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Industry News:
Coaster Trips - (3/3/08) Theme Park Review has opened a slightly cheaper and slightly shorter option for their Mainland Europe trip that cuts out Disneyland Paris and trims three nights off the trip. For details click here.
(1/29/08) Theme Park Review is now planning a Behemoth / Ravine Flyer trip from August 2 to 7th that will include visits to: Canada’s Wonderland, Waldameer, Darien Lake, Martin’s Fantasy Island, Marineland, Idlewild, DelGrosso’s, Lakemont Park and Seabreeze. You can find out all the details and sign up here. Oh… and in case you were wondering the Passport requirements for US Citizens visiting Canada by land have been delayed so that US Citizens visiting by land or water do not need a passport now until June 1st, 2009. (I believe the same delay also applies to Cruise passengers as well in Canada and the Caribbean).
(10/12/07) Theme Park Review has announced all the details of their China and Tokyo 2008 trips. The China trip will visit: Happy Valley, Beijing Amusement Park, Hong Kong Disneyland, Mysterious Island, Fisherman's Wharf, Ocean Park, Chimelong Paradise, Shijingshan Park, Pearl Land, and more. The Tokyo trip will visit Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, Tobu Zoo, Fuji-Q, LaQua, Toshimaen, Sea Paradise, Cosmoworld, Nasu Highland, Yomiuriland, and more. These are in addition to their 2008 Mainland Europe trip and East Coast USA trip.
Coaster Videos - (4/29/08) Theme Park Review has released their newest DVD, Coaster Expedition Volume 10 – Midwest Mania USA. Click here to order your own copy for just $10. This DVD includes footage from: Cedar Point, Holiday World, Beech Bend, Kings Island, Kennywood and many others. As a teaser, they’ve put the Indiana Beach section of the DVD online for everyone to see.
(1/24/08) The 2007 Coasterimage.com DVD is now available and can be downloaded and burned to DVD yourself for free or you can purchase a bonus version with extra video footage for just $5.
(1/23/08) You can now place your orders for the new Coaster Expedition Volume 9 DVD, who are also having a sale on everything for $10.
 General News - (5/15/08) Ever wonder about the various phases a new park ride goes through before it opens to the public? Employee Previews, Technical Rehearsals and Soft Openings are all part of the process as you can see explained in an article at the Orlando Sentinel. Even better… I was interviewed for it.
(5/1/08) We’ve been sent a scan of the Ad selling the Weiner Looping coaster that was posted in the May 2008 issue of FunWorld on page 48.
(4/30/08) Today we’ve got a link to another new theme park book, this one following the history of Mountain Park by Jay Ducharme. Mountain Park opened back in 1894 in New England and was quite a popular park for many years until they closed their gates nearly a century late in 1987.
(4/30/08) According to a posting at Coaster Realm, the former Schwarzkopf coaster known as Wiener Looping (Bullet from it’s time at Flamingoland in the UK) is going up for sale again by Wieland Schwarzkopf. Flamingoland was the ride’s last home before it was removed in 2005 and I’m guessing that perhaps it has spent the last couple of years being refurbished. Anyone know more?
(4/29/08) A new unique book has launched this week called Theme Park Safety Failure$ by Jeffrey P. Stoneking, that focuses on ride accidents in the theme park industry and why they’re occurring. As a former operations and after-hours maintenance assistant with the Walt Disney Company’s North American parks in the pre-Eisner era, Stoneking has kept up with the industry which he indicates now dramatically exceeds the level of safe and sane. In some cases preventive maintenance programs are being eliminated as a means to reduce operating costs.
Stoneking provided operations and safety consulting on the accident which occurred last summer at Louisville’s Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom where a teenager’s feet were severed off aboard their drop ride, Superman: Tower of Power. It was the inevitable neglect in that case which prompted him to write Theme Park Safety Failure$ and alert the innocent riding public to the truth about the theme park industry.
(4/17/08) Ever wonder what the 29 Best Waterparks In The World are? Yes… I said 29… why… I’m not sure but you can check out the global countdown featuring parks from Malaysia, Japan, Germany, China, Turkey and places much closed to home like Florida, Texas and California. Many of the entries also come with video clips so you can see the park’s in action.
(4/15/08) The industry has suffered another sad passing this week with the death of Morgan Hughes, owner of the Williams Grove Amusement Park and Speedway.
(4/14/08) Famous carousel designer Martin Sylvor has died at the age of 75 this past week from Kidney failure. His carousel designs were famous and had been sold to locations throughout the world.
(4/1/08) It seems there is a race on in Europe to design an all new waterslide design that will allow them to invert the riders upside-down for a moment. From what I’ve been told a company by the name of Hartwigsen (Germany) and another by the name of Klarer (Switzerland) both apparently have prototype designs on the way into production.
Of course these will not be the first “loop” water slides ever built however as that honor goes to Action Park in New Jersey who built a slide that was rarely open. However anyone I’ve ever heard from who had been on it, never had anything nice to say about it. The experience was often described as being utterly disorienting and physically brutal on the body at the same time.
