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Volume 1, No. 14. August 10, 2001
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Toward
tomorrow
Parks on three continents have been unveiling their capital improvement
plans for next season, or, in the case of Adventure World in Perth, Australia,
unveiling the unveiling. In America, the announcements of the past week
all point to a continuing trend in family-friendly thrills, while extreme
thrills were the order for parks in Australia and Germany (next
story).
Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania, made the long-awaited announcement
Wednesday that it would be putting in Setpoint's second SwingThing coaster
with SCS Interactive water elements. Two years after Paramount's Carowinds
in Charlotte, North Carolina, opened the Nickelodeon Flying Super Saturator,
Hersheypark is scheduled to open its version with 1,300 feet (394 meters)
of track, almost 300 feet longer (91 meters) than the original, and a
70 foot high (21 meter) lift hill, almost twice that of the Saturator.
Hershey will theme the coaster with its own characters and install it
in a lot adjoining the Canyon River Rapids ride. Not only does
this place the soaking SwingThing in the park's wet zone (the Tidal
Force shoot-the-chute also stands nearby), but with the coaster crossing
over the rapid river ride four times, the placement provides an opportunity
for guests on the two rides to shoot water elements at each other, pushing
yet another envelope in the development of interactive amusement rides.
Hersheypark is conducting a contest to name the new SwingThing.
Carowinds and its sister park, Paramount's Kings Dominion in Richmond,
Virginia, plan to install wild mouse roller coasters by Mack GmbH. Carowinds'
version will be part of a new boardwalk-themed area of the park, while
Dominion's ride will go into The Grove area along with a Huss troika called
Triple Spin. "Everyone always says we need more flat rides," Kings
Dominion Public Relations Manager Mark Riddell said. Nevertheless, the
media focus undoubtedly will be on Ricochet, the mouse with a 50-foot
drop (15 meters) and 14 turns replicating Mack's The Fly at Paramount
Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario. Ricochet notches for Kings
Dominion its 12th coaster, prompting a promotional campaign called "The
Daring Dozen." The mouse, though, may have the broadest appeal of all.
"Families are familiar with wild mouse coasters, but it also satisfies
the thrill seekers," Riddell said.
Thrill seekers are the market Western Australia's Adventure World will
be after this coming summer, but until the ride actually debuts for the
season next month, the park is not revealing what it is. "We're trying
to keep it top secret to build the anticipation," said Natalie Cameron
of NRC Communications, the park's public relations firm. What the park
will reveal of the ride is that it will cost $1.6 million Australian (US$819,000),
is being built by Moser Rides and is a technically advanced version of
a ride in the company's existing catalog. It will be the only ride of
its type on the continents and will be "a thrilling, twisting, turning,
heart-pounding propulsion through the air that is an assault on all the
senses," the park's General Manager Andrew Sharry said in a statement.
The purpose of this the largest expenditure in the park's history is to
expand the park's demographics, Cameron said, as it will be the first
major thrill ride there since the opening of the Turbo Mountain
steel roller coaster in 1991. The new ride also will be themed, starting
the park off on a path toward becoming a full-fledged theme park. "We
want to develop a lot more theming on different rides rather than just
have attractions all over the place," Cameron said.
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Mercedes saw silver in its partnership with Europa-Park. Photo courtesy of Europa-Park
The coaster race team
Meanwhile in Rust, Germany, Europa-Park has jumped into the one-upmanship
coaster fray that seems to have gripped Europe, but is doing so in a three-way
partnership that represents a significant departure for the Mack-showcase
theme park. It also reveals a company displaying a common-sense restraint
that may be more indicative of the industry's future than the fact that
theirs will be Europe's tallest coaster.
Just a month after Holiday Park in Hassloch, Germany, topped the 60-meter (200-foot) mark with Expedition GeForce, Europa-Park laid the cornerstone for Silver Star, scheduled to open in July 2002 with a height of 73 meters (241 feet). The ceremony featured officials from Bolliger & Mabillard, who is building the coaster (a Nitro class hypercoaster), and Mercedes Benz, who is theming the coaster station.
Martina Evers, Europa-Park's press officer, insists the park wasn't prompted
to build a hypercoaster by the competition—at least not primarily.
