Busch Gardens Tampa's Latest Tease

Busch Gardens Tampa has released this week's clip of their new coaster, and it's a doozy.   This clip shows what looks like a launch in front of the station area that's once again located below grade, sorta in a crevice.  You look to launch under a pathway bridge of some sort, then up into a very unique set of turns:

The secret word is grace!

The high-in-the-air figure eight is unlink anything I've really seen before.  I doubt it can be taken at high speeds, but it'll work to temporarily slow the pace of the ride, extending the ride time.  Remember, launched rides aren't known for a long ride time, which makes keeping capacity up more complicated.

This latest clip also seems to take place just before the section shown in Clip 1, so watching them in that order gives you a good idea of the first third or so of the ride.  I'm still interested to see how the use of the old Rhino Rally water section plays out.

The Amusing Ads Archive - Six Flags Over Texas 1993

In the midst of the rush of Halloween events to try to cover, I thought it amusing to feature an advertisement from Six Flags Over Texas' holiday event, circa 1993.  The park has long been a fan of special events, only this one wasn't scary or evil in any way.  Instead, holiday cheer filled the park back then and continues today.

The event featured millions of lights, a huge tree, sledding, wandering carolers, and even a reindeer petting farm!  I don't think that the Santa Claus reindeer coaster shown in the ad was a featured attraction, however.  Too bad!

Weekly Rewind 9.25.10

Apparently investing in Dick Clark can lead to quite a nice pay day.  Six Flags, who invested in Dick Clark Productions under the last set of leaders, just received a $41 million cash distribution from the company.  They can buy a lot of Euro-Fighters with that kinda cash! Just kidding.

 

As if Disney does not already have enough characters to turn into plush items, they've started to introduce Duffy the Disney Bear to American audiences.  The character is fantastically popular at the Tokyo parks, and the company is now bringing him to the U.S. parks.  He has his own meet and greet locations at Epcot and Disney California Adventure.  He is sorta cute, though.

While on the subject of Disney Parks, the company just announced a new "Let The Memories Begin" advertising campaign for next year.  The plan focuses on the ever growing use of social media as part of families trips to the parks.  Images of families taken at the parks will be projected on the Castle in Florida and the facade of Small World in California.  The plan has already met tons of criticism from fans who are not at all pleased to see photos plastered on park icons.

Mean Streak, at Cedar Point, started on fire this past week.  Before anyone makes any "burn it down" jokes, the fire was quickly put out and significant harm was not done.  The ride had some work being done on it and somehow the fire resulted form that, inspectors believe.

Keeping up with the construction of the Zippin Pippin at Bay Beach is easier with the addition of new construction photos posted on the park's Facebook.  Looks like a lot of the footers for the beginning of the ride are now in place.  This news article also covers the latest on the ride's development.

Cedar Point posted a pretty cool video of the park taken from a blimp ride.  It's always fun to see shots of some of our favorite parks from the air.  (cough, cough Aerial Antics)  You can watch the video on YouTube at this link.

A reminder that this weekend is the last time you'll be able to ride the Wild Mouse at Quassy Amusement Park.  Free rides are being given from noon to six as a way to celebrate the ride's time at the park.  With a new wooden coaster opening next season, the park will dismantle the older Wild Mouse.

The second clip for Busch Gardens Tampa's new 2011 coaster was revealed this past week, using the code word rush.  The 2nd clip appears to show the final return run to the station, but has me just as excited for the ride as the first one did. 

A bankruptcy court has given permission for the first of many creditors to take items back from Freestyle Music Park that are owed to them.  The company noted that the park is sitting idle with no insurance and could be potentially ruined by a hurricane or other event. 

Ride Entertainment Group has two goodies on their Facebook page relating to Six Flags Over Georgia's new Daredevil Dive coaster.  First, they've posted the layout of the ride, which looks pretty neat.  Second, they recently posted that the ride will have lap-bars instead of over-the-shoulder restraints, a first for a Euro-Fighter.

Canobie Lake Park Planning A Euro-Fighter

Canobie Lake Park is planning a new coaster, a Euro-Fighter style ride from Gerstlauer.  According to this article, the park says the ride is still in planning stages, but they are however ready to apply for planning permission to construct it.

The ride will be located along the Canobie Mall, in a previously undeveloped area.  The ride will stand around 75 ft. tall, which is just under the 80 ft. limit the city has, and feature Euro-Fighter's trademark beyond-vertical first drop.  The ride is expected to be one of the more compact models that the company has, but even the smaller ones still pack quite a punch.

It's not totally clear from the article if the ride is planned for 2011, though it does sound like it.  I'm quite pleased to see yet another of these rides coming to the U.S.

