Volume 3, No. 13. July 11, 2003
Painting
the industry
Even if it weren’t
already a trend, IALEI and Fun Expo intend to make it so.
The
newly formed Fun Expo Action Sports Advisory Committee will be sponsoring a
paintball tournament at this year’s Fun Expo Trade Show in Las Vegas September
17-19, part of a concerted effort to introduce action sports to family entertainment
center operators, and the FEC industry to action sports entrepreneurs and suppliers.
“I
think action sports has a place in FECs, and operators would be nuts to not
look at it,” said Harold Skripsky, owner of the consulting firm Entertainment
Management Services. The past president of the International Association for
the Leisure and Entertainment Industry is currently chairman of the Leisure
& Entertainment Trade Shows, the umbrella organization that represents Fun
Expo sponsors IALEI, the American Amusement Machine Association and the Amusement
& Music Operator Association. “Our goal and aspiration is to bring
paintball and action sports into the mainstream of FECs.”
Skripsky,
along with Giovanni D’Egidio, owner of Hollywood Sports Park, is co-chairing
the Fun Expo Action Sports Committee. D’Egidio is using his connections
to put together an invitational tournament featuring 10 five-man paintball teams
who will compete in an arena on the Fun Expo trade show floor at the Las Vegas
Convention Center. This is a significant step up from the paintball demonstrations
staged last year. Additionally, seminars will be conducted on the subjects of
paintball, skateboarding and BMX biking, training sessions that will be geared
to both FEC operators and action sports entrepreneurs, Skripsky said.
“We
have all been sitting around wondering what is the next big attraction that’s
going to get us 10, 15, 20 percent in new incremental sales,” Skripsky
said of his fellow FECers. “The last one was laser tag, and we haven’t
had any since. I really think that paintball done well can be a good addition
to family entertainment centers. And I think it mixes well.”
Doing
a proper paint ball arena or two in 40,000 square feet (3,716 square meters)
of land can cost from $200,000 to $400,000, he said. The more thematic, the
higher the cost. Paintball arenas can also be indoor. “You would typically
put paintball and action sports as a separate attraction, separate profit center
from your FEC,” he said. “You don’t want your players walking
around your FEC with markers,” markers being the name for paintball guns.
Skripsky
said he has advocated integrating action sports, particularly paintball, into
FEC operations for almost five years, and now is preparing to put his money
into play on the subject. He plans to open a paintball arena at Timothy and
Joanne Sorge’s Swings-N-Things near Cleveland, Ohio. “Tim had six
acres (2.4 hectares), and he was scratching his head wondering what to do with
it,” Skripsky said. He is putting in one 26,000-square-foot (2,415-square-meter)
arena with burned out cars and buildings, and two other inflatable fields totaling
20,000 square feet (1,858 square meters).
Though
paintball has been around 20 plus years, it only recently hit the radar screen
of entertainment operators. Hitherto, most paintball and action sports entrepreneurs
have been independent operators. At the least, Skripsky and his fellow committee
members hope the two genres mingle at Fun Expo, if the tournament, as expected,
draws paintball operators and suppliers to the show.
“IALEI tries to keep operators informed as to what is on the horizons for the businesses,” Skripsky said. “Our job when we see something we feel is going to benefit our operators is to bring it to their attention. I think we’re doing our job.”
Top Thrill
still
On the evening of
July 4, 2003, at 7:45 p.m. (19,45), a cheer rose over the Cedar Point Peninsula
in Sandusky, Ohio. People danced and high-fived neighbors. “The manager
on duty said you would have thought the Cleveland Browns had just won the Super
Bowl,” said Janice Witherow, public relations manager for Cedar Point amusement
park.
The
cause for celebration was the reopening of Top Thrill Dragster, the 420-foot
(128 meter) hydraulic launch coaster from Intamin that had been shut down 15
straight days. In fact, since June 4, Cedar Point’s $25 million investment
had been down more often than up, and even in the past week its performance
has been sporadic, though it has operated every day since Friday except Tuesday.
Traditionally
Cedar Point has shied away from prototype rides, though it was the first park
to surmount 200 feet and 300 feet with coasters, and those used new technology.
Even Top Thrill Dragster, the world’s highest and fastest coaster,
is not, by definition, a prototype because Intamin installed its first hydraulic
launch coaster using a similar top hat profile track at Cedar Point’s sister
park, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, last year. Nevertheless,
Top Thrill Dragster represents cutting-edge technology, and its hydraulic
launch system has proven incorrigible to the park’s and manufacturer’s
technicians. Not just one element is to blame, either, but a series of failures
have occurred, all tied to the launch system.
Despite
getting the coaster running again over the weekend, park management still won’t
be satisfied until Top Thrill Dragster operates consistently, Witherow
said. “At this point our goal is to get Top Thrill Dragster operating
in a consistent manner like the rest of our rides,” she said. “We
can’t keep telling our guests it’s up, it’s down, it’s up,
it’s down. We need to get to a point of telling our guests its reliable.”
