Volume 3, No. 10. May 23, 2003
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
New Arrivals
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved