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In
this issue:
(To
go directly to a story, click on a blue keyword below):
In our special
Coaster Con XXVI report, ACE deals with members who violate its
code of conduct, THE LOOP surveys
enthusiasts about the performance of amusement parks and rides,
Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Paramount's
Kings Dominion raise the bar on hosting conventions to extraordinary
heights, ACE's founder reflects on 25 years of
good works, and the museum fund gets some help from Tim
O'Brien.
Cold,
wet weather makes early season a wash for East Coast parks and
zoos;
Mini-Europe
makes a game out of the European Union;
Legoland
bricks up its season pass holders;
We welcome Shrek
4-D to the Universal Studios parks, Celebration
City to Branson, and a virtual ark to Noah's Ark;
In the nursery
we find a Dixie Stampede in Orlando, a train in
the New York Central Railroad Museum, a show and
waterslides in Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom,
a lorikeet exhibit in Oklahoma City Zoo, a diving
show at Roaring Springs, a slide and kiddie tower
in Coney Island, an expanded waterpark in Six
Flags New England, an African exhibit in Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo, a Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas
City, several gripping rides in Hersheypark, flat
rides and a show at Sesame Place, new water attractions
at Dolly's Splash Country, a spinning raft ride
at Six Flags America, and a 4-D theater at Europa-Park;
Bumper cars
are reborn in Wyandot; and
We revisit the
birth of Ian's enthusiasm.
For
a printable version of this newsletter,
click
here
For
more information on the facilities and organizations featured in
this newsletter, visit our Connections Page.
click here
For
back issues of THE LOOP,
click here
Financial
bath
Of the
first 16 operating weekends this season, Busch Gardens Williamsburg
in Virginia saw rain on 15 of them. And that park was lucky.
Many amusement venues east of the Mississippi River have had rain
on every weekend this season. Many parks didn’t see two straight
non-rain days in a row until this week. After taking a financial
beating for the first two months of the 2003 season, some parks
held on to one bit of obvious optimism: communities suffering cabin
fever would come out in huge numbers when the weather broke.
That did happen this week at several parks. Nevertheless, the weather
may have broken too late for some venues. Anthony Catanoso, owner
of the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, is considering the season a
loss; he doesn’t feel he can recoup the missing revenues of
May and June.
Zoos faced even more weather-related worries than amusement parks.
For many locations in the northeast and middle Atlantic states,
2003’s was the worst winter in 20 years, followed by the wettest
and coldest spring in 20 years. Attendance is off 50 percent this
year at the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, Pennsylvania, said Operations
Director Rafael Suarez. The zoo lost two of its traditionally strongest
months, with May seeing 23 rain days. The weather was so wet and
cold, even school groups canceled their visits, Suarez said. Furthermore,
when the long-looked-for break in the cold, wet weather finally
did come, it just exacerbated the zoo's plight because the temperatures
jumped straight to near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) with
high humidity; still not good zoo-visiting conditions.
Despite the bleak weather conditions, many parks determined to go
with the flow, as it were. Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania,
released a Top Ten list of things visitors could still do in Hershey
Resort even with all that continuous rain. The bulk of the list
comprised indoor activities at the resort or Chocolate World, but
Number 1 was “LET THE FUN CONTINUE! Go ahead, make the six
drenching water rides at Hersheypark an even wetter experience,
or make every ride a water ride. Hersheypark rides continue to operate
in most weather conditions, and wait times are reduced when raindrops
are falling.”
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Mini-Europe
hopes guests jump into the Spirit of Europe. Photo
courtesy of Mini-Europe.
A happy
Union
Brussels,
Belgium, may be one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, but
it lacks the superstar attraction status of, say, a Paris, Rome
or London that would put it on the must-do list of most tourists’
itineraries. Yet, while many of Europe’s other capitals are
steeped in history, Brussels’ history is happening now as the
European Union capital city.
“When we ask tourists, ‘What’s Brussels for you?’
54 percent say Brussels is the capital of Europe,” said Thierry
Meeùs, owner and president of Mini-Europe, a 14-year-old
park featuring scale models of Europe’s famous cities and landmarks.
“Up to now, there is nothing for the public that shows that.
You can see the facade of the European Parliament, but nothing popular.”
Though his park already stood as Brussels’ most visited attraction,
Meeùs decided to fill that need by adding a new exhibit devoted
to the European Union. “I want to be one of the major information
centers for the general public,” he said. “Here they can
have a taste for Europe.”
Opened May 1, the Spirit of Europe is a 350-square-meter (3,767-square-foot)
exhibition hall sitting at the back of Mini-Europe. Upon entering
guests see traditional exhibits explaining the history of Europe
and the Union’s success. Further in, however, the exhibit becomes
a high-tech playground using seven interactive games to tout the
benefits of a unified Europe. Some games can be played solo, like
“Words of Europe” requiring players to identify the 11
official languages in Europe. For other games, the more players
the better. “European Symphony” plays the European Anthem
(the fourth movement “Ode de Joy” of Beethoven’s
Ninth Symphony) when a player places his or her hand on a map of
Europe. Each country plays a different instrument. The more hands
placed on the map, the fuller the orchestral arrangement. “The
more we are, the better the symphony,” Meeùs said.
The attraction’s highlight is EuropEmotion. Using technology
by Alterface, a new company which grew out of the University of
Louvain La Neuve, two players are filmed and integrated onto a large
screen; it does not use blue or green screen technology, nor do
the players have to wear any sensors. The randomly selected games
include grabbing musical notes and jumping to place them on a stanza
to create the European Anthem, moving old European currencies into
a furnace to create the Euro, and throwing fire balls at member
nations’ flags that appear on a pole. Get all 15 flags, the
European flag appears. In another game, the two players have to
jump up to reach keys that will free pigeons, representing how the
Union has engendered the continent’s longest period of peace
since the Roman Empire.
By its very nature, the new exhibit is destined to go through some
changes. The European Union’s membership expands to 25 next
year. “Maybe in 2007 it will be 27, and who knows afterward,”
Meeùs said. “Every year I have to change something.
And maybe I’ll have to adapt the games to make sure they will
be good for our customers.”
