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‘Intimidator’: Shared Name, Very Different Rides
 Rarely, if ever, has an amusement park company opened two roller coasters of the same name built by different manufacturers in the same year. But such is the case with Cedar Fair’s two new “Intimidator” coasters.
“Intimidator,” built by Bolliger and Mabillard (B&M), will open in spring 2010 at Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina; “Intimidator 305,” built by Intamin, will open at the same time at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. The differing design approaches these two roller coaster manufacturing giants have taken in the past offer some exciting and intriguing possibilities for coaster riders.
“We went out for tender to both companies for both projects,” said Rob Decker, vice president of corporate planning and design for Cedar Fair. “We didn’t give them a whole heck of a lot of guidance except height, speed, and thrills, but it was our attempt to make them very different experiences. Intamin came up with a ‘Millennium Force’-type lift hill and ‘Maverick’- type transitions. With the B&M ride, it’s just the joy of the airtime.” Decker also noted that Intamin would employ the same type of high-speed rapid-ascent cable lift system on “Intimidator 305” that it used on “Millennium Force.”
 Kings Dominion’s “Intimidator 305,” at 305 feet high and 90 miles per hour, will be the faster of the two, but “Intimidator” will be 216 feet longer and have larger ancillary hills, with seven secondary drops totaling 686 feet compared with 150 feet for “Intimidator 305.”
Though Cedar Fair will monitor the designs of both coasters, the company said there definitely won’t be any collaboration between the two manufacturers. Nor will the coasters be marketed together. “They’ll be marketed totally separately,” said Lee Alexakos, director of corporate marketing services for Cedar Fair.
As to the association of both rides with the late Dale Earnhardt of NASCAR fame, nicknamed “The Intimidator,” Alexakos said, “With the purchase of the two parks, we knew we were in the heart of NASCAR country, we understand that environment, and ‘Intimidator’ is a perfect name. We just felt it was a natural fit.” The Carowinds ride’s trains will feature stadiumstyle seating similar to what B&M used on “Diamondback,” which opened at Kings Island in Cincinnati this year. The cars of both coasters will be designed to mimic Earnhardt’s 1998 RCR No. 3 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. http://intimidator.carowinds.com; www.intimidator305.com
AquaQuest: Bringing Magic to Waterparks
 Schlitterbahn waterpark in New Braunfels, Texas, unveiled a prototype for a new interactive water game, “The Pirate’s Plunder.” The game is a version of AquaQuest, developed by Aqua Kingdoms, and takes guests on five different adventures through the waterpark. By using riddles as clues, players search Schlitterbahn while wearing AquaGloves, which react to various hidden elements throughout the park, generating water effects.
“It’s the technology in the glove that makes it unusual,” said Carin Brown, president of Aqua Kingdoms, a subsidiary of Creative Kingdoms (creators of the similar MagiQuest game). “Players use the AquaGlove instead of the MagiQuest wand, and it has the technology that will track your progress through the game. It’s a very interactive experience, and you experience the same kinds of things that you do in MagiQuest, but it’s all water-type effects. But it’s really a prototype unit—it’s not a full system yet.”
Brown said the combination of state-ofthe- art water effects, wireless technology, and the waterproof infrared AquaGloves contributes to the game’s appeal. “It’s bringing this whole theme of using a retail product to produce a return on investment and increase per caps, and bringing that into waterparks,” she explained. “We add another layer of fun to MagiQuest by bringing it into the waterpark environment.” www.aquakingdoms.com
 Merlin Building New $15 Million Sea Life Aquarium
Merlin Entertainments Group is constructing a new $15 million Sea Life Aquarium in Phoenix, Arizona, slated to open spring 2010.
The aquarium, to be located at the Phoenix Mills Mall, will be 26,000 square feet with 12 different habitat zones housing more than 30 separate display tanks. It will be the second Sea Life aquarium to open in the United States; the first opened in 2008 in the Legoland theme park in Carlsbad, California.
“This is an exciting new development for the company, and we are delighted to be going to Phoenix,” said Glenn Earlam, managing director of Midway Attractions for Merlin Entertainments, in a statement. “Visitors to California have already shown us that the Sea Life concept has great potential in the USA, and we believe the location in Phoenix Mills Mall is ideal for us.” www.sealifeus.com |
Seabees Build Anew on a Storied Past
In honoring the courageous men and women who have made so many sacrifices while performing their duties in the United States military since World War II, one group that is often overlooked are the troops who built the massive infrastructure necessary to fight wars on far-flung shores—bases, roadways, airstrips, bridges, hospitals, etc.
 A new museum under construction at the Naval Base Ventura County at Port Hueneme, California, looks to change that. The $19.5 million Seabee Museum, consisting of a $12.5 million building and $7 million in exhibits and displays, is set to open in fall 2010. Funding is provided by donations to the Naval History and Heritage Command of the CEC/Seabee Historical Foundation.
The 32,000-square-foot facility will replace the old existing Seabee museum built on the base in 1947 and housed in two Quonset huts that lack heating and air-conditioning. “The old museum is a bunch of display cases and so forth,” said William Hilderbrand, CAPT, USN, (Ret), who is president of the CEC/Seabee Historical Foundation. “But the new one will re-create the environment of the times. It will be like stepping back in time to 1942, and a lot of the displays will have things like towers and bunkers. Interactively, there will be many displays that will have buttons to press to make things happen and allow you to make choices.”
Hilderbrand said the old museum is located inside the perimeter fence of the base, and its attendance has been negatively affected by sharply increased security in the wake of Sept. 11. But the new museum is located outside the fence, and attendance is expected to jump to about 50,000 per year, 15,000 more than the pre-9/11 level of the old museum. www.seabeesmuseum.com
Theme Parks Mapped on Google Street View
 Legoland park in Carlsbad, California, recently became only the second theme park in the world to be mapped on Google Street View, an interactive part of Google Maps that allows users to experience a location visually from ground level, as if they were actually walking the street. The image mapping is accomplished through the use of a Google Street View “trike,”—a three-wheeled bicycle equipped with an array of cameras covering a 360-degree panorama. “Street View involves going directly to the property to gather images with our camera system and is meant to provide an on-the-ground panoramic perspective of a location,” said Elaine Filadelfo, global communications and public affairs manager for Google. She said this differs from the “Walt Disney World Resort 3-D” project announced earlier this year, which involved 3- D models.
Filadelfo said parks nominate themselves for Street View mapping, but the project is small and doesn’t have a large fleet of trikes. “We look for a wide range of types of locations and places that our users are eager to see,” she noted, “as well as what fits with our schedule and equipment.” She said Street View is working with various parks, but no announcements are made until the images are “live.”
To see Legoland California’s Street View, go to www.maps.google.com and search for “Legoland California,” then drag the orange “pegman” icon to begin exploring. |
Star Trek Boldly Goes … to Museums
Star Trek is one of the most popular franchises in entertainment history, spawning five hit TV series, 11 movies, hundreds of books, several amusement park rides and shows, and seemingly endless themed merchandise over the past 43 years. But why would it be the subject of a large museum exhibition?
 Since the original TV show in the 1960s—which predicted the advent of diagnostic medical beds, speech recognition computer interfaces, DVDs, and flat-panel video screens— Star Trek has had an uncanny ability to foresee future technological innovations. It’s even spurred some technologies, like the wireless flip-phone, whose inventors acknowledge they were inspired by the “communicators” of the show.
It is against this backdrop that on Oct. 23, the Tech Museum in San Jose, California, was set to open “Star Trek: The Exhibition,” an enlarged version (more than 15,000 square feet) of the exhibit that’s attracted big crowds in Detroit, Philadelphia, and San Diego over the past year.
“The subtitle of the exhibition is ‘Where Science Meets Science Fiction,’ and we thought it would be a perfect fit for Silicon Valley,” said Elizabeth Williams, the museum’s senior director of marketing. “We’ve received a very strong positive response since we announced this. It’s also perfect because this is the Year of Astronomy.”
