Dorney Park Voodoo 9.29.07 Update

Well, a lot has actually changed since just last week at the Voodoo construction site. Above, you can see that the area has been totally flattened out and the surveyors were by as there are wooden stake markers all over the site now.

A pan to the right of the above shot. You'll notice that Skyscraper's foundation is now totally removed.

You have to click on the above image to see what I'm talking about. They've spray painted all over the walkway in front of the patio for Monster Grill. This almost always means that this concrete is coming up. There is another large section marked off to the left of the above image as well. I'd expect changes to that entire area next summer.

A closer look at the straight line of markers now on the site.

This is the middle of the construction site. It doesn't show up in the picture but there are more markings on the midway here. It looks like some of the angled sections will be removed to push out the midway border further.

Cedar Fair haters can unite over the fact that they've removed some trees for the project. This is a view from the Laser side of the site.

This is the area directly behind Laser Refreshments. You can see some remains from Skyscraper's loading platform. What's interesting though is that the markers back here spread out almost into a big square. Perhaps this is where one of the coaster's spikes will be located?

The track for the ride. There's some new stuff that is covered in blue tarp. There were several employees working back here by the track today.

Finally, I noticed these today. They are now selling Voodoo refill souvenir cups. I like that it's a skull - that also works perfectly with Halloweekends.

That's it for this week!

Dorney Halloweekends 2007 Part 3

Here's the final part of the Halloweekends pictures.

As you can see Zephyr is closed. It's still wearing its pumpkin hat, though.

This just isn't the kind of stuff I expect to see at a property that has like $50 million+ a year in revenues. I don't get it. I really don't.

Scream Works is back as well.

The graveyard by Steel Force is back again as well. The organ player is there also, but it's not dressed up like the Steel Force guy.

Old prop, new location.

Okay maybe they didn't finish decorating, as this was taken the first weekend of the event. But this is a perfect example of the overall feel of the event this year. Just throwing the stuff from previous years around the park, and in this case with even less effort than past year (no alien props), does not cut it.

Boo Hill, back again.

Last photo - Camp Spooky and Mr. Snoopy himself.

I really, really hope that the park can grab some money to expand this event next year. Another year of repeating the same stuff will really start to kill this event.

Halloween Horror Nights Start Today

Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights start this evening!

I wish I was there. I can't wait for photos and reports to start to pop up!

That's all.

Behemoth Update

Canada's Wonderland has posted some new pictures of the work they've completed on Behemoth.

With that Talon color scheme, it's going to be a very visually impressive ride. Also, is it the angle of the photo or is the transfer track on a downward slope after the brakes?

Check out the pics on Canada's Wonderland's website.

Dorney Halloweekends 2007 Part 2

Here's the next part of my Dorney Park 2007 Halloweekends photo review.

Toilet skeleton is back. He's awesome.

Fright Zone is back as well. I do like the entrance, it is somewhat imposing.

A shot of the inside of part of the Fright Zone during the daytime.

The other hearse. With the birds.

The former ride graveyard is back again, along with the Hercules car.

They're crossing the Zephyr tracks!

I noticed these boxes in front of the display in the previous picture. They caught my eye because they look really old and authentic. I just made me curious as to where they came from.

Final part coming up soon.

Hershey Park 2008: Fahrenheit

What a busy day with announcements!

Hershey Park has announced their new Intamin coaster for 2008, Fahrenheit. Sorta a weird name if you ask me, but I'm sure in a week it'll sound perfectly normal.

The $12.1 million Intamin ride starts with a 121 ft. vertical lift, followed by a 97 degree drop at 58 mph. The 2,700 ft. long ride includes 6 inversions, including a Cobra Roll, two corkscrew elements, and a Norwegian loop.

The ride will have 3 trains, each seating 12 riders, for a hourly capacity of 850 riders. That means, get there when the park opens and ride first.

But wait there's more!

The park also announced Howler, a Wisdom Industries Tornado falt ride. This is not a picture of Hershey's, but here is a generic Tornado:

Lastly, they finally owed up to creating Nantimi as a viral marketing campaign. It certainly worked, the Nantimi website had 34,000 page views during the month that it was live. They did a really good job with that one. I followed the threads on several message boards about it, it was driving people crazy.

Here's a link to some official press releases, and a link to the Fahrenheit web page.

Holy Six Flags Announcements, Batman

Six Flags just made some massive announcements for their 2008 capital spending plan. Here's a breakdown. I'll try to put more details for each addition when I update the 2008 tracker page.

Great Adventure, New England, and Great America: The Dark Knight Coaster. A Mack indoor coaster that's themed to the Joker and Batman. Sounds interesting, depending no whether they are serious about the theming or not.

Fiesta Texas: Goliath. Bathman the Ride from Six Flags New Orleans, it will not be themed, and will have yellow supports and bright blue track.

Great Escape: Wiggles World, and a new waterslide in the water park.

Over Georgia: Thomas Town to replace Deja Vu, yes that's right Deja Vu is being removed.