If it can’t get to that point, she said, “We will close it for the
remainder of the season for a complete review.” No timetable for such a
decision has been set, she said.
This is new territory for Cedar Point. The park has worked out bugs on new rides before, a given in the amusement industry, but never has it had an icon ride totally silenced for weeks at a time. “We are learning a lot of things as we go,” Witherow said. “We’re going on how we would want to be informed if we were visiting Cedar Point.”
The
park’s marketing team has taken the approach of unabashed publicity about
Top Thrill’s status. Five days after the ride first shut down on
June 4, Cedar Point began posting daily status reports on its web site, using
a special icon on the home page. The park also put daily updates of the ride’s
status on its telephone hotline, and both of these notices have been publicized
through local media stories whenever possible. “We feel it’s very
important to let guests know the status of the ride if it was their reason for
coming to Cedar Point,” Witherow said.
For
those guests who may not have checked the web site or called ahead of time,
the park is handing out flyers at the parking toll booth listing that day’s
Top Thrill status. Signs at all of the entrances further inform guests
of Dragster’s mood for the day. This allows guests to turn away
before paying to park or for an admissions ticket. So far, Witherow knows of
no guest turning away.
“People
have been disappointed, and we can empathize with that—nobody has been
more disappointed than us at Cedar Point who have worked so hard to get this
ride up and running consistently,” she said. “The vast majority of
guests have been very understanding.” She said the staff has received e-mails
and calls of thanks, “and people stop us on the midway thanking us for
communicating the status of the ride.”
“More than anything we’ve learned what we’ve known all along, to communicate with our guests and let them know as much as possible what is happening,” Witherow said. “We want to be up front and as honest as possible.”
The
clown prince
Sharks are so yesterday. Penguins are passé.
Clown fish
are what’s happening. Blue tang are cool and moorish idol are, well, idolized.
These are the star species of the Disney
animated feature Finding Nemo and, by extension, at the New Jersey State
Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey. “We could see from families coming in there
was a buzz about finding Nemo,” said Jesse Cute, the aquarium’s public
relations and promotion manager. And Nemo—actually, some of his clown fish
kin—swims in a small tank in one of the aquarium’s galleries. Two
other characters in the movie, Dory and Gil, are represented, respectively,
in the aquarium’s collection of blue tang and Moorish idol.
These days, staff hear children hounding their parents upon entering the aquarium,
“Where’s Nemo? Where’s Dory?”
“They
don’t care about sharks and penguins, which was shocking for us,”
Cute said.
The aquarium staff was not totally blindsided by the movie’s popularity.
The aquarium worked with Disney Studios to stage a scavenger hunt to find Nemo
in conjunction with the film’s May opening. The prizes included official
movie posters and keychains. Cute said the aquarium also hopes to stage a special
screening of the movie when it is released on DVD.
In the meantime, the aquarium’s efforts have been focused on education—education
of the education staff. “We made the educators aware of what fish are in
the movie so they can point them out and answer questions,” Cute said.
“It’s just getting everybody in the know.”
Reporting
report
It seems that new
news is old news when it concerns the release of new information on amusement
park safety. But while each new bit of information reaffirms what we already
knew, it at least gives us a greater understanding of perspective.
The latest study
was gleaned from IAAPA’s voluntary incident reporting project. The International
Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions last year had its members begin
submitting annual stats on injuries at their properties. This information was
included in an analysis published in the National Safety Council Research and
Statistical Services’ June/July issue of Injury Insights newsletter.
The release of
this information reveals that the voluntary reporting system has, by and large,
been successful. An average of 46 of the top 48 U.S. parks participated in each
of the past two years’ surveys, along with a sample of more than 100 smaller
parks, tourist attractions and family entertainment centers. “We were very
pleased with our membership’s initial response to this important safety
data initiative, and we expect even greater participation in future years as
members become more familiar with the process,” said IAAPA President J.
Clark Robinson in a statement.
The information
also reveals that fixed amusement rides are, by and large, safe. “The results
are very much in line with data at the state agency level and thus further confirms
what the industry and the public have known all along, that amusement parks
and attractions are an exceptionally safe form of recreation for the entire
family,” Robinson said. According to the survey analysis, the fixed amusement
ride sector sees an average of 2,486 injuries per year in the United States.
The NSC analysis
acknowledges that, historically, self-reported data tends to be as much as 15
percent lower than the truth. Even so, that’s still less than 3,000 injuries
in a sector with an estimated 303 million users per year. The IAAPA survey results
also are lower than the 6,704 estimated injuries put forth in the latest U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission report, but as that figure is derived from
data from 100 U.S. hospital emergency rooms, previous independent studies have
concluded that the CPSC figure is geographically skewed.