In addition to offering an attraction for and about the European
Union, Meeùs hopes to spread his pro-Union message, especially
to younger generations. “I have a passion for Europe,”
said Meeùs, a member of the board of the European Movement
Belgium, “So I combine both: it should attract people in one
way, and in another way it’s important to give a basic message
that we are young, we have successes, not everything is perfect
but being European is fun.” Politics and marketing aside, that’s
what the Spirit of Europe comes down to: fun: “I still want
to be in the leisure time and not a library about the European Union.”
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Thick
as a brick
Many parks offer their season pass holders certain privileges: early
entries, premium parking, sneak previews. Legoland California in
Carlsbad hits its season pass holders with a brick.
LEGO bricks, of course, but not your typical building block. These
are “Collector Bricks” commemorating special events at
the park or new LEGO product lines. “One of the things we’ve
done since the park opened was create collector bricks for special
events like Fourth of July, Halloween and the opening of new attractions,”
said Kina Paegert, the park’s senior communications specialist.
“People liked them, and when they go away people always ask
for more.”
In brainstorming marketing ideas for promoting Legoland’s revamped
annual pass program, the notion of including one commemorative brick
per month for the 12-month term of the pass built momentum. Already
for $89 ($65 for children 3 to 12) passholders receive special discounts,
invitations to park events and a subscription to the Legoland newsletter
and, for kids, LEGO Magazine. And every month, waiting for
pass holders at the park, is a newly issued collector brick.
In
May, the first month of the new program, the blue Explorer brick
bore the logo of the park’s new Lego Sport Center which opened
that month. June’s features a new-shade-of green brick with
the Legoland Sports Jam summer show, which opens this week. For
July, the park will issue a red Bionicle Blaster brick, based on
the ride that opened in April. Later this year passholders will
get a pink brick representing the toymaker’s new Clikits product
line.
Any limited-edition bricks left over at the end of the issue month
will be made available to the general public for purchase in the
park’s retail stores. “It’s an exclusive opportunity
and extra bonus to being a passmember of Legoland,” Paegert
said. She could not say whether that exclusivity has boosted pass
sales, but she knows its a selling point for LEGO fans. “They’re
really excited because it’s something unique they get ahead
of everybody else.”
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New
Arrivals
Shrek
and Fiona's guests had their cake and ate some, too. Photo
courtesy of Universal Studios Orlando.
It’s
a 4D film!
Universal Studios Orlando announces the arrival of Shrek 4-D,
June 12, 2003. Measurements: 300-seat theater, 8 minute preshow,
12-minute film, 50 foot by 25 foot (15 by 8 meter) screen, four
projectors (two for each eye). Delivered by PDI/DreamWorks.
Give Universal Studios a new attraction to open you can count on
two things from its publicity department: a world record and pyrotechnics.
Shrek 4-D, the first animation created for a theme park by
PDI/DreamWorks studio, picks up where the Academy Award-winning
Shrek feature-length animation left off: the ogre and Fiona
have just gotten married and are off for their honeymoon accompanied
(hounded?) by Donkey where they encounter various adventures audiences
also experience through “ogrevision.” The theme park film,
in fact, serves as a narrative bridge between the first film and
the Shrek 2 sequel due out next summer (in effect, Shrek
4-D is, in Hollywood terminology, Shrek 1 1/2). All of
the original film’s actors—Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron
Diaz and John Lithgow—returned to voice the characters in Shrek
4-D.
To celebrate such a groundbreaking venture even beyond what the
theme park’s Terminator 3-D accomplished, Universal
Studios’ PR team came up with something appropriately big:
a five tiered, 22-foot-tall, 4-ton wedding cake (7 meters, 3,629
kilograms), breaking a world record for matrimonial confection.
Attending the wedding reception for Shrek and Fiona were both invited
dignitaries and park guests wearing green paint and ogre ears. Unfortunately,
the doors to the theater were incomprehensibly shut, keeping the
guests out and the happy couple from taking off on their honeymoon
but the dragon from the film appeared and in a burst of pyrotechnic
magic opened the door.
The reception guests ate wedding cake for the occasion, but not
the record-breaker. “The assembly of that wedding cake took
a long time,” said Tom Schroder, Universal Studios Orlando’s
director of public relations. “We wanted to make sure guests
had good fresh cake to eat.”
It’s
a 4-D film!
The opening of Shrek 4-D at Universal Studios Orlando came
two weeks after the film opened at Universal Studios Hollywood,
California, in a 500-seat theater. The movie had its
official premier May 10, 2003, in grand Hollywood style,
except that the theme park used a green carpet rather than a red
one, down which both the Eddie Murphy family and Mike Myers family
traipsed to see—or, rather, hear—their latest performances.
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Celebration
City put the finishing touches on itself with a multimedia laser
light show. Photo
courtesy of Hershend Family Entertainment Corp.
It’s
a theme park!
Herschend Family Entertainment Corp. announces the arrival of Celebration
City in Branson, Missouri, May 30, 2003. Measurements: 28 acres,
four restaurants, 10 themed shops, two shows and 20 rides including
80-foot-tall (24 meters), 2,600-foot-long (792 meters) wood coaster,
a 60-foot-tall (18 meters), compact steel coaster, a 52-foot-high
(16 meters), 130-foot-long (40 meters) compact steel coaster, an
80-foot (24 meters) tower ride, and a 95-foot-high (29 meters) Ferris
wheel. Delivered by Allen Herschall, Amusement Products, Eli Bridge,
Great Coasters International, KMG, Majestic Floor, Mel Park, Miler,
Moser Ride, Preston Barberi, Reverchon, S&S Power, SBF, SDC/LT
System, Sellner, Visa International, Zamperla and Zierer.
This year’s only major new theme park to open did so right
on time—a soft opening May 1 with the grand opening gala May
30—but the guests were late coming. “We’re getting
much more late arrivals than we thought we would,” said Celebration
City General Manager Steve Honeycutt.
All along, Celebration City was geared as an evening attraction
for this tourism town. The park’s hours run from 3 p.m. (15,00)
to 11 p.m. (23,00), and attendance has continually grown as the
evenings progress, Honeycutt said. However, the later they come,
the less time they have to stay, and instead of the anticipated
five-hour stay the park is seeing an average of two-hour stays.