Over Texas and Discovery Kingdom: The previously announced Tony Hawk coasters.

St. Louis: Evel Knievel - a GCI Wooden twister coaster.

Phew - that's quite a bit.

I'm by far the most interested in the Dark Knight coasters. Wish there was some art for these rides! Maybe it'll turn up later today.

Six Flags St. Louis New for 2008

Today Six Flags St. Louis announced Evel Kneivel, a new wooden roller coaster for the 2008 season.

The Great Coasters International ride will stand 82 feet tall and go 50 mph. The $7 million ride's two 24 passenger trains will travel over 2,700 feet of track.

The ride has some distinct similarities to Thunderbird, which opened at Powerland in Finland in 2006. You can see the layout of that ride on RCDB's page.

Here's a link to the official press release for Evil Knievel.

Tony Hawk @ Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Tony Hawk's Big Spin will also be added to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in 2008 as well. The coaster is the same as the other Tony Hawk clones.

It's officially being announced tomorrow, but the web page for the ride is already up.

Check it out.

Geauga Lake Rides in New Homes

It's sad that Geauga Lake is closing, but it's going to happen whether we like it or not. In that line of thinking, it is curiously fun to wonder where the park's rides will end up. Let me preface with the fact that I have no insider info, these are just guesses.

Beaver Land Mine Ride: Valleyfair! and Dorney Park are both ripe for this smaller family coaster. Yes, both have Wild Mice coasters for families, but I know many adults who are scared of those types of rides. This coaster is perfect for families to ride together with the younger kids.

Thunderhawk: Michigan's Adventure

Dominator: Kings Dominion

Head Spin: Vekoma Boomerang. This really only makes sense at Carowinds, and an even better idea is to sell it to a park outside the chain.

Big Dipper: Should be sold to a park outside Cedar Fair. Pray that someone will step up and purchase it.

Double Loop: Sell it off, or most likely, it'll be sold for scrap.

Raging Wolf Bobs: Highly doubt this will move anywhere but to a dump.

Villain: This one might be moved, but I doubt it. I'm sure it'll be listed for sale but no one will buy. I'd move it to Great America.

Yo Yo: Sell off or trash.

Time Warp: Does this work well? I thought these rides were operating nightmares. If it's been fixed to work regularly I'd drop it into Michigan's Adventure in a year or so.

Thriller Bees: Great America needs to beef up their flat ride selection. Perhaps it's a fit?

Texas Twister: Looks like it's Great America's new for 2008 attraction.

Starfish: Help with capacity at Kings Island? Maybe rethemed to their kids' area.

Skyscraper: Garbage pile.

Pirate's Flight: Give it back to Great Adventure? No, really, I actually think the cheesy nature of this ride makes it perfect for Cedar Point.

Merrie Oldies: Probably cannibalized to several park's existing antique car rides.

Hay Baler: Probably no where.

El Dorado: Many parks have been removing this type of ride ... can't imagine it being moved.

Americana: Considering the former Paramount Parks don't have Ferris Wheels, you could pretty much throw it anywhere.

Black Squid: Probably not moving anywhere.

Boardwalk Typhoon: Do Scramblers ever die? I'm sure if they do not wish to move it the ride could be sold.

Bounty: See Boardwalk Typhoon above.

Dodgems: Please for the love to god move these to Dorney Park!

Carousel: I think perhaps Michigan's Adventure's Carousel is a newer one. This one is a wonderful old, classic one. Perhaps swap them out and give it a better location at MIA.

Dino Island/Lego Racers: Bye!

Grizzly Run: Perhaps it can be used as parts for the chain's other rapids rides.

Pepse Plunge: The same place that Cedar Point's log flume went to.

Shipwreck Falls: Move it next door to the water park. For real, it makes sense.

Children's Rides: Perfect for a Camp Snoopy or Nick area at Michigan's Adventure. Also, Valleyfair! could use a revamp of their children's section as well.

Wild Adventures + Cypress Gardens Sold

Wild Adventures Theme Park has been sold to Herschend Family Entertainment and Cypress Gardens to Land South Holdings.

Hopefully Cypress Gardens will thrive under their new ownership. I think Wild Adventures will be the one to watch in the coming years. Herschend could do some amazing things with the property in the future.

Source.

Dorney Halloweekends 2007 Part 1

Here's a photo review of Dorney Park's Halloweekends 2007. Be warned, if you've been to the Halloweekends event last year, or the year before for that matter, this will all seem very familiar.

But wait! The scary fun starts before you even enter the park!

Welcome to Halloweekends.

There's a bunch of new signs up. I'm not 100% sure if they are new, but if they are, then they are the 2007 addition to Halloweekends.

More banners. I do like them though, they're nice.

Still the best Halloweekends prop at the park.

Doctor of Doom is back as well. It had a very small line both times I was there.

Cedar Freak Cannonball returns as well. It actually had a line during the day when the scary stuff isn't going on.

