Frightening Fun: 2010 Halloween Events - 4

Busch Gardens Williamsburg lets the dark side take over when Howl-O-Scream begins.  While there are six different haunted houses to explore, the park promises that the "scare is everywhere" once darkness falls.

The twisted attractions include mazes like Catacombs where guests enter a ruined underground city that's infested with rats and the bones of those who never made it out.  Plenty of live entertainment, like the Frakenrock musical production round out the festivities.  There is even a family friendly meal hosted by Count Von Count in Ireland.

Howl-O-Scream takes place on Fridays through Sundays for the rest of October.

Kennywood's legendary Phantom Fright Nights will certainly get your heart pumping.  This event means it when it says it is scary - it's not advised for kids under age 13 to attend.

Many of the park's favorite Haunts will be returning for the 2010 season, including Voodoo Bayou, Mortem's Manor, and the Kennyville Cemetery.  Gory Park is an especially haunted section of the park where the Phantom has unleashed his creatures on unsuspecting guests.

Along with the haunted attractions, the park's rides are open as well - including the Phantom's very own coaster: Phantom's Revenge.  The very popular event takes place on Friday and Saturday nights in October.

Idlewild was recently named the best children's park so it only makes sense that they would have a great Halloween event aimed at kids and families.  Idlewild's Hallowboo! is just that.

The park is decked out in its Halloween finest, and there's tons of activities for families like trick-or-treating in the park's amazing Storybook Forest area and a Hay Bale and Hedge Maze.  Many of the park's existing rides and attractions take on fun Halloween themes during Hallowboo! as well.

Since it is aimed at families Hallowboo! takes place during the day, and is scare free.  You can visit on Saturdays and Sundays during October.

The West Coast is quite the hot spot for Halloween events, and California's Great America continues to hold their own with Halloween Haunt.  In fact, this year features a new attraction, the retheming of the park's log flume into Black Widow's Cavern.

Spiders freak me out in real life, so I can only imagine being stuck on a log flume and traveling through an infestation of arachnids.  Also new for this year is Fangs!, a live show that mixes seductive Vampires with edgy comedy which plays in the Great America Theater.

Old favorites are also back:  Club Blood, Werewolf Canyon, Toy Factory, The Gauntlet, and Witch Doctor's Trail, among others.  The Haunt is a special ticket event and takes place Friday-Sunday evenings throughout the month.

Magic Springs and Crystal Falls is returning Magic Screams for the 2010 season, and making it bigger than ever.  The event will features several haunted houses like Phobia: House of Fears and Murder Mansion, both of which sound pretty intense.

If haunted houses aren't your thing, the park still has plenty for you.  Take for instance the Dead Elvis Review show, which is a mix of some of the King's most popular music with a Halloween twist.  Sounds like something you'll have to see to believe!

The park will also have a show for kids titled Creature Feature, where kids can get up close and personal with some of the "misunderstood" creepy crawlers.  I'm all for educational experiences but keep the bugs away from me!

Magic Screams takes place weekends in October.

If you're looking for a scary time in Sin City then Circus Circus's Fright Dome is the place for you.  The annual Halloween event takes over the Adventuredome Theme Park and features some of the latest and greatest Haunts around.

This year will feature a Saw themed maze, where guests not only have to survive Jigsaw's traps but find a way to escape them.  Another new maze is themed to the recent My Bloody Valentine feature film, where a serial killer has the entire theme park on edge.

There's several other mazes, and plenty of scare zones as well - and all the park's rides on top of that.  Fright Dome runs on select days throughout the month of October.

Scott And Carol Present - Construction is Zippin Along in Green Bay

We were on a hunt for the source of rumors coming out of Green Bay and our trek took us to Bay Beach.

Seems a lot of trees were being transformed in to lumber along the coast of Green Bay.

We found pallets of steel plates which were produced locally.

And some distinctively shaped rebar laying around.

Seems there are signs that there may be some truth to those rumors.

Vertical construction of the "new" Zippin Pippen has be begun.

On this turn some of that rebar has already been encased by concrete thus making footers

This section of track will run through the station.

This aerial view provides a better look at the progress made so far.

A step to left allows an even better looks at the construction. Those Miron guys are hard workers, vertical construction began on Thursday September 30th.


For those of you in the Bay Beach area the park is having a special event. We wish we could be there! For those of you how cannot make it to the event who would like to make a donation or purchase a very cool Zippen Pippen T-shirt check out ZippenPippen.org

The Latest On Kentucky Kingdom

Via Facebook

A new Facebook page has sprung up aimed at seeing Kentucky Kingdom reopen to the pubic in the near future.  The page, created by the Kentucky Kingdom Redevelopment Company, aims to gain public support for the park's reopening.  The KK Redevelopment Company was chosen as the investment group that will work to reopen the park, and includes former owner Ed Hart.

You can visit the page and read about the plans to reopen the park, which calls for some major expansions - doubling the size of the water park, a new coaster, and more.  The group is currently seeking a $50 million bond that will be used to get things back up and running if approved.

There are also some photos (one above) posted that show that the Road Runner Express wild mouse coaster is now being dismantled.  It will soon be transported to Massachusetts where it will reopen next year at Six Flags New England.

How Much For Round-Trip To China?

© 2010 Great Coasters Int.

Great Coasters International's latest masterpiece is making some serious progress - the above photo was posted on their Facebook and has me drooling.  The coaster, located at Knight Valley in China, stretches over 4,800' long and features a unique triple-down first drop - which you can see in the hill in the far background above. Then there are tunnels, a gazillion cross-overs, and naturally a station fly-through as well.

The company has posted other shots of the ride as well, be sure to check those out before you start researching your trip to China.

Zippin Pippin: Going Up

© The Zippin Pippin Blog

The next level of construction has been reached on Bay Beach Amusement Park's Zippin Pippin with the structure of the ride now going up.  The first section to be built was for the brake run/station area, according to the Zippin Pippin Blog.

The design of the ride has the lift and first drop wrap around the station area, so it's no surprise that they would start work there first.  Once the taller sections go up it would be difficult to maneuver inside them.

Head over to the Blog linked above for tons of recent construction photos, including a drawing of the layout and some great coaster-nerd blueprint shots!

September 2010 NPN Poll Results

Via Wikipedia

This past month's poll took a look at everyone's favorite B&M 'Mega' Coaster - basically the company's name for their line of hyper coasters.

The race was a close one, but with 24% of the votes the favorite was Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure.  Closely in second place was Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg with 23%.

Both coasters are known for their air-time filled courses and plummeting drops, and have long since been atop many fans lists.

Third place went to Diamondback at Kings Island (22%); the difference between second and third place was only two votes.  The fourth place finisher was Intimidator, a new for 2010 ride, with 8%.

Fifth place went to Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia with 7%.  The ride had some serious ballot stuffing going on, actually making it finish in first place.  But when I removed the fake votes, the ride fell to fifth.  So take that, cheaters.

Behemoth, Raging Bull, Silver Star, Goliath (Canada), and Hollywood Dream finished out the results, in the order listed.

The October Poll is now live, and asks your opinion of what has become a highly debated issue lately.  Think about it and answer honestly - I'm curious to see what you guys think on this one.