Whichever figure
we use, the NSC newsletter provides a perspective showing how low the injury
rate in amusement parks truly is. One of its tables lists “Injury Risk
for Common Recreational Activities.” Drawn from a variety of sources, the
table lists 24 recreational activities, with basketball (876 injuries per million
participant days) and football (864) the most injury-prone activities, way ahead
of soccer at 343. Bicycling has a rate of 232, fishing 88, golf 68, badminton
24. Tied at 8 are billiards/pool and fixed-site amusement rides.
The only recreational activity listed as safer than fixed-site amusement rides is darts with rate of 3 injuries per million participant days.
Titanic undertaking
Terri Spicola was
working at the Wyndham Westshore Hotel and Shula Steakhouse in Tampa, Florida—helping
stage such events as Super Bowl parties—when MOSI (Tampa's Museum of Science
and Industry) recruited her to become its catering and facility rental manager.
Her first thought was, “MOSI does catering?”
Which is precisely why the museum hired Spicola a year ago. “We haven’t had the position before to have someone focused on bringing in that type of business,” said MOSI’s Public Relations Manager Beverly Littlejohn. “We wanted to do it for years, and we’ve had facility rentals, but this takes it to a whole new level. It certainly provides another revenue stream that we did not take advantage of before.”
Spicola brought
along with her from the Wyndham her chef, Pablo McMorris of Jamaica, and catering
manager, Victor Ferguson. With
the ability to serve good food and stage great events, Spicola started peddling.
“Our biggest challenge was letting people know we do it. I will go to shows,
have a booth and the people would say, ‘The food is wonderful—oh!
you’re MOSI? MOSI does catering?’ That’s our new motto: ‘Yes,
we cater.’”
The best way to
get the word out that, yes, MOSI caters was to invite the Meeting Planners International
Tampa Bay Chapter in for a luncheon. In doing so, Spicola was nominating her
team for the chapter’s annual Venue of the Year award, but her primary
purpose for the luncheon was to get word-of-mouth marketing started through
the city’s corporate hallways. That worked: she started getting corporate
business after the luncheon. However, MOSI also landed the big award last month,
receiving the Venue of the Year for excelling in the presentation of food, taste
and service. “We went up against quite a few good venues, too,” Spicola
said.
A party could start
with drinks and appetizers in one of the galleries, allowing the guests to play
with the exhibits in the meantime. Then they would sit down to dinner in the
museum’s grand lobby followed by a movie or presentation in the IMAX Dome
Theatre. The evening could finish with desserts and telescope viewing on the
roof.
Beginning this
fall Spicola is seizing on the perfect synergy between MOSI’s exhibitry
mission and venue rental business. The traveling Titanic artifacts exhibit opens
at MOSI October 4 and runs through the winter. Spicola’s team is offering
Titanic-themed menus for the occasion, including first class and steerage meals,
and the 11-course dinner served the night the ocean liner sank.
Parties are booking up, Spicola said. People have learned that MOSI caters. Boy and how!
Community
Spirit
Amid the daily hurly
burly of amusement park management emerges moments that remind operators of
their mission. Joe Muscato, director of marketing at Knoebels Groves Amusement
Grove in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, occasionally experiences such days thanks to
his and his park’s community-minded attitude.
But
now the community gave back. Specifically, the Spirit of Bethlehem, a service
group at East Hills Middle School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, gave back to Knoebels.
The organization’s advisor, John Coyle, called the park last year proposing
a reward outing for his students, but with one caveat: the students had to perform
a service. “We had them pick up trash for a half hour,” Muscato said.
This
year when Coyle called, his conversation with Muscato turned toward Knoebels'
work with Give Kids The World, providing an amusement park experience for terminally
ill children and their families. Knoebels used to provide the families disposable
cameras through a sponsorship with Kodak, but this year the film maker dropped
the program, and Knoebels had no cameras to give out.
So,
Spirit of Bethlehem’s 56 members raised money to buy the cameras plus little
blue teddy bears bearing a Spirit flame insignia. They didn’t stop there:
each student wrote a personalized note to accompany the camera and bear. “There
seems to be a couple of neat things like that each year, but that one kind of
went over the top,” Muscato said.
What made the gesture particularly special for Muscato was the line of 56 young teen-agers individually handing him the cameras, bears and notes. “It seemed very important to these kids to hand them to me directly as a pipeline to the people receiving these things, since I try to be the one to greet the (Give Kids The World) families,” Muscato said. “These kids were quite serious about this. When I see the age of these kids and the amount of public service they must do over the year, that’s a pretty incredible thing. This is middle school, you know.”
Rocky’s
revival
Move over Richard
Rodriguez; Rocky Raccoon is the new media king of Coney Island’s Astroland
in Brooklyn, New York. Rodriguez may have set endurance records on the park’s
venerable Cyclone roller coaster, but Rocky got himself stuck in the
park’s observation tower last month. His rescue, from the machine room
at the top of the 250-foot ride, made every city newspaper, radio report and
television news broadcast.
"The Daily
News was the first to do the story, and then more news people called and
more news people called and more news people called,” said Mark Blumenthal,
Astroland’s manager. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Rocky apparently
climbed a ladder inside the tower’s tube. “He just kept going up and
up,” Blumenthal said. He got through a hole in the machine room capping
the tower. One of the maintenance workers saw the raccoon’s eyes one morning
and reported the trespass. Later, Blumenthal saw a raccoon near the base of
the tower and figured the now-dubbed Rocky had climbed down of his own accord.