Because most of the first-month attendance was made up of season
pass holders, i.e. locals, “We think that will change when
more tourists come into town,” Honeycutt said.
As for product, the Herschend team is pleased with the results,
the company’s first theme park set in post-19th century—albeit,
just barely, as Celebration City represents an early 20th century
amusement park. The Ozark WildCat wood roller coaster from
GCI is proving a big draw with its twister-style coarse and 310-degree
spiraling double-down first drop, Honeycutt said, and the custom-produced
nightly multimedia laser show, Celebrate!, has been another expected
hit.
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It’s
a show ride!
Noah’s Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, announces
the arrival of Noah’s Incredible Adventure, May 24,
2003. Measurements: 8,000-square-foot building (743 square meters),
52-seat Mystery Swing. Delivered by Mack, Scenery West and Technifex.
For a change, Noah’s Ark had a new ride ready well before the
park’s opening day. Building a highly themed, multi-special
effects dry ride had its complications, namely with electronics,
but while construction on your typical water slides is an easier
proposition, it is more prone to suffer the vagaries of the weather
because of the slides’ heights and caulking needs.
For Noah’s Ark, doing non-traditional rides is becoming something
of a tradition. After being the first stand-alone waterpark to install
a shoot-the-chute a few years ago, Noah’s Ark this year installed
the waterpark industry’s first show ride that, except for its
Noah’s Ark theme, has no water whatsoever. Technifex produced
the attraction, provided the show controls and supplied the Elevator
that simulates passage to the buried ark. Scenery West built all
the theming, and Mack supplied the mystery swing that seems to take
passengers on a rough ark journey.
“School groups are screaming quite loud,” said Noah’s
Ark president and co-owner Tim Gantz. “We can hear them all
the way up in the control room,” which sits between the pre-show
and the elevator and so not adjoining the swing. There operators
also can watch the video monitors of the ride in action. “We
saw a kid 9 years old who really thought he was upside down,”
Gantz said. “He had seven buddies with him and they were all
laughing at him. Then a week later, a big body builder had the same
reaction.”
Noah’s Incredible Adventure has been catering primarily
to school groups so far, but as the traditional tourism season heats
up, the ride also seems to be appealing to families, too. Having
a totally dry ride also gives Noah’s Ark the opportunity to
offer a new Adventure Pass, packaging Noah’s Incredible Adventure
with the mini golf course, bumper boats and Flash Flood shoot-the-chute.
The $12 package can be upgraded to include the entire waterpark,
and through June the park has been giving away the pass to entice
people to the park and upgrade.“To have a viable package there,
we needed something strong,” Gantz said.
That something is the new show ride. Gantz said he and his brother,
Dan, were “out there looking for the next big thing out there
in water rides. But we have all the thrills in water rides already.”
Deciding to do a dry ride, the two owners decided as well that it
had to be strongly themed on Noah’s Ark. While visiting last
summer the Noah’s Ark walk-through at Kennywood in West Miflin,
Pennsylvania, which uses a Technifex Evelator, Dan Gantz called
on Technifex to put together a show ride for his park (THE
LOOP, January 10, 2003).
“Technifex was really easy to work with,” Tim Gantz said.
“Not doing this type of thing before, we were not sure what
we were doing and what we were getting into. They were really helpful.
We learned a lot.” The lessons seemed to have paid off well,
too. “People clap at the end,” Tim Gantz said of the ride.
“That’s got to be a good sign.”
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In
the nursery
Other
recent New Arrivals.
It’s
a dinner theater!
Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede may be a representation of the
War Between the States—one full of song, dance, fun, good horsemanship
and good eating yet still maintaining the underlying North versus
South rivalry—but for the opening of her newest Dixie Stampede
Dinner and Show in Orlando, Florida, Parton stressed a United
state. The show has a finale featuring Parton’s Color Me America
which she penned in response to the terrorist attacks of September
11. She was on hand for an afternoon press preview and evening VIP
show June 18, at both of which she sang the grand finale herself.
The show opened to the public June 19, 2003, in the $28 million,
128,000-square-foot/11,892-square-meter theater—Parton’s
fourth Dixie Stampede venue—located off Interstate 4 between
Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando. The theater includes
a 30,000-square-foot/2,787-square-meter arena, 1,200 seats, 200
servers, 32 horses, 30 riders, 30 doves, eight buffalo and 14 volunteers
from the audience for each show.
It’s
a train!
What better way to see trains than by train? That was the reasoning
at the National New York Central Railroad Museum in Elkhart,
Indiana, which purchased a 1955 National Amusement Device
24-inch-guage train ride with one locomotive and five cars
carrying up to 60 people. The train’s tracks, currently
stretching 800 feet/242 meters but with a planned expansion
to 2,000 feet/606 meters and eventually 8,000 feet/2,424 meters,
winds through the museum’s rolling stock displays. “It’s
a neat ride for us because it turns our attraction from a static
display to an operating display,” said David M. Bird, the museum’s
executive director. The museum also added a Ward Train Company
kiddie train with three cars. Both rides opened June 14,
2003, with a preview party for members of the museum. The first
weekend of the trains’ operation, 950 people visited the museum,
prompted by the new mode of viewing the exhibits. “That for
us is a lot,” Bird said.
It’s
a show and waterslides!
The Peanuts gang moved up to the big time. For the first time in
its Peanut-themed incarnation, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
in Allentown, Pennsylvania, gave its costumed street characters
a stage to play on. The live Peanuts Characters Show,
a song and dance review featuring five characters (Charlie
Brown, Lucy, Linus, Sally and Schroeder) and two non-costumed
performers, opened June 13, 2003, on the Hercules Stage
in the midway near Camp Snoopy . On May 24, 2003, Wildwater
Kingdom opened one of its largest expansions ever with three towers
of 10 new slides from WhiteWater West. Patriot’s
Plunge features double-tube slides in red (354 feet/107
meters), white (275 feet/83 meters) and blue (405
feet/123 meters); Wildwater Rapids has two enclosed
body slides (268 feet/81 meters and 182 feet/55 meters)
and two open-air body slides (295 feet/89 meters and 308
feet/93 meters); and Jumpin’ Jack Splash
offers two open-air body slides (200 feet/61 meters and
202 feet/61 meters) and one enclosed slide (180 feet/55
meters). Opening day, said public relations manager Chris Ozimek,
“wasn’t the best opening day for the waterpark,”
referring to a steady, daylong cold downpour. Nevertheless, Dorney
Park kept Wildwater Kingdom open all day for a handful of guests,
two of whom wore wetsuits. “They were happy there were no lines,”
Ozimek said.
