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.

Great America 2007 Park Guide Map

Here is the 2007 Park Guide Map for Great America.
How interesting that they used the Paramount logo minus the Paramount part for the guide.

Some nice entertainment for you and the family.

I've said it before, but good move with the wave pool. Everyone loves a wave pool.

Here's the map! It's a lot bigger if you click it.

Hard Rock Park's B&M

Obviously in my earlier post about the park when I assumed that Maximum RPM! was the B&M I was wrong.

This article, from U.S.A. today (click for link) says that the park will be announcing the details of their 150 ft tall Led Zeppelin themed coaster.

Judging from this concept art (No Limits, anyone?) it's safe to say that this is the B&M sitdown with speakers in the seats a la Hollywood Dream The Ride at Universal Studios Japan.

You never know with animations, but if these are the real colors then I'm loving it. I've always thought, just as my personal opinion, that white/light silver track on a B&M is fantastic looking. Like Pyrenees at Parque Espana.

Anyway, let's see what they announce today.

EDIT: So the park sent out a press release a bit ago, the ride is named Led Zeppelin - The Ride. They made the on-board audio system official, and the ride will play the band's "Whole Lotta Love."

Guests can see a model of the B&M ride as well as a video clip if they go to the visitor's center that opens the 18th.

Steel Force Construction Diary #10 - Final!

This will be the final in a series of posts that honored Steel Force's 10th anniversary, and oddly enough it ended up being the 10th in the series.

I had a bunch more before & afters to share, and that's right where we left off last time. So let's continue!

Always a nice shot - really 'framed' the park well when the ride was built.

Obligatory ferris wheel shot. I wish I had a newer one with Hydra instead of Hercules.

Like this one a lot. It really shows how they altered the landscape for the station area.

They really did remove a lot of trees for the helix. I understand why, but wouldn't it have been awesome if they left as many as possible? It would have been extra dark that first season before the go-karts went in below the helix.

Better shot of the hill before and after. Hi Hercules!

I'll leave you all with this final shot, taken at the end of the 1997 season. That's all I've got! I hope you enjoyed this series. I actually had fun going though these old photos.

Can't wait to give it a spin in a month!

5,000

Last night NewsPlusNotes hit 5,000 visitors. Good work me!

Thanks for reading!

PARC Management Not Wasting Time

The new owners of the 7 parks that Six Flags sold are not wasting time making the parks their own.

Look at Darien Lake's snazzy new logo! I like it a lot.
That's all of the page they have up so far for Darien Lake. The same is true for Wild Waves Theme Park.
The same is not true for Elitch Gardens, who's site is now live and has some content on it. (Probably because the park opens at the end of the month.)

You can check it out at Elitchgardens.com.

Apparently Elitch's is adding a bowl slide to the waterpark this season. It's on the park map, however, I can't see anything else about it on their site.

The sites for Frontier City and the water parks are still pretty much pages with park logos. Who knows if they'll run the parks well, but at least they hired a good graphic company!

Hard Rock Park Blueprint Image

I grabbed this image from the park's official site during a flash presentation thing about the place. I figured it wouldn't be of much help, but I blew it up some and put some labels on things that match up to the concept art I posted yesterday.

The "Mystery Red Coaster" is still something I cannot figure out. The "Mystery Green Coaster" doesn't even look like a ride on the blueprint, but that's because it looks to have water beneath it. The water can also be seen on the concept art.

Okay here it is!

Geauga Lake Article

The Daily Kent Stater- yes that's a newspaper name - has an article on Geauga Lake - which really just covers the same stuff that's been covered before.

You can read it online here.

While they did take the time to get some quotes from Bryan Edwards, the PR guy for Cedar Point and Geauga Lake, they also took the time to add some doom-and-gloom quotes from people about the park's demise.

They heavily quote the Mayor of Aurora, one Lynn McGill, who points out that she's not sure the park will "always be [t]here." I'm not sure that the Mayor of anything has the knowledge of the industry to comment. At all.

All in all, mostly opinion, little fact.

Hard Rock Park Information & Concept

With the preview center opening on the 18th, Hard Rock Park is releasing some more details of what they have planned for the place when it opens in 2006.

