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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 Preview, we look at ACE's days
of past's future, get into the Olympic spirit at Paramount's
Kings Dominion, get all wet at Busch Gardens Williamsburg,
bow before ACE's new president, and partake of
Marty Moltz's good taste;
IAHA
gets together with IAAPA to form new alliance, and the American
Association of Museums honors Monterey Bay Aquarium's
jelly exhibit;
Vegas' Stratosphere
Tower takes the edge off one stalled ride by greenlighting another,
and Caribbean Gardens: The Zoo in Naples rides
Bronx's tiger tails to stardom;
We welcome the
Challenge of Tutankhamon to Six Flags Belgium,
Zinga to Holiday World & Splashin' Safari,
Tiger Mountain to the Bronx Zoo, Borasura
dark walk-through to Ramoji Film City, Wings
of Asia Aviary to Miami Metrozoo, R.L. Stine
to SeaWorld San Diego, Deep Sea the Ride
to Oregon Zoo, LEGO Sports Center to Legoland
California, Swamp Thing and an ice show to Wild
Adventures, The Spring to Seabreeze Park,
two Snoopy attractions to Knott's Berry Farm,
and several rides to Thorpe Park.
And we sign
off on good fun.
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
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Coaster
Con XXVI Preview
The
pros of Cons
All along, the American Coaster Enthusiasts’ primary mission
has been to save classic old roller coasters threatened with demolition.
The founding members—brought together and bonding to participate
in a coaster-riding marathon on Kings Dominion’s Rebel Yell
as a publicity stunt for the Hollywood thriller Roller Coaster—saw
the media attention their continuous riding drew and figured they
could turn that limelight into a means of garnering publicity for
some of their other favorite rides on the chopping block. The next
year, the fledgling club conducted it’s first convention, Coaster
Con I, at Busch Gardens Williamsburg to help that park celebrate
the opening of its first steel looping coaster Loch Ness Monster.
ACE returns next month to its birthplace and first home, Paramount’s
Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The 25 intervening
years have seen ACE grow into a mature organization with a personality
largely determined by those first two events. The club is all about
riding coasters, it’s about the fun and fellowship of people
sharing a hobby, it’s about drumming up publicity for the amusement
industry, it’s about celebrating new innovations at parks.
And it’s still about saving and honoring classic coasters.
The past will be, naturally, the overriding theme of this year’s
Coaster Con, which concludes the club’s yearlong 25th anniversary
celebration. The convention will open at Busch Gardens with a panel
discussion featuring ACE’s founding members and presidents.
ACE historic markers will be ceremonially placed at Loch Ness
Monster and Rebel Yell. What likely will be one of the
week’s most poignant moments will also occur at Rebel Yell,
a memorial service and a reading of the names for deceased ACE members
officiated by Cliff Herring, long-time ACE member and pastor of
St. John’s United Church of Christ in Northampton, Pennsylvania.
The future will be addressed at this year’s convention, as
well. At the top of the business meeting’s agenda is the association’s
hiring of a new management firm, and the ongoing efforts to build
a Roller Coaster Museum and Archive likely will dominate discussions.
While dwelling on the past and determining its future, the Coaster
Con participants will do what they always seem to do best: have
fun in the here and now. Previous hosts to Coaster Cons seem to
be re-energized when the ACErs come calling, capturing much of that
big E word of the club’s acronymic name. This year’s host
parks are looking to not only capture that enthusiasm, but generate
some, too.
“Paramount Parks has had a wonderful relationship with the
American Coaster Enthusiasts,” said Mark Riddell, public relations
manager at Paramount’s King’s Dominion. “That’s
why we want to make this event more of a Paramount Parks thank you.”
Said Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s Public Relations Manager
Cindy Sarko: “We’re looking forward to the event. We’re
looking forward to a lot of screaming and a lot of smiles and looking
forward to the next 25 years in a partnership with ACE.”
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Paramount's
Kings Dominion aims to turn its midway into an Olympic venue for
ACErs. Photo
courtesy of Paramount's Kings Dominion.
Olympian
effort
Paramount’s Kings Dominion is doing more than merely hosting
the American Coaster Enthusiasts June 18-20. This park is lighting
a torch for its special guests.
In this case, it will be Scooby-Doo lighting an Olympic-type torch
at the opening ceremonies of the PKD Midway Olympics featuring classic
midway games. Mark Riddell, the park’s public relations manager,
has invited ACE members to assemble teams of six players to compete
in Whack-A-Mole, Quarter Toss, Skee Ball, Ring Toss, Basketball
Free Throw and other games on the Kings Dominion midway. Riddell
wants the teams to come up with names and matching uniforms. He
also plans to invite local media to compete against the amusement
park pros.
“It’s so exciting and visual, it makes a great media event,”
said Riddell, who first formulated the concept a few years ago as
a special charity event that never materialized. He decided to resurrect
the idea as part of the Coaster Con XXVI program. “ACE people
have been to more amusement parks than anybody else, so we figure
they are the experts in these midway games. We’ll put the challenge
out to the media to try to beat the experts.”
Scheduled for Wednesday morning between an ERT session and lunch,
the PKD Midway Olympics will start with an opening ceremony featuring
a torch lighting. Medals will be awarded at a special show for Coaster
Con participants Thursday evening at the Paramount Theater.
That show also will feature what is sure to be one of the week’s
highlights: a pop-up video version of the thriller movie Roller
Coaster. Riddell and ACE video guru Ric Turner are compiling
the facts (e.g. “George Segal is an accomplished banjo player,”
“The Kings Dominion general manager’s office you see in
the movie is the actual general manager’s office at the park
and still is today”) and placing them within the film, a la
MTV’s “Pop-Up Video” series. The movie also will
be broken up into television-movie length segments and the breaks
filled with vintage Paramount Parks commercials.