"More or less it was our visitors who convinced us to build a coaster
like this one because there's a strong demand, especially from our younger
visitors, to go on these high rides and at these speeds," she said of
Silver Star, which is designed to reach speeds of 130 km/h (80
mph). "Though we are a family park and will stay a family park, younger
visitors, 14 to 19, demand these kind of rides. We decided not to wait
so long that they might go somewhere else."
Despite that demand, Mack GmbH & Co. itself decided against entering the
realm of hypercoaster manufacturing, even though it has made smaller coasters
and its Europa-Park already has seven variations. With an eye toward selling
rides to the American and Japanese markets, Mack felt the demand for such
super structures was too limited to merit the production costs for even
a prototype. "It makes no sense to take the risk and invest this money,"
Evers said. Besides, other companies are ably filling that demand, so
Mack decided to team up with one of those firms, B&M. The Swiss manufacturer
is providing the fabrication, trains and assembly, including a magnetic
brake system, while Mack is designing the layout.
Then, because Europa-Park GM Roland Mack never puts in a new product without
taking the opportunity to install some authentic cultural icon, he followed
up on earlier interest from Mercedes Benz to work with the park. "Their
clients and our clients are both quite mobile, young, active, and over
the average income," Evers said. "For us, the name Mercedes Benz stands
for technical perfection and high speed." The car company's silver race
car being a dominant force on the Formula 1 circuit, the roller coaster's
theming naturally evolved from that, and Mercedes will build an exhibition
hall leading to Silver Star themed on the carmaker's racing history
that may include real race cars.
Located next to the Euro-Sat indoor coaster near the park's entrance,
Silver Star will carry out its automotive theming for the whole
ride in a most clever and cost-effective way—by running the track
over the car park. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to fit it in," Evers
said. "When you park your car, you will see and hear the riders above
you. The excitement grows
right from the start."
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Bear care
By one measure, the worst place to be a teddy bear would seem to be Colorado
Springs, Colorado. Every year some 600 stuffed animal dolls are treated
for ailments ranging from minor cuts and bruises to having the stuffing
loved out of them. Yet, by the same measure, teddy bears get the best
care in this city, thanks to an annual Teddy Bears Day promotion at Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo which has become the attraction's third best drawing event
of the year behind Christmas lights and Halloween haunts.
"In February and March we start getting phone calls asking us when we're
doing Teddy Bear Days," said Sean Anglum, the zoo's public relations and
special events manager. Local people apparently want to make sure they
don't inadvertently schedule a vacation that would cause them to miss
the event held on a weekend in the middle of July, he said.
For the two-day promotion, children 11 years old and under who bring a
stuffed animal are admitted to the zoo for $1, a $4 savings off the regular
gate price. They are referred to the Special Pavilion area where volunteer
health care officials set up a clinic to conduct checkups on the stuffed
critters. Inevitably, every bear leaves the clinic with at least a bandage
or splint. "The kids come up with the greatest stories," Anglum said.
"'Oh, it keeps falling off the bed and breaks it legs.' Every kid seems
to want to have a Band-Aid on his bear." The volunteers also have sewing
kits, extra doll eyes and stuffing material to make real repairs on the
plush toys.
The promotion began 10 years ago as a partnership with a local hospital
who wanted to ease young children's fears of visiting emergency rooms.
Two years ago when the hospital pulled out of the promotion, other sponsors
jumped in, including the Colorado Springs Dental Hygienists Society; Farmers
Insurance, who distributed child ID kits; the Pikes Peak Library District,
who this year signed up more than 100 children for library cards in the
two days; and the local minor league hockey team, which, notes Anglum,
is "big on gauze and bandages."
A local ambulance service also participated in this year's Teddy Bear
Days. Three emergency medical technicians performed CPR on bears and applied
defibrillation paddles to "revive" some, while nearby a bedraggled teddy
lay on a gurney wearing an oxygen mask. That bear, the medical technicians
told children, didn't wear his seat belt.
At the end of the day, after the families with their cared-for bears in
arm strolled about the zoo, the children were invited back to the pavilion
for a teddy bear parade accompanied by the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo's and
sponsors' mascots. The parade ends up at the real bears' enclosures where
keepers give a talk on the teddies' living kin. This, though, is not the
event's primary message. "Going to see the real bears is really an afterthought,"
Anglum said. "The primary mission is to get kids comfortable with medical
personnel." The event also has helped Cheyenne Mountain Zoo build strong
relationships with other community entities. Plus, the $1 admission ticket
for bear-carrying kids packs the zoo. "We see some of the bigger families
coming out on Teddy Bear Days," Anglum said.
