More Voodoo Parts Arrive

© Myrtlebeachbum 2007

Myrtlebeachbum (Ron) took some photos of some new Voodoo parts that have arrived in Dorney Park's parking lot from Ohio.

Click here to go to see all the photos on his Flickr account.

Some Hard Rock Park Updates

© Janet Blackmon Morgan / The Sun News

Last week Hard Rock Park lifted their Statue of Liberty status into place at their new Hard Rock Arena. She's 20 feet tall and will be holding a Zippo lighter in her hand.

The park also announced today that their big secret dark ride will be called Nights in White Satin: The Trip, themed to the music of the Moody Blues. Little other info was released so I've yet to form an opinion on this one.

Tomorrow we'll know more when the park's new website goes live. There's supposed to be tons of detail, it should be cool!

P.S. - Happy Halloween!

Valleyfair!'s Wild Thing Press Folder

I decided that since I have them all, it'd be nice of me to post the three press kits from the announcements of the late 90s Cedar Fair hyper coasters. Yes, that would be Wild Thing, Steel Force, and Mamba.

Starting with the first Morgan ride, here's Valleyfair!'s Wild Thing - the unedited press release with associated images.

Valleyfair Announces Capital Expansion For the 1996 Season

Shakopee, MN - Valleyfair Family Amusement Park announced today that it will build a $9.5 million roller coaster to open in May of 1996. The coaster is the main focus of a $10.0 million capital expansion planned for the park next year.

The new steel roller coaster, Wild Thing, will be the largest project the park has ever undertaken, representing a capital expenditure of 1-1/2 times the original investment to build the park 20 years ago.

Designed by Morgan Manufacturing of California, Wild Thing will offer guests one of the longest and wildest rides in the world. With a track stretching over one mile in length, Wild Thing will reach speeds up to 74 mph during its three minute ride.

"Wild Thing offers everything you could want in a roller coaster. It's non-stop excitement with its unpredictable layout, tunnels, excellent pacing, high speeds, hills and steep drops," stated Randy Geisler, associate editor of At-The-Park magazine and past president of ACE (American Coaster Enthusiasts). "There's something happening every inch of this ride!"

The world-class roller coaster promises to deliver thrill after thrill throughout the entire ride. Located on the south side of the park, the track will be 5460 feet long. The coaster will go out along a straight line with a series of hills, the first one towering over 200 feet in the air. It banks into two seeping "S" curves traveling over the go-kart track at Challenge Park to near the main park entrance, before completing a 360 degree spiral. The return stretch features a number of smaller hills with covered tunnels. The ride also features a "weightless" zone at the crest of the second hill which is the longest low gravity section of any coaster in the world. Three trains, carrying 36 passengers each, give the coaster a ride capacity of 1700 guests per hour.

The term "hyper" coaster has been used by At-The-Park magazine editor, Allen Ambrosini, to describe coasters of this magnitude. Wild Thing joins an elite club, in which only four other coasters in the world are members.

According to Walt Wittmer, Valleyfair's general manager, "This world-class attraction reflects our commitment to our guests to provide the finest, most exciting rides available. It also reinforces Valleyfair's image as a major player in the theme park entertainment industry.

Valleyfair is owned and operated by Cedar Fair, L.P. which also owns Cedar point in Sandusky, Ohio, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentwon, Pennsylvania, and Worlds of Fun & Oceans of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri.

Great America's Firefall

Reader RJ was kind enough to send us this picture of California's Great America's new Top Spin, Firefall.

As you can see, it's Geauga Lake's former Top Spin, Texas Tornado. At least that new paint job they gave it won't go to waste...

Thanks RJ!

Behemoth = Impressive

© Sportacus

User Sportacus at CWMania has some recent pictures of Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland - and it's looking quite impressive.

I'm still loving the Talon paint job, and talk about changing a park's skyline. It's like back in the Wild Thing/Steel Force/Mamba days. Cool!

DCA's Superstar Limo + Monsters Inc.

With such massive expansion plans now public, let's look back at one of the many early failures at Disney's California Adventure: Superstar Limo and the park's eventual fix for the ride, Monster's Inc.

Here is Superstar Limo:


And here is Monsters Inc: Mike and Sulley to the Rescue:


I'd say it's quite an improvement.

Dorney Park 2007 Closing Weekend Update

Stopped by the park on Saturday the 27th to visit the park for the last time of the 2007 season. I wanted to visit the park at night one last time, so there aren't really any good Voodoo pics.