It’s
a lorikeet exhibit!
Nectar is proving to be a nectar for the Oklahoma City Zoo in
Oklahoma, which dedicated its new ExpLorikeet Adventure
exhibit on June 12, 2003. The 1,100-square-foot/102-square-meters
exhibit that reaches a height of 20 feet/6 meters currently
contains 48 lorikeets representing eight different species,
but plans call for up to 100 to reside in the aviary. Guests can
get the full interactive experience by carrying a cup of nectar
into the aviary. “If you’ve got nectar in your hand they’re
right on top of you,” said Scott Darnold, the zoo’s public
relations associate. “They are unbelievable friendly and outgoing,
so they are great for kids, but we’re finding that adults are
going in and having just as much fun” The zoo also has found
that about 70 percent of everybody who walks in purchases nectar.
For the first time
in its five-year history Roaring Springs dove into live entertainment.
Photo courtesy
of Roaring Springs Waterpark.
It’s
a dive show!
Roaring Springs Waterpark in Meridan, Idaho, decided to do
something a little extra for its fifth anniversary season, and gave
its guests an extra attraction: the Roaring Springs High Dive
Show featuring six divers jumping 80 feet into
a 10-foot pool. Debuting on May 31, 2003, the show runs
three times a day on weekdays and four times daily on weekends.
Brown Entertainment Group produced the show for Roaring Springs,
which brought in bleachers to accommodatean audience of 200
while another 500 guests can watch from the surrounding beach
area. That much room may be needed, said Tiffany Quilici, Roaring
Springs’ sales and marketing director. “The stands are
packed,” she said. “People seem to be enjoying it so much,”
especially the fiery finale dive. “A fair number of people
come to the waterpark and don’t want to swim, so this is something
a little extra.”
It’s
a tower and slide!
Eight years since it put in a major waterslide tower—during
which time its three million gallon/11.4 million liter swimming
pool underwent a complete overhaul—Coney Island in Cincinnati,
Ohio, installed a WhiteWater West Cyclone slide
at the deep end of the Sunlite Pool. The slide stands 20 feet/6
meters high with 70 1/2 feet/21 meters of enclosed chute
corkscrewing 540 degrees on its descent. “We felt we needed
to put something in Sunlite Pool to shake it up a little bit,”
General Manager Vic Nolting said. “We wanted a slide that was
geared to younger kids that wasn’t so imposing.” He also
added 1,000 square feet/93 meters of deck space and three
20 foot/6-meter umbrellas. The slide opened May 24, 2003,
Coney Island’s opening day when the park also debuted a Frog
Hopper from S&S Power. The seven-passenger
kiddie tower drop is appealing to more than just youngsters, Nolting
said. “I’m amazed at how many adults ride the ride. There’s
that adult center seat, and every time I walk by there’s a
big brother or big sister or parent in that seat.”
It’s
a waterpark!
As Six Flags New England in Agawam, Massachusetts, expanded
its Island Kingdom waterpark into Hurricane Harbor with six new
body slides, two new tube slides, a new wave pool and the second-ever
ProSlide Tornado, the park strongly identified its new features
with its new waterpark name. The six body slides, 25 feet/8 meter
and 17 feet/5 meter tall, are named for actual hurricanes: Agnes,
Bertha, Lola, Marge, Myrtle and Nellie. The 500,000-gallon/1.9
million-liter wave pool, which contains a children’s play
area, is called Monsoon Lagoon. The 45 foot/14 meter tall
tube slides, using four-passenger cloverleaf tubes, are called
Geronimo Falls and Zooma Falls—not really tropical weather-related
names; but the 45-foot/14-meter tall Tornado is a
meteorological event and looks like its name. The expansion also
includes a sandy beach, new changing area, two food outlets and
enough new deck area to expand the number of lounge chairs from
700 to 2,200. The newly christened Hurricane Harbor, featuring
all ProSlide Technology slides and produced by Aquatic
Builders, made its public debut May 24, 2003, and despite
its pedigreed name, it couldn’t compete with the day’s
real meteorological event, a cold rain that shut the park a couple
hours early.
Colorado
Spring's zoo had a tall order to fill building a new home for its
famous giraffes. Photo courtesy of Jack Rouse Associates.
It’s an African exhibit!
The 50-year-old hoofstock exhibits at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in
Colorado Springs, Colorado, may have been antiquated, but they
were home to profligacy. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has seen 181 giraffe
births since 1954. Now those reticulated giraffe have a more suitable
home in the $11 million African Rift Valley, which opened
May 23, 2003. Designed by Jack Rouse Associates and
constructed by Geograph, Brandon Kramer, CLR Architects, J.E.
Dunn contractor, Nor-com and Myra Simms, the 4 1/2-acre exhibit
contains 11 different species, 67 animals, including 19 giraffe.
The exhibit also contains a giant talking baobab tree, research
outpost, children’s play village and safari discovery trail.
Fittingly, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s first major capital improvement
in years lies near the front entrance, becoming the zoo’s iconic
centerpiece and a fitting kickoff to a $50 million masterplan.
It’s a waterpark!
The Great Wolf Lodge franchise expanded into Kansas City, Kansas,
May 20, 2003, giving that market its own Bear Tracks Landing
indoor waterpark. The 38,000-square-foot/3,530-square-meter
waterpark (Water Technology, Architectural Design Consultants,
Stevens Construction and Neuman Pools) contains two 636-foot/193-meter
tube slides, two 300-foot/91 meter body slides, one 336-foot/102-meter,
three-person raft slide, three kiddie slides, a 77,000 gallon/292,600-liter
recreation pool, 17,000-gallon/64,600-liter kiddie pool, a 90,000
gallon/342,000-liter leisure river, two 7,000-gallon/26,600-liter
hot tubs, one snack bar and 60 lifeguards. Centerpiece to the
waterpark is a $1 million, four-story interactive treehouse waterfort
with more than 60 guest-activated water effects, a 1,000-gallon/3,800-liter
tipping bucket and Totem Tower body slides. This is the Great
Lakes Company’s fourth Great Wolf-style property, and while
it is the southernmost location, it seems to have gotten off on
the right tracks. Within a month birthday party packages had sold
out through the summer.
