Las Vegas Part 3 – Disney can never “Wynn”

The themed hotel boom all started in 1989 when hotel mogul Steve Wynn opened The Mirage. Equipped with themed gardens, a tropical topiary and exploding volcano, The Mirage felt more like a resort hotel you might find at Walt Disney World.

The Mirage's volcano show

Wynn furthered his theming excellence with Treasure Island (TI) that featured a Pirate theme and an action packed stunt show that had everything from pyrotechnics to a sinking ship. The show was often compared and sometimes preferred to Fantasmic! at Disneyland, and was even designed by former Disney Imagineer, Bub Gurr.

Wynn wasn’t done yet with themed hotels. His next hotel was his most extravagant yet. The Bellagio, opening in 1998, boasted an Italian theme and featured a huge artificial lake that is home to a fountain show, an interior garden area and luxury shopping area. The hotel was the most expensive ever built at the time and inspired the luxury theme craze found at Mandalay Bay, The Venetian and Paris.

An old ferris wheel adorns the Bellagio's indoor garden.

With all this theming and design going into his resorts, Wynn was referred to by Gurr as “the Walt Disney of the 90’s.” It’s no secret that Wynn and the rest Las Vegas have looked up to Disney in many ways. Across the strip from Wynn’s hotels, former Walt Disney World monorail trains were providing transportation to visitors between Ballys and the MGM Grand before the system was expanded and trains were replaced. Even the Excalibur went as far as theming itself to a castle, the common symbol in Disney parks.

Disney, who looked at Las Vegas’ entertainment success, reciprocated these feelings. It wasn’t long before Disney got their own Cirque Du Soleil show permanently placed in WDW’s Downtown Disney district. Also, Disney’s wildly successful musical, The Lion King, landed a permanent home at Mandalay Bay. It seems like a fairly successful relationship of flattery between the two destinations right? Wrong, It has actually become a very brutal and competitive relationship.

Something many people may have never known is that Disney has been trying very hard for quite some time to get themselves situated on the strip. When the theme craze hit Las Vegas and suddenly visitors were not just adults, but families, Disney saw an opportunity to be a successful non-gaming destination where families could stay and the minors could play while their parents spent time at the neighboring casinos. Close enough to Disneyland in California; it could easily be linked to the theme park resort as well. A Vegas hotel would also be a perfect stage for them to showcase their stage shows in theaters that they would have 100% control over ticket sales and revenue.

A 1:2 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower in front of the Paris hotel.

So why hasn’t Disney done it? Well the major hotel operators in Las Vegas hold a lot of weight is city hall, as you can imagine, and weren’t exactly ready to loose all that hotel revenue. After spending millions (if not billions) to deck out their resort with lavish themes to attract visitors, they weren’t ready to see that go to waste as people flock to the hotel with mouse ears. The biggest of these opponents is Mr. Disney of the 90’s himself, Steve Wynn. Enjoying a lot of success with his themed hotels in the 90’s, he would be in position to lose the most if Disney came into the desert. So wherever he could, Steve stomped down on the cheese and left the Mouse to starve.

Wynn's final "themed" hotel is still hailed as one of the best ever built.

Eventually the theme craze died out and hotels began to go generic (see “The Roller Coaster” at New York New York). Wynn sold off the Mirage group of hotels and suddenly wasn’t an opponent to the Mouse. At this point Disney was trying to keep a struggling new park in California afloat and had a CEO who would rather just do everything as cheap as possible. Cheap isn’t an option in Vegas where land on the strip alone goes for hundreds of millions.

Now we get to present times, as the recession is beginning to soften and people are traveling again. Disney has finally figured out their second California gate and is seeing dollar signs; they are also seeing great business in the cruise industry so much that they finally have a ship permanently out west. Pushing an all out blitz on any market they can with their NexGen project, Disney may be starting to think a resort hotel in Sin City might not be such a bad idea once more. Disney see’s the push hotels have been making towards generic and have begun to alienate family travelers once more, provided a perfect situation to slide in and take that business. Knowing this, Steve Wynn is calling on his rodent exterminator once again. Having exited the theme craze and making a push for luxury, Wynn is now enjoying a more sophisticated adult demographic that has much fatter wallets. The last thing Wynn wants now is a bunch of kids running along the edges of the casino floor with their parents who only stop to play a buck or two in a slot machine.

