Weekly Rewind 2.12.11

Michigan's Adventure has started construction on Beach Party, the park's new interactive water play structure. Still a lot of dirt, but soon a 90 ft. geyser will be spraying guests.

The queue for the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom is receiving some interactive features, though the park won't say exactly what yet.  I know I'm curious.

Want to know how many new attractions the Schlitterbahn parks will get in 2011? If so, the park has a teaser that you might be interested in.

Six Flags Great Adventure's new Green Lantern stand-up coaster is making more progress now that the snow has cleared.  Crews have started the turn around from the lift that heads into the drop.

Sea World San Antonio's new Sesame Street Bay of Play will feature attractions that families will love.  Much of the project work is already complete, as seen in this video update.

Dollywood's Barnstormer opens next month, and the park is putting the finishing touches on the ride.  Several galleries are available here.

Cedar Point announced that they will be adding a Pink's hot dog location to their park this year.  The West Coast chain has already been successful at Knott's berry farm.

We haven't forgotten about the Zippin Pippin, which despite freezing temperatures has steadily been making progress.  They ride's track is being applied and the station has been being worked on.

A maze of additional steel supports have gone up on the inside of the New Texas Giant.  It's an interesting look.

Taking a wintry look at all the changes that Worlds of Fun has in store for this season.  It's really going to be a huge year for the park!

PARC Management acquired Baker Leisure Group this past week.  A match made in heaven? Not sure what to think of this news.

Wild Waves' new management is promising great things to come for the park, including a currently-being-negotiated family water attraction for 2011. 

CNL: Multiple Operators Likely for PARC Properties

More details are emerging on the possible new operators of CNL's eight theme and water parks that were run by PARC Management.  This article focuses on Darien Lake, but provides some new details.  For one, CNL says that it is likely that different operators will take over the parks - instead of one like PARC did.

CNL is currently taking bids from many different parties, but hopes to have new management lined up across the board by year's end.

CNL is also already hard at work planning capital for the parks over the next two years, saying they are working with ride manufacturers to finalize things now.  Darien Lake could see a new ride or two, as well as accommodations improvements over the next couple years.

I'm anxious to see what parks end up being managed by whom.  Frontier City is already rumored to have Herschend interested, and a resort like Darien Lake could attract some bigger names, too.  A new management company could also be formed just to manage some of the properties, too.

PARC Mangement Heads In New Direction

PARC Management and CNL Lifestyle Properties have agreed to terminate their lease arrangement, which means several large theme parks are now without a management company.

PARC sent out a release that explains that they "will expand the Company’s development and operation of new concept theme and water parks, enhance its current properties, including NASCAR SpeedParks, and provide development and operational management services to third-party owners, joint venture partners, and government entities."

PARC has purchased CNL's interest in Myrtle Waves water park in Myrtle Beach, SC.  PARC will now own/operate family fun centers and water parks across the nation.

A CNL Lifestyle Properties release explains that they have already reached an agreement for Amusement Management Partners to take over operations of 8 family entertainment centers formerly operated by PARC. 

Probably the most interesting part of this is that the big parks do not have new operators yet.  These include Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, Wild Waves, Frontier City, Magic Springs and several water parks.  The rumor mill has already kicked in on that front, Screamscape reports that Herschend Family might be interested in running Frontier City.

Perhaps the parks will receive separate operators, or a new company will take them all on.  Either way both PARC and CNL promise a smooth transition and no disruption to the park's 2011 seasons.

Weekly Rewind 11.20.10

Cedar Fair's largest unit holder is not happy with the company's current leadership structure, and wishes to have a separate individual be Chairman of the Board and CEO.  They asked for a special meeting to vote on their request, which Cedar Fair has agreed to.  No time and date are set, yet, but it could be soon.

Lagoon hasn't provided much detail on their new family coaster for 2011, but has added the ride's name and the above graphic to their website.  According to Wiki a Bombora is a series of big waves that break offshore over a shallow part of the sea.  Hmm.

