From The Vault: Dutch Wonderland 1996 Brochure

A park aimed at families with smaller kids may not be the most exciting proposition for thrill seekers, but we cover all sorts of parks here on NPN, mild to wild.  One that's definitely mild is Dutch Wonderland, the focus of this week's From the Vault.

Dutch Wonderland opened in 1963 and the main draw at the time was the large castle facade on the entrance building, which also houses a large gift shop.  The front of this brochure shows both of these aspects of the structure, which can be seen from the nearby road and helps draw attention to the park.

The park operated for decades under the same owners and business plan, expanding here and there along the way - but never adding anything too enormous.  That just wasn't their plan.  In 2001 Hershey Entertainment purchased the park and began to advertise it along with their main property, Hersheypark.  There were some new attractions added but overall no huge expansion took place and things remained largely as they were.  The addition of a small water area, a play structure and a couple small lagoons, was probably the biggest and smartest move that Hershey Entertainment made.
 

Then in 2010 Hershey Entertainment sold the park to Palace Entertainment, a part of the larger park operator Parques Reunidos.  In current day Dutch Wonderland still caters to smaller kids, advertising themselves as a Kingdom for Kids.  I could have missed it, but I'm not sure that the new owners have added much at all since they purchased the park.

The rides the park offers are similarly mild, and include the Kingdom Coaster (formerly Sky Princess), which was the first coaster ever built by Custom Coasters International.  There's also a log flume, giant slide, frog hopper, and plenty of fairy tale themed attractions. 

In 1996 the park was one part of several tourist attractions in the Lancaster area, and they were shown off here to drum up some business, I suppose.  The Wax Museum of Lancaster County History sounds really exciting.  Ha!

Greezed Lightnin' Coming Down at Kentucky Kingdom

Wasting no time since their official announcement of a 2014 reopening, Kentucky Kingdom has started to dismantle the Greezed Lightnin' roller coaster.  From the way the ride is being cut apart, you will not be seeing it rise again at any park in the future, that is for sure.

The park plans to replace the coaster with a new $7 million steel one, and hopes to announce that within a few weeks according to this source.

© Kentucky Kingdom

Greezed Lightnin' came to the park from Six Flags Over Georgia where it operated as Viper, and previously it was at Six Flags Great America where it originally opened in 1978.  It was a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop, utilizing a weight drop launch to send the train out of the station and through the vertical loop.

For a great series of photographs of the ride coming down, check out this post on Theme Park Review.

Tokyo Disneyland's Jungle Cruise to be Renovated for 2014

© Tokyo Disneyland

Just a couple weeks after announcing a pair of large new entertainment additions for both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, the resort has sent out news of another large project.

One of the park's older attractions - the Jungle Cruise - will be undergoing a $16 million (1.6 billion yen) renovation that will update this 1983 classic and make it like a new experience.

"The new Jungle Cruise will offer Guests an adventure that is even more thrilling than before.  From on board the attraction’s boats, Guests will explore jungle landscapes full of wild animals with the help of their daring and comical skipper who guides them through the beauty and dangers of this exotic world. The adventure includes a startling encounter with one of the animal spirit guardians in the ruins of a lost jungle temple."

A host of new lighting and other special effects will be added to modernize the voyage, and an all new soundtrack will be written specifically for the ride, a first for any of the Disney Jungle Cruise rides around the world.  The release also mentions a special "night cruise" that takes place after dark that will give a unique take on the ride.

The current version of the Jungle Cruise will close January 6th, 2014 and will reopen in the Fall of 2014.

Aerial Antics: Silver Dollar City

For a long time I've wanted to be able to feature Silver Dollar City on Aerial Antics, but its location did not make it a prime candidate for neat Bird's Eye or 45 Degree views.  Finally!  That has changed.

Bing has updated their aerial images to include Bird's Eye views of the theme park, just with no Outlaw Run added.  Here we see the entrance to the park, with the main ticket/locker/restroom building on the right and the large gift shop exit on the left.

