A NPN Milestone

According to the post count, this is NewsPlusNotes' 1000th post! I figured this was a milestone worth recording in the history books ... or at least on the blog.

Whether it's evaluating a new Six Flags coaster, fixating on a new Cedar Fair park map, reading about a huge announcement at a Orlando theme park, or checking out old brochures and maps, I've had a great time creating these 1000 posts.

I'd like to say a hearty thank you to everyone who reads NPN, I'm continually astounded by the ever growing number of readers. NPN started as a little hobby and has grown into something I never imagined, and for that I say thanks!

3 Updates To Check Out

© 2008 RCPro

RCPro has a new gallery of Phantasialand photos that are amazing. The park is really beautiful, and I love how well themed everything is. Click here to check out the update.

Westcoaster also has an update for Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland in case you wanted to check out what's new at those parks. Click here for that one.

Finally, IOACentral has a large update for both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. Here's that link.

Sorry for the less than amazing update today, but NewsPlusNotes bought a house today, and I've been cleaning carpets all day!

Dorney Park 6.28.08 Update

Another trip to the park, this time I went late in the day because I wanted to play around with taking night photos of the park. A lot of these are just that - night photos of Dorney Park, but there's a few update-ish things in here, too.

Wave Swinger - a photo that's taken at many parks ... but there's a reason for that - it's pretty!

The structure for Club Blood is not up yet, but they've put up some banners on the construction wall. Here's one that's specifically for Club Blood - I can't wait till this fall!

Here's another one that's a general ad for The Haunt. I added in a bigger version of one part to show that they're still saying that The Haunt after 6 p.m. is not recommended for kids!

Splash. It was still crazy humid last night even at 10 p.m., so White Water Landing still had riders.

I really like Hydra's station at night, the lightning is nice.

The Whip's lights were looking pretty great, not many bulbs out at all. I still love the new sign but it really needs to have some sort of lightning at night. It looks sorta silly like this...

I noticed that the 3 Point Challenge has gone back up to $10 a play, it was $5 earlier in the season. Not sure if that's just how they work it, changing the price when the crowds come. It still had a line to play though, and this was taken after 9 p.m.

Some night shots of the new for 2008 - and very often not working - Voodoo. The sign reminds me of holding a flash light under your chin in the dark and talking in a scary voice. But I'm weird...

So nice and calm in the Voodoo area - cause like I said it wasn't open. Didn't look like it had been for a while either, the train was just stopped on the launch track with no on working on it or anything. Is Cedar Fair regretting moving this ride yet?

The empty station all lit up at night. Revolution and Meteor were also down last night. Revolution is another ride that Cedar Fair should feel regret for dumping on Dorney Park.

But Laser was open! It had a long line, too, but that's because Voodoo was closed and it was operating with one train. Still, get those rides in while you can.

Ring Toss. It glows at night!

I just liked this shot.

The park had a pretty good crowd yesterday, they were in the overflow parking lot. Not sure if the economy is hurting the park at this point or not.

Party's Over!

Disney has announced that Pleasure Island will cease to exist in its current form near the end of September.

The news means that the 6 remaining night clubs on the island will be closed and either modified into something else or removed over the next couple years. Basically the middle island of Downtown Disney that was Pleasure Island will be shops, dining, and other entertainment like the rest of .

Who didn't see this coming, really? I never knew anyone who wanted to go to Disney World to go to themed night clubs. I can't help but think of the episode of Step By Step (90s family comedy tv show) where the family was in Disney World and the girls tried to win some Country Music contest at one of the clubs. Yeah, I wanted too much TV in the 90s.

I did see the comedy show they have there once, and it was indeed funny. And when I was a kid it confused me why Pleasure Island had new years' celebrations every night.

Anyway, please see Orlando Attractions Magazine's blog for tons of detailed info on the news, video interviews, and already concept art for Pleasure Island replacements.

I Love Indiana Jones Movies + Rides

So I finally went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull today, and as I expected it to be it was awesome.

I know there's no 'official' connection to the ride at Tokyo DisneySea (Indiana Jones Adventure: The Temple of the Crystal Skull), but there are some similarities that can't be ignored. Lots of little things, and even the use of a vortex type thing in both ... well I won't say more in case you haven't seen it.

But what you can see is a great video of the ride at Tokyo DisneySea! It helps if you've been on the one at Disneyland to understand what's going on, but it's fun nonetheless.

Busch Entertainment Parks Safe?