Hersheypark's
new Claw grabbed the attention of guests on the midway. Photo
courtesy off Hersheypark.
It’s
quadruplet flat rides!
Here is a ride that, at least figuratively, is grabbing guests off
the midway at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The
Claw by Chance Morgan Rides opened to the public
May 15, 2003, spinning 32 dangling riders 65 feet/20 meters
into the air while swinging them 120 degrees in a pendulum at
11 rpms. “The kids love The Claw,” said
Kathleen Burrows, Hersheypark’s public relations director.
“That line is so long.” The Claw opened a week
after the park’s season opening day saw the debut of the Larson
International Frontier Flyers with eight manipulatable
flyers rising to 18 feet/5 meters and two kiddie versions
of popular teen rides: the Mini Pirate ship by SBF
VISA International and the Mini-Scrambler by Eli
Bridge.
Grover
and his friends get around, literally and figuratively, ins Sesame
Place's new rides. Photo
by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
It’s
flat rides and a show!
Gradually expanding its dry-ride offerings to balance its waterpark
attractions, Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, added
two new Zamperla amusement rides for the season, a teacup
ride themed as Grover’s World Twirl featuring
Sesame Street characters in various ethnic outfits and settings,
and Big Bird’s Balloon Race, with eight circling
baskets rising 40 feet/12 meters in the air. The two
rides opened with the season May 10, 2003, when a new show
debuted at the park’s Paradise Theater, Gotta Dance!
by David Jack featuring Big Bird and Zoe. Jack has produced
several shows for the park’s Circle Theater, but that space
has now been turned into the 1-2-3 Smile With Me meet-and-greet
station for Big Bird and Elmo, who are available throughout the
day now.
It’s a slide tower and interactive
waterplay!
Dolly’s Splash Country Water Adventure Park in Pigeon Forge,
Tennessee, waited two years before embarking on its first expansion.
The season opened May 10, 2003, with two new attractions.
Raintree Hollow, a 2-acre/.8 hectare children’s
attraction is themed as a lumber camp with interactive elements.
The ProSlide Technology Mountain Twist complex features
three mat slides with a 42-foot/13-meter drop.
Penguin's
Blizzard River presented spitting images of the famous tuxedoed
birds. Photo by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
It’s
a raft ride!
While most parks this spring fretted potential snowy conditions
for their ride openings, Six Flags America in Largo, Maryland,
embraced a chilly forecast for the grand opening of Penguin’s
Blizzard River, a spinning raft ride by WhiteWater West
Industries (60 1/2 feet/18 meters tall, 469-foot/142-meter
flume, 12 six-passenger rafts). For the April 29, 2003,
official first ride, Six Flag America’s Director of Maintenance
and New Construction Tony Zelko donned a tuxedo and cut through
an ice-carved ribbon between two 3 1/2-foot/1-meter ice penguin
sculptures. Also in tuxedo-type attire was a real Magellanic penguin
loaned from Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in Ohio that proved an
effective public relations ambassador making the rounds of local
radio and television stations. Under snowy conditions, thanks to
two snow machines placed on the roof of the station house, Batman
accompanied by a family from nearby Saverna Park, Maryland, took
the official first ride, and everybody was treated to ice cream
swirled red, yellow and blue, matching the raft’s colors on
Penguin’s Blizzard River.
It’s
a 4-D theater!
If you are going to build a 448-seat theater for your guests,
you might as well include specs that allow that building to serve
as a meeting venue, too. So, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony April
3, 2003, Europa-Park in Rust, Germany, opened Magic Cinema
4D in the park’s French-themed section, a 735-square-meter/7,911-square-foot
building with a 9-by-19-meter/30-by-63-foot screen and
a 33-speaker, 55,000-watt sound system, a 2.2 million Euro
(US$2.5 million) theater that doubles as the Confertainment Center
featuring state-of-the-art meeting facilities. For park guests,
Magic Cinema 4D is presenting twice-a-day showings of Panda Vision,
a 15-minute movie.
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Rebirths
It’s
bumper cars!
Wyandot Lake in Powell, Ohio, announces the rebirth of its bumper
cars, May 17, 2003. Measurements: 2,400 square feet (223 square
meters), 18 cars. Delivered by RDC.
Change can be good, though the cause for change often is an unpleasant
experience. For Wyandot Lake, a fire fed by hay bales during last
October’s Halloween festival destroyed the park’s bumper
car pavilion. In rebuilding the attraction—using the same footprint
as the old pavilion—the park decided to replace the old-fashioned
bumper cars with the rotating discs produced by RDC. The change
has been well received by guests, said the park’s Marketing
Manager David Rahrig. “Everybody likes something different,”
he said.
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Volume
3, No. 12. JUNE 27, 2003
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Click
here to read these stories
L.A.
Zoo gets new director
GCI
wood coaster to anchor new Dollywood section
Maurer
Sohne partners with Focke
Cedar
Fair pays regular cash distribution
Houben
steps down from Vekoma post
Guest
falls from Knoebels skyway
Alton
Towers pulls wood coaster plans
EuroAmusement
Show heading for Disney
Probes
clear Holiday World; Raven resumes running
For
these stories,
click Extra! Extra!
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Coaster
Con Report
Safety
first
Coaster
Conventions are all about celebration. This year’s event, marking
the end of the American Coaster Enthusiasts’ 25th anniversary
year at two Virginia parks—Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Paramount’s
Kings Dominion—where the organization got its start, was to
be the most celebratory of all. The 713 registrants were the third
most in the club’s 26-year Coaster Con history.