But that turned out to be a different raccoon; a few days later Rocky was again
spotted at the top.
Now Blumenthal
was worried. “I was afraid he’d start chewing up the wires,”
he said. “There was no food up there for him. And the maintenance guy wasn’t
too happy having a raccoon up there.” Before he could set a rescue into
action, the Daily News got hold of the story. “All I wanted to do
was get rid of this thing, and everybody is going, ‘No, no, no, this is
great publicity.”
Sure enough, two
television news teams sent helicopters for aerial coverage of a maintenance
worker emerging from the top of the tower with a cage containing Rocky, who
was trapped by a bait of cat food and a Nathan’s hot dog. Reporters waited
at the foot of the tower to interview Rocky, who didnt’ have much to say.
He was taken to a wildlife preserve and released, Blumenthal said.
Meanwhile, morning show broadcasters and TV newscasters took advantage of the occasion to air reports from Astroland, riding the kiddie rides and using the midway as backdrop. Rocky proved a publicity bonanza for the park. “I couldn’t ever think of doing something like that to get that much publicity,” Blumenthal said. “Richard Rodriguez does his bit, but he doesn’t get as much publicity as the raccoon gets.”
Rebirths
It’s
a theme park!
Parrot Jungle &
Gardens announces its rebirth as Parrot Jungle Island in Miami, Florida, June
28, 2003. Measurements: 18.6 acres (7.5 hectares), six attractions, three amphitheaters
of 1,200 seats, 500 seats and 800 seats, 7,960 feet (2,426 meters) of trails
of which 1,820 feet (555 meters) are covered, 1,000 parrots of various varieties,
1,200 other animals representing 110 species, 1,000 species of plants, a 350-seat
restaurant plus a snack bar, three retail outlets, a 1,000-seat banqueting facility
and parking for 600 cars and 40 buses. Delivered by Archicoustics, Birdair Europe-Stromeyer,
Biscayne Aquaculture, Cankat-Essman, Curtis & Rogers Design Studio, E.A.S.
Engineering, ISP Design Kaderabek & Barreiro Consultants, Koroglu Associates
Architects, Rock and Waterscapes, RPJ Engineer, Southern Bleachers, Starnet
International Corporation, TDI, the Tower Group, and York Bridge Concepts.
Bobbie
Ibarra, Parrot Jungle Island’s general manager, said the mission hasn’t
really changed as her park moved from a south Miami upper class residential
neighborhood to Watson Island in Biscayne Bay, a skipping stone’s throw
from downtown Miami. “Our mission is the same in that we are an animal
theme park that provides family entertainment,” she said. “What we
are emphasizing more today is the entertainment component.”
Parrot
Jungle, the stalwart Florida roadside attraction that opened in 1936, closed
its landlocked and neighborhood-restricted site last November and opened in
its new high-profile locale with an addendum to its name. In doing so, it re-emerged
as a first-class theme park. The “entertainment component” is no longer
just performing parrots but also a reptile show in the Serpentarium featuring
venomous snakes, crocodiles and a komodo dragon; the iconic Jungle Theater featuring
15-story high lightweight woven fiberglass fabric sails for a roof and staging
theatrical shows by day and a big cat show by night; the cafeteria-style Lakeside
Cafe serving fare from a first-class chef and providing seating overlooking
a lake full of pink flamingos; a retail store with high-priced museum-calibre
artwork and artifacts plus a pet store specializing in hand-raised exotic birds;
and the Treetop Ballroom, which opened in January (THE
LOOP, January 10, 2003) for banquets and meetings with spectacular views.
“One
of the things we’ll strive to do at the park is interactivity,” said
Emily Marquez, director of sales and marketing. “As you walk throughout
the park there will be people walking with animals. You’ll be able to feed
the flamingos, feed the fish, feed the birds.” Even feed the crocodiles,
along with watching the crocodiles and alligators through underwater viewing.
For
all that’s new at Parrot Jungle Island, it was two of the traditional Parrot
Jungle offerings that proved most popular for the opening weekend crowd: the
photo op with parrots and the bird show in the 1,200-seat Parrot Bowl. “You
get close, you get the pictures,” said Public Relations & Promotions
Manager Daiva Fernandez of the photo op. “It’s very Florida, the very
Miami thing to do.” The Parrot Bowl featured a mingling of the traditional
Parrot Jungle bird show with Joe Carvalho’s flying fowl performances. In
exit surveys, in which Parrot Jungle Island was receiving overall ratings of
80 to 90 percent satisfaction, the Bird Show scored a 100 percent “very
satisfied.”
