Friday, August 31, 2007

A Few Industry Notes


Running low on time today, so I decided to condense a few items I wanted to mention to one post:


Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights website has been updated fully. Now you can get details on all the mazes and shows, and see each attraction's 'special' page without completing a puzzle. Jack's Carnival has also be updated one last time and appears to be open for business! Check it all out here.

Six Flags St. Louis seems to be starting some work already on their 2008 attraction. Previously strongly rumored to be a knock-off Cirque show like Six Flags Over Texas opened this year, it now appears that a new ride will be new for the '08 season. Several kiddie rides have already been removed to start the project. SFSTL.Net has pictures and all the info. Check it out here.

Cedar Point has announced their Season Pass details for 2008 as well, and I'm not liking what I'm reading. They are also selling a Premium pass for $140, and a regular season pass that does not include parking. And of course a separate parking pass. Since parking has always been included at Dorney I hope this doesn't mean that they'll charge extra for that. I think MIA and CP charged extra for parking in the past so hopefully these announcements do not mean ALL Cedar Fair Parks will be the same. PointBuzz has the park's press release.


Thursday, August 30, 2007

Busch Gardens Tampa 2008





Busch Gardens Africa will be announcing their "most ambitious area enhancement in their history" on September 6th.

There will be a live announcement on the park's website at 10:30 a.m. that day.

You can access the announcement page though the park's official website.


Fiesta Texas' Holiday in the Park


It may only be the end of August, the Six Flags Fiesta Texas already has info up on their Holiday event.

Starting after Thanksgiving, the event will feature such merriment as several Holiday themed live shows, a meeting with Santa in his castle, street carolers, and of course tons of lights everywhere.

The show where Mary and Joseph sing and dance with live animals costs extra. Oh, and they'll have roasted corn. No, not Mary and Joseph, the park. But Mary and Joseph selling roasted corn would be amusing.

Check out Fiesta Texas' page for details.


Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Knott's Teasing Halloween Haunt


Knott's Berry Farm's Halloween Haunt, the grandfather of today's Halloween events, finally has some exposure on the park's website.

It's just a teaser, and promises more info to come, but it's exciting to see even this!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...


Thinking About Geauga Lake


I stitched together LiveLocal's images of Geauga Lake and did some mapping of what maybe perhaps Cedar Fair has planned for the property. This is just a thought, and one of many possible scenarios that even I can come up with - and I have no idea what the real plan is for the property.

Basically, I see them selling off the ride side of the park. If these rumors of removing Dominator and Thunderhawk are true, this really looks like their intention. There's a lot of land over there with the parking lot and all, it's along a somewhat major road, and borders a lake. I'd think that someone would eventually step in and want to redevelop this land.

That would leave the former Sea World side as Geauga Lake. I'm taking the non-operational Wolf Bobs as the border for the new park. This does leave a somewhat nice area to develop with some of the rides from the former rides side.

Here is that area. I think this side of the park is the one in the governing area that won't let rides go up - so that may be a huge thorn in this plan, but I'm not sure. Anyway, just going off of how small the four or so flat rides that are already in this area are, there's a decent area for moving some stuff if they wanted to.

Plus, if you take into consideration the former Shark building over there and Dino Island as items that could be taken down for space, well there's even more room. Plus I'm not sure that the Happy Harbor net climb thing needs to stick around either.

The water park aspect can continue to expand into the area it was supposed to anyway.

You can see above, even with the wave pool being built, there's still substantial room for more slides and such. A nice flat area in front of the pool and along the water, and plenty of hill area to slap some slides into. They could develop this area for years without even having to be creative with the land use to fit anything.

There are problems with this theory I came up with:

· What about Big Dipper? It's a classic. I hate the thought of it getting trashed.

· What rides would be moved? Head Spin would be somewhat easy, and a space saver, as well as the family coaster. Flats like Twister, Dodgems, and the Carousel could move. A bunch of the children's rides could be grouped together - and hey - even retheme them to the Nick characters. Shipwreck Falls could easily fit into the water park area as well.

I don't know, this is all just an idea. But if more big rides are coming down then I'd think that more drastic changes must be on the way. I hate having to wait to find out what they're up to!