In addition to the standard ERT and receptions, Riddell is planning
to stage other special events for the Coaster Con-ers, including
an all-day scavenger hunt for Thursday. “We have several surprises
up our sleeve,” he said. “I’m not sure if they’re
surprises as opposed to things I’m not sure I can pull off
yet.”
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Water
works
If American Coaster Enthusiasts feel they are being bounced around
at co-host Busch Gardens Williamsburg, it’s for good reason.
The theme park is providing Coaster Con participants a three-day
Bounce Ticket that allows guests unlimited visits to both Busch
Gardens and Water Country USA.
“Many of the ACE members don’t get to visit Water Country
because they’re so enthralled in coasters,” said Cindy
Sarko, Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s public relations manager.
“I think it gives ACE members and potential new ACE members
the chance to experience another side of Busch Gardens Williamsburg.”
Water Country USA is a landscaped jewel among waterparks, in the
tradition of Busch Gardens itself, and provides a variety of water
slide experiences. New this year is Hubba Hubba Highway,
an interactive waterway (THE
LOOP, May 9, 2003).
Water seems to be a key theme of Busch’s portion of the Coaster
Con events. The keynote event for the park is the unveiling of an
ACE Landmark Plaque at Loch Ness Monster, the interlocking looping
steel coaster. The opening of that still-popular coaster prompted
the club’s very first Coaster Con 25 years ago. For the occasion
of the dual 25th anniversaries, the park has “some surprises
planned,” Sarko said. “We want them to think about all
the fun Loch Ness Monster has created for them for 25 years.”
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ACE
President Sanderson scaled Cleveland's business heights. Photo
by Eric Minton/THE LOOP
Dame
Carole
In the pantheon of business stardom, to be featured as one of a
community’s most important personages is the American version
of being named to a Queen’s honors list. Instead of receiving
an Order of the Empire or an Ordre National du Mérite, America’s
community shakers and movers earn such recognition as one of “Cleveland
Magazine ’s Most Interesting People” and making the “40
Under 40” list.
Both of which Carole Sanderson, current president of the American
Coaster Enthusiasts, earned at the end of 2002. The 40 under 40
selected by Crains Cleveland Business recognized the 40 top business
people under the age of 40 in the Ohio city, while Cleveland
Magazine featured Sanderson among its annual tribute to the
city’s most important people, an honor which particularly thrilled
Sanderson.
“I had always wanted to be in Cleveland Magazine,”
she said. “It’s a popular magazine with really good articles,
and it was good publicity for the club.”
Her being president of the 9,000-member ACE was only part of what
made up the honor. Sanderson is the business manager and part-owner
of Herschman Architects, which she has run for 22 years. She’s
been with ACE just 20 years, being elected president of the organization
last year. “I think the ACE connection is what makes me interesting,
but the fact I’m a woman business owner is what makes me important.
I’m running a successful business, and the fact I can run the
club is like running a second business.”
In return, a leading business magazine featuring a coaster enthusiast
among its brightest stars lends credibility to the whole of ACE’s
membership, illustrating that the club has a diverse constituency
of different occupations, educations and tastes.
But, truly, we know what really gives Sanderson prestige in her
hometown, and it’s obvious from her interactions within the
community after her feature in Cleveland Magazine. “People
are always wanting to talk roller coasters at business meetings,”
she said.
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Marty's four-stars
When one even thinks about Marty Moltz in his salmon-colored sport
jacket or fluorescent printed shirts and pants, “good taste”
does not come to mind. However, Moltz, the deputy director of the
Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor office, champion
bridge player and American Coaster Enthusiasts member since 1980,
is highly regarded for his taste in food. At every ACE gathering
some of his friends are fortunate to accompany Moltz to a gem of
a restaurant he has found nearby.
For this Coaster Con XXVI preview, THE LOOP asked Moltz to offer
some suggestions for the enthusiasts visiting eastern Virginia and,
not surprisingly, he jumped at the opportunity.
At the top of his list is the Halfway House, an inn dating from
the 1700s on the road from Richmond to Petersburg (10301 Jefferson
Davis Highway, Richmond, 804-275-1760). “There’s a sign
there that says ‘Patrick Henry ate here and George Washington
ate here and Marty Moltz ate here.’ Those are the big names,”
Moltz said. That lawyer’s lie aside, he accurately describes
the rustic dining room and authentic colonial decor, plus it’s
award-winning continental menu. “They could serve terrible
food and get away with it because of their ambiance, but the food
is excellent,” Moltz said.
Colonial Williamsburg offers four historical taverns: Chownings,
Christiana Campbell’s, King’s Arms and Shields (1-800-TAVERNS
or 757-229-2141). While the food is good at these taverns, the atmosphere
draws Moltz. “The taverns are really special, especially at
night with the strolling minstrels.” That would be the costumed
balladeers leading diners in colonial sing-alongs. Moltz also favors
the Williamsburg Inn for its upscale menu and elegant decor.
For more modern fare and casual ambiance, Moltz recommended Pierce’s
Pit Bar-B-Que (Interstate 64 West along Rochambeau Drive, Williamsburg,
757-565-2955). “It’s one of the most famous barbecue places
in the country, classic Virginia barbecue,” Moltz said. “It’s
very good and cheap. That would be the place if somebody wants to
pay $2 for a dinner, for those not into the Marty Moltz-type dining.”
During the Busch Gardens Williamsburg portion of the convention
Moltz also recommends Busch Gardens Williamsburg itself. “That’s
a park that’s always had exceptional food,” he said, recommending
particularly the Italian eatery and the barbecue restaurant. “Certain
parks are a cut above the rest when it comes to food, like Epcot
Center and Indiana Beach, and Busch Gardens is one of them. The
only bad thing is they don’t have cheese on a stick.”