I suppose these are haunted versions of the water cannons.

Umm, pretty?

Always confused me why they put up the Creepy sign during Halloweekends. There's nothing added to the ride, right? I didn't even seen that old Journey to the Center of the Earth prop by the loading station anymore. I'll leave you with that though, why is it creepy?

More earth-shattering Halloweekends in part 2 comin' up.

25,000!

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to all the NewsPlusNotes readers.

As you can see, we've just hit 25,000 visitors since we started. Additionally, yesterday we hit record numbers due to our Voodoo coverage.

Thanks again!

Developers Salavating at Geauga Lake

The Plain Dealer has an article today about the different options being thrown around regarding the development of the former ride side of Geauga Lake.

The only big question is whether it will end up business and offices or residential. The article mentions "golf course communities" several times.

Cedar Fair already hired Colliers International to evaluate the land and the options for it. They need 60 days to do their report, then Cedar Fair will know how to market the land to potential buyers.

Sad.

Tony Hawk @ Six Flags Over Texas in 2008

Six Flags Over Texas will add a copy of their popular Tony Hawk's Big Spin roller coaster for 2008.

The $6.5 million ride will replace the park's Wildcatter free-fall ride. The Gerstlauer coaster is of the spinning variety, and it aimed more at teens and families.

According to this article in the Star-Telegram, the ride will be formally announced on Thursday by Six Flags, along with other additions to other parks.

My take? Yawn - why add a clone to Over Texas when Fiesta Texas just got the same ride this year?

Bye Bye Chiller!

As rumored, it looks like Batman and Robin: The Chiller at Six Flags Great Adventure is on its way out.

This thread at Theme Park Review has some nice pictures of it coming down from this past weekend.

That removal plus the former Freefall space is opening up quite an area of the park. I'm excited to see what they do with that space.

Geauga Lake Petition

Let yourself be heard...

I know that there is a good chance that a petition will not change the mind of anyone at Cedar Fair, but I'm trying to look at it another way.

The petition will certainly be read by them. At the very least you can voice what you think of their decision. Will it change anything? I don't know. Is it important to speak your peace? Yes.

Click here to go to the petition.

Voodoo Track at Dorney Park

These pictures really stink because of the sun, but they do show that Voodoo track has started to show up at Dorney Park.

Looks like station/launch pieces so far.

I hope the ride is formally announced this week. Until then, here is a better version of the logo.

Dorney Voodoo Construction Update 9.22.07

Okay here's the construction pictures as I promised.

This is taken from the patio area next to Monster Grill. As you can see, the area where Skyscraper was is pretty torn up.

Zoomed in view of same area. You can see that almost all of the remaining walkway and foundation from Skyscraper has been gutted. There's some flags as well, but I think those are just utility markers.

Also from the Monster Grill patio, you can see that behind the food stand is where they started to rip out the Zephyr train tracks. Also some little flags and spray paint on the grass back here.

And, more markings next to the patio area as well. This picture is pretty lame. I wonder if they killed all those pine trees they planted back here, or if they've moved them. I always assumed they were using that area almost as a tree farm.

A closer view of the backside of the construction area. The gray stones on the left are where the Zephyr tracks were.

Moving to the opposite side of the construction site. Not too exciting, I put this one in mostly to give perspective of what the overall area looks like.

A muddy mess if you ask me. I like how they 'parked' the bulldozers for the weekend.

Lastly, here is where the Zephyr is living right now. It's behind some of Laser. This was taken in between the backside of Laser and the bathrooms back there.

That's it for now. Next up, a Halloweekends update.

Dorney Park 2008 - Voodoo

Well, the park doesn't seem to mind making it official before its formally announced!

Cool logo! Quite a departure from other ride names and logos.

This one gives better quality to the logo. You can see that yellow, red, and purple are used, along with black.

Does that say something about the ride's colors? Well, probably.

I have plenty of construction pictures, but have 'life' things to take care of today - I'll get them up later tonight. Just wanted to get these up right away.

Why So Vague Still?

First off, apparently Geauga Lake's new name will be Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom. Uhh, okay, so the former park is 'presenting' the water park? Pick one. Geauga Lake. Wildwater Kingdom.

One makes sense, the other does not, and combining them does not fix the situation.

And why I wrote about being vague? Well, they said they're closing the ride side. Why not announce what rides are moving where? Why not make it clear if ANY rides are moving over, or not - to the water side, especially water rides that could work in a water park.

Does this failure count as a business write-off for Cedar Fair?

And then there's the question of what the land will be used for. Are they putting it on the market, or just some of it, perhaps? Keeping it for something like an indoor water park? How about a timeline, is this all going to happen this winter?

I suppose all this will become clear at some point. I just hate how Cedar Fair sits on so much. The cat's outta the bag already, just explain the rest.

They Killed Geauga Lake!

They really did it!

Just a waterpark in 2008!

Wow.

Look What Hershey has for Sale!

Want some wet/dry water slides? Well, head over to Rides4U and you can have Hershey Park's old ones!