Tuesday, August 28, 2007

1986 Dorney Park Brochure





I decided that since there's a lot of rumors about the possible demise of Laser at Dorney (and a ton of other Cedar Fair roller coasters), I would put up the brochure from the year it made its debut.

As you can see, they used either a picture of Laser before it was moved and painted, or of another similar coaster.







There's Colossus! I didn't realize I had a copy of the logo for the ride when it had that name. Colossus + a snake makes no sense to me, but who cares. Also new was Playport, which I suppose was part of Chester Cheeto's? Also the go-karts.

That play thing in the water looks fun. The lawyers would never allow that now.

I tried to stitch together these two images and it did not work out well, so my apologies.

This image has lots to see - like the Wave Swinger in it's former location. Also, check out that guy just flying down that slide! Could you imagine that being in a brochure today!?

There's also the former body slides, surfing in the wave pool, and of course the Flying Dutchman.

A nice little walk down memory lane.


2008 Cedar Fair Season Pass Changes?


Alright, Michigan's Adventure already has their 2008 Season Passes on sale. They're giving away a free Cedar Fair V.I.P jacket to anyone who buys before Nov. 11th. That's too funny!

So anyway, they have listed that you can buy either a Michigan's Adventure Season Pass, or a Cedar Fair Platinum pass. It says that the Platinum pass is good at all the parks. Like I think even the water parks.

So I guess they've given up on their intensely tiered Regular, Combo, Max, Max Plus, breakdown for MIA? I wonder if they will make the Ohio passes make more sense as well.

Oh, and the Platinum Pass includes parking at the other parks!

Looks like Cedar Fair is buffing up the season pass benefits...

Edit: Just noticed that Canada's Wonderland is only selling regular season passes for Canada's Wonderland for 2008. No max, max plus, premium or anything as of now. They are however, doing the jacket promo as well. Odd.


More on Behemoth



Using this wonderful article from The Globe and Mail, I was able to add the height statistics for Behemoth to the track layout above.

The article lists everything in meters, so I just converted it to feet for better comparison to other rides.

Just for fun, here's the original render for Talon - do you think they're related? I'm thinking brother and sister.


Monday, August 27, 2007

Questor



I tried and tried to come up with some good info in the Questor simulators that were at Busch Gardens Tampa and Williamsburg ... but came up with almost nothing.

It's like the rides never existed! Well, not really. Someone was smart enough to record the ride. And now we can ride all over again! Enjoy.




New Hard Rock Park Webcam


I just noticed that Hard Rock Park has a new webcam view up on their webpage. It appears to be looking into the British Invasion section of the park.

Those creepy buildings that have faces seem to be pretty far along, though, so that's good. Still not sure about a spring opening. I guess the mild winter will help things continue to move along?


It's Behemoth!



After much anticipation, Canada's Wonderland has announced their new coaster for the 2008 season - Behemoth.


A B&M Hyper as many predicted, the ride will take passengers on a 5,318 ft. journey across the park's landscape. Starting with a 230 ft. lift hill, the ride will drop riders at 85 degrees, sending them on their way at 77 miles per hour.

The seating is different on the ride than on previous B&M 'mega coasters.' Much like the seating on the Deja Vu coasters, the two inside seats are moved forward with the outside seats set back - allowing unobstructed views for all riders.

A whopping $26 million investment, it's the largest in the park's history - not really a surprise with a price tag like that.

In traditional Cedar Fair style, the ride has a massive web page with tons of great Virtual Image Productions graphics and renderings. Check it out!


Sunday, August 26, 2007

I'm Worried about Geauga Lake



I'm worried about Geauga Lake. I think it's really going to become a water park. Or at least a water park with a really small ride section. I know nothing has been announced and this is still rumor - but you can't ignore the rumors detailing the demise of the ride side of the park.

I wish if these plans were in motion the park would be more open about it. All parks for that matter. I hate the whole "surprise!" we're closing this ride and taking it down with no warning thing.

I guess we will find out soon enough - Geauga Lake ends it's super short season in less than a month.


