Funworld June 2008

Industry Notes

by Keith Miller

Two Major New Coasters Have Entertainment Theming

THE EAGLES’ 1976 ROCK-AND-ROLL HIT “Life in the Fast Lane” has come to life in the form of a roller coaster at the new Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which opened for its inaugural season on May 9. The 2,234-foot-long ride was built by Vekoma Ride Manufacturing in conjunction with Chance-Morgan. At two minutes, it is the longest coaster ride in the $400 million park. In celebration of the new coaster, the Eagles will perform at the 55-acre park’s grand opening special event on June 2. Look for more on this project in the annual “New Rides and Attractions” section in the August issue of FUNWORLD.

Meanwhile, Universal Orlando has announced construction of the first big outdoor thrill ride at its Universal Studios theme park. To be called “The Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit,” the ride will be built by Maurer Soehne and debut in the spring of next year as the fifth roller coaster to open in the Universal Orlando Resort, but the first at the studio park—the other four are located in Islands of Adventure.

Universal said the new ride will be “… a hightech roller coaster full of lights, music, loops, twists, and turns,” and will be located near the Jimmy Neutron attraction. It will travel the southern perimeter of Universal Studios and will rocket outside the park for a quick trip above people walking around the CityWalk entertainment area. Meara Lyons, public relations coordinator for Universal Orlando, told FUNWORLD the ride will be accessible to guests from both Universal Studios and CityWalk. At 167 feet in height, it will be the tallest coaster in Central Florida.

The company said the coaster will stake a claim as the most technologically sophisticated roller coaster in the world, combining concert lighting, audio and special effects engineering, sophisticated onboard and off-board video, and one-of-a-kind guest personalization. In a statement about the ride, Mark Woodbury, president of creative for Universal Parks and Resorts, said, “This [ride] is the perfect intersection of the digital age and theme park entertainment.”

Universal said the ride will include a “record-breaking loop,” and the ride cars will feature bright, innovative color-changing LEDs. Guests will be able to choose the music that will play over the coaster’s digital sound system during their rides from five genres— classic rock, rap, country, pop, disco— or they can let the sound system choose for them. When the ride is over, guests can customize footage from their ride to take home in the form of a music video.

Two Parks Now Under New Ownership

TWO PARKS THAT STARTED THEIR LIVES as small family-owned facilities have recently been sold, one to another family-owned company and one to a successful European amusement park company.

Family-owned Morgan RV Resorts of Queensbury, New York, recently bought Indiana Beach Amusement Resort in Monticello, Indiana. “Quite a few things about the park attracted us,” said Bob Moser, co-owner of Morgan. “The great location between Chicago and Indianapolis, the history that the Spackman family has built with the park, and the large campground—it was just an overall good fit to our business plan.”

The company has already begun making additions to the park and doing cosmetic work, according Moser. The biggest addition is the park’s sixth roller coaster—the “Steel Hawg”—being built by S&S Worldwide of Logan, Utah, and scheduled to open by early June.

Another park with a history of family ownership, Oakwood Theme Park in Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom, was acquired on March 10 by Aspro Ocio of Madrid, Spain, making it Aspro’s 33rd leisure park in Europe and its third in the United Kingdom. Aspro said in a recent release the 148-acre operation is the most visited park in Wales, with a reported 400,000 guests each year.

The park has more than 30 rides and attractions, and its “Megafobia” wooden coaster has ranked highly in polls of the top wooden coasters world-wide for years. Aspro said in a statement that the park’s emphasis on family fits perfectly into its growth strategy.

The purchase price of neither park was made public.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Responds to Overwhelming Guest Reaction

IN ITS RECENT EXPERIENCE with one of its most popular attractions, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California, has given a great lesson in how a facility can respond to guests and change its plans to give them what they really want.

Back in 2000, the renowned aquarium opened what was originally intended to be a temporary exhibit called “Splash Zone.” But the attraction was so enormously successful the aquarium scrambled to make it a permanent exhibit. After several years, however, the exhibit needed some attention.

“There’s a construction standard difference between temporary and permanent, so we needed to bolster some things here and there,” said Karen Jeffries, public relations manager for the aquarium. “We decided that since we were going to be doing that anyway, let’s go ahead and upgrade, renovate, and remodel, and since the interactive approach was such a hit, we decided to [expand] it over our [entire] second floor.”

The expanded “Splash Zone” opened in mid-March, and at 14,000 square feet, it’s double the size of the old attraction. It’s targeted at kids up to 12 years old and consists of the “Enchanted Kelp Forest,” “the Coral Reef Kingdom,” and the “Rugged Rocky Shore,” with 45 bilingual interactive exhibits and a 42-foot-long touch pool.

Most of the expansion work was done in-house, and the aquarium staff focused on interactivity. In the “Enchanted Kelp Forest,” kids can touch a variety of plants and animals, including sea stars, sea urchins, and kelp crabs. There’s also a waterpool area where kids put on aprons and create their own tide pools.

Guests enjoy the new $4 million expansion as a part of the aquarium’s general admission.

Cutting-Edge Dome Theater Bolsters Science Center

TOUTING IT AS PART MOVIE, PART AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE, PART SCIENCE PROJECT, the Natural Science Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, has opened what it says is the first digital 3-D projection system ever designed to fit the curvature of an entire large half-dome.

Called OmniSphere, it’s different from other 3-D and IMAX theaters because the images are simultaneously projected in front of, to the sides of, above, and behind guests on a 40-foot dome. The science center spent $700,000 converting an old planetarium into what it bills as a “total immersion theater.”

“We had an old traditional planetarium,” said Glen Dobrogosz, executive director of the center. “We literally ripped everything out, except for the seats, and we replaced the dome because it’s a new type of projection system.”

Konica-Minolta was selected to install the projection system, and Astrotec Manufacturing of Canal Fulton, Ohio, built the dome. Dobrogosz said the technology is in its infancy, but he thinks what it offers is unsurpassed.

“Old planetariums use a center projector that projects the stars, moon, sun, etc., and presents the stars as they are today, and basically you were confined to the earth,” he said. “With this new system, we’re not confined to anything. We can take you back in time or forward in time 100,000 years to show you how the constellations have changed. In one of our shows we actually take you into an astronaut’s brain. It also allows us to travel out into space and show things from that [vantage point].”

With more than 4,000 guests visiting the OmniSphere in the first month, the center is considering expanding seating from 86 to 100. “We’re also looking at an IMAX-type system that allows us to project movies onto the dome,” Dobrogosz said.

Crealy Parks Roll Out New Attractions

DEVON’S CREALY GREAT ADVENTURe is rolling out several new attractions for the 2008 season, as well as one classic ride upgraded with a new dark element. The first new attraction, launched March 15, was “Battle of the Bears,” a 2,150-square-meter (about 21,000 square feet) indoor interactive dark game in which players shoot and dodge foam balls. The “artillery” is comprised of 11 ball-firing cannons with a total of 5,000 foam balls for players to shoot or throw. The theme of the attraction is a bear’s cave, complete with atmospheric surprises and sound effects.

The following week, the park opened “Meteorite,” an eight-seat, 20-foot-tall drop ride from Zamperla in the Dina’s Lost World section of the park, and re-opened a park classic, the “Tidal Wave Terror,” with an addition: a new dark tunnel on the second and largest drop of the ride.

“‘Tidal Wave Terror’ adds a new dimension to our popular log flume, with the added fear factor of darkness,” said Angela Wright, the park’s managing director, in a statement. “Imagine creeping over the pinnacle of the log flume peak, 40 feet high, and then plunging down a pitch-black tunnel, not knowing when you will splash into the water below.”

Jenni Taffs, press relations coordinator for Crealy Adventure Parks, told FUNWORLD Devon’s Crealy’s sister park, Cornwall’s Crealy, also has a couple of new attractions: “The Beast”—a 50- foot-tall, 3G drop tower from Zamperla, and “Water Walkers,” where guests get inside large, clear plastic balls and frolic around on the water.

What Amusement Parks Can Learn from Cruise Lines IN A RECENT PANEL DISCUSSION BY KIDS ABOUT FAMILY CRUISES, guests revealed some interesting reasons why they preferred cruise ships over amusement parks, and perhaps offered some valuable information for parks. The discussion took place at the cruise industry’s Cruise3sixty conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in early March. It was moderated by travel industry expert Eileen Ogintz, who has written several books on travel and pens a nationally syndicated travel column. She also runs a travel advice web site at www.takingthekids.com. Ogintz told FUNWORLD these Florida kids had been to numerous amusement parks, and she cited several factors behind their preference for cruise ships. First, they said while their parents wouldn’t allow them to roam free for hours on end at amusement parks—this was especially true for younger kids—they do allow it on cruise ships because there’s no way the kids can leave the ship. Another hugely popular point in the cruises’ favor was the food offerings. “The kids loved that they could eat all they wanted whenever they wanted, and there’s even free room service—not really free, but no extra cost, and the quality of the food is very high,” said Ogintz. “Also, the kids can try new foods without risk because it doesn’t cost anything extra. In this economy, especially, it’s important because the parents know up front what they’re going to pay.” The fact that cruise ships have now begun offering amusement attractions—including waterslides, Flow-Riders, and rock-climbing walls—bolstered the status of cruises in the kids’ eyes. Finally, a very popular advantage of cruises the kids cited were the “club” spaces set aside specifically for children of different age groups. “The [cruise lines] have created these really cool spaces for kids,” said Ogintz.

Merlin Entertainments to Open Largest U.S. Observation Wheel MERLIN ENTERTAINMENTS of Poole, Dorset, England, announced it has strength ened its position in the United States entertainment market by planning to lease and oper ate the largest observation wheel in the nation the “Pepsi Globe” at the Mead owlands Xanadu entertain ment and retail complex in northern New Jersey. The 287 foot tall “Pepsi Globe” will offer panoramic views of the Manhattan sky line and northern New Jersey. With plans to build off the suc cess of “The Eye,” its observa tion wheel in London, England, Merlin said in a statement its design team “… is already working on the plans to ensure that its experi ence from constructing and operating ‘The Eye’ is factored into the project.” Penny Roberts of The Firm, which handles public relations for Merlin, told FUNWORLD the company is constructing the wheel in conjunction with Pre mier Rides of Millersville, Maryland.

Bankrupt Wild West World Finds Buyer MURPHY BROTHERS EXPOSI TION OF TULSA, OKLAHOMA, which operates rides and attractions at many carnivals and state fairs, mostly in the Midwest, signed a $2 million contract to buy the bankrupt WildWestWorld theme park in Park City, Kansas, nearWichita. The sale to bring the $30 million park out of bankruptcy is set to close on May 31. Mur phy Brothers’ original plan was to open the park late this summer, but Park City officials were skeptical that could hap pen because the park has dete riorated since closing and needs some refurbishment. The original park contained 24 rides, but Murphy Brothers’ plan calls for 35. The com pany’s plan also includes an extensive public relations and advertising campaign, and an effort to connect with seasonal pass holders burned by the bankruptcy. No final decision has been made regarding whether the park’s name will be changed, but some Park City officials insist it be renamed to distance it from Wild West World’s very contro versial closing and bankruptcy last year.

Kolkata, India, Getting New Waterpark A NEW 34-ACRE WATERPARK called Kolkata Pleasure Island will be located in east Kolkata, India, through a development partnership between the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), the Shrachi Group, and International Amusement. CDMA is providing the land for the park, and the Shrachi Group and International Amusement will do all the work on the project. Toronto-based Forrec Inc. will design the park, which will reportedly include tube slides, water coasters, wave pools, and boating facilities.The development plans also call for a retail area complete with an anchor store, craft outlets, restaurants, and cafes around an artificial lagoon. Construction is expected to take about six months and will begin later this year.