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Frightening
alliance
It
will be a dark and stormy IAAPA Trade Show this year, and that’s
a good thing.
The International Association of Haunted Attractions is in final
negotiations with the International Association of Amusement Parks
and Attractions to form an alliance that not only will provide an
avenue for the two associations to share educational efforts, but
also would include the establishment of a dedicated Dark Zone on
the IAAPA Trade Show floor.
“We’re offering our members more options to further educate
and communicate, and that really is what it’s all about,”
said Liz Foral, IAHA’s current president. The move was approved
by IAHA’s board of directors during a special conference call
two weeks ago, and Foral said most association members seem to approve
the move. “There are some of those who don’t like change
or going on to the next step. They’re comfy,” she said.
The move does not come without some controversy. IAHA has used the
TransWorld National Halloween Costume and Party Show for its primary
trade show and education forum, and uses that Chicago, Illinois,
conclave as the setting for its annual business meetings. That relationship
is not ending, Foral said, or, at this point, changing. “People
say, ‘you’re trying to get rid of TransWorld’ No,
we’re further educating our membership. We’re just taking
the next step.”
IAHA, a member organization of IAAPA, began exploring the potential
of a closer working relationship between the two organizations two
years ago. At last November’s IAAPA Trade Show in Orlando,
Florida, IAAPA donated booth space to IAHA, and IAHA stepped up
it’s promotion of IAAPA among its membership. The trade show
experience proved a watershed moment for both entities.
“When we were there last year there was a real desire from
their attendees about building haunts, especially the international
folks who wanted to know a lot more,” Foral said. Meanwhile,
IAHA received 400 leads, and boosted membership 25 percent through
the IAAPA trade show. “We kind of looked at it more closely
then and said, ‘Let’s go ahead and see if we can’t
have a joint effort to educate each other,'” Foral said.
How that education will be presented is not yet determined. At the
least IAHA will be able to do demonstrations on the trade show floor
and have access to meeting rooms and brown bag sessions. IAHA members,
of course, can attend any IAAPA seminar. The relationship has tremendous
potential for both sides. The haunters are seasoned experts in the
business of haunts and scare tactics, and IAHA offers its members
exhaustive safety and operations manuals. IAAPA has the amusement
industry’s best training resources and expertise in all other
aspects of the attractions business.
Aside from the education aspects, the alliance’s most noteworthy
development is the promise of a Dark Zone at the IAAPA Trade Show.
Many haunt vendors need darkness to show off their wares, and TransWorld
has provided such a space at the back of its exhibit hall. By promising
the same type of set up, IAAPA would match TransWorld’s primary
asset. On the other hand, IAAPA caters to vendors who have nothing
to do with Halloween, but everything to do with running an attraction.
“If you want to put a churro wagon in front of your house,
why not go to IAAPA?” Foral said. “I think it’s going
to be really, really worth it for vendors and haunters from small
to large.”
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Jelly
fish in nature (above) and jelly fish-inspired art (below) floats
Monterey Bay Aquarium to a big prize. Photos by Eric Minton/THE
LOOP.
Jelling
at the right time
An exhibit
celebrating jelly fish as works of art is itself being celebrated
as a work of art. This week the American Association of Museums
is bestowing on the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California,
it’s “Excellence in Exhibition Award” for the aquarium’s
“Jellies: Living Art,” which opened in April 2002 (THE
LOOP, April 26, 2002). Seven members of the aquarium staff who
developed the exhibit, led by Don Hughes, vice president of visitor
programs, are picking up the award at the AAM’s annual conference
in Portland, Oregon.
The $2.85 million exhibit not only features several varieties of
jellies but also showcases works of art inspired by jelly fish,
including blown glass and sculptures. The exhibit compares the aesthetics
of jelly fish to man-made art, from the Sistine Chapel to Jimi Hendrix.
“It’s so different from anything we’ve done before,”
said Ken Peterson, the aquarium’s public relations manager.
“Here we’ve just said, ‘Come in and enjoy the beauty
of these living creatures.’ We talk about conservation, we
talk about adaptation. But the impression is, look at the beauty
and grace of these animals, look at the artwork we have around here.”
Doing something so totally different is what sold the AAM judges,
comprising the association’s curators committee, its committee
on audience research and evaluation and the National Association
for Museum Exhibition. The award’s criteria requires an exhibit
“physically, intellectually and emotionally engage those who
experience it” and asks the following questions: do people
like the exhibit? Is it consistent with the institution’s goals?
Did the institution respect the exhibit’s content? Is the information
clear and coherent? Are the media employed appropriate? and, Is
the information accessible for the audience? The ultimate criteria:
does the exhibit “stretch the boundaries of accepted practice?”
“It’s vindicating for the risk that the designers and
developers and the whole exhibit team took,” Peterson said.
“When you read the criteria (AAM) judges on, we are touching
people’s hearts and opening their eyes and having them think
of something in a different way. To be able to do it differently
and do it so well is, to me, high testimony for the people working
on that exhibit.”
However, he is not entirely correct to say the “Jellies: Living
Art” exhibit is unlike anything the Monterey Bay Aquarium has
done before. In 1989 it opened a Mexico’s Secret Seas exhibit
that recounted a trip made by authors John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts
to the Sea of Cortez and the aquarium’s collectors traveling
the same ground. That approach was so different it, too, won an
AAM Excellence in Exhibition Award.
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The
Stratosphere Tower plans to send guests over the edge with its new
rooftop ride. Rendering courtesy of Interactive Rides.
Top
draw
While its attempts to erect “the world’s tallest thrill
ride” remain on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit, the
Stratosphere Tower Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, is moving
forward with another addition to its tower-top collection of rides.
In doing so, they may have trumped their own “world’s
tallest thrill ride.”