Trouble with PARC Management - CNL Properties, owners of 18 parks and FECs in the US are looking to break their deal with PARC to manage the properties.  Seems that PARC is having problems meeting their financial obligations.  CNL hopes to have a new operator for the parks by next season.  The big question is who?

A sad looking short film that hit the web showcasing the remains of Six Flags New Orleans that said the park would be demolished in January has prompted officials to call those plans 100% untrue.  In fact, they say there is still an offer to redevelop the park pending.  What plan is that, I wonder?

The Zippin Pippin may be going a bit over budget (but additional fundraising should fix that), but the ride is also continuing to make quick progress.  The ride's tallest bent was recently lifted into place.  Photos can be found here.

Legoland Florida is proud of their recycling efforts currently going on while they renovate Cypress Gardens.  The park will reuse 18,000 tons of concrete from former walkways as base for new paths, and moving and then replanting 660 trees while construction finishes.  Nice!

IAAPA 2010 has drawn to a close, but the coverage of the event is in full swing.  Theme Park Review has a full roster of photos, videos, and interviews available from the convention. 

Busch Gardens Tampa is getting ready to open Cirque Dreams at the theme park on December 3rd. According to the park, "Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy is an exotic encounter inspired by nature’s unpredictable creations, brought to life by an international cast of soaring aerialists, spine-bending contortionists, acrobats, jugglers and musicians."

Ed Hart has a new series of videos up on YouTube answering questions from fans about the reopening of Kentucky Kingdom.  This time he tackles some ride questions, like if Twisted Twins will reopen - to which he says yes, the park will spend $3 million for a total renovation and new trains.

Busch Gardens Tampa has been making progress on Cheetah Hunt as well - the park now has track and supports up!  RCPro has a nice update showing off the recent additions.  I'm loving the colors of the ride.

Check out this release from Cantilevered Coaster Systems, which just joined with Setpoint to try to commercialize their idea for a new type of coaster.  They're currently offering two different layouts that would cost a park between $4 and $6 million.  But will any parks bite?

If anyone was wondering if former President of Freestyle Music Park will try to move any rides to his new Orlando Thrill Park development, the answer is no.  He says he has no connection to Freestyle at this point.  That nice B&M ride is still available folks!

Six Flags appears to be saving some cash next year on licensing fees by dropping several themes from all the parks.  Rumor has it that the Wiggles, Thomas Town, Tony Hawk, Evel Knievel, and possibly more themes will not exist at the parks in 2011.  Six Flags Fiesta Texas has already posted their Holiday In The Park ride list - and Tony Hawk is simply called Big Spin, and all the Wiggles rides have generic names now.  Very interesting, indeed.

PARC Foundation Donation Matching Ends Tomorrow

A couple weeks ago, we brought a very important fundraiser to your attention. PARC Management, LLC has been working hard to raise money for the relief efforts in Haiti through its not-for-profit partner, PARC Foundation. Back in January, an anonymous member of the Jacksonville, Florida community raised the bar by pledging to match all donations up to $10,000. That's right, we're talking about the potential of raising $20,000 to help the earthquake victims! The original deadline for contribution matching was February 5, but that deadline has been extended to Friday, February 12. (In case you've lost track, that's TOMORROW!)

Making a donation is easy. All you need to do is visit PARC Foundation's web site and click on the "Donate Now!" button. One hundred percent of the donations made via the web site through tomorrow will go directly to the American Red Cross. All donations are tax-deductible, and no amount is too small. If you're able, please consider supporting this very worthy cause!

Weekly Rewind 1.24.10

Something is afoot at Disney. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Mouse's charges are hard at work on a "NextGen" technology project which promises to fundamentally alter the Disney theme park experience. But don't expect details to be forthcoming in the near future; the project appears to be shrouded in a heavy duty veil of secrecy.

The last hurdle standing in the way of a Demon Dropping in on Dorney Park this summer has been crossed. This past Wednesday, South Whitehall Township gave the park the green light to proceed with construction of their hand-me-down first generation freefall ride--which is fortunate, considering all of the ride parts have already arrived! Site preparation is scheduled to begin in the coming weeks, so we'll keep you apprised of the progress. A June debut is expected for the ride.