Anheuser Busch has said that their method of fighting off a takeover bid by In-Bev will be based on reducing costs at the company, and not selling any smaller aspects of the operation.

This is fantastic news because that means that they do not plan to sell the theme park division! Instead of selling anything, they'll use an early retirement program among other tactics to cut costs to the point where the takeover would not make financial sense.

The fight may not be over, though, as many industry experts expect In-Ben to raise their offer to a level where Busch's board would have a hard time justifying saying no. Then again we'd have parks like Busch Gardens, Sea World, and Sesame Place in danger.

Only time will tell, but at least if Anheuser Busch stays as is, it looks like the parks will remain safe.

Kings Island Plays Hard Ball

Kings Island is currently located as part of the City of Mason in Ohio. Mason is now considering starting a 1-3% admissions tax on local attractions, with Kings Island being by far the largest of these.

The park has stated that if Mason decides to try to impose the tax, they will do everything they can to legally de-annex from Mason, and go to being part of Deerfield Township.

Now whether or not the park could easily do that, I have no idea. But this isn't' the first time a park as been 'attacked' through taxes by their local municipality. It's stupid - doesn't the park already bring in enough tax revenue as is? I don't think that these places should be hit with more taxes when they already contribute a lot.

An initiative like this has failed at multiple other parks in the country in the past few years, so hopefully this one will, too.

Daily Spin 6.26.08

Looks like Anheuser Busch will reject In-Bev's offer, but follow that with a company reorganization that could see the theme park division being sold off anyway. No good! Those parks are some of the best run out there... I wish they would stay with Anheuser Busch.

ThemeParkReview's forums are still proving to be the best place to go for assorted photo trip reports... two I took note of recently were this one of Canobie Lake and - finally - one from Elitch Gardens! I was starting to think no one had visited Elitch yet this year. Looks like their new dark ride attraction is far from being open, though.


Moving south, we find that Universal Studios has already started construction on their new Rockit coaster for 2009. They've begun to clear out the section of the park where the new coaster, and an amphitheater, will reside. OrlandoRocks has lots of great photos.

Cedar Fair is building the company's new headquarters in the middle of Cedar Point. The Morning Journal has an article about how the company came through with using local resources and labor to build the project. I personally think it's weird that they would build this in the middle of the park ... why not on that land they own on the way in? Well I don't work there so no bother to me!

Decades Music Theme Park is one step closer to reality, though they still have a long way to go. The proposed Arizona theme park got Senate approval for a bill that would help get financing in order so construction can start. This is the first time I've seen a photo of a model of the park, it looks fairly interesting, though the image is small.

Silver Dollar City 2009?

Silver Doller City recently sent out a survey about a possible new ride for the theme park. The above concept art comes from that survey.

Basically, it's just like Dollywood's new River Battle ride this year, only themed to Tom & Huck's Adventures... in fact that's the rumored name - Tom & Huck's Adventures. It's a Splash Battle style ride, where there are tons of water elements that boats encounter while on the 'river,' and riders have water guns to shoot at watchers and vice versa.

Nothing is confirmed just yet - but this thread at Silver Dollar City Fans mentions that a wall is up where the ride would go with teasers painted on it.

I'm a fan of these rides so I say good choice, Silver Dollar City! Plus Dollywood's theming on their River Battle was cute - so I can only guess that this ride would have nice theming as well.

'Terminator' Coaster @ Magic Mountain

So apparently at a recent ACE event CEO of Six Flags, Inc., Mark Shapiro, let the cat out of the bag and mentioned that Six Flags Magic Mountain will be adding a Great Coasters International wooden coaster for 2009.

Okay that was sorta already known, but certainly not confirmed. However, what was news to me is that he said it'll be themed to the Terminator franchise!

There is some sense in there, though. Terminator: Salvation is set to come out in 2009 starting Christian Bale instead of the Governator - so there will be a very current media tie in for the ride.

But still! A wooden coaster themed to the Terminator? I don't see it. At all. Six Flags' tie in to the Dark Knight worked because Batman was already all over the parks and it was indoors and themed. Evel Knievel made no sense as a wooden coaster but at least the man was thrill seeker so in a vague sense there's a connection.

But Terminator and a classic style wooden thriller? I don't see it. Do you guys? Leave a comment...

Oh and that makes GCI up to three wooden coasters for the U.S. next year, Magic Mountain, California's Great America, and Worlds of Fun - with a 4th on the way. They're so hot right now!

