Parques Reunidos the Latest Theme Park Operator to Make China Expansion Plans

It seems that lately there's a continual flow of stories about a plethora of theme park companies making plans to expand into China.  From Six Flags' parks that are ready for construction to SeaWorld's recently announced plans, everyone is eyeing the country as the next great place to develop new parks and resorts.

We now have news that Parques Reunidos has entered into a "strategic agreement" with a Chinese company to develop new parks and indoor entertainment centers there.  Working with Harves Century Group, which the press release names as "one of the principal privately owned real estate development companies in China," Parques Reunidos will assist in creating parks across China.  The pair will be working with the investment arm of the China Development Bank, so it would appear as though there will be no lack of funding for the projects.

The partnership will see Parques Reunidos assist with "preliminary consultation phase of projects, through the consultation on design, construction, and attraction procurement, all the way to the management and operation of the future parks."

© Parques Reunidos

Parques Reunidos is already one of the largest theme, water and family entertainment park operators on the planet, with locations spread across the globe.  The company owns many parks, while having similar management agreements on many others.  They've been named as operators on several new parks, such as Bollywood and Motiongate in Dubai, and Dragon Park in Vietnam.

In the U.S. the company owns properties such as Kennywood, Dutch Wonderland,  Lake Compounce, Idlewild, several water parks and more.

Parques Reunidos Buys Movie Park Germany

A new park can be added to the already substantial list of parks owned by Parques Reunidos: Movie Park Germany. The company purchased the park from London investment group Palamon, and was the last of the "Star Parks" chain created when Six Flags sold off their European operations in 2004. The park originally opened as Warner Bros. Movie World Germany.

Palamon had invested heavily in the park, adding major rides and attractions which resulted in a 40% increase in attendance. Entire new park areas, such as Nickland and the Santa Monica Pier, were added to expand the property.

Between amusement parks, water parks, FECs, animal parks, and cable cars Parques Reunidos operates almost 70 attractions.

Under The Big Top at Idlewild in 2010

Idlewild and Soak Zone has announced the return of the famous Royal Hanneford Circus to the park for the 2010 season.

"The Royal Hanneford Family Circus last visited Idlewild & Soak Zone back in 1997, and from the day the left, our guests have never stopped asking for the circus to return, " said General Manager Brandon Leonatti. "We're thrilled to bring the circus back to Idlewild - summer can't come fast enough!"

Idlewild will host the circus under a big top tent behind the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe. It will run from June 12th, 2010 to August 22nd, 2010. Three showings a day will take place Friday through Monday, and two shows a day Tuesday through Thursday.

What a perfect treat for Idlewild guests. It isn't always easy to make a great park even better, but Idlewild has gone and done it!

Kennywood 2010: Sky Rocket!

Kennywood Park has confirmed that the name of their new coaster for the 2010 season will be named Sky Rocket.

The currently under construction Premier launched ride was covered in depth here on NPN, if you want a quick refresher click here.

I don't know about you, but I like the name! It fits in with the park's other coasters well, I think. But I'm totally biased because I love Kennywood. A lot.

'Making A New Memory' - Part 4

This is the last section of NPN's review of Kennywood Park. If you missed the earlier sections, here are links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

The last of the coasters at Kennywood for me to review is also one of the best: the Jack Rabbit. The wooden coaster opened in 1921 and was designed by John Miller. It also happens to feature some of the most insane air time on any ride I've ever been on!

It's location makes it tough to photograph as it's station sits directly on the midway but most of the ride takes place in the back of the park in yet another ravine. (Kennywood + Ravines = Fun) It's known for it's famous double-down drop which is the point of no return for airtime lovers!

Jeff noted that it's often a child's first roller coaster, and that can lead to mixed results! It's unassuming in height, length, and speed, but the ride itself could be considered quite wild. I knew about the double dip and expected it, but really had no idea to expect that amount of floating!