According to the Branson Tri-Lakes News, Herschend Family Entertainment is no closer to deciding the fate of the former Celebration City site than they were when the park closed its gates for good in October 2008. They're hoping to establish some sort of family attraction and have begun to explore their options, but a park spokeswoman has stated that they are still in the "initial stage" of the process. There's still no word on what will become of the famed Ozark Wildcat coaster.

Amusement industry enthusiasts aren't the only ones who have been following the retheming of Alton Towers' Spinball Whizzer coaster with interest. "Gamer" web site 1up.com has also taken notice, and reports that the newly rechristened "Sonic Spinball" will open to the public on February 13.

While most parks have long since announced their plans for new 2010 attractions, some are still holding out...and teasing us to boot! Enchanted Forest in Turner, Oregon posted a mysterious status on their Facebook page back in mid-December which hints at a "top secret" project that is currently underway in Western Town, but they have yet to reveal any further details. Likewise, Magic Springs recently tweeted that "big news" is coming soon. We'll be keeping a close eye on these two!

One park which will not be getting a new ride in 2010 is Lagoon. Despite sightings of what appeared to be coaster track back in October, the local news reports that economic factors have forced park management to forgo plans for a major new attraction this year.

I'm ashamed to admit that I never did get around to entering Six Flags Discovery Kingdom's baby giraffe naming contest. (There was research required, and I'm a bit maxed out on time these days!) Fortunately, more than 650 fellow giraffe lovers did take the time to submit entries, and five finalists have been selected. You can vote for your favorite name on the park's web site through January 29. The winner will be announced on February 1.

Here at NPN, the worst news we'll ever have to deliver is that a park or a beloved ride is being demolished. But as sad as those events may be, there are many people in this world who have real problems, and PARC Management is making it easier for you to help some of them. By making a donation to the PARC Foundation, you can make a difference in the lives of those affected by the recent earthquake in Haiti. As Magic Springs and other PARC properties have been announcing on Facebook, an anonymous individual has generously offered to match all donations up to $10,000 which are made through February 5, which means your contribution will go even further! If you haven't already, please spare what you can to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Aerial Antics: Darien Lake

Welcome to Darien Lake - the focus of this week's Aerial Antics.

Darien Lake has had a busy past decade, having seen the park expanded greatly under the ownership of the Premier and later Six Flags folks. Above is Mind Eraser, a Vekoma SLC ride that was added back in 1997 under the Premier era.

Viper was the first coaster to have 5 inversions when it opened in 1982, and it hasn't stopped banging heads since. Arrow created the ride, and although it's certainly showing it's age at this point, it was a rather big deal back when it opened.

This is the park's latest coaster addition - the OCC Motocoaster. The launched Zamperla ride features neat looking trains where rides sit atop their own motorcycle styled car.

I think Predator is one of the most beautiful wooden rides around, with it's perfect location alongside a lake. The ride it provides, however, isn't quite so beautiful. I don't like to be overly down about rides, but Predator is just too rough to be fun!

While Predator certainly has some drawbacks, Ride of Steel does not. This Intamin hyper coaster gives one heck of a ride, as many of you well know. Just driving up to the park and seeing it towering over the landscape lets you know you're in for a good time!

Here's a coaster that's stored at the park, but doesn't look like its opening any time soon. It's the former Batman Escape from Six Flags AstroWorld. It was shipped here after that park closed, but hasn't seen much action since.

These last two shots are just for fun, I found that if you play with the Bing aerials you can see this giant waterslide (also from AstroWorld, I believe) under construction...

And then completed!

To see the Darien Lake aerials, click here.

Aerial Antics: Wild Waves Theme Park

This week I decided to take a trip up North and look at Wild Waves Theme Park, located in the beautiful state of Washington.

The park has changed hands a couple of times during the last decade, notably it was owned by Six Flags for a period during their mega expansion years. The park actually opened in 1977 and started off very small. The addition of the water park seen above helped start the gradual growth of the property.

After Six Flags had to sell off some of their parks, Wild Waves and Enchanted Village as it was then known, was sold to CNL Properties and leased to PARC Management which renamed it just Wild Waves Theme Park.