The green-lit ride is a Sky Skater Extreme from Interactive Rides.
Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, recently installed
a Sky Skater in its Camp Snoopy area as the GR8 SK8 (see New
Arrival), a giant seesawing skateboard. What makes the Extreme
version extreme is length (65 feet/20 meters of track as opposed
to 40 feet/12 meters), speed (30 mph/48 km/h as opposed to 15 mph/24
km/h) and slope (30 degrees as opposed to 15 degrees).
What will make the Stratosphere Tower version truly extreme is its
location—on the edge of the tower so that the eight Sky Skater
passengers will roll off the rooftop to a dangling stop 1,149 feet
(350 meters) above Las Vegas Boulevard.
The tower already is home to what is arguably the world’s most
thrilling thrill ride, an S&S Power Big Shot. One of
the key sensations of the Big Shot is losing sight of the
tower upon takeoff, leaving you feeling suspended high above Las
Vegas. The Sky Skater will have the same effect—except that
instead of shooting up, you are rolling down and out, and with a
total travel distance of 85 feet (26 meters), front seat passengers
will roll out beyond the length of track before the magnetic brakes
take hold in the middle of the car. “We want somebody, as they’re
going over the edge, praying there’s some sort of stop or at
least a parachute,” said Interactive Rides President Clay Slade.
Stopping is not an option for Stratosphere when it comes to guest
experiences. Though the Big Shot has entertained seven million
guests since it opened in 1996, and both it and the High Roller
coaster winding around the tower’s top continue to be Las Vegas
icons, Stratosphere needed something new.
Their biggest push was an Arrow-designed coaster-type ride on the
face of the tower. Twelve-seat cars would be lifted to a height
of 740 feet (225 meters) from which they would drop down at 122
mph (195 km/h), cross Las Vegas Boulevard and rise up another tower
416 feet (126 meters). Plans for that ride ran up against neighborhood
opposition and was shot down by the city government (THE
LOOP December 14, 2001). In February 2002 the Stratosphere submitted
a toned-down design: the same “giant fishhook” concept
but just 510 feet high (155 meters) at the start and 325 feet (99
meters) at the stop with a top speed of 93 mph (150 km/h). The city
still rejected the plan, and Stratosphere officials have vowed to
take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Sky Skater concept was already in the works. “We’ve
been talking about it for two or three years,” said Bobby Ray
Harris, Stratosphere’s senior vice president of operations.
Even if the giant fishhook comes to fruition—and it would inevitably
be measured in experience value to Top Thrill Dragster which
opened this month at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (THE
LOOP, May 9, 2003)—it might give the tower another attraction,
but not the attention-grabbing, over-the-edge, singularly extreme
experience the roof top Sky Skater promises. Television broadcasts
are likely to gravitate toward the Skater from the time it is airlifted
into place to well after the first ultra-hardy riders venture aboard.
The as-yet unnamed stratoskater moved smoothly through the planning
and zoning approval process, in large part because it fit in aesthetically
with the tower. “The only issue they really brought up was
the noise,” Harris said. “Not the noise of the ride but
the screaming. You get so much of that from the Big Shot.”
Anybody who sees Interactive Ride’s computer video presentation
of the ride knows theirs will generate a lot of screaming. “The
video is like, wow!” Harris said, but, still, “I kept
pushing these guys to figure out how to go further and further off
the tower.”
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Testimonial
tigers
One of the special pieces of the Bronx Zoo’s new Tiger Mountain
exhibit (see New Arrival in this
issue) is a film featuring clips and close-ups of tigers and testimonials
on the importance of tigers from such luminaries as actors Lorraine
Bracco, Glenn Close and Jerry Orbach, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and various Bronx Zoo staff
and guests.
The tigers featured in the film, however, do not belong to the Bronx.
That footage was shot in Caribbean Gardens: The Zoo in Naples, Florida,
using one of that zoo’s trained Bengal tigers.
Because the Bronx Zoo needed close-ups with a seamless background,
the filmmakers could not use typical tigers found in the wild or
in zoos. “The standard tiger you’d find in a zoo would
think the (background) is a nice behavioral enrichment toy,”
said Tim Tetzlaff, director of education for Caribbean Gardens:
The Zoo in Naples. “They needed a cat that could be in front
of a seamless background without turning it into a shredded background.”
However, choosing a Hollywood-type trained tiger brings risks of
another sort. “You wouldn’t want to open this big Tiger
Mountain exhibit and then find out the video was shot under circumstances
you wouldn’t be proud of,” Tetzlaff said.
Caribbean Gardens is an American Zoo and Aquarium Association-accredited
zoo, and its tigers are trained for educational demonstrations at
the zoo. Here was a manageable tiger in a reputable institution.
The zoo erected a seamless background in its Safari Canyon and Vice
President David Tetzlaff walked the tigers through the canyon every
day for several weeks before the shoot to get them used to the background.
Archipelago Films arrived March 20 for a night time shooting.
This is not the first time Caribbean Gardens’ animals have
appeared in other entity’s films. “People who know us
and know how we work with our animals, if they have a need we’ll
do our best to accommodate that,” Tim Tetzlaff said. “We’re
not a Hollywood alternative, it’s not a business we’re
seeking. But if they need help and it’s a message we can get
behind, we’ll help out.”
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LOOP Classifieds
FOR
SALE—Classified
ads in THE LOOP, just $20 per month (two issues) for up to 30 words,
$1 per additional word. We accept cash, check, VISA and MasterCard.
E-mail lynne@gettheloop.com.
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Volume
3, No. 10. MAY 23, 2003
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New
Arrivals
After
a dance of the seven swells (above), The Challenge of Tutankhamon
entertained distinguished guests (below) starting with GM Paturel
(left). Photos
by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
It’s
a dark ride!
