New Super Cyclone Coaster Coming to Santa's Village Azoosment Park

© Santa's Village Azoosment Park

Santa's Village Azoosment Park, located in East Dundee, Illinois, has announced that they are building a new roller coaster for 2017, named the Super Cyclone.

The park, which was reopened in 2011 after be closed for five or so years, has steadily expanded each year adding rides and attractions along with its popular petting zoo (hence the Azoosment Park name).  It originally opened in 1956 as just Santa's Village, and had two sister parks of the same name in California.

The new coaster will be fabricated by Interpark, and is one of the company's Super Cyclon designs.  The ride will feature orange track and gray steel supports, and is designed as a mild thrill ride that can appeal to the whole family.  When complete, the Super Cyclone will stand 35 feet tall, feature 1,148 feet of track, have a top speed of 30 miles per hour and utilize several two car trains that zip around the course.

You can read more about the park's expansion plans and keep up with the status of the new ride via the park's website.

A Blast From The Past - The Typhoon at Santa's Viilage

Back in 1999 we made our one and only visit Santa's Village in Dundee Illinois, The third of the Santa's Village parks to be built, this park was projected to be the hub of a chain Glenn Holland was building across the country.

The first two Villages were built in California and parks were planned for Richmond, VA and Cherry Hill, NJ, The east coast parks were never built, making the park in East Dundee the last of chain.

The park's buildings represented what children might imagine Santa's real Village looked like. When the park opened in 1959, it was a very popular theme park. Even though it's popularity waned in later years, more than 20 million people passed through the front gates before the park closed in 2006

We had been planning our trip to the park for some time, in fact it was July of 1997, about the time the park's roller coaster was scheduled to open. Problems developed and the$1,500,000 Typhoon didn't open until 1998.

Manufactured by Top Fun USA of Brentwood, TN. the first of it's kind Typhoon was 1775 ft long, with a height 63 feet, one inversion and a maximum speed of 45 MPH, There were two trains, each had three cars and riders sat two across for a 12 riders per train. Riders had to be 54" or taller to ride, by the way the park was anticipating a 42 inch requirement, but the height requirement was raised after testing

Some think the Typhoon was the beginning of the end. The ride was very rough, with lots of head banging. The 54 inch height requirement was hoping to bring in an older crowd, but Santa's Village was really a children's park so the majority of guests were unable to ride the park's new ride.

The Typhoon didn't really fit the park's theme, in fact the coaster really didn't even have a theme. for whatever the reason the huge decline in attendance led to the parks demise in August of 2006. Most of the rides and fixtures were auctioned in October 2006. The Typhoon was auctioned off to the Ray Cammack Show company, a traveling carnival operator based in Arizona, for $250,000. We are not certain of it's current where abouts.

As for Top Fun it seems from the brochure, they were banking heavily of the Typhoon being a winner, instead it was what doomed the company's future.

Santa's Village 2010: Ho Ho H20

Santa's Village, located in Jefferson, New Hampshire, is adding HoHoH20 for the park's 2010 season. The attraction will be a large water play structure from WhiteWater West, with some really great theming. As you can see in the art for the structure, guests will be able to splash around with Frosty, the Abominable Snowman, and other wintry characters.

Santa's Village is currently home to a wide selection of rides and attractions geared at families, such as Rudy's Rapid Transit Coaster and the Yule Log Flume. Too cute!