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Perrucci and Laird have had a ball at Kennywood's Bombs Away game. Photo by Eric Minton
Target Audience
Amid the muted hoopla of its Steel Phantom-cum-Phantom's Revenge
renovation this year, Kennywood in West Miflin, Pennsylvania, launched
a concerted effort to spruce up its redemption games. Some of that effort
is cosmetic: replacing dull, brown and black paint with nursery room blues,
reds and yellows; building an art deco shell for the Bob's Space Racer
Aqua Race in place of a drab '60s structure; and installing new counter
carpets for the first time in more than 20 years.
"Our games were all dark colors," said Richard Kimak, the park's director
of resale. "I visited other parks and appreciated how bright everything
was."
Kennywood also put in six new games (the park has a total of 40), most
notably Bombs Away, a peach basket game using toilets as targets. Kimak
said the idea came from Dan Hanchulak, the park's manager of games and
retail. "We didn't want to put in the same old peach baskets or tubs.
We wanted to do something different," Kimak said. "We happened to be at
a Home Depot one day and were walking through the bathroom section and
said, 'Hey, what about toilet seats?'"
Not just any toilet seats, which come in several shapes. The targets needed
to be round, and though Hanchulak and Kimak would have liked different
color targets, basic white had the best shape and price ($46 per seat
at Home Depot). "To get one in color cost something like $300," Kimak
said. "We'd really get shouted at if we spent $300 on game targets."
General Manager Pete McAneny was already antsy about the image the game
might portray, Kimak said, especially when the games staff started joking
about what objects patrons would get to toss into the targets. But in
the end, they used traditional whiffle balls, which are best aimed just
inside the front lip of the toilet for a proper bounce that will keep
the ball in the bowl. Kennywood utilizes bathroom humor throughout the
booth: the counter and prize shelves are made up of faux shower tiles,
and the toilet seat tanks hold plush prizes.
Kimak estimates Bombs Away is one of Kennywood's top 15 games. Not only
does it snag the attention of passersby, it is a fun game to work, said
Scott Laird, Bombs Away's lead. "It actually makes my day go quicker,"
he said. "People come by and say, 'Wow! Toilets!' It's pretty funny. I
can joke with people and make them feel better." Unlike other redemption
games, this one generates plenty of joking among players. "We hear a lot
of puns," said attendant Don Perrucci. "Some are pretty funny. Some aren't."
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Record
time
Just as one group set a record for riding the most coasters in the minimum
amount of time yesterday, another record-setter should establish today
a mark for longest time spent riding one coaster. The synchronicity of
these coaster riding record setting moments came about by pure happenstance,
but they share more than a page in the Guinness Book of Records and serve
as evidence that the popularity of thrill rides is far from waning.
The copter set
Philip Guarno and his team of three riders accomplished "East Coasters
for Kids" yesterday, riding 75 coasters in less than 24 hours, breaking
the record of 40 set by the Guinness Record Project (GRP) in California
last October. The organizer of GRP, David Escalante, the public relations
director for the American Coaster Enthusiasts, was on hand Wednesday at
Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, to ride on Loch Ness Monster
with Guarno at 11:58 a.m.; they reunited yesterday at Hersheypark in Hershey,
Pennsylvania, when the campaign concluded on Lightning Racer at
11:01 a.m. "It was a peaceful record-breaking attempt," Guarno said of
Escalante's presence at the start and finish. Guarno, the general manager
of the Marriott Harrisburg/Hershey even put Escalante up at his hotel
while he, Adam Spivak, John Kirkwood and Aaron Rye continue their coaster
trek overnight.
Not only did the team accomplish the trek 57 minutes ahead of the 24-hour
mark, Guarno beat his own meticulously laid-out timetable. "I had us finishing
at 11:15, and we were done at 11:01." That included adding two coasters
along the way, too. After the launch at Busch, the team hit Paramount's
Kings Dominion, Six Flags America and Great Adventure, most of the pier
parks along the New Jersey shore (the actual record-breaking ride was
on Python shortly after midnight at Nickel's Midway Pier in Wildwood),
Williams Grove in Pennsylvania, Dorney Park, Knoebels and finally Hersheypark.