Six Flags Belgium in Wavre, Belgium, announces the arrival of the
Challenge of Tutankhamon, May 22, 2003. Measurements: 1,597
square meters (17,185 square feet), 16 scenes, 54 animatronic figures,
130 interactive targets, 13 six-passenger cars. Delivered by Best
Constructors, ETF Ride Systems, Bruce Robinson and Sally Corporation.
Sometimes the most biased testimony and the most jaded observers
provide the best reaction. Here were Donna Gentry and Ray Dominey,
the project manager and technical director for the Challenge
of Tutankhamon, the Sally Corporation talent who have been designing
the themed, interactive dark ride for four years and building it
for nine months. Standing outside Tutankhamon Thursday evening
after taking their first joy ride along with national celebrities,
local dignitaries, Six Flags officials and several hundred other
invited guests at a red carpet gala, Gentry and Dominey simply glowed.
Successful delivery? Successful ride? Simply glad the ride was open?
“It was fun. We had fun riding this ride,” Gentry said;
she almost sounded surprised. “Every time you’re with
a different group of people, it’s a different experience”
she said of her two circuits through the cursed passageways of Tut’s
tomb seeking the pharaoh’s treasures.
“Sally put so much attention into detail I’m still discovering
things, and I’ve been watching it from the ground up,”
said Six Flags Belgium General Manager Viviane Paturel. And of her
first joy ride Thursday night she said, “I was surprised how
much you get into the game. It’s a great, great ride.”
She scored 12,500 points, well below her high of 32,500.
Tutankhamon, meanwhile, scored well with the opening night crowd.
Paturel received a steady stream of congratulations, some guests
lauding her new ride as comparable to the best Disney has to offer.
“People were telling me how faithful the wall paintings are
to Egyptian culture, and the game is catching for you,” she
said. Many people rode twice. “You really want to go back,
one to improve your score but also to look at the decor,” she
said.
The ride opened with a ceremony that blended two hitherto distinct
cultures: ancient Egypt and Loony Tunes. Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird,
Daffy Duck, Sylvester, the Tazmanian Devil and Foghorn Leghorn,
all dressed as Egyptian characters, joined a bead-bedangled belly
dancer in a choreographed line dance. Then came the crush as guests
and paparazzi stormed through the front doors to the loading platform.
Afterward, the chattering VIPs strolled back up the red carpet to
a high energy party and acrobatic show at one of the park’s
theaters, which became a disco for the festive crowd.
During her dedication remarks Paturel commended Sally Corporation,
and at the post ride party guests cheered when they spotted the
Sally contingent. Successful delivery? Successful ride? Glad to
see it open? It was just fun.
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Congratulations
www.sallycorp.com
for
a successful delivery!
For
more photos and information on Challenge of Tutankhamon,
Click Here
Splashin'
Safari sounded out ProSlide by choosing a prototype waterslide.
Photo
by Paul Drabek/www.negative-g.com)
It’s
a water funnel!
Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana,
announces the arrival of Zinga, May 17, 2003. Measurements:
78 feet tall (24 meters), 396 feet long (120 meters), 9-foot (3-meter)
diameter of tunnel, 60-foot (18-meter) diameter of funnel, 40-second
ride time, four-passenger cloverleaf tubes. Delivered by ProSlide
Technologies and Sevylor U.S.A.
Will Koch knew last autumn he wanted to put a new, high-capacity
ride in his Splashin’ Safari waterpark, but he hadn’t
decided which ride. Then, ProSlide President Richard Hunter approached
Koch with an offer. “We’ve got this crazy ride, would
you guys consider looking at it?” Koch recalled Hunter asking.
What Hunter showed the Holiday World staff was a giant funnel sitting
on its side. Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari married the
newfangled funnel, which ProSlide is calling the Tornado, to the
company’s 108 dark slide and, Zinga! there it was.
“It’s impressive,” Koch said. “Just the sheer
size is impressive.” But would it ride right? Splashin’
Safari’s is the first-ever installation of the Tornado, and
that had pros and cons for Koch, whose park has never before installed
a prototype. “It’s good to be first; that’s something
to hang your hat on,” he said. “But, you always worry
that it won’t perform as advertised. We worried about that
right up until people rode it.” The slide performed exactly
as expected, Koch said, and now he has high expectations that Zinga
will draw another season of record crowds.
“It’s been well received so far, and it looks great,”
he said. “It looks good on TV newscasts, which is good because
we haven’t gotten our commercial shot because the weather has
been so crummy.” On opening day Saturday the skies were overcast
but at least the temperatures were in the 80s (27 Celsius). The
park did not stage any special event for Zinga's opening
except to host several radio remotes from the park. The media had
been invited for a preview look the previous Wednesday, and TV images
from that gathering provided all the oomph Zinga needed.
Don’t mistake the lack of ceremony for lack of respect for
the ride, though. “It’s a little scary (installing a prototype),”
Koch said, “but, boy! I love being able to say, ‘We’re
the only one in the world.’ Boy! that’s fun. That does
my heart good.”
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Two
schoolboys put on game faces (below) to participate in the opening
ceremonies of Tiger Mountain, where children will get new views
of Siberian tigers, like that keeper Jose Vasquez prompts from a
tiger during a keeper session. Photos
by Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society
It’s
a tiger exhibit!
The Bronx Zoo in New York City, New York, announces the arrival
of Tiger Mountain, May 15, 2003. Measurements: 3 acres (1.2 hectares),
two exhibit areas, 10,000 gallon (38,000-liter) forest stream with
fish, 4,000-square-foot (372 square meters) night quarters with
maternity area, three holding pens, six Siberian tigers (capacity
for eight), two interactive display areas, 600 feet (182 meters)
of public pathway. Delivered by Archipelago, Cetra/Ruddy Incorporated,
Magian Design and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
John Gwynne, chief creative officer and vice president for design
with the Wildlife Conservation Society, parent company of the Bronx
Zoo, reckons a whole generation of New York school children have
never seen tigers in person. The zoo had Siberian tigers, but they
lived in the Wild Asia exhibit viewable only from a monorail that
operated from May to November. “We realized all the school
children who come in the winter time when the monorail was closed
never got to see the tigers,” Gwynne said.