Disney Family Flix At Valleyfair!

Interesting. I missed this, obviously, as it started in June, but Valleyfair! is hosting Disney Family Flix at Valleyfair! each Tuesday in June, July, and August at the park.

Each Tuesday one film will be shown twice in the park's Galaxy Theater. The movies are free with admission to the park.

This is a very interesting combination. It says that it's sponsored by Valleyfair! and Radio Disney. I'm not really sure what to make of this - I suppose it's an interesting idea ... but don't people go to parks for more outdoor type activities?

Sea World San Diego Update

© 2008 Westcoaster.net

WestCoaster has a great update for Sea World San Diego that shows off all sorts of cool stuff at the park.

They cover the new Sesame Bay of Play children's area that's new for 2008, a behind the scenes look at the animals at the park - and a peak at the area of the park that will be home to a new roller coaster in 2010.

Check it out!

Old Mr. Freeze Concept Art

© Jack Rouse Associates

Check out these cool pieces of concept art that I came across on Jack Rouse Associates' website. They're for the Mr. Freeze coaster at Six Flags St. Louis. Like most concept art, they are more elaborate than what was actually built, but I still love that Six Flags parks had nice theming like this back in the day.

© Jack Rouse Associates

The above one of the station view is especially cool. Don't get me wrong, I think that station as it was built is pretty neat, too. But this concept art is awesome...

Holiday World has the Friendliest Employees

This is a cute story and really proves why Holiday World has the friendliest employees. Last summer, a little boy was eating a chocolate covered apple at the park and spit out what he thought was an apple seed into the trash.

Well, his mommy realized that what he spit out was the first baby tooth that he had lost! That's where park employee, Lauren Wahl, comes into the story. The boys mother asked for assistance in locating the tooth, and Lauren donned her gloves and started digging through the whole trash can until the tooth was safely located.

For her efforts, Lauren was recently given the state's Hoosier Hospitality Award. Congratulations to Lauren and to Holiday World for hiring such wonderful people to staff the park!

New Kings Island 2009 Photos

© 2008 KICentral.com + Dane Thomas

KICentral has some new photos of the 2009 coaster construction site posted. They should really think about announcing this soon - this section seen above is seriously looks like it is ready for steel to go up!

I wonder if the ride will have a unique name or a 'Cedar Fair' already used name.

Gerstlauer's New Flat Ride

Gerstlauer has been creating some awesome, unique roller coasters in the past few years, and now they've moved on to making a pretty awesome, unique looking flat ride.

And this one looks like it would make me vomit, a lot. It's called Sky Roller, and Coasters And More has a ton of fantastic photos of the ride in action, currently set up at the German Museum Munich.

Basically, the ride part of the tower goes up about 70 ft., spins, and each rider can then control their car using their own 'wings' - this allows them to flip around and all sorts of other vomit inducing movements.

Or, like I probably would, you could not mess with the wings and just enjoy the view! Gerstlauer has some additional photos and a video on their website if you want to check it out.

So who in the U.S. will build one of these? They're probably pretty bad on capacity ... but certainly unique!

Worlds of Fun 2009

In case anyone was still doubting that Worlds of Fun was indeed adding a GCI Wooden Coaster in 2009, CoasterCommunity has posted some photos of a rather large delivery of wood that has shown up at the park.

The stacks of lumber look exactly like those I've seen at pretty much every wooden coaster construction site before.

Exciting!

Kings Island's 4th of July Event

Kings Island in Ohio is really pulling out all the stops for this year's 4th of July celebration at the park.

The park is following up their recent Robbie Knievel jump with a tightrope walk performed by Rick Wallenda, the grandson of the late Karl Wallenda, who in 1974 completed a tightrope walk at Kings Island that set a world record.

Rick will do two separate walks at the park, the second of which, if completed, will measure some 2,000 feet in length. All of this will transpire over the amusement park.

Kings Island will also again have the retro characters and the Hanna Barbara gang out to greet guests, along with an air show, skydivers, and grand 4th of July fireworks display - the largest in the park's history.

The park is really stepping up their game with special events this year!

Wild West World Sold Again!

Wild West World, the defunct theme park in Kansas, has been purchased in another bankruptcy auction by AHG Group, LLC. The previous owner, Amusement Holdings, failed to close on the property by May 30th so it went up for bid again.

The new owners, who are an investment company, already are planning on getting the park reopened as quickly as possible, not even ruling out reopening this summer.