Here is Wild Thing, the larger coaster the park had before it was owned by any major operator. It was purchased when Rocky Point Amusement Park in Rhode Island closed. It's an Arrow standard Loop & Corkscrew model.

Six Flags purchased the park late in 2000, so additions to the park for the 2001 season were tough. 2002 saw Six Flags expand the park in 'their way' - which means a ton of stuff was added.

Above we see the park's Northwest Territory which was created for the 2002 season. The splash ride is named Lumberjack Falls, and the area also boasts the Klondike Gold Rusher mouse coaster, and the Zamperla created Timber Axe flat ride.

The center of the park, which is also the oldest section, is home to many of Wild Waves' flat rides. Here we see several of those, minus a Mega Disk-O which was more recently added. It also looks like a popular place for water park guests to lay out their towels and relax!

Finally we have the park's large addition for the 2003 season, a unique S&S Power designed wooden roller coaster named Timberhawk: Ride of Prey. The coaster stands 75 ft. tall and has 2,600 ft. of track. The unique aspect to the ride is that S&S Power made very few wooden coasters, which makes finding one quite tough!

Here's a link to the Bing aerials.

An Answer to the Magic Springs Question?

News coming out of Magic Springs and Crystal Falls theme park, located in Arkansas, this year has not been good. The park has had many rides down for a large part of the season, including their top thrill rides, like the X-Coaster seen above.

The Arkansas Times just ran a story that lets the park tell their side of things, and from this the situation doesn't look nearly as bleak for the future of Magic Springs as it has recently. Seems there was still litigation going on from the purchase of the park as recently as the start of this year, and the former owners left a lot of maintenance issues for PARC Management to fix, resulting in massive ride downtime.

You can read the details on your own, but hopefully now that many of the issues are resolved the park can put all this behind them. Also of note to potential visitors is that the X-Coaster seen above is currently the only ride that hasn't reopened for the 2009 season.

PARC Management Expanding

PARC Management has announced that they are once more expanding the number of parks they own or operate with the acquisition of the operations of eleven new family entertainment centers.

Spread throughout the country, the new FECs bring the company's operation to a total of 25 properties.

PARC Management operates seven of the former Six Flags properties that were sold off in early 2007, the family of Nascar SpeedParks, Magic Springs, and the newly acquired family entertainment centers.

Darien Lake's 2008 Fright Fest

One of our readers, Rousea, was nice enough to send a link to this photo tour of Darien Lake's 2008 Fright Fest.

The event looks super popular as the park looks packed in many of the photos. The "field trip" they offer looks pretty wild, too! That's a neat idea for a haunt attraction.

Daily Spin 6.26.08

Looks like Anheuser Busch will reject In-Bev's offer, but follow that with a company reorganization that could see the theme park division being sold off anyway. No good! Those parks are some of the best run out there... I wish they would stay with Anheuser Busch.

ThemeParkReview's forums are still proving to be the best place to go for assorted photo trip reports... two I took note of recently were this one of Canobie Lake and - finally - one from Elitch Gardens! I was starting to think no one had visited Elitch yet this year. Looks like their new dark ride attraction is far from being open, though.


Moving south, we find that Universal Studios has already started construction on their new Rockit coaster for 2009. They've begun to clear out the section of the park where the new coaster, and an amphitheater, will reside. OrlandoRocks has lots of great photos.

Cedar Fair is building the company's new headquarters in the middle of Cedar Point. The Morning Journal has an article about how the company came through with using local resources and labor to build the project. I personally think it's weird that they would build this in the middle of the park ... why not on that land they own on the way in? Well I don't work there so no bother to me!

Decades Music Theme Park is one step closer to reality, though they still have a long way to go. The proposed Arizona theme park got Senate approval for a bill that would help get financing in order so construction can start. This is the first time I've seen a photo of a model of the park, it looks fairly interesting, though the image is small.

Magic Springs - Sold!

Magic Springs and Crystal Falls has been sold to PARC Management, LLC. PARC is the group that purchased several former Six Flags parks last year.

