Well That Was Fast!

The construction of the Carolina Cobra has really been flying since the ride went vertical, as you can see in the shot from Carowinds' web cam the ride is almost complete!

It really looks like the ride could be finished within the next day or so. The park has also put up some newer photos of the construction on the ride's official website.

Gravity Group's Fireball

Martin & Vleminckx also have on display at this year's IAAPA the model of the Gravity Group designed, M&V constructed wooden coaster going in for 2009 at China's Happy Valley.

Fireball will stand 108 ft. tall, have a 103 ft. drop, hit 56 mph, and stretch over 3,800 ft. of track. It looks like an amazing ride!

Sabrina's Brochure Spotlight: Cedar Point 1992

Things have been relatively quiet around the Point lately. Let's see what they were up to back in 1992! [And by the way, my scanner did not freak out: The image on the cover really is blurry, even on the real brochure!]


Wow, I just opened the brochure and already they're trying to convince me to come visit for TWO days instead of one! I mean gee whiz, could you at least tell me what you have to offer first? Talk about your interesting marketing tactics. Let's see if they can convince me to make the trek to Ohio by the time this is all said and done!


The Berenstain Bears? Well now we're cooking with gas! Come on, PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who remembers the Berenstain Bears?! I had a ton of those books when I was a kid. Perhaps if they had starred in--oh, I don't know--some kind of Halloween cartoon special about a generous yet elusive pumpkin sprite, they would still be hanging out at the Cedar Fair parks.


Here we go with that two-day visit mumbo jumbo again! Well they sure didn't waste any time reinforcing that notion after teasing us with the Berenstain Bears propaganda. Nice hotels, camping, a beach, family fun: I get it. But what kinds of RIDES do you have??


Now that's what I'm talking about! Mean Streak, in only its second season, was the poster child of America's Roller Coast back in '92. If you'll recall, the first round of mega wooden coaster wars was in full effect back then, along with all the unfortunate side effects that accompanied them. I'm anxious to see what Cedar Point and GCI do with the big guy in this year's off season.


Wait, this place also has a water park as well as a "challenge" park in addition to all the other rides and attractions? I guess I really am going to need two days to do all this!


Alright Cedar Point, you win. Consider me signed, sealed, and delivered for that whole two-day thing. I guess you knew what was in my best interests all along! [But seriously, it really was the Berenstain Bears thing that pushed me over the edge...]

Scott And Carol Present - Wednesday At IAAPA

Wednesday started off bright and early with the Owners and General Managers breakfast. The keynote was to be delivered by none other than Nick Varney, the Managing Director of Merlin Entertainments. But first, there were some more awards to be passed out, because this group works hard all year and only gathers annually. Three service awards from IAAPA were announced.

Bob Logan received the Meritorious Service Award John Collins the Outstanding Service Award
and Dick Kinzel the Lifetime Service Award. Then it was time for the main event.

Nick Varney gave a brief synopsis about his career, which seems almost circular, with him now operating the company that once bought out his old employer. With financial backing from the Blackstone Group, Merlin now operates fifty-seven properties in twelve countries on three continents. With both indoor and outdoor operations in various locations, his goal is for Merlin to have hedges against both weather and local economic downturns.

He brought up his psychotic obsession about guest satisfaction and shared the fact that the different properties are averaging 15% growth for each of the last four years. He states his mission as “combining innovation and creativity with responsible corporate management.” According to Varney, consolidation in any industry is inevitable. The important thing is to strive to ensure that the best people are retained and encourage creativity and risk taking. As far as current economic conditions, he was more concerned about the banking problems and he expects the current downturn not to last as long as predicted because everything toady moves at a much faster pace than in the past. After this encouraging news, it was time to hit the trade floor again.

Passing by the B & M booth, we noticed a new trophy. Many companies submit new products or services to IAAPA for consideration due to a revolutionary idea that benefits the entire amusement industry. Even though they have introduced many creative new products, they prefer to maintain a low profile and let their finished products speak for themselves. This year IAAPA surprised them with the Impact Award recognizing the effects they have had on the industry over the years. Appropriately sitting on a car from Behemoth, this is a well deserved pat on the back from their peers in the business.

Something else that caught our eye was the Aquatram from Hopkins Rides. Basically an underwater carousel, with proper theming this can be a truly immersive dark ride experience.

Passengers board by descending a spiral staircase into a passenger capsule with portholes. As the ride rotates, the capsules can bob up and down in the water independently of each other.

Of course, as with any dark ride, audio and video inputs for each capsule can be synchronized to the outside decorations. An interesting evolution of the Aquatram already installed in Les Grand Aquarium in France, hopefully we will get one of these in North America soon.

Seeing these cute critters, we had to stop while they were still receiving visitors. Monkey Business Productions is celebrating their tenth year in the “monkey business” with several impressive credits on their resume. These two baboons will definite take offense if you call anyone else a baboon in their presence. Dagne, the elder enjoys showing off and is very affectionate with Opy, the baby.

Opy’s specialty is just looking cute, at which he excels. So the next time you want to really want to prove you work with a bunch of monkeys, you know who to call.

If you prefer your animals to be of the cartoon variety, you can also find them at the IAAPA Expo. The Chase Group works with Audrey Geisel to bring her deceased husband’s fantasies to everyone as three dimensional bronze castings.

Whether you prefer the Cat in The Hat or that holiday favorite, The Grinch, your dreams can come true. Available in either life-sized or larger, these would be the perfect addition to the young children’s section of your local library. While Carol thought this would be a perfect addition to her garden, luckily for Scott the seats were in the van so there wasn’t any room. Maybe next year.

While we have broached the subject of Christmas, how about a company that works it all year long. Every day has something to do with Christmas at North Pole Productions. Their company mission is to create memorable holiday experiences, and they have the decorations to prove it.

They offer design, build, installation, removal, and storage for all you outdoor holiday needs. For this booth, Carol wouldn’t even let Scott take a catalog after President Tammy Peters mentioned a discount on shipping!

We will finish off today’s report with another award winning booth. The Best Small Exhibit was earned by Bleeding Art Industries. This beautiful scene projects an air of tranquility amid the hustle and bustle of the show floor. Using flat screens artfully merged into the sculpture, the bubbles floating towards the ceiling, and the soothing music, they don’t have chairs because attendees might sit down and never leave.
They use advanced techniques to combine different media into a peaceful place. The calming colors required that they wear contrasting shirts so they stand out against their backdrop. Here is a picture of the booth empty, and with most of the team. Outstanding work which was all done in house, hopefully some parks looking for impressive place setting will place an order north of the border.

So that wraps up another busy day. There were many other things to see and do, but we only have time for the highlights. Next report will be sometime on Thursday, just when we have no idea.

Scott and Carol

New Diamondback Photos

Kings Island sent out a new batch of Diamondback construction photos. Let's have a look!

Now that's a first drop!

Another track section waiting to go up.

^ Work continues on the ride's station, most of the basic framing looks to be up at this point.

New Laser Photos

One of our readers was kind enough to send in some photos they've taken of the removal of Laser from Dorney Park. A great big thank you for the contribution!

Taken last night, we can see that the first loop is 3/4 of the way removed at this point.

Another shot from last night, you can see they have set up work lights to be able to work longer days. Half of the first helix is gone now, too.

Above and the rest of the photos are from this past weekend, some nice shots of the ride coming down.

Thanks again to T.G. for their contribution!

Dorney Park 2009: Snoopy Rocks On Ice

The Morning Call has an article today about Dorney Park's plans for the 2009 season. The main new feature will be the Good Time Theater, which will hold the Snoopy Rocks on Ice show 6 days a week from June to Labor Day.

The 18,000 square foot, 600 seat building will be located near the park's main entrance, where the current outside-the-gates food pavilion is located. The article also mentions that the new theater will host something for The Haunt come next fall.

The attraction, clearly aimed at families, will be a nice relief on hot days, as the facility will be indoors and air conditioned.

The 2009 season will be the park's 125th.

Scott And Carol Present Tuesday at IAAPA

Our first stop on the show floor was the booth of the Coney Island Development Corporation. This is the people wearing white hats in the battle over real estate in Brooklyn.

They are trying to preserve the heritage of America’s First Playground, Coney Island. Lynn Kelly, President, was at the booth when we stopped by and she invites all the News Plus Notes readers to visit their website at http://www.thecidc.org/ and read all the news they want about their attempt to preserve this historical treasure.

There still should be places in America where everyone can go to enjoy some seaside amusement rides, not just those who can afford to buy a waterfront condominium.

Right now the CIDC is reaching out to the amusement industry for a white knight who will partner with them to restore the luster of Coney Island.

A pleasant surprise was our encounter with Frank Kozel, owner of Perky’s Pizza. We usually aren’t impressed with amusement facility pizza but if you walk by a stand that advertises Perky’s, it is well worth a taste. With over 600 locations serving it up, it shouldn’t be too hard to find. It was amazingly good for as fast as they served it up. We tried the pepperoni and will try some of their other offerings during the 2009 season. A full service solution provider, we hope they come to a park nearer to us soon.