First, a question. The above picture (sorry so dark) is of a Vulture thing that's on the rocks behind the Cedar Freak Cannonball station. Does anyone know where it's from? Perhaps it was bought for Halloweekends, but something tells me it's a recycled prop. Anyone know?

The park had a nice crowd on Saturday night. The line for Scream Works started way back in the middle of the photo above.

Night time Voodoo shots! Really though, very little was different anyway. They started to take down the green stuff on the fence by the entrance road and it looked like they cleared out a little more dirt where the Zephyr tracks were.

Similar view. Looks like we won't get to see a lot of the construction, I will of course take some pics from outside the park once steel goes up.

I also took some time last night to get some night photos. I like the way this photo of the entrance to the Fright Zone turned out. I kinda tried to make the big version sized like a desktop - not that I think it's that awesome but it could be cool I suppose.

The Dominator sign looks trippy. I just realized that hardly anyone is mentioning where the former Geauga Lake, soon to be Kings Dominion ride got its name from. Credit where it's due!

Another one from the other side. I didn't make this one big because my camera put and ugly line or two though it. I'll be replacing the camera this off season for sure, I'm sick of my current one.

Let's end with a picture of yellow glowing Dominator.

That's it for me!

By the by, if anyone ever wants any larger images of any that I've had this season just e-mail me, I'll gladly send them.

Noah's Arc 4-D Dive In Theater

I had no idea this opened this past summer until In Park Magazine had an article about it in their current issue. (Very good magazine, btw)

Noah's Arc - a massive water park in the Wisconsin Dells, opened a new 4-D theater at their water park this summer.

Being a water park, the theater was aptly named Noah's 4-D Dive In Theater, and is currently showing the Spongebob Squarepants movie that can be seen at many amusement and theme parks.

There's a catch though. Noah's Arc was not happy to just add a building and show the show with it's traditional 4-D effects, no, they decided to take it up a notch.

This desire led to them adding 9 different special effects in the theater to entertain guests. The $2 million investment needed to represent it's location in a water park, so some changes were made to the normal effects.
Many 4-D theaters use water effects to entertain guests, Noah's Arc took the opportunity to try to soak their guests. In addition to the seat sprays, and over head mist effects, both of which were increased in use, Noah's decided to actually add two gigantic water bombs in the front of the theater.

Other effects, such as wind, bubbles, and lightning are also used to create the 4-D theater.

Noah's Arc has really been on the cutting edge of showing that 'non-traditional' rides can work in a water park. For instance, they have a Chute-the-Chutes, and a themed attraction - Noah's Incredible Adventure - A Vekoma Mad House.

The 4-D theater sounds like another hit for the property. It pumps though 700 guests an hour while showing the 12 minute film.

For more information you can check out Noah's Arc's page for the ride.

Disney's Hollywood Studios Article

Reader Randy was nice enough to forward me an article about Disney's Hollywood Studios, which was published by the Orlando Sentinel in one of their tourism blogs.

Shedding more light on the choice of logo, the article says, "The logo replaces the MGM lion logo that has graced Disney-MGM Studios since it opened in 1989. "Mickey still plays a prominent role for us," said Studios vice president Michael O'Grattan, "and Hollywood now truly is our middle name."

Above is a picture, © the Orlando Sentinel, showing the current construction status of Toy Story Mania, new next year at the park.

Let's hope for more announcements in the near future!

Disney's Hollywood Studios Logo

Not bad, not bad.

Sorta a mix between old style lettering in the former logo and name and an updated version through a modern yet classic color choice.

There's something off with Mickey though... can't put my finger on it.

Dollywood's Splash Country 2008

Miss Dolly has announced her new addition to Dollywood's Splash Country water park for 2008 - SwiftWater Run.

The $1 Million investment will be a tubing bowl slide, popular at many water parks these days. Dolly says that more details won't be available until May, though.

I'm sure it's a Proslide and I'm sure it'll be fun.

Here's the release.

That's Not Dominator!

Take notice of the photo that is on this page:

Whoops!

California's Great America 2008 + 2009

Great America announced today that they are changing their name to California's Great America starting in 2008. Cedar Fair will spend $14 million on the property over the next two years.

They also announced Firefall and a new Ice Skating show for 2008.