The company is said to be in talks with a possible amusement operator for getting the place back open, but declined to say who the operator would be yet.

Here's hoping that the new owners actually follow through. Unlike the previous buyer these guys certainly have the cash on hand to get the place open! This is turning into another soap opera story - I just hope one with a happy ending.

Go Ride Evel Knievel!

Six Flags St. Louis has put out a fancy online press release to announce that Evel Knievel, the park's new wooden coaster, is now open to the public.

You can check out the release here. They have a great video on there, which includes some nice shots of the ride in action as well as mixed in POV footage.

The trains for this ride are totally awesome, as well. Keep those GCI wooden coasters coming, Six Flags!

Maximum RPM On Ride Video

© 2008 Hard Rock Park Blog

Hard Rock Park Blog has posted a ride review and on-ride video of Maximum RPM at Hard Rock Park.

The ride looks really short, but the music is a lot of fun! Click here to check out the info via HRPBlog.

The Great Escape Lodge's Johnny Rockets

© 2008 TGE Source

The Six Flags Great Escape Lodge recently opened a Johnny Rocket's restaurant, and The Great Escape Source was there to check things out.

The site also has an update for the park's new Wiggles World, as well as a larger gallery of photos taken at the park.

Click here to check out the photos.

Daily Spin 6.18.08

The sale of Kennywood Entertainment, including Kennywood Park, Idlewild Park, and Lake Compounce to Parques Reunidos was finalized on June 7th, according to this article. For a while it seemed as though the sale might not take place, alas, the deed has been done. Let's hope that the new operator doesn't mess up this collection of traditional amusement parks.

Geauga Lake appears to be having a rough start to their season ... I wonder why? Here's a great trip report from over on CoasterBuzz. We'll have to see if things pick up or not when the kiddies are out of school (so like now).

Check out photos of Pony Express at Knott's Berry Farm's pretty much completed tunnel over at AmericaCoasters. Tunnels on rides are great, and this one helps this short ride end with a bang.

SM2 Designs was invited to California's Great America's media day, and has pictures of the park's new Endless Summer ice skating show in this gallery. One move that Cedar Fair did right with the former Paramount Parks was to bring back these ice shows.

The Forest at Granite Park, the theme park being built in Fresno, California plans to open its first phase this fall, probably in October according to this article. This is the new park that purchased the former Lightning Bolt coaster and Flume rides from the defunct MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park in Las Vegas. I can't wait to see these rides operate again.

Finally, Theme Park Reivew has some nice grand opening coverage for Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney's California Adventure. Click here to check that out. Looks like a fun ride - but maybe not one I personally would wait hours for.

More Geauga Auction News

I know there has been a lot of Geauga posts today and yesterday, but it's not every day that a former major amusement park's remains are auctioned off...

Anyway - the Geauga Lake Today forums are the place to go to find out what went down today. Lots of good info on there, like:

• Villain, Double Loop, and Matterhorn were sold for scrap.
• The Skyscraper (sky tower) was also sold for scrap
• Three water slides went to Schlitterbahn for their new Kansas City property, along with the park's SkyCoaster
• The Cornhole game sign went for a surprising amount!
• The 3rd party who bought the Big Dipper for that mystery person also purchased Wolf Bobs.
• Several other flats like the Bounty, Starfish, and Time Warp were sold, not known yet to who.

Another big piece of information that WKYC is reporting is that the person who purchased the Big Dipper plans to use it as a "nostalgia piece" with no plans of operating it again. Is someone putting it in their back yard?! Odd...

Finally, the Norton auctioneer said in front of the crowd that ACE was offered the Dipper for free and Carole Sanderson, a former ACE president yelled back that that information was false, to which the Norton guy asked for her to be removed from the auction (she wasn't removed).

Hello, drama! The WKYC article has more on that verbal exchange.

Does anyone care to *not* get mud on their face during all of this!??

Here's a video of The Big Dipper to watch while you ponder all this info...

Big Dipper Sold... Maybe?

Today was the auction of the remaining amusement rides at Geauga Lake, and it looks like the Big Dipper was sold for $5,000 to a company local to the park who for now remains a mystery.

This article says that a 3rd party attended the auction to place the bid on behalf of this company, and that since Cedar Fair has to approve the buyer they wanted to remain nameless for now. Apparently Cedar Fair has until 5 p.m. today to approve or deny the purchase.

Regarding why the Big Dipper's sale has to be approved, Cedar Fair talkinghead Robin Innes said, ""It's a very special ride. We want to make sure it has a proper home."

