Another Round of Park Reopening Announcements

© Kentucky Kingdom

I like posting these!  Here are the latest parks to officially announce reopening dates.  There are several more who are in states that have clarified when parks can open, but we prefer to wait to hear from the parks directly.

Up first is Kentucky Kingdom, which will reopen to visitors for the 2020 season on June 29th.  The water park, Hurricane Bay, will open soon after that.  While more details will come as the opening date nears, for now the park is saying that it "will operate with enhanced sanitizing and cleaning procedures and safety protocols to provide the best possible protection of guests and team members during the current coronavirus crisis."

Also, as a huge plus to the public, they have lowered their gate prices to $29.95 and 2020 season passes are only $49.95.  For people who already purchased 2020 seasons passes (they say there are 15K of them), they have made those passes also valid for the 2021 season.  Nice!

© Aquatica San Antonio

Aquatica San Antonio, located adjacent to SeaWorld San Antonio, will open on June 6th, the park has just announced.  Right now water parks are allowed to open in Texas, but not theme parks so SeaWorld San Antonio will have to open later.

The park has spent the past two months creating a full plan of how to operate the park safely, and they can't wait to welcome guests back and show them a good time.

This news is so new that the park's website isn't even updated yet, but watch for details soon.  The park has also confirmed that their new attraction, Tonga Twister, will be open for visitors on June 6th.

© Arnold's Park

Arnold's Park, located in Iowa, is a small classic lakeside park operation and it's wonderful to see that they are planning on reopening on June 3rd.  We've seen some parks of this size opt to not operate in 2020, so it's nice to see that Arnold's Park hasn't had to go in that direction.

The park hasn't set up a dedicated page that details any changes that have come from the pandemic.  However they have stated on social media that they are setting up a full set of new safety and cleaning procedures to cover the entire property.

For now visitors can look forward to rides on the classic Legend wooden coaster in just a short while!

© Bay Beach Amusement Park

Bay Beach Amusement Park, located up in Wisconsin, is planning to open for the 2020 season on June 26th.  They would like to hold two test days, on June 20th and 21st, with tickets being sold first come first served on those days.  So long as those practice days go well, the park intends to fully open on the 26th.

The purpose of the two test days is to make sure that the elaborate safety plan that has been put into place will work properly with visitors.  I'm sure the park will have no problem finding people who want to come out for the test and try out the Zippin Pippin for the first time this year!

© OWA

The Park at OWA, located in Alabama, will welcome back guests starting June 5th.  The amusement park is one of the anchor attractions at OWA, along with a large downtown shopping and dining area. 

A whole set of guidelines for visiting the park have been published, available at this link.  Face masks will not be required, but strongly encouraged.  They will do temperature screenings at the entrance, and strictly enforce social distancing throughout the park and while on the rides.

Additionally, the park will be limiting attendance levels like we've seen with many other parks.  As such, they will be selling a non-rider wrist band for $5.00 in order to keep track of the total number of guests on site.

Bay Beach Amusement Park Building 100 Foot Tall Ferris Wheel for 2019

© wbay.com

Green Bay, Wisconsin's Bay Beach Amusement Park is well known for its recreation of the famous Zippin Pippin wooden roller coaster, but in 2019 it's adding some more gentle thrills to the ride lineup.  The unique municipal amusement park along the shore of the Green Bay of Lake Michigan is building a 100 foot tall Ferris wheel that is the start of an even larger project.

The ride recently started to be built at the park, as the image above and this news story from WBAY.com show.  Formally known as The Big Wheel, it will give amazing views of Green Bay when it begins operation this summer.

© Bay Beach Amusement Park

The Ferris Wheel will be the start of an renovation to the property that will eventually lead to visitors being able to swim in the bay - something that hasn't been available in almost 100 years.  The wheel will be located at the base of a 450 foot long pier that will extend into the bay, seen above, offering even more picturesque views of the water.

© Bay Beach Amusement Park

Bay Beach is hoping to be able to then open a 1,000 foot long sand beach by 2020 that will allow for swimming in the lake, and plenty of other summertime fun.  This drawing shows how the new Ferris wheel will be an integral part of the plans.  Fundraising for the remaining money needed to complete the beach project are ongoing, with more information available here.