Firefall will be made by Huss, and while not mentioned in the press release, sounds like it is indeed the Top Spin from Geauga Lake. Surprisingly, Firefall will feature fire and water effects, a very non-Cedar Fair move if I must say. I suppose they still had Kings Dominions Firefall's plans laying around.

The park will also stay open until 10 pm most days next summer.

The big news is the park's early announcement of their 2009 addition. They're adding a Great Coasters International wooden coaster. Standing 104 ft. tall and going 52 m.p.h., the ride sounds pretty similar to Renegade - which is awesome.

I'd like to take a moment to point out that I actually let it slip that this coaster was on the way in this post. You're all welcome!

Anyway, I have a feeling this two year announcement is the next step in Cedar Fair's plan regarding that 49ers stadium. We'll see.

Official press release.

More Nick Universe Photos

User cwsr has a gallery up on WebShots of the construction going on at Nick Universe at the Mall of America, too.

Their photos include some of new ads that have gone up around the park that features some concept art for new rides. Like this:

of Avatar Air Bender, which is said to be an Intamin Half Pipe ride.

And this:
Spongebob Squarepants Rock Bottom Plunge - a Gerstlauer EuroFighter roller coaster.

You can see all the pictures from cwsr on WebShots.

Interesting Renegade Pictures

One of our readers, Chris, sent me some cool views of Renegade at Valleyfair!.

Talk about beautiful, huh?

It looks like it's just sitting out on the side of some woods in a field. The angle of these shots is pretty neat.

Thanks again to Chris for sending the pics.

If you have something to share e-mail me!

Kings Dominion Announces Dominator

Today Kings Dominion announced Dominator, their new for 2008 roller coaster.

I'd have added a spiffy graphic or two when covering this, but Kings Dominion went ghetto style and put out a press release and that's it. Perhaps this was a rushed announcement to help season pass sales?

At this point I guess I'm glad that Voodoo got a new name. With Thunderhawk and Dominator being moved without name changes, and Thunderhawk not even getting painted, Voodoo seems to be coming out on top of the heap.

Anyway, you can read the semi-short and not super detailed press release on Kings Dominions' website.

Hong Kong Disneyland Halloween = Cool

What a cool commercial, eh?

TDL Fan has some great pictures of the event as well.

Nick Universe Construction Update

The transformation of the former Camp Snoopy theme park at the Mall of America into Nickelodeon Universe is moving right along.

Valleyfair Zone has some construction pictures up that are worth a peek. They've already started footers for several of the new attractions, such as the Gerstlauer Eurofighter roller coaster.

The Biggest X-Mas Tree in the World!

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom just put out a press release that details their plans to have the "biggest Christmas Tree in the world" this holiday season.

Seriously, they're saying that the tree will stand 125' tall. That's pretty insane for a Christmas tree.

Last year we got a 10 footer and thought it wouldn't fit in the living room!

You can read about the park's plans for Christmas craziness yourself here.

California's Great America

© Theme Park Village

Theme Park Village has a photo update from California's Great America - yes, that appears to be their new name.

I believe ScreamScape published that before but it sounded wacky to me. Like that many people confuse it with the Six Flags' Great America?

I still think pushing Knott's as a brand and using Knott's Great America would have been better but I'm sure they have their reasons. Like in case they bullzone it. Ha.

Theme Park Village also has lots of photos of some Halloween decorations and of the park's Carnevil haunted house - even though their Haunt event won't officially start until next year.

Check it out!

Dorney Park 10.20.07 Update

Here are some pictures from October 20th, 2007. There's not much happening as far as Voodoo construction, so there are some general park photos as well.

Voodoo construction site. Not much different here.

Closer view.

One more. I also noticed that almost all of the construction vehicles are gone from the site now.

There were no new track pieces so there's no new pictures of that either.

The Ghoul Bus is back as well. It has some cute characters on it this year. Does anyone else think that this part of the park would be perfect for a 2nd scare zone?

Thunder Creek Mountain is already having its winter maintenance performed. The lift has its belts removed and there is some scaffolding up at the top of the lift.

Same with White Water Landing. The very bottom piece of the drop has been removed.

I didn't notice this before, but I thought it was cool that they put a pink and blue coffin on Coasters to match the cars out front.

That's it for this week - next week is the last weekend of the season!

Don't forget to vote for NewsPlusNotes in the 2007 Coaster Web Poll.

