Tony Hawk @ Discovery Kingdom

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom has posted some deconstruction photos of their new Tony Hawk spinning roller coaster for 2008. These photos are actually of the ride be taken apart at the Gerstlauer factory in Germany for shipping to Discovery Kingdom - hence the deconstruction.

It was speculated for a while that this version would not be the standard model, but a slightly smaller one that would fit on Zongo's former concrete ride base. Well, now that's looking pretty true. This is what is speculated to be this ride's layout:
You can also see in the photos that as expected, the ride does not have it's supports on foundations dug into the ground, rather, the ride sits on the concrete pad and supports... itself. It's different but still looks like fun!

Great Adventure Shrinking in 2008

Six Flags Great Adventure has posted their 2008 park map on their website. It's now rather ironic that yesterday I posted about how much the park has changed, and now today we see that it's changing a lot again for 2008.

They're basically closing the Old Country section of the park. Guests will enter the Dark Knight from the Movie Town section of the park, the area in front of the Batman Stunt Theater on will be off limits.

The only other attractions left in the Old Country were the bumper cars and a musik express. The showcase theater and batman stunt theater are now listed as special event locations. Basically, they're closing off walkway in red here:

That's a rather nice sized chunk of the park. Though, with Freefall, Chiller, several flats, etc, removed from this area is was pretty much just a nice walkway with tall trees. Maybe it's just a one year thing, and in 2009 it'll open back up with new stuff?

On another note, two more Johnny Rockets are being added to the park, so they'll have 3 this year.

1990s Great Adventure Postcards

These are by no means relics or anything, they're really only 12 or so years old, but they do prove quite a point: Six Flags Great Adventure has changed a lot in the last decade(ish).

The Right Stuff. This was back when Simulators were cool just because they were simulators. Plus, Time Warner themed the ride when it was built - I remember standing in the queue when they played the jet roar and wondering if I might have permanent hearing loss.

Then Viper, dear old Viper. Hey it's concept art! Time Warner was always good for some quality concept art... as for Viper itself, well, I got that credit! The first drop was really good, too.

Rolling/Rotting Thunder/Lumber. I'm sorry, it's a really catchy design but it's just rough, and squeaky, and although I was much younger the first time I rode it it's one of a handful of amusement park attractions that made noises that genuinely scared me. (like is this thing falling apart? scared)

And finally we have Stuntman's Freefall. There's nothing like being put in a metal cage, lifted up a tower, then dropped so that you end up on your back. Ahh, memories.

P.S. - No, I have no idea why Porky Pig is 'presenting' Freefall, or why Taz is blocking Rolling Thunder's first drop. Weird.

Worlds of Discovery Dubai

Busch Entertainment's big announcement was the addition of 4 theme/water parks on the edge of "The Palm" development in Dubai.

There will be a Busch Gardens, Sea World, Aquatica, and Discovery Cove - all built on a man-made land mass in the shape of Shamu. Oh, and there will be hotels and shopping, entertainment, etc. as well.

The land developer is a company named Nakhell, and they will actually be paying for the parks to be built and Busch Entertainment is going to license their brands to them and operate the parks under a contract.

The parks are to be built in phases, with the first phase ready to go in 2012.

Official source with press releases and images.

Voodoo 2.27.08 Update

Here's a Voodoo at Dorney Park update from today, 02.27.08!

As you can see, the holding brake spike is complete! It looks like they were working on adding the holding brakes today.

The pieces for the opposite tower have been rearranged again, here's what is still out in the parking lot.

Here's a one taken further back so you can get a better perspective of how tall the ride is. I mean I knew the ride's height but it's really impressive when you see it!

Nothing too much new in this photo. You can see the track pieces for the spiral tower are all ready to go.

2008 Valleyfair! Brochure

ValleyfairZone has posted the 2008 Valleyfair! brochure in their forums. You can click here to see the scans. It's pretty nice, but not quite on par with the other Cedar Fair brochures we've seen so far. Valleyfair!'s brochures have always sorta been like that, though.

Great Adventure's Dark Knight

The New York Post featured the above image in an article about Six Flags Great Adventure's new Dark Knight roller coaster for 2008. That's the first concept art of any sort that I've seen and it almost looks like it could have been done by Virtual Image Productions.

They're the ones that do awesome concept art and videos for new rides - they're by far the best at what they do. Let's hope it was, and that there's more to come from them when Six Flags releases it.

Six Flags Goes to the Moon

Six Flags announced today that two of their parks, Six Flags Over Texas, and Six Flags Great Adventure will add a Fly Me to The Moon 3D to their simulator theaters this coming season.

Fly Me to The Moon 3D is a feature movie that is to be released this coming summer - it's billed as the first computer animated film designed from the start to be a 3D experience. You can see a preview of the movie (looks pretty cute, not Pixar cute, though) on the movie's official website.

About the actual movie, "The fact based fictional film follows three teenaged flies on an incredible adventure as they become part of history - stowing away inside the space helmets of Commanders Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins on the Apollo 11 mission that marked America's first manned landing on the moon."