The luxurious Venetian at night.

The next few years promise to be very exciting if Disney CEO Bob Iger sets his mind to it. As one of Disney’s most intense CEO’s, there isn’t much that Iger feels can stop him when he really wants something. If he decides to push it, the question is how long until we see the DVC kiosks decked out with slot machine and stripper poles (ok, maybe they won’t sell it quite like that).

I hope this series has been as fun for you to read, as it was to research and write about. Thanks for sticking with it, and Viva Las Vegas!

The New Texas Giant Opens Tomorrow!

The New Texas Giant, one of the most anticipated attractions of the 2011 season, will open to the public for the first time tomorrow, April 22nd. Six Flags Over Texas seems to have a sure fire hit on their hands, if you pay any attention to the early reviews.

The New Texas Giant represents the completion of a total renovation of the former Texas Giant wooden roller coaster.  The ride is now a hybrid; it features wooden supports but a steel running track.  This created the ability for designers to really go nuts with the new track - the coaster now has some of the most extreme features you'll find on a coaster anywhere.

If you don't believe me, just take a look at some of these facts, supplied by the park:

• The steepest drop of any wooden coaster IN THE WORLD at 79 degrees.
• The steepest bank of any wooden coaster IN THE WORLD at 115 degrees.
• A lift hill that is ten feet taller than the original Texas Giant.
• A top speed faster than the original Texas Giant at 65 mph.
• Maximum height of the ride is 153 feet.
• The drop height of the ride is 147.5 feet.
• The lift height of the ride is 148 feet.
• The length of the track is more than 4500 feet.
• The world’s first Iron Horse Coaster track™©®. This rail system is made completely of steel and engineered for long term durability.
• Three tunnels with fog and special LED effects
• The steel, bolts and most of the wood were reused and recycled making the NEW Texas Giant an eco-friendly coaster.

Pretty impressive statistics, no?  As if anyone really needed any more convincing, check out this footage of the ride that Six Flags Over Texas released:

With early reviews of the coaster praising the unbelievable amount of airtime it gives, I'm sure this ride will be a smash hit not only with enthusiasts but also the general public. 

The Twister's First Run

Even after seeing this video of the first successful test run of the Twister at Grona Lund, I still cannot believe how, well, twisted it is!  It just keep turning in on itself, long after it appears that there isn't possibly any more space for it to do so.

The coaster was designed and built by the Gravity Group, and features one of Gravitykraft's new Timberliner trains. 

A Blast From The Past - Six Flags Worlds of Adventure's X-Flight Pt 2

On January 4, 2001 Six Flags Ohio announced that following an extensive review of the laws of gravity,park officials unveiled secret plans that Newton and Einstein’s laws of gravity by would be reversed with the creation of X-Flight, an incredible - if not unbelievable - new roller coaster concept.


The first at a Six Flags park anywhere in the world and the only one of its kind in the Midwest, X-Flight promised mankind the ability to freely fly like never before. The mighty addition of X-Flight brought Six Flags Ohio’s roller coaster total to a noteworthy ten and capped an unmatched coaster crazed expansion with six major league caliber roller coasters in less than four years. (I love press releases.)


In 1999, Geuaga Lake had been purchased by Six Flags renamed Six Flags Ohio. During the off season four roller coasters were added to the park. Which was by the way the biggest single year coaster expansion in regional theme park history


As an encore, the park built what was then one most innovative new roller coasters of the year; and, for that matter may well still be. X-Flight super flying coaster was scheduled to make it's historical launch in early May 2001.


Shortly after the X-Flight announcement, Six Flags purchased the Sea World park that was located on the other side of Geauga Lake. The 750 acre entertainment complex, newly named Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, featured three parks in one, a Thrill Ride Park, a Marine Life Park and a Water Park.

Technical difficulties delayed X-Flight's opening until May 26th, Problems with the reclining mechanism on the trains, the restraints and the unique transfer track that allowed a dual loading station began in testing and those difficulties plague the coasters throughout it's history at the park


X-Flight featured 180-degree inversions, eight exhilarating loops, spins and spiral twists over 3,340 feet of steel track. With a 115 foot lift hill, maximum G forces reaching 4.3 and a top speed of 50MPH the $15 million coaster had riders soaring like a bird.