Umm, excuse me, bue we're not that stupid. They'd have done better to keep their yappers shut than to try to shove b.s. like that down our throats.

Hopefully more info and who the actual buyer is will surface later today.

Geauga Lake Auction Photos

© Outside_Looking_In 2008

Here's a link to a Flickr set of photos taken today at the preview day for the Geauga Lake Amusement Park auction, which starts tomorrow.

Be warned, a lot of the photos are pretty sad. It's weird though, in some shots it looks like the place could reopen tomorrow - and in others it looks like a nasty wasteland.

© Outside_Looking_In 2008

^ Care to go take a dip? Yeah, me neither...

Great Evel Knievel Pics

© 2008 Coaster101

Coaster101 has a new set of really fantastic photos of Evel Knievel the ride at Six Flags St. Louis. The placement in the park is really pretty, but then again these wooden GCI coasters are pretty anywhere...

Check out the photo update here.

That Is El Loco

© 2008 Indiana Beach

So Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach is pretty much done being constructed, and well - now I understand why S&S is calling this type of ride El Loco.

Honestly though, all I keep thinking about it how much this ride might hurt with the shoulder harnesses and possible head banging and such. It's certainly a crazy thing to look at, though!

A couple more pics.

Street Legal Bumper Cars

Thanks to one of our readers for pointing this out - a mechanic in San Diego has been transforming old Bumper Car shells into street legal, gas powered vehicles.

While I wish that more parks would be using these classic ride parts for actual bumper cars (ahem, Dorney Park) - this is a pretty awesome idea!

Check out more photos via Jalopnik.

Geauga Auction Anticipation

This coming Tuesday marks the start of the Geauga Lake Amusement Park auction by Norton Auctioneers. This article revels something rather interesting: Cedar Fair offered the Big Dipper classic wooden coaster to ACE for free - with ACE only having to pay for taking down the ride and moving it.

According to the article, ACE did not accept this offer. I'd love to know the specific details of that offer to ACE, though, as to me this reads like Cedar Fair 'offered' Big Dipper for free with conditions (like remove it by month end, or something) knowing ACE doesn't have the resources to do it, only to turn around and make their offer public to cover their butts when the ride doesn't sell and is torn down.

Others have speculated that ACE wanted to purchase the land around the Big Dipper for mixed use development, including their ever so long awaited Roller Coaster Museum, but Cedar Fair nixed the idea. Neither party has ever said anything official, though.

What a tangled web these two organized have weaved! Seems silly but then again, it's business!

WDI Outsourcing Animatronics

According to a leaked memo from the heads of Walt Disney Imagineering, the company plans to outsource the creating of Audio Animatronic characters going forward. It's said that the highly specialized characters will still be produced by WDI in one of their facilities (like Mr. Potato Head from the new Toy Story Midway Mania rides).

This story about the announcement from O-Meon will fill you in on all the details.

Initially many Disney hardcore fans were upset with this news, but I'm not sure I understand why. Disney, along with Universal, Busch Entertainment, etc, already outsources many of the aspects of attraction design - and has for a long, long time now.

I mean just look at the coasters they build, they've outsourced those ride systems for years now to companies like Vekoma and others. I have to say that I don't really care who actually builds an Animatronic I see in a ride so long as it's there!

Plus, outsourcing should makes things cheaper, so maybe new rides and attractions will see more of the characters used, instead of the sparse amount we've seen in recent years.

And of course I've included a photo of Hopper, my all time favorite Animatronic.

What About Busch's Parks?

This past week InBev, a Belgian beer company announced that they want to purchase Anheuser-Busch and make the world's biggest brewing company.

Well, as we know Anheuser-Busch owns Busch Entertainment Corp., and thus the Sea World, Busch Gardens, and several other parks. So now we must wonder, if InBev is successful at purchasing the company - what will become of the parks?

This article discusses some of the possibilities, of course the parks could be sold (but who is in a position to but them ... probably private equity) or kept by the new owners. Busch Entertainment parks are some of the most beautiful ones around, so regardless of who owns them I hope they keep status quo as far as operating goes.

Dubai's Restless Planet

Screamscape linked to an article today that provides more information about the new Restless Planet Theme Park that's going into the City of Arabia in Dubai. I had never really learned much about this park before today, and having researched it I figured why not share!