Now they can see the tigers, in a big way. Big because now the Siberians
can be viewed up close through glass. “The tiger is an inch
away from the glass looking at you. It’s a wonderful thing,”
Gwynne said. The two sisters from the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo, in
particular, are curious cats and like to eye visitors at close range.
“The Bronx-born cats are used to people on a train going by,”
Gwynne said. “It will take them a little while to warm up.”
Two Indochinese tigers have moved into the vacated Wild Asia exhibit.
School children with faces painted to look like tigers presided
over the official opening of the $8.5 million exhibit. Its landscape
replicates the northern spruce and oak forest of the Siberians’
habitat, which conveniently resembles that of New York state. Visitors
enter two rustic, tarp-covered pavilions built of recycled wood
to view the tigers. The stream flows into a four-foot (one-meter)
pool right up against the glass, a pool housing minnows and carp.
“We’ll see what the tigers do with (the fish),” Gwynne
said. “I feel it will be a lucky day when the tigers catch
up with them.” The tigers already are experimenting with the
pool despite chilly weather, lounging in the shallow area and playing
with the waterfalls.
Speaking of play, the Bronx Zoo has launched a new program with
Tiger Mountain allowing guests to watch the keepers engage the cats
in enrichment programs. One panel of the pavilion pulls down like
a Murphy bed to become a stage and reveals a stainless steel mesh
through which the keepers can give the tigers treats. The sessions
are scheduled every two hours, and in any given session the tigers
may play with big balls and tires, react to perfumes, look for hidden
treats, or engage in a tug-of-war with the audience or a 300-pound
garage door spring hooked to a ball. “Every day is different,”
Gwynne said. “Since they’re cats they will do one thing
one day and another day want to do another thing. They aren’t
trained, so they can do what they want.” If the tigers don’t
want to do a behavior the keeper wants to show the audience, the
keeper can refer to a video monitor above the stage and, by clicking
a remote, immediately select footage of the tigers engaging in that
particular behavior a previous day.
Upon exiting the tiger viewing pavilions, guests walk through what
Gwynne calls a “conservation garden maze” of birch, spruce
and holly which leads to a choice of interactive displays. To one
side is the researcher’s tent with film clips (see additional
story in this issue of THE LOOP)
and a camera trap that photographs the guests walking past and comparing
the image to those captured of tigers, poachers and other animals
in the wild. To the other side is the “axles of evil,”
a replication of a poacher’s truck with boxes containing bones,
pelts and body parts, touch-screen monitors with lessons about tigers’
endangerment and an interactive strategies game.
At the exit, guests can contribute pocket change for tiger conservation.
Coins deposited in a vortex cause a low, rumbling roar; bills place
in the box results in a loud roar. “We’ve already had
to increase the size of the dollar bill box,” Gwynne said.
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Borasura
welcomed the people of India to a wholly new kind of magic. Photo
courtesy of Ramoji Film City.
It’s
a walk-through!
Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, India, announces the arrival of Borasura,
The Magical Workshop, May 9, 2003. Measurements: 7,400 square
feet (687 square meters), 22 themed scenes. Delivered by Alcorn-McBride,
Canara Lighting Industries, Diamond Amusements, JBL India and JI
Company, and consultants Gregory Arndt, Darrias Baker, Richard Crane,
Adrea Gibbs, Jim Levesque, Jeannie Lomma, Bill Sly and David Woody,
The transition of the world’s most prolific film studio into
a themed leisure destination took an earnest step forward with the
opening of Southeast Asia’s first interactive themed walk through
attraction. Call it a test-screening for the full-fledged theme
park’s premiere a year from now.
“In India there are no theme parks; only some amusement parks
with simple rides,” said Jim Levesque, vice president of planning
ad development for Ramoji Film City. “We didn’t know what
to expect from guests who have never experienced this type of attraction.”
By his own admission, the attraction uses “low-tech effects”
as it tells the story of a sorcerer named Borasura who stole jewels
from a goddess. Guests are invited to find the jewels, but they
must walk through Borasura’s Magical Workshop to find them.
He’s puts obstacles in their way: things like a lava pit, library
bookshelves that close in on the passageway, a UV blacklight maze,
smoke and noise rising through a floor grate and video images projected
onto a two-story waterfall.
Whatever level of tech Borasura may be, it touched its audience.
The response, Levesque said, “came out much better than our
expectations.” A guest book at the exit has generated at least
150 comments a day, he said. “Some said it was the eighth wonder
of the world; amusing comments from people who had never seen this
kind of attraction.”
There’s more to come. Ramoji Film City is the largest movie
production facility in the world, producing more than 250 films
a year (in a country that rolls out an average of 800 films annually)
and housing 11 television stations reaching 80 percent of the Indian
population. Bowing to public demand, the studio began a backlot
bus tour three years ago and has since added a western stunt show
and motion base simulator, along with street shows, retail outlets
and restaurants. Last year the studio’s attractions drew 800,000
guests.
Based on that success, the studio is developing Ramoji Movie Magic
Park, a 32-acre (13 hectares) theme park with seven zones: Hollywood,
Hong Kong, Wild West, Polynesian, European, Fairytale Land and Fundustan.
Attractions will include a dark ride and special effects theater.
Also in the master plan are a waterpark and nighttime entertainment
district. The whole development carries a 1.4 billion Rupees (US$30
million) price tag. Ramoji Film City brought in top industry talent
to design and develop the attractions headed by Levesque who spent
time at both Universal Studios and the Walt Disney Company.