Undated Knott's Berry Farm Brochure

I'm not sure what year this is from, but if I had to take a guess I'd say early nineties. Boomerang is in one of the photos, and that was added in 1990.

There's the Sky Jump on the Sky Cabin tower with a cool looking paint job.

Lots of nice shots of the park's attractions. Notice the emphasis not on steel rides, but on other attractions and such.

If anyone knows the years of this let me know!

Zoombezi Bay Construction Update

One of our readers, Nick, was nice enough to send a couple of pictures of the construction going on at Zambezi Bay water park that's being built at the Columbus Zoo for next summer.

As you can see the area is pretty torn up. There's some buildings going up though, and you can see a lot of poured concrete in the middle there.

Now that's a slide tower! Looks like fun, eh? That looks rather tall as well.

You can see more of Nick's pictures by following this link.

Thanks again to Nick, and remember if you have something to contribute feel free!

More on Disney's California Adventure

© O.C. Register 2007

Now that a day has passed since the announcement, there's lots more goodies online to peek at regarding the expansion of Disney's California Adventure theme park.

Above is a good graphic from the O.C. Register that shows where the expansions are taking place.

Here is a link to a post on the MiceChat boards that has a tons of screen caps from the video that was on Disneyland cast member TV. It's like a gold mine of concept art.

The new entry plaza looks amazing, and I'm really excited for the Little Mermaid ride - a 'traditional' dark ride will serve the park very well.

Vote for NewsPlusNotes!

Coasterdom is running the 2007 Coaster Web Awards, and NewsPlusNotes has been nominated for "Best Blog."

If you feel similarly, or don't, please head on over to their site to vote in the poll. There's a lot of good categories to express your opinion in regardless.

Here's a direct link to the voting. Many thanks!

Disney's California Adventure Expansion

So today Disney officially announced their $1.1 Billion 'extreme makeover' for their California Adventure theme park next to Disneyland in California.

Here's a break down of what is new, some Disney's concept art for each. All images are © Disney.

Cars Land


The expansion will culminate with an entirely new, 12-acre addition: Cars Land, immersing guests into a world inspired by the hit Disney/Pixar movie, Cars, playing to America's love affair with automobiles.

Radiator Springs Racers, a major "E-ticket" attraction, places guests right in the middle of the amazingly detailed, dimensional Cars world of Mater, Lightning McQueen, Doc and Sally. Guests get a quick race briefing from Doc and Lightning, and suddenly find themselves in the midst of a race around hairpin turns and steep banks.

Cars Land increases capacity to the park with two additional immersive family rides, featuring Luigi and Mater from the movie. Cars Land represents an unprecedented level of collaboration between Pixar Animation Studios and Disney Imagineering to create this extensive new area. The new land will substantially extend the total area of Disney's California Adventure park.


Paradise Pier


Paradise Pier will host major new attractions beginning next summer with the opening of Toy Story Mania!, a ride-through, interactive adventure where Guests ride into a high-energy 4-D carnival midway hosted by Toy Story characters. Woody, Jessie, Buzz, Hamm and the gang come to life in amazing ways, immersing guests in the rich stories of the Pixar blockbuster Toy Story films.


A major ride based on Disney's classic The Little Mermaid comes to the park's Paradise Pier with leading-edge animation and special effects. Guests will dive into the magnificent scenes and magical songs from the movie. A Mermaid Grotto area with a fountain and sand castle will offer new play experiences for children.


Unique Nighttime Spectacular


The dramatic and unique Disney's World of Color will bring new nighttime excitement to Paradise Pier. This nightly panorama of spectacular water effects, colorful lighting and music will bring Disney animation to life with an entirely new creative and technical approach. The 9,000 person viewing area offers prime waterside viewing of the show - and provides a site for live entertainment, music festivals, and outdoor film premieres.


Entry Plaza and Gateway


The totally new gateway to Disney's California Adventure welcomes guests into an immersive world of historic California streets as Walt experienced them as a young artist arriving with big dreams.

A new visual icon in the tradition of Los Angeles, California's great entertainment palaces will draw guests into the heart of the attractions. This new facility, which was inspired by Los Angeles' historic Carthay Circle Theatre that premiered Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, will house a next generation Walt Disney Story featuring an interactive tribute to Walt's California experiences, and his entertainment legacy that continues world-wide today. Red Car trolleys reminiscent of the old Pacific Electric Railway will travel up and down the main street. New dining and shopping experiences and a slate of unique, live entertainment will bring energy to the Walt Disney Plaza.