Instead, a pall hung over the proceedings. The May 31 death of ACE
member Tamar Fellner, 32, at Holiday World & Splashin’
Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana, colored the weeklong events of Coaster
Con XXVI. The fatality that occurred while some 850 enthusiasts
had descended on Holiday World for the annual Stark Raven Mad event
dominated discussion at ACE’s annual business meeting. Barry
Short of Richmond, Virginia, earned third place in the convention’s
annual video contest with his sweet-cum-bitter footage titled “Stark
Raven Mad Memories” chronicling that tragic Saturday in a black-and-white,
faux-vintage film that brilliantly captured a sense of lost innocence.
Losing a member, even a new one, was hard enough. That the accident
occurred at Holiday World, one of ACE’s greatest allies, on
a favorite coaster, The Raven, hurt even more. That it happened
simultaneous to an enthusiasts' event made it all the more troubling.
But it was the nature of the accident that raised the ire of ACE’s
executive committee. According to law enforcement reports and an
independent investigation, Ms. Fellner was standing in her seat
during the fatal ride.
ACE distributes a code of conduct to all its members, now numbering
about 8,000, upon their joining. That code includes adhering to
all safety rules of ride operations at the parks. Failure to do
so can lead to expulsion from the club. Furthermore, ACE members
are required to report violations of that code to ACE or park officials.
Notably, the Raven accident occurred not during ERT but on
the last public ride of the night while the enthusiasts were supposed
to be gathering in the park’s picnic pavilion.
“If we don’t conduct ourselves to this code of conduct,
there will be no ACE events. Parks will not invite us,” ACE
President Carole Sanderson told almost 200 members gathered for
the club's annual business meeting. Already sensing a distancing
by park operators—despite the fact this was the first ride-related
death in the history of the club, which has had more than 25,000
members over the years—the ACE Executive Committee will be
publishing an open letter to the industry describing its code of
conduct and its enforcement of that policy. “Basically, we’re
reiterating everything we already have, but people forget it,”
Sanderson said.
Well before the Holiday World incident ACE had already changed the
rules in its annual video and photography contest disqualifying
any point-of-view ride shots, a nod to many parks’ regulations
forbidding cameras on coasters. In the wake of Ms. Fellner’s
death, the organization also has changed its policy toward non-ACE
members attending ACE events. In the past, they merely had to adhere
to the code of conduct or be expelled from the event. Now non-members
can attend events only as guests of a member, and in addition to
the non-member being expelled from the park, the member becomes
responsible for all of that nonmember’s actions.
“We cannot let the actions of a few people in this club ruin
it for 8,000 people,” Sanderson said at the meeting, a statement
which incited a loud round of applause from her fellow enthusiasts.
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Survey
says
Al Weber, CEO and president of Paramount Parks, told the American
Coaster Enthusiasts during his keynote speech at their annual Coaster
Con banquet that his company listens to the market. “We listen
to you, and to you, and to you,” he said, pointing to individuals
in the room. “Of course, you’re the market on steroids.”
How true. Nevertheless, this is a market that patronizes many amusement
parks as often as possible. It comprises smart consumers who have
experienced enough parks and rides to know what they like and what
they don’t, what works and what doesn’t. Said Weber: “You
are the most loyal and most passionate of our users.”
With this in mind, THE LOOP conducted its first Amusement Industry
Survey at last week’s Coaster Con, giving both operators and
manufacturers a window into the likes and dislikes of park guests
across the spectrum of the industry. In keeping with Weber’s
observations, we knew that these results would not necessarily represent
the feelings of the general public; however, in keeping with Weber’s
observations, we also know these findings are of value because they
come from passionate and observant veteran users. We also knew they
would be skewed toward roller coasters, so for a couple of questions,
second place finishes are the the most notable.
Of 300 surveys handed out randomly at the convention, we received
143 replies. We broke these down into age groups: under 18 (11 respondents),
18 to 34 years old (23 respondents), 35 to 54 years old (78 respondents)
and 55 and over (31 respondents).
We started off asking “favorite type of amusement rides"
and allowing five selections. Not surprisingly, roller coasters
were selected on 143 surveys, but dark rides were not a too-distant
second at 111. Coming in third were tower rides (66) followed by
carousels (56). Dark rides came in second for all age groups. Youths
prefer spinning/undulating rides third, while adults shifted from
tower rides to carousels the older they got. We concluded the survey
by asking “What kind of attraction would you like to see built
at your favorite amusement venue?” They could choose only one.
Roller coasters were selected on 97 forms, dark rides on 31, way
ahead of simulator/motion theaters at 7. Among youths, simulator/motion
theaters got two votes, the only category other than coasters (8)
to get more than one vote, but among all adults dark rides were
a clear desire behind coasters.
“What are the most important factors toward having a good park
experience?” we asked, again allowing five choices. Cleanliness
received 102 votes, efficient ride operations 93, and friendly staff
87. Prices came in with 73, number of coasters 71, and short queues
69. Among youths, cleanliness and friendly staff tied at 7. Efficient
ride operations came ahead of cleanliness and friendly staff for
the 18-34 age group, cleanliness was a runaway favorite ahead of
efficiency for the 35-54 age group, and the two categories tied
among the senior members. Separately we asked if they preferred
children’s rides grouped or scattered throughout the park:
102 favored grouped, 32 scattered, a gap consistent through each
age group. Among “favorite foods” the most often listed
were fries (60) and ice cream (50).
Of course, we asked about coasters. Woodies (101) were favored over
steel with no inversions (40) and steel with inversions (14), though
youths favored steel with no inversions (5) over inverted steel
(4) and woodies (2). For the question “What do you believe
makes a good roller coaster?” with an allowance to choose five,
air time earned 138 total votes to speed’s 130. Type of trains
came in third with 95. Youths chose air time and speed (both with
11) followed by height (9) and G forces (8), young adults followed
air time (22) and speed (18) with G forces (16) and trains (15),
middle age adults followed air time and speed (both with 75) by
trains (55) and theming (38), and for seniors air time (30) and
speed (26) was followed by trains (22) and both G forces and height
(13).
For the complete survey results, click here.