Check out "Nick" 1-5 on this page, sadly no price quote though.

MGM Grand Adventures Rides Saved!

Almost out of nowhere, it now looks like two, maybe three, of the former rides from MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park in Las Vegas will be saved.

In central Fresno, California, work has just started on The Forest at Granite Park, a 10 acre entertainment park with 24 attractions.

The park will be part of The Village at Granite Park, a big development with everything from sports fields to restaurants and homes.

The above photo, © The Fresno Bee/Darrell Wong, shows dirt moving has begun on the amusement park. The park is to feature three roller coasters, one of which is the Lightning Bolt from the former MGM Theme Park.

Awesome! Glad that the ride will not end up as scrap. The article also mentions that they are going to add the former log flume from MGM Grand Adventures as well.

Now things get tricky. Here's the exactly quote that is confusing me: "The park also will house MGM Grand's log flume ride, which features two drops, and the nearby lazy river ride; a swing ride that launches...."

Are they talking about MGM's river rapids ride in that lazy river part? I'm not sure! How awesome would it be if all three rides ended up at the same park? Must do more research...
Here's a shot of The Village at Granite Park, where the park will be located. I just don't know how recent a picture this is:

Dorney Halloweekends Brochure 2005

Okay here's Dorney Park's Halloweekends brochure from 2005.

The brochure was back to having some more scary stuff in it in 2005.

I do like the inside of this one more than a lot of the others.

Holiday World New For 2008

Today Holiday World and Splashin' Safari announced its new for 2008 attraction, Kima Bay.

Kima Bay is a large water play structure, with a dumping bucket and 7 water slides attached to it. It's themed to monkeys playing, as Kima means Monkey in Swahili.

The attraction's area will also include new bathrooms and a Pepsi Oasis building, and will bring the total size of the water park to 25 acres.

I've heard this water park gets packed in the summer, an that must be true, as they already have a water play tower. You must need some serious capacity to add something so similar.

Check out Holiday World's site for all the details and more images.

Geauga Lake History

The Aurora Historical Society has a little write-up and a bunch of old photos and post cards from Geauga Lake's history.

The site promises a more detailed look at the park in the future - however - sadly it's seeming more and more like they'll have a lot more history to cover for Geauga after this winter.

Check it out.

Dorney Halloweekends Brochure 2004

Here is Dorney Park's Halloweekends brochure from 2004.

This was the last year the park got anything big new for Halloweekends. Yes, that stinks.



The two new haunted houses in 2004 were cool, but considering the big parks have upwards of 10 (or 13 at Knott's haunt) and 5 or so are new each year ... well now that it's 2007 I think it's time for a change.

Disney California Announcements Starting...

It may not big a huge deal, but apparently yesterday's announcement of the expansion of Disney's Grand Californian hotel in California is just the start of a string of huge announcements for the resort.

The hotel will add a wing in the circled area above, which will contain 200 regular hotel rooms and 50 Disney Vacation Club units. Blue Sky Disney also points out that this wing would be perfect for a rooftop viewing area for California Adventure's upcoming nightly water show.

Yesterday CEO Bob Iger also commented on a Carsland addition to California Adventure during a investor press conference call. I'd watch for big news about the California resort in the future.

Schlitterbahn Vacation Resort, KS

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Schlitterbahn Vacation Village in Kansas City, Kansas, was recently held to commemorate the start of construction on the project.

And what a project it is. Scheduled to open in 2009, the resort will feature a very innovative blend of accommodations, water park, resort, entertainment and shopping district, and overall vacation destination.

The $750 million project will use Schlitterbahn's Transportainment River System to move guests not only between water attractions, but also between their treehouse villas and more. The covered Riverwalk section will be themed and contain plenty of restaurant and shopping facilities.

Overall, it sounds like a winning combination. You can check out Schlitterbahn's press website for tons of concept art and press releases.

Dorney Halloweekends Brochure 2003

Continuing our approach to Dorney Park's 2007 Halloweekends, here is another of their past brochures - from 2003.

That car the park made was awesome. I'm glad they did some work to it and brought it back in recent years with new graphics and such. I remember for a while it was missing a tooth, because some dumb kid ripped it off.

This monster was cool, too. They had him on that temporary stage they had by Hercules with netting and nice lighting ... I don't remember seeing him last year though ... or maybe just his head is still used?

FunWorld Cedar Fair Article

Been meaning to post this for a while but kept forgetting. IAAPA's official monthly publication, Funworld Magazine, ran a three part series this summer about the challenges that the 'new' Cedar Fair faces - and what they're doing about them.

Plenty of comments from the CEO, CFO, and others make the article a must read. Plus it's ironic that the article, which chronicles the changes the company is making to better their future, ran while buyout rumors ran rampant.

Here's part 1, 2 and 3 of the article. Enjoy!

Dorney Halloweekends 1999 Brochure

Well ... this coming weekend starts Dorney Park's Halloweekends event for 2007. As my local park, I will obviously be attending to check things out.