Bay Beach Amusement Park Adding Three New Rides

© Bay Beach Amusement Park

A new expansion has been announced by Bay Beach Amusement Park, one that will see the addition of three new rides over the next two seasons.

In addition to the new attractions, the park will expand their train's route.  The path will be extended so that the tracks run all the way out and around the Zippin Pippin roller coaster.

The park plans to have two of the new rides open this coming Summer.  They are the 40 foot tall Tot Jumping Spring, a gentle drop tower aimed at kids and a Rockin' Tug.  The Rockin' Tug is brand new, while the Tot Jumping Spring has been purchased from another park.

In 2016 the park plans to build a Falling Star, a bigger ride that is more thrilling.  This ride is also used, and according to this news story both used rides were too good a deal to pass up.

Bay Beach Amusement Park is city-run, and uses donations and its own profits to expand.  The park previously released a long term growth plan that is being accelerated by its success - great news for the park!

Bay Beach Finishes Another Successful Season

© Bay Beach Amusement Park

I suppose that recreating a famous wooden coaster has its benefits - at least it certainly seems that way when you consider Bay Beach Amusement Park.  Back in 2011 the park opened the Zippin Pippin, a rebuilt of the original ride from Libertyland.  Since then the park has seen a great increase in visitors and spending, and that momentum continued this year when they debuted a new ride - the Sea Dragon.

The new ride cost the local government run park a hefty price, but it has already started to pay off.  It opened late in the summer so it will be featured heavily in the 2014 season - it sounds like there probably won't be another new ride for the park quite yet.

The 2013 season marked the Zippin Pippin's one millionth rider, a great accomplishment for the park.  Some local folks questioned the building of the ride, and it's always fun to see how successful it has been and how prosperous the park now is!

Bay Beach Amusement Park Starts Building New Ride

© Bay Beach Amusement Park

Purchased last season, the new Sea Dragon ride has undergone an extensive refurbishment during most of the spring and summer, and is now being installed at Bay Beach Amusement Park.

The new ride will be located near the park's Zippin Pippin wooden roller coaster, which can be seen in the background of the above photo.  The swinging ship style ride is a classic attraction that can be found at most parks, and Bay Beach is excited to be adding one of their own.

With a quick instillation planned for the Sea Dragon, they hope that it can be open before Labor Day.  That will give visitors who are closing out their summer one last treat, and the ride will be a main focus of the park's 2014 season.

Earlier this year the city-run park announced a ten year expansion plan that would include several new rides and attractions, including the Sea Dragon.  You can read more about that plan at this link.

Bay Beach and the Pippin Reach A Million

© Bay Beach Amusement Park

Congratulations are in order for Bay Beach Amusement Park - this past weekend the Zippin Pippin carried its 1,000,000th rider!

The 'new' Zippin Pippin opened at the park in 2011 (full coverage from Scott & Carol) and became an instance success.  The number of riders in the first two years smashed expectations.  The park had hoped for 200k riders a year, and at the start of year three they broke a million.  You can do the math on that one!

Ashley Jolley of Illinois was the lucky one millionth rider, and was awarded a front seat ride with the Mayor along with a prize pack of goodies.

I'm happy the coaster has become such a success for Bay Beach Amusement Park and the city of Green Bay, maybe reincarnating Elvis' favorite coaster was good luck... or perhaps people just love a classic wooden coaster?  Either way it is great news!

Bay Beach Amusement Park Has Expansion On The Mind

After successfully recreating the Zippin Pippin, and seeing revenues soar as a result, Bay Beach Amusement Park - located in Green Bay, Wisconsin - has an updated vision for the future that includes plenty of expansion.

The park is looking at a ten year expansion that would cost approximately $11 million, with future expansion beyond that focusing more on infrastructure than on rides and attractions.

How the park looks currently

Since the park is owned by the city, the expansion still needs official approval.  The plan will be funded with revenues from current operations as well as donations - much like what was done with the Zippin Pippin.  However the park has much more profit to work with now that the coaster has operated for two seasons.

The proposed master plan for the future

One of the first things to come to the park, and negotiations on the ride are already underway, is a Sea Dragon.  Officials hope that the $670k ride could be open by the end of this Summer.  The park's train route will be greatly expanded to run under the Zippin Pippin, and picnic shelters will go up.