Saturday, August 25, 2007

Some Random Press Images


Here are a few images that I dug up in random order:

The Outlaw at Adventureland. A lot of people still say that they are surprised by how much they enjoy this ride.

The Alpengeist drawing from Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Notice that they even specify that the lift goes "195 ft. above ground" - a lot of people never understood that the ride's lift is not that high.

Shockwave at Six Flags Over Texas. Must be an older photo, judging from the people on the ride. Anton's old rides are awesome.


Friday, August 24, 2007

Kings Island Halloween Haunt


Well, yesterday I posted that Kings Island was still using the FearFest name, and then they suddenly go and make their Halloween Haunt website live.

So, they have changed the name. And their event is expanded as well. 7 mazes and 3 scare zones. I'm jealous!

It appears as though "Club Blood" is going into the structure they built specifically for the Haunt. I wonder if the same maze will be in the similar structures that went up at Kings Dominion and Carowinds?


Thursday, August 23, 2007

Canada's Wonderland 2008.


Well, we now know for sure that it's a B&M and it has Talon's colors!

CW Mania has the photo that tells all!


How to Compete with Potter


Image © Disney


I'm sure you all remember Beastly Kingdom, the section of Disney's Animal Kingdom that was never built, right?

Well, I got to thinking about what Disney is going to do with their Florida parks in order to compete with Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure. That park-within-a-park is going to open late 2009, or now rumored to be pushed back to '10.

Regardless, that's going to be a big draw for years after it opens. I think that Disney should throw down a whole new section of a park in order to compete with Mr. Potter.

Beastly Kingdom had the big Inverted Coaster themed to a dragon, and that obviously was built at Universal - so switch that out with another big E Ticket (you know Imagineering's shelves are lined with good ideas) and build the rest. You can still have the maze and the Fantasia-theme boat ride. And those Disney Fairies that are started to be pushed bigtime? Perfect fit.

Trying to pull off Expedition Everest as the "Imaginary" section of the park is lame. If that ride represents the imaginary animals of the world then that's a poor attempt. Great ride! But poor attempt at completing the park's original theme.

Just an idea.


Former Paramount Parks + Halloween


Cedar Fair is continuing to expand their fall events at the former Paramount Parks. Some details are being posted to the parks' websites, so I figured I'd try to condense their plans into one post.

Scarowinds' Halloween Haunt is being expanded for 2007. The park is building a permanent haunted house structure in one of the turnarounds of the Hurler roller coaster. The park is advertising 6 haunted attractions and almost 300 monsters prowling the park. Daytime plans for kids include the Howl-o-Fest, which is full of fall family activities.


Kings Dominion is also expanding their Halloween event. Now also named Halloween Haunt, the event will feature five haunted houses and four scare zones. Some former Knott's maze names are showing up for the event, such as Blackbeard's Revenge and Club Blood. Add to this some 200 monsters roaming around and you've got a great sounding event!



Kings Island is returning their Fear Fest event for 2007. Oddly, they are not taking on the Halloween Haunt name that the other former Paramount Parks are using.

While details for the event's haunted houses and scare zones have not yet been released, the park promises more monsters than ever before (see a theme here?) and the most intense Halloween event around.

Plus, the park will still hold the Nick-or-Treat event for children and families during the day.


Canada's Wonderland is also hosting Halloween Haunt this fall. They promise all new attractions such as The Asylum and Clowns at Midnight, as well as - you guessed it - lots of monsters all over the park.


Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Canada's Wonderland 2008?


Some tricky internet savvy fans of Canada's Wonderland decided to pick apart the flash animation on the park's site - ya know the one with the countdown to the announcement?

Well, they pulled out some images that are to show up as time goes by until they announce, and originally got the top hyper coaster looking image as seen above.

But now the animation ends in the inverted coaster image also seen above.

I love it! It's like a great thriller mystery movie with all the twists and turns (pun intended).

What *is* the park building? We will find out Monday!


Saturating No More


Carowinds has added a note on their webpage that the Flying Super Saturator will close for 2007 on September 3rd.

Everyone and their brother, though, say that it will be closing for good on Sept. 3rd - so I'd get some final rides in if you can.