The $300 million 'edutainment' park will be connected to the Mall of Arabia, which is going to be one of the world's largest shopping malls when completed. The park will be part museum, part educational facility, part theme park, and part planetarium. It will also house the world's largest collection of animatronic dinosaurs.

Part of the park will be enclosed in a giant glass dome. Here's some concept art:

And another, while we are at it:

An interesting design, eh? The park has some very big names backing its development, as well. The Natural History Museum of London will be making sure that the dinosaurs are correctly represented, Jack Rouse & Assoc. will be designing the theme park rides, and even the famous paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner (yes the character from Jurassic Park was based on him) will be part of the project.

But we're a blog that loves rides and attractions, and while details are to be announced very soon, from several articles it looks like there will be:

• The Dome Show, a spectacular interpretation of the Earth's violent and dramatic formation.
• A river raft journey from the Mesozoic era through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras.
• A heart-stopping roller coaster chase behind a pack of dromaeosaurs as they track a lumbering edmontosaurus.

The park and phase one of the Mall of Arabia has a tentative opening date of the end of 2010. It really sounds like if this is well done it could be a very awesome experience.

Here's a video of one of the dinosaurs that has been created for the park via YouTube:

Steel Hawg's First Drop

© 2008 Indiana Beach

That first drop is pretty wild! So that's what 120 degrees looks like, eh? The Indiana Beach Blog has some new photos of the ride going up.

I like the black supports with orange track, too!

Sea World San Antonio's New Slides

I suppose news of this has been floating around for a little while now, but Sea World San Antonio will be adding two new water slides to their included water park area this summer called Sidewinders.

The slides will be built by Proslide, start from a 48 ft. tower, and will be enclosed. One will be red and one blue, and the tower will be designed to accommodate two more slides in the future.

A nice addition to the park, as I'm sure the water park is popular in the Texas summer heat. Rumors of even more water park expansion have been around for a while now, so this may only be the start.

Taking a Spin on Skyscraper

Skyscraper is now open at Cedar Point's Challenge Park as a pay extra attraction. Although the ride is in it's 3rd home and 9th operating season, a new coat of primary color paint has the attraction looking good.

The logo that was used on Dorney Park's ferris wheel, when it was called Skyscraper, has followed through to Valleyfair! and now is still in use at Cedar Point. So is the ride sign that was on the ferris wheel. There's some exciting trivia for your friends! Ha.

Here's an article.

Magic Springs - Sold!

Magic Springs and Crystal Falls has been sold to PARC Management, LLC. PARC is the group that purchased several former Six Flags parks last year.

This article covers the news really well, and points out the growth that Magic Springs has seen in the past few years, with attendance now up over a half million.

PARC Management now operates Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, Frontier City, Wild Waves, Magic Springs, and three water park only facilities.

Daily Spin 6.9.08

Kings Island Central has some new aerial photos of the 2009 coaster construction. In these you can really see what they're clearing out back in the woods. At a quick glance, the area that has been cleared fits perfectly with that layout that First Drop published.

Coaster Force has published some interesting interviews with a few of the top executives from Hard Rock Park. These guys are pretty frank, not something you find in this industry too often, so they're a pretty great read.

Toy Story Midway Mania is having it's cast member's preview, and MouseTimes has photos. The level of detail on the outside facade of Midway Mania is really amazing. The Orlando version lacks this, but has it's own unique themed indoor queue.

I'm not a big fan of reporting ride accidents (other sites cover those) but this is news, there was another cable break on an Intamin freefall, this time on Hurakan Condor at Port Aventura, Spain. The cable was removed before the ride car was lowered, so thankfully no injuries like Kentucky Kingdom's accident. RideAccidents has photos.

New photos of Aftershock at Silverwood Theme Park can be seen in this thread on RCPro. They've started construction the towers, and from additional posts in the thread one side is almost completed.

Zoombezi Bay opened on Memorial Day as we know, but the park was quite a success on that opening day. This article says that attendance was over 4,000, which is really pretty good for a water park only.

Dorney Park 6.8.08 Update

Well hello. Decided to take my camera on my visit to Dorney Park today to do a little update. Here's what I came up with.

Dorney Park is doing the Joe Cool's BBQ like many of the other Cedar Fair parks. It's all you can eat cook-out style food. The sign says you can buy tickets online but I don't see them on DP's site, or you can get tickets at the Icee Mix It Up stand.

I took a spin on Voodoo, and had to wait while a seat was cleaned so what else to do but take some nerdy shots.