Future years include a new ride or two each season including things like a large Ferris wheel, a kiddie coaster, more kiddie rides, outdoor activity spaces, seating and dining areas and a large playground. 

The goal of the park is not to ever become a large theme park instead this is another "park with rides" not "rides in a park" type location.  Don't you wish this type of development could pop up in other location around the country?  I sure do.

Weekly Rewind 8.26.12

Six Flags St. Louis placed the above teaser on their Facebook page this past week, a riddle for what is coming to the park next year.  Most have figured out what it is between this clue and popular rumors, but we'll let the park make their official announcement this week with the rest of the gang on Thursday.

Clearing out the old to make room for the new, Cedar Point has almost removed all of Disaster Transport.  Only the lift and first turn (inside the building) are still standing. The park has just shared some new photos of the ride's removal, after which GateKeeper construction will quickly start.

It is not much, but steel has started to rise in the still unannounced Harry Potter expansion at Universal Studios Florida.  Orlando United has the photos of the next step of the massive project taking place.

Coming this November to Florida's the Magic Kingdom is a new nighttime show named Celebrate the Magic.  An all new sound track, special effects, and tons of projections onto the park's Cinderella Castle will be used.  Celebrate the Magic will replace the current show, The Magic, The Memories, and You!

In what has become quite the drawn out story, local democrats are calling for an independent audit of Rye Playland, claiming important park statistics are being withheld from them.  Playland has seen both revenues and attendance decline again so far in 2012.

Even the people quoted in this news article about a proposed massive entertainment destination - including a Spirit of California theme park - for Tracy, California don't sound like they believe it will ever happen.  I have to say I agree, but dreams are fun, right?

This shark's got quite a bite! Ride Entertainment Group is proud to show off the custom created Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter created for Galveston Pleasure Pier.

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has announced that September 3rd will be the last day of operation for their Hurricane roller coaster.  The replacement ride, expected to be a coaster, will be announced on the 27th.  The Hurricane will be moved to New Mexico's Western Playland amusement park.

The success of the Zippin Pippin at Bay Beach continues, as the park is now planning on revising their master plan which they will follow over the next ten years.  The plan could include additional rides, but will also focus on trying to bring lake swimming back to the property.

The Potter and the Pippin

The amazing impact of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure Theme Park has led the resort to break attendance records over a 12 month period.

According to this article, the resort's previous record year was 2004, which had 12.1 million visitors.  This past year, June to June, saw 13.4 million guests.  The second quarter of 2011 saw an increase in visitors of over one million, an amazing increase for such a short period of time.

So - when does everyone think the Wizarding World will overtake the rest of the park's Lost Continent section?

Bay Beach Amusement Park has had such continued success with their newly recreated Zippin Pippin wooden roller coaster that they have now added nighttime lights to the ride to extend its operating hours.

As of this past Sunday, the ride had already taken over 300,000 passengers - that's 100,000 more than the City estimated it would need to have to be a financial success.  The coaster's season will run through September, plenty of time to up those numbers even more!

Scott And Carol Present - Zippin Along With The Pippin At Bay Beach

The Zippin Pippin was the oldest continuously operating roller coaster in the United States when it closed on October 29, 2005. It had been built originally for Overton Park, named for John Overton, co-founder of Memphis on Madison Avenue at the east side of the city in 1915. Designed by John Miller and built by Harry Baker of the National Amusement Device Company, it was moved and became a staple at Libertyland in Memphis TN in 1923, under the name of the Mid-South Fairgrounds, the former Montgomery Park racetrack, which was changed its name to Libertyland during Bicentennial fever on July 4, 1976.


The ride was severely damaged during a storm during the spring of 1928 and the section of the far turnaround that went past Maxwell Boulevard appears to have been lengthened into the area of the lift hill, turn, and first drop during the repairs for that season.


Long know as Elvis’s favorite coaster, because he liked to rent out the park after hours for his entourage, the publicly owned park had been subsidized by the fair and the fair commission decided to discontinue operations after the 2005 season due to the continuing deficits.


The park was piece mealed at auction on June 21, 2006 with some rides heading east as far as Pennsylvania and North Carolina but the Zippin Pippin was sold in its entirety to the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame & Rock-N-Roll Roadshow. They only wanted the lead car of the single train and they sold the rest of the coaster to Carolina Crossroads, a new park to be developed near Roanoke Rapids in North Carolina during October 2006. The coaster was never moved and donated back to the Save Libertyland organization during late 2007.