Being
an institution for Miami, Parrot Jungle Island’s construction has been
front-page and lead-story news throughout the past few months. Being part of
a community redevelopment grant program, Parrot Jungle Island’s construction
has been a source of pride for the city and county government. Miami Mayor Manny
Diaz participated in the new park’s ribbon cutting and escorted his daughter
through the turnstiles as the first guest. A sudden driving rainstorm doused
the opening festivities, soaking the Polynesian dancers, but after two hours
the weather broke and the 8,000-capacity park hosted 3,122 guests, most of those
pre-sold tickets. The next day, a Sunday, 3,678 passed through.
The
majority of these were devotees of the old Parrot Jungle, and as expected their
reactions were mixed. “Some of them were displeased because it didn’t
have the lushness and quaintness of the old park,” Marquez said. “It’s
not as jungly as the old one, but building a jungle takes more than 18 months.”
Other longtime fans, on the other hand, loved Island's newness and new amenities.
After that first weekend, the Jungle’s new location became more of a factor
though attendance figures remained steady. “There’s a lot of newcomers
and an influx of tourists coming in,” Marquez said, including passengers
on cruise ships docking across the harbor.
It’s
a good start toward Parrot Jungle Island’s “conservative projection”
of 724,000 annual attendance. With summer camp field trip bookings kicking in
this week, a spike in guests already is expected. Citing the 110,000 cars that
pass by daily on the MacArthur Causeway between downtown Miami and South Beach,
Parrot Jungle Island owner Bern Levine said, “This location is as good
as any location on the East Coast of America.”
Parrot Jungle and Gardens was “very Miami” in its kitschness. Parrot Jungle Island is “very Miami” in its soaring architecture and haute couture exhibits, theaters and amenities. Miami finally has a bona fide theme park of its own, and an entertaining one at that.
It’s
flying
scooters!
Lake
Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut announces the rebirth of the American Flyers,
May 15, 2003. Measurements: 100 foot (30.5 meters) diameter, 10 flyers. Delivered
by Bish-Rocco Amusement Company and TLC Creative Design.
Built
in 1937 with a history that includes West View Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio, and back to Kennywood in West Miflin, Pennsylvania,
the traditional round ride moved to Lake Compounce in 1997 when Kennywood took
over the Connecticut property. In 2000, Lake Compounce removed the Scooters
when it expanded its waterpark with the Mammoth Falls family raft ride.
After two years in storage, the Scooters gained a new lease on life, their mechanics refurbished and the vehicles given a bright patriotic American design by Terry Lind of TLC Creative Design. Lake Compounce Vice President and General Manager Tom Wages said some guests asked about the Scooters in the interim. “For some people it’s their favorite ride,” he said. However, Lake Compounce heard no general outcry when they were removed. Rather, Wages said the ride was put back in because “It’s a great family ride, and we’re a family park.”
New Arrivals
It’s
a themed area!
Story Land in
Glen, New Hampshire, announces the arrival of the “barnyard area,”
July 8, 2003. Measurements: 1 acre (1/2 hectare), one food stand, one real garden,
36-foot-high (11-meter) 34-passenger Crazy Barn and a 623-foot-long (190-meter)
Tractor Ride (eight, four-passenger tractors). Delivered by Preston Barbieri
and SBF.
Stoney
Morrell, owner of Story Land, is a farmer at heart. “That’s always
been something near and dear to him,” said the park’s Marketing Coordinator
Jim Miller. “He recalls reading farm stories in his childhood, and there
are still several farm stories for children.” Being somehow related to
children’s storybooks is a key criteria for a new themed area at Story
Land, and taken together with the region’s farming heritage and the park’s
management coming across two new appealing rides, the park introduced a newly
themed addition for this year.
“The
idea files are very full here, but the farming idea won out over many others,”
Miller said. The new area is yet to be officially dedicated, so staff refer
to it as the barnyard area, which, in addition to having fabricated plants contains
real crops of corn, peas, beans, cabbage, squash, chard and other vegetables.
The Sunny Day Farm Stand sells fresh fruit snacks like apple crisp, blueberry
crisp, strawberry shortcake, cider donuts, juices, milk and, what’s emerging
as the favorite, caramel apples.
The
area’s most appealing feature is the Crazy Barn a Preston Barbieri
Crazy House that Story Land asked to be themed as a barn. Preston Barbieri’s
first installation of this ride in the United States, the Crazy Barn
rises, spins and wobbles as if in “a friendly tornado,” as Miller
called it. “For our crowd, it’s more extreme looking than anything
we have, extreme being a relative term. It’s such a great visual. People
see that from different parts of the park and are drawn to it.”
Yet, the Henrietta’s Eggs-traordinary Tractor Ride, an SBF jeep ride customized as tractors featuring real tractor tires, is a natural draw in and of itself. The park’s antique cars have been one of Story Land’s most popular rides since it was first installed in 1961. “It’s an experience we know our market really loves, and to have it in a tractor is something they find very appealing,” Miller said. “We’ve been getting e-mails all winter asking when the tractor ride is going to be open, so that one has been busy since it opened.”
It’s
a flume ride!