Klarer seems to have the lead on the new design style however. If you scroll down to page 3 on this Klarer news letter published in September 2006 you can see some of the first concept artwork for the concept which involved a more traditional vertical loop design. Apparently the G-Forces proved to be too harsh and instead they’ve now come out with a functioning prototype as seen over at Freizeitparkweb where the inversion has been tilted over on it’s side a bit, much like the Incline Loop found on B&M Standing Coasters. Scroll down a bit and you can see a few different images of it where the temporary scaffolding has been moved around so they could test it out at various angles to see what works the best, from mild to wild.
Now I have to admit, the idea of a looping waterslide, while interesting at first, could end up being the stuff of nightmares. I can’t help but wonder just what would happen if the water flow slowed to the point where it could no longer make it through the inversion and began to flow back, flooding the bottom half of the slide. Obviously the next guest down the slide would be in for a rude shock as they could suddenly find themselves submerged underwater in darkness and unable to get out. The pictures are a bit small, but I didn’t really see any kind of emergency exit hatch to prevent such a thing from happening. This leads to the rumored news about the Hartwigsen slide which is said to have a similar design, but with the planned addition of some kind of escape hatch. If our sources are correct, their first production model may open somewhere in the Czech Republic in late 2008.
(3/31/08) The Coaster Crew has now put several charity items on auction as part of their Single Riders charity event. The list of items includes some park tickets, the ceremonial groundbreaking shovel for Hypersonic, and more. They also tell us that they are still looking for a few more riders to join up at Kennywood and Lake Compounce.
(3/20/08) Coaster Crew has posted information about the Singles Riders program where people can marathon ride coasters in an effort to raise money for Give Kids The World. From what I’ve been told, the event will be expanded this year and they’re looking for teams to ride all day at Kennywood, Idlewild, Story Land and Lake Compounce. You can sign up to find out more information here.
(3/17/08) Once again TEA and ERA have joined forces to release the 2007 Theme Park Attendance Report. You can find this report posted to the websites for InPark Magazine and Park World Magazine. Overall there were not too many surprises in the 2007 report, though according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, Busch Entertainment is claiming that the estimated attendance reports for their parks were below what they really did, with an unofficial source claiming that SeaWorld Orlando was in the 6.2 million range and Busch Gardens Africa was in the 4.5 million range. If true then SeaWorld would have tied with Universal Studios Florida for 6th place as the most attended theme parks in the country not owned by Disney.
(3/5/08) Coaster fans take note that CoasterRealm.com will be closing down forever soon. However a new site that will focus on creating a close relationship with Universal Studios will soon launch to replace it this spring called Universal Insider.
Internet Fun - (5/15/08) For all you ride nuts out there who like to keep track of your stats I’ve got a new website for you to check out called ThrillScore.com. The website will let you keep track and log all your roller coasters, thrill rides, water rides and more. Each ride is given a ‘score’ and the site will calculate your total score.
On another note we’ve got links to a few more fun crazy pictures from parks far far away thanks to Theme Park Review. Today we get to see the Xetulul Theme Park and their Xocomil Water Park in Guatemala, the later of which has really interesting themeing for a water park.
(5/14/08) For those always looking to find trip reports of rare parks most of us have never even heard of, then today’s update is for you, thanks to the Theme Park Review forums. First up is a small park in Vietnam called Dam Sen Park. (I wonder if they have Dam Tour Guides? Sorry, I couldn’t help it…) Keep scrolling down after the end of the photos and you’ll come to their next stop, Sunway Lagoon in Kuala Lumpur. Be sure to also check out Page 2.
(5/8/08) For your viewing pleasure I’ve come across some videos showing off some coaster cousins… the Alpine Slide and Alpine Coaster, both of which you can now experience at Park City, Utah and see in the video embedded below. The Alpine Coaster is just crazy huge, over a mile long and has an almost endless series of lift hills taking you to the top of it’s extremely long run back down the mountain. According to the official site, a ticket to ride will set you back $18, though you can get a combo Alpine Slide & Coaster pass for $24. Now while the Slides are far more common in the US, the new Alpine Coasters look to be a lot more fun and safe from flipping out of the chute. Of course… they’re still prone to the problem of having one sled riding the brakes all the way down allowing for a speed demon to come up behind them for a solid bump as seen in this other video clip from an unknown location.
(5/7/08) For any of you Haunt fans out there who would love to see your own idea for a haunt scene come to life, AtmosFEAR is running a contest through Friday, June 13th for anyone to submit an entry of a haunted scene that will go into a real haunt this year. The winner will get to have their scene recorded for the history books and two free tickets to the VIP Preview of “HEX In The Harvest” (though you’ve got to come up with your own transportation.) Read up on all the official details and rules here.
(5/1/08) The new May edition of Andy Shine’s Coaster Quiz is now online. Meanwhile Coaster 101 has posted the results from the Attraction Awards here.
(4/22/08) Theme Park Review has posted the third round of video entries to the Coaster Video Contest.
(4/21/08) Voting has begun over at Coaster101 on their new Attraction Awards. You can vote now thought the end of the month for the Best Park, Best Wood Coaster, Best Steel Coaster, Best Water Ride and Best Dark Ride. Voting has just started, but it looks like the Cedar Point fan boys are already in there working the magic.
