Scott and Carol Present - Six Flags Great America's Little Dipper




The traveling version of Cedar Fair's Rock Band Live show premiered at Dorney Park this Memorial Day weekend. Naturally, I had to check it out. Here we see the 'tour bus' or shall I say 'tour truck' parked outside.
The gist of the show is that guests may compete by showing their mad Rock Band skills in order to get on stage during the performance. There's this set up near the Good Time Theatre where guests take turns playing the instruments to get the highest score. The winners are announced shortly before each performance begins.
Here we see three guests taking their turn at Rock Band. Several of the performers from the show are out during this time interacting with the crowd as well, it's rather high energy and fun.
Once the winners are selected they go off and soon after you can enter the theatre and the show starts. The production quality is very high, it's a well put together show. There's eight or so performers in it, and a wide variety of songs are covered - all of which I take it are available in Rock Band.
Eventually the winners of that show's contest are brought out and introduced, and given rock star names like Fritzy, and fitting rock star outfits. Then during the next act they roll out on this platform playing their instruments while the performers sing and dance. There's a story line of rival bands involved as well to keep things moving.
The contest winners come out about 3 or 4 separate times during the show, much more than I expected when I first read about the production. Hopefully the show is deemed a hit so it can continue, or other similar versions can be created. It's a neat idea and Cedar Point and Canada's Wonderland lucked out with permanent shows this summer.
I placed all the photos I took during the show on NPN's Facebook for you guys.This was weird. Last week this had a growing facade being built on it, was totally enclosed, and was being connected to a nearby grove for a new Haunt. This week it appears as if it was never touched. Color me confused.
Demon Drop. Mostly small stuff left to do, though opening still looks a ways off. They've installed the cover for the queue entrance, and queue railings. More landscaping is going in as well. Didn't see any cars on or near the ride, though.
The station got some work, but not all that much - from my eyes anyway. I'm sure a million little things were done that I didn't notice, though. It seems a lot of electrical went in this week, too.
Here's another view of the entrance cover that went in this week. Much more work on the exit ramp has been done as well, seen in the background. I'm no park construction expert but this looks like it has a couple weeks at least until it's finished at this point.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend! This is a big weekend for park visiting - hope you guys got out there to have some fun!
Liseberg has already announced a new attraction for 2011: AtmosFear. The park will transform their existing observation tower into a new generation free fall tower, where riders will drop from almost 300 ft. Read more from the park.Same park, new name! At least a little, Disney California Adventure has lost an 's and also received a new logo, presenting a much different feel for the park. In addition to this news, the Disney Parks Blog also posted a look at the new World of Color commercial, which is pretty neat.
No new coaster for Six Flags Magic Mountain this year, after all. The park announced that Mr. Six's Dance Coaster has been delayed until 2011. Citing very vague "construction delays" for the cancellation, the park has said no more. Space was cleared for the ride, but no footers or steel ever went up.
Soft openings and special events are finally starting at Island's Of Adventure's new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Reports of the area have been showing up just recently, such as this one by Orlando Attractions Magazine. I'm sure we'll have photos and videos of the rides soon enough.As of today the new Luna Park at Coney Island is open! The park has launched a full website that's great for a preview of the park. I'm sure we'll be seeing more from the park soon!
Seems that Kentucky Kingdom's former Chang coaster is indeed headed to Six Flags Great America. The park went for zoning approval for a new ride that is being described as Chang. It will sit at the front of the park, using land where the simulator once was, and some parking lot. More details here.
Ferrari World previously had a video on YouTube showing off the attractions that were planned for the new park, but now they've released a new one that's even better. They did some great simulations of the rides and attractions they will offer, and the quality is much better. See it here.Knott's Berry Farm is debuting Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular this weekend. The new night time light show takes over Camp Snoopy each night. Kings Island's version of the show will begin this weekend as well!
Six Flags Over Texas is celebrating this long weekend with several special events. First, a local man will attempt to give the most hugs in one day - he'll have to do over 5,050 hugs in the 12 hours he'll be at the main gate. The Bamboozle Roadshow also makes it's stop at the park this weekend featuring 12 acts on two separate stages at the park.
The world's tallest and largest "looping water slide" opens this weekend at Noah's Ark in the Wisconsin Dells. Known as the Scorpion's Tail, the slide drops rides through a trap door, sending the falling down and then around the loop. See video of the new attraction here!Another big attraction to open this weekend is SplashTown at Darien Lake. The park posted a great HD video of the greatly expanded water park on their Facebook. Looks like a great place to spend a summer day.
Universal Studios Hollywood is finally ready to fully reopen the back lot sets they've rebuilt after a fire cleared almost all of them out two years ago. The park's famous tram tour will now be able to move around the sets when real filming is not taking place on them. Up next for the park later this summer is King Kong 360 3-D.
Theme Park Review took a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood and got a special look at the Revenge of the Mummy coaster with the lights on. Seeing a dark ride with the lights on is like Christmas morning for coaster geeks! Check out the update here.
After having recently announced their new MEGAtube waterslides, WhiteWater West has already expanded the series with the Anaconda. Seen above, the slide is the largest family raft ride ever designed.
After riders drop down a steep incline they enter the 30 ft. diameter, fully enclosed MEGAtube flume where the rafts spin and oscillate side to side, climbing as high as 15 ft. up the inner walls. The versatile slide can easily be combined with other WhiteWater products, such as the Family Boomerango - and better yet they can design several attractions to interact with each other using flume-in-flume capabilities.
The new MEGAtube series is already proving to be a success, with three slides already having been sold for projects in Thailand, India, and China. Read more about the MEGAtube series in our previous article.
The Kentucky State Fair Board has voted to approve the start of formal lease negotiations with an investment group named KK Redevelopment Company - which is led by former Kentucky Kingdom owner Ed Hart.
The negotiations will last for 60 days at which time a proposed lease agreement will be presented to the Fair Board. Mr. Hart has said he'll use $3 million of his own funds, and raise some $17 more to be able to reopen Kentucky Kingdom in 2011.
It "broke his heart" to hear that Six Flags was closing the park, since Ed Hart and his partners were the ones who purchased Kentucky Kingdom in 1990 and turned it into a major theme park before selling to Premier Parks. Another group who put in a bid for the lease was a company led by former Six Flags CEO Kieran Burke.
More details on the story can be found in this news article, including the other executives Hart has retained to help reopen the park.
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor water park, located next to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ, is celebrating it's 10th anniversary season this year. A 10th wedding anniversary is traditionally celebrated by giving your spouse something made of tin - well - Hurricane Harbor came up with something just slightly better than that for us, the Tornado.