The bulk of the theme park is set to open in June 2004. The waterpark
was supposed to open this spring, but a drought in the region made
the project too politically sensitive and is now on hold until late
2004 at the earliest, Levesque said.
For now, Borasura seems to be performing its magic. Upon
the ribbon cutting by Ramoji Rao, chairman of the Ramoji Group,
members of the media spent two hours experiencing the new attraction,
then about 2,500 general public guests queued up. Since that May
9 opening, Ramoji Film City has hosted about 4,000 guests a day,
25 percent more than the typical tally this time of year, Levesque
said. “India has 400 million middle class people who want leisure
activity and can’t really leave the country, and they’re
looking for something to do.”
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Miami
Metrozoo used a thoroughly modern method of exhibiting birds' ancient
ancestry. Photo
by Paul Vrooman/Miami Metrozoo.
It’s
an aviary!
Miami Metrozoo announces the arrival of the American Bankers Family
Aviary, Wings of Asia, May 2, 2003. Measurements: 2.6 acres (1 hectare),
54,000-square-foot (5,017 square meters) aviary eventually holding
up to 400 birds representing 80 species, two exhibit halls, five
waterfalls, a 55,000-gallon (209,000-liter) aquarium and marsh,
and one mock fossil excavation pit containing a 40-foot-long (12-meter)
dinosaur skeleton.
Guests to Miami Metrozoo have long, fond memories of the old aviary
that was flattened when Hurricane Andrew roared through the region
in 1992. Those longtime guests are putting those memories to rest.
“People are saying ‘I loved the old aviary so much, but
I like this better,’” Sherrie Avery, director of public
relations for the Zoological Society of Florida, said of reaction
to the zoo’s newest exhibit.
Understandable. This new aviary is the largest free-flight open-air
Asian aviary in the Western Hemisphere. Shotcrete-formed mudbanks
simulate a wetlands environment, and faux fossils litter the pathways.
One of the adjoining buildings is themed as an Asian temple exhibiting
the aviary’s primary educational theme, that birds are living
dinosaurs. The exhibit includes fossils, story boards and a 13-minute
film starring the exhibit’s three consultants on the topic:
Mark Norell, chief of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural
History in New York, ornithologist Philip Stoddard and paleontologist
Laurel Collins, both of Florida International University. In an
observation room guests can watch diving ducks swim atop the pond
or submerge all the way to the bottom.
The theme of the celebration surrounding the aviary’s opening
focused on its Asian orientation. Every weekend in May the zoo is
celebrating Asian Pacific Cultural Heritage Month. Entertainment
on opening weekend and recurring in subsequent weekends included
the Fu Shu Diko Drummers from Japan, Splendid China’s acrobats,
Chinese Dragon dancers, Hindu dancers from India and dancers from
Polynesia, Thailand and the Middle East. Crafts include origami
making, paper cutting, kite building, rice decorating and oriental
mask face painting. The zoo also was hosting martial arts displays,
chopstick contests and professional kite flying.
Both dinosaurs and Asia shared the stage for the aviary’s official
opening ceremony May 2. Norell was on hand along with iconic purple
dinosaur Barney. Chinese dragon dancers led about 700 city officials
and zoo donors into the aviary and, pointedly, out of a rainstorm.
“It poured rain,” Avery said, “until it was time
to go into the aviary, and the sun came out and it was beautiful.
I think that was indicative of something, a good omen.”
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In
the nursery
Other
recent New Arrivals.
It’s
a 4-D film!
Other Busch Entertainment properties may have opened R.L.
Stine’s Haunted Lighthouse first, but only SeaWorld
San Diego in California got to do so with a celebrity premiere
May 17, 2003. “We’re the closest to Hollywood,”
said Susie Campbell, so the 22-minute film’s official
debut at that park attracted the film’s entire cast: Christopher
Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Daveigh Chase, Bobby Edner, Sara Paxton and
Matt Weinberg. Also along for the party were Patricia Heaton, Catherine
O’Hara, Valerie Bertinelli and Jack Hanna, as well as author
R.L. Stine. And party they did. From 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (17,00
to 20,30) the celebs, many of whom brought their children, toasted
the movie’s debut in the park’s Mission Bay Theater. Then
the group moved over to Shamu Stadium for the killer whale show.
“Got to see the big guy,” Campbell said, “otherwise
he would be hurt.” We all know Hollywood doesn’t like
hurting anybody’s feelings.
Oregon
Zoo got extra big publicity to help draw crowds to its new simulator.
Photo
courtesy of the Oregon Zoo.
It’s
a simulator!
The rain fell, but, still, the public “came out in droves,”
said Bill LeMarche, media relations officer for the Oregon Zoo
in Portland, Oregon. What turned the people out was Deep
Sea: The Ride, an 18-seat simulator with a five-minute
film delivered by SimEx Iwerks. “We had a better response
for the Deep Sea ride than we have when one of our exhibits
opens,” LeMarche said. Prompted by all four local television
newscasts—who broadcast live six times per hour for four hours
the day before the scheduled media day May 15—a cover story
on the simulator in the local paper’s Living section, and a
striking depiction of a giant squid on a banner over the simulator
itself, Deep Sea drew sellout crowds even before the ride’s
official grand opening May 16, 2003. Totaling the three partial
operation days before the grand opening and the three days after,
the simulator tallied 3,057, a rate of about 97 percent capacity.
It’s
a sports zone!