(4/18/08) Today’s Internet Fun bit is in video format and sure to raise a few eyebrows. I’m sure everyone is familiar with those “Claw” games… and many of you have likely come across the giant claw machines popular in many theme parks. Seems a little boy got a bit frustrated by the Claw game and decided to go after the prize he wanted and ended up getting stuck inside the machine and caught on video.
(4/18/08) Jump over to the Theme Park Review forum and one of the members can begun posting tons of old TV commercials from the past for your favorite theme parks.
(4/17/08) Theme Park Review has begun their 4th annual Coaster Video Contest. You can watch the first round of videos here first, but over the next few weeks 30 different videos will eventually be posted. Once all the videos are up, voting will begin.
(3/31/08) The all new April version of Andy Shine’s Quiz has now been posted to Roller Coaster Media Library. Check it out.
(3/18/08) Coaster101 has launched a new section for The Attraction Awards. Right now they are accepting nominations for Best Park, Steel Coaster, Wood Coaster, Water ride and Dark ride.
(3/6/08) It may all be in German, but Coastersandmore.de has posted an extensive page showing off the status of several major international rides under construction ride now including: Gardaland’s Mammoth Mountain Railraod, Piraten, Mammut, Linnanmaki’s spinning coaster, Farup’s Lynet, Everland’s T-Express, Behemoth and more.
(3/5/08) What would happen if a Theme Park grew so big, so enormously large… that it took over the entire planet? Take a look at the official website for Theme Planet to get an idea of what it may be like, though according to the creator, “the Theme Park IS the planet. There is no surface , just one attraction on top of each other forming a giant Theme Planet floating through space.” I’m not quite sure if this is a new feature film in production or a series of shorts (there is one on the site) based on adventures in Theme Planet, but the artwork is fantastic to look at. Anyone know more?
(3/4/08) The latest Seasonpass Podcast features Brent Young, Robert Coker and an interview with Marty Krofft (of Sid & Marty Krofft fame). In other news CoasterImage.com has announced that they have hit the five-year mark this past week and have added a bunch of new content to the site.
Alterface - (3/20/08) Alterface, the makers of the fun interactive Desperados attraction, reports that currently they have 16 interactive theaters either open or on the verge of opening. The list includes 2 in the US, 1 in Japan, 2 in China, 1 in Indonesia, 1 in New Zealand and 8 in Europe. They also report an addition four more systems are expected to come online before the end of the summer. They also tell us that the shooting system going into the new Reset: Year Zero dark ride attraction at Mirabilandia (Italy) is a “wireless and mobile evolution” of the system used in the Desperado theaters. They also tell us that there will be two more dark rides opening with their technology in the coming months.
As for what the future holds for Alterface: they report they are working on the first 4D interactive theater that will go to a park in France and have an Ecological theme to it. A whole new Pirates Plunder theme will also be put on display for the first time at an upcoming industry tradeshow in Dubai.
Busch Entertainment - (12/18/07) Anheuser-Busch has announced that they have extended the “Here’s To The Heros” free admission program for military members (and direct dependents) through 2008. Started in 2005, the program has already provided nearly 4 million free tickets to our armed forces members and their families. For details visit HeroSalute.com.
Cedar Fair - (5/12/08) Ohio.com has posted an in interview with Dick Kinzel, head of Cedar Fair, where they talk about how the merger with Paramount Parks has gone, what directions they would like to be going in right now, and hint a little bit about what direction they are thinking about for future ride projects across the chain.
(5/7/08) Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. reports that their Q1 losses narrowed this year, aided by five extra operational days caused by this year’s early Spring Break. The 2008 Q1 losses were only $43.8 million compared to $55.1 million in 2007. Admission revenue was up to $17.6 million from $11.3 million and food, merchandise and games revenue was up to $17.7 million from $14 million last year.
(5/1/08) Cedar Fair has set May 6th at 2pm for their Q1 Conference Call. You can listen over the internet by registering here.
(3/10/08) Cedar Fair posted their Q4 and year-end results here. The report a combined attendance of over 22 million at the chain of parks and per-cap spending at $40.60, up 5% from last year.
(2/12/08) Many of the former Paramount Parks are now running promotions offering perhaps the best prices on 2008 Season Passes yet. In most cases you can buy 2008 Passes (with free parking) for just $59.99 each if you buy at least four or more. This deal is currently in place for California’s Great America, Carowinds, Kings Dominion and even Canada’s Wonderland. Sorry Kings Island… it’s tough love for you. Your Four or More deal is priced at $84.99 each or $89.99 if you want the free parking on the Gold Pass.
Disney - (5/13/08) While the VMK is still shutting down on May 21st, Disney Interactive is ready to launch an all new Disney Community online experience called DGamer. Apparently this system will work on both PCs and Nintendo DS units and allow for interactivity between them both. The DGamer software will be included in ever new DS game software that comes out from now on, starting with Prince Caspian, but I’m assuming you will be able to just download the PC software for free from the website in two days when it launches.
(4/24/08) Disney has chosen the winner of the Dream CMO as Justin Muchoney.