Makes me hungry just looking at it.

The park's Potato Patch french fries have a cult following of their own. The lines seen in this photo never went down the entire time we were at the park - they're just that popular!

Kennywood's Dentzel Carousel is a real beauty. It's yet another well preserved classic ride at the park, one of many featuring that distinction at Kennywood.

We inquired how things have been since Parques Reunidos purchased Kennywood Entertainment in late 2007, and Jeff explained that for guests at the park things are business as usual. Kennywood was seen by Parques Reunidos as a “well run amusement park. We know who we are, we’re comfortable with that, and they like that and they don’t have any interest in changing that. Buy and large they like what we’re doing and want us to keep doing it.”

Music to my ears because what Kennywood does is run an amazing park!

Being fans of log flumes in general, we had to take a trip on the park's first Million Dollar ride. The Log Jammer takes up one corner of the property, and the park recently cut down a small line of trees that once separated the views of the Racer from the flume. Now you can get pretty shots of both rides like the one above!

You don't get soaked, just nicely sprayed.

The flume is an Arrow Dynamics ride that was added in 1975, and was a very important investment for the park. It's addition ushered in the next era for Kennywood, gaining the park a lot of attention with the ride's debut. Passengers are treated to a wonderful journey among the tree tops before plunging down into the lagoon below.

That log in going uphill after the first drop!

The ride also features a fun uphill section after the first, smaller drop on the ride. We counted it as a coaster credit! (Just kidding...)

The park's central lagoon has always been a popular spot in the park. Home to the park's famous circus acts for a long time, it now features the popular Skycoaster attraction.

It's not the spider that Garfield and Odie are afraid of...

The park's Old Mill attraction, currently known as Garfield's Nightmare really is quite a nightmare at this point in it's long life. And I really mean long, the popular date for the ride's initial opening, although debated, is 1901, making it about 108 years old at this point.

The ride is basically a boat going through a trough past different scenes in the dark, very basic in premise, but offers a look past at the history of amusement park rides that is very rare at this point. And it smells great! Really, it has that wonderful 'old-ride' distinct smell that tells you the attraction you are on outdates you but quite a bit.

It's gone by many different names in it's history, including Old Mill, A Trip Around The World, Hardheaded Harold's Horrendously Humorous Haunted Hideaway, and Garfield's Nightmare.

As the ride currently stands, well, sometimes even the best of intentions fall short. I'll leave my opinion of Garfield's Nightmare at that. But good news! When I asked Jeff if the long term future of the ride might hold yet another retheme he replied “Yes and I wouldn’t say in the long term, definitely a short term project. Can’t promise next year but in the next two years you’ll have a different experience."

Sweet! I also inquired if they'll stick with something for the kiddies or go back to the spooky realm, to which he replied "it’ll probably go back to something more on par with the Old Mill.”

It seems the lease on the use of Garfield at the park runs out next year, prompting the change sooner than later. Whatever the reason I'm sure all Kennywood fans will be rejoicing at the ride returning to it's roots! There you have it, the Garfield retheme is rumor no more!

I've saved the Turnpike for last on purpose, as we visited the park just days before the ride was set to close. Either word got out or the ride just has a massive family appeal, but either way it had an extremely long line while we were at the park.

We all know the attraction is being removed for Kennywood's yet unnamed 2010 new roller coaster, but the park has promised that it will return at some point. As for where, well it's not set in stone yet but Jeff said “the final decision will come after the coaster is installed. The preliminary thought is that there’s a good chance that we can put the turnpike under the supports of the coaster.”

Sadly our time restraints did not allow us to take a spin on the Turnpike, but that's okay because we'll just wait to ride it when it reopens in the future! Personally I think the new coaster is worth the waiting.

As the rabbit at a different chain of parks says, "that's all, folks!" Kennywood really is a beautiful and unique park and now firmly sits as one of my favorite ones anywhere. I'd like to once again thank Jeff Filicko for taking time out of his busy day to spend with us, it is much appreciated.