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Paramount's
Kings Dominion's warm welcome towered over the week-long ACE Coaster
Con. Photo
by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
A
hand of 5 aces
At the convention-ending banquet Friday night, when Paramount’s
Kings Dominion General Manager Richard Zimmerman was introduced
along with Paramount public relations officials David Mandt, Jeffrey
Seibert and Mark Riddell, the ACE members gave them a standing ovation.
Despite a week of rainy weather, the entire banquet passed without
one mention of rain outs; instead, the commentary focused on gracious
hosts.
Before giving out his annual Spirit of ACE Award (this year's winner
was ACE Census Director Lisa Scheinin), Philadelphia Toboggan Coaster
President Tom Rebbie, noting the comments he had heard from various
ACE members, told the Paramount Parks’ group, “You’ve
achieved the monumental task of pleasing everybody in this group.”
The 2004 Coaster Con had been regarded with high anticipation among
the membership because Cedar Point would be co-hosting with Six
Flags Worlds of Adventure—and everybody knows the kind of bash
Cedar Point is capable of throwing. Yet, after last week’s
banquet, after the week of typical ERT and atypical moments like
the Midway Olympics and Seibert’s humorous video account of
the games; like eating gourmet-style “finger food” while
a dance band performed; like the 12 specially made “Welcome
ACE” flags placed at each of the park’s 12 coasters, and
the scavenger hunt through which ACE members could win those banners;
like the hilarious MTV-like “pop-up” version of the Hollywood
film Roller Coaster; like the three-course hot breakfast;
after all that, Larry Scott, assistant regional rep for northwest
Ohio, commenting on next year’s Con could only promise to “match”
this year's. “The bar has been raised awfully high,” he
said. “I think the best anybody can do is match it.”
Munch,
right, event organizer Gary Baker and other ACE members tie-dyed
up and went to and 'fro for Busch Gardens' celebration of Nessie's
silver anniversary. Photo
courtesy of Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Loched
in time
ACE officially was founded at the Fort Magruder Inn near Busch Gardens
Williamsburg during the first-ever coaster convention at the theme
park. That convention’s chief drawing card was a new double
looping steel coaster, the loops intertwined at the center of the
cat’s-cradle ride. That ride, Loch Ness Monster, like
ACE, turned 25 this year. ACE commemorated the event with a landmark
plaque and ceremony. Busch Gardens commemorated the event with tie-dye
and Afro wigs.
Trying to achieve the ultimate retro-look, Busch’s PR team
had ACE members don psychedelic swirling-colored T-shirts, black
Afro wigs, headband scarfs and sunglasses. With the ride being broadcast
via satellite feeds, the enthusiasts held up two-fingered peace
signs throughout the coaster’s course.
As those of us who lived through both eras know, that was the look
of 1968, not ’78 when leisure suits, gold-chain necklaces and
big hair were the fave. However, as Ryan Vulcan, Busch’s public
relations representative, pointed out, the look for the coaster
celebration needed to be colorful and eye-catching for the cameras.
And to tell true, founding member Richard Munch very much resembled
his younger self in the pictures taken during the events of 1977
and 1978. He’s a preservationist in more than just coasters.
Olympic
rings took on a new meaning on the Dominion Midway. Photo
by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
Midway
to excellence
Sixteen teams signed up, one forming during the opening ceremony.
The big winner was Paramount’s Kings Dominion. After its first
session of ERT, the host park staged the first-ever Paramount’s
Kings Dominion’s Midway Olympics comprising ACE teams competing
in 10 events: Whack-A-Mole, Spilt Milk, Ring Toss, Skee Ball, Quarterback
Challenge, Basketball Free Throw, Ladder Climb, Water Gun Battle,
Power Tower and Speed Pitch. The selection of games were not announced
until the opening ceremony. “We didn’t want teams to practice
and get an unfair advantage by knowing ahead of time what games
we were playing,” said Mark Riddell, public relations manager
for Paramount’s Kings Dominion.
After Scooby-Doo presided over an opening ceremony featuring a parade
of referee stripe-shirted judges (members of the park’s marketing
department), the six-member teams moved off to the Grove’s
Midway led by the judges and followed by local press. Rachel Sanders,
the park's marketing supervisor, had an apropos background for her
job as judge of the ring toss; one of her regular duties is to organize
the park’s public competitions for bands, cheerleaders and
the like. “I always hire professional judges and pay them well,”
she said of her official events. For refereeing ring toss, however,
“Somehow I feel very qualified for this.” After each team
failed to land a ring on a bottle neck, she told them all the same
thing: “You’re tied for first place, which is zero.”
While nobody earned a single point on Ring Toss, everybody earned
the maximum 150 points on Wack-A-Mole. According to the rules, two
players from each team pounded on the moles and the highest score
between the two would be awarded to that team. When Riddell wrote
up the rules, he was not aware that in Dominion’s version of
Wack-A-Mole, the first person to 150 ends the game. Meanwhile, only
one person scored 300 points on Skee Ball: Steven Corbly of Carnage,
Pennsylvania, who has a skee-ball alley in his garage. His Skee-ball
performance lifted his team, The Volunteers, to 716 total points
and the title of “Worldwide Kings of the Midway,” besting,
The Dominionites at 701 points and Hungry Texans at 688. For their
efforts, each member of the winning teams received handsome medals
engraved with the ACE 25th Anniversary logo and “Midway Games
Champion” on one side and the Paramount’s Kings Dominion
logo on the back.
The park got more than good publicity out of the event. The excitement
buzzing around the Midway increased general public traffic to the
games, and for that morning the take was better than usual. Furthermore,
the park scored points with ACE members for the inventiveness of
the idea, the effort of the opening ceremony and those Olympian-calibre
medals. “It was a blast,” said Scott Connor of Texarkana,
Texas, and the winning Volunteers. “I told (Paramount officials)
that it was the neatest thing they’ve come up with. It was
an absolute blast.”
Said 12-year-old Kari Lipnicky, “Now I’ve got to defend
the title next year.”
Riddell
got keyed up for the Coaster Con and ended his tenure at Dominion
in high style.