They traveled to most parks via helicopters: the first three flights donated
by Flap Doodles clothes manufacturers, the rest on Rite Aid's copter.
Guarno's three companions won their places on the trip through an auction
, which, along with corporate sponsorships and donations from park patrons,
raised $43,000 for the Children's Miracle Network.
The
foursome could not accomplish the trek without bend-over-backwards cooperation
from all the parks, and that they got in abundance Guarno said. The charity
connection helped. "It was a great time, great for us as a park," said
Diane Centeno, public relations assistant manager at Busch Gardens. "What
made it such a great partnership for Busch Gardens was the charity." Hersheypark
concluded the marathon with various local dignitaries and 50 participants
from the Children's Miracle Network riding with the team for the final
rides.
The only problem Guerno encountered en route to the record was a heat
wave that had settled over the entire region, with the heat index reaching
115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius) at the Virginia parks. "It
scared the hell out of me," he said of the temperatures, but the four
members each dutifully drank a half gallon of water every hour they were
awake.
Bossing around
Richard Rodriquez's discomfort had little to do with the weather and everything
to do with whether he could survive the incessant pounding of another
circuit on The Boss at Six Flags St. Louis in Missouri. "He looks
worn out," said the park's public relations manager Elizabeth Gotway,
"but he's really excited to get it over with." That should be at 3 p.m.
today when his train tears through a banner upon entering the station
marking the end of 100 straight open-to-close days of riding the bone-rattling
wooden speedster.
Rodriquez set a duration record last year of 2,000 continuous hours riding
the Big Dipper at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in England. While this
time he and ride operators got to sleep at night, the campaign proved
wearying for rider and attendants. "It was a lot for the park," Gotway
said. "We stocked his cooler every day, got his lunch to him every day,
the ride crew constantly helping him. We knew it would be a daily thing,
but it turned out to be bigger than we anticipated."
Including the press coverage. Gotway estimated that every week the park
received some sort of media attention thanks to Rodriquez, and the 7 a.m.
start today was to include national and local television, radio and newspaper
coverage. That was a pleasant surprise in a year when the park had no
new rides to promote. "In the PR world you schedule an event every four
weeks to make sure your name is top of the mind for people," Gotway said.
"This was one long event, a hundred-day event. It kept us busy."
She takes nothing away from the East Coasters for Kids campaign, but Gotway
considers riding one coaster one hundred days a greater feat than riding
even 100 coasters in one day. "I could ride all those coasters, if I could
stay awake. I don't know how many people could stay on The Boss
a hundred days. It's not just the one hundred days that is incredible
about this record, it's what he has ridden these hundred days. I don't
know where you go from here."
No doubt somebody will, though.
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In
this issue
(To go directly
to a story, click on a blue keyword or phrase below):
Newly announced rides at Hershey, Kings Dominion and Carowinds take a family perspective, while Australia's Adventure World targets thrill crowd;
Europa-Park enlists partners to build its new hypercoaster;
Teddy bears get medical care at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo;
Kennywood lifts the lid on a toilet-themed midway game;
Two roller coaster records fall this week;
And we celebrate the arrivals of a new multi-sensory show at Terra Mitica, a prototype ride at Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe, and a new team member on The LOOP.
by Eric Minton
All the water was a stage for actors at Terra Mitica. Photo courtesy of Terra Mitica
It's a night extravaganza!
Terra Mitica in Benidorm, Spain, announces
the arrival of "The Secret of the Lake" July 27, 2001. Measurements: 20
minutes, six scenes, one water screen 25 meters wide and 13 meters high
(82 and 43 feet), one fountain 14 meters long (46 feet) with two 15-meter-high
geysers (49 feet), eight canons firing flames 12 meters high (40 feet),
100 cast and crew.
When the 1,050,000-square-meter Terra Mitica (3.5 million square feet)
opened last summer striving for new heights in authentic theming based
on classical Mediterranean civilizations, it duly celebrated the event
with a special effects extravaganza on the park's centerpiece lagoon.
So, when its first anniversary rolled around, Terra Mitica decided to
revise the effects with a new show that will play through the rest of
the summer.
Totally produced in-house, "The Secret of the Lake" runs every night just
before the park closes. With actors performing on a floating platform
(it looks like they are walking and dancing on the water itself), the
show depicts the cultures of the park's five themed areas—Egyptian,
Greek, Roman, Iberian, and "Las Islas" (mythological times)—played
out under huge columns of water and fire, pyrotechnics blasting off from
the lake and a computerized film projected onto a water screen.