Stay tuned for Sabrina's review of the next park on our trip, the very old and just recently reopened Conneaut Lake Park.

'Making A New Memory' - Part 3

This is Part 3 in a series of trip reports from NPN's recent visit to Kennywood Park. If you missed the previous posts, here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.

Let's continue on with our tour of Kennywood, shall we?

What's that up through the trees and beautiful waterfalls?

I've decided to break out a section of the park and cover it all together, making this already long report move into 4 sections. But you're loving it, right? So it doesn't matter.

A very beautiful and unique area, Lost Kennywood stands out as a modern approach to creating a long gone era of the park.

The area's beautiful main entrance can be found just past the Turtle, tucked neatly under the lift hill of the Phantom's Revenge. The entrance structure is a one third replica of the front gates which used to stand at Pittsburgh's now defunct Luna Park.

I love concept art, just love it!

The entire area was the park's big addition for the 1995 season. It is located on the former site of the park's swimming pool, as well as some parking spaces. It's architecture is a throw back to both Kennywood's history as well as the general feel of many classic amusement parks. It's all very nicely done, and is centered around a beautiful lagoon with an abundance of fountains.

There's actually a separate fountain (above) inside the main entrance to the area that is a reproduction of the one that stood at the swimming pool that Lost Kennywood was built on.

The section of the park is so photogenic that it's hard to sort through all the amazing shots we were able to take. Above we see both the gorgeous fountains and an example of the themed architecture throughout the area.

The Pittsburg Plunge stands in the center of the section, and utilizes the same lagoon as the fountains for it's massive splash. It's wooden structure adds nicely to the area's theme as well.

Riders are treated to a quick ride up the lift, around the corner, and then down the drop into the massive splash you can see in the above photo. On a day as hot as the one we visited, the ride appeared quite popular.

I realize now that the fountains are almost such a distraction from a photographer's standpoint that we missed out on several of the rides located here. The park's Wave Swinger, classic Whip, and the S&S created SwingShot are all located in Lost Kennywood.

An attraction that we did not miss out on was the Pitt Fall, a 251 ft. Intamin drop tower. Let's just say that the view from up there is just amazing! The ride's not so bad, either.

Tucked away in the back corner of Lost Kennywood is the park's Exterminator indoor roller coaster. It was added in 1999 and is a Reverchon spinning mouse coaster with the cars themed as giant rodents that are well, being exterminated! A fun idea, and an even more fun ride. Occasionally spinning rides give me trouble with making me sick, but not this one - it had me laughing the whole time!

The area behind the building that Exterminator is in is also of importance to the park, as it's a possible area for future expansion. See the aerial to get a better picture:

Jeff mentioned that the grove of houses back here are known has "Kennyville" because the park owns most of them and employees live in them. And expanding into that area wouldn't even require dealing with a big elevation change! Again, the possibilities are almost endless...

Coming in our last part of the Kennywood report, another coaster, more rides, the Turnpike, and some great news about a so-so darkride!

'Making A New Memory' - Part 2

This is Part 2 of our review of Kennywood park from NPN's recent visit. If you happened to miss the first part be sure to check it out here.

Ready for more of our trip to Kennywood? I am! Let's dig in...

Being a big fan of dark rides added another layer of excitement to our trip to Kennywood. The park is home to two classic and one modern dark rides, which is a fantastic line-up for a park in this day and age.

Above we see Ghostwood Estate, which was added to the park in 2008 and replaced The Gold Rusher. Just as Ed accidentally named Bigfoot's Mudslide at Idlewild, our host Jeff did the same for Ghostwood Estate at Kennywood! It's a dark ride with a modern twist, as riders are loaded with guns that allow them to shoot at targets that activate props along the track.