Obviously the simulator version will be shorter and different from the feature film, but I'm sure it'll be a hit with visitors at the park.

Valleyfair! Interview

© ValleyfairZone

ValleyfairZone has a neat interview with some Valleyfair! employees/marketing department on their forums. Several items are covered in the interview, everything from the park's new ticket system to some juicy information about The Haunt 2008.

Click here to check it out!

Another Niagara's Fury Teaser

The website for Niagara's Fury has been updated, and now along with an interesting teaser video we know a more formal name for the attraction: Niagara's Fury: The Creation of the Falls.

The video still reveals almost nothing, but it's got cool music and is very dramatic, which is always fun. There's a countdown on the site to what I would guess is the official announcement, which looks to be about 2 months away.

Check in out at this link.

New Jungala Website

Busch Gardens Africa has launched a new website for the park's new land for 2008: Jungala. It's a cute website, not too much on there we didn't already know, but there are some new short video clips that are interesting.

The land does look like a great expansion for the park, mixing a themed environment with a couple rides and plenty of animal encounters in a way that will please the entire family - which is very, very hot in the industry right now.

Carowinds Has a Webcam

It may not be great quality - but Carowinds now has two webcams showing the construction of their new wave pool, Bondi Beach. They're streaming, too, which is pretty neat.

They've also more formally announced their new ride from Geauga Lake, Yo Yo.

Both items can be found on this page.