A Blast Past From The Past - Lightning Racer Construction

With Lightning Racer, Hersheypark asked Great Coasters and designer Mike Boodley to put a new twist on tradition, thus taking GCI designs to the next level! The field adjacent to Midway America was soon dotted with concrete footers and wooden bents were sprouting up like trees.

By early September the bottom of the two first drops was shaping up. Work continued through out the fall and by Mid-December news leaked that one lift motor would have a fixed speed and the other would be a variable speed motor, which would ensure a "fair" race no matter when the trains left the station (as long as they were still climbing the lift.)

In this photo the inside curve appears to be complete, but the outside has much work to be done.

Here's a look at what would eventually be the Lightning Racer's twin stations

This aerial shot shows that while a lot of the coaster's 6786 feet of track is complete, there is still plenty of work the GCII crew to do.

Curves like the one on the right side of this photo were the reasoning for the creation of GCI's GCI's Millennium Flyer articulating trains, with provide a smooth quick and comfortable ride no matter how twisted the ride is!

Here's Great Coasters founders and Co-owners Claire Hain & Mike Boodley taking one of the first test rides on Lightning Racer.

Greeter Linda W shared a couple of construction photos with us, complete with models, on the left is Linda's oldest daughter Alexa and on the right is little sister, Alaina.

Both young ladies spent this season as lifeguards at Hersheypark's Boardwalk Water park. Mom reports that they still managed to enjoy the park and get plenty of rides on Lightning Racer.

We would like to thank Great Coasters & Linda W for allowing us to use their fantastic construction photos.

Scott And Carol Present - Happy Halloweekends at Cedar Point

Cedar Point has continued to improve the offerings at their fall Halloweekends event. At least one of the mazes is heavily revamped each year to provide new thrills and small touches are added throughout the park.




The new for 2009 Eerie Estate even offers a fine dining plan, allowing you to scare that special someone with something tasty. The menu offers things like crab legs, a seafood Alfredo pasta, fillet Mignon, and lobster. A popular beverage is Bloody Beer, and there is a special surprise for dessert.



Betty, complete with her candle, greats you at the door well before the attraction opens and guides you to the dining room, admonishing you to “Follow the candle,” with an unsettling voice. Seated around the dining table, she encourages someone, any one, to press the button that starts an eerie soundtrack.

If you are a regular visitor to Cedar Point you won’t recognized the inside of the former finance offices. The former denizens had previously scoffed at tales of haunted areas in the park, but if they choose to visit the estate, they might reconsider.

Betty stays in character during the meal, and a lucky guest is asked at knife point “Do you like your salad.” On our visit, Betty was saving her most horrific stuff for a more scare experienced clientele, explaining she didn’t want to ruin it for the children. But she regaled them with stories of haunted lore from Cedar Point.

Brian Poloski says “Advanced reservations are required, for this is limited to only 400 guests per season.”

For a less exclusive dining option, you can visit the Alien Café, and take your picture with the man-eating plant.

There are lots of nice decorations throughout the park. Here is our favorite (13)

During the day the friendly monsters come out to dance with the younger set. And of course Charlie Brown and Snoopy have to have a costume contest. The winners get a special treat.

The landscaping crew has been worked to the bone this season.

A nice family friendly parade featuring the Peanuts gang and friendly monsters attracts a large crowd. And, the costume contest winners are invited to ride along and show off their costumes.

The cemetery of dead rides brings back lots of memories. One of the old rides is haunted according to Betty; do you know which one it is?

When darkness falls a more menacing tone is heard throughout the park. The Awakening has screamsters storming the midway and they congregate beneath the Overlord. Once he releases them the outdoor mazes and scare zones are open to thrill. They have learned more effective ways to scare the guests during scare school and this makes the attractions much more enjoyable.

Cedar Point has a off beat sense of humor and often digs up things that are just lying around to blend withsome new decorations

The new Dr. D. Mented’s Asylum for the criminally insane is located in the old Carousel building across from the Wave swinger. On quiet nights after the park closes, some associates have reported hearing the music and the laughing from years gone by. During Halloweekends all you hear is screams from the new guests of the Doctor. His many years of experiments gone awry have taken their toll on his patients so he is now looking for a few willing subjects to refine his techniques. Stay with your group lest you be “recruited” for his next experiment. The room with lunging skeletons is particularly effective.

CornStalkers and Club Blood make their annual return and of course it wouldn’t be Halloweekends without CarnEvil.








The Fright Zone was the walk-through we were most impressed with. The lighting made for extremely eerie surroundings and Screamsters were very creepy this year.




Alas, all to soon the clock struck mid-night and our time at Halloweekends had expired. Happy Haunting and our thanks to Robin Innes, the PR Overlord.