What better way to look forward to the event than to look at its past. This week I'll post some older Halloweekends brochures.

Let's start with 1999:



Clearly a family oriented event back then, too. Nothing scary at all in this one.

Hard Rock Park Video

Myrtle Beach Online has continued their coverage of the work going on at Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, SC.

They recently visited the park for the addition of the final piece of track for the Led Zeppelin coaster. That and some views of the park are included in the video the paper put on their website.

They also ran a nice article on the park's CEO in yesterday's paper. It's worth checking out as well.

And, last but not least, they have an article about how a crane fell on Midnight Rider on Friday, which I guess explains why the track they put up last week is now missing in action.

Here's a link to all their coverage of the new park.

Geauga Lake + Michigan's Adv. Close Today

Well, the 2007 season is coming to an end today for Geauga Lake and Michigan's Adventure. The above pic is of Geauga Lake this morning.

I hope now that the park will be closed Cedar Fair will take action to clear these rumors about the future of the park ... or confirm them.

Kings Island Tomb Raider Ad + More

Big new attraction at Kings Island in 2002 was Tomb Raider the Ride. A big Huss Top Spin in a box with some high level theming, basically. The theming aspect always interested me. Now most of the theming doesn't work and some has already been removed. Sad.

Here's some of the original concept art:


At the 2003 THEA Awards the attraction won an achievement award for its design and production. Here's the list of individuals involved in the creation of the ride:

Paramount Parks Design + Entertainment
Anthony Esparza, Concept Creator/Show Director
Dean Sharits, Executive Producer
Tina Skees, Creative Development and Brand Alliances
Mark Gildersleeve, Art Director
Mike Foley, Master Planner
Genny Ryan, Graphics Lead
Philip Petty, Environmental Graphics
Bianca Rivera, Production Assistant
David Reitterer, Technical Director

Paramount Pictures
Chuck Myers, Studio Liaison

Viacom Consumer Products
Terri Helton, Brand Liaison

Creative Consultants
Colette Piceau, It Ain't Shakespeare, Show Writer
Stephan Martiniere, Ride concept Storyboards
Mick Reinman, Guest Experience Storyboards
Sevak Petrosian, Scenic Designer
Rob Pottorf, Music Composer
Dave DeVoss, Preshow Video Producer
Mark Romero, Environmental Graphics Consultant

Paramount's Kings Island
Tim Fisher, General Manager
Sam Adukiewicz, Design & Construction Manager
Jeff Gramke, Project engineer
Jill Mohr, Operations Manager
Ed Dangler, Ride Installation Coordination
Dave Focke, VP, Construction
Don Miller, VP Operations

Technifex, Inc.
Rock Hill, Show Producer
Monte Lunde, Producer
John Schedl, Project Manager
Jim sharits, Production Supervisor
Don Simon, special effects Lead
Risto Salo, special Effects engineer
Joe Star, Lloyd Harris, Special Effects Designers
Quin Blackburn, Kevin Larson, Mechanical Engineers
Kevin Mullen, Special effects Technician
Long Pham, Electrical Engineer
Terry Ratcliff, electronics Technician
Joe Ortiz, Show Systems Engineer/Programmer
Peter Kelly, Software Integrator
Paul Shozi, Design Integration
Dave Deshong, Special Effects Fabricator

Weber Group, Inc.
Don Weber, Principal Scenic Designer
Adam McIntyre, scenic Designer
Tom Weber, Project Manager
Dan Shehan, Scenic Install Manager
Katrina Johansen, Scenic Artist
Ellis Pate, Tom Phanerstil, Scenic Fabricators

RSL Commercial Architecture
R. Stanley Ladrick, Principal Architect
Anthony Ravagnani, Project Architect

Huss
Wilhelm Hundsdoerfer, Chief Engineer
Dominique Brunet, Engineering Director
Ray Dubois, Planning Director
Bob Dean, Sales Engineer

The Bakery
Andy Waterman, Soundtrack Director
James Fielding, Soundtrack Supervisor

Thorburn Associates Inc.
James Horn, Acoustician

Visual Terrain
Lisa Passamonte, Principal Lighting Designer
Jeremy Windle, Lighting Designer
Erin Powell, Assistant Lighting Designer
Francis Mempin, CAD Specialist

Candela Design
Bill Ellis, Lighting Fixture/Dimmer Procurement
Adrienne Klotz, Lighting Programmer

Performance Audio
Kevin Lewis, Audio Designer
Rich Smith, Mitch Mitchell, Designers

Anitech Systems
Steve McIntyre, Consultant/Supplier

Imagine That
Eric Berg, Dale Warmuarth, Consultants/Suppliers

Steven Schaeffer Associates
Mike Ciprian, Project Engineer
Greg Riley, Colleen Bush, Brad Rogers, Engineers

Herndon Engineering
Richard Herndon, Principal Engineer
Dave Shaffer, Mechanical Engineer
Arman Yosmali, HVAC Engineer
Thomas Poff, Electrical Engineer

Cost of Wisconsin
Rockwork Construction

Brunaman Brothers Construction
Mike Brunaman, Construction Manager
Jeff Reynolds, Site Superintendent

Rockwell
Philip Geering, Controls Engineer

Another Nantimi Puzzle

This image was all jumbled up on Nantimi's website. So I made sense of it, and, well, it's just a big mess of track.

