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Parks and Attractions Line Up For an Old Thrill
 As kids, many of us experienced the exhilarating thrill of zooming down a neighborhood zip-line. Hanging onto a t-bar attached to a cable, we hoped we wouldn’t lose our grip before reaching the end of the ride.
Those backyard contraptions are a far cry from the commercial zip-lines being installed today in terms of the equipment used, the way they are constructed and operated, and the safety guidelines they follow. However, what has remained is the exhilaration of the experience, and that’s part of what’s fueling a surge of commercial zip-line installations around the world.
But the thrill of zip-lining has been around for decades, so why are so many commercial zip-lines popping up only now? “Well, one of the things that’s happening is that resorts of all kinds are looking for less-expensive ways to add new excitement,” explains Jeff Coy, president of JLC Hospitality Consulting in Cave Creek, Arizona. “For instance, for a waterpark, it’s more expensive to add a water feature than a dry feature, and zip-lines don’t cost very much to build, so it’s a trend of adding a wow factor for less expense. For $250,000, a resort or attraction can add a zip-line.”
 Coy says there are about 300 commercial zip-lines worldwide and 100 in the United States, where 24 new ones are being added just this year.
Rob White of Kalahari Resorts supervised one of these installations—a series of four zip-lines ranging from 200 to 400 feet—at the new Safari Outdoor Adventure Park at the Kalahari indoor waterpark in Sandusky, Ohio, and he sees several advantages to zip-lines for attractions: “It’s something you can’t easily do at home, and FECs, for example, have to fight that problem because people can play video games at home. Also, zip-lines have a really good safety record.”
Another new zip-line, the “Flying Fox,” is located at the AREA 47 extreme sports park in the Ötztal Valley in Austria (see “Austria Readies ‘Craziest and Sportiest Playground’” in the May 2010 FUNWORLD). Christian Schnöller, AREA47’smarketing director, gives a few other reasons for the popularity of zip-lines: “It’s the [fun] of hanging from a cable, like in all of those Indiana Jones movies. It’s a very safe way to get a thrill—humans love flying through the air—and everyone can do it. You don’t have to be a sportsman.”
Last year, Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, opened “Sky Zip” in partnership with Eco Adventures of Hawaii, and Pete Owens, the park’s public relations manager, points out a couple of benefits he’s seen after its first year in operation: “It allows guests to see and experience areas of a park they were not able to previously, and [they] also have little infrastructure and are easily moved and removed.”
“Sky Zip” and “Flying Fox” both sail over scenic vistas. But great scenery isn’t a necessary component of a zipline, according to Coy. “There’s a big difference in a canopy tour zip-line, slowly going from treetop to treetop on lines connected together, and a zip ride that is going for the thrill factor and the speed. I think we’re going to see more of the zip rides.”
 As for the drawbacks, relatively low rider capacity is one of the few mentioned by these operators. Also, there are some general rider weight limits— around 90 pounds on the low end and 250 pounds on the high end. But Owens notes, “The [safety of] the lines themselves is not at issue. The weight limit is related to speed and inertia as it [correlates] to safety.”
Regarding near-term future of ziplines, Coy predicts, “I think we’re going to see all kinds, including short ones and ones a mile long; we’ll also see indoor zip-lines. I think it’s going to explode wide open with creativity.”
Bubbling Over for Kids
No matter your age, there’s just something delightful about blowing bubbles. Being able to instantly create a sphere that floats through the air and that you can move and make wobble by blowing on it, or make instantly disappear by poking it, is magical. Now, the Children’s Museum of Denver in Denver, Colorado, has taken this simple exercise and turned it into an adventure of science and discovery.
 It’s no secret that in recent years, many museums, especially those targeting kids, have adopted a philosophy of bringing heavily interactive, hands-on exhibits into their base of displays to make their discovery and learning experiences more entertaining (see “Static Electricity” in the September 2009 FUNWORLD).