The park will have six themed areas:

• All Access Entry Plaza
• Rock & Roll Heaven (honoring the 'legends')
• British Invasion (London themed)
• Lost in the 70s (Indoor 'mall')
• Born in the U.S.A. (obvious)
• Cool Country (the South)

They also have named some specific rides and attractions:

• Maximum RPM! (Convertable car coaster w/on board music):
• Midnight Rider (Southern Rock Coaster going through old lumber mill):
Midnight Rider might also be this though:
• Renegade River Falls - children's water play area
• Garage Jam! - foam ball play area
• Roadies Stunt Show
• A large amphitheater

And some other rides that were not named like:
This green coaster that looks a lot like a Setpoint coaster, although it appears to have a vertical lift. I don't know.
There's also a kiddie coaster, Wave Swinger, another flat ride or two, and some nice looking buildings.

Myrtle Beach Online has an article covering all this, you can read it here.

The park had previously announced at last year's IAAPA show that they were using ride suppliers such as B&M, Premier Rides, Huss Rides, Vekoma Manf., Chance Morgan, and Sally Corp. (yay a dark ride!)

If you want to see a large (I mean it, it's 4mb) version of this art you can click here.

I want to try to follow this park as something about it has me interested. I'm sure there will be a ton of more info available once the preview center is open.

Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Opens

Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom opened this past weekend with a bunch of changes made to the park. There's a good thread with links to a lot of photos, like the one above taken by Nascarlvr987, on ThrillNetwork. You can see the thread by clicking here.

The new water ride, Deluge, is just a bunch of supports at this point. Apparently it wasn't just cold in PA this weekend, as it seems to have snowed a little at Kentucky Kingdom.

Great America 2007 Brochure

Here is Great America's 2007 brochure:

There's the 2-Parks logo! Yeah!

I know that all the rights for the ride names and such, like Top Gun, are up in the air, but I kinda hope they keep them all. I'd just hate to see Top Gun become "Jet Coaster" or something.

I'm also glad that they have added the wave pool this year. A water park really is lacking without one. That begs the question as to why Cedar Fair has let Valleyfair! lack one for so long.

Overall, I'd have to say that it's a good brochure!

Dorney Park 2007 Season Update #9

The park was busy getting ready for the season today when I took these pictures. The cars are back on a lot of rides, and everything is looking good. We're getting close, only one more month!

First off, AquaRacer. Slide pieces have arrived! You can see them all stacked up in this picture. I can make out dark blue and aqua pieces in this picture.

Another shot. Here you can also make out some bright yellow pieces. Interesting colors, I must say I like them. Can't wait to see how it goes together.

Here is a more general shot. You'll have to click it to really see what I mean, but I'm wondering what that lime green/yellow thing is. It's right next to the concrete block that's along the lazy river. I could be 1000% wrong but maybe that's the bottom of the slide?

Here's another overview shot. You can see Water Works, the AquaRacer slide pieces, and if you look through the trees, you can see the lime green/yellow thing I was talking about. And we can't forget about Talon's loop.

They were digging up the remains of the house when I went by. I guess they were taking out the foundations and such.

Last shot - I'm guessing at this point that whatever rumored improvements Laser might have been to get are not going to happen. Since it was a rumor though, perhaps it was never even planned at all.

I'll keep watching as I'm sure the slide will go up soon!

Canada's Wonderland 2007 Map

The 2007 Canada's Wonderland park map is now up on their website. You can click here to be taken to their map page.

It's cleaned up a little from last years, which IMO was pretty bad. It's still really far from good though. Not to be negative, but with a lot of the other former Paramount using Citigraph, who does a great job, Canada's Wonderland has a poor product by comparison.

Great America Really IS Open!

Thank you.

Dorney Park Season Pass Ad

This came a few days ago. There's a few things that Dorney nerds like myself would be interested in. Let's look.

Looks fancy. There's that new logo again.

Look at that in the box. How interesting that Capital BlueCross is sponsoring AquaRacer to the point of it being named that. I know that it hasn't literally gone through a name change, but I sorta like that sponsors are back in with the park like that.

This is in there too. Obviously the relationship with Capital BlueCross is pretty strong for this season. I like the online coupon as well.

Just for good measure, here's the Maxx pass info. I've got mine, do you?

Universal Orlando Posts Solid Year

The Universal Orlando Resort is technically owned and operated by Universal City Development Partners, LTD, and they recently filed their annual report with the SEC.

I was made aware of this through this article from FloridaToday.com, which details the resort's 2006 results.