Honestly, I can't wait to see if this view of the ride will be accurate once it's announced. That's a *lot* of swooping turns, dives, and such. But that hill on the left screams Intamin if you ask me. We'll see.

Aerial Antics: Fun From the Air

We all know that I love Windows Live Local. I've been up to my tricks again. Here's some stuff I found this time around:

SheiKra, Busch Gardens Africa

Perilous Plunge, Knott's Berry Farm

Patriot, Worlds of Fun

The Penguin's Blizzard River - Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom

Hurrican Harbor Water Park - Six Flags Great America

The Cyclone - Coney Island

Yankee Cannonball - Canobie Lake Park

Cedar Fair Financial Update

Last night the company put out a press release about their operating results up to the end of Labor Day.

Basically, there's no big news to share. Revenues are up slightly, and attendance is down on increased per-caps overall.

What does this mean: Simply put, less people are visiting but we're milking more money out of those that do, so we've made more money overall. It sorta keeps the investing community happy.

While that's fine, it can't last. You can't keep moving up soft drink prices much further to make up continued losses at the gate attendance-wise. I know they said that a lot of the attendance loss is from not giving out comp tickets like Paramount used to, and charging more for season passes thus selling less, but this is a multi-year issue.

I'd diversify and put even more energy into the resort/hotel side of things, and make it clear that they understand that the parks are mature and most won't see attendance growth of any real substance. It'll fluctuate each year but now it's time to use all those bodies that come out to visit in additional ways ... like hotel visits, entertainment, what about even outside dining?

Mr. Kinzel also spoke of Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland, saying that it'll cost $21 million (different than the ride's press info) and that this type of ride ("thrill ride") is "something we hope to introduce at the newly acquired parks over the next several years."

Start those Hyper rumors for the other former Paramount Parks now!

Hershey Park 2008

Degree, Cold, Extinguish, Hot

'One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn't the same...'

Why is cold in bold? At least they moved the announcement up a week. Less waiting yay!

Dorney Updated on Windows Live Local

The image of Dorney Park from the air on Windows Live Local has finally been updated! Still no Birds-Eye views, but it's better than the old image.

Looks like the photos were taken last fall during Halloweekends.

Click here to check it out.

Dorney Thunder Canyon Model

I just found on webshots that user drnickriviera has a whole bunch of photos of amusement park ride models that they have created. One of them happens to be Thunder Canyon at Dorney Park:

Pretty cool, eh?

I really dig this because I was obsessed with River Rapids rides, especially Dorney's, when I was much younger. I recently found all sorts of nerdy layout drawings and such of Dorney's that I did forever ago.

Here's a link to the user's album on webshots.

There's also some shots of models of Thunderhawk, and R.I.P., The Joker. Check it out!

Hong Kong Disneyland is 2 Today

Hong Kong Disneyland turns two today. The park is apparently still providing poor results, or at least lower than desired ones. Not surprising from a park that has Tiki Statues that shoot water listed as an 'attraction' on their map.

The park saw 5.2 million guests in its opening year, and while Disney has not made any number official, reports estimate that this past year it was around 4.8 million.

With Disney currently planning recovery attempts for many of its parks, especially California Adventure and Disney's Hollywood Studios, hopefully the Hong Kong park will have some interesting attractions added after Small World opens next year.

The image above is from the Hong Kong park's Halloween celebration. It sounds like they're going have some great stuff, including the Main Street Haunted Hotel, which sounds like a traditional haunted house - something I've never heard of at a Disney Park.

Forbes has a nice article on the status of the park and the official website has Halloween details.

Hard Rock Park Update

It's been a while, so let's check in on Hard Rock Park. It looks as though they've started to put the track and supports up for Midnight Rider, the park's Mine Train style roller coaster. They also have a nice decorative water tower there that'll be in between the ride and the restaurant next to it.

A lot has been going on in the image above. The front entrance plaza is paved and moving toward being finished. The entry area buildings are moving along quick, with many of the facades well under way. The Led Zeppelin coaster has started work again, now the helix after the mid-course brakes is finished and you can see the top of a flat spin sticking up as well.

Hard Rock Park has noted that they are redesigning their website this October, so that should be cool.

They're building Midnight Rider right now if you want to watch!

A Couple More Halloween Updates

Two more parks have made their Halloween info official recently, and here's a few things worth mentioning:

Halloween Haunt at Canada's Woderland is certainly not skimping on attractions this year. They are having nine, yes nine, Haunted Houses in 4 different scare zones. The park has their Haunt website up now, so you can check out all they will have to offer.