Photo by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
Just
a song before he goes
Mark Riddell’s first gig for Paramount’s Kings Dominion
came when he was a teen-ager, playing with a Christian group on
a stage in the Doswell, Virginia, park’s picnic pavilion. So,
there was much irony in the fact that in the waning days of his
tenure as Kings Dominion’s public relations manager, Riddell
brought his dance band, Sonny Daze, to the park to perform at the
ACE welcoming reception. Riddell plays keyboards for the combo that
performed oldies rock mixed with some modern Top 40 tunes in honor
of the convention’s 25th anniversary theme.
Riddell began his music avocation as a 12-year-old playing the organ
and switching to piano in high school when he discovered “there’s
not too much of a call for organs in bands.” He took some formal
lessons, but “I was never much of a student; I didn’t
like to practice.” Nevertheless, he was good enough to join
Sonny Daze, already an established unit, about five years ago. The
band performs a couple of times a month, mostly for corporate clients,
country clubs and weddings. For the summer the band will assume
an alter-ego as the Down Island Kings, a Jimmy Buffet cover band
for marinas and pool parties.
“We have so many songs in our repertoire we don’t try
to memorize any of it,” Riddell said, and the band practices
only in advance of scheduled shows. The repertoire has to be wide:
because of the type of venues Sonny Daze plays, the music must appeal
to all ages and all types of people, exactly like a theme park,
Riddell noted.
Coordinating and hosting the ACE Coaster Con was Riddell’s
last official task for Paramount’s Kings Dominion. The man
who came to the theme park after working for the Ringling Bros.
and Barnum & Bailey Circus is going back to Ringling Bros. to
be national director of public relations. He certainly went out
on a high note.
Rev.
Herring and founder Munch read the names of members who once filled
the Rebel Yell's trains. Photo
by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
Last
rides
The two empty trains parked half way up the lift hill of the Rebel
Yell racing coaster. In the midway below, ACErs gathered for
a moment of solemnity rare among Coaster Cons as the organization
paid tribute to the members, park personnel and coaster designers
who have passed away over the past 25 years. As part of the service
founder Richard Munch and the Reverend Cliff Herring Jr., pastor
of the United Church of Christ in Northampton, Pennsylvania, read
off a list of 120 names. ACE member number 18, one of the originals,
Herring presided over the service. After the names were read, the
two empty coaster trains, representing, Herring said, “the
void (the members) have left in our club and fellowship,” started
up the lift hill again and coursed through the Rebel Yell
while the enthusiasts stood by in silence.
“I wasn’t planning to come to the convention this year,”
Herring said. Time off from his church duties is becoming increasingly
precious. However, when Munch and the organization’s leadership
began planning the memorial service, Herring knew he had to be the
one to officiate. “I didn’t know all those names, but
I knew several,” he said. In particular he thought fondly of
Marie Miller, the club’s oldest member and adopted grandmother
in the early years. At the request of her family in New Jersey,
Herring had conducted her funeral service.
For this 55-year-old man of the cloth, the link between coaster
enthusiasm and spirituality is an easy one. Based upon years of
communing with his fellow enthusiasts, he comments on the beatific
nature of everybody’s “first time” on a coaster.
“Their language parallels that of a religious experience,”
he said. In the memorial service he described the deceased members
as having moved on to the eternal amusement park “where I am
hoping Harry Traver, John Allen, Herb Schmeck and others have built
heavenly rides. They must have coasters there—after all, they
call it heaven. May they enjoy ERT: Eternal Ride Time.”
GM
Zimmerman took pride in his new ACE Landmark plaque and shared in
the Coaster Con kudos. Photo
by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
Rise
and shining
OK, so Paramount’s Kings Dominion was planning a “hot
breakfast” for the final morning of the ACE convention. Waffles,
of course, and pancakes. That was more than enough to entice the
700-plus members to the picnic pavilion, where, however, they also
found biscuits and gravy, breakfast potatoes, fresh hash, scrambled
eggs, sausage patties and go-for-thirds bacon. That kind of breakfast
spread is unheard of for such a large group in a picnic pavilion.
“We do it for special occasions,” Lisa Gatewood, the park’s
catering operations manager, said matter-of-factly. Then she admitted
that such “special occasions” normally would entail 50
to 100 people. A little bit later, she admitted that the largest
crowd she had served such a breakfast to prior to ACE numbered 50.
Most
items for hot breakfasts cannot be pre-cooked, and Gatewood also
wanted sufficient variety. Thus, she served three different main
courses and three different meats, the third being a hash that was
drawing Volcano-calibre raves. The bacon was cooked fresh
in perforated pans so that the grease would drip through.
Given the difficulty of the feat, why did Paramount’s Kings
Dominion attempt a hot breakfast spread for such a group as ACE
(which, some say, actually stands for All you Can Eat)? “Our
overall goal was to impress,” Gatewood said. “I think
it worked.”
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Munch
provided a little oral history of Ace's formation during a panel
discussion of past presidents emceed by Glueckman. Photo by Eric
Minton/THE LOOP.
Day
of future past
“Ladies and gentlemen,” intoned the emcee, Alan Glueckman,
“your ACE presidents.” Spontaneously, the audience packed
into Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s Abbey Stone Theatre rose
to its feet in thunderous applause. This show of affection and appreciation,
and perhaps awe, came at the end of a panel discussion featuring
the seven American Coaster Enthusiasts' administrations through
its 25 years: current president Carole Sanderson, Bill Linkenheimer
(1998-2002), Jan Kiser-Schnoor (1994-1998), Ray Ueberroth (1990-1994),
Randy Geisler (1986 1990), B. Derek Shaw, vice president during
the presidency of Lucy Ambrosini (1982-1986), and Richard Munch,
ACE member # 1.
Munch, a New York architect and already known as a roller coaster
historian, had helped the producers of the film Roller Coaster
and took part in the Kings Dominion marathon to promote the movie's
1977 opening. The following year he joined 55 other enthusiasts
for the first-ever coaster convention in conjunction with the opening
of Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens. At the end of that
convention a dozen of the conventioneers formed ACE, with Munch
emerging as the club’s first president.
Since then the club has steadily grown to the current roster of
8,000 members. Over the course of its 25 years, about 25,000 different
people have signed up for membership. That a dozen coaster fanatics
could evolve into a viable organization, financially healthy and
moving steadily toward the founding of a national museum is reason
enough for applause, and before the membership could express it,
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