParkReview.

There's a lot of great photos of changes to the park that Cedar Fair has made as well as FireHawk construction pictures.

You can click here to check it out.

1996 Paramount's Carowinds Brochure

Here is a scan of the 1996 Paramount's Carowinds brochure. New for 1996 was the Drop Zone Stunt Tower. And look, there's even concept art for it!

Days of Thunder is mentioned in here. I totally forgot that that simulator existed! And I never knew that their water park was know as RipTide Reef. You learn something new each day.

Dorney 2008 Updates

After the recent zoning meeting that Cedar Fair had with South Whitehall Township, the Morning Call has published two articles about the park's plans for 2008.

Let's just say that the cat is out of the bag for real at this point.

Article 1 and Article 2 have some information in them, but nothing that's really new.

The two articles are sorta the same, only one has a bunch of comments from online sites and such.

They do point out that Dorney still has one more approval to be granted until the ride is totally okay to be constructed.

The next step here seems like it'll probably be track pieces arriving at the park this summer.

Simpsons + Universal Theme Parks

I almost didn't want to believe it, even though it made sense, but the Simpsons really are replacing Back to the Future at both Universal Studios theme parks in the U.S.

The Orlando Sentinal broke the story today, and has a great article about the project.

The ride will involve passengers visiting Krusty Land, a new theme park in the land of the Simpsons. Riders will be the first to visit this cartoon theme park, along with the Simpsons characters, of course.

Canada's Wonderland 2007 Park Guide

Here is a copy of the 2007 Canada's Wonderland park guide map. I know the park isn't open yet but I got one anyway!

I wonder if the former Paramount parks will have Halloween events that are as intense as past years?

New shows and restaurants indeed.

The inside of the map. Click it for a really big version.

Dorney Park Fun Facts #10

Less than two weeks now and Dorney is open!

Dorney Park 2007 Season Update #11

I took a few pictures of AquaRacer before and after work today and thought it'd be nice to share them with the world. Here we go.

A nice wide view for you all. As construction workers do, they were working already at 7 this morning. You can see they've put up all the side and cross bracing for the supports as well as filled out the main tower.

Zooming in quite a bit, we can see those guys at work. Thanks for building our new slide guys! You can get better detail by clicking this pic, I left it pretty big for that reason.

Later that day...

We have the same shot, just with the sun in the opposite direction. As you can see, they put up some railing and that's where the obvious work ends. I'm sure they did something the rest of the day though.

This is from a different parking lot. It gives you an idea of how the slide sits in comparison to the speed slides.

Artistic shot of the day. Thankfully, that One Wa... er ... NewsPlusNotes sign was blocking the sun or we'd be in trouble. From this angle it looks like AquaRacer is up against the speed slides, but we know better than that. And you can play I Spy with Talon's Immelman in this pic as well.

More to come as soon as they build it!

Six Flags St. Louis' Big Spin Opens Tomorrow

Tomorrow's your chance to check out the new Tony Hawk Big Spin at Six Flags St. Louis.

Mr. Hawk himself will be donating 50 cents for each ride given by Big Spin tomorrow, all of which will be used toward a free community skate park in St. Louis.

So go ride for a good cause... or at least a fun cause?

The multimedia release can be read here, with a video and some pics.

Awesome Blog Alert

Q: Where on the web can you find treasures like this:

A: The Disney and More blog

I just found this and I personally think it's awesome. It's a growing collection of theme park art (Disney and others), links to videos, and other fantastic theme park stuff.

The concept art for a Nightmare Before Christmas ride (that was more a dream than actual plans of any sort) is one of the things the blog's author has dug up.

I strongly suggest taking some time to check this one out!

Gilroy Gardens Photo Tour

Over at themeparkreview, user speedracer has posted a wonderful photo trip report of Gilroy Gardens.

I can remember following this park from when they were trying to get it built and opened, and now it seems almost odd that it's part of the Cedar Fair family.

The place looks absolutely beautiful, and another plus is that it's home to a mine train, Quick Silver Express.

It's really worth checking out the photos if you want to see how beautiful a park can be!

Hard Rock Park Preview Center Photos

Now that the preview center is open, there are a ton of photos turning up online, like the one above.

There's far too much info to cover here, so click these two links and check it all out. There's much more to the park than I expected.

DiscoverMyrtleBeach

and

Tommy and James

Enjoy!

Knott's Sierra Sidewinder Update

Bear-ytales.net has recently relaunched and has some nice photos of Sierra Sidewinder under construction at Knott's Berry Farm.

I used to read Bear-ytales all the time and was sad when it went off-line. I'm glad it's back! Go check out the site, the link is just above.

Here an example shot that the site has:

Look how twisty the ride is! It looks like fun to be honest. I hope the ride is a hit and Cedar Fair plops them (or similar rides) down at their other parks!

Cedar Fair 2006 Annual Report

Just noticed that it's up on Cedar Fair's site.

Click here to go to their site and download it.

PARC Management Hires Advertising Co.

PARC Management has hired St. John & Partners as their new Ad Agency, according to the Jacksonville.com.

The ad agency will focis on the park's individual traits for their local markets, not attempt to make a national presence.

The article has some other details worth checking out.

Best of luck to them!

Dorney Park Fun Facts #9

Not sure, but it looks like 1996 if you ask me.

Six Flags New England is Open

Six Flags New England opened this weekend. The park made a bunch of changes, with the addition of Wiggles World and Thomas Town, which is currently a pile of dirt as seen above.

The picture is from SFNE Online, and if you click here you can go to their site and check out their opening day photo essay as well as a media day photo essay.

Dorney Park 2007 Season Update #10

Here we are again! Another week, another update. Let's start this week with Laser.


Both pictures can be clicked for much bigger versions, larger than normal actually, so you can get some detail.

I really don't know if anything has been painted. I put an arrow in the 2nd picture to show some supports that certainly seem to be a more 'fresh' color than the rest. But this could be my camera, the light at that moment, or a million other things.

As of right now, I really don't know if Laser is receiving work/paint or not.

Next up, the parking situation:


In the 1st picture, you can see that the house is totally gone now. They've put some stones on top of where it was. The 2nd picture is just to the left of where the house was, and over here they are clearing out some trees and stuff. I really like that no one has taken out the mailbox for the house yet. It looks silly and I like that.

Okay, and now AquaRacer:

They have got slide pieces in place! Or at least it looks like it. If they're not in place then they are very neatly laying in order. You can see the pieces start to curve upward in this pic.

Wider shot of the area. There's a good chance that by next update the whole tower will be up.

Here you can see the run out for the slides. Or at least that's what I'm thinking this is. The whole slide is positioned forward more than I expected.

Another view of the same. You can see more yellow pieces in this one though. I really am happy with the color choices.

That's all! Three weeks till the park opens kiddies!

Led Zeppelin The Ride Model Photos

Well, I guess we knew these would appear soon, just maybe not this soon. But, hey, cool!

Myrtle Beach Online had photographer Randall Hill out today to see the announcement of the ride by the park at their new preview center. These photos are, of course, © Myrtle Beach Online.

White track again, how awesome! Looks like big, straight first drop, loop, cobra roll, heartline, loop, 360 turn, mid-course brakes, flat spin, helix, station.

Looks impressive.

A look at the end of the ride. You've got the B&M turn-off-the-mid-course into the flat spin into the helix - all of which is nice traditional B&M design.

The article that came with the photos mentioned the ride is 4,000 feet long (I'm sure that's appx.) and 155 feet high, with 6 inversions.

All of the photos from today's announcement are at Myrtle Beach Online.