Knott's Berry Farm also updated their Halloween Haunt page with detailed information on their 13 Haunted Houses and 4 Scare Zones. The website also features some creepy animated looking monsters in close up photos. Check it out to get grossed out.

Huss King Kong Ride

Huss Rides revealed a new attraction they have ready to go on the market earlier this summer. Normally I wouldn't care, but it's this interesting King Kong themed ride.

24 passengers at a time will enter the ride vehicle, and then King Kong will pick it up and "shake" it. It will lift the vehicle up to the gorilla's head amid several special effects.

The ride is 40 ft. tall and handles 500 people an hour. Sadly, that capacity will restrict it from most large parks, but it'll be interesting to see if one turns up nonetheless.

The ride will be officially launched during this year's IAAPA trade show. It looks weird but sorta cool.

More Hershey Park 2008

Users at Theme Park Review have been plying along with Hershey's viral marketing campaign for their new coaster for a while now. Recently, they started to notice many changes to the nantimi website.

Well some tricky decoding later, the details of which I have not paid attention to, they got to a bunch of images that flash on the screen. After capturing them, they were posted for all to see. The above image is one of those, and appears to be the layout for the ride.

I added the red and I'm not sure I'm correct on parts of the ride. There's an area in there where it looks like track might be and I don't have any in that spot, so who knows.

Still, we have the vertical lift that was talked about, inversions a plenty including a Norwegian Loop a la Speed Monster, and the ride would fit nicely on the hill area that the Western slides were on.

I'm sure this will develop even more before the official announcement. Stay tuned.

Busch Entertainment Trademarks

So let's take a quick look at what Busch Entertainment Company has been trademarking lately. There's nothing huge here, so don't get your unannounced-extreme-new-ride hopes up quite yet.

They've trademarked what I can only assume will be names for attractions in Aquatica. For instance, for rides they have Bay of Play, Slippity Dippity, Racer Chaser, Zippity Zappity, Whanau Way, Wahalla Wave, Taumata Racer, Roa's Rapids, Kata's Kookaburra Cove, Dolphin Plunge, and Hooroo Run. They have a couple retail location names picked out; Sunnies'n'such and Beachies.

Now that's not very exciting. But this could be. They also have trademarked "Worlds of Discovery" under the filing 'Amusement Parks'.

So ... a new park? Or perhaps a new marketing name for all the parks Busch owns? Who knows?!

Oh wait ... I do. Won't be a mystery for long, though.

Herschend Wants Wild Adventures

According to this article in The Ledger from this past Saturday, Herschend Family Entertainment already has a bid in on Wild Adventures Theme Park.

If you don't know, Herschend Family Entertainment operates 17 properties in 7 states. These include Silver Dollar City Theme Park, Dollywood, Celebration City, two water parks, several dinner shows, showboats, caverns, and more.

The theme park properties are regularly regarded as some of the most diversified and beautiful parks in the country... well maybe minus Celebration City, but that's a young park.

The article says they bid $34.5 million for the park, but the auction isn't until the 25th so others could join the race as well.

I'm sure the park would have a fantastic future under Herschend.

Geauga Lake 2008?

Even ignoring all the ride removal gloom and doom - does anyone else think it's really bad that Geauga Lake does not have anything on their page about 2008 season passes?

The park closes for the year this weekend - I cannon imagine why they do not have stuff up about next year's passes, that is unless they have some important park-changing announcements to make before they could sell something like that.

It's looking more and more like the doom and gloom just may be true.

1992 Busch Gardens Williamsburg Brochure

New for 1992 - the infamous Drachen Fire roller coaster.


I rode Drachen Fire the next year, 1993, and it beat the sense out of my head while I was on it. The park is really beautiful though.

Wild Adventures + Cypress Gardens For Sale

Both Wild Adventures Theme Park and Cypress Gardens are for sale. There will be an auction for the parks on the 25th of this month. If you happen to have some extra cash laying around, the Florida property still start at $17.4 million and the Georgia property for $38.85 million.

Three hurricanes that hit Cypress Gardens in 2004 sent the operator of the parks into financial dismay. Unpaid insurance claims led to bankruptcy and now an auction has been scheduled.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Kent Buescher (current owner) purchase the parks again at the auction under a new company and try again.

The Ledger has the best article on the matter that I've seen.

More on Jungala

I watched the announcement video that Busch Gardens Tampa has on their website for Jungala. I didn't think the park released any good concept art, but there was some in the video so I did some screen caps.

Sadly, the park has Real or Windows Media player to pick from (how about neither?) to watch, so the quality is poor. I tried to fix up the grabs I took.

Cute logo - simple enough and will easily attract the families and children the area is meant to appeal to.

Here's a shot of the Tiger area. Looks pretty detailed.

Here's a shot of the Village area described in the press release. You can see the hang gliders going across the top of the area.

This is the climb and play structure. If done well, these can be cool. (see Disney parks)

A wide view of the area with the two rides and the play structure. You can see the free fall type ride in the background above the water fall. Also, the wires for the hang gliders.