Hollywood Pictures Backlot

Hollywood Pictures Backlot will be a new home for a slate of special ticketed events and chances to hear first hand from innovative directors, writers and animators. An update of the popular family show "Playhouse Disney" will provide an experience for younger children.


Golden State

The "Golden State" area of the park will see the addition of numerous new dining opportunities tied to the incredible bounty of California's farmland and its rich ethnically diverse food heritage. Food and wine festivals that celebrate the seasons, tastes and cultures of the dynamic communities of the Golden State will entertain guests, bringing unique one-of-a-kind experiences.


Preview Center

A Preview Center located on San Francisco Street in the Golden State region of the park will feature models, Imagineering concepts - giving park guests a sneak peek at the excitement that lies ahead. The Preview Center is scheduled to open in late 2008.

Waldameer's Ravine Flyer II

Waldameer amusement park in Erie, PA is building a nice sized wooden coaster for 2008.

The park has put up some construction pictures on their website of the ride being built.

It's going to actually cross over a major road two times during the ride, which is pretty cool.
You can see more pictures like the one above on their website.

More on the Cedar Point 2008 Rumor

© RollerCoasterFreak 2007

RollerCoasterFreak went by Geauga Lake on the 13th and took some pictures of the destruction of Geauga Lake.

One thing of note, however, is that many of the kiddie rides have already been plucked out of the park and are sitting around waiting to be shipped.

If you remember the post from a few days ago about Cedar Point adding these rides ... well suddenly that rumor sounds even more true.

Head over to RollerCoasterFreak's site to see all the sad Geauga Pictures, the kiddie rides, and as a bonus Voodoo parts still sitting in Ohio!

1995 Fiesta Texas Park Map

Here's a copy of Fiesta Texas' 1995 Park Map.

The park certainly has changed a lot, eh? This is from 1995, and the park opened in 1992. It's original goal was to be different by providing high quality live shows and entertainment, not just big rides.

Well, Six Flags has changed that focus on rides over time, but the park still wins awards for their live shows each year, so that lived on.

Anyway, enjoy!

Universal Orlando's Kwik-E-Mart

© IOACentral 2007

Universal Studios Orlando has opened a Kwik-E-Mart where the old Back to the Future gift shop was.

It looks pretty cool!

The above photo is from IOACentral, which has a full update with tons of photos of the store. Check it out on their site.

Hard Rock Park Update

© Tom Murray / The Sun News

Hard Rock Park is coming along rather nicely. I think this is going to be a really great looking place once all is said and done.

MyrtleBeachOnline has some new pictures of the park up. You can check them out on their website through this link.

Behemoth becoming... well behemoth!

© Coasterguy77 /CWMania

Canada's Wonderland's new coaster for 2008 - Behemoth - is already growing up toward the sky.

The above photo is from the CWMania message boards, which I'd say are the best place on the web to keep up to date with this massive new ride.

Click here to go to CWMania and check out the new photos.

Dorney Park Voodoo 10.13.07 Update

Here are some pictures from October 13th, 2007 of the Voodoo construction at Dorney Park.

A wide shot of the construction area. It's muddy! It looks like this week they worked on putting in some of the drainage system for the area.

A closer view of one of the holes they've dug for drains. You can kinda see it but it's down in there I promise.

More stuff waiting to be placed underground. It's just a tiny blip above that bench, but there's another drain already placed right at the base of that dirt pile.

Here's the exciting stuff! More track for Voodoo has arrived and it's bright yellow - much like Wicked Twister and VF Steel Venom. I can't tell if they're painting it on site or if it arrived this way...

It wouldn't be a Cedar Fair coaster if it didn't have some primary colors in it, so -phew, this one checks out.

One last shot of the new yellow track. I wonder if this means all the track will be yellow, but maybe not. Alternating colors could fit with the name Voodoo. At least now we know that the yellow horns in the logo that turn into track were not random.

That's it!

Interesting Great America Article / 2008?

The San Jose Mercury News has another good article on the Great America and 49ers situation today.

It's mostly focused on land assessment values that the Santa Clara County land assessor brought up, trying to give more strength to the notion that Cedar Fair is just working toward dumping the park all together. Sorta blah blah to me.

