Sunday, November 25, 2007

Darien Lake 1996 Press Kit


1996 was a big year for Darien Lake amusement park. The $10 million expansion the park saw for the 1996 season was part of former owner, Premier Parks, tendency to spend huge amounts on its parks all at once.

And look Michael Bolton is on the cover of the press kit! He totally makes me star struck ... snicker.

So $10 million bought the park the Nightmare indoor coaster, an entire new children's area in the park, changes to the park's concert venue, and Hook's Lagoon, a water playhouse.

Here's the park facts section. All day admission was $18 and a season pass was $30 - what a steal! Now admission is $35 and a season pass is still a total steal at $45.

A specific breakdown of the new attractions for 1996. I'm noticing that they say that Nightmare went 60 m.p.h. Uhh, okay, sure. Nightmare was a Schwarzkopf Jet Star, like this:

... and according to rcdb.com Jet Star's hit a blazing speed of 31 m.p.h. I think that doubling your ride's max speed in press stuff is a bit much, no?

Anyway - here's the actual press release for the new stuff as well. You can read it if you like. Poor Geauga Lake's logo is on there too.




And to finish things off, here's the park map from that year. A lot has changed, I mean the kids area they had is now the waterpark, no Superman, no Mind Eraser, etc.

That's all! Hope you enjoyed.


1 comments:

WNY retail history said...

1996 was the year I first started to go to Darien Lake and the things that I remeber the most from the park is Hook's Lagoon, The submarnie and spinich cans rides in kiddie land, Tin Lizzy's, and Slieghride