I'm Excited: The Haunt at Dorney Park 2008

Here's the official press release!

~~~~~~~~~~~

The HAUNT at Dorney Park Features Major Expansion to Halloween Program

ALLENTOWN, Pa – Dorney Park announces THE HALLOWEEN HAUNT AT DORNEY PARK, the largest expansion in their Halloween special event since the inception of HalloWeekends eleven years ago. Brave souls who dare to enter THE HAUNT AT DORNEY PARK will encounter more gruesome haunted attractions, petrifying thrills, and fearsome fun than ever before. Fall 2008 raises the bar on scary with all new attractions like Club Blood, a popular nightclub of the vampire underground and CornStalkers, an outdoor maze where guests find that they are all that stands in the way of the ghosts of Solomon’s farm who have returned to reclaim their fields.

THE HALLOWEEN HAUNT AT DORNEY PARK also will frighten souls with Terror Square, a giant new Scare Zone. Upgrades also include never before seen props, hundreds more employees to run the show with dozens of new costumes. From the terrifying haunted houses and the spine-chilling Fright Zone, to upgrades on other past favorites, the park will be overrun with gory ghosts, ghouls and goblins.

“Dorney Park is joining the team of other Cedar Fair Parks who host a HALLOWEEN HAUNT. This award winning program is setting the standard for Halloween programs everywhere.“ states Jim Yeager Dorney Parks Vice President and General Manager. “Dorney Park is now on-board as the premier regional destination for Halloween, with unmatched selection and variety of attractions, event theming, scares, monsters, and special effects.”

THE HAUNT AT DORNEY PARK is now the perfect blend of daytime kid-friendly fun combined with thrilling scares and gory glares as the day goes on. Kids will enjoy the park including Trick-or-Treat Street and Mask Making, both open until 6 p.m., as well as The Magical House on Boo Hill funhouse and Camp Spooky. Scare-seekers can look to the favorites like Fright-Zone, ScreamWorks, and Doctor of Doom, and then stop in for a bite at Club Blood, and take on a scarecrow in Corn Stalkers. Scare attractions are at peak operation during evening hours and are not recommended for children under age 13 after 6 p.m.

Schedule of attraction availability is to be determined. HAUNT attractions may restrict availability of some rides. HAUNT scare attractions are not recommended for guests with pacemakers, claustrophobia, heart conditions, seizures, asthma, or any other condition that could be aggravated by the special effects and scares used throughout the park.

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom will be open for it’s first annual HAUNT on Friday evenings from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturdays from Noon to 11 p.m. and Sundays from Noon to 8 p.m. from September 27, through November 1, 2008. For more Park information log-on to http://www.dorneypark.com or call 610.395.3724.

Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, a publicly traded partnership that is listed on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FUN.” In addition to Dorney Park, Cedar Fair owns and operates ten other amusement parks, six water parks, one indoor water park resort, and six hotels. Cedar Fair also owns and operates Star Trek: The Experience, an interactive adventure located in Las Vegas, and operates the Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park in Gilroy, CA. under a management contract.

New Thunderhawk Photos - 2.25.08

Michigan's Adventure is moving right along with the construction of Thunderhawk. As you can see, they have the lift and first drop finished, and supports are going up for those wacky SLC inversions.

More pics at the official site.

Aquatica Preview Photos

© Erik Johnson 2008

Over on the Theme Park Review boards there's a really great photo tour of the new Aquatica water park in Florida.

They had a passholder preview day already. The parks looks nice ... and not to whine but the concept art really made it look better than it turned out. Maybe the landscaping just needs to "grow in" or maybe not all elements are ready... but it's not really Orlando area theme park caliber in my opinion. Just my thoughts from the photos!

Aerial Antics: Six Flags New Orleans' Batman

This first shot is post-Katrina, so the park is already closed and ruined, but Batman is still there:


And here's a later one, as you can see Batman is gone. Also gone are the decorative items in the area, and the walkway covers. All the flat rides are still there though. I read that Goliath at Six Flags Fiesta Texas was using the station from New Orleans, but it looks like it's still standing in this photo. Who knows - not me at least.

Voodoo 2.24.08 Update

At the end of the week before the snow they added the rest of the supports for the holding brake tower.

There are less and less big supports in the parking lot now that they've put a bunch of them in place. This doesn't look like all the supports for the twist tower, but what do I know?

I am wondering if they need a bigger crane to be able to put up the last few track pieces.

A final shot, showing all of the ride that has gone up thus far.

Kings Dominion 2008 Brochure

Here's another 2008 brochure: Kings Dominion.

New for 2008 - Dominator. They've changed the colors on a photo of an existing Floorless coaster.

Smart of them to put right on there that it's opening late spring. They're also mentioning again that it has the "largest roller coaster loop!"

Water park stuff and rides for everyone!

Looks like entertainment at the park will stay the exact same as last year. And of course, as they should, they're showing all the Nick stuff at the park.

Information - I haven't paid attention to the past couple year's entry price but I had sticker shock when I read that regular admission is just under $52!

Six Flags Magic Mountain New Coaster in 2009

In this Los Angeles Daily News article it is mentioned that Six Flags Magic Mountain will be adding a new roller coaster in 2009.

The article covers all that is new for 2008, like X2 and Thomas Town, but also says that a new coaster will come in 2009 which will be more Mark Shapiro's style - which means not a big intense looper like X2.

To me, that screams of a Tony Hawk spinner or a Dark Knight indoor mouse for '09. But that's just my opinion.

Remember the Hydra Cam?

Staring at the Voodoo webcam lately has reminded me of ... staring at the Hydra webcam back when that ride was under construction. I totally got caught looking at that webcam at work like a hundred times!

Here's a few images I had saved - it's a trip down memory lane!

Knott's Pony Express Update

© Westcoaster 2008

Westcoaster has a great update for Pony Express at Knott's Berry Farm. They have the launch track and half of the first turn up with track - it sure does look more impressive than I expected after reading the ride's statistics.

