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...
*****
Showing posts with label Waterparks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waterparks. Show all posts
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
About those DVC Waterpark Resorts...
Well,first, there aren't any. I mean, they all have pools and some water features, but none of them are designed as a resort hotel whose focus IS on the water park.
I suggested, a couple of times, that DVC should build an indoor waterpark resort in the Midwest. Perhaps in the Wisconsin Dells, where there is more than just one game in town. I said it would give midwesterners a way to use their points besides flying to a Florida, California or Hawaii location. Without flying at all, actually.
But as I thought about it, I thought - who would buy ownership in this park? It doesn't have the home resort luster of Hawaii, of the Atlantic Ocean, or of WDW or Disneyland Resorts. Why own points at the Disney Dells Resort and Waterpark?
I can't come up with a good reason. I stated last summer that perhaps we, as DVC owners, might be interested in buying some points there, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that we probably would not be inclined to add on points there. We would probably prefer to buy a few extra points at our home resort at WDW.
We would use it, certainly. Perhaps that would be good enough for Disney. But I'm not sure how this timeshare thing works. The fact that ownership in that particular resort might be a hard sell, even though I suspect the resort would be full much of the year, might mean that it could not be a DVC property.
That's okay though. As long as, like the Disney Collection now, we could use points to stay there, we probably would still use it on occasion. And if there was one there, we might be more inclined to buy those extra points. We actually had trouble using our points this year. Part of that was because we were saving up to go to Hawaii, and then couldn't get in, but part was because a Disney vacation every year is getting to be something we don't really want to do anymore.
But the kids LOVE those waterparks in the Dells (and elsewhere). So maybe this just becomes the test case for those Location-Based Entertainment venues that Kevin Yee wrote about a couple years ago over on MiceAge.
I think it would be an easy sell to vacationers, if not to DVC owners via the timeshare route.
(And since everything Disney does these days seems to be related to constructing DVC villas, maybe they wouldn't even consider it. But I wish they would.)
*****
I suggested, a couple of times, that DVC should build an indoor waterpark resort in the Midwest. Perhaps in the Wisconsin Dells, where there is more than just one game in town. I said it would give midwesterners a way to use their points besides flying to a Florida, California or Hawaii location. Without flying at all, actually.
But as I thought about it, I thought - who would buy ownership in this park? It doesn't have the home resort luster of Hawaii, of the Atlantic Ocean, or of WDW or Disneyland Resorts. Why own points at the Disney Dells Resort and Waterpark?
I can't come up with a good reason. I stated last summer that perhaps we, as DVC owners, might be interested in buying some points there, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that we probably would not be inclined to add on points there. We would probably prefer to buy a few extra points at our home resort at WDW.
We would use it, certainly. Perhaps that would be good enough for Disney. But I'm not sure how this timeshare thing works. The fact that ownership in that particular resort might be a hard sell, even though I suspect the resort would be full much of the year, might mean that it could not be a DVC property.
That's okay though. As long as, like the Disney Collection now, we could use points to stay there, we probably would still use it on occasion. And if there was one there, we might be more inclined to buy those extra points. We actually had trouble using our points this year. Part of that was because we were saving up to go to Hawaii, and then couldn't get in, but part was because a Disney vacation every year is getting to be something we don't really want to do anymore.
But the kids LOVE those waterparks in the Dells (and elsewhere). So maybe this just becomes the test case for those Location-Based Entertainment venues that Kevin Yee wrote about a couple years ago over on MiceAge.
I think it would be an easy sell to vacationers, if not to DVC owners via the timeshare route.
(And since everything Disney does these days seems to be related to constructing DVC villas, maybe they wouldn't even consider it. But I wish they would.)
*****
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