Crealy Adventure Park in Devon, England, announces the arrival of Tidal Wave,
July 5, 2003. Measurements: 11.5 meters (37 3/4 feet) high, 200 meters (656
feet) long, 2,000-square-meter (21,528-square-foot) footprint, eight logs. Delivered
by L&T Ride Systems and Space Leisure.
Crealy
opened its largest capital improvement ever on schedule Saturday; the second
schedule, that is. The park had originally ordered a flume from Reverchon with
a targeted opening date in May, but when the manufacturer’s financial troubles
interfered with the ride’s delivery, Crealy’s owners turned to L&T
Ride Systems of Bologna, Italy. “What we ended up with was a lot more than
we expected,” said the park’s managing director Angela Wright. “The
quality of the engineering is really impressive, as is the solidity of the construction,”
she said referring to the flume’s galvanized iron.
The
park had already sent brochures with Tidal Wave’s original opening
date, and consequently had to reprint a new batch. “Thank goodness we have
a lot of good will in our park anyway, so there was a lot of understanding,”
Wright said. Besides, Crealy had not raised its admission price for this season,
so people had no incentive for complaining about a ride that wasn’t there
in the first place.
Tidal
Wave, sporting Polynesian theming by Space Leisure, covers more area of
Crealy than any of the park’s other eight rides, and its 11.5-meter second
drop (the first drop is 6.5 meters/21 feet) is the highest ride point in the
park, outreaching the 8-meter (26-foot) El Pastil Loco family roller
coaster. “It’s a bit of a step up for us,” Wright said. Yet,
still, a family ride.
To
stress that point, for the opening ceremony Wright had her 100-year-old grandmother,
her mother join and her 4-year-old daughter join her to cut the ribbon. Both
her grandmother and daughter are named Amy, and with local radio covering the
event Wright illustrated how Crealy Adventure Park could appeal to four generations.
However, when it came time for taking the first official ride on Tidal Wave, only three generations boarded the log. “I didn’t take grandmum on the flume,” Angela said. “She watched from the safety of the station.” The age range was impressive, nevertheless, from 4-year-old Amy to mother Marion who, Angela said, “is slightly older than me, and slightly younger than my grandmum.”
It’s
an African exhibit!
Brevard Zoo in
Melbourne, Florida, announces the arrival of Expedition Africa, July 4, 2003.
Measurements: 10 acres (4 hectares), 63 animals representing 14 species, one
research station, one boardwalk and overlook, one river with kayak tours, one
train. Delivered by BRPH Architects/Engineers, Naumann Naturescapes, more than
800 community volunteers and 31 local businesses, institutions and service groups
donating expertise, materials and manpower.
Opening
one of the largest and, certainly, most ambitious expansions in the zoo’s
history—an exhibit that sets a new standard of delivering views to the
public—deserves a noteworthy celebration. Brevard Zoo’s Executive
Director Margo McKnight put on the kind of grand opening celebration for Expedition
Africa she thought most appropriate. “We did nothing but have Expedition
Africa ready for the public,” said Lisa Lauf, the zoo’s interim marketing
director. “What more could you want? Margo’s vision was, ‘Why
add more mayhem?’”
You
couldn’t add many more people. The zoo counted 2,085 people visiting this
Fourth of July, more than three times the 600-turnstile rotations recorded on
last year’s Independence Day. Through the weekend 7,070 people turned out,
straining the little zoo’s capabilities. When parking space ran out, volunteers
provided bus service from remote parking sites. Expedition Africa’s grand
opening garnered nearly blanket media coverage, Lauf said, including radio remotes,
a 12-page special section in the local paper, stories in newspaper and television
outlets from Orlando as well as the Space Coast, and wire service dissemination.“We
had people in from Naples, Tampa and Gainesville,” Lauf said. She also
had a huge stack of membership renewal forms on her desk.
The
big turnout from locals, at least, was expected because the Brevard County community
built this zoo and built the new exhibit. The official price tag for Expedition
Africa is $2.5 million, but the zoo estimates it received another $2.5 million
worth of donated skills, supplies and labor. Community volunteers helped rebuild
the Cape to Cairo Express train, dig the trench for the Nyami Nyami River,
and construct the boardwalk and Savanna Overlook. Don’t, however, mistake
“community build” for cheap; what Brevard Zoo has delivered with Expedition
Africa would cost some zoos $10 million to $30 million to emulate.
The
animals—five reticulated and Masai giraffes, two white rhinos, five species
of antelopes and nine species of birds, including ostrich—roam a single
exhibit space, the combination of species providing constantly varying movement
and color in the 10-acre expanse. Guests have a choice of three vantage points
to see the exhibit. They can walk over the Baobab Bridge past artist Roger Naumann’s
baobab tree and on an elevated boardwalk to a 9-foot (2.7-meter) overlook of
the exhibit. They can take the Cape to Cairo Express train to a different
part of the exhibit. And, in a revolutionary concept for zoo viewing, they can
kayak.
