Photo TR: Wild Adventures Media Day 4-17-10

I was lucky enough to attend Wild Adventure's media event this past Saturday (4-17-2010) and I wanted to share with all of you what the park shared with me. This is now the 2nd full season that Herschend Family Entertainment has owned the park and they continue to make huge improvements to the park. Just like my visit in 2009, all of the attractions were open and staffed with cheerful employees. Last year, the main focus of the park was to expand and improve the waterpark as well as fix many broken attractions.

New for the 2010 season:

1. Three new attractions include a new coaster (Viking Voyage), flyers (Falcon Flyers), and a scrambler (Whirling Wildcats).

2. Hundreds of trees has been planted throughout the park as well as 350 tons of concrete have been removed for additional landscaping.

3. Cheetah has had a million dollar renovation.

4. The old tiger show, "Amazing Cats", has been replaced with a new tiger show called, "Tigers of India".

5. Added many more concerts as well as to have a more diverse selection of musical acts.

For me the biggest surprise of the day was Cheetah. Cheetah used to be near the very bottom of all wooden coasters I have ridden. It used to be a VERY rough and unpleasant to ride. Now I can say that it is now one of the smoothest wooden coasters I have ever ridden. I was able to spend some time with park general manager, Bob Montgomery, and in the video included with this report he explains on what it took to bring Cheetah back to its now amazing level. They did look into the possibility in using the trains from the defunct Ozark Wildcat as well as looked into the purchase of a brand new Timberliner trains from Gravity Group, but in the meantime they have stuck with the older Gerstlauer trains. I normally really dislike the Gerstlauer trains, but honestly they were running really well after all of the track upgrades.

All of the new landscaping really helped to improve the overall look of the park. I have always felt that Herschend parks aspire to be the most beautiful parks in the country, and it is great to see them incorporate this philosophy into Wild Adventures. I think that landscaping is much more preferred than random slabs on concrete, don't you? Did you know that one of Jack Herschend's lifetime goals is to plant one million trees? During the off-season, he personally visited Wild Adventures specifically to mark spots where he wanted trees to be planted. He ended up marking close to 600 spots all around the park.

I really think that Wild Adventures is heading in the right direction. I am sure that they would be happy to hear that, several times during the day, I heard guests commenting on how much better the park looks. Many guests were also getting back in line to re-ride Cheetah as well. I also overheard many times that guests thought it was really cool that the park was featured in the hit movie Zombieland last year. Several new and exciting attractions will be coming in the future, but they could not reveal any those plans at this moment. If I could make a couple of suggestions. They really do need one more large attraction (A Intamin Mega-Lite would be perfect......okay I can settle for something more along the lines of Powder Keg or Mystery Mine) to really put themselves on the map. Also I recommend that they have more Canadian bands as well as Blue Oyster Cult for the next concert season. Anyways, onto the photographs. (Some photographs were taken by Wild Adventures as well as Ken Johnston.)

Wild Adventures Promotional Video and Interviews

[coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=Wild_Adventures_Media_Day_5wgn[/coastertube]

Good morning Wild Adventures!

Let us check in, shall we?

Meet Micha Hogan, Public Relations Coordinator for Wild Adventures.

Just look at how many concerts there is for this season.

You can go see them all at one low price with the purchase of a season pass.

Want to check out a few attractions?

We did not have to walk very far to reach our very first new attraction for this season, Pop-Jets.

The Pop-Jets should keep people cooler during the upcoming hot summer.

Bug Out has been renamed this year. It is now called Go Bananas!

Another new sign.

Here is a closer look at the new logo.

All throughout the park, they have planted hundreds of new trees.

Once they fill out it will really help to make it a much nicer park.

Anyone notice anything new on the park map?

New for 2010, Falcon Flyer.

Falcon Flyer's ride rules.

Flyers are my all time favorite flat ride.

Here it is in action.

Another new ride is Whirling Wildcats.

Every park really should have a classic Scrambler.

Last but not least is Viking Voyage, which is located near the area where Mine Train used to be.

Rules of the ride.

Viking Voyage used to be at Celebration City where it was known as Jack Rabbit.

This coaster is an E&F Miler

Here is a closer look at a train.

The coaster really has quite a few moments of air-time.

Viking Voyage stands 52 feet tall.

The first drop really is quite intense.

Air Time!

The new sign for Cheetah makes it much easier to find the entrance.

The majority of the track has been replaced for this season.

Cheetah is one of the smoothest wooden coasters I have ever ridden.

Lots of new landscaping all over the park.

The Smoke House is new for this year.

The Bar-B-Q is really good here.

This is a brand new upcharge attraction.

Looks like fun!

The old Double-Shot, now called Firecracker, is now enjoying celebrity status due to the release of Zombieland.

Aaron Radatz returns for a second season.

Aaron is one of the most well traveled magical entertainers around.

Aaron has a lot of humor when it involves his show. I thought that the Banana segment was very funny.

Everyone loves the classic strait jacket trick.

"Ummm, what are you doing back there?"

"Not Too Tight Please!"

His escape does not take very long.

The pigeon release is a really unique attraction.

You first receive a pigeon out of this cage.

Then you get to release it.

It is so easy, I can even do it.

Up.

And away!

Elissa's favorite ride in the park.

The tiger show has been revamped for this season.

This happens to be its opening weekend.

The cage has been redone this year.

This is what it used to look like.

The tiger show is always my favorite thing to do in the park.

Nice Kitty.

The new show is now more centered on educating people about tigers, rather than having a series of tiger tricks.

I think these set of tigers are simply amazing.

These variations are also very rare.

Awww......

Ok, one last tiger photo.

I want to thank Micha Hogan as well as Bob Montgomery (General Manager) for a wonderful event.

Everyone is happy about all of the improvements in the park.

It is now sunset, that can only mean one thing.

Its time for Styx!

These guys sounded really great.

Bonus points if you can remember the name of the other band that Tommy Shaw has been involved with.

Most of all the classics were performed that evening.

REO Speedwagon played next. It really was a night of a lot of classic rock.

Kevin Cronin still sounds exactly the same.

And we leave you with a photo of the Boomerang.....at night.

If anyone has any comments or questions, be sure to post them.

Wow it does look like they're really making the park look better!

I always liked this park as it has a ton of rides, attractions, and shows, but I agree everything had that plopped down on concret county fair type feel. Seems like Herschend will clean that up for sure!

Those robots ALSO came from Celebration City, is there anything left there other than OzCat? So sad.

I can't believe Cheetah is smooth!!! Hopefully it stays that way and the Gerstlauer trains don't kill all of the hard work and money they put into the ride.

Oh, one more comment with a photograph.

Greatest attraction name ever. Please do not change it.

^THANK GOD!!!

I was worried when reading your trip report and saw that they changed the name of Bug Out. I don't care if they retheme the whole area, but keep the INSECT-O-SLIDE name!!!!

Great trip report Erik, looks like the park is on the right track. It will be really awesome once the newly planted trees fill in. The tiger shots were great!

How is Wild Adventures for toddlers? One of my coworkers is thinking about going, but is concerned that there won't be enough for her 2 year old son to ride on (she has a 6 year old, also.)

^ Hmmm, I do not think there is really anything there for a toddler. The 6 year old will be able to find things to do though.

New coaster... meh. To me the most exciting thing about Wild Adventures this season is that they finally added TREES. Seriously, if they take the time to invest in their landscaping they could eventually have a much more enjoyable park; natural shade would do wonders for that place. Nice job Wild Adventures.

Nice TR, wish I could get to the park on the 29th of May, my favorite band is playing there that day. I haven't seen Steve3po yet and I hope I get to soon.

Bonus points if you can remember the name of the other band that Tommy Shaw has been involved with.

Damn Yankees. Because that's just the sort of stuff I know.

Thanks for the TR! I suppose I need to give this park another try.

We had a great day at Wild Adventures that day. Very nice to see you Eric. Cheetah was amazing, and I rode it around 8 times. My last trip to the park - it was a "one-timer." The park looks great, the staff was nice, the food was great...all around a wonderful day at the park.

Calvin and Hobbes 20 years down the road.

Awesome TR. Still need to convince the parents to make a stop in Valdosta one of these times we're driving the long I-75 route.

Glad to hear Cheetah is doing better. I always thought it looked pretty cool, but with all the bad reviews I heard I was too afraid to find out for myself. Now I may have to make it down there if I'm ever in the area....

I' m surprised no one has asked this yet. How are the flyers? Can you snap them? Anyways, Wild Adventures is looking better than it used to (from the look of PTRs, I've never been there). Within 5 years, I could see it being a really nice park!

^the flyers were fast, but ran a pretty short cycle. I am completely unable to snap a flyer - (couldn't do it if my life depended on it) but I think they are "snappable."

D

Wow, it's pretty surreal to see those rides back up and operating. Hard to believe I used to ride them back here.

I'm still surprised that HFEC bought that Miller coaster, but I'm glad they did. It's one of the funnest little steel coasters out there for what it is.

Glad to see the park is continuing to rise under HFEC!

Thanks for the update, I had no idea they were adding that coaster from Celebration City.

I may actually have to make it down to Vekomaland some day soon. I knew Herschend would do a great job, and looks like they are.

Great Report! We were there just 3 weeks ago and had a great time! The staff was very friendly. It was our first time there, so I have nothing to compare it to as far as improvements. But I thought the Cheetah was fantastic. It rode very smooth and was easily the highlight of the park. Enjoyed it very much... Overall, my family liked the park and we're anxious to see how it improves - In addition to some bigger rides, I'd like to see some Dollywood-like places to eat eventually. We also had a lot of fun running around recreating scenes from Zombieland...

Great trip report! Nice to see that Wild Adventures is getting some much needed landscaping. I'm actually looking forward to loading up the family and taking the 2 hour drive to the park sometime this season. I haven't ridden Cheetah in a very long time due to the beating I suffered the last time I rode. Now I'm stoked to give it another chance.

I've never been much interested in visiting Wild Adventures, but if Herschend keeps going in this direction, I wouldn't mind checking the place out (particularly the improved Cheetah).

Nice trip report, and it does look like the park has improved a lot. The park still seems to have a Cedar Fair look to it, but hopefully if trees continue to be planted, and once they grow out, Wild Adventures can end up being a pretty nice park. Wild Adventures already seems a lot better now than it was under the old owners(especially with Cheetah and landscaping), and it'll be interesting to see what else Herschend does for the park.

Wild Adventures is a park I've always wanted to visit but never could quite fit it in. But now that I live in Jacksonville and can easily visit on a free day I'm really excited about getting up there. The new Viking Voyage coaster moved over from Celebration City always looked like a pretty cool little ride to me for some reason and I'm kinda excited about it which is weird, Ive never been excited about a family coaster before, but that looks fun.

wow nice report! This park looks great with the improvements, I've always thought Cheetah looked good but from stories it sounded like it was a lost CCI woody for a bit, but revamped it sounds like it's back on the map! I'll be down in Georgia on my trip in July, how far is this place from SFoG??

wow nice report! This park looks great with the improvements, I've always thought Cheetah looked good but from stories it sounded like it was a lost CCI woody for a bit, but revamped it sounds like it's back on the map! I'll be down in Georgia on my trip in July, how far is this place from SFoG??

About a 5 hour drive, one way.