We visited Six Flags' Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, on Wednesday. It was our first visit to that park in two years. We planned on going earlier this summer, but with 100 degree heat much of the season, it just wasn't happening. As it worked out, going in mid-August was a good experience. Not too hot and not overly crowded, right before school starts.
Great America started its existence as "Marriot's Great America". I know this because I was a teenager when it opened. Back then it attempted to be a bit more of a theme park with a handful of thrill rides. The log flume and the boat flume rides that were there at opening are still there. They actually sort of fit the theming. The Whizzer "Family" coaster was there back then, too. Then it was called "Willard's Whizzer". It's the same coaster, though.
Now it's a thrill ride park with a nod to the themes of each land. And not much of a nod. The log ride was and is in a part of the park called "Yukon Territory", and the boat flume ride, called "Yankee Clipper" was and is still in a part of the park called "Yankee Harbor". Aside from those two rides, however, rides don't have much relation to the part of the park where they're located. For example, the "Southwest Territory" area contains coasters called the Viper (a wooden coaster) and the Raging Bull (a big steel coaster). The Southwest Territory has nice theming in the buildings, but really, that's about it.
Orleans Place and Mardi Gras sections (separate sections according to the park guide map) are both themed like New Orleans. What rides might you expect to find in New Orleans? A swamp tour, maybe? A riverboat? A streetcar? These sections house The Dark Knight indoor dark coaster, Superman: Ultimate Flight (a flying coaster), the Condor (a spinning ride that raises you 112 feet in the air) and Roaring Rapids (a whitewater raft ride). There are bumper cars called Rue Le Dodge and a spinning coaster (think Primeval Whirl) called the Ragin' Cajun. Again, the buildings are nicely themed, but that's pretty much it.
Other sections of the park include the County Fair, Hometown Square, and Carousel Plaza. The park features a waterpark called Hurricane Harbor.
None of this affected my sons' enjoyment of the 7 coasters they rode. (I myself only rode one - the new X-Flight wing coaster - and my neck told me that no more coasters would be ridden that day.) It's a thrill park. I guess those "lands" are convenient markers for the map, but not much else today.
I'm still trying to figure out what Batman: The Ride has to do with Yankee Harbor, however.
*****
Showing posts with label Midwest Amusement Parks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Midwest Amusement Parks. Show all posts
Friday, August 17, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Compare and Contrast
It's been interesting, having gone to three distinct amusement/theme parks in the span of about 2 weeks, to note the differing approaches these parks take to satisfying their guests. At the end of May, we went to Michigan's Adventure, an amusement park with classic thrill rides. In early June, we went to both Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando, two sets of parks that depend on theming to entertain the customers.
Michigan's Adventure has moderate thrill rides and almost no theming. Their marquee ride, Shivering Timbers, is a huge wooden rollercoaster that sort of fits in with the way the park sort of just appears in the middle of the forest. They have another ride, a whitewater raft experience called Grand Rapids, which of course is the name of a city in Michigan (President Gerald Ford was from there). Their one and only indoor, sit-down restaurant is called Coaster's. It's sort of themed like a 50's diner.
Then you go to Disney, and you get story and theming around every corner. I don't have to talk too much about it on this blog; anyone reading probably knows as much or more about what Disney has to offer than I do. There are thrills to be found here: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Mission: Space, Rock'n'Roller Coaster, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - all are moderate (at least) thrill rides. But all depend on theming to make them more than just a rollercoaster with inversions, than a drop-ride, than a log flume, than a dark coaster - to make them memorable and repeatable.
Going over to Universal Studios, we find a few more thrill rides like Hollywood Rip-Rocket, Revenge of the Mummy, and even The Simpsons Ride. Again, their rides depend on theming to make them memorable. Each delivers a fairly unique experience. Their theming uses a certain edginess, a certain hip-ness, that you don't find at Disney, and that a place like Michigan's Adventure doesn't even try to use. The jokes are different - often aimed at adults and older teens. There's a blog post in there, somewhere, comparing the "feel" of the Universal Studios Resort parks and the Disney parks. But I don't know if I'm ready to write it.
I for one don't connect to either Michigan's Adventure, or Universal Studios in the same way I do to Disney. I did feel that connection over at Islands of Adventure, but that was a year and a half ago, and I think much of it was due to the current-ness of the Harry Potter movies and the timeless feel of Dr. Seuss and some of the other properties they used there.
Our next trip will likely feature more visits to Universal and maybe even none to a Disney park. If it happens that way, it will be because of Disney's all-or-nothing pricing policy, where it doesn't make sense to buy a two or three day ticket instead of a 6 or 7 day pass. Orlando and central Florida have more to offer than Disney, but we have discovered very little of it. So I'll see if those parks seem to foster more of a connection in the future.
*****
Michigan's Adventure has moderate thrill rides and almost no theming. Their marquee ride, Shivering Timbers, is a huge wooden rollercoaster that sort of fits in with the way the park sort of just appears in the middle of the forest. They have another ride, a whitewater raft experience called Grand Rapids, which of course is the name of a city in Michigan (President Gerald Ford was from there). Their one and only indoor, sit-down restaurant is called Coaster's. It's sort of themed like a 50's diner.
Then you go to Disney, and you get story and theming around every corner. I don't have to talk too much about it on this blog; anyone reading probably knows as much or more about what Disney has to offer than I do. There are thrills to be found here: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Mission: Space, Rock'n'Roller Coaster, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - all are moderate (at least) thrill rides. But all depend on theming to make them more than just a rollercoaster with inversions, than a drop-ride, than a log flume, than a dark coaster - to make them memorable and repeatable.
Going over to Universal Studios, we find a few more thrill rides like Hollywood Rip-Rocket, Revenge of the Mummy, and even The Simpsons Ride. Again, their rides depend on theming to make them memorable. Each delivers a fairly unique experience. Their theming uses a certain edginess, a certain hip-ness, that you don't find at Disney, and that a place like Michigan's Adventure doesn't even try to use. The jokes are different - often aimed at adults and older teens. There's a blog post in there, somewhere, comparing the "feel" of the Universal Studios Resort parks and the Disney parks. But I don't know if I'm ready to write it.
I for one don't connect to either Michigan's Adventure, or Universal Studios in the same way I do to Disney. I did feel that connection over at Islands of Adventure, but that was a year and a half ago, and I think much of it was due to the current-ness of the Harry Potter movies and the timeless feel of Dr. Seuss and some of the other properties they used there.
Our next trip will likely feature more visits to Universal and maybe even none to a Disney park. If it happens that way, it will be because of Disney's all-or-nothing pricing policy, where it doesn't make sense to buy a two or three day ticket instead of a 6 or 7 day pass. Orlando and central Florida have more to offer than Disney, but we have discovered very little of it. So I'll see if those parks seem to foster more of a connection in the future.
*****
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Michigan's Adventure 2012
We made our annual pilgrimage to Muskegon, Michigan, and as usual, the trip included a visit to Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park.
The park is owned by Cedar Fair, and it was a great weekend to go. Everyone else must be picnicking or out on their boats, because there were short to no lines. They have 7 coasters, including Thunder Hawk, which they describe as a two seat version of one of Cedar Point's popular coasters (can't think of the Cedar Point coaster's name), and Shivering Timbers, one of the largest straight line wooden coasters in the country. (I think they say it's the third largest in the US.)
It was opening weekend there, and so the park is nice and clean and everything is running. Sometimes it seemed like there were more employees around the place than guests, but then when you look at the parking lot, you realize that there must be a LOT of people in the wet parts of the park - the water park (included in the admission price) and the Adventure Falls/Grand Rapids section. Their Grand Rapids raft ride (one of the few that my kids didn't go on) was the only one I saw with a substantial line.
It's an interesting attraction in that it seems to literally be in the middle of nowhere. You're driving north of Muskegon on a tree-lined divided highway (US 31) and finally you see a sign for Russell Road and Michigan's Adventure, and so you get off the highway (which seemed already like you were in the middle of a deep woods), and drive a little distance through forested lands, seeing a few ramshackle houses along the road, and then on your right, you see the long wooden trestles of Shivering Timbers and the entrance to the parking lot - also seemingly in the middle of a deep woods. It comes out of nowhere...almost literally. I tried to post a satellite view of the location from Google Maps but can't figure out how to do so, so, if you are interested, go here: https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=michigan's+adventure&ie=UTF-8
I know it gets busier later in the summer, because we've been there in mid-August and the lines for rides are substantial. This is not a Disney type of park; there aren't any shows and very little cohesive theming. It's focused on the rides and on the water park. Still, it's a fun park to visit, and we will likely continue to visit it in the future...
*****
The park is owned by Cedar Fair, and it was a great weekend to go. Everyone else must be picnicking or out on their boats, because there were short to no lines. They have 7 coasters, including Thunder Hawk, which they describe as a two seat version of one of Cedar Point's popular coasters (can't think of the Cedar Point coaster's name), and Shivering Timbers, one of the largest straight line wooden coasters in the country. (I think they say it's the third largest in the US.)
It was opening weekend there, and so the park is nice and clean and everything is running. Sometimes it seemed like there were more employees around the place than guests, but then when you look at the parking lot, you realize that there must be a LOT of people in the wet parts of the park - the water park (included in the admission price) and the Adventure Falls/Grand Rapids section. Their Grand Rapids raft ride (one of the few that my kids didn't go on) was the only one I saw with a substantial line.
It's an interesting attraction in that it seems to literally be in the middle of nowhere. You're driving north of Muskegon on a tree-lined divided highway (US 31) and finally you see a sign for Russell Road and Michigan's Adventure, and so you get off the highway (which seemed already like you were in the middle of a deep woods), and drive a little distance through forested lands, seeing a few ramshackle houses along the road, and then on your right, you see the long wooden trestles of Shivering Timbers and the entrance to the parking lot - also seemingly in the middle of a deep woods. It comes out of nowhere...almost literally. I tried to post a satellite view of the location from Google Maps but can't figure out how to do so, so, if you are interested, go here: https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=michigan's+adventure&ie=UTF-8
I know it gets busier later in the summer, because we've been there in mid-August and the lines for rides are substantial. This is not a Disney type of park; there aren't any shows and very little cohesive theming. It's focused on the rides and on the water park. Still, it's a fun park to visit, and we will likely continue to visit it in the future...
*****
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Other Parks: Six Flags Great America
We made our annual pilgrimage to Six Flags' Great America yesterday. We do this because our sons, avid readers (at least during the school year) both, each earned a free ticket. And the park currently is offering a special where if you buy your tickets at Jewel or online, you pay kids' prices. So off we went.
One of my favorite things about the park is this carousel as you walk through their entrance gates. I think it's striking, a park icon of almost (though not quite) Disney quality. It goes back to the original park, when it was Marriot's Great America, and was actually themed to be a mini-USA. I have fond memories of the way the park was in those days when it was brand spanking new. It was not the steel jungle of roller coasters that it is today (they said on the train ride that they have 14 roller coasters, the newest of which is a small wooden coaster that used to be at Kiddieland, called the Little Dipper), and though there were thrill rides in the park, it was milder stuff. The log ride and the boat ride were both there back then, as they are today, and the Whizzer (then called Willard's Whizzer) was on the premises, as were some of the smaller rides like the Orbit (then the Orleans Orbit), the rotating observation platform that ascends its tower, and of course, the train.
They used to have this towering Ferris Wheel, with three arms, and each arm held a Ferris Wheel that rotated independently of the other two. They'd haul us up in the air, turning, as they loaded the next arm's wheel. Great views, and a great place to take your dates. They used to have a roller coaster called "Turn of the Century", which did some corkscrews and was probably their biggest thrill ride at the time. That got replaced by "The Demon", a coaster that does a couple of looks to go with the corkscrew inversions, and is still there today.
Shows were a big part of the park then. "Hometown Square" featured a big theater where singers/dancers would perform a musical tribute to this era, or that era, depending on what the theme was that year. There was always a big parade midday, and Looney Tune characters were all over the place (they still are). There was an iMax theater that is still present also, but was a much bigger deal then (the technology was really new back then).
This year, we went on the Whizzer, the Demon and the American Eagle (their large wooden coaster). We went on Logger's Run once and the Yankee Harbor Boats twice. The boys did the Chubasco Teacups and the Condor and a couple other minor rides. And we took a train ride, for old time's sake, around the whole park. I think that maybe I liked that ride best.
They claim the title of "World's Cleanest Theme Park", which is interesting. Yes, there is no garbage laying around, there are plenty of supervisors walking around with their claws and brooms and such, sweeping up just like the custodial staff. But when you look just off the path, you notice that there really isn't a lot of attention paid to the landscaping. Dirt, gravel, and branches take the place of nicely trimmed grass or groundcover. There are flowers in some places, but not in too many places. All in all, I'd say any Disney park is better kept up and manicured than this place.
But that's not why people are there. They are there for the big roller coasters, like Raging Bull, the Iron Wolf, Batman and Superman coasters, and V2 (Vertical Velocity). That's just to name a couple of their bigger rides.
I still like the image of the carousel best, I think.
*****
Monday, July 12, 2010
What I didn't take into consideration...
About 6 months ago I was writing a whole bunch of entries about my pipe dream of developing a theme park in my hometown, near Chicago, Illinois. (Disclaimer: Even as I wrote them, I figured the chance of me actually doing anything about this dream was about .001% - only because there's about the same chance that I might become an astronaut someday...so this was pretty much all a thought experiment.) (If you want to read them look at my December and January archives.)
Anyway, I was on vacation last week in New York City (more blog entries to come about things from that trip that may or may not relate to Disney...) and read my newest acquisition, Project Future, by Chad Denver Emerson on the flight there and then before bed for a few nights, finishing it on Wednesday (I think). A very interesting, if a bit dry, book about the process of getting Walt Disney World's construction off the ground, in the purchasing phase of the project, and in the legislative phase also, which I'll be writing about in a little more depth in the future.
But it occurred to me as I read it that there was something I neglected to take into consideration as I wrote my arguments (with myself) that it was possible to develop such a theme park in my part of the country: the guests, customers, whatever you want to call them. What would make them want to come here?
When Disney opened their theme park in California, it was really the only game in town. There were certainly other amusement parks in California, and in the United States, but NOTHING like Disney, which was a place where one could go to experience the worlds of those beloved films that had been produced by the studios. That "new" communication medium, television, was also available to promote the parks, and Walt Disney used it effectively, before anyone else really even knew its power.
So I think Disneyland did become a destination, not just because of the park but because of the location of the park, in a part of the United States that was a desirable vacation destination. And when Walt Disney decided to build the Florida Project, he was thinking in terms of creating another huge tourist destination. "Control" was a word used a lot throughout the Project Future book. He didn't want the cheesy motels and food stands that had blighted his park in California. He wanted guests to come stay with him for a while, and go home satisfied. Even after his death, a lot of the strategy focused on making WDW a tourist destination rather than simply a stop. And it was a strategy that worked.
So what would make a theme park in my part of the country a "destination"? Unfortunately, nothing, at least not the way I've imagined it. I've been thinking in terms of a single indoor theme park with a high level of quality attractions enclosed and a strong overriding theme. I've been thinking of a single hotel, possibly attached to the park. I've been thinking of an indoor/outdoor water park attached to the hotel, accessible to hotel guests and as part of the park ticket. I've been thinking about a botanical gardens/greenhouse complex, a walk-through attraction aside from the park. Is that enough?
I don't think so. If it were, Six Flags Great America would be a destination. It's a fun amusement park with a low level of theming, with an attached water park included with park admission, and a ton of hotels around it. There is a large shopping complex/outlet mall called Gurnee Mills. And though I'm not aware of everything in the area, I am pretty sure there are a bunch of low level tourist-trap type things to do.
The Wisconsin Dells is a tourist destination, mostly due to their mix of huge water park hotels, their nature based outdoor activities (boat tours of the Dells and "Duck" tours of the area), a couple of smaller amusement parks, and plenty of tourist trap activities like miniature golf and go-carts and panning for "gemstones", not to mention a winery and an Indian casino nearby and the Tommy Bartlett Water Show and a ski "resort" (Christmas Mountain) all in the area. It's an area that gets plenty of traffic, albeit mostly from the surrounding midwest states, year around.
What is there to recommend my town as a destination other than my imaginary park and entertainment complex? Well, there is a nice minor league baseball stadium with a pretty bad independent Northern League baseball team playing there. There are two casinos, a Harrah's and the Empress casinos. There is a world class city within an hour of the area, and a lot of other attractions within 45 minutes. But not much right here.
Why would people choose to stay at my imagined hotel? Answer: They probably wouldn't. There just isn't enough to recommend the park or the area as a long term destination, long weekend or week-long trip. It's the part I really didn't think about enough.
More thought is needed on this subject. Thanks for reading, if you got this far...
Anyway, I was on vacation last week in New York City (more blog entries to come about things from that trip that may or may not relate to Disney...) and read my newest acquisition, Project Future, by Chad Denver Emerson on the flight there and then before bed for a few nights, finishing it on Wednesday (I think). A very interesting, if a bit dry, book about the process of getting Walt Disney World's construction off the ground, in the purchasing phase of the project, and in the legislative phase also, which I'll be writing about in a little more depth in the future.
But it occurred to me as I read it that there was something I neglected to take into consideration as I wrote my arguments (with myself) that it was possible to develop such a theme park in my part of the country: the guests, customers, whatever you want to call them. What would make them want to come here?
When Disney opened their theme park in California, it was really the only game in town. There were certainly other amusement parks in California, and in the United States, but NOTHING like Disney, which was a place where one could go to experience the worlds of those beloved films that had been produced by the studios. That "new" communication medium, television, was also available to promote the parks, and Walt Disney used it effectively, before anyone else really even knew its power.
So I think Disneyland did become a destination, not just because of the park but because of the location of the park, in a part of the United States that was a desirable vacation destination. And when Walt Disney decided to build the Florida Project, he was thinking in terms of creating another huge tourist destination. "Control" was a word used a lot throughout the Project Future book. He didn't want the cheesy motels and food stands that had blighted his park in California. He wanted guests to come stay with him for a while, and go home satisfied. Even after his death, a lot of the strategy focused on making WDW a tourist destination rather than simply a stop. And it was a strategy that worked.
So what would make a theme park in my part of the country a "destination"? Unfortunately, nothing, at least not the way I've imagined it. I've been thinking in terms of a single indoor theme park with a high level of quality attractions enclosed and a strong overriding theme. I've been thinking of a single hotel, possibly attached to the park. I've been thinking of an indoor/outdoor water park attached to the hotel, accessible to hotel guests and as part of the park ticket. I've been thinking about a botanical gardens/greenhouse complex, a walk-through attraction aside from the park. Is that enough?
I don't think so. If it were, Six Flags Great America would be a destination. It's a fun amusement park with a low level of theming, with an attached water park included with park admission, and a ton of hotels around it. There is a large shopping complex/outlet mall called Gurnee Mills. And though I'm not aware of everything in the area, I am pretty sure there are a bunch of low level tourist-trap type things to do.
The Wisconsin Dells is a tourist destination, mostly due to their mix of huge water park hotels, their nature based outdoor activities (boat tours of the Dells and "Duck" tours of the area), a couple of smaller amusement parks, and plenty of tourist trap activities like miniature golf and go-carts and panning for "gemstones", not to mention a winery and an Indian casino nearby and the Tommy Bartlett Water Show and a ski "resort" (Christmas Mountain) all in the area. It's an area that gets plenty of traffic, albeit mostly from the surrounding midwest states, year around.
What is there to recommend my town as a destination other than my imaginary park and entertainment complex? Well, there is a nice minor league baseball stadium with a pretty bad independent Northern League baseball team playing there. There are two casinos, a Harrah's and the Empress casinos. There is a world class city within an hour of the area, and a lot of other attractions within 45 minutes. But not much right here.
Why would people choose to stay at my imagined hotel? Answer: They probably wouldn't. There just isn't enough to recommend the park or the area as a long term destination, long weekend or week-long trip. It's the part I really didn't think about enough.
More thought is needed on this subject. Thanks for reading, if you got this far...
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Disney Dining and other stuff...
*****
Our 180 day window for making our Disney dining reservations has opened. Actually we thought we would be able to book all of our reservations, but we are too early for the later days of the trip. So...we wanted to go to Le Cellier on our first night there. But alas, it is not to be. Le Cellier has no availability for that Saturday.
We're only about 2 or 3 days past the day when one could make such a reservation, but I guess it books up fast. We were actually sort of shocked. We've made reservations there before at less than 180 days (considerably less, actually) and while we might not get the exact time we wanted, we've generally been able to get in at some point on the DAY we've desired. I know it's small, and I know it's popular. But...wow!
So we're going to try Coral Reef on our first night. When we were last there, my wife got so sick that she doesn't remember much about it, and consequently, neither do I. What I do remember about it was that my food was pretty good and our service was outstanding that night. So we'll see how it is this time. We've also got reservations for California Grill and Boma (for breakfast). We'll be getting the other ones in line in the next couple of days.
*****
We're going to be traveling to New York City this summer, and we've booked one Broadway show. Bet you can't figure out which show it is.
Did you guess Mary Poppins? If so, you got it right. We've seen it in Chicago, but we needed something kid-friendly and we all loved it when we saw it at the Cadillac Theater in Chicago. I'm looking forward to seeing the theater that Disney renovated there. I'm sure it will be incredible!
*****
For my birthday my sister-in-law gave me two tickets to the musical Billy Elliot, which was playing at Chicago's Oriental Theater, another beautifully restored venue in the Second City. I didn't know what to expect, and I felt like it started off slow, but it turned into an engrossing story about a boy from a coal-mining family who has an aptitude for and a love of dance, specifically ballet. This is set against the historical backdrop of the coal-miners' strike in (I believe) the 1970's.
A young man from my hometown had one of the main parts. His name was Patrick Mulvey and I know his father and his aunt quite well, having gone to high school with them. I was glad to see Patrick (who I don't know) do so well.
I know this was a movie, but I had never seen it. It's hard to imagine it as anything but a musical. Elton John did a terrific job with the music.
*****
Last year I wrote a post about Kiddieland, one of the nation's oldest amusement parks, closing due to a dispute between two sides of the family. The owners of the park had wanted to sell the rides as a package, hoping that someone would see fit to open another incarnation of Kiddieland in some other location. I guess they were not successful in finding a buyer. But I heard recently, then saw an ad today, that Six Flags Great America had bought their old wooden roller coaster, called the Little Dipper. I don't know where they are putting it, but I'm sure it will look really nice with maybe a fresh coat of paint and some good maintenance.
*****
We're going to visit Michigan's Adventure soon, with their collections of smaller coasters and other rides. I'll post something about how that park looks this year after our visit.
*****
Have a great Memorial Day!
******
Our 180 day window for making our Disney dining reservations has opened. Actually we thought we would be able to book all of our reservations, but we are too early for the later days of the trip. So...we wanted to go to Le Cellier on our first night there. But alas, it is not to be. Le Cellier has no availability for that Saturday.
We're only about 2 or 3 days past the day when one could make such a reservation, but I guess it books up fast. We were actually sort of shocked. We've made reservations there before at less than 180 days (considerably less, actually) and while we might not get the exact time we wanted, we've generally been able to get in at some point on the DAY we've desired. I know it's small, and I know it's popular. But...wow!
So we're going to try Coral Reef on our first night. When we were last there, my wife got so sick that she doesn't remember much about it, and consequently, neither do I. What I do remember about it was that my food was pretty good and our service was outstanding that night. So we'll see how it is this time. We've also got reservations for California Grill and Boma (for breakfast). We'll be getting the other ones in line in the next couple of days.
*****
We're going to be traveling to New York City this summer, and we've booked one Broadway show. Bet you can't figure out which show it is.
Did you guess Mary Poppins? If so, you got it right. We've seen it in Chicago, but we needed something kid-friendly and we all loved it when we saw it at the Cadillac Theater in Chicago. I'm looking forward to seeing the theater that Disney renovated there. I'm sure it will be incredible!
*****
For my birthday my sister-in-law gave me two tickets to the musical Billy Elliot, which was playing at Chicago's Oriental Theater, another beautifully restored venue in the Second City. I didn't know what to expect, and I felt like it started off slow, but it turned into an engrossing story about a boy from a coal-mining family who has an aptitude for and a love of dance, specifically ballet. This is set against the historical backdrop of the coal-miners' strike in (I believe) the 1970's.
A young man from my hometown had one of the main parts. His name was Patrick Mulvey and I know his father and his aunt quite well, having gone to high school with them. I was glad to see Patrick (who I don't know) do so well.
I know this was a movie, but I had never seen it. It's hard to imagine it as anything but a musical. Elton John did a terrific job with the music.
*****
Last year I wrote a post about Kiddieland, one of the nation's oldest amusement parks, closing due to a dispute between two sides of the family. The owners of the park had wanted to sell the rides as a package, hoping that someone would see fit to open another incarnation of Kiddieland in some other location. I guess they were not successful in finding a buyer. But I heard recently, then saw an ad today, that Six Flags Great America had bought their old wooden roller coaster, called the Little Dipper. I don't know where they are putting it, but I'm sure it will look really nice with maybe a fresh coat of paint and some good maintenance.
*****
We're going to visit Michigan's Adventure soon, with their collections of smaller coasters and other rides. I'll post something about how that park looks this year after our visit.
*****
Have a great Memorial Day!
******
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
What's the difference?
Two posts in one day! How about that! But I'm not going to be around for the weekend, and I wanted to continue my train of thought on this theme park development thread, so here goes:
I have been thinking about WDW and Disneyland Resorts in relation to other parks around the country, and wondering, what is the difference? Not totally from simply a financial success perspective, but from a little different angle. WDW and DLR are destinations; other thrill parks are not.
For my example I used the only thrill park that I am fairly familiar with, that is, Six Flags Great America. It's a lot of fun, and I'm led to believe it is profitable, even if the parent company itself has either filed or is considering filing bankruptcy. And it might even be a destination for some people, sometimes. I don't know of people who make a trip specifically to the area to go to Great America, though I am sure there are people who spend a day or two there in conjunction with a trip to the great city of Chicago, or maybe with visiting family in northern Illinois or southern Wisconsin.
Disney resorts are, on the other hand, destinations in and of themselves. People like me save up for a week at Disney World, spend most of their waking hours at the parks, and eat at their restaurants. Everything's Disney for that week.
At Great America, there is one thrill park, and one water park. There is a large shopping facility nearby called Gurnee Mills, and another enclosed water park close by also. There may be other attractions in the area, but I don't know what they are, and I live here. By comparison, there are four major theme parks, two water parks, shopping and even those other facilities like the Wide World of Sports and the Race Track at WDW.
We haven't even touched on the hotels. Both US resorts have hotels on the grounds with dining options, nice pools, spas, and tons of themed environs to put their guests in the mood for the parks and resorts. Great America has no hotels of their own, though there are plenty of hotels nearby. The hotels help to drive the experience; they become part of the experience at Disney, while they are just utilitarian at Great America.
Disney offers something different; a one-of-a-kind experience for their guests. Both resorts, but especially WDW, are immersive, in that you don't have to leave the grounds. Everything you could want on your vacation is right there. The experiences at the parks are unique as well. There is no park in the world like EPCOT, none like Animal Kingdom, really, either, and there is nowhere that I know of that utilizes the monorail, which may not truly be futuristic transportation anymore, but it still SEEMS like it, and that is KEY. I don't know if Great America offers any sort of character dining; they might, but then again, the Warner Brothers characters just aren't lovable like the Disney pantheon of characters are.
Which brings us to CONTENT. This is probably the most important difference between Disney parks and resorts, and places like Six Flags Great America. Disney has that huge library of movies and characters, and they aren't shy about using our emotional attachment to their stories to pull us into their parks and attractions. Although Great America tries to incorporate Superman and Batman rides into the parks, the themes are lost except for in the very immediate vicinity of the rides themselves. Characters are not enough to bridge this gap; Great America can't use Bugs and Tweety Bird to the same effect as Disney uses its characters and stories.
You really don't have to travel too far to find something like Great America. Thrill ride parks are all around the country. Some are themed better than others. The Hard Rock park in one of the Carolinas has apparently already closed its doors, but it was trying to be themed around music - a pretty loose theme by my estimation. But the point is that if you live in Missouri, you don't travel to Gurnee Illinois to find your thrills, you go to St. Louis, or maybe to Branson. If you live in Ohio, maybe you go to Cincinatti, or maybe up to the Cleveland locale, but you don't drive to Illiois. Etc, etc. You get the point. However, you DO very much fly or drive to Florida or California to experience the Disney difference.
And that, in a lot of words, is why Disney is a destination, and the big thrill parks generally are not. There are exceptions, but Disney gets people from all over, they get repeat customers, and they get people from most demographic segments of society. Perhaps they draw a line at a certain level of affluence, since a Disney vacation is not cheap. But still, they cross over a lot of barriers. They provide an experience that is not duplicated, or even really attempted to be duplicated, by any other park, really, that I know of. (I've not been to Knott's Berry Farm; maybe it does some of this...but not to the level of Disney.)
So, Disney is the model to look at when we're contemplating what sort of park we want to make. Because one of the goals is to become something of a destination, a place where people will travel to visit, maybe as the secondary goal of their trip, but maybe as the primary goal. Again, that's an extremely tall order.
I have been thinking about WDW and Disneyland Resorts in relation to other parks around the country, and wondering, what is the difference? Not totally from simply a financial success perspective, but from a little different angle. WDW and DLR are destinations; other thrill parks are not.
For my example I used the only thrill park that I am fairly familiar with, that is, Six Flags Great America. It's a lot of fun, and I'm led to believe it is profitable, even if the parent company itself has either filed or is considering filing bankruptcy. And it might even be a destination for some people, sometimes. I don't know of people who make a trip specifically to the area to go to Great America, though I am sure there are people who spend a day or two there in conjunction with a trip to the great city of Chicago, or maybe with visiting family in northern Illinois or southern Wisconsin.
Disney resorts are, on the other hand, destinations in and of themselves. People like me save up for a week at Disney World, spend most of their waking hours at the parks, and eat at their restaurants. Everything's Disney for that week.
At Great America, there is one thrill park, and one water park. There is a large shopping facility nearby called Gurnee Mills, and another enclosed water park close by also. There may be other attractions in the area, but I don't know what they are, and I live here. By comparison, there are four major theme parks, two water parks, shopping and even those other facilities like the Wide World of Sports and the Race Track at WDW.
We haven't even touched on the hotels. Both US resorts have hotels on the grounds with dining options, nice pools, spas, and tons of themed environs to put their guests in the mood for the parks and resorts. Great America has no hotels of their own, though there are plenty of hotels nearby. The hotels help to drive the experience; they become part of the experience at Disney, while they are just utilitarian at Great America.
Disney offers something different; a one-of-a-kind experience for their guests. Both resorts, but especially WDW, are immersive, in that you don't have to leave the grounds. Everything you could want on your vacation is right there. The experiences at the parks are unique as well. There is no park in the world like EPCOT, none like Animal Kingdom, really, either, and there is nowhere that I know of that utilizes the monorail, which may not truly be futuristic transportation anymore, but it still SEEMS like it, and that is KEY. I don't know if Great America offers any sort of character dining; they might, but then again, the Warner Brothers characters just aren't lovable like the Disney pantheon of characters are.
Which brings us to CONTENT. This is probably the most important difference between Disney parks and resorts, and places like Six Flags Great America. Disney has that huge library of movies and characters, and they aren't shy about using our emotional attachment to their stories to pull us into their parks and attractions. Although Great America tries to incorporate Superman and Batman rides into the parks, the themes are lost except for in the very immediate vicinity of the rides themselves. Characters are not enough to bridge this gap; Great America can't use Bugs and Tweety Bird to the same effect as Disney uses its characters and stories.
You really don't have to travel too far to find something like Great America. Thrill ride parks are all around the country. Some are themed better than others. The Hard Rock park in one of the Carolinas has apparently already closed its doors, but it was trying to be themed around music - a pretty loose theme by my estimation. But the point is that if you live in Missouri, you don't travel to Gurnee Illinois to find your thrills, you go to St. Louis, or maybe to Branson. If you live in Ohio, maybe you go to Cincinatti, or maybe up to the Cleveland locale, but you don't drive to Illiois. Etc, etc. You get the point. However, you DO very much fly or drive to Florida or California to experience the Disney difference.
And that, in a lot of words, is why Disney is a destination, and the big thrill parks generally are not. There are exceptions, but Disney gets people from all over, they get repeat customers, and they get people from most demographic segments of society. Perhaps they draw a line at a certain level of affluence, since a Disney vacation is not cheap. But still, they cross over a lot of barriers. They provide an experience that is not duplicated, or even really attempted to be duplicated, by any other park, really, that I know of. (I've not been to Knott's Berry Farm; maybe it does some of this...but not to the level of Disney.)
So, Disney is the model to look at when we're contemplating what sort of park we want to make. Because one of the goals is to become something of a destination, a place where people will travel to visit, maybe as the secondary goal of their trip, but maybe as the primary goal. Again, that's an extremely tall order.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
So what's on the agenda for this theme park?
In the last few posts, I sort of convinced myself (if no one else) that designing and developing some sort of themed entertainment concept in my part of the world (the Chicagoland area) is possible and while success isn't a given, it isn't totally impossible, either.
I also argued that there were only two types of layout that would work. One would be to more or less copy EPCOT's basic idea of pavilions separated by beautifully decorated common areas and walkways. All "attractions" are located indoors, with perhaps a few notable exceptions (which haven't been determined at all). The other model would be a totally enclosed structure, sort of like Mall of America, or like what developers tried to do with Old Chicago, a theme park in Bolingbrook, IL.
And in the last post, I considered (very superficially) the reasons for failures of amusement parks around the country, and decided that most of it had to do with the places getting stale. Any park of this sort, or even any museum or attraction, has to depend on repeat business. Change is going to have to drive the attendance of these types of customers/guests. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is popular because they are constantly changing the special exhibits and the films that can be viewed there, and because the permanent exhibits occasionally get updated or redone completely in some cases. (For example, there has always been an exhibit on biology, with a heart model you can walk through, on the mezzanine which has been totally redone, and which my family and I will likely see next weekend.)
I have a couple of ideas for content of this project. I think they can be made sufficiently broad to encompass a lot of quality exhibits and attractions. Whether they can support the kind of change that would be required remains to be thought through.
About a year ago, I posted that we had visited Legoland Schaumburg, located near the very large enclosed shopping mall called Woodfield. Legoland in Illinois is a large enclosed space in a strip mall. They charge something between 20 and 30 bucks to get in. They have a walk through attraction at the beginning, with all sorts of large scale Lego creations. They have a dark ride through a Lego-based story (I can't recall the content now), they have a 3-D theater with an animated Lego-type story, they have a "Lego Factory Tour" where you crowd into a smallish room and see Lego's being "created". There is a play area where kids can build with Legos and run their creations on ramps, similar to the facility in Downtown Disney. There is a snack bar, and a Lego store. There are also, spread throughout the facility, several large scale Lego figures built by their artists.
When I look at what they have to offer, it doesn't sound like much. We'll have to do better than this in our theme park. We have to offer unique attractions that entertain families, that can hold the interest of the teens, and that can be run indoors, since we can't do any massive outdoor types of thrill rides, at least not to start out. It would be cool to add something "like" Rock'n'Roller Coaster later, perhaps, as one of those upgrades, something themed to our park of course.
I don't know how much of my ideas I want to post here. Probably I should just post everything, since I'm non exactly inundated with readers...it's not like anything I post is very likely to end up in the hands of someone else anyway. ("Hey, let's go read that Disney Fan Ramblings blog to get ideas for our new entertainment concept! He's got the best ideas and he's putting them out for us to borrow from freely!!!" Yeah, that's likely to happen...more likely is "Look at the lame ideas this guy has! At last we get some comic relief!" ) Still, I think I'll just keep arguing with myself here and sort of working some of this stuff out in print. Look for more posts on this thread sometime soon...
I also argued that there were only two types of layout that would work. One would be to more or less copy EPCOT's basic idea of pavilions separated by beautifully decorated common areas and walkways. All "attractions" are located indoors, with perhaps a few notable exceptions (which haven't been determined at all). The other model would be a totally enclosed structure, sort of like Mall of America, or like what developers tried to do with Old Chicago, a theme park in Bolingbrook, IL.
And in the last post, I considered (very superficially) the reasons for failures of amusement parks around the country, and decided that most of it had to do with the places getting stale. Any park of this sort, or even any museum or attraction, has to depend on repeat business. Change is going to have to drive the attendance of these types of customers/guests. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is popular because they are constantly changing the special exhibits and the films that can be viewed there, and because the permanent exhibits occasionally get updated or redone completely in some cases. (For example, there has always been an exhibit on biology, with a heart model you can walk through, on the mezzanine which has been totally redone, and which my family and I will likely see next weekend.)
I have a couple of ideas for content of this project. I think they can be made sufficiently broad to encompass a lot of quality exhibits and attractions. Whether they can support the kind of change that would be required remains to be thought through.
About a year ago, I posted that we had visited Legoland Schaumburg, located near the very large enclosed shopping mall called Woodfield. Legoland in Illinois is a large enclosed space in a strip mall. They charge something between 20 and 30 bucks to get in. They have a walk through attraction at the beginning, with all sorts of large scale Lego creations. They have a dark ride through a Lego-based story (I can't recall the content now), they have a 3-D theater with an animated Lego-type story, they have a "Lego Factory Tour" where you crowd into a smallish room and see Lego's being "created". There is a play area where kids can build with Legos and run their creations on ramps, similar to the facility in Downtown Disney. There is a snack bar, and a Lego store. There are also, spread throughout the facility, several large scale Lego figures built by their artists.
When I look at what they have to offer, it doesn't sound like much. We'll have to do better than this in our theme park. We have to offer unique attractions that entertain families, that can hold the interest of the teens, and that can be run indoors, since we can't do any massive outdoor types of thrill rides, at least not to start out. It would be cool to add something "like" Rock'n'Roller Coaster later, perhaps, as one of those upgrades, something themed to our park of course.
I don't know how much of my ideas I want to post here. Probably I should just post everything, since I'm non exactly inundated with readers...it's not like anything I post is very likely to end up in the hands of someone else anyway. ("Hey, let's go read that Disney Fan Ramblings blog to get ideas for our new entertainment concept! He's got the best ideas and he's putting them out for us to borrow from freely!!!" Yeah, that's likely to happen...more likely is "Look at the lame ideas this guy has! At last we get some comic relief!" ) Still, I think I'll just keep arguing with myself here and sort of working some of this stuff out in print. Look for more posts on this thread sometime soon...
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
More ramblings on designing a theme park...
In the last post, I sort of rambled on about whether it would even be possible to design a "theme park" for a small midwestern town near Chicago. There are challenges, to be sure. But aren't there challenges anywhere? The major challenge for Walt Disney, it seems, was simply that no one had really ever done what he was trying to do. Everyone said it was a folly; it would not be a success. No way. But Walt proved the naysayers wrong, simply by doing it the way he believed would be best, and, maybe more importantly, the way it would have entertainment value and interest for him.
Then the challenges in Florida, not the least of which was how to build a theme park on swamp land. That challenge entailed a massive engineering effort to drain the land and create "lakes" and "rivers" where marshes had previously existed. He had the economic power to get certain concessions from the Florida state government, basically making him his own local governing agency.
The challenges in the upper midwest mostly involve the weather, assuming that land could be acquired and governments and civic organizations could be gotten on board. There are plenty of amusement parks in this part of the country. But they operate seasonally, closing for good by (at the latest) early November, and reopening in the spring, usually in April for weekends only. I personally wouldn't want my theme park to be a half year enterprise. I'd like to operate year round.
This limitation gives me two possibilities. First, a completely enclosed structure could be built. As I mentioned in a previous post, Disney considered making a theme park in St. Louis, where the weather is a little better than here, but where it is still a factor. When he considered this location, imagineers apparently drew up plans for a four story building, one square city block in size. (A Haunted Mansion was to be the focal point of that park.) Imagineers apparently also pulled out those plans when designing the "World Bazaar" for Tokyo Disneyland.
As some (including the author of Futureprobe, in response to that aforementioned post) have noted, enclosed structures have been done on a large scale. The Mall of America is one such structure. I've never been to that one, but I have been to other large-scale malls (there are many around the Chicagoland area) and one completely enclosed amusement park, done in the 1970's, called " Old Chicago". This park was in suburban Bolingbrook, and consisted of a "mall" with stores around the outside, and a fairly large amusement park in the central open area. Attractions included a rollercoaster with a couple of corkscrew type inversions, a log flume ride, several spinning rides, and other standard amusement park attractions, like a carousel and (I believe) a ferris wheel. That particular park wasn't profitable in the end, partly because the amusement park part couldn't compete with Great America and other area parks, and the mall part certainly couldn't compete with places like Woodfield and Yorktown. Neither one was good enough. About the only thing it had going for it was that it could operate year round, and as a high school kid at that time, I can tell you that it was a popular destination for our group outings and date nights in the winter months.
The second possibility is to mimic EPCOT and design a multi-acre park that consists of wonderful landscaping and pavilions which host the attractions. I am partial to this sort of design, but it too has limits. First, it requires a bunch of land compared to that enclosed structure. Second, the weather will play a role in wintertime usage, where you'd have to contend with snow packed walkways. A day like yesterday, for example, in the Chicagoland area, would see snow falling gently all day. But we've also seen near blizzard conditions.
I suppose that EPCOT in Florida has to contend with hurricane season down there. I was actually at Disney in 2004 (I think) when Hurricane Jeanne hit. We were staying at the Port Orleans, got in a few hours before they closed the airports. The tollway booths were abandoned; you simply drove right through. We got to WDW and were told that the parks were closed (we realized this would be the case) and that we'd better plan on staying in our room all day on Sunday. We provisioned up with cereals and non-perishable foods, a small styrofoam cooler (that we overpaid for) for milk and such for the kids, and some bottled water. Then we got to watch the trees parallel the ground for most of the day, until about 5 or 6 pm, when we could go outside finally. The parks opened the next day, and obviously they weren't terribly crowded.
Anyway, with preparation, and maybe walkways that could be covered, possibly heated, good drainage, etc etc, you could make open spaces that would be as beautiful in the winter as they would be in the summer. I like this idea. But it seems far less do-able to me than simply enclosing the entire structure from the get-go.
Water parks and some of Disney's own location based entertainment ideas seem to suggest that this is feasible. And since we're just pipe-dreaming here, we'll forget about the costs involved for now, and just concentrate on whether something like this could be accomplished from the technical and engineering standpoint.
See? Isn't this fun?
Then the challenges in Florida, not the least of which was how to build a theme park on swamp land. That challenge entailed a massive engineering effort to drain the land and create "lakes" and "rivers" where marshes had previously existed. He had the economic power to get certain concessions from the Florida state government, basically making him his own local governing agency.
The challenges in the upper midwest mostly involve the weather, assuming that land could be acquired and governments and civic organizations could be gotten on board. There are plenty of amusement parks in this part of the country. But they operate seasonally, closing for good by (at the latest) early November, and reopening in the spring, usually in April for weekends only. I personally wouldn't want my theme park to be a half year enterprise. I'd like to operate year round.
This limitation gives me two possibilities. First, a completely enclosed structure could be built. As I mentioned in a previous post, Disney considered making a theme park in St. Louis, where the weather is a little better than here, but where it is still a factor. When he considered this location, imagineers apparently drew up plans for a four story building, one square city block in size. (A Haunted Mansion was to be the focal point of that park.) Imagineers apparently also pulled out those plans when designing the "World Bazaar" for Tokyo Disneyland.
As some (including the author of Futureprobe, in response to that aforementioned post) have noted, enclosed structures have been done on a large scale. The Mall of America is one such structure. I've never been to that one, but I have been to other large-scale malls (there are many around the Chicagoland area) and one completely enclosed amusement park, done in the 1970's, called " Old Chicago". This park was in suburban Bolingbrook, and consisted of a "mall" with stores around the outside, and a fairly large amusement park in the central open area. Attractions included a rollercoaster with a couple of corkscrew type inversions, a log flume ride, several spinning rides, and other standard amusement park attractions, like a carousel and (I believe) a ferris wheel. That particular park wasn't profitable in the end, partly because the amusement park part couldn't compete with Great America and other area parks, and the mall part certainly couldn't compete with places like Woodfield and Yorktown. Neither one was good enough. About the only thing it had going for it was that it could operate year round, and as a high school kid at that time, I can tell you that it was a popular destination for our group outings and date nights in the winter months.
The second possibility is to mimic EPCOT and design a multi-acre park that consists of wonderful landscaping and pavilions which host the attractions. I am partial to this sort of design, but it too has limits. First, it requires a bunch of land compared to that enclosed structure. Second, the weather will play a role in wintertime usage, where you'd have to contend with snow packed walkways. A day like yesterday, for example, in the Chicagoland area, would see snow falling gently all day. But we've also seen near blizzard conditions.
I suppose that EPCOT in Florida has to contend with hurricane season down there. I was actually at Disney in 2004 (I think) when Hurricane Jeanne hit. We were staying at the Port Orleans, got in a few hours before they closed the airports. The tollway booths were abandoned; you simply drove right through. We got to WDW and were told that the parks were closed (we realized this would be the case) and that we'd better plan on staying in our room all day on Sunday. We provisioned up with cereals and non-perishable foods, a small styrofoam cooler (that we overpaid for) for milk and such for the kids, and some bottled water. Then we got to watch the trees parallel the ground for most of the day, until about 5 or 6 pm, when we could go outside finally. The parks opened the next day, and obviously they weren't terribly crowded.
Anyway, with preparation, and maybe walkways that could be covered, possibly heated, good drainage, etc etc, you could make open spaces that would be as beautiful in the winter as they would be in the summer. I like this idea. But it seems far less do-able to me than simply enclosing the entire structure from the get-go.
Water parks and some of Disney's own location based entertainment ideas seem to suggest that this is feasible. And since we're just pipe-dreaming here, we'll forget about the costs involved for now, and just concentrate on whether something like this could be accomplished from the technical and engineering standpoint.
See? Isn't this fun?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Kiddieland Closes
Just a quick post to note that Kiddieland, one of the (if not THE) country's oldest amusement parks, closed its doors for good on Sunday, September 27th.
Kiddieland was not a park for "big kids". Teens who like the coasters and such are not going to love it, but for those toddlers and elementary school kids, it was a good choice to ease into the whole "ride" thing.
There was a small coaster there, an old, vintage carousel, a miniature train that ran around the park, even into the parking lot, a log flume ride, an antique driving cars ride, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, and a slew of little rides for the little ones. One thing I loved about it was that they allowed you to get soft drinks for free all day. This could be a godsend on a hot August day.
I blogged about it .back here, but wanted to post a quick update and say my goodbyes. I think the park will be missed...
Kiddieland was not a park for "big kids". Teens who like the coasters and such are not going to love it, but for those toddlers and elementary school kids, it was a good choice to ease into the whole "ride" thing.
There was a small coaster there, an old, vintage carousel, a miniature train that ran around the park, even into the parking lot, a log flume ride, an antique driving cars ride, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, and a slew of little rides for the little ones. One thing I loved about it was that they allowed you to get soft drinks for free all day. This could be a godsend on a hot August day.
I blogged about it .back here, but wanted to post a quick update and say my goodbyes. I think the park will be missed...
Friday, July 24, 2009
A Visit to Six Flags Great America
My sons won free tickets to Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, for a reading program at school, and yesterday was the day I took off work and we drove up there to spend the day.
I can remember when Great America opened. Back then, it was called Marriot's Great America, and at least a few of the rides that debuted with the park are still there today. The theme, obviously then and now, was that various areas are patterned after different regions of the country. The "lands" consist of Carousel Plaza, Orleans Place, Mardi Gras, Yukon Territory, Yankee Harbor, Hometown Square, Southwest Territory and County Fair. Some predictable attractions are in predictible areas; for example, the Logger's Run is in the Yukon Territory, and the Yankee Clipper flume ride is in Yankee Harbor. And of course, the very nice double decker Columbia Carousel is in Carousel Plaza. A railroad station and a live theater are located in Hometown Square, and various shops and restaurants are themed to the areas in which they are located.
There are a lot of coasters in this park. Here's a list:
THE DARK KNIGHT - indoor dark coaster
SUPERMAN: ULTIMATE FLIGHT
RAGIN' CAJUN - spinning family coaster
VERTICAL VELOCITY
BATMAN: THE RIDE
WHIZZER
VIPER - wooden coaster
RAGING BULL
THE DEMON - two loops and two corkscrews
IRON WOLF - standup looping coaster
AMERICAN EAGLE - wooden coaster
The Whizzer is original to the park, when it was called Willard's Whizzer back in those days. There also used to be a huge, three-armed Ferris Wheel but that's been gone for years. The only other ride I can think of that is no longer there (I'm sure there are a lot of them) is the Tidal Wave, a high speed coaster where they shot you through a loop, then up, then you do the same thing backwards.
They advertise that they have been voted the "cleanest park" in either North America or in the world. I have my doubts, but in years past it was NOT a clean park at all, and this year it looked pretty presentable. Much cleaner than in the past, and there were a lot more employees walking around picking up trash. Some of this is probably due to the fact that their attendance is down, but still.
All in all, a pretty good day at the park.
I can remember when Great America opened. Back then, it was called Marriot's Great America, and at least a few of the rides that debuted with the park are still there today. The theme, obviously then and now, was that various areas are patterned after different regions of the country. The "lands" consist of Carousel Plaza, Orleans Place, Mardi Gras, Yukon Territory, Yankee Harbor, Hometown Square, Southwest Territory and County Fair. Some predictable attractions are in predictible areas; for example, the Logger's Run is in the Yukon Territory, and the Yankee Clipper flume ride is in Yankee Harbor. And of course, the very nice double decker Columbia Carousel is in Carousel Plaza. A railroad station and a live theater are located in Hometown Square, and various shops and restaurants are themed to the areas in which they are located.
There are a lot of coasters in this park. Here's a list:
The Whizzer is original to the park, when it was called Willard's Whizzer back in those days. There also used to be a huge, three-armed Ferris Wheel but that's been gone for years. The only other ride I can think of that is no longer there (I'm sure there are a lot of them) is the Tidal Wave, a high speed coaster where they shot you through a loop, then up, then you do the same thing backwards.
They advertise that they have been voted the "cleanest park" in either North America or in the world. I have my doubts, but in years past it was NOT a clean park at all, and this year it looked pretty presentable. Much cleaner than in the past, and there were a lot more employees walking around picking up trash. Some of this is probably due to the fact that their attendance is down, but still.
All in all, a pretty good day at the park.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Kiddieland Closes in September
This NOT just in...but I thought I'd drop a quick blog entry about it.
Kiddieland, one of the oldest kid's amusement parks in the country, is closing for good in September of 2009. This park is located in Chicago suburb Melrose Park, right next to the horse races at Maywood. It's been in business for over 80 years now. I went there when I was a kid, a time or two, and we've taken our kids there several times until they got spoiled by the grandeur of Disney and grew up too much to really appreciate the rides there.
Let me tell you a little about the park: It has one roller coaster called the Little Dipper, an old looking wooden ride that for some reason is more fun than similar sized rides at, oh, say, Great America. It has a smallish log flume ride, an "Autopia" style old car ride where you or your kid drives a vintage car around the track. It has a train ride, quite undersized but still rideable for adults, which goes through the parking lot and then weaves around the property, through a tunnel with a low clearance. It has a number of rides for toddlers. It has a vintage carousel, and then another German Carousel where riders mount cars, trucks, bikes and motorcycles, and even rockets. There are some spinny rides and an old-ish Ferris Wheel. And, a real plus to the value, the park offers free sodas all the time. Believe me, on hot days this could be a godsend.
Apccording to the article in the Chicago Tribune fom July 12, 2009, there is a dispute between sides of the family: Mom (daughter or daughter in law of the founder, Art Fritz) and brother own the land and have refused to renew the lease of Kiddieland, apparently because the land should be more valuable than the lease provides for, on the one side, and her children (Fritz's grandchildren) on the other side, as owners of the park. Apparently the park has been profitable, charging around 20 bucks for an adult admission (IIRC, it's a little less than that), less for kids, and there's always a promotion going on. So it's closing, and the rides are up for sale.
Apparently the owners would like to sell everything intact, as a whole, to one buyer who might open another "Kiddieland" somewhere. (If I had any money I'd consider trying to open an amusement park down around where I live in Chicago's southwest suburbs...that is, if my wife let me...)
One interesting story in the article in the Tribune: When Walt Disney was planning his Disneyland park, he called Art Fritz to possibly discuss those plans. Fritz had the sort of park that Walt was considering building - fun for the whole family. Fritz, however, had no interest in discussing things with Walt, telling him he was "too busy to get involved with that. He made his park and Walt should make his own. He kind of blew him off", says one of the grandkids.
One less option for family entertainment in the Chicago area. It will be missed.
Here's the link to that article: Kiddieland's Farewell Summer
Kiddieland, one of the oldest kid's amusement parks in the country, is closing for good in September of 2009. This park is located in Chicago suburb Melrose Park, right next to the horse races at Maywood. It's been in business for over 80 years now. I went there when I was a kid, a time or two, and we've taken our kids there several times until they got spoiled by the grandeur of Disney and grew up too much to really appreciate the rides there.
Let me tell you a little about the park: It has one roller coaster called the Little Dipper, an old looking wooden ride that for some reason is more fun than similar sized rides at, oh, say, Great America. It has a smallish log flume ride, an "Autopia" style old car ride where you or your kid drives a vintage car around the track. It has a train ride, quite undersized but still rideable for adults, which goes through the parking lot and then weaves around the property, through a tunnel with a low clearance. It has a number of rides for toddlers. It has a vintage carousel, and then another German Carousel where riders mount cars, trucks, bikes and motorcycles, and even rockets. There are some spinny rides and an old-ish Ferris Wheel. And, a real plus to the value, the park offers free sodas all the time. Believe me, on hot days this could be a godsend.
Apccording to the article in the Chicago Tribune fom July 12, 2009, there is a dispute between sides of the family: Mom (daughter or daughter in law of the founder, Art Fritz) and brother own the land and have refused to renew the lease of Kiddieland, apparently because the land should be more valuable than the lease provides for, on the one side, and her children (Fritz's grandchildren) on the other side, as owners of the park. Apparently the park has been profitable, charging around 20 bucks for an adult admission (IIRC, it's a little less than that), less for kids, and there's always a promotion going on. So it's closing, and the rides are up for sale.
Apparently the owners would like to sell everything intact, as a whole, to one buyer who might open another "Kiddieland" somewhere. (If I had any money I'd consider trying to open an amusement park down around where I live in Chicago's southwest suburbs...that is, if my wife let me...)
One interesting story in the article in the Tribune: When Walt Disney was planning his Disneyland park, he called Art Fritz to possibly discuss those plans. Fritz had the sort of park that Walt was considering building - fun for the whole family. Fritz, however, had no interest in discussing things with Walt, telling him he was "too busy to get involved with that. He made his park and Walt should make his own. He kind of blew him off", says one of the grandkids.
One less option for family entertainment in the Chicago area. It will be missed.
Here's the link to that article: Kiddieland's Farewell Summer
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
A Visit to Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park
Over the Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take a quick jaunt to Michigan. We enjoy the southwest corner of the state, with its quaint towns and beaches, attractions and especially the wineries. We usually seem to end up there at least once a year, and this was our first trip to the area of 2009.
This year we decided to go a little further north along the Lake Michigan coast to Muskegon, Michigan. We didn't find much around Muskegon to recommend it as a destination, but our real purpose for going that far north was to visit Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park, which our kids were excited about doing.
Michigan's Adventure is one of the Cedar Fair parks, which include Cedar Point, King's Island, and Knott's Berry Farm among others. I've never been to any of their other parks, though I've heard really good things about Cedar Point (in Sandusky, Ohio) and Knott's Berry Farm (near Anaheim, California). It was, on this Sunday before Memorial Day, very uncrowded. Almost all the attractions had no wait, the lone exception being the Shivering Timbers wooden rollercoaster. (Once was enough for me on it, anyway. It shook so much that I had a headache and a neck ache when I got off it.) They have several coasters, none overly large. Their biggest (besides maybe Shivering Timbers) appeared to be a suspended coaster called Thunderhawk. There were several others, including the Wolverine Wildcat, the Corkscrew, Zack's Zoomer, one called the Mad Mouse (not running when we were there) and a kiddie one called the Big Dipper.
There was also a nice selection of other rides, including a Ferris Wheel, a swing ride, a driving ride, a whitewater raft ride, a log ride, and a whole bunch of spinning rides. They also feature a nice water park which is included in your admission, with plenty of slides and tube rides, a lazy river, and three wave pools.
The park was very clean, and there were a whole bunch of employees running around, including security and lots of management types. One sit down restaurant (a counter service place) was in the park, and plenty of other little stands and carts to buy food and drinks, including "Dippin' Dots". At $25.00 per person admission (less $3.00 per person because of a coupon we found in one of the brochures we picked up at the Michigan Welcome Center) with a parking fee of $8.00, I wondered how they can be profitable, especially if crowds like Sunday's are normal for a good part of the year.
I could see going back to this park on our next visit to southwest Michigan. Combined with attractions in Saugatauk and Holland, and with Warren Dunes State Park and Beach and all the wineries and shops, it wouldn't be difficult to fill up a week in the area.
This year we decided to go a little further north along the Lake Michigan coast to Muskegon, Michigan. We didn't find much around Muskegon to recommend it as a destination, but our real purpose for going that far north was to visit Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park, which our kids were excited about doing.
Michigan's Adventure is one of the Cedar Fair parks, which include Cedar Point, King's Island, and Knott's Berry Farm among others. I've never been to any of their other parks, though I've heard really good things about Cedar Point (in Sandusky, Ohio) and Knott's Berry Farm (near Anaheim, California). It was, on this Sunday before Memorial Day, very uncrowded. Almost all the attractions had no wait, the lone exception being the Shivering Timbers wooden rollercoaster. (Once was enough for me on it, anyway. It shook so much that I had a headache and a neck ache when I got off it.) They have several coasters, none overly large. Their biggest (besides maybe Shivering Timbers) appeared to be a suspended coaster called Thunderhawk. There were several others, including the Wolverine Wildcat, the Corkscrew, Zack's Zoomer, one called the Mad Mouse (not running when we were there) and a kiddie one called the Big Dipper.
There was also a nice selection of other rides, including a Ferris Wheel, a swing ride, a driving ride, a whitewater raft ride, a log ride, and a whole bunch of spinning rides. They also feature a nice water park which is included in your admission, with plenty of slides and tube rides, a lazy river, and three wave pools.
The park was very clean, and there were a whole bunch of employees running around, including security and lots of management types. One sit down restaurant (a counter service place) was in the park, and plenty of other little stands and carts to buy food and drinks, including "Dippin' Dots". At $25.00 per person admission (less $3.00 per person because of a coupon we found in one of the brochures we picked up at the Michigan Welcome Center) with a parking fee of $8.00, I wondered how they can be profitable, especially if crowds like Sunday's are normal for a good part of the year.
I could see going back to this park on our next visit to southwest Michigan. Combined with attractions in Saugatauk and Holland, and with Warren Dunes State Park and Beach and all the wineries and shops, it wouldn't be difficult to fill up a week in the area.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
First Post
Welcome to Disney Fan Ramblings, another in a (perhaps) overcrowded selection of blogs about any and all things Disney. This being my first post, I thought I'd write about developing a love for Disney.
It was 1975 when I first visited a Disney theme park. Our high school band was invited to march in the mid-day parade at the Magic Kingdom, and being a 15 year old member of the drum section, I thought I was far too cool to pay much attention to the park itself. My friends and I were totally absorbed with chasing girls from another high school band from New York. Consequently, I don’t remember much about the experience, besides repeated rides on Space Mountain, which was pretty recently opened at the time, and was one of the coolest rollercoasters in the world as far as I was concerned.
Admittedly, my experience with amusement parks at that point in my life was fairly limited. We had been to Six Flags over St. Louis at least once as a family, and I had also gone to that park as part of my grade school band. As a younger child, we regularly went to a park in Addison, Illinois, called Adventureland. Other parks in our area included Santa’s Village (recently closed) and Kiddieland (still open). These parks were dwarfed by Marriot’s Great America, however, which was themed around areas of the United States, like "Hometown Square", "County Fairgrounds", Yukon Territory", and "Orleans Place". As the guests entered Great America, they were treated to the view of a huge double-decker carousel, which is the same view they get today as they enter the park. And the familiar Warner Brothers characters like Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, and Daffy Duck populated the park.
In the Midwest, specifically the northern part of Illinois, the climate is not conducive to running an outdoor amusement park year around, so someone came up with the idea of building an enclosed park near Bolingbrook, Illinois. It was called Old Chicago, and was in the center of a huge building with an enclosed mall all around it. It had a small indoor log ride, a couple of rollercoasters, one called the Chicago Loop, with corkscrew inversions, and many smaller rides. But it failed in the long run, closing its doors in 1981 after being open for only 6 years. It seemed like a good idea but was probably not exciting enough to compete with the bigger coaster park Great America in the good weather months, and not a big enough shopping mall to bring in money and business.
Even with the limited experience, however, I was too young and too distracted to note the Disney theme park as something special. I was not too young to be able to appreciate some other Disney products, however, like their family films and the weekly television show I grew up with. Watching Uncle Walt introducing each weekly episode was a highlight of my week on Sunday night. It inspired me. It made me want to write stories like those I saw on there. It brought out my creative side. It educated me.
And my favorite movies were Disney fare - mostly animated features like ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIONS and LADY AND THE TRAMP, though there were live action movies that grabbed me, like THE PARENT TRAP and THE LOVE BUG. I loved the music from the animated features. Songs like CRUELLA DE VIL and HE’S A TRAMP were my songs of choice in the 1960's and early 1970's, before I discovered rock music and abandoned Disney to a younger generation.
Finally, with kids of our own now, we have rediscovered the magic of Disney. The films of old are still wonderful and enthralling for my children and me. The music appears on CDs and I’d often rather hear an old classic tune from a great movie than something more current. And the new films, by Disney Studios and by Pixar both have provided fabulous new additions to the DVD library. But mostly we are enthralled by the theme parks. They provide the escape from the pressures of everyday life that I find I need. They provide the entertainment and relaxation that make our vacations special. And more and more they provide a sort of inspiration for me; to strive to do things than I have been doing better, to be more creative, to try to inspire my own children.
Inspired by my experiences at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort, I’ve dreamed of trying to develop a theme park of my own. It’s only a thought experiment, I know, but it’s fun to dream about. (And who knows? Maybe something will come of it someday!) In the course of thinking about such a development, I have read several books and frequented several websites about related subjects. I’ve studied a little about ‘imagineering’, the Disney term for their park and ride designers and builders. I have looked at the Disney company, the behemoth that it has become in the 21st century. And I have studied the men responsible for the company’s beginnings and its growth over the years - Walt and Roy Disney, two brothers who were as different as two people could be, but who knew that they could trust each other implicitly.
I have all but concluded that it would be next to impossible to do what they did. It is a different time and a different climate, both in business and socially. But the relationship between Walt and Roy is the most important part in the equation, and how can anyone duplicate that? More than trust went into it. Brotherly love and familial bonds made it special and probably beyond repeating by design. I doubt that Walt and Roy really understood how their relationship contributed to the success of the Disney corporation until they were already successful beyond their dreams, and maybe not fully even then.
I will try not to be so wordy in future posts. Thanks for looking in here.
It was 1975 when I first visited a Disney theme park. Our high school band was invited to march in the mid-day parade at the Magic Kingdom, and being a 15 year old member of the drum section, I thought I was far too cool to pay much attention to the park itself. My friends and I were totally absorbed with chasing girls from another high school band from New York. Consequently, I don’t remember much about the experience, besides repeated rides on Space Mountain, which was pretty recently opened at the time, and was one of the coolest rollercoasters in the world as far as I was concerned.
Admittedly, my experience with amusement parks at that point in my life was fairly limited. We had been to Six Flags over St. Louis at least once as a family, and I had also gone to that park as part of my grade school band. As a younger child, we regularly went to a park in Addison, Illinois, called Adventureland. Other parks in our area included Santa’s Village (recently closed) and Kiddieland (still open). These parks were dwarfed by Marriot’s Great America, however, which was themed around areas of the United States, like "Hometown Square", "County Fairgrounds", Yukon Territory", and "Orleans Place". As the guests entered Great America, they were treated to the view of a huge double-decker carousel, which is the same view they get today as they enter the park. And the familiar Warner Brothers characters like Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, and Daffy Duck populated the park.
In the Midwest, specifically the northern part of Illinois, the climate is not conducive to running an outdoor amusement park year around, so someone came up with the idea of building an enclosed park near Bolingbrook, Illinois. It was called Old Chicago, and was in the center of a huge building with an enclosed mall all around it. It had a small indoor log ride, a couple of rollercoasters, one called the Chicago Loop, with corkscrew inversions, and many smaller rides. But it failed in the long run, closing its doors in 1981 after being open for only 6 years. It seemed like a good idea but was probably not exciting enough to compete with the bigger coaster park Great America in the good weather months, and not a big enough shopping mall to bring in money and business.
Even with the limited experience, however, I was too young and too distracted to note the Disney theme park as something special. I was not too young to be able to appreciate some other Disney products, however, like their family films and the weekly television show I grew up with. Watching Uncle Walt introducing each weekly episode was a highlight of my week on Sunday night. It inspired me. It made me want to write stories like those I saw on there. It brought out my creative side. It educated me.
And my favorite movies were Disney fare - mostly animated features like ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIONS and LADY AND THE TRAMP, though there were live action movies that grabbed me, like THE PARENT TRAP and THE LOVE BUG. I loved the music from the animated features. Songs like CRUELLA DE VIL and HE’S A TRAMP were my songs of choice in the 1960's and early 1970's, before I discovered rock music and abandoned Disney to a younger generation.
Finally, with kids of our own now, we have rediscovered the magic of Disney. The films of old are still wonderful and enthralling for my children and me. The music appears on CDs and I’d often rather hear an old classic tune from a great movie than something more current. And the new films, by Disney Studios and by Pixar both have provided fabulous new additions to the DVD library. But mostly we are enthralled by the theme parks. They provide the escape from the pressures of everyday life that I find I need. They provide the entertainment and relaxation that make our vacations special. And more and more they provide a sort of inspiration for me; to strive to do things than I have been doing better, to be more creative, to try to inspire my own children.
Inspired by my experiences at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort, I’ve dreamed of trying to develop a theme park of my own. It’s only a thought experiment, I know, but it’s fun to dream about. (And who knows? Maybe something will come of it someday!) In the course of thinking about such a development, I have read several books and frequented several websites about related subjects. I’ve studied a little about ‘imagineering’, the Disney term for their park and ride designers and builders. I have looked at the Disney company, the behemoth that it has become in the 21st century. And I have studied the men responsible for the company’s beginnings and its growth over the years - Walt and Roy Disney, two brothers who were as different as two people could be, but who knew that they could trust each other implicitly.
I have all but concluded that it would be next to impossible to do what they did. It is a different time and a different climate, both in business and socially. But the relationship between Walt and Roy is the most important part in the equation, and how can anyone duplicate that? More than trust went into it. Brotherly love and familial bonds made it special and probably beyond repeating by design. I doubt that Walt and Roy really understood how their relationship contributed to the success of the Disney corporation until they were already successful beyond their dreams, and maybe not fully even then.
I will try not to be so wordy in future posts. Thanks for looking in here.
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