They also have lots of supports up for the far turn around that leads the ride back to the station.

Check out Westcoaster's update!

Some New Behemoth Photos

I haven't forgotten that big new coaster up North - Canada's Wonderland has posted some new photos recently of the Behemoth construction going on at the park.

Progress on the ride's station area is moving right along, you can see that the station is having its roof put on. The roof is red, which is a Cedar Fair trademark, so that's not too surprising - and hey, it matches Talon even more now!

Here's a link to the park's photos.

Naughty Six Flags New England

Six Flags New England has been ordered to stop work on their new Dark Knight roller coaster by building inspectors. Whoops!

Apparently while the park was waiting for approval to build the ride they were, well, building the ride. The park apparently does not have a building permit to be working on the ride.

I've known parks to do this in the past, but usually they do not get called out on it like this. The article says that the ride's building is already up, which means they've been working on the ride for some time now.

Hopefully they can get the permit issues worked out and still have the ride open on Memorial Day, as planned.

New Official Voodoo Photos

© Dorney Park 2008

Dorney Park has updated their official construction photos of Voodoo on their website. There's tons to see in this update...

The pictures of the station area answer a lot of questions I've had about the ride. For starters, the grid that Superman Ultimate Escape at Geauga Lake had on the front of it's station is not being used. Instead, they've added the steel structure that has the flags on top of it, and has a few crossbars and such - but will leave the station front pretty open, it seems.

The flags are still a somewhat odd design choice in my opinion, but until everything is completed I guess it's not fair to judge.

Later, HyperSonic! + Dominator

Hypersonic XLC at Kings Dominion is finally coming down. It does look like they are taking it apart carefully, so perhaps it will show up somewhere else down the road?

Also, CoasterCrew has some new photos of Dominator construction. The lift hill has been started and the transfer and train storage areas are up as well.

Niagara's Fury Hints

This article has given us some hints as to exactly what Niagara's Fury at Table Rock is going to be.

It's part of a $38 million expansion of the center, and the article says that the Niagara's Fury attraction "will be a Universal Studios-type attraction using video and audio effects to tell the story of how the falls were formed, bringing visitors from the ice age to present day."

So a Simulator... or perhaps a 4-D Theater? It certainly sounds like my earlier idea of a steel ride on the edge of the falls is out the window!

The media release is fairly soon, so not much longer till we find out what they have for us.

Voodoo 2.20.08 Update

Here are some new pictures of the Voodoo construction at Dorney Park taken today.

They've started work on the straight tower. The base supports are up, along with track that is now pointing pretty much vertical.

View of the other side of the ride. Looking at the station, they've added support frames for the roofing to go on. Also, the roof of the electrical room is now a teal color.

A slightly closer shot from a slightly closer angle. The ride is going up fast!

Camelbeach 2008

Camelbeach Waterpark in Tannersville, PA, is building a new family water play structure for the park's 2008 season.

According to the park's website, the not-yet-named attraction will be 4 stories tall, have a tipping bucket on its top, and 8 waterslides.

Camelbeach has been expanding quite rapidly in the past few years, it's great to see them growing again!

Dorney Park Fun Facts #21

I just stumbled upon these scans of newspaper articles covering the fire that tore through Dorney Park back in 1983.

The fire wasn't cool, but these scans are! They even have a map of what was destroyed...

Evil Knievel Update

© Eagle Rider 2008

There are some great photos of Evil Knievel at Six Flags St. Louis over at the Negative-G forums that are worth checking out.

They were taken during a tour of the construction, so they're really great shots. They're saying that the ride is to open July 4th, which seems really late to me. Especially since Mark Shapiro said that rides wouldn't be opening late anymore. Ha! I love to keep bringing that up.

Hey, Wild Adventures is Open!

Wild Adventures Theme Park, Valdosta, GA, reopened this past holiday weekend. While their new ride for 2008 (The Rattler) will not be ready until late March, there's plenty new to see and do at the park already.

The park, now under ownership of Herschend Family Entertainment, has made many changes to the property already. According to this article, the park under went many physical upgrades to meet Herschend standards, and guests will find an array of new entertainment and interactive animal encounters when they visit the park this year.

Like I've said before, I think Wild Adventures under the ownership of Herschend is a property to watch in coming years...

The Simpsons Ride

Universal Orlando has finally added a page to their website for The Simpsons Ride - the new logo for which can be seen here. You can get some facts about the ride and a brief description of what will take place inside the former Back to the Future building.

The ride looks like it's gonna be a hit for both Universal Orlando and Universal Stuidos Hollywood.

Here's the link!

Voodoo Today + Station Stuff

They moved a ton of supports and track for the straight tower onto the work site today. That can only mean that the tower will start to rise soon.

Also, it's hard to see in the webcam but in front of the station they have put up unpainted metal supports, 5 of them, one for each "arc" support, that have metal flags on top of them. Hard to see in the picture but four of these flags are by each arrow I drew:

Hopefully the steel beams with the flags on top are not really connected much and the station will still be open on that side to the midway. I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

Clementon Park Images

I just noticed that the Courier Post online has some images of the new stuff coming to Clementon Amusement Park on their website with this article.

There's concept art for the new Victorian themed entrance area as well as the new Whitewater West play structure.

New Nickelodeon Universe Pictures

© Jerry Dorf 2008

Here's a link to some new pictures of Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America. There's lots that has been going on since we last checked in.