The exhibit, owned by Exploration II Inc. and executed by Premier Exhibitions, includes an authentic replica of the bridge from the USS Enterprise featured in the original TV series, actual shooting models of space ships, and numerous costumes and props from all five Star Trek TV shows and 11 movies. The Tech Museum exhibit will also be the first to display artifacts from the 2009 “Star Trek” blockbuster motion picture.
Williams stressed the exhibition will have a strong educational component, getting into details on the technological operation of famous Star Trek devices like the tricorder and communicator. The exhibit will run through at least January 2010. www.thetech.org |
Gerstlauer Keeps the Thrill Factor Up but the Price Down
 One problem ride manufacturers often face with popular roller coaster designs is making them affordable for smaller facilities without sacrificing thrill and character. Such was the challenge Gerstlauer Amusement Rides of Munsterhausen, Germany, faced with its popular Spinning Coaster.
 The company recently rolled out a new downsized spinning coaster that retains many elements of the larger custom designs. It stands 45 feet high, is more than 1,000 feet long, and features a curving first drop, two “wild mouse” turns, an Immelman, two descending and ascending helices, and a high-speed turn at the finish. Gerstlauer was able to achieve this while accomplishing its goal of keeping the price under €2 million (US$2.8 million).
 “Typically, rides in this price range are more in the wild mice genre or something similar and/or smaller,” said Adam Sandy, senior sales associate for Ride Entertainment Systems, Gerstlauer’s exclusive sales representative in North America. “This new layout offers riders the experience of our proven larger coaster models (of which we have eight operating in North America) in a slightly smaller package. It keeps the ride competitive with a greater percentage of existing stock layout family coasters and large flat rides.”
Sandy noted several family-owned parks have already expressed interest in the ride. www.gerstlauer-rides.de
New Nickelodeon Park a Restoration of Fun
 The fate of the 65-acre development that used to be the site of Jazzland/Six Flags New Orleans theme park was finally determined with the recent announcement by Nickelodeon, the city of New Orleans, and Southern Star Amusement that a new Nickelodeon water and theme park will be created on the site. The property has stood idle since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005.
Under the three-party agreement, Nickelodeon will receive a licensing fee, and New Orleans will have a leasing arrangement with Southern Star Amusement. Restoration of the park will be paid for by private investors and by GO Zone bonds.
The project will represent Nickelodeon’s first outdoor theme park. In 2008, it opened an indoor theme park called Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nickelodeon also has branded lands and attractions at several amusement parks in North America, Australia, and Germany.
The new park will include a mixture of new and renovated attractions, all themed after Nickelodeon programs and characters. The opening of the park is planned for late 2010.
 “Amusement park services in New Orleans East have been a work in progress for more than two years, so we’re thrilled to be taking such a big step forward on this project,” said Danny Rogers, founder of Southern Star Amusement, in a statement. “With the help of Nickelodeon, we plan to turn this once-shuttered park into a mecca of entertainment and a wonderful playground for locals, visitors, and families alike, while adding jobs and a new source of revenue to the city.” www.southernstaramusement.com
How Real Can Fake Figures Get?
Last year, The Walt Disney Company and Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, announced an intriguing five-year collaboration on a new research and development lab to explore advances in robotics, computer animation, autonomous interactive characters, data mining, and user interfaces.
 When the collaboration was first announced, Jessica Hodgins, professor of computer science and robotics at CMU, said one of the goals of the research would be to look for ways to sense what a person is doing or thinking so a nonliving character could respond appropriately. This would involve determining how to build sensors that could interpret human behavior.
A year into the project, Joe Marks, vice president of Disney Research, told FUNWORLD how the research is proceeding: “We’re looking at autonomous robotic characters that use advanced techniques from computer vision, speech processing, artificial intelligence, and human/computer interaction to interact with guests in a variety of park settings. The same technologies are also relevant to computer games.”
As to how this research is benefiting Carnegie-Mellon students, Marks replied, “The various Disney Research labs will host student interns throughout the year, but especially in the summer. These Research Associates will play key roles on many of our project teams. In addition, some of the senior research scientists at DRP (Disney Research Pittsburgh) have adjunct appointments at Carnegie Mellon University, so students might encounter them as lecturers or advisers.” www.ri.cmu.edu
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