If you are going to open a sports-themed interactive play zone in
your kid-targeted theme park, you need to invite some sports-minded
kids to participate in your grand opening. So there were San Diego
Chargers quarterback Drew Brees and other members of the National
Football League team, the San Diego Spirit women’s soccer team
and the San Diego Gulls minor league hockey team at Legoland
California in Carlsbad, May 15, 2003, to help celebrate the
opening of LEGO Sports Center. The pro athletes participated
in pro-am teams with children from the Greater San Diego Inner City
Games to compete in the 16,000-square-foot/4,848 square-meter
center’s four activities: a soccer-kicking module, a football-throwing
module and two basketball modules. Each team was named after an
attraction in the park, and Brees led the champions, the Dragon
Roller Coasters.
It’s
a junior coaster and ice show!
The Vekoma junior inverted roller coaster, Swamp Thing,
at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia, opened
May 10, 2003, with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony and
first rides by local dignitaries and radio contest winners. However,
the coaster is not fully finished. “Now that the ride is up
we can dig that gator pit and get those gators in it,” said
Sara Sumner, the park’s public relations manager. She’s
serious: at one point Swamp Thing (49 feet/15 meters high,
1,122 feet/340 feet long, 26 mph/42/km/h, one 20-passenger train)
drops down close to the ground, and that’s where the alligators
will go. “Your feet are dangling pretty close,” Sumner
said. The park debuted Wild Adventures on Ice May 17, 2003,
delivered by Rosstyn Productions featuring eight skaters
in a refurbished theater seating 300 patrons. Sumner didn’t
get the opportunity to see the show during its opening weekend,
but it nevertheless made a strong initial impression on her. “I
came in this morning,” she said Monday, “and I already
had six e-mail compliments on the ice show.”
It’s
a tower drop!
The management at Seabreeze Park in Rochester, New York,
came up with 101 potential names for its new 36-foot (11-meter)
spring ride by Moser and finally settled on The Spring.
Certainly the name has nothing to do with the weather. Erected in
an ice storm, park President Rob Norris said, The Spring
opened May 10, 2003, amid damp, 50 degree Fahrenheit (10
Celsius) temperatures. But the ride itself has been hot. “People
are getting off and getting back on,” Norris said. “We
were marketing it as a young families ride, but we’re getting
pre-teens and teens riding it.” Considering the crowds gravitating
to The Spring in the cold spring weather, Norris said the
park may have to expand the queue area when the summer comes.
Knott's
gave its Camp Snoopy audience a new angle on entertainment with
GR8 SK8 (above), but is keeping the traditional fare in its
new theater (below). Top
photo courtesy of Knott's Berry Farm; bottom photo by Eric Minton/THE
LOOP.
It’s
a skater and theater!
As part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Knott’s Camp
Snoopy, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California,
opened a new Camp Snoopy Theater (200 seats) on April
12, 2003. The theater debuted with the “Charlie Brown Hoe-down,”
the popular Peanuts characters singing and dancing about life on
a farm. Other shows will join the repertoire later in the summer.
The theater took the place of the former petting zoo, and where
a previous, smaller theater stood now see-saws the GR8 SK8
(40 feet/12 meters long, 15 mph/24 km/h, delivered by Interactive
Rides). The family ride opened April 24, 2003, and has
drawn both parents and children, said Susan Tierney, Knott’s
Berry Farm’s public relations manager. “Kids come off
it laughing, and I hear the screams from kids on it,” she said.
It’s
a coaster, wheel & flat ride!
Thorpe Park in Chertsey, England, took the premise of the
popular Bolliger & Mabillard inverted coaster Nemesis
at its sister park Alton Towers in Stoke-on-Trent, England, and
opened its own version in a decidedly hotter environment. Nemesis
Inferno (90 feet/27.5 meters high, 2461 feet/750 meters
long, 77 km/h/48 mph, four inversions, delivered by B&M)
opened to annual pass holders the evening of April 4, 2003,
along with the Eclipse Ferris wheel (85 feet/25
meters high, 108 passengers) and the Quantum flying
carpet (52 feet/16 meters wide, 24 feet/7.5 meters high, 20 rpm,
40 passengers), both by Fabbri Amusement Manufacturing.
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Eric's
Turn
Photo
by Eric Minton/THE LOOP.
Nick
and Tut
I never would have thought the official signing over of a ride could
be so much fun. Sign some documents, exchange pleasantries, shake
hands, call if you need us. Turning the event into a ceremony? OK,
give it all the formality of a treaty signing, with as much of the
humor, say a few token words of appreciation, shake hands and call
if you need us.
For last night’s signing over of The Challenge of Tutankhamon
from supplier Sally Corporation to Six Flags Belgium (see New
Arrival above), something special happened. Teamwork happened.
On hand for the official gala opening were leaders of the subcontractors
Sally used for its ride: Ruud J.J. Koppens of ETF Ride Systems,
Grenville Redmond of Best Constructors, Kees Bakker of DNV, the
certification company. They and a few Six Flags Belgium officials
gathered around as Sally’s Donna Gentry and Ray Dominey signed
over the ride to the park’s General Manager Viviane Paturel
(pictured above).
There was all the formality of a treaty signing and a few words
of appreciation, then hugs, laughter, jokes, more laughter, ribbing
and all manner of carryings on. “I have a new baby!” shouted
Paturel, and then she called Adriaan Klok, maintenance and construction
manager for Six Flags’ European Division, to stand at her side
while holding the ownership certificate for photographers. After
all, she pointed out to Klok, “It’s your baby, too.”
“I’ve rarely seen such a close cooperation,” Paturel
said. “This project really carried its name very well. It’s
a challenge. It has been a challenge throughout construction. But
with efforts and the positive thinking of everybody we’ve overcome
every challenge that we had to go through. And tonight I’ve
really seen the result of a great cooperation of a lot of quality
people working together. It’s a really warm feeling.”
DNV’s Bakker, in fact, told Paturel he rarely had such easy
delivering of a certificate. “It’s been a lot of nice
people working together,” she said.
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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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