But the Children’s Museum of Denver says it’s taken this approach to a whole new level. “We have a prototyping base within our museum called ‘Willit Works’ that is one-of-a-kind, and we’ve seen so many things come out of it,” says Zoe Ocampo, manager of marketing and communications for the museum. “We have a room that can become anything—we can roll things in and out—and it has a two-way mirror with video and audio capabilities. It’s almost a prototying lab, and we can test things with children and see what works and what doesn’t, and what needs to be tweaked. It really makes us unusual, I think.”
“Bubbles” is the museum’s newest venture, a $275,000 exhibit that includes six different zones, like the “Vapor Station,” where visitors can create bubbles filled with a smoky water vapor; the “Big Bubble Maker,” which cranks out six- to eight-foot-diameter bubbles; or the “Drop Zone,” where vapor-filled bubbles drop from above and burst, spreading the vapor until it dissipates. There’s also the “Bubble Booth,”—a square enclosure that kids can go inside, learn about the science involved in the bubbles’ creation, measure their size, and record the length of time that passes before they burst.
The “Willit Works” prototyping room was a key component in the development of this new exhibit, but Ocampo says first came a lot of research by the museum’s in-house exhibits team and education team. They went to other museums and looked at bubbles exhibits, played with bubbles, and did a lot of experimenting. The teams even developed the bubble solution used in the exhibit because it makes more durable bubbles than those made from other solutions. In fact, the museum has a mix-and-move station that mixes the solution as needed for each area of the exhibit.
One of the museum’s goals with “Bubbles” was to have kids and their parents learn together, and the facility seem to have accomplished it. “That’s another part of our mission,” says Ocampo, “that children and parents experience exhibits together. But I don’t think anyone expected the parents to get in to the bubbles so much—it’s been amazing!” www.mychildsmuseum.org
Wooden Coasters to Be Testing Their Metal
 One of the realities of wood roller coasters is that their wooden tracks need frequent maintenance to keep the rides operating safely. This makes wood coasters more expensive to maintain than steel-framed coasters, even though they are generally less expensive to build. But a new steel-track technology might change that.
Called the I-Box Steel Track, the new technology has been designed to reduce maintenance costs and provide a smoother ride on wood coasters. The track was developed through a partnership between Rocky Mountain Construction Group (RMC) of Hayden, Idaho, and Ride Centerline of Hyde Park, Utah. RMC designs and constructs rides and attractions for amusement parks, waterparks, and family entertainment centers.. “It’s the first track of its kind,” say RMC President and Co-owner Fred Grubb. “The problem with wooden tracks is that they are made up of stacks of wood laminates. The stresses of bigger and faster wood coasters have required that these track bases be frequently repaired and replaced, and we’ve done a lot of that work over the years. But I-Box is a box-beam track that’s an all-welded track. We lay out flat [steel] patterns and cut them, then put them together to create a three dimensional shape. Nobody has done this before.”
The patent-pending track will make its debut on very high-profile job—the $10 million renovation of the “Texas Giant” roller coaster at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, that will be completed in 2011.”Six Flags was looking for a company that would guarantee a track replacement for five years,” Grubb says. “We won’t do that on a wooden track, but we’ll do it without hesitation on this track because we’re so confident in it.” The proprietary steel tracks and crossbeams are fabricated at RMC’s facility in Colorado and then shipped to Six Flags Over Texas, where the company installs them on the wooden framework for the “Giant.” Grubb notes that the I-Box has another advantage over wooden-base track in that its strength allows for steeper drops and steeper curves. “This will allow us to put in the steepest drop anywhere on a wood coaster, and we can go over 90 degrees on banked turns,” he reveals.
Mike Sossamon, director of maintenance and construction for Six Flags Over Texas and Hurricane Harbor, explains why he thinks this track is revolutionary. “What became obvious to us about this track were the amazing options available to us that we wouldn’t have with a traditional wooden coaster track,” he says. “Our goal was to deliver the wood coaster experience with the steel track, yet have features that went beyond any other wood coaster. So, though the rider experience will be smoother, it will also be more exciting. What this track allows us to do with the dynamics of the ride will be a coaster that a person hasn’t experienced at an amusement park until they ride the 'Texas Giant.' I really believe the experience they’ll have will be the future for wood coasters.”
Surprisingly, Grubb also says that although the I-Box track on the “Texas Giant” will be made of steel and will be much stronger than wood, it will actually weigh no more than the wooden track it’s replacing. This is because while the I-Box track is hollow, the wood track base consists of a nine-layer stacked laminate base and is thus solid. Though Grubb acknowledges that the capital expense of steel is somewhat more expensive upfront, he says the cost will be more than offset by the savings in maintenance.
Grubb believes the I-Box Steel Track could mark a fundamental change in the way wooden coasters are constructed. When asked why this steel track hadn’t been introduced previously, he responds, “It hasn’t been done before because it’s very difficult to do, and it’s taken a long time to develop—we’ve been working on it a long time. It’s been a complex process.”
www.rockymtnconstruction.com
Look for more coverage of this technology in a future issue of FUNWORLD.
Keeping a Captured Audience
 Part of the explosion of indoor waterpark hotels in recent years has been due to their proliferation in locations that are already popular travel destinations. This is understandable since, like any hotel, they want to be in places with lots of tourists— the idea being that they’ll provide accommodations to travelers visiting nearby attractions, and hopefully spend time at the indoor waterpark.
But the opening of the Safari Outdoor Adventure Park at Kalahari in Sandusky, Ohio, demonstrates a different strategy. Safari is just the latest in a series of expansions on which the facility has embarked since opening just a few miles from the popular Cedar Point amusement park in May 2005—expansions that have cost $77 million.
In 2006, the Africa-themed resort opened a 77,000-square-foot outdoor waterpark featuring pools, sand volleyball courts, a playground, and shuffleboard. Two months later, it unveiled a 100,000-square-foot conference and events center. In 2008, the park opened a massive expansion to its indoor waterpark, making it the largest indoor waterpark in the United States at 173,000 square feet. Last summer, Kalahari called on renowned animal expert Jack Hanna to inaugurate its Safari Adventures Animal Park, which affords up-close encounters with more than 100 animals, including giraffes, camels, and zebras.
Now comes Safari Outdoor Adventure Park, which will be open from at least Memorial Day to Labor Day each year. Guests can negotiate a three-story ropes course built to resemble an African tree house village, with more than 750 feet of rope and 48 climbing elements. Guests can fly above the outdoor park on four zip-lines ranging from 200 to 400 feet in length; scale two 32- foot climbing walls equipped with race timers to appeal to competitive adventurers; and enjoy stir fry, steak, and other dishes at the outdoor Zanzibar Grille.
The idea behind all of this is that Kalahari doesn’t just want guests to use the hotel as a lodging base while they visit Cedar Point or go boating on Lake Erie—they want guests to have no reason to ever leave the property during their entire stay.
“Whether it’s a teambuilding drum circle in the convention center, a group surfing lesson in the indoor waterpark, or ropes course race in the Safari Outdoor Adventure Park, we want our guests to be able to find all their adventure experiences at Kalahari,” says park General Manager Brian Shante. “We have a distinct advantage in having an audience of [up to] 4,000 or so guests already here, so we can add all of these adventures and experiences on to a waterpark visit.”
 Kalahari has many attractions that appeal to teenagers and adults, including high speed slides, a water coaster, two Flow rider surfing machines in the indoor waterpark, a ropes courses and zip-line attraction, and an upscale restaurant inside the hotel.
The resort is also intent on drawing both business clients and vacationing families by concentrating on team building. Says Shante, “Whether it’s indoor waterpark experiences, playing in the Big Game Room (an arcade with mini golf), or the outdoor adventure park, our real focus is family and team-building experiences.” www.kalahari.com/oh
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