This article covers the news really well, and points out the growth that Magic Springs has seen in the past few years, with attendance now up over a half million.

PARC Management now operates Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, Frontier City, Wild Waves, Magic Springs, and three water park only facilities.

The OOC MotoCoaster

Thanks to one of our readers, Steve, now I know where the OOC MotoCoaster at Darien Lake is located! Steve left a comment on the last Daily Spin post and informed us that the coaster is located where the pool used to be for resort guests. (seen above)

That's a nice location for the ride, I hope that they continue to 'fill in' the area around that lake, the Boomerang and Top Spin were always sorta out there by themselves.

Now my next question, how do you get to the ride with the antique cars running all along there? Did they do a bridge over them?

Daily Spin 5.13.08

Here's a gallery on Facebook of Darien Lake's OCC Motocoaster. I wish it had received a new paint job after it was shipped over here! I know it's located on the "back" lake that's by the camping stuff ... but I still can't figure out exactly where.

The construction for Manta at Sea World Orlando has stepped it up a notch, with hard ground construction finally started. JohnnyUpsideDown has the photos. Apparently those concept images that were released are real...

Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom opened for the year this past weekend. The drop ride is gone, and a big part of the park is walled off. I wonder what Six Flags' plan is for this park? The did get a new water slide though.

Kevin Yee's review of Toy Story Midway Mania over on MiceAge is pretty awesome, he presents the ride with a level of detail I haven't seen elsewhere. Has good photos, too.

IOACentral has new photos of the Harry Potter construction going on at Island of Adventure Theme Park. The building that is going up is seriously huge.

Darien Lake Renames MotoCoaster

Darien Lake Theme Park has renamed their new coaster for 2008, MotoCoaster. The park has teamed up with Orange County Choppers and will now call the ride the Orange County Choppers MotoCoaster.

The ride will be featured on the TLC show "American Chopper" and the park is having a special motorcycle designed for the ride which will premier at its grand opening on May 16th. The stars of the show will also make several live appearances at the park over the summer months.

While the name lacks in the creativity department, that's a pretty cool match up. And I must admit, I've totally watched the show before. Good news, Darien Lake!

Frontier City 2008: Steel Lasso

Frontier City amusement park announced this past week their new attraction for 2008: Steel Lasso. A family inverted coaster designed by Vekoma and manufactured by Chance in the U.S.

The 49 ft. tall ride will have just under 1,000 ft. of track and hit a top speed of 30 m.p.h. Better yet, the trains will use Vekoma's new restraints that do not go over the rider's shoulders.

I like the direction that PARC Management is going with the former Six Flags parks. They're adding attractions aimed at the family more than the teens, and most of the attractions are different things that haven't been seen in the market before.

Amusement Today has the layout and more info on Steel Lasso.

Darien Lake 2008

© The Buffalo News 2008

The Buffalo News recently had a nice article about Darien Lake's upcoming 2008 season. They article mentions that while the $3.4 million Motocoaster is the year's big attraction, there will be plenty of other changes around the park. Food options, admission prices, and live shows are also changing at the facility as well.

The Motocoaster is going to be out by the campgrounds, which should change the dynamic of the park pretty dramatically. When I visited Darien Lake I didn't care to ride the Boomerang or top spin so I never even went into that whole 'lake' section of the park. The new ride will give guests a reason to head out that way.

Here's a link to the article.

Darien Lake Makes It Official

Darien Lake made their new Zamperla Motocoaster for 2008 official today. As of now they are just calling the ride a Motocoaster from Zamperla, so I'm guessing they will pick a name for the ride later.

The info is right on Darien Lake's main page.

Darien Lake 2008 Coaster

We've heard the rumors before, but now ParkWorld Magazine has confirmed that Darien Lake will add the Zamperla MotoCoaster prototype seen above.

Joining it's sister Zamperla MotoCoaster at Knott's Berry Farm in 2008, the ride has been running outside the Zamperla plant in Italy for some time now.

I'm glad Darien Lake is adding this ride - good for them. Perhaps the park can thrive under it's new PARC ownership.