The Flying Dutchman offers a ride experience that no other flyer offers, through the inversions, the riders are either on their front or back. While the riders are lying on their backs they do not face the direction they are traveling, and unexpected curves and inversions take them completely by surprise.

Through those parts of the track that riders pass in a flying position, they experience an unparalleled flying sensation. The corkscrew element allows riders to experience the element for the first time facing outwards thus creating more exhilaration and more flying time with a negative G rush.


Two months before the beginning of the 2004 season Cedar Fair bought the park, The deal was finalized less than a month later and the park was quickly unflagged, unbranded and the name was changed back to Geauga Lake (with Wildwater Kingdom added for the water park.)


Despite the fact that Cedar Fair poured millions of dollars into the new Geauga Lake the park was scaling back their operating season by 2006. The Hurricane Hannah area was shut down and X-flight (along with Steel Venom) was removed from the park.


Both coasters were relocated, with X-flight finding a home at Kings Island. Located near Flight of Fear, the newly dubbed Firehawk opened May 27th 2007, with a spiffy new paint scheme and a much simpler, much, much more efficient reclining mechanism of the trains.


X-Flight would have been a huge success for Six Flags World's of Adventure if they could have gotten it to run more reliably. The ride also needed the area under it landscaped, still X-Flight was a great ride. It was, when it was running, one of the must do rides for us when we visited the park.

The Path To Hersheypark 2012?

Keystone Thrills has published what is said to be a shot of one of the planning documents for Hersheypark's 2012 addition, showing off the ride's layout.  The photo ran in the print-only version of the Patriot News today.  You can view the unedited photo of the layout on Keystone Thrill's 2012 coverage blog.

To me, the ride looks like a relative to Intimidator 305, or even a larger version of one of Intamin's mega-lite rides.  It definitely does not resemble any B&M ride I could imagine, so perhaps the Intamin rumors are dead on.

Either way, I tried to put the layout into the park where it seems it'd go, and met some frustration due to getting things properly aligned.  Here is what I'm calling the smaller version:

Some things don't jive with this one, though.  The station is highly rumored to be where the Tilt-A-Whirl currently is, so that works.  The enormous lift supports (for a structure much like Intimidator 305's lift) fit on either side of the creek, which I'm sure the park has to do.  The ride layout sits in the expected area, but the part around the Comet seems too small.  I'm not sure I see the ride's final turn being directly over Comet's lift like that, though it is possible.

Rumors pointed to the ride fully wrapping around Comet and going over its station, thus I made big version:

Everything from the first drawing holds true, but the end of the ride fits neatly around Comet's structure.  The scale of the ride seems a tad too large for me, including coming way too close to the buildings in the park's entrance area.  Perhaps in the end one of the drawings will be closer than the other to reality, or maybe a blend of the two will win.

I think it's safe to say that a pretty exciting, potentially extremely great (looking at how other similar Intamin rides are ranked) coaster is headed to Hersheypark next year!

Small Parks Prepare for Big Seasons

Smaller parks around the country are gearing up to debut some exciting additions for the 2011 season. Construction is well underway for Alabama Adventure's new Buzzsaw Falls chute-the-chutes from SkyTrans Manufacturing. Buzzsaw Falls joins the Wild River Gorge rapids ride and the Woodchuck Run log flume to help round out the traditional water ride trio! For some recent construction shots, click here.

Canobie Lake Park's new-for-2011 roller coaster, Untamed, is slated to open by mid-June. This Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter model will be highly themed, with ornately decorated ride vehicles and queue areas, pictured above. Check out the park's Facebook photo page here.

Seven years ago, the original Miracle Strip Amusement Park shut its doors, truly saddening the amusement industry. But for 2011, the newly reopened park is welcoming 3 new attractions to join its modest yet thoughtful collection. A restored 1975 Eli Bridge Scrambler and 1991 Sellner Tilt-A-Whirl are being reassembled on property, and the park will also debut a brand-new Butterfly Pavilion with over 500 butterflies dancing around. Read the full story here.

On a personal note, I had the pleasure of visiting a butterfly conservatory in Key West recently, and I haven't felt that much joy in a long time! This seems like the perfect addition to a park with such a special story of rebirth.