The Cedar Fair spokes person gave a nice quote to that end though, saying that they spent $6 million last year on the park and made plans to spend $15 million this year - showing they were not planning on trying to get ride of the property.

Okay - a moved Top Spin from Geauga Lake does not cost that much. Her wording is also unclear as to what years she means - but they didn't fully own it in a lot of '06 so the $6 million must have been '07 and '08 must be getting the $15 million.

I've heard that the park was picked to receive a wooden coaster - yes - a la Renegade at Valleyfair!. Depending on how specific the spokes person was being, well, a bunch of that $15 million could be put aside to start construction on the wooden ride for '09.

I could also be typing out of my bum though, I'm just going off of what I've heard. Anyone out there make any more sense out of all this than I do?

Cedar Point 2008 Rumors

There have been a few rumors of what Cedar Point has planned for 2008, but only until just recently did some people start to send me info that the park will be aiming at the families again next season.

As seen above, the current rumor is that the front of the park's kiddie area is going to be updated. That section of the park is highlighted in green in this photo. There's some logic here though, this part of the park is very aged and it's been a few years since the park did a kid expansion.

And of course, fitting right in the theme of "Cedar Fair 2008" - new additions to this area are said to be coming from Geauga Lake's poor gutted amusement ride side.

Here's what Geauga Lake has to offer:

They have a handful of rides, some of which would be Camp Snoopy repeats (but look at some Six Flags parks and see if that matters) - and two other significant attractions.

One is the indoor ball play area. Cedar Fair added these to Worlds of Fun and Valleyfair! on their own. I'm sure one would go over well at Cedar Point.

The other is the gigantic wet/dry slide play structure. There no way that anyone could tell me that wouldn't be bonkers popular sitting just off the main Midway at the Point.

Then consider that everyone and their brother says the former Dolphin stadium will bite the dust this winter and you have a nice home for Geauga's former Beaver Land Mine Ride - a small family coaster.

Like I said, I don't know this for sure, but it certainly makes sense. Your thoughts?

Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom 1999 Brochure

Here's Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom's 1999 season brochure.

Ahh yes, back in the day of the Six Flags massive 'park branding' expansions. The new physical ride of the year was Penguin's Blizzard River. I featured an aerial shot of this ride a bit ago on NewsPlusNotes. Oh, and Chang still has it's awesome yellow colors.

See Chang in all its yellow goodness? Plus, check out Batman The Ride. Yeah, they even had the logo and everything for T2-renamed published. It's good that they did not rename the abomination that is an SLC into what is traditionally a wonderful B&M ride.

Plus Twisted Sisters didn't have it's named changed yet. I guess SFKK has seen a lot of renaming and color changes and such over time if you think about it.

Intamin's Zac Spin Coasters

One of ride manufacturer Intamin's latest creations is the Zac Spin roller coaster, two of which opened this past summer.

I only paid some attention to these rides, but certainly took notice of their odd vertical-only shape and unique seating arrangements.

Each 8 person car holds 4 riders on either side of the track, and the car swings/rotates freely on its own as the ride progresses. It looks all sorts of fun.

The reason I'm writing this is because the ever excellent Lifthill.net has published an in depth look at these new rides. They have some drawings of other possible track layouts, and even an interview with Intamin.

Plus they have beautiful pictures as always. Check out the translated-into-English version here.

Cedar Fair's 49ers Press Release

Cedar Fair has put out their press release giving the reasons why they are opposed to the new stadium for the 49ers to be built in Great America's parking lot.

They boiled the situation down to three things: Limited parking, traffic congestion, and limits on the future expansion of the park.

But then they say:

"When Cedar Fair concluded that an amusement park and the stadium as proposed could not successfully coexist, Cedar Fair offered the City and the 49ers the option of redeveloping the entire parcel. The next step will be for the citizens and the City of Santa Clara to decide: should the Great America site be used for a new 49ers’ stadium or should the park continue to operate? If the City and its citizens believe that the best use of this property is for a new stadium, then Cedar Fair is willing to consider selling the remainder of its lease and all of its interest and assets to the City or 49ers for fair market value."

Whoa - wait a minute. They're ready to just give up and sell off Great America so it can be bulldozed?

Wow. They must be so frickin' scared of the debt they took on to get those Paramount Parks. They're totally on a quest to pay that off asap.

After Geauga Lake I cannot say I'm surprise - but again disappointed by the company.