After a few more fits and starts about moving the coaster to the old pyramid arena and building an amusement park there, the dust quietly accumulated on the deteriorating Zippin Pippin. Enter the City of Green Bay, current operator of Bay Beach, the ninth oldest amusement park in the US. Mayor Jim Schmitt pushed through the proposal to bring the Zippin Pippin to the citizens of Green Bay, because the former wooden coaster from the Golden Age, either the Jack Rabbit or the Greyhound, was also designed by John Miller. After a slight construction delay due to a harsh Wisconsin winter, the new Zippin Pippin opened to the public on 5/21/2011.

Very faithful to the original layout, with the exception of being a mirror image to enable a spectacular view of Green Bay, the rebuilt coaster delivers a better ride than the Libertyland version we last rode in 2002. With the shoreline view as riders climb the lift hill, this is what traditional parks offered in years gone by. Lots of airtime including a whoop-de-doo right before the brake, the Zippin Pippin has broken in very nicely, and delivers lots of fun throughout the course.

While in Memphis the Zippin Pippin ran only a single train of 4 cars with 3 rows per car. At Bay Beach, it has 5 cars per train and a second train along with the associated transfer track. This difference ratchets up the intensity factor for riding in the rear of the train. The rolling stock and mechanical parts came from the ill-fated Intimidator/Thunder Eagle. The coaster itself was built from entirely new material and it was first thought that maybe the station could be built from material salvaged from the Libertyland location but that wasn’t viable and the station is entirely new also.

The queue is located in the middle of the ride, so guests can watch the trains go round and round as they move towards the station. We were there on 7/3/2011 and the wait was about 20 minutes. Bay Beach operates in the historical manner, with free admission and tickets required to ride. It only costs $1 to ride the Zippin Pippin, and no wristband option is available. The transfer track rolls under the platform so the ride operator on the left side of the train, as you face forward, is actually walking at a lower level than when they work on the side next to the pneumatic gates.




Even on this hot day, they were steadily dispatching trains well under 3 minutes. Zippin Pippin thrilled its 200,000 rider on just after lunch on 7/15/2011. This was the budget goal for the entire first season; so to say the ride is a success would be an understatement. During most of our rides, the most heard statement we remember was “This was better than I expected.” Children encouraged their parents to “Go get some more tickets while I get in line.”




With lots of airtime, and a great view, Zippin Pippin is destined to thrill visitors to Bay Beach for years to come, with no cost to the taxpayers. They even have one of the coaster cars from Memphis so people can sit in the car and get their picture taken “Just like Elvis.” Until next time, get out to a park and get in line. The season is half over and the winter will be long.




Our thanks to the staff at Bay Beach and the folks of Green Bay for the effects to preserve the history of the Zippin Pippin! And, we invite that all our NPN readers make a trek to Green Bay to experience Bay Beach and ride the Zippin Pippin!

Bayern Park Finishing Work On Freischutz

I haven't touched on this story since the ride was announced last year, but the new Maurer launched X-Car ride at Germany's Bayern Park is looking great!  When the ride was announced the concept drawings had me thinking it would be larger than it is - but that's actually a good surprise.  The tight twists and turns of this ride have it looking forceful in just the right way.

This style of ride could fit in at so many North America parks, I have to wonder why more rides like this haven't sprung up.  Maurer's largest ride in the U.S. is Universal Studios Florida's Rockit, along with some spinning coasters and Magic Springs' X-Coaster.  Maurer's designs all look pretty impressive, though I can't speak from personal experience.  Still, if they give a good ride I'd love to see some go up in our neck of the woods!

Ride On, Zippin Pippin!

After a successful media day, the public will have its turn to relive Elvis' favorite coaster this Saturday. The new version of the Zippin Pippin at Bay Beach Amusement Park was designed by the Gravity Group, LLC and constructed by Martin & Vleminckx Rides, LLC.

This new thriller certainly dominates over a collection of classic family and kiddie rides. However, according to this article, the ride is making believers even out of non-coaster fans!