Tours
of up to five, two-passenger kayaks float around the exhibit on the Nyami Nyami
River, with up to four tours running at one time. Guides kayak at the front
and rear of the fleet providing information on the exhibit. The kayaks are free
floating but kept away from the animals by a channel of terrestrial barriers
submerged in the 8-foot-deep (2-meter-deep) river disguised by water plants
and deadfall. The animals are kept away from the kayaks by virtue of their natural
disinterest in submerging themselves in water. At $5 per person, the exhibit’s
opening three-day weekend saw a total of 803 kayak trips, near capacity, Lauf
said.
Opening Expedition Africa to such resounding success should give Brevard Zoo cause to celebrate. For the community, being there is celebration enough.
In
the nursery
Other
recent New Arrivals.
It’s
a mine train!
The confetti cannons, at least, were perfect. For the June 20 media day officially
opening Canyon Blaster at The Great Escape & Splashwater
Kingdom in Lake George, New York, the park staged a mining-themed
ribbon-cutting, the dignitaries pushing down the TNT plunger, and the explosion
of confetti erupting with perfect timing. Things went downhill from there. Or,
more precisely, Canyon Blaster (56 feet/17 meters high, 2,000 feet/606
meters long, 45 mph/73 km/h, three 30-passenger trains) didn’t go downhill.
The official first train got stuck on the lift hill, its passengers eventually
walking back to the station. The Arrow Dynamics ride that first opened
in 1972 as the Rock n’ Roller Coaster in Opyrland, USA, finally
opened for real to the public June 27, 2003. No hoopla then, just perfect
operation.
It’s
a waterslide!
ProSlide Technology’s third Tornado installation opened a little
late. Due to debut when the season opened June 7, High Anxiety
took on its first public riders at Mountain Creek Water park in Vernon,
New Jersey, on June 23, 2003. That may have been a Monday, but it
happened to be the day of a scheduled photo shoot at the park. Wet weather,
of course, delayed construction, and landscaping around the
60-foot/18-meter funnel has yet to be completed. “As
soon as we got it graded and the grass seed down, we’ve had no rain,”
said an exasperated Scott Deisley, Mountain Creek Waterpark’s general manager.
However, not many people are noticing the brown ground around High Anxiety,
not with that giant red and yellow funnel lying on its side. “The typical
quote we hear is, ‘Holy cow!’” Deisley said.
It’s
a waterplay complex!
The now-standard question about the opening of any new attraction elicited what
has become a now-standard response. How was the weather on June 12, 2003?
“It rained, of course,” said Ron Gustafson, director of public relations
at Quassy
Amusement Park
in Middlebury, Connecticut. Even so, the park’s new Saturation
Station, the first WaterColors interactive play complex installed
by SCS Interactive of KoalaPlay Group, “had some activity,”
Gustafson said. The 9,000 sq. feet/836 sq. meters complex comprises two platforms
and a 30-foot/9-meter tower with a tipping water bucket, a 60-foot/18-meter
and 90-foot/27.5-meter slides from ProSlide Technology, and “more
than 30 ways to get drenched,” Gustafson said. Despite the rain, Quassy’s
single biggest investment ever, at $1.2 million, earned front page color photo
placement in local papers and radio coverage of the opening day ceremony. A
week later, the wet weather broke, the hot humid weather descended, and Saturation
Station “was mobbed,” Gustafson said. “That told us how well
it would do. And every age was up there.”
It’s
a carousel!
Silver Springs in Ocala, Florida, turned 125 years old this year,
and an appropriate birthday present to itself seemed to be a carousel. “The
whole experience of Silver Springs hearkens back to a simpler, slower time,”
said Steve Specht, Silver Springs’ director of public relations. “We
wanted something that would compliment the environment and remind people of
their youth and simpler, gentler times.” Silver Springs chose the Chance
endangered species version with 36 figures and two chariots. It opened
May 24, 2003, near the park’s concert field, allowing parents to
“Watch a show and watch their children on the carousel at the same time.”
In January the park opened a new historical exhibit showing fossils of mammoths
and saber tooth cats from the area, archive photos of riverboats, early promotion
memorabilia and film clips of movies and television shows filmed at Silver Springs,
from Tarzan to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, from Sea
Hunt to Steve Irwin’s Crocodile Hunter. “That’s what
Silver Springs has that no other park has: the history,” Specht said. “Not
just 10,000-year history but 125 years as Florida’s original attraction.”
It’s
a waterplay complex!
Whitewater West builds colorfully thematic AquaPlay complexes resembling
tropical rain forests or buccaneers’ Caribbean haunts. Lake Compounce
in Bristol, Connecticut, wanted such a structure; however, its waterpark
adheres to a New England fishing village theme. “I didn’t think palm
trees fit in with a New England fishing village,” said Tom Wages, the park’s
vice president and general manager. Lake Compounce asked Whitewater designers
to come up with something a little more appropriate, and Clipper Cove
berthed on May 24, 2003. The 7,000-square-foot/650 square-meter structure
rises to 45 feet/14 meter, bears three slides and 59 interactive elements.
