coaster-crazy

Thanks everybody for your generous comments... but, the topic for this ride won't end yet, and it hopefully never will! (well, at least not soon. ) I just realized that I have not posted a photo of the concept art I recieved on the opening day, signed by Charles Canfield. Will do that very soon. Once again, THANK YOU very much. ~Nicholas

^Great review - thanks! ============================ It's.... UPDATE TIME! On June 26th, I was lucky enough to get a Boardwalk GRAND TOUR of all the underground nooks and crannies of the entire park. Under, around, and everywhere inbetween, I got to see. I saw under Neptune's Kingdom, under the whole walk including many working facilites. The far turn around of the Giant Dipper, under Logger's, and by the Cave Train... BUT, I could not take any photos of these places. Don't worry, because I also got a tour of the New Haunted Castle, with the lights on. And yes, I CAN post these photos. I'm sure you'll enjoy them. This update would not be possible without the gratitude and kindness from the Boardwalk's Vice President, Mr. Ted Whiting III. His hospitality could not be thanked enough. Also, many thanks to the following Boardwalk employees: Kris Reyes, Ted Whiting III, Carl Arnett, Carl Henn, Marq Lipton, and Charles Canfield for the amazing Legends Lunch the day before (June 25th) that was auctioned off as a prize at the 2009 ACE Norcal Holiday Party, hosted by Richard Tuck at Playland-Not-At-The-Beach in El Cerrito, CA. Many thanks guys! For those not wanting to spoil the ride, I suggest you do not view these photos. All else, dig right in! Oh, and happy 200th post in this thread! ~Nicholas The beginning of the ride. SPIRAL ACTION! The first King encounter - not so scary in the light. Dungeon guard. One of the coolest figures in the ride. This shows you how the trick works for the Dungeon Guard's transformation. It's called a "Pepper's ghost" illusion. Skeletons - Ooooh, SPOOKY! Looking back ... into the HAUNT(ed Castle - had to do it?) The Royal Wine Cellar - WHAT A MESS! A figure inside one of the barrels in the Wine Cellar. This one looked really spooky. More of the Wine Cellar. The King's Kitchen sign. Yup, just a sign. Rabbit stew! Looking back at the rabbit stew. One of my personal favorites, if I do say myself. The 'evil' painting, just before moving into one of my favorite scenes - the Banquet Hall! Royal Banquet Hall sign. Right side of the hall, home to the infamous animatronic saying "DINNER TIME!" Left side of the Banquet Hall. The FARTHER man in the room is Ted Whiting. The closer one is my Dad. ...running out of caption ideas? You bet! The SWAMP scene. My all time favorite scene in the entire ride. Other side of the Swamp scene.... yup. Jeff Johnson would count this as a credit. See, A HILL! The infamous "Santa Cruz" tourist, being buried alive by..... ..GRAVE DIGGERS! Looking back.. and if you look closely, you can see the transfer track .. that goes off to the left into the maintenence bay. The entrance into the maintenence bay. EXCITING PIC COMING UP! The sexy underside of a NEW Haunted Castle car. (WARNING: Picture not suitable for people under the age of 18) Hey what 'ya know. We're looking back, AGAIN! (yea, I'm out of captions, again...) Towards the Royal Kennels. Back up the hill, to the guillotine, where you'll lose your mind. GUARANTEED! (Sorry, no refunds) BONUS PIC! =========== NEXT UPDATE: The next update, will be a video of that beach side construction photo progress thingy, that I've been promissing for a while. Once again, THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS IN THIS TOPIC.

My father and many other of my friends who had gone to Disneyland when Rocket Rods was open, loved it. I think the one thing that did hurt Tomorrowland was the closure of that ride. All that did was leave a big eye sore throughout the entire area. If they kept that ride up and running(or found a way to), the land I believe would be better now than it is without that ride going. ...that, and Astro Orbiter getting moved down to the front of the land. That ride truely belongs back where it did before, up above the Rocket Rods station, in the middle of Tomorrowland. But that's just my opinion. ~Nicholas p.s. I never rode Rocket Rods, however, I would've been to young to remember it anyways....

Looks nice. I like the foliage you have going there. The yellow flowers work perfectly. Keep up the good work! ~Nicholas

Dang, and I was just at the park 3 weeks ago. Now there's two reasons to go back later this summer!

Captain Lee really is a nice guy. I've emailed him a few times and had a great experience with him when I won a VIP contest at the park back in April. He's really generous and a great overall person. Heh, every Six Flags park should have one of these guys... too bad you don't find many people like him. Glad you enjoyed the park! I got to sit in that spot for the Shouka show as part of my VIP experience, except, it was raining on the day I was there - BRRR!!!! ~Nicholas

Wow - that looks like a GREAT ride! .. Too bad I'm all the way in California. Very nice pictures of the coaster(and ladies) too! ~Nicholas

^This is great news sfmman2000! I'd been wondering when it would reopen as I went earlier this week and was sad to see it closed. Can't wait to ride it again. Thanks for the comments everyone! ~Nicholas