Hydra Fighter was supposed to be moving to Hard Rock Park, but now is listed for sale again. Perhaps Super Saturator will be moving to this park instead?

I believe the ride was a maintenance issue - and Cedar Fair is clearing house of those rather quickly.

Here are the ride's stats from the park's website:

Nickelodeon™ Flying Super Saturator
It's the world's first high-flying water ride - that's more than a ride! Experience this suspended 'swing' coaster with the ultimate interactive water play. Zoom rightside up and sideways surrounded by spray stations, water cannons, geysers and water curtains through more than 1,000 feet of sheer thrills!


LOCATION: Adjacent to WaterWorks water park
MANUFACTURER: Setpoint, Inc., Ogden, Utah
TRACK LENGTH: 1,087 feet
HIGHEST PEAK: 42.4 feet
MAXIMUM SPEED: 44 feet per second
RIDE DURATION: Approximately 60.5 seconds
RIDE CAPACITY: 600 guests per hour
NUMBER OF CARS: 4 vehicles
NUMBER OF TURNS: 4
CAR CAPACITY: 4 guests per vehicle
OTHER FACTS: Every rider has the ability to release a 4-gallon “flash flood” at any point during the ride.

WATER ELEMENT DESCRIPTIONS:
22 Spray Stations: Guests below have the power to saturate their neighbors. Some stations squirt water up to 50 ft. 3
Water Cannons: These water blasters spray up to 40 ft. high.
3 Geysers: See water gush to heights from 10 to 40 feet.
3 Water Curtains: These sheaths of refreshing water are 10 ft. long.
3 Giant Hose Nozzles: These giant hosess run water continuously, guaranteeing a thoroughly soaked rider.
3 Gondola Blasters: It takes two to make these blasters flow: one to pump the water and another to aim nozzel. The more teamwork, the better the saturating potential.
2 Pistons Blasters: These water play blasters require riders to pull back on a plunger that absorbs water and then shoots the H2O back out when pushed.
2 Pump Blasters: When the lever is pressed, water jets out of the nozzle that's aimed at the Flying Super Saturator track. How far the water reaches depends on how hard you press! RIDE GUIDELINES Minimum height requirement is 44”. All riders between 44” and 50” must be accompanied by a responsible person.

Super Saturator!!

© emmy2302 via Webshots


Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Mr. Freeze at Six Flags St. Louis


The Mr. Freeze roller coasters were built at Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags over Texas in 1997, but since they didn't work they really opened in 1998. This is a press fact sheet from the St. Louis version of the ride that I just found:

These rides were a big deal as they were back at the start of big launched coasters. Now it seems half of the new coasters each year are launched, but not so back in 1997!

I've never been on either of these rides, and CoasterCommunity has a nice video of it on YouTube. Check it out:


What is Wooden Coaster?


The Attraction R.C.S. blog, which is not in English, has photos of Everland's new Intamin Pre-Fab Wooden Coaster going up.

The South Korean park is building the 5,300+ foot ride on a hillside, which makes the ride's layout even more interesting.

With the rave reviews that previous Intamin Pre-Fab Wooden Coasters have received, I'm sure this will be one of the rides of 2008.

Check out the Attraction R.C.S. blog to see photos. Be sure to click to page 2 for more. On and the title of this post comes from one of the photos, because I love engrish.


Dorney Website Updated



Dorney Park has given their webpage a Halloween makeover. They've also added their information for this year's HalloWeekends event.

They must have the 2008 project on their minds, however, as on the News page they've listed news for "HalloWeekends 2008." I think they're getting ahead of themselves.

Click to check it out on their site.


Sunday, August 19, 2007

Dorney Park Pre-Halloweekends Update


Went to the park today despite the bad weather to get some photos - thinking it would be empty. Even on a rainy day the park was using the overflow parking lot. I haven't seen Dorney have a summer like this since 2002 or so.

With the summer season slowly coming to an end, the park has put up a decent amount of advertising for Halloweekends.

Per usual, the hearse is outside the front gate as advertising. No real changes here, but they did do a great job with it when they changed its graphics a year or so ago.

