Volume 3, No. 11. June 13, 2003
In
the nursery
Other
recent New Arrivals.
It’s
a waterslide tower!
It’s official opening day is listed as June 7, 2003,
but while Triple Venom at Camelbeach Water Park in Tannersville,
Pennsylvania, was ready that day, the weather wouldn’t play. The whole
park, in fact, was closed due to the rainy 50-degree (10 Celsius) conditions.
On Sunday the public finally slid down the three ProSlide Technologies
body slides: the 360-foot/109-meter Viper, the 294-foot/89-meter
Serpent, and the 370-foot/112-meter Cobra.
The tower is only 24 feet/7 meters high, but thanks to the slides using
the Camelback Mountain’s ski slope terrain, the total drop is 60 feet/28
meters. Since Triple Venom’s opening, Camelbeach has been generally
socked in by rain, fog and chill, but the new structure has drawn the most crowds
relative to the rest of the park, said Dave Johnson, Camelbeach’s assistant
director of sales and marketing. “Just by nature of its location (prominently
displayed on the incline at the back of the park) and newness it’ll attract
lines when we get rolling with the weather,” he said.
It’s
a flat ride!
Knott’s
Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, added a dash of color and movement
to its Fiesta Village with La Revolución, a Revolution
from Chance Morgan and KMG. Opened on May 24, 2003, the 120-second
ride carries 32 passengers in eight vehicles to a height
of 64 feet/19 meters.
It’s
a water play structure!
Water always was on the horizon when Hershey Entertainment and
Resorts Company purchased Dutch Wonderland Family Amusement Park in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. “One of the initial parts of the strategy when we purchased
the park and looking at where we’d want to go long term, this was something
we thought would fit very very nicely with the hard park,” said Dutch Wonderland’s
Assistant General Manager Chris Barrett. That something is Duke’s
Lagoon, an 8,000-square-foot/465-meter interactive water play
area from Air-Tech Systems, NBGS and Wizard Works. The unit, with a 3,000-square-foot/278-square-meter
wet deck for the kiddies and 5,000 square-foot/465-square-meter dry deck
for the parents, contains the Duke the Dragon Rain Tree, the Giant Flow Lab
with science stations and water gadgets, the Spray-n-Splash Fun Shack with dump
buckets, pull-rope showers and teeter-totter water troughs, and Under the Rainbow,
the complex’s highlight, an arched rainbow with 11 interactive spray
mechanisms. That rainbow was overly optimistic; rain washed out the grand
opening day of Duke’s Lagoon May 24, 2003, and the weather
since then has been a little to wet and chilly. “When the weather is moderate
and gets warm, (Duke’s Lagoon) is getting very, very good reports,”
Barrett said.
Dutch Wonderland also opened two rides May 10, 2003, transferred from
Hersheypark: the former Earth Mover miniature bulldozers has been rethemed
as Duke’s Dozers (eight vehicles), and the original Kiddie
Whip is now the Wonder Whip (eight cars). Between the two
birthing days the park celebrated its 40-year birthday on May 18 by offering
free admission to any 40-year-old. Barrett said the promotion, in partnership
with a local radio station, got a strong response, but that bad ol’ weather
dampened attendance.
It’s
a simulator!
The Fort Worth Zoo in Texas is supplementing its real-life exhibits with
a virtual reality experience. The 4-D African Safari Adventure Simulator
opened to the public on May 19, 2003, a 20-seat motion platform
by Flight Avionics with a film by PowderKeg. For the six-minute
film, guests don 3-D glasses to see such African animals as elephants, rhinos,
gazelles, cheetahs and bats, the latter flying within inches of the riders’
face. Through ankle and neck ticklers, seat buzzers and air blasts, guests also
get to experience an invasion of African honeybees and an elephant blowing its
nose, er, trunk.
It’s
a waterslide!
Raging Waters in San Jose, California, has a tradition of naming its
slides after edgy animals: Serpentine Slide, Great White Shark, Barracuda
Blaster. However, Dragon’s Den, which opened May 17,
2003, is the first featuring the actual animal. After their two-person
rafts drop down the 130-foot/39-meter enclosed flume at a 45-degree slope,
guests will circle a 10-foot/3 meter fire-breathing dragon in the middle
of the 35-foot/11-meter diameter ProSlide Technologies Cannonbowl. OK,
it’s a mist-breathing, water-spraying dragon, fabricated by Pacific
Coast Foam. “It’s pretty incredible, the fact they rigged up a
water system to go through the nose and tail,” said Jaime Friday, the park’s
promotions manager. The park did not stage an opening ceremony, but promotions
scheduled throughout the season revolve around the Dragon’s Den,
much as guests do the dragon.
It’s
twin waterslides!
White Water in Branson, Missouri, used a more obvious theming device
for its Raging River Rapids twin body slides from ProSlide
Technologies: a waterfall. The 200-foot/61-meter tall structure has
a five-story-high waterfall sending 8,000 gallons/30,400 gallons of
water per minute through the two 400-foot/121-meter-long slides,
one enclosed and the other partially enclosed. The slide opened May 17, 2003,
on Branson’s first sunny day in weeks, a weather pattern that has generally
held for the park since.
It’s a fast wheel!
Looking to improve its appeal among teens, Bobbejaanland Family Park in Lichtaart,
Belgium, opened the Fly Away on May 17, 2003 (22 meters/72
feet high, 520-square meter/5,597-square-foot footprint, 36 passengers, delivered
by Huss Maschinenfabrik). The 1.4 million EURO (US$1.7 million) anchors
a new themed area at the park featuring a futuristic facade and more thrilling
rides. The Fly Away, however, was not themed. The original Huss design
had such a “Jules Verne” look it fit right in with the new area’s
theming, said Bobbejaanland’s Operations Manager Jack Schoepen.
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.
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