Since I didn't know this company existed and owned and operated Univeral Orlando, I wanted to read this report and get the skinny. So I did. And here's some stuff I found:

· Universal City Development Partners (UCDP) ownes and operates the two theme parks and Citywalk. The on-property hotels are owned by UCF Hotel Venture. Talk about splitting up ownership of all that stuff.

· The company pays out a minimum of $4.6 million annually for the rights to various intellectual properties. (i.e. characters and themes)
~They have exclusivity East of the Mississippi for the Marvel characters.
~They have worldwide exclysivity for the Dr. Suess characters so long as Universal does not use them in more than 3 North American parks. How detailed, eh?
~They only have the right to use Dreamworks stuff (i.e. Shrek) that was created/released prior to Jan. 1st, 2006. So, don't look for any Shrek the Third updates this summer.
~They use Popeye and his gang from King Features and are the only ones in the US and Canada who can do so. This runs to 2019 and can be renewed so long as at least one Popeye attraction is at the park.

· 43% of '06 admissions were from US states outside of Florida, 31% were from other countries, and 26% of admissions were from Florida residents.

· In 2005 they spent $30.4 million on capital expenitures and $41.4 million in 2006. They estimate, however, that 2007 "including intellectual property rights, to be between $100 million to $120 million." And here's the kicker: "A large portion of this cost relates to the design and construction of multiple new attractions that are currently being negotiated that we anticipate opening during the next few years." Hello Harry Potter! Why else would they specifically mention that they are spending on property rights? And designing something big?

· Attendance at the two parks in 2002 was 10.4 million, 2003 was 10.6 million, 2004 was 12.1 million, 2005 was 10.8 and 2006 was 10.5 million.

· Revengs of the Mummy gave the resort record attendance in 2004.

Six Flags Great Adventure Opening Day

... was today! Why does this park open on a Tuesday? There must be some reason I am not aware of.


Regardless, AmusementPics has a big selection of photos, like the one above of the park. This is the first Wiggles World to open. The detail on the kiddie rides is more than I expected. I'm more interested in seeing how the Thomas Towns turn out.

Wiggle your way over there and check it out.

Dorney Park 2007 Season Update #8

Only two pictures this time, they were taken this past weekend on April 1st. No joke. (get it?)

The house is finally down! And what a nice new view of Steel Force there is to be had. I'm sure this will be all cleared out by next week. Unlike when the other building came down, there are no fantastic old bumper cars sticking out of the rubble.

Not much changed here. I can't tell from the picture but in person I thought I saw some really for real footers in there somewhere. I'm sure this will also go up really quick, like one weekend it will just be there.

The park opens in just over a month!

Michigan's Adventure 2007 Brochure

These pictures did not come out nicely. My apologies.

Hey where's the 2-Parks-in-1 logo?

Hey look it's the old logo sorta!

Uhh, still no 2-Parks-in-1 logo. Odd.

Sorry really blurry.

Why do I even include these back covers?

So yeah the logo that they used for the parks is not good enough for MIA, apparently. That's funny to me as MIA is 2-Parks-in-1 and probably has one of the better water parks in the chain.

Great America is Open Closed

Great America opened this past weekend as well.

However, if you go to their website, they are still closed for the season. The screen grab is from this morning, April 2nd.

This feels unacceptable.

Steel Force Construction Diary #9

Okay so the ride was done the last time we checked in. The ride opened on May 30th, 1997. It was quite a day to be at the park.

This was taken that day. I remember that they had VIPs or something that rode first and they had this little pretend fence up at the entrance to the ride's plaza. At something like one or two in the afternoon the crowd basically broke through and poof, the ride was open.

Now that we've covered the ride's construction, I have a bunch of before and after photos. There were more than I remembered, so here are a few and the rest will come later.

We all know it, but this picture really shows just how much the ride changed the park's skyline.

The lower part of the park was changed forever. This is looking at the employee entrance to the park.

Also at the lower part of the park by the employee entrance.

Okay that's all for now. In the last update in this series I'll have a bunch more before and after pictures.

Kings Dominion is Open

Kings Dominion opened for the season yesterday. There's a fantastic photo trip report (where the above photos are from) by 'cfc' that can be found here.

It has many photos of the park and, as seen above, some photos of the new stuff for 2007. Check it out!