(4/18/08) Yet another industry figure has passed away this week, this time it was veteran Disney animator Ollie Johnston, the last living member of Disney’s famous Nine Old Men.
In other news, Disney has announced that their online VMK (Virtual Magic Kingdom) MMO experience will be shutting down it’s service next month on May 21st much to the dismay of it’s fans.
(3/25/08) In a strange twist of fate, Disney is signing a deal to buy back about 66% of the former Disney Store locations in North America from The Children’s Place. It seems The Children’s Place has been hitting some tough financial times and they were looking to off-load the Disney Stores quickly after just buying them from Disney about 3.5 years ago.
(3/10/08) According to the local news the mayor of Shanghai claims that the city has now officially applied to the Chinese central government to build a Disneyland theme park resort, so perhaps there may be some movement on this project in the future.
(10/4/07) Disney has confirmed the news that they have purchased 21 acres of oceanfront property in Oahu (Hawaii) to build the first Disney resort not connected to a nearby theme park property that will feature both hotel room and vacation-club villas (DVC). (Note – Disney has previously built two off-site DVC resorts at Hilton Head, SC and Vero Beach, FL). The new Hawaiian resort will have over 800 guest rooms and be designed to be an immersive experience, though exact details are not currently available as the project’s design has not been finalized. Construction will start in 2008 and they are shooting for it to open in 2011.
Great American Family Parks - (3/13/08) Great American Family Parks has announced the purchase of Animal Paradise LLC, a small drive-through wild animal park outside Springfield, MO.
Great Wolf Lodge - (3/27/08) Guests eating at the Loose Moose restaurant inside the Great Wolf Lodge Poconos were in for a rude surprise when a 35-foot long section of the ceiling caved into the dining room, breaking sprinkler pipes and sending a flood of water and debris into the room and onto many diners. An investigation is taking place to determine just what happened, though the indoor waterpark hotel remains open as the ceiling collapse did not harm the structural integrality of the building.
Herschend Family Entertainment - (12/3/07) Herschend Family Entertainment has announced that they have acquired controlling interest in Adventure Aquarium (Camden, New Jersey) & Newport Aquarium (Newport, Kentucky) from Steiner & Associates.
(7/6/07) Herschend Family Entertainment has just announced a new five year agreement with Big Idea Inc. that will allow for future development of additional entertainment and attractions at all HFE properties featuring the VeggieTales characters. While no specific new attractions were mentioned (such as the rumored 4D Theaters) they did say that Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber would make a series of special appearances at Stone Mountain and Celebration City.
IAAPA - (4/16/08) Just a reminder that the EAS (Euro Attractions Show) 2008 Munich will take place September 30th to October 2nd.
(2/14/08) IAAPA reports that the Asia Attraction Expo 2008 will take place in Macau on July 16-18th at the new Venetian Macao Resort-Hotel. The 2009 IAAPA AAE will take place in Beijing.
(11/21/07) IAAPA reports that this year’s tradeshow in Orlando drew in 27,000 people from 98 different nations, with attendance up a huge 30% over last year’s show in Atlanta. While I know I skipped out the last two years in Atlanta, whenever the subject of how this year’s show was compared to Atlanta came up in conversations, everyone said they were glad to be out of Atlanta and hoped IAAPA would never return there. IAAPA will be back in Orlando once again in November 2008 and move the show to Las Vegas for the first time ever in 2009.
IAAPA Convention Schedule - IAAPA is currently scheduled to take place in Orlando in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2019. IAAPA will be held in Las Vegas for the first time ever in 2009, with plans in the works to make IAAPA eventually lock down into an alternating schedule between Orlando and Las Vegas.
Legoland - (4/22/08) Pictures from the newly opened Legoland Discovery Center in Duisburg, Germany, a mini indoor Legoland park concept, can be found at Freizeitpark-Welt.de. The first US Legoland Discovery Center is currently set to open in the Chicago area this August and is expected to look very similar to the new Duisburg location.
Mack Rides - (3/6/08) Parksmania has posted a video interview with Mack Rides here.
MagiQuest - (4/16/08) The first MagiQuest location in Japan opened in the Lagunasia
theme park on March 20th and seemed to have become an instant success. “MagiQuest in Japan is an overwhelming instant success and exceeded our expectations. This proves the MagiQuest theme park model as a strong enhancement to a park, just as we envisioned,” said Denise Weston, co-founder of Creative Kingdoms. “The guests waited in long lines to be a part of our magic and consumed in the attraction for hours.” “Just like our locations in the United States our magic crossed cultures as everyone got into the game---kids, parents, teens and even grandparents!”
According to the report, players were seen returning to the location two and even three times in the same day and didn’t seem deterred by the fact that MagiQuest is an upcharge attraction. The ability to create and decorate your own wands also helped create buzz around the park as players would often show off their treasured wands to other guests in the park throughout the day. For this location the entire experience was translated into Japanese for the local audience.
(1/15/08) I’ve been informed that MagiQuest systems are now apparently fully operational at the Great Wolf Lodge locations in Traverse City, Mason, Kansas City and should be up and running with the great opening of the new Grapevine, Texas resort as well.
(1/4/08) The Funplex in New Jersey (East Hanover location) has just opened a new MagiQuest facility.
(11/13/07) Creative Kingdoms, the force behind MagiQuest, has announced that MagiQuest will added into seven Great Wolf Lodge resorts before the end of 2008 as well as into the Lagunasia theme park in Japan. They are three new quests and a new adventure that will debut with the opening of the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX opening next month. A new MagiQuest facility will also open at Funplex in New Jersey.
Marriott - (6/1/07) Marriott International, Nickelodeon (a divsion of Viacom) and Miller Global Properties LLC have announced an agreement to co-develop a new family friendly branded resort concept called Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott. They expect there could be as many as 20 of these under construction by 2020 with the first property to be in San Diego’s new Liberty Station development. Construction will begin in January 2008 and will open in early 2010 on the first resort that will feature 650 rooms, a 100,000 square foot “waterpark and activity deck”. Other possible locations under consideration for Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott include just about every major family oriented destination in the US, Caribbean, Mexico, UK, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Yep... they’re taking the concept world wide it seems. The waterpark / activity area will be a signature feature of all of the resorts and indoor waterparks will be built at locations in cooler climates to allow for year-round fun. Obvioulsy the Nickelodeon characters will be in full force here, including a character breakfast in the NickToons Cafe and on Studio Nick, a live stage theater space. Other features will be a Nick Pix photo studio, Nick.com Cyberzone and a large game room.
Maurer Sohne - (2/26/08) A new video interview with Maurer Sohne can be found at Parksmania where they talk about their quality construction process and they mention that not only was Disney very satisfied with Maurer’s spinning coaster product (Crush’s Coaster) but they officially say that “we will be making more for them.”
(2/7/08) Maurer-Sohne have announced that they will be building a new custom indoor Spinning Coaster for 2009 being fit into a mall in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. You can see artwork posted to Coastersandmore.de.
(12/14/07) A couple of months back I mentioned that Maurer-Sohne’s giant 6,500 long coaster project was for Dubai’s Foruma 1 Park. However according to Coastersandmore.de, the huge launched Maurer-Sohne coaster will actually be for the Ferrari Experience park in Abu Dhabi and themed as a racing experience.
(10/24/07) Remember that rumored 6,500 foot long Maurer-Sohne coaster I mentioned awhile back? From what I’ve been told the project will actually be for Dubai’s Formula 1 Park and may actually be the world’s longest spinning coaster.
(9/26/07) From what I’m told a German newspaper has printed a story (no link provided) claiming that Maurer-Sohne has been hired to create a monster coaster for someone. The ride will cost $20 million Euros and have a track length of 2,000 meters (6,561 feet or 1.2 Miles!) This would be, by far, the largest coaster produced by Maurer-Sohne, a company known mostly for their compact Wild Mouse, Spinning and X-Coaster designs with track lengths normally in the 1,000 to 1,500 foot range. So I’ve got to wonder if this project may not be some kind of dual tracked coaster instead… either racing or dueling… perhaps like a giant version of their Winjas coasters.
Merlin Entertainment - (5/5/08) Merlin Entertainment broke out the checkbook once again this week and has purchased the London Aquarium which is right next door to The London Eye. I don’t know if a name change is in the works or not, but apparently the intention is to make the London Aquarium part of their Sea Life Center chain.
Parques Reunidos - (4/25/08) Parques Reunidos has closed on a deal to buy Sea Life Park in Hawaii, a small 22 acre park in Honolulu, Hawaii formerly owned by Dolphin Discovery (Mexico).
(3/10/08) Coming as a bit of a surprise, it seems the deal to sell Kennywood Entertainment to Parques Reunidos has been hitting quite a few speed bumps. According to this article, the deal to sell the chain is still awaiting approval but there are many family members who are quite opposed to the sale and have become much more vocal about it. Kennywood Entertainment is currently owned by the 76 descendants of the park’s two founding families and the terms of the deal require a “super-majority” to go forward and not just a simple majority vote anywhere over 50%. The exact approval number was not given, but typically a “super-majority” vote could require anywhere from 66-75% approval.
Negotiations are still ongoing and while Parque Reunidos expects to seal the deal within 4 weeks there are still a large number of the owners who just do not want to sell away their home away from home. Apparently a new vote from the family members is slated later this month.
(12/11/07) In a shocking bit of news Kennywood has sold all it's theme park interests to Spanish based Parques Reunidos. The deal not only includes Kennywood, but also Idlewild / SoakZone, Castlecastle, Lake Compounce and Story Land.
 S&S Power - (11/29/07) While at IAAPA I reported on the new S&S Eagle family coaster concept, an incredible and unique looking attraction that will serve as the S&S take on the “spinning coaster” genre, but in my opinion this ride could really be something wonderful. Check out this quick animated clip of the ride inaction, since words alone make this concept so hard to describe fully. At the end of the clip is a second one showing off the new Pirate Plunge family flat ride that can be adjusted to become as wet as you want it, perfect for waterparks looking for a little something extra. The version seen in the clip is currently running at Stan’s own FEC park in Logan, Utah.
Sally Corp. - (5/5/08) Sally Corp. has announced that they have chosen Dan Faupel, formerly of Creative Visions, as their new Senior Designer.
(3/28/08) Sally Corp. has sent out one more staffing announcement this week, the naming of Fitz-Edward Otis as their new International Sales Manager. He comes to Sally with years of experience in the attractions industry after working for Omni Films, Iwerks and SimEx.
(3/25/08) Sally Corp. has announced a couple of new promotions this week. Design Director Drew Hunter has been promoted to the position of “vice president - design” and Technical Director Ray Dominey has been promoted to the newly created position of “vice president – technical services”. Congrats guys... you deserve it.
(2/15/08) A new video interview with John Wood of Sally Corp. has been posted to Parksmania. In the interview John mentions that in addition to the Moody Blues dark ride for Hard Rock Park, Sally is also building two North Pole Adventure rides for the Happy Valley chain of parks in China (Cheng-du and Shanghai) after getting a good reception to the ride at another Happy Valley park (Shenzhen) a few years back. They also talk about Ghost Blasters 2, a more scary improved version of Ghost Blasters with full animatronics figures, will be coming to Elitch Gardens.
Sega - (2/19/08) Sega has signed a deal with Emaar Malls Group to develop a small chain of Sega Joypolis indoor attractions across the Middle East and North Africa. From the description, they are expected to feature an indoor coaster and smaller amusement rides in addition to the typical video games you would expect from a Sega attraction. The first location by the end of the year in the Dubai Mall.
Six Flags - (5/12/08) Six Flags stock took a drop once again on Friday as their Q1 report failed to impress stockholders. To be fair, Six Flags has reduced their Q1 losses by 7% over last year and reported total revenues of $68.2 million, up 35% over the same time period last year. Guest PerCaps were also up 13% over last year, jumping from $34.44 to $38.95.
(5/1/08) Six Flags will be holding a Q1 Conference Call on May 8th at 4:30pm. You can listen over the internet here.
(4/30/08) Southern Star Amusement has posted their vision for reopening the former Six Flags New Orleans park site. The Proposal page also lists all of the park’s current rides that will return with the park if they are allowed to proceed. I noticed they listed Sonic Slam, the park’s old S&S Tower, as returning despite comments by Six Flags not long ago about having plans on moving that particular ride to another park. There is also a “Top Secret” page where they mention that the new waterpark will be part of the existing park and not a separate gate along with a brief list of new ride plans. Unfortunately the list of new rides is just a bunch of names, and they’ve decided to list something called ‘Raging Waters Ride” three times in the list.
(4/23/08) I’ve heard the rumors for some time but now they’ve gone public it seems as Southern Star Amusements is officially pitching a plan to the city to take over the former Six Flags New Orleans park site to reopen it with new rides and a waterpark in time for the summer of 2009.
I’m not sure just how they’ll manage to do it in just a year, but they want to spend $7 million on the first phase of the new waterpark area (a five phase $20 million project) and nearly double the number of rides in the park to 60. Given the dramatic increase in rides, I’m going to assume that a good number of these new rides may be portable models that could be brought in and set up quickly. The plan is to divide the park into five themed sections: Area 51, Tumble Weed Gulch, Cricket Creek Bog, Fort Thunder and Country Fair. The article also mentions that SSA is one of two groups in talks to take over the SFNO site, but no one is ready to say who the second group is right now.
(4/18/08) Six Flags has reported that Q1 revenue has climbed 35% due to increased attendance levels (19%) and higher guest spending.
(4/16/08) Six Flags has announced a new partnership with Gulf Finance House (GFH) to a one year exclusive agreement that will allow for the creation of Six Flags Theme Parks in China. There is also plans for a possible future collaboration between the two to build a Six Flags Luxury Resort, though it was not specified if this resort project would be located in China or if they could work together on a future US Resort project.
In another news article, Six Flags has also stated that they intend to become more of an entertainment company with the plans to offer up their own variety of “characters” to lure guests to their parks in the same way that Disney uses their characters in their own parks. According to Shapiro, the plan now is to focus on building anticipation to their rides through stories and characters and that, "Approaching Six Flags is like building Disney, backward".
(4/9/08) Six Flags has announced a few new sponsor partnerships including a multi-brand deal with Kraft Foods to promote CornNuts, Lunchables and Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs. (May I suggest that the 100 Calorie Packs sponsorship be placed near the chain’s various Intamin coasters and B&M Flyers since they’re not the most friendly rides for overweight riders.) Six Flags has also renewed last year’s deal with Nintendo to operate Wii Experience attractions at 10 of the parks through to the end of the season.
(3/24/08) I had not yet seen these myself, but a reader has pointed out a couple of the new Six Flags ads for the 2008 season. This reader didn’t seem to like the new character introduced, but for some reason he’s funny to me with the Fun-O-Meter and the way this guy pops in and shouts things like “One flag!” Kind of reminds me of the old classic Sega Genesis ads with the screaming “Sega!” tag-line. I’m embedded in the current ads for Six Flags Magic Mountain and Discovery Kingdom below so you can make up your own mind.
(3/21/08) First the Six Flags Thrilleaders… and now Six Flags announced the Six Flags Friends program. Okay… I’m kidding a bit. The Six Flags Friends program is a nice addition to allow the parks to make a difference in their local markets and supporting various nonprofit organizations and encouraging volunteer programs. You can find out all the details about the new Six Flags Friends program here.
(3/19/08) I’m not sure quite how I feel about this, but Six Flags has launched a new program to create the “First-Ever Professional Theme Park Cheerleading Team” which will be called Six Flags Thrilleaders. Apparently they’ve gone to the trouble of hiring the professional choreographer from the Bring It On series of films (like that’s a good thing…) and the plan is to have the team travel to the various parks and perform for the crowds as well as take place in various special events outside the parks.
Okay, I’ve decided. I don’t like it… but that’s mostly because I just don’t get it or understand what the point is or how it will help the chain in any way. I just don’t see this as the kind of thing to lure more people to the parks. Paying to send a traveling group of cheerleaders around the country all summer certainly can’t be cheap either. You can read up on the details about the job and audition process here.
In other Six Flags news, they’ve revised their policy chain wide for the 2008 season regarding ride access for disabled guests at all parks. The old blanket policy that allowed any disabled guest to cut to the front of the line is now gone and instead disabled guests will be given either a Yellow or Blue pass. Guests who are deemed to be able to wait will be given the blue pass which they can use essentially as a Flash Pass style system. They will receive a reservation time to return later in the day and then be taken in to ride. Guests who can’t wait will get the Yellow pass that will allow them to move right to the front without waiting.
(3/13/08) For anyone wondering, the following is the list of park’s that will be installing SFTV in 2008: Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Six Flags over Texas, Six Flags over Georgia, Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. The rest of the parks are expected to add it in 2009.
(3/12/08) From what I’ve now been told the Six Flags: Live and Local program to give local bands a stage to play on at their local Six Flags park should be going chain wide this summer. I previously pointed out the program taking place at SF Discovery Kingdom, but SF Great Adventure and SF St. Louis are already mentioning it on their individual events pages and SF America has a recruiting MySpace page.
(3/10/08) According to the new Six Flags conference call Six Flags Dubailand is slated to open in December 2011. Six Flags will be getting paid for their design services for Six Flags Dubailand between the moment the deal was signed and when the park opens in December 2011, so this will be a great new sources of revenue starting now and not forcing them to wait until the park opens. Oh… and they also mentioned later that your standard Six Flags annual pass that you buy here in the US will also be good at Six Flags Dubailand.
As far as marketing deals go, while it sounds like Home Depot is dropping out of their exclusive sponsorship involvement with Six Flags due their own business problems. Home Depot may come back in some form at certain parks, or chain wide, but they wont be an exclusive sponsor anymore and Six Flags is already in talks with many of their competition for new sponsorship deals.
On the subject of the recession and a possible decline in attendance they stated that while the concerns are valid in the past Six Flags has a history of surviving previous recessions, as people are more likely to visit their local Six Flags parks as a cheaper alternative to a longer more expensive trip to someplace like Walt Disney World. The big extra “rebate checks” coming from the Government around May to help boost the economy a bit are also expected to make Six Flags looks attractive.
As far as the financial results, Six Flags reports their Q4 losses have dropped quite a bit to $132.4 million from a $195.2 million loss last year. Revenue for Q4 grew 8% to $112.1 million from $104.3 million. Attendance was also up 4% to 2.8 million in Q4 which is most likely due to hosting additional Holiday In The Park winter events in new markets (Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom).
They also talked briefly about Six Flags New Orleans and stated that they have no intention of reopening the park, no one there is expecting them to come back, so they’ve started to remove rides from the park for other projects and are planning to remove the park’s S&S tower ride for relocation to another park next year. (Anyone want to make a prediction? Six Flags Magic Mountain did just lose their one and only tower ride last month.)
(2/25/08) The official Johnny Rockets website has been updated to list new locations opening in 2008 which includes a listing of the locations at the various Six Flags theme parks. A reader searched through the database of locations and came up with the following list of Johnny Rocket (JR) locations in Six Flags theme parks.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom – 1 (Will open their first JR in 2008)
Six Flags Magic Mountain – 2 (Will open second JR in 2008)
Six Flags Fiesta Texas – 2 (Will open second JR in 2008)
Six Flags Great America – 2 (Will open second JR in 2008)
Six Flags over Georgia – 1 (Will open first in 2008)
Six Flags New England – 1 (Will open first in 2008)
Six Flags Great Adventure – 3 (Will open two new locations in 2008)
Six Flags Mexico – 1 (Will open their first in 2008)
The Great Escape Lodge - 1 (Will open their first in 2008)
Six Flags over Texas – 1 (existing)
Six Flags St. Louis – 1 (existing)
(2/19/08) Six Flags has signed an unusual sponsorship deal with NextSport, the creator of the Fuzion “performance scooter”, which is basically what looks like the offspring of a Skateboard with one of a Razor scooters. This is more than just your typical sponsorship deal however as they will create a series of in-park Fuzion Scooter Riding Zones, with the first Fuzion Zone opening this spring at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. The Fuzion Zone will provide park guests the opportunity a Fuzion in a custom designed and fully supervised skate park that will feature basic riding zones as well as basic ramp and jump configurations. Guests will also be able to watch members of the Fuzion Pro Team demonstrate their skills during exhibitions.
(1/18/08) Lo-Q has announced that they have expanded their deal with Six Flags to add their new VQ2020 Q-Bot system into one new Six Flags park this season (Six Flags Fiesta Texas) and expect to add a ninth park in 2009. They will be upgrading the older existing systems at four other parks to the VQ2020 system before the start of the 2008 season. With the new park coming online, this means seven of the eight Six Flags parks will be using the new VQ2020 system. (I wonder who will be left out…).
Six Flags currently has Lo-Q systems running at La Ronde, Six Flags over Georgia, Six Flags Over Texas, Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags Great America, Six Flags New England and Six Flags St. Louis. This leaves Six Flags America, Kentucky Kingdom, Magic Mountain or Discovery Kingdom as the mystery 2009 park.
On a personal note, I was able to use the new VQ2020 system at Dollywood this past November and I just loved it. It’s far superior to the old system since you can make and cancel your reservations right from the wireless unit itself from anywhere in the park instead of forcing you to walk over to your ride, scan the Q-Bot, leave and come back later. They also had terminals set up to make all your show seating reservations for the entire day as soon as you rented your Q-Bot which was a fantastic help.
(1/8/08) Six Flags and Starburst have expanded their sponsorship deal to continue the Thursday Night Concert Series in 2008, expanding it to include SFOT this year, and Starburst is also the sponsor for all of Tornado waterslides and splash zones chain wide. The 2008 Starburst Thrusday Night Concert Series will kick off May 29th and run every Thursday through August 21st at Six Flags America, Fiesta Texas, Great Adventure, New England, over Georgia, St. Louis and Six Flags over Texas.
Universal Studios - (5/12/08) Universal Studios has signed a deal with Take-Two to create a feature film based on their wonderfully creative Bioshock video game. Even better,  Gore Verbinksi (Pirates of the Caribbean) has been attached to Direct. Anyone familiar with Bioshock knows the game not only has quite a crazy storyline, but also one of the more unique environments seen lately in tv, film or video games. To break it down for the uninitiated… just imagine walking through an underwater city that looks like a combination of Disney’s Tower of Terror mixed with SeaWorld’s best marine environments, then add in the terror of Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights.
It will be years before we see the film hit the theaters, but I can’t help but think about what kind of Bioshock themed attraction Universal could come up with for the theme parks. At the very least, I’d love to see a Big Daddy escorting a Little Sister around the theme parks myself. That would be one hell of a Meet ‘n Greet.
(2/22/08) Thought it may be years before we see a theme park tie-in, NBC Universal has signed a 6-year deal with toy-maker Hasbro to make films based on their properties. Before the fan-boys get too excited, the deal does not include any rights to the Transformers or G.I. Joe franchises since both of those have already been signed over to Paramount for film deals. (Fun Notes - Mummy director Stephen Sommers is currently directing the G.I. Joe film right now for a 2009 release and Transformers 2 is likely on for 2010.) So right now you’re wondering what toys are left for Universal to play with, and the list includes: Monopoly, Clue, Ouija, Stretch Armstrong, Battleship, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Mousetrap and even Nerf. Apparently Michael Bay is already talking about producing a Ouija movie for 2010 and even stranger is Ridley Scott talking about making a Monopoly film that could be a dark comedy. If your bored, take a long look at the list of Hasbro brand names.
(1/25/08) Today’s latest rumor comes from an unusual source… the MovieWeb film buzz website who sites another source (Foul Language warning on that second link) claiming that talks between Paramount and Hasbro have begun about a deal to build a Transformers themed dark ride. The sources point out the Indiana Jones Adventure as a great example of the kind of ride that would be a perfect fit  for a Transformers themed ride and from my point of view not only would it be a hit in the US but in Japan as well where they just love anything with giant robots. According to the source, the ideal plan would be to launch the new ride sometime around either the release of the two sequels being planned, with Transformers 2 on deck for a 2009 release. So right now the one big question left is… just which theme park chain is involved? Since we’re talking about a big dark ride experience, or perhaps a very themed dark ride coaster ride, that pretty much narrows it down to Disney or Universal. This kind of high action concept seems very in-line with Universal to me, more than Disney, but Universal kind of has their hands full with Harry Potter stuff at Islands of Adventure in this time frame. That doesn’t mean this couldn’t be a project for Universal Studios Hollywood or even Japan at this point. Well… there is one other possibility of course. Those who regularly read my Universal Studios Florida coverage already know about Project Rumble… an odd new coaster concept expect to open in 2009 that currently we don’t really know what theme they are planning to attach to it. While not a dark ride, I suppose Transformers could fit the bill as well, but right now I’m going to hold out some hope for a dark ride at a later date. With exclusive use of those Kuka robot arms for their future attractions, Universal really does make sense as the one company who could really pull this kind of thing off. Anyone know more?
Vekoma - (4/14/08) Parksmania has posted a promotional video from Vekoma showing off their famous Mine Train coaster, Colorado Adventure, that they built for Phantasialand (Germany). If you’ve never seen this ride before, it’s probably one of the best themed mine |