Spongebob's cars are now on track, and actually the ride started testing yesterday. Lots of other rides are having new Nick theming added, and other new rides are getting ready to go.

Blue's Skidoo (above) is cute, but why is the ride so small? Can parents ride with their kids or is that strictly for the little ones?

Voodoo 2.16.08 Update

Here are some photos of Voodoo at Dorney Park from today, the 16th.
This week they put up the rest of launch track and supports. Also, they added another piece of curved track on either end of the ride.

Today they're putting up the station supports. I now have no doubt that they are using the station from when the ride was at Geauga Lake - which is awesome!

A slightly different view. You can see they painted the station steel a dark yellow/gold color.

A wide view of everything that's up so far. They have three of the five station roof-arcs up, but they were still working so more could go up today.

Lastly, a whole lot of the really big supports for the towers are now on site and ready to go! Hopefully these will start to go up next week. I'm sure they'll go fast - they will want to rent the bigger crane they'll need for as short a time as possible.

SFNE Dark Knight Photos

Now that Six Flags New England has gained approval for their Dark Knight coaster, they've quickly started work. They've also finally added construction pictures to their website, like the one seen here.

I'm sure they're pretty delayed from waiting for approvals, but if they kick it into high gear perhaps they can make up some lost time.

Here's the pictures.

Niagara's Fury: It's a ______!

Oooo, I sure do love a good mystery - and the Table Rock Center at Niagara Falls is certainly providing one right now.


The Table Rock Center is located right on the edge of the falls on the Canadian side of things, and is a part of the Niagara Parks system. Currently, this is where you go to take the Journey Behind the Falls - a walking tour - and can find a welcome center and some shops.

Here's a lovely image of the set-up:

The fairly new Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort is actually located up the hill and to the right of the center in the above photo, so it's not like the building is out in the middle of no where.

Anyway, the Table Rock Center is expanding. A while back we heard rumblings that some sort of ride or attraction would be coming along with some new shops and restaurants. The expansion includes other fun stuff like a "bridge of flowers" that crosses that road in the above picture to get visitors into a clock tower that leads down to the parking area, and a two story observation area.

The point of all this is that something called Niagara's Fury is being added to the complex for this summer. No further info, really, is being given at this time though. They have a webpage up for it, but it's just a teaser at thing point.

Niagara Parks actually put out a press release though, saying that Niagara's Fury is the "biggest thrill, 10,000 years in the making." That's a really long R&D process. The release does say that whatever it is it will be at the brink of the falls, meaning out by the water's edge. That makes me think it'll be a steel ride of some sort... I'm thinking something devious like the rides atop the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas. It has to take advantage of the falls in some way, I'd think.

The release also calls it a "world's only," so it must be something we haven't seen yet... whatever it is I hope it's worth all the mystery and excitement!

What do you guys think?

Voodoo's Station?

I was (of course) just looking at the Voodoo webcam and noticed something. Earlier I thought that yellow thing sticking up in the station area was a construction... something but then I just realized it could be a station support.

Then I looked in the lower left corner and saw that arc piece that's yellow - and if that's station roof supports then we're getting Geauga's station! That makes me happy because Superman's station was nice and open - and I feel the newer Cedar Fair Impulse stations are crammed and not as nice.

Dorney Park 2008 Brochure

Dorney Park's 2008 Brochure is now available on the park's website.

Thankfully, they've added Snoopy back to the park's logo - that stupid Cedar Fair logo image thing seems to have gone the way of the dodo.

Overall I think this is one of the park's best general brochures in years - and I'm trying my best not to be biased due to the fact that it's my local park. It's just more 'alive' than many other years.

Here's the link to the .pdf!

Undated Knott's Berry Farm Brochure II

Here's another undated Knott's Berry Farm brochure. This one has Montezooma's Revenge in it, so it has to be 1978 or later.I guess it's not a regular brochure, it had a big map inside of the Southern California area showing all the points of interest.

But it did have a section for each area of the park, complete with a description in a few languages.

Oh, look at the Parachute Tower. I love that checkerboard paint job!

Those Mexican themed tea cups look like fun ... they'd certainly still have a place in the park today. Everyone loves tea cups! Personally, I enjoy spinning on the ones at Knoebels till just before I want to puke.

Hope you enjoyed!

Small World Disneyland Hong Kong Update

© keithlee83 2008

This thread over at MiceChat has some new photos of It's A Small World at Hong Kong Disneyland.

The facade looks pretty much complete, even the dolls that parade out below the clock are exposed! The ride has a very nice plaza as well, it really makes the entrance to the ride seem even more grand.

The ride is supposed to open early Spring, but not exact date has been released yet.

Six Flags New England's Dark Knight

According to this article in the Republican, Six Flags New England has gained approval and can start construction on their new Dark Knight coaster.

The article mentions that the Batman stunt show arena has already been removed from the park in anticipation of construction starting.

On that note, SFNE Online has posted plans of the ride's site and building location, like those seen earlier for Six Flags Great America's and Six Flags Great Adventure's versions.

Behemoth Tour Photos II

© CWMania 2008

CWMania got another tour of the Behemoth construction site recently, and has the photos to prove it. Like the one above, CWMania has tons of photos of what's been going on with the ride now that it's structurally complete.

To check out the photos, click here.

New Thunderhawk Photos

Michigan's Adventure has updated their construction photos of Thunderhawk. They've made quite some progress in the past couple weeks, eh?

This McDonald's-colored ride looks striking against all that snow!

Here's the link to the pics.

Cedar Point Announces Skyscraper