This does read like a "well you can have it this way or that way" with a catch - no more Great America - however, the company wins either way. They either get a fat check and get rid of the park, or they continue to operate it. The park is (probably) profitable so that would have been the plan anyway.

I do think the press release is just their coy way of saying "make an offer."

I guess I should start thinking about a "what rides go where" list for Great America like I did Geauga Lake.

Cedar Fair + 49ers Drama Heats Up

More news on the potential new 49ers stadium to be built in Great America's parking lot; now Cedar Fair will not support the building of the stadium.

At the same time, suddenly the 49ers are making it public that they have talked about trying to purchase the park from Cedar Fair to be able to move forward with their plans.

Cedar Fair is supposed to put out a release today explaining why they have decided not to support the project.

I guess that selling the park would be great for Cedar Fair, but I doubt it'd happen. I think they're holding out for something, what I'm not sure of yet - perhaps this press release they put out will give a hint.

Mercury News has a nice article on all this.

Good Knott's Halloween Haunt Article

© Rose Palmisano /OCRegister

The O.C. Register had this article a couple weeks ago about being a monster at Knott's Halloween Haunt.

This is something I totally want to do one day. I'm not sure if I'd want to roam a midway, though, perhaps I'd be better suited for being placed inside a haunted house.

I'll have to look into that.

Check out the article for more pics and a video.

Wild West World Tidbit

According to this article from Kansas.com, two park operators have already put in bids for some of the rides from Wild West World.

Seabreeze Amusement Park, out of NY state, has bid on the Sidewinder and Himalaya rides. The new park being built in Fresno, CA (the one with some former MGM Grand Theme Park rides) put in a bid for the Mexicana ride.

It's gonna be like a mini Geauga Lake style yard sale!

Wild West World Dead for Sure

Parks America has decided not to put in an offer to buy the now defunct Wild West World theme park, sounding the death toll for the park.

Now creditors may begin liquidating the park's rides, buildings, property, and anything else worth money.

It's a sad story, but one that shows that not anyone can just decide to try to open a park and have it all work out.

You can read more from Kansas.com.

Halloween Event Reviews

© PKIManJZ 2007

After another weekend of October hauntings has passed, Theme Park Review's message boards are just brimming with wonderful photo trip reports of many 2007 Halloween events.

Just to make it simple to check them all out, here's some links to photo reviews of events:

Kings Island's Halloween Haunt

Horror Nights - Universal Hollywood

Halloween Horror Nights Orlando

ValleyScare at Valleyfair!

No Pics but good Review of Kings Dominion Halloween Haunt

I wish I could visit all these events!

Great Sunday Afternoon Viewing

Having recently finished Jason Surrell's The Disney Mountains: Imagineering at its Peak, I've had Disney rides on the brain lately.

That is why I was pleasantly surprised to see a copy of the Science Channel's show on Expedition Everest on YouTube today.



This is a 5 part series of the show on YouTube, and it's awesome!

There's close up shots of the rotating track transfers, tons of engineering design shots, a whole section on the Yeti animatronic, shots of the inside of the mountain, and tons more.

If you're looking for a nice way to spend 40 mins today, this is it.

Here's part 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Thanks goes out to VaultDisney for putting it on Youtube.

Dorney Park Voodoo 10.6.07 Update

Here are some pictures from today, Saturday the 6th.

Here's a general view of the area. What's that off in the distance? A specifically shaped mound of dirt.

Another general view for ya, I'm still trying to understand which way the ride will face, meaning which end will have the spiral track.

Here's Steel Venom at Valleyfair! Perhaps that mound of dirt will be for the station area. In that case, the ride would initially launch toward the Monster Grill. That does make some sense to me, then the spiral tower would be more out in the open. The straight track tower would then be more behind Laser Refreshments.

A somewhat closer view of the dirt mound. Another question, I wonder if they will reuse Steel Venom's station or create a new one.

Moving on down the midway, here's another view.

And lastly a zoomed in shot of the area. It'll be interesting to see where footers start to go in. That should help with orientating the ride to the construction area.

Dorney Park Fun Facts #17

Did you know that Robert Ott and Dorney Park Coaster Company, Inc. had a patent for the design of the Iceberg building?

The Iceberg was an indoor Cuddle-Up ride that was at Dorney Park until 1993.

You can check out the whole Patent here.

Dorney Park 1966 YouTube Video

I just saw this on YouTube. It's a video of a family trip to Dorney Park in 1966. There's some awesome shots of old rides and attractions. Worth a watch for sure.