One thing that's different is that after the ride hits the brakes at the end it's moved backward into the station and it now keeps going and actually moves up the holding brake tower a bit - then comes down and stops in the station.

And that last photo is for Cedar Fair color choice sake, most CF rides have red on them and Voodoo was missing that - then I noticed that the lights in the station are painted red! Super nerdy!

I haven't been on Laser yet this year and really want to cause of it, ya know, being for sale. Today again wasn't my day though, it was closed and they were welding! Yikes.

They added some fish food dispensers on the bridge over to Revolution/Steel Force, and so I felt the need to take a picture of the fish in the stream.

Still one of the nicest walkways in the park, and surprisingly empty when I was able to grab this shot.

Hi, those prices are insane!

Took this one just because I liked how it looked. I love this old fountain. Love it even more when there's a toilet with a skeleton on it during the Haunt.

Work on the building for Club Blood is moving along, this was taken from behind White Water Landing because you could see into the construction area. Looks like the site for the building is cleared and leveled out.

While I was back there I took this shot of Hydra starting down it's first drop.

It was like 85 degrees at 10 a.m. today, so the water rides were super popular. There were a lot of empty rafts cycling on Thunder Canyon though, not sure why.

And there is a new Quarter Back Challenge game that I didn't notice till now in the main midway games area. I messed up this shot and the game is actually to the left of the one shown here. I'm assuming this is the same type of game that I've seen photos of at the other Cedar Fair parks as well.

Nothing too exciting, but an update nonetheless.

Evel Knievel @ SF St. Louis Testing

Below is a video of the first test run of the new CGI wooden coaster, Evel Knievel, at Six Flags St. Louis. Congrats on it making it all the way around! (I'm not being mean, that happens with wooden rides)

Also, that screen grab above is the ride's entrance sign which I think is awesome! I love how it's a ramp like he used in his jumps! Just very smart and well done.

© 2008 remvrm

Valleyfair! Update

© 2008 ValleyfairZone

ValleyfairZone has posted a nice photo update for Valleyfair!. The park looks like it's moving into the summer swing of things.

There's also already some Haunt props in the backstage areas that can be seen!

© 2008 ValleyfairZone

Magic Mountain's Thomas Town

© 2008 Theme Park Review

Theme Park Reivew has a great photo report from the grand opening of Thomas Town at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Click here to see their report.

This version of Thomas Town has only the Thomas train ride and a children's coaster, along with a small children's water play area. I really like how they redid an existing kiddie coaster and themed it to a Thomas Town character!

This press page also has a video of the area and some additional photos, if you want to check that out too.

It's Water Park Season

MSNBC has a great article about what's new at America's hottest water parks this year. It covers lots of great stuff and even brings up that alien abduction water slide thing we first saw at IAAPA last year. (I hope someone builds that soon)

The article can also help you plan what you might want to do on your next water park trip!

Just for fun, here's something scary that you could do on a waterslide, but I wouldn't suggest it:

Firefall Video

Here is a link to a video of Firefall at California's Great America on YouTube. The reason I am not displaying it here is because the video is sideways... and it's a little hard to watch. I flipped the photo above so it looks nice.

I wanted to get through it though cause it's the first time that I've seen all the fire effects working. They look great, but man, that ride program is bad. It's the same as the one at Dorney Park, I think, but for some reason it just doesn't flip when it's supposed to.

2 Odd News Items

This one isn't super weird, but it's different for sure - Six Flags is partnering with Brash Entertainment to release a video game this winter.

"Six Flags Fun Park" will be released for Wii, X-box 306, and Playstation 2. It looks like it will focus mostly on moving around a park and playing 40 mini-games, like those that were found in Thrillville.

Universal Studios Hollywood will debut a musical in 2009 titled The Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical. The show will replace the Fear Factor Live attraction currently at the park.

This is very weird, and I'm not sure I get why they would do this. But if it's all like a big play on the old horror classic and it's funny then maybe it'll be good? I don't know.

Tokyo Disneyland's Monsters

© 2008 Disneytheque.com

New in 2009 at Tokyo Disneyland will be Monsters Inc. Ride-And-Go-Seek, which will be a great new dark ride with an interactive component to it themed to the Disney Pixar movie Monsters Inc.

Disneytheque has photos of the outside of the attraction going up, how cool is it that they made it look like the scare factory from the movie? It'll be located in the park's Tomorrowland section (a catch-all for Pixar properties in all the Disney parks, it seems).