Cedar Point just announced the addition of Skyscraper to their Challenge Park area for the 2008 season.

The thrill ride, created by Gravity Works, first opened at Dorney Park (2000-2004), then was moved to Valleyfair! (2005-2007), and now will set up shop at the Point as a pay-extra ride.

This was no secret at all, but it's nice that the park made an official release to try to drum up some attention. Every little bit helps these days, I guess.

Here's the press release and the official blog about it.

More Voodoo Work

More supports are going up for the launch track for Voodoo, with the track to follow shortly. You can see that they have the track pieces that are next lined up and ready to go, along with more launch track supports.

Watch the progress on the park's webcam!

New Ravine Flyer II Photos

Thanks again to Ryan, we have some new photos of the Ravine Flyer II construction going on at Waldameer Amusement Park.

There's the bridge over the road that the coaster will travel across - twice.

A view of the ride's turnaround high up on the hill.

First Drop! The ride comes down that hill, across the bridge, and then up to that turnaround on the other side.

A sweet view from high up. This gives you another idea of how the ride flies down that hill, across the road, and back up. And then after it heads back there's plenty of coaster up by the first drop.
A nice close view of the turnaround.

Thanks again to Ryan! These photos are awesome, the ride looks like it'll be pretty awesome as well.

Fantastic Toy Story Midway Mania Article

© NY Times / J. Emilio Flores 2008

The New York Times has a really awesome article about Toy Story Midway Mania, which is opening at Disney's California Adventure and Disney's Hollywood Studios theme parks this summer.

The article chronicles the development of the ride, and revels many details and such about the ride that I had not seen before. Also, there's a few pictures and a lime-lapse video of the interior building of the attraction.

Here's a link.

Pony Express is Vertical, Too

© Darkbeer 2008

I missed this one until now, but Pony Express at Knott's Berry Farm has also gone vertical as of this past week.

Darkbeer has a ton of photos taken on the park on the 6th, and since then I believe even more supports and even track has gone up.

You can check out all the photos on Darkbeer's Smugmug site.

Kings Island 2008 Brochure

Here's a copy of Kings Island's 2008 general park brochure. There's that 2-great-parks-for-the-price-of-1 logo we've seen the past couple years again... Also, another take on the park's logo - I don't think I've seen that one before.

Kings Island, Where Else? Not a bad slogan, more modern than other things I've seen parks use.

Glad to see them focus on the Nick characters at the theme park, I've made it clear before how important I think they are.

It's also important to focus on The Haunt - it's becoming a rather huge part of the season for all amusement parks these days. The Haunt at Kings Island also looks to be a pay extra event this year.

Here you can see what I meant above - the days on the calendar that are for The Haunt are broken down into two time periods for Saturdays. Looks like they'll clear the park out at 6, then reopen at 7 for the Haunt and operate till 1 a.m.

Wall•E International Trailer

The ever awesome Blue Sky Disney blog posted about this clip of the International Trailer for Wall•E, this summer's big Pixar animated film.

I loved it so much I had to post it even though it's not specifically theme park or amusement park related, it is Disney related so there's a connection in there somewhere. Plus you know if it's a hit it'll turn up in Disney Theme Parks somewhere, so perhaps it's just a matter of time until it is theme park related.

Here it is:

Universal Orlando Update

IOACentral has a really nice update of a couple things going on at the Universal Orlando resort. At the Universal Studios theme park the construction of the new Simpsons ride is moving along. The outside of the attraction has been painted and more visible work is going on as well.

At Islands of Adventure, work on the new Harry Potter area of the theme park has actually gone vertical. IOACentral is reporting that it may be for an employee building, but it's a sign of progress nonetheless.

If Universal Orlando opens that rumored coaster in a couple years, along with Harry Potter, they'll be quite a force for Walt Disney World to reckon with.

Here's a link to IOACentral's update.

Various Construction Updates

Carowinds has added some construction photos of their new attraction for 2008, the Bondi Beach wave pool. From these photos it looks like the same wave pool that was recently added to Dorney Park, Kings Dominion, Great America, etc. That's a good thing though, they're fun and people love them. Dorney has two wave pools and both are always packed.


Six Flags Great Adventure has also posted some new photos of the structure for the building that will hold their new Dark Knight coaster going up. You can check those out on their website.



Lastly, Coaster Crew has some new photos of Dominator at Kings Dominion finally going up. Looks like they put up the station track first on this ride as well. Coaster Crew should have another podcast video update coming soon as well. I'm sorta surprised that Dominator just went vertical now - it seems sorta late for a Cedar Fair ride - but I'm no construction expert!

New Hard Rock Park Photos

Hard Rock Park has added several new photos of rides, attractions, and other park features to their official webpage.

I'm really excited for this park to open, it's really coming together and looking nice. The entrance plaza is looking really great as well - it's very Islands of Adventure's Port of Entry 'lite,' if you will.

Plus, all the rides look really cool!

Hard Rock Park's site is all flash stuff so here's a general link...

Pony Express Update

Westcoaster has a great update featuring photos of the Pony Express construction going on at Knott's Berry Farm.

They have tons of pictures of track and supports for the ride that are arriving, and the work on the ride's footers.

They're tearing up 'boot hill' pretty bad - I hope they at least try to put it back all nice when they are done. Still, somehow I think with tall coaster supports in it the area will never look the same...

Regardless, go check out the photos!

American Idol at Walt Disney World

ddddddddddaaadddddddd Image © Disney 2008

Walt Disney World will be adding an America Idol stage attraction to its Hollywood Studios them park in late 2008.

I sorta thought this was a joke when I first read it, but no, it's totally real. Disney went to the show's creators to strike a licensing deal directly - since the show appears on rival network FOX, not Disney's own ABC.