A closer view of the free fall tower. I believe the video said it holds 14 rides at a time.

This is the load area of the free fall. It's located behind the water fall in a 35 ft. rock formation. This could be pretty cool.

That's all!

Busch Gardens Tampa 2008: Jungala

Today, Busch Gardens Tampa announced their new for 2008 attraction, Jungala.

Jungala is a new 4-acre land inside the Florida theme park. The area will be lush and tropical, and features a mixture of animal exhibits, family rides and attractions, food, and entertainment.

The animal attractions feature Bengal Tigers among many other, including Orangutans and Flying Foxes.
The section also features a zip-line ride that has three separate paths rides follow over the area. That and a ride that "launches guests up above a towering waterfall," which, seen above, looks sorta like a family version of the classic "Frog Hopper" with a waterfall behind it. Add to that a family play structure and interactive water area for the tots, and you've got some family fun.

The area will have a couple food options as well to round out the offerings. Busch Gardens Tampa has the press release on their website, and will have a replay of their announcement webcast available later.

Halloween Haunt at Kings Dominion

Ahh yes, another day, another Halloween Event announcement.

Today we have the Halloween Haunt at Kings Dominion. This one will feature 7 "all-new" Haunted Houses, and 4 Scare Zones. There will also be live entertainment as well as a slew of things for kids and families to do.

Like Scarowinds, they have a website with all the details. Check it out.

Uhh, What About Dorney's Halloweekends?

Here's an ad that's in the Amusement Today 2007 Golden Ticket Awards. Predictable as they come, I always glance at these to see the advertisements that all the parks purchase for the 'bonus section' the magazine has the awards in.

Cedar Fair has their usual one showing off their awards, but also has this Halloween themed one.

Notice anything? Look at the bottom where it talks about the other Cedar Fair parks and lists their Halloween events. Dorney Park is oddly missing from the list.

At first I thought, well, only parks with "Halloween Haunt" events are listed. Then no, because Cedar Point's Halloweekends are.

That list is literally every Cedar Fair park with a Halloween event aside from Dorney! Geauga Lake and Michigan's Adventure have no event, Great America has a kids one and this year will have one Haunted House.

But Dorney Park has several attractions and entertainment and was ignored from the list. What could it all mean?

Scarowinds 2007

Scarowinds' Halloween Haunt is bigger and more scary than ever before this fall. The Scarowinds website just went live today.

If you can keep up with all these elaborate Halloween events and want to know more about the 6 Haunted Houses, live shows, and other spooks that Scarowinds has cooked up, well, check out their site.

Remember Islands of Adventure Ads?

The original advertising campaign for Islands of Adventure took a lot of flack after the park opened for not making it clear enough that the new attraction was a theme park.

Well, I really liked those ads! They were a bit overly dramatic, but they were different and not all bubbly like Disney ads.

Anyway, I came across the one above and wanted to throw it on here.

Busch Gardens Africa 2007 Howl-O-Scream

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce to you the Death Jockey:


He will be your host at Busch Gardens Africa's 2007 Howl-O-Scream event. I wrote earlier that Busch Gardens was ramping up their event - and I wasn't kidding.

This year will feature six Haunted Houses, five Scare Zones, and three live shows. New Haunted Houses at the scare-fest include Catch Your Breath, Taste of Blood, and Radiation Alert 3-D!

Still want more info? Busch Gardens Africa made DeathJockey.com live today. It's got the complete details - and even a few scares.

Boardwalk Bullet Opens at Kemah's

© 2007 Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle

The Boardwalk Bullet opened at Kemah's this weekend to some mixed reviews from enthusiasts, but from very negative reviews from the owners of that house in the above photo.

Apparently, the owners would not sell to Kemah's and the city has no zoning restrictions, so there was no problem in building right by the house like that. The Houston Chronicle has a story about this and a hilarious video about the matter. You can see it here.

The owners were probably offered a ton of cash for that property and knew what was coming so I'm not sure I feel bad for them at all.

For reference the Bullet is a Gravity Group ride that's 92' tall and stretches over 3,200' of very twisted track.

Great America 1996 Brochure

Paramount's Great America's big new attraction for 1996 was the Drop Zone Stunt Tower. One of the type of freefall towers that have been getting quite a bit of attention lately.

I wanted to share this brochure as a throw back to the Paramount years, and how they did things. So here we go.






I didn't know that Great America's Drop Zone was the tallest in the world the year it opened. Ya gotta love the images of people with their hair all flying up and stuff.

One thing that Cedar Fair did right when taking over these parks was bringing back their ice skating show. Here you can see that they were promoting their Paramount on Ice: Blockbusters! ice show.

Here is a little treat. A press image thing the park had for promoting Drop Zone. It compares their former drop ride, The Edge, to the new Drop Zone. Pretty cool. It gives some pretty detailed statistics for the ride as well. Intamin freefall lover rejoice.