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Patrons were gondala with the water on Emerald Pointe's new ride. Photo courtesy of Caripro
It's a wet coaster!
Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe in Greensboro,
North Carolina, announces the arrival of Hydra Fighter II June
29, 2001. Measurements: 59 feet high (18 meters), 1,170 feet long (355
meters long), six vehicles, 20 jumping jets, three small geysers, one
big geyser, three overhead showerheads, one turbo shower, one water curtain,
one mist tunnel, one tipping bucket, three Gatlin guns. Delivered by Caripro
Amusement Technology.
The Alpha SmartParks-owned waterpark created a number of firsts when it
previewed the Hydra Fighter II a week before its public opening
with a christening ride by SmartParks CEO Randy Drew and "Survivor II"
contestant Jeff Varner, a Greensboro native. The ride represented the
first-ever installation of Caripro's AquaFlyer, an interactive-water version
of its iFlyer gondola coasters. Hydra Fighter II is also the first
roller coaster built in a free-standing waterpark in the United States.
And for the Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe staff, it was a new learning experience.
"We're waterpark people," said general manager Tony Brancazio. "But at
least we have corporate expertise in roller coasters."
The park also had timely help from the local construction company, Hamlett
and Associates, which broke ground for the ride in March and managed to
get Hydra Fighter II opened in three months. "It was built under
a tight time frame," Brancazio said. Once built, though, the ride drew
crowds. Upon the ride's June 29 opening most patrons rushed to Hydra
Fighter II before any other ride, a pattern of crowd movement that
has held true throughout the summer. "When it opens in the morning, that's
where the crowd is," Brancazio said.
Eric’s Turn
Well above
par
Her indoctrination of choice:
miniature golf. One step in THE LOOP's orientation program for new team
members is to take them out "into the field." In other words, we go play
at a park, zoo or family entertainment center. So, the LOOP's newest team
member, Stacey Copeland, suggested we meet at Adventure Golf in Centerville,
Ohio, for what she promised would be a "mean game of golf." That's Stacey,
above, on the course where the 25-year-old said she has been golfing since
she was maybe 8 years old. Though I've played many mini rounds in my 43
years, I've never gotten within 10 strokes of par, so I figured I was
walking into a trouncing.
It might have been my need to show her I know my way around this industry;
it might have been her desire not to show up her new boss. Nah, it had
to be luck, because not only did I beat her by five strokes, I finished
at one-over on the 58-par "Championship course," scoring a hole-in-one
eagle along the way to my best game ever. Not that attaining such a low
score really mattered in the match. When we both struggled to the six-stroke
limit on one hole, Stacey put the whole game in proper perspective: "We're
adults. We're not supposed to be good at this."
Of course, I had already considered myself a winner when I recruited Stacey
to join THE LOOP. She will be helping with web site maintenance and enhancements,
and she already has made a huge contribution by developing a printable
version of THE LOOP. Not just this issue; every newsletter in our archive
now comes in two forms, the original and a printer-friendly version. Over
the next few weeks we'll be archiving printer-friendly versions of each
individual newsletter item (as this and subsequent LOOPs feature), and
we'll also be adding printer-friendly versions of our Reading
Room articles. Then, Stacey will turn her attention to building
an on-line media kit for our advertisers and making other improvements
to our site. We'd love to get your suggestions on how we can improve THE
LOOP. You can email her right here: stacey@gettheloop.com.
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Clarifications
The last edition of THE LOOP
(July 27) misidentified Pacific
Park on Santa Monica Pier in one reference of a story announcing the New
Arrival of La Monica Swing ride.
Also in that edition, a "Return visit" to the school calendar issue may
have confused some readers about the relationship between the organization
Time To Learn and the enactment of a new school calendar law in Texas.
Billee Bussard, former executive director of Time To Learn was not involved
in the Texas campaign. She is now pursuing her own national campaign against
year-round schooling through her site www.SummerMatters.com.
The organizer of the Texas grass-roots campaign, Tina Bruno, is now executive
director of Time To Learn and is revamping that organization's web site,
www.timetolearn.org.
Both of these clarifications already have been made on the July 27 LOOP
itself, but we wanted to alert you to the changes.