Each day visitors to the theme park can 'audition' and then perform before a panel of judges and guests at the park. Each evening there will be a 'finals' show and the day's winners will compete in this. The winner of the 'finals' show will receive a front of the line pass to attend a real American Idol audition in the future.

This is weird! I mean it makes sense, they're trying to make the new Hollywood Studios brand stick, but this is a TV show and has nothing to do with Hollywood or Movie Studio entertainment ... I guess the only reason to focus on is that the show is still popular so they want to capitalize on that. I would expect Disney to make an announcement about something big for it's Florida theme parks in the future to combat Universal Orlando's exciting future plans. Maybe this is just a filler attraction for the theme park.

Anyway, go start taking vocal lessons and then plan a trip to Florida at the end of the year...

Dorney Park Voodoo 2.5.08 Update

New Voodoo pictures of the ride since it's gone vertical!
Here you can see all the track pieces in the parking lot, as well as the track and supports that are up. Also, you can see the crane that was used to put up the track earlier is now out in the lot.
Lots of big new support pieces have arrived fully painted and ready to go...

Here's a wide view. I wonder if that's the final roof for the electrical room? It's not some really bright color like I would have expected.

Closer view of the big support pieces sitting in the parking lot.

... and another!

Here's a final view that shows the track and stuff that's gone up. You can see the last piece of track up starts to curve upward. This is also a good view of the electrical room.

More as it happens!

Watery Future for Lake Compounce

The Record-Journal has an article today about the future of Lake Compounce's water park side of their operations.

The Amusement Park has mentioned plans to expand their water park in the coming years previously, but now some additional details are coming out.

The expansion is to be 6 acres, which will double the size of the water park as it currently is. Included in the plans are multiple new attractions, such as a kiddie pool, a wave action river, a 75 ft. slide tower, and a 2nd wave pool that will sit 'back-to-back' with the current one - meaning waves from each pool could crash into each other.

The expansion depends on a road being moved, once that is completed the park can start work. The expansion is to be finished in 2010.

Cedar Fair 2007 Results

Cedar Fair just announced their full 2007 operating results. Overall, they have positive numbers to report - but I didn't really expect anything other than that.

Picking through these numbers to see what really went down takes time, but it is worth noting that at several points in the press release they state they are good with being able to continue to manage their debt, pay dividends as expected (i.e. not slash them), and continue to reinvest in the parks.

The conference call should be interesting today, but that's not till 2 pm. I'm also very interested to see if the market takes this press release to heart or decides it's fluff. Time will tell!

Canada's Wonderland Season Pass Deal

Cedar Fair has reduced the season pass price for Canada's Wonderland to $59.95 each if you buy at least 4. Look at that list of perks, too!

This means one of two things - they have a good momentum going and want to keep it up and smash the gates this year - OR - things are turning out poorly and suddenly they feel the need to slash prices to sell a rush of season passes.

Which is true? I'm not sure...

Michigan's Adventure 1995 Brochure

Here's a fun time warp brochure - Michigan's Adventure 1995. It's striking to see the park then versus now.

General admission in 1995 was only 15 bucks, and a very white Corkscrew was the attraction that made the brochure cover.

New for 1995 - Adventure Falls, a Chute-the-Chutes splashdown ride. But don't forget Winky the Whale and Drummer Boy!

Two parks for the price of one? Wow their slogan hasn't even changed! Really though, this middle spread makes the park look more like a fair than anything else, at least to me.

Cedar Fair really has made some nice changes in making this property much more attractive since they purchased it.

Cedar Fair Distribution News

Cedar Fair just announced that they are raising their annual distribution rate for the 21st year in a row. It's only 2 cents a unit over the course of a year, but the fact that they raised the distribution when so many people are yelling that the company doesn't have the money to even pay the distribution is significant.

The timing of this, like so many Cedar Fair press releases recently is iffy though, as they are annoncing their 2007 results tomorrow.

Softening the blow a little perhaps? Maybe the CEO and some executives will even buy a bunch of units today ... ya never know.

Wonderland's New AstroWorld Coaster

Amusement Today has posted some cool photos of Wonderland Amusement Park's newest coaster being built.

According to AT the ride does not have a name yet, but looks snazzy with a fresh new paint job. This is the Mayan Mindbender coaster that was rescued from Six Flags Astroworld when the park was closed - and also operated at Boblo Island before that.

Here's the link to see the photos.

Conneaut Lake Park Fire Photos

Thanks to one of our readers, Ryan, today we have some photos of the recent fire that destroyed the Dreamland Ballroom at Conneaut Lake Park a few days ago.

Conneaut Lake Park, Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania, did not open for the 2007 season, and has had a legal battle over plans for Condos to be built on the site of the park over the past couple years. Sadly, now on top of all these struggles they park suffered this recent fire.

All pictures are copyrighted by the owner, please do not use them elsewhere.





Here are two different links to help learn more about the past, present, and future of Conneaut Lake Park.

Voodoo is Vertical!

I know it's really poor quality but on the Voodoo Webcam you can see that the ride has gone vertical!

You can see they have up some supports for the station area - and a piece of track ready to go up as well.

Check it out!

More Voodoo From the Air

Flying Phil has up new photos from January 27th, 2008 of the Voodoo construction site from the air.

You can see the completed footings, the electric room under wraps, new track and supports, and the new basketball game going up.

Here's the link.

San Diego's Sesame Street Bay of Play

Sea World San Diego has made their new Sesame Street themed area for 2008 official.

Sesame Street Bay of Play will feature numerous attractions, all themed to the popular Sesame Place characters. The area will feature three family rides, character meet'n'greets, an aquatic show, the new 4-D "Lights, Camera, Imagination!" show, another live show called "Big Bird's Beach Pary," retail, and food locations.