Click here to see the photos of the construction.

MiAdv 2008 Park Map

Totally not a big deal but Michigan's Adventure finally posted their 2008 park map. Thunderhawk's track is orange which tells me that they decided pretty late in the game to paint it red.

Here's a link.

Daily Spin 6.3.08

There's a blurb on the official site for Universal Studios Singapore that lists one of the park's attractions as a "truly innovative pair of dueling coasters--one seated and one suspended--that are locked in aerial combat. Exciting loops, sudden turns, breathtaking drops and thrilling near-collisions will make you scream out loud." It's a newer Dueling Dragons! Awesome!

On another Universal note, the fire at the Hollywood property was started by roofers who were using a blowtorch to heat and apply shingles to a facade roof. This CNN article has the details. Also, the LA Times Funland Blog reports that Kong will not be rebuilt, but replaced with a newer attraction.

A new thrill ride for Sea World San Diego? Screamscape thinks so. They have up a layout of a proposed ride for 2010 that looks a lot like a Premier Revenge of the Mummy style ride... pretty exciting. See it here.

California's Great America recently received the go-ahead for their 2009 GCI wooden roller coaster. The park's neighbor, a Prudential office building, started a fuss when park owners asked for a height variance for the ride - but the variance was approved 5-1 last week. Now get building!

After the debacle that left Six Flags New England with no Dark Knight coaster this year, the local government's ordinance subcommittee is going to push an amendment that would let the park build rides up to 200 ft. without special permission. It doesn't solve all the problems that cause Batman to fly away ... but hey it's a start.

Hard Rock Park, after several pre-openings and openings, had it's final opening day blast yesterday. The park is now open daily, but be warned the Premier Rides coaster, Maximum RPM, is not yet open for business.

Westcoaster's Universal Fire Update

© 2008 Westcoaster

Westcoaster posted a really great update today covering the fire at Universal Studios Hollywood today.

They have photos of the section of the studio lot that was destroyed from the day before the fire, and a ton of pictures from the day of the fire as well. They even have a video up of news footage that helps explain what buildings were lost.

Click here for their update.

A correction from my post yesterday, the Back to the Future courthouse set was not destroyed, and none of the studio's soundstages were destroyed either.

Universal Hollywood Fire

A fire broke out on the backlot sets at Universal Studios Hollywood very early on Sunday morning.

The fire spread quickly and consumed a large portion of the backlot area at the studio property/theme park. According to reports, several important structures were a total loss:

• The King Kong segment of the Tram Tour, where a giant Kong attacked the trams. With Orlando's removed for The Mummy and Hollywood's lost this morning, the Kong rides and banana breath are now just a memory.
• The famous Courtyard set from the Back to the future movies.
• A film and TV vault the studios kept, but it's said that all of what was stored in it has duplicates elsewhere.
• The entire New York backlot streets that were used for tons of filming over the years.
• At least one total Soundstage, and several sets that were recently used for movies.

The same area of the studios backlot had a major fire back in 1990 which destroyed the New York sets, but at first appearance this fire seems to have done more damage than the previous one.

These stills are from CNN's video, and NewsDay has an article with a photo gallery of the fire and the remains after it was put out.

Construction @ Hong Kong Disneyland

HKDL Source is the go-to site for everything Hong Kong Disneyland, and in a recent update for the park they have a bunch of photos of some new construction going on at the park.

It's in Adventureland, and certainly looks like a decent sized project. Reports from the park have employees saying that it's for a new haunted maze for this coming Halloween season. Last year the park did a nice job with their Halloween event, and did have one maze open for the event.

The rumors, as we know, are that a possible major expansion to the park could come in the form of a Pirate themed section of Adventureland. Sure, it may just be for a haunted house, but maybe it's the start of something bigger. Who knows? It's exciting though.

Fahrenheit POV

© smj0724 2008

Here's a POV video of Fahrenheit at Hershey Park. I must find time to go ride this ... it's right down the highway!

Aerial Antics: Carowinds

I was browsing Windows Live Local, as usual (I'm still pretty obsessed) and was looking at Carowinds bird's eye views and I think they're updated from what was on there before.

Above, you can see Afterburn in it's glory, with it's fantastic paint job (you know me and silver/white tracks).

Here's a member of the Cedar Fiar Hawk Family, Nighthawk. Different now, of course, they've ripped out the sphere you can see.

It looks like a fun ride but OUCH ... no thanks Hurler.

This should get you to the images if you like.