The theming in here is really top notch, and according to Jeff the ride “got a very good reaction from guests because it’s literally two rides in one. If you don’t want to do the interactive part, visually there’s just so much to look at ... but then if you do the whole blaster aspect it’s also great. If mom and dad go with the kids, they can go nuts with the blasters and [the parents] can sit back and relax."

Halloween Productions had a lot to do with the attractions, along with the park's own Director of Ride Operations, Marie Ruby. Between the two creative forces I'd say the park has a winner on their hands, and it even has a great pre-show as well!

It's probably no surprise that Phantom's Revenge was another highly anticipated coaster for me, and the ride really lived up to those expectations.

They all look so happy... can't imagine why!

Kennywood made a wonderful decision when they had Morgan redo the coaster for the 2001 season, removing the loops and creating an intense, twisted hyper coaster of sorts.

We were able to take one night ride on the Phantom that really knocked my socks off, maybe not literally but I wouldn't have been surprised if it did. This thing does not let up and the airtime on it is really just incredible.

Hands-up airtime!

Since this was my first visit to the park I obviously was never on the ride when it was the Steel Phantom, but it's pretty safe to say that I'm not too concerned about having missed out on its former life. The ride's first drop was retracked this past off-season and there's a bit of an awkward section at the top of the second hill as a result - but rumors are already swirling that the park plans to take care of that this winter.

Have I mentioned that the views the park has are AMAZING?

Above is a great shot of how the park integrates the old and the new so well, we have the towering Phantom standing over another of the park's dark rides, Noah's Ark.

If the boat's a rockin'... you'll get sea sick!

I had read all about the Ark prior to visiting, and still was surprised by all the twists and turns that were found inside. By far one of the most 'classic' fun houses I've ever been in, the old time gags that are still in there were most enjoyable.

The attraction dates back to the 1930s, but in another smart move (Kennywood has made a lot of those!) they totally rebuilt the attraction in 1996. The new version of the Ark features a nice mix of newer, technology-oriented tricks right alongside the old ones.

Kennywood's Kiddieland is one of the oldest in the country, and is home to a wide variety of interesting rides for the little ones. The park's commitment to these rides runs deep - Jeff made mention that the park has actually had to create replacement parts for many of the rides to keep them in service. Many parks just remove and replace when a ride gets that old - but not Kennywood!

Kiddieland is also a National Historic District, not something you'll find in other parks.

The Whippersnapper is an excellent example of the park's commitment to having pint sized versions of their larger thrill rides. The park has a large Whip ride in the Lost Kennywood section as well.

A more recent addition to the area is the S.S. Kenny, added in 2007. Guests were all smiles while the boat spun and rocked!

A park with such great roller coasters can't leave the kids out of the fun, and with that in mind they offer the Lil' Phantom. While we didn't take a spin on the coaster it did look like it packed a bit of a punch.

This takes 'big mouth' to the extreme.

I've included this photo of the fun trash cans that can be found throughout Kiddieland to appease Sabrina's love of fun/slightly frightening garbage cans. Hehe.

We'll wrap up our tour of Kiddieland with this photo of Garfield atop the Pounce Bounce ride - though he may not be there for all that much longer as the park is starting to phase out the use of the characters.

Time for another Traver ride! This trip was especially awesome because Sabrina and I were able to ride both of the currently operating Traver Tumble Bugs in the world in the same day!

The ride is a lot of fun, and it's a cryin' shame that only two of them are left. Here's to Kennywood preserving this one for a long, long time to come!

From an old ride to a new old ride. Yes, the park's new for 2009 attraction is the Bayern Kurve, which operated at the park until 2005 when it was removed for the Wipeout. The park worked on restoring the ride during its absence and has now added it back to the park in the same spot it sat before.

These older Anton Schwarzkopf flat rides are a huge hit with park goers, and this one has been well received since being brought back to Kennywood's ride line-up.

Whew, this park is so full of amazing things to write about I've got to take another breather - Part 3 coming soon!