Clipper Cove replaced the park’s historic carousel on the midway,
and the latter was given a new housing and more exalted position higher up the
midway. Consequently, not only is Clipper Cove eating up capacity in
the waterpark, as hoped for, ridership has increased on the carousel, Wages
said.
It’s
a roller coaster!
Mechanical failure forestalled Steel Venom, the Intamin
Impulse coaster, from opening as planned when Valleyfair in Shakopee,
Minnesota, launched its 2003 season May 10. One week later, on May 17,
2003, the 185-foot/56-meter high, 2,600-foot/788-meter long LIM shuttle
coaster launched its 28 inaugural riders. The park had donated several of those
inaugural ride tickets for local charities to auction. The park itself auctioned
a few tickets on E-Bay to benefit People Serving People, a Minneapolis homeless
shelter where several Valleyfair staff volunteer. With the delayed debut, the
14 winning bidders and their guests were given Exclusive Ride Time from 9 to
10 a.m., (09,00 top 10,00), then allowed to stay and play all day. At the end
of that first hour, four winning bidders were still soaring back and forth on
their 28th ride.
Eric's Turn
Announcing
the Pinkies
We’re
now into the heart of the summer, and it’s time to take stock of the new
arrivals of this year. I don’t necessarily mean the New Arrivals as in
the birth of rides, exhibits, attractions and theme parks we feature in every
issue of THE LOOP but the arrivals to our post box associated with the New Arrivals
we write about.
Yes,
we’re talking about the promotional gifts parks send us to announce their
new attractions. We’re talking what we in the journalism trade affectionately
call graft.
While
I appreciate the gesture of affection from the parks who give to get my attention,
few of the many gifts I receive end up in my office. Some I turn over to needy
children, like the Scooby-Doo-idolizing teen-age daughter of my ad manager,
Lynne. Some I do donate to various charity organizations. A few do end up as
decorations in my office, and one—an oversized pair of Hanes underpants
bearing the Paramount Kings Island Delirium logo—I don’t know
what to do with because Salvation Army does not accept underwear.
Then
there is the utility pouch—something like that—containing a little
Swiss army knife that Six Flags Belgium sent to commemorate the opening of Curse
of Tutankhamon. Sounds like a really nice item, but I never saw it; my wife,
Sarah, laid claim to it while I was on my most recent trip. So, sorry, Six Flags
Belgium, I cannot judge your offering against those I’m about to laud below,
many of which are pictured above.
In
what might become an annual honor, I hereby extend THE LOOP’s Best New
Arrival Gift Awards. (In the tradition of the industry’s more famous Golden
and Silver honors, we’ll call ours the “Pinkies” for short).
Kudos
to Paramount’s Kings Island for the Scooby-Doo hula bank and mousepad (they
lost credit for those underpants, though), to Stone Mountain for the stadium
seat cushion, to Paramount’s Great America for the SpongeBob SquarePants
plastic backpack containing beach toys and Rugrats video, and Indiana Beach
for the I.B. Crow bobblehead doll. The last would have been my top pick except
that I haven’t purchased the watch battery needed to make Crow sing.
Honorable
mention goes to Universal Studios Orlando for the Gingerbread Man, a promotional
announcement for the opening of its Shrek 4D attraction. Not only was
this an effective promotional gift for the attraction, it looked mighty tasty,
and it automatically induced a smile for those of us who regard the Gingerbread
Man’s interrogation scene as one of the highlights of the original Shrek
movie.
Runner-up
goes to Legoland California for its spinning top commemorating the new Bionicle
Blaster ride. Not only does it spin, it plays an electronic tune and displays
a sequence of light patterns (the star patterns are particularly fascinating).
What a tie-in to a flat ride that features spinning cups themed to the robot-like
action toys of LEGO’s Bionicles. Extra credit goes to any toy that inspires
my 14 year-old son, Ian, to say, “It’s really fun!” and mean
it.
Winning
the first-ever Best New Arrival Gift “Pinkie” is Universal Orlando
for its promotion of the Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast, a full-scale
model of Jimmy Neutron’s robotic dog Goddard. Operated by remote control,
the dog barks, whines, wags and shakes. It puzzles cats and neighbors alike,
the latter wondering just what is it I do exactly (the former wondering why
I do it)? It was enough that this is the most elaborate gift I’ve ever
received from a park or zoo, but Universal Orlando’s marketing team is
to be further lauded for attention to a particularly important detail. Not only
did the dog come with batteries installed, the remote control had batteries,
too.
We truly appreciate all the gifts, but you park operators should know you don’t have to send such things to get your New Arrival in THE LOOP. We just need a call (toll-free 888-902-LOOP in North America or 520-514-2254) or an e-mail (eric@gettheloop.com) with the news that you are about to open a new attraction at your park, zoo or FEC. Suppliers can take advantage of one of the two New Arrival advertising packages (for details, click here), including the Enhanced New Arrival package with an additional jump page of information and photos, (see the Parrot Jungle Island story above).
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved