Monday, April 28, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Zoombezi Bay Update 4.25.08
I swung by the zoo the other day and took some construction pictures. There is still a ton of work to do but the good news is it was 6:30pm on a Friday when I stopped by and they were still hard at work. It appears as though all of the major slides are done so the majority of work left to do is the ride side. Rides I could see: wooden coaster, swinging ship ride, flyers, and a log flume. Enjoy the pictures.
Looks like there are 10 major slides:
Sea Splash tower complex (7 slides):
Slippery Seals 3 body slides (dark blue, aqua, and green all starting from the highest point)
Sea Snakes 2 bowl slides with one or two person rafts (orange and yellow and blue and yellow)
Sea Tubes 2 raft slides loading on same level as bowl slides (green and aqua)
Cyclone is the tornado slide (yellow and blue). Launching from the same tower is Tahitian Twister family raft ride (blue and black).
Dolphin Dash is the six person racer.
Sounds like a pretty good line-up for a brand new park. Hopefully there will be an animal element in the future like the Dolphin slide at Sea World's Aquatica.
View all photos here:
http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb185/ntweisen/Zoombezi%20Bay%20Construction/
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Best Wac-a-Mole Ever!
Check out this twist on the classic Wac-a-Mole game at the new Hard Rock Park opening in Myrtle Beach this year:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2017/2418495900_1c88c47921.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2017/2418495900_1c88c47921.jpg
Monday, April 21, 2008
Amusement Parks Today
The amusement park visitor of today is vastly different than the visitor of yesteryear. Visitors, especially the younger generations, are expecting more and more customized entertainment experiences. The days of the passive viewer are over. Today is all about interaction and choices. The quickening pace of daily living combined with advance in personal technology and the rapidly changing media landscape all contribute to reshape what guests are expecting out of amusement parks. There’s an erosion of patience. People’s tolerance for waiting in lines is decreasing at a rapid rate. To address shifting tastes, the broader amusement park industry will have to rewrite its operating rules.
Guests of amusement parks today want instant gratification, personalization, and interaction. They want to add their own input to an attraction. Disney has already come up with some attractions to cater to these needs: Toy Story Mania, Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor, and Turtle Talk with Crush. Toy Story Mania is so advanced its computers will accommodate riders of various skill levels. Some parks may not be able to afford such costly attractions. Alternatives: Mack Splash Battle, Sally interactive rides, Hydro-fighter coasters, Kuka Robotic Arm rides.
You could write another article on the different queue systems to reduce waiting times. Another solution is merely to build higher capacity rides. There has also been more stress recently on quality over quantity. Guests nowadays are more interested in riding a ‘fun’ ride, not a record break that lasts less than 20 seconds.
What is the cause of this? Personal technology. Video games such as the Wii. When you have such an interactive game at home, visitors at parks expect games that are at the very least just as advanced, if not more so.
Guests of amusement parks today want instant gratification, personalization, and interaction. They want to add their own input to an attraction. Disney has already come up with some attractions to cater to these needs: Toy Story Mania, Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor, and Turtle Talk with Crush. Toy Story Mania is so advanced its computers will accommodate riders of various skill levels. Some parks may not be able to afford such costly attractions. Alternatives: Mack Splash Battle, Sally interactive rides, Hydro-fighter coasters, Kuka Robotic Arm rides.
You could write another article on the different queue systems to reduce waiting times. Another solution is merely to build higher capacity rides. There has also been more stress recently on quality over quantity. Guests nowadays are more interested in riding a ‘fun’ ride, not a record break that lasts less than 20 seconds.
What is the cause of this? Personal technology. Video games such as the Wii. When you have such an interactive game at home, visitors at parks expect games that are at the very least just as advanced, if not more so.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Better Quit While I'm aHEAD
Check out this video of the Mr Potato Head animatronic outside of the new ride Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney's California Adventure. I especially love the part where he takes off his ear and puts it back on. Amazing.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Wacky Waterslides
Check out these cool and wacky wild waterslides:
http://freizeitparkweb.de/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=346&forum=DCForumID74
http://www.klarer.com/downloads/englisch/klarer_news_edition%2001.pdf
Looks like a German company is trying to come up with an inverting slide, or near inversion, the pictures look more like it is an inclined loop seen on several B&M stand-up coasters. I especially like the high-fly slide concept. Why haven't any of these been installed in the states? I bet it has to do with safety concerns...
http://freizeitparkweb.de/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=346&forum=DCForumID74
http://www.klarer.com/downloads/englisch/klarer_news_edition%2001.pdf
Looks like a German company is trying to come up with an inverting slide, or near inversion, the pictures look more like it is an inclined loop seen on several B&M stand-up coasters. I especially like the high-fly slide concept. Why haven't any of these been installed in the states? I bet it has to do with safety concerns...
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