These signs are up at the entrance to the park. New Dorney logo is used, and they have little logos for each of the haunted attractions on here. Notice that the Zephyr train ride is not on as it will be closed.

These signs are back up in a few places around the park. Nothing new here...

There are new banners up for the Halloween attractions. This shows some of the activities they have for kids.

Here is one for Doctor of Doom in 3-D. Kinda silly to put it behind a bench, but oh well. I don't remember these from last year but I could be wrong.

And here is one for the Fright Zone.

Lastly, here's one for ScreamWorks. I like how these are a little edgier and less family oriented.

And the billboard for Halloweekends is up as well.

With the light rain and cool temperatures, Dorney was rather crowded as it wasn't water park weather. Here's Hang Time's line around 1 p.m.

The Worlds of Fun blog mentioned these huge stuffed animals on their blog recently, and I took notice that Dorney does indeed have them as well. You seriously couldn't fit one of these in a car if you won one. I think it's taller than I am.

I know it's been mentioned a lot before, but Talon is really starting to look bad. There's so much black gunk on the track at this point that it takes away from the ride's look. The above photo is just one example, other parts are far worse.

I have no 2008 photos because there is nothing new to see from my last update. But Labor Day is just around the corner and that means construction starts!


Exciting: Hershey Park 2008


And now we have an announcement from Hershey Park to look forward to! October 2nd is the date for this one.

I would have bet a lot of money on an expansion for the Boardwalk for 2008, but it looks like I would have lost that cash.

The message in the teaser above hints to the fact that Hershey Park has 10 roller coasters at this point, so making that 11 and adding a new one seems to be the answer to the hint.

Anyone heard anything as to what kind of coaster this will be?


Saturday, August 18, 2007

Exciting: Canada's Wonderland 2008


Canada's Wonderland is having their biggest announcement ever on August 27th. The teaser on their website informs us that whatever the project is, it required 18 months of planning and construction, is the biggest project in the park's history, and that Canada has never seen anything like it.

Depending on how specific they are in that last part that could rule out the popular B&M Hyper rumor. I mean La Ronde has already done that. Perhaps that dive machine rumor had some substance after all?

You can stare at the countdown clock on the park's website and ponder all this until the announcement.


Friday, August 17, 2007

Original Steel Phantom Concept Art


Back in 1991 Kennywood Amusement Park opened a monster of a steel coaster, the Steel Phantom. Arrow Dynamics designed the Phantom to include a 225 ft. drop taken at speeds of 80 m.p.h., as well as four inversions.

This was quite the big deal at this point in the history of amusement rides. The drop was the world's longest, and the top speed the fastest. Such a big ride deserved some big concept art, right?

Well, here's what Kennywood came up with all those years ago:

Pretty cool, eh?

As we all know, Steel Phantom is no more, and Phantom's Revenge now tears around this section of the park.


Thursday, August 16, 2007

Universal's HHN Website Scares Me


Universal has once again updated their Halloween Horror Nights website. Now the Carnival is much more developed and you can click on the Blair Meats trailer, which I'm sure is serving up tasty goodies.

The puzzle to get into this one is much harder, and while I figured out the other two on my own I had to look up the answer to this one. Mainly because I have no idea how to operate a chainsaw in real life, let alone in a puzzle online.

The order for clicking the chainsaw parts is: turn the bottom power knob once, pump the gas button twice, hit the choke (red knob) once, pull the starter handle three times, and then hit the handle trigger once and enter by clicking "kill". That should get you in.

But beware: it's dark in there and a chainsaw-wielding maniac is after you.


Another Look at Six Flags Advertising


This article on Broadcast Newsroom gives a nice overview of the marketing efforts for Six Flags parks that were used this summer.

HomeNYC worked with Red Line Films to produce the TV spots for the park chain. There's a lot of somewhat technical info in the article, but a certain highlight is the fact that the company actually tried to make the commercials park specific.

I guess all those years of showing Six Flags Magic Mountain rides in Great Adventure spots are over. Thank goodness. I was getting pretty tired of seeing Goliath in all those commercials.