Volume 3, No. 10. May 23, 2003
New Arrivals
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 Unveiling 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, Unveiling 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.
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