S & S Power Sports showed a car from Steel Hawg, the new coaster at Indiana Beach.

They are also developing a new coaster concept similar to an old Schwarzkopf concept of many years ago. Here is a photo and a video of the new design:


The also had art showing the cars for the F1 coaster being built at Dubai.

The new coaster being built in China by Martin & Vleminckx is China’s first wooden roller coaster and is a joint venture between Gravity Group and M & V. What a sweet looking ride. No word yet on whether this might be the inaugural installation of GG’s new Timberliner trains.

The company had a model of the Boardwalk Bullet wooden coaster at Kemah Boardwalk on display.

We finished our day listening to a panel discussion from several Disney alumni. From left to right, Marty Sklar, Steve Baker, Van Romans, Ron Miziker, Chris Brown, Darrell Metzger, Andy Mandell, Bob Rogers. Moderated by Marty Sklar and Bob Rogers, they answered two questions:

The first question was what did you learn from Disney that you used the most in your new career away from the mouse? Some of the answers included the oft mentioned quality standards, the idea of starting with a blank sheet of paper for a new project, and the fact that breakthrough ideas never come through customer research. By general consensus, the most important was to develop a passion for your product throughout your entire team. Interestingly, it was brought up that the entertainment company that had a culture most like Disney was the Hershend Family Entertainment Company.

The second question was what have you learned since you left that you would like to have been able to tell Disney that might improve the company? The answers contained reducing bureaucracy by pushing decision making down to the lowest level, being able to take risks and accepting failure, and to make sure you spend enough money to get the quality you want. These are all interesting ideas that many organizations should consider during these trying economic times.

Well that’s enough for one day; we will have more news and views tomorrow.

Gravity Group Update

As promised, here are the images!

Scott And Carol Present: The Gravity Group Announcement

The Gravity Group is renowned for their unparalleled wooden coaster designs that have won numerous Golden Tickets awards. They have designed more wooden roller coasters than any other company in business if you include their designs from past years. Today they turn their attention to the design of the rolling stock for the next generation of wooden roller coaster technology. The new cars are called Timberliners.

“Timberliners incorporate new technology, such as magnetic braking and restraint monitoring, that weren’t even imagined when wooden coaster cars were first developed,“ according to Mike Graham, who was the lead engineer for the project. We have applied our expertise to sixteen different design criteria that addresses many criteria including maintenance, safety, rider comfort, and ride capacity.”

Some of the key features of the trains included:

• Single bench seating, for improved turning radius
• Shock absorption, for rider comfort
• New restraint design, for safety, security, and quicker loading/unloading times
• The new restraint design also provides the ability to monitor the restraints meeting ASTM F2291 Class 5 requirements.
• The new design also has the ability to incorporate magnetic braking, launch systems, and on board sound capability.

Kory Kiepert adds, “We evaluated fifteen different train configurations during this process. We started with a blank sheet of paper for this project. Timberliners are available for the 2009 season through a sister company, Gravitycraft.

Sorry for the lack of images, hopefully The Gravity Group glitch will get fix and we'll post them this evening.

Earlier today IAAPA inducted three new members into its Hall of Fame. The new members are Edgard Meeus, Arto Monaco, and Larry Cochran. Edgard Meeus was instrumental in the growth of Walibi World in Belgium. Arto Monaco was a principal in the founding of Santa’s Workshop in Wilmington, NY and the Land of Makebelieve in Upper Jay, NJ. They were both was inducted posthumously Larry Cochran has served the Six Flags corporation in various capacities and was able to receive his award in person.

Now it’s time to peruse the floor and find interesting people to talk to and take a few pictures of all the new attractions. We hope to have another update later today of what we’ve seen.

Cedar Fair's 2009 Capital Expenditures

Cedar Fair has announced via press release their full 2009 capital expenditure program. The company will spend a total of $62 million for the 2009 season, considerably lower than previous years.

Diamondback is the focus of the release, along with Prowler and Carolina Cobra. Kings Dominion is listed as adding two family rides, El Dorado and the Americana ferris wheel, both from the closed Geauga Lake. A third ride was expected to be added to Kings Dominion, but appears to have been cancelled.

Dorney Park is also listed as receiving a new ice show, and the All Wheels Extreme show will be headed to several properties next year. It's crystal clear as this point, for the record, that California's Great America will not see a new wooden coaster next year.