Here is a link to the user, CServis's videos.

Kings Island Halloween Haunt Photos

© Donald Flint / KIExtreme 2007

KIExtreme has some awesome photos up from Kings Island's Halloween Haunt. Lots of pictures of monsters and such, it looks like a fun event.

The above photo shows the entrance to the Club Blood maze, which is new for this year!

Check out all the photos on KIExtreme!

Dorney Park Announces Voodoo ... Sorta

Well, Dorney Park has put up a web for their new coaster for 2008, Voodoo. There's still no press release of any sort, just a statistic page in the "Thrill Ride" section of the park's website.

Sadly, there's no mention of the ride's final colors. I suppose that will remain a mystery for now.

Of note though:

• The ride's page mentions Laser so the ride is staying another year!
• They make mention to what sounds like the holding brake, so I guess that will be on the ride.
• They say the ride will cost $8.5 million, which I am not sure I understand.

That's it for now!

Aloha Disney!

Disney announced that they have spent $144 million to purchase 21 acres of land on the western side of Oahu, Hawaii.

The land will hold a 800 room family resort. The article from CNN Money states that the land is near the current J.W. Marriot Ihilani Resort and Spa. That is circled in the above image. You can see that the oceanfront land in this area is totally prepped for more resorts. I'm sure one of those open spaces is the Disney property.

The resort should open in 2011. There are no plans for a theme park, but I think we'll all be very interested to see what they do here. There's been so much talk of the company wanting to add resorts all over that would have themed hotels and perhaps a ride/attraction or two.

Here's the full article from CNN Money.

Six Flags 2008 Capital Release

Six flags put out a single press release today that details their capital expansion plans at all their parks for 2008. Well, at least all their parks that are getting new rides or attractions.

It's pretty much a condensed version of all the announcements that were made last week. The one bit of news is that the release lists Six Flags Magic Mountain as receiving a Thomas Town area next year.

I know, I know, big news. You can check out the release here.

More on Thunderhawk

The Muskegon Chronicle has a nice article on Thunderhawk at Michigan's Adventure. It has some more details that were not in the park's press release.

Like what? Well, they're saying the ride will cost $10 million. How? I have no idea. They're starting construction soon, but are waiting on some wetlands issues to clear. The ride will be ready when the park opens May 24th, 2008.

Wildcatter go BOOM!

Six Flags Over Texas imploded their Wildcatter freefall ride today. The above photo, from MyFox Dallas, shows the result.

I wish there was video of this! It'd be so much fun to watch an old Intamin freefall come crashing down.

The freefall will be replaced by Tony Hawk's Big Spin - a new coaster for next year.

Story on MyFox Dallas.

Michigan's Adventure 2008 - Thunderhawk

Michigan's Adventure has formally announced Thunderhawk as its new attraction for the 2008 season.

This is Thunderhawk from Geauga Lake, a standard Vekoma SLC. It will not be repainted, nor is it being renamed from when it was at Geauga Lake.

The park says the ride will be located near Ripcord and Adventure Falls, which is a little odd. There's room behind them, but only behind the catering area directly next to these rides. The other side of the midway is the lake. So I'm not sure I get where they mean.

Regardless, the park has a bunch of stuff up on their site. Check it out.

I Could Puke Just Watching This...

This has been on a lot of other sites but it is insane!

Poll Results

Well, we had 170 votes about Dorney's new ride, Voodoo. As you can see, it wasn't a very close race, most people answered that they are happy about the addition.

I must say, though, that the number of people selecting "yes" increased dramatically after I broke the news of the name and logo of the ride. It seems to be a favorite design of many.

Happy B-Day Magic Kingdom + EPCOT!

This day in 1971 the Magic Kingdom at Disney World opened to the public. Happy Birthday!

But the really special day today is the 25th anniversary of EPCOT's opening! Here's hope to EPCOT's return to it's original goals.

Knott's Berry Farm 1993 Brochure

Here's a look back at a Knott's Berry Farm brochure from 1993. It's amazing what can change in 14 years.


Gotta love the can-can girls! The one looks like my cousin. Weird.

Ahh yes, and a Vekoma Boomerang was a ride worth this much space in a brochure. That really shows how old this brochure is. Then again, Worlds of Fun tried to make a Boomerang a bid deal in the year 2000. Haha, suckers.