Weekly Rewind 4.30.11

Michigan's Adventure is now ready to party!  The park's new water play structure, named Beach Party, looks pretty complete to my eye.  Colorful, too.

WindSeeker at Kings Island wasn't ready to open this weekend, and Cedar Point's is behind schedule as well.  Both are better than Knott's, which is just a foundation at this point!

Time - that's what developer Ed Hart has received in his quest to reopen Kentucky Kingdom.  His rights on the park have been extended while he tries to secure funding to renovate and reopen the theme park.

Whitewater West has opened their first Zoo attraction, an interactive AquaPlay structure at New Orleans' Audubon Zoo.  The structure features a 28 ft. tall white alligator, complete with tipping bucket inside its mouth!

The Dania Beach Hurricane has closed, though the owner is not saying exactly why.  The wooden coaster at a Boomers opened back in 2000.

Freestyle Music Park is still closed.  That isn't much of a story at this point, but rumors keep popping up that different operators are looking at the property.  

The Zippin Pippin at Bay Beach Amusement Park is scheduled to open on May 21st.  The city had a contest for citizens to explain what the parks means to them, and the winners will be on the first train out.  Video of the coaster testing has also come online, too!

Funland Blog takes a peek at Legoland Malaysia, which is scheduled to open at the end of 2012.

Knoebels is letting fans know that the Black Diamond indoor coaster will not be ready until the middle of the summer!  I'm still anxiously awaiting this new ride!

Weekly Rewind 4.2.11

Grrr... that's one bear of a coaster car!  Lame pun!  Canobie Lake Park has posted a photo of one of the cars to Untamed, the park's new coaster.  Sweet.

Michigan's Adventure is quickly getting Beach Party ready for the season.  Most of the water play structure is now standing at the park - and looking good I might add.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk will kick off Spring Break with two high wire walks by Nik Wallenda on April 16th.  Read more about the event here.

These WindSeeker rides grow up so fast.  It seems like only yesterday that Canada's Wonderland's was just a hole in the ground, and now the tower is complete!

Cedar Point is looking for a V.I.F. (Very Important Family) to help them open for the season on May 14th.  Check out Facebook for details.

A park we don't often cover is Playland in Canada.  They've announced a new StarFlyer attraction for 2011 - finally giving us a good reason to mention them!

Lagoon opens for the season today, and has shared a photo of the very nicely themed trains on BomBora, their new family coaster.  Yay for surprise on-board audio!

Great Adventure History has really outdone themselves with their fantastically thorough coverage of Ultra Twister, formerly at Six Flags Great Adventure.  A story worth checking out.

We haven't forgotten about you, Zippin Pippin.  After a long winter you're looking mighty good against those blue skies.

Weekly Rewind 1.22.11

This was a good year to work at Universal Orlando - the record crowds that Harry Potter brought means soaring profits for the parks.  And to celebrate the resort's thousands of employees just received bonuses.  Cha-ching!

Six Flags Great Adventure showed off some more photos of the Green Lantern's progress this week.  It looks like half the lift hill was up when the photos were taken.

The Magic Kingdom was showing off its new Castle light projection show for media recently.  Each night guest's photos and experiences will be projected as part of the show.  Take a peek here.

Conneaut Lake's quest to raise another $50k from the Pepsi Refresh Challenge is still going on, though the idea is not in the top 10 that would receive funding as of now.  Vote here if you like.

Wild Adventures new slide tower was recently completed.  For a gallery of the tower when it was going up, look here.  Family raft rides are always a blast!

The Zippin Pippin is blanketed in snow, and that makes the structure even more pretty.  Work on the coaster continues despite freezing temperatures.

Martin's Fantasy Island has decided to call their new thrill ride Mind Warp.  I think that's perfectly fitting for a crazy flat ride like that!

Two former Six Flags executives have purchased another water park, this time Ocean Breeze in Virginia.  The duo purchased Nashville Shores in 2009 and have been expanding it since.

Galaxyland Amusement Park and World Waterpark at Canada's West Edmonton Mall will see expansions this year.  The park will add new family rides, and the water park will see new slides, including an Aqua Loop.

A year ago Schlitterbahn announced a new development in Cedar Park Texas, and it seems the project is having some funding trouble.  The difficult lending market is to blame, but those involved say the project is still a go - just delayed a bit.