^That's so weird, haha. ==================== It's Update time!... but not on the construction of the new ride, since it's basically done, besides the few touches here and there. R&R Creative Amusement Designs, the company who basically designed the ride(layout, scenes, what props to use, colors, lighting, etc..), has sent me some high quality pictures of the Haunted Castle different scenes. These are with the lights off and are lit up basically with the camera flash. The two people whom you will see in the vehicle on the ride will be Richard and his wife. R&R = Rick and Richard; and yes, the company is only made up of these TWO people! I hope you enjoy these photos, and I'm grateful for them sharing the photos with us here at TPR. This NEW ride would not be possible without these 2 people, who designed the ride. It's basically their baby.. Heh, the photos are in order of how the scenes appear throughout the ride. Enjoy! ~Nicholas NOTE: ALL PHOTOS ARE COPYRIGHT/BELONG TO R&R CREATIVE AMUSEMENT DESIGNS OF ANAHEIM, CA. THESE PHOTOS MUST NOT BE REPRODUCED ANYWHERE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM EITHER RICK OR RICHARD OF R&R CREATIVE AMUSEMENT DESIGNS. I DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO GRANT PERMISSION MYSELF. SCENE 1: Station - The haunted loading platform... mwhahahah! SCENE 2: Entry Hall - The mysterious floating king in the entry hall!!! SCENE 3: Dungeon - This is the scary, face changing Dungeon guard. :o SCENE 4: Wine Cellar - This guy is pouring some spooky stuff I'm sure! ... okay, I got nothing. SCENE 6: Banquet Hall - "DINNER TIME!". Want some spaghetti? (I don't have any photos from scene 5, the kitchen. Sorry!) SCENE 7: Swamp - Watch out for the scary swamp monster, AHH!!! (In the car is Richard and his wife of R&R) SCENE 8: Graveyard - Look out for the 'in danger' Santa Cruz tourist in the Graveyard! Someone should help this man! SCENE 8.5: Royal Kennel - Watch out for these raging creatures in the Royal Kennel! ... look for their green eyes... SCENE 9: Up Ramp/Guillotine Scene - Dont' be scared, as you might lose your head! SCENE 9: Up Ramp/Guillotine Scene: If by the end of the ride you haven't quite lost your head, this spooky man will take care of that for you! MWHAHAHAHAH!!!! THANK YOU RICK & RICHARD OF R&R CREATIVE AMUSEMENT DESIGNS FOR SHARING THESE AMAZING PHOTOS!! Without you two, this ride of yours would not be possible. This ride is a must for anyone's Boardwalk experience. THANKS! ========================= NEXT UPDATE: Soon I will be posting a video of all of the panorama shots from each update, all the way back from demolition to now. Then, later this month I might be getting a behind the scenes walk on this ride - STAY TUNED!!

Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk!

..how about Snakebite Ridge? ...um, Snakebite Canyon, Snakebite Valley.. Snakebite Mines,...Snakebite Biter. First one is my favorite. ~Nicholas

Wow, this looks really nice. Some of the best NCSO RCT2 work I've seen for some time now. Keep up the good work! ~Nicholas

A little bit of news. I was at the Boardwalk today, mainly to ride rides.(what else?) In only 3 hours I got in 16 rides, which about 5 rides an hour... making it about 1 ride every 12 minutes. But the reason I'm posting is that the Haunted Castle was closed today. All of the metal rolling doors were shut, so I'm not sure how long it will be. I am not surprised though, since it's been breaking down an awful lot... I'll let you know when it reopens! ~Nicholas

Cool trailer! Now I'm scared. ..

Nice! I love the poster for it. Looking forward to this! ~Nicholas

Wow... this is awful and shocking too. He was only at 48 years old, which is even more shocking. Darn diabetes. I send my condolences to his family. ~Nicholas

^NEW thread! I wanna see it. Post it. POST IT NOW!!! ~Nicholas "Likes to Imitate Robb Alvey" L***classified last name***h

I just actually deemed the RCT2 NHC too hard.. haha. I got ingame and started building and was like wow, this is really hard! haha. I sent you a private message by the way. ~Nicholas

^Haha, nice. AIM=AOL Instant Messenger. I am currently building a recreation of the NEW Haunted Castle in RCT2... or atleast, trying to. ~Nicholas

^That sounds really cool - looking forward to that fan-fic! I also find Ghost Blasters having a more scary factor than the NHC, even though that doesn't scary. To me, from scariest to least scariest would be in this order. 1. Fright Walk 2. Ghost Blasters 3. New Haunted Castle Make sure you name a ghost as a parody of Walt Disney for your fan-fic... like Dalt Wisney... I have no idea, haha. ~Nicholas p.s. Do you have AIM?

^ I watched the review, and I liked it! I would agree with most of the stuff you said, except for the ride opening in July... whoops! I am a person who hates scary things that pop out at you. A friend of mine forced me to go into the Fright Walk, and honestly I was freaking out, but that's just because I hate things that pop out at you. It's about 5 minutes to walk through it, and I did it last fall. So, if you're not afraid of those things, go ahead on in. There is a mirror maze and all kinds of things that happen. Won't say too much though... The NEW Haunted Castle is my scary level.... hahaha. ~Nicholas

I will for sure, and yeah, R&R is only TWO people! I have been on the Fright Walk, once. What would you like to know? Looking forward to your review! ~Nicholas

^Yeah, I was going to figure that. I have contacted R&R Designs (designers of ride) who said they would send me photos they took of the insides of the ride, in darkness. He told me that only the 2 of them(both R's) have seen them. So, with that in mind, I would probably show you these photos from the dark, and MINE from the light.. We'll see though! ~Nicholas p.s. R&R Designs is really only 2 guys, the ENTIRE company. Pretty sweet huh?

Hey everybody - correct, the ride isn't quite finished yet! I do hope they end up adding the ole' clock and spider as they promised. Good news though, it seems I will be getting a walk through of this attraction later this month thanks to a friend of mine. Now here's a question for ya: Q: Would you like pictures of the insides with the lights on, off, or both? Gimme an answer in your post, thanks! Also, here is a photo from the official Boardwalk Facebook page of the new gargoyles... but thanks also to sfmman2000 for posting some too! ~Nicholas

Great report. It sure is an awesome ride isn't it. I'm still shocked that you came all the way from Portland! You really surprised me when you told me that on opening day. ~Nicholas EDIT: Thanks Robb.