Here's a nice view of the park's Arrow mine train, ThuNderaTion.  The ride sits on a gigantic hill, which is a bit hard to tell from this photo.  The train starts its decent right out of the station, including that enormous helix that ends underground.  A large lift hill toward the end of the ride gets the trains back up to the top.

This is the Grand Exposition, a two acre area that is filled with flat rides that are perfect for all members of the family.  There's also a small roller coaster in the area, seen adjacent to the large building near the top.

A unique ride to say the least, this is Powder Keg.  It started its life as a water ride that featured a coaster section, and was eventually transformed into a launched coaster.  If you look close you can see a train on the launch track just about ready to go!

This is Wilsons Farm, which features the S&S created Giant Swing.  At the time the photo was taken the area was a dead end, but now just past the two small kiddie tower rides is the entrance to Outlaw Run's plaza.

Also, the large building that can be partially seen in the bottom left corner is part of Fire in the Hole, the park's unique dark ride/coaster combo.

Silver Dollar City's B&M, Wildfire, is seen here - also perched on a hillside.  One of a few traditional 'sit down' coasters the company has created, it features a large first drop followed by five inversions.  Much of the ride is hard to see from inside the park, so it is pretty neat to see the ride's layout from above.

As for this year's mega-attraction, Outlaw Run, Google's maps actually do feature the coaster, just not in 45 degree images.  Above you can see how the ride was added just above the Wilsons Farm area, stretching out into the woods.

For a link to Bing's aerials, click here, and for Google's use this link.

Knott's Announces 2013 Haunt News to Park Fans

Knott's Berry Farm had a rather cool Haunt 2013 preview event last night, allowing season pass holders to flock to the park's Charles M. Schultz Theatre for a presentation on what's new and changing for this year's event.

The public announcement of the Haunt's lineup is something new for the park, and fits well with their new goal to become the 'locals' park.  The event was great for fans of the park and its Halloween Haunt - often regarded as the best in the business - to feel even more included.  And it goes without saying that it starts excitement (and ticket sales?) earlier than ever before!

As for the actual news, well the park had plenty to show off.  There will be six new mazes this Fall, quite a line up.  Last year's pay-extra, reservation required maze is back as Trapped: The New Experiment and promises to be longer with tougher puzzles to solve and more frights than last year.

Mirror Mirror will be, you guessed it, a haunted mirror maze that sounds incredibly disorienting, Forevermore will be themed to the horrors of Edgar Allen Poe's work, and Dominion of the Damned is a reworked gothic-themed Dominion of the Dead.  Rounding out the new attractions are The Gunslinger's Grave, a western themed horror maze, and Black Magic, set in an abandoned theatre where Houdini's ghost treats visitors to a slew of twisted illusions.

Several other popular mazes will return this year as well, along with The Witch's Keep, a transformed Calico Mine Ride.  Another item of big news is that Elvira will return for this year's Haunt, hosting a show named Elvira's Sinema Seance.  Elvira has performed at many Haunts in the past, but it has been at least a decade since she last headlined there.

For more details on all the changes, check out this story from the L.A. Times and also MiceChat.

Guests Enjoying the New Aqua Twist at La Ronde

© La Ronde

I totally missed the grand opening of La Ronde's new attraction, Aqua Twist, which took place all the way back at the start of June.  The new attraction allows guests to blast each other with water on a tea cup style attraction.

Aqua Twist is a Mack Rides Twist 'n' Splash, one of the companies newer ride designs.  The ride has nine separate boats, each of which seats six passengers for a total capacity of 54 per cycle.  Each seat is equipped with a water blaster so that as the ride spins everyone can try to soak the other riders.  The main floor of the turntables lowers when the ride starts so that each boat has a floating sensation as well.

Aqua Twist does not feature any elaborate theming, but still is an attractive looking attraction.  I have to wonder if the attraction was a bit of a test for the Six Flags parks when it was installed at La Ronde, and perhaps we could see more of these in the future, maybe even themed more heavily.  The ability to add water blasters to the outside of the ride, making for more interaction with park guests, makes for even more fun possibilities.

You can see a brief clip of the Aqua Twist from when it opened at this link.