Here's a link to the park's press page where you can download the release.

The Haunt at Dorney Park Updates

Thanks to some awesome information posted in this thread over at Dorney Park Online, we now know some specifics as to what will be at the Haunt at Dorney Park in 2008.

First, Club Blood will be coming to the park this fall. Club Blood could be seen at other Cedar Fair parks this past fall, and has been around under other names at the original Haunt, Knott's, for years now.

It's supposed to be a much more graphic haunted house than we've seen in the past, featuring a dance club taken over by crazy vampires and the like. It was featured at the Haunt at Kings Island last year, here's a video of it:


According to reports, this Haunt will be located near the exit of White Water Landing, which to me means they'll have to build a structure for it in the maintenance area that's found back there.

Next, apparently the Hydra plaza area will be home to an outdoor Haunt area called "Terror Square."

Third, it was stated that CornStalkers will be added to the park and run from the entrance of Wildwater Kingdom back to the Thunder Canyon area. There's a maintenance road that runs directly in that path, I wonder if it'll be along there.

CornStalkers is an outdoor Haunt that was seen at other parks this past fall as well, for instance Kings Island. The path is lined with tons of corn stalks - and plenty of monsters. Here's a video of this at Kings Island last year:


It's getting exciting!

Six Flags Fiesta Texas' Goliath

© 2008 Stacy Bernal

It's bad of me, but I honestly sorta forgot that Goliath was even going in at Fiesta Texas after it was announced.

Regardless of my issues, the ride is totally half built already! SixFlagsHouston has had photo updates in their forums for a while now. Not all of the ride's supports have been painted yellow yet, so it's a little weird lookin' for now.
You can go back and see all the photos in this thread.

Dorney Park 1989 Brochure

1989 was a big year in the history of Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom. This was the year that Hercules, the now defunct wooden roller coaster, debuted at the park.

The cover of the brochure featured that cool art for the ride, with screaming passengers and everything.

Hercules was the world's tallest wooden roller coaster when it opened. When the Texas Giant opened in 1990, Dorney Park and Six Flags Over Texas had quite the argument about which ride was bigger, but that's for another post sometime.

The park's Ferris Wheel was also added in 1989 - and that too had some problems getting approved due to the ride's height.

This section mentions the park's entertainment, which included Middle Earth Marionettes. There was a theater for this which was located right around where the pizza place is now, if I remember correctly. I'd love to find a picture of the theater but haven't come across one. If you have one, please share!

Care Bears!


Here's the park map that was included in the brochure for 1989. There's lots of stuff to see on here too, like Telecombat. This was the Top Gun Zamperla flat ride that Paramount sued the park over the naming of. I believe it was also called Tomcat later in the years before it was removed.

It really is amazing to see how much the park has changed in the past twenty years.

More Voodoo Pictures

Dorney Park Online has some new pictures of the Voodoo construction going on at Dorney Park from inside the park.

The photos were taken at the enthusiast tour that takes place in connection with ACE's Eastcoaster event each winter.

The photos are pretty cool - click here to check them out.

© Dorney Park Online 2008

Carowinds' Afterburn

Carowinds has now renamed their Flight Deck into Afterburn, even going as far as to place the new logo for the ride onto their webpage.

Will it stick? Will they change it back? Will they rename their Drop Zone to Drop Tower?

Who knows - I really wish they would just create new webpages for all the former Paramount Parks and debut them at once, and have all the FINAL new ride names on there. This ever changing name stuff is unprofessional.

X2 @ Magic Mountain News

Two things: The LATimes Funland Blog has photos of a model of the design for the tunnels that will be added to X2 when it reopens.

They're insane! They're like big white Cirque Du Soleil tents mixed with a bra. They're not really enclosed, so don't expect and dark tunnels. It's going to look weird...

Also, Six Flags Magic Mountain has started to add photos (like the one on the right) of the transformation of the ride to their official site. Here's a link to that.

Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom

On Cedar Point's webpage they have a list of the other Cedar Fair properties - and they've updated Geauga Lake's entry to better reflect their murder to the amusement park there.

They're using a new logo, seen to the left, which makes the Geauga Lake park smaller - we can only hope in the future they'll shrink it down to nothing and stop making mention of GL at all.

Oh, and they actually had the guts to write this about the property: "Since its debut in 2005, Wildwater Kingdom has grown in size and popularity."

Yeah, it may be bigger, with the wave pool - but making it sound so popular and expanded is yet another slap in the face to fans of the now dead amusement side!

January Poll Results

Here's a graph of the poll results for January:

Sadly, someone decided to be very not-cool last night and do some ballot stuffing. This caused the total number of votes to go up by well over 100 in a few hours, and the number of votes for Behemoth to go up dramatically.

That said, I used what I remember seeing last night as a guide and manually removed many of those stupid cheater votes for Behemoth and arrived at this:

Which is what I will use when taking a look at the results.

The 2009 Kings Island B&M Hyper Coaster totally came in number one. I'm not surprised. That leaked layout of the ride makes it look pretty awesome, and it's hard not to have a hit on your hands when you build a B&M Hyper.

Speaking of those rides, Behemoth did come in 2nd place. Judging from those construction pictures we've been seeing, I'm again not surprised.

Those were the only two stand-out rides as far as voting went. Voodoo came in third, and California's Great America's 2009 Wooden Coaster was right behind in 4th.

Pony Express, Dominator, and Thunderhawk didn't get much in the way of votes. I think if Knott's had released more detailed info on Pony Express more excitement for the ride would exist.

New poll coming soon, and remember, don't cheat and vote a hundred times, it's just lame.