montezooma

*Special note from Shane: this update is pretty photo intense and on some computers it may take a while to fully download. Marriott's GREAT AMERICA The 70's was the decade of the theme park with parks popping up in several major metropolitan cities across the country. 1976 was an especially GREAT year as the Marriott corporation entered the theme park industry with Marriott's Great America. Origianlly three parks were planned; one on the west coast, one on the east coast on one in middle America. Santa Clara, Ca was the first park to open with Gurnee, IL close behind. Unfortunately the park proposed for outside of Washington DC was shot down in two area and never saw the light of day. The two parks, although VERY similar did have some slight differences. The Gurnee park featured several more flat rides than the CA park and as the years progressed it seemed the Gurnee park became more favored by the Marriott corp while the CA park became more valuable for the land it was built on. Gurnee received some major capital improvements such as The American Eagle and White Water Rapids while at the same time Santa Clara's extra land and protions of the parking lot where sold off to office buildings as Santa Clara (Silicon Valley) was quickly becoming the computer capital of the world. After several years of being in the amusement industry Marriott decided to focus their attention on what they knew best, the hospitality business, and both parks where put up for sale. The Gurnee park was quickly picked up by Six Flags. The California park, for a while, seemed it was going to be leveled and developed into more concrete tilt up buildings. Fortunately the city of Santa Clara stepped in and bought the park to save it from demolition. The story continues to get more complicated for that park as time continues on. So there is the back story. This update focuses on the parks in their early years with press releases from both the American Eagle and the Demon. Also some early souvenir books, personal photos and super 8 movies I shot at the parks. The POV of the Willard's Whizzer was the first time I ever shot a POV on a coaster. I was an 12 year old kid and I remember all the strange looks I got from the other guests and ride operators as I set up my tri-pod and super 8 camera in the front seat. ah...good times. Hope you enjoy this GREAT update. -Shane Willard's Whizzer [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=WillardsWhizzer_6zpo[/coastertube] Tidal Wave [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=mgatw_diok[/coastertube] DEMON [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=Demon_oqgb[/coastertube] American Eagle [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=AmericanEagle_ma0v[/coastertube] PS- This is a big update with lots of information and pictures. Please be patient as it downloads and check back throught the day for more information and photos to be uploaded The souvenir book from 1977 American Eagle opening year. The World's Biggest Wooden Roller Coaster...at that time The model on display at the Intamin booth at IAAPA convention the year prior to opening

oh, that is not fair. I didn't know that the file names showed. Where are they? I'll have to be more clever about the title names next time

...and the correct answers are: Texas Giant Texas Cyclone

it's time to play "GUESS THE POSTCARD" Here is my version of guess the postcard. Sorry I am not Big Mike so there will be no prizes for the winners. But you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are a bigger coaster nerd that those that guess wrong. There are two coasters below... I will give you two hints and then you are on your own. Good Luck, and as always, please control the pet population by have your pet spayed or neutered. -Shane Here's your hint: This coaster features 0 inversions. what did you expect, they are pretty easy Here is your hint: It is not a steel coaster

Turn of the Century was never white, it was a drab mint/olive green color. I think the design intent at that time was to make the structural rides blend in with the landscape. The trains were also very drab yellow. It would be my guess that the red was added to add some pizzaz to the loops of the ride. I sure think it looks much better than how it did in it's first couple of years.

That is the Turn of the Century. Later on in it's life it was treated to a special red paint job on it's corkscrews.

I beg to differ...Hello Revolution! I can not imagine this ride any other color that just ALL WHITE (don't get any stupid ideas SFMM)

UGH...I am not a fan of these so-called "engineers" they take all the fun out of stuff. It is also these engineers that say Revolution needs over the shoulder restraints and that Colossus can't handle two trains racing...and now they are saying that the two trains in the loops at the same time put two much stress on the ride? Boo Hiss

Here's a teaser for what is coming up this weekend in Shane's Amusement Attic. [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=MarriottsGreatAmerica[/coastertube] A look back at both parks from the years of The Demon (CA) and American Eagle (IL) with exclusive POV's of both rides plus Willard's Whizzer (CA) & Tidal Wave (IL) plus photos, Press releases and Souvenir Books.

Geauga Lake also had a lot more coasters that were in good enough condition to be easily relocated and reopened. Other than Mayan Mindbender and Serial Thriller, the coasters at Astroworld would have all required heavy refurbishing to get them up and running somewhere else. I'm guessing it had more to do with the corporate owners rather than the conditions of the rides. AstroWorld's rides could have easily been incorporated into other Six Flags parks and successfully marketed if Six Flags (at that time) had the creativity and leaders they have in place now... ...Come to think of it, if they had the creativity and leaders they have in place now I think AstroWorld would still be around.

This is a great idea Chuck. BGW is definitely worthy of a ongoing discussion thread similar to the SFMM one. So I have something for discussion: Why do they not interlock the trains on Loch Ness anymore? If they are only running two trains can't they still time it so they interlock occasionally? It seems like such a waste not to use the EXCELLENT visual opportunity every now and again.

Well if Joyland can't get it up and running I will be glad to try and squeeze it into Cowabunga Bay. I think I could rename it Tidal Wave and it would fit perfectly with our theme.

Here is a local news story on the park that aired this afternoon http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6229355

And here is a quick photo update I can't wait to see this dump "Hang Five" the blue slide is starting to take shape "Mondo" without its start or finish These two slides are going to have a fast splash down Work is progressing on the kiddy slide "Gremlin" You can see Banzai & Bombora in the background Hang Ten the tallest open body flume is nearly complete

Agreed, if you sell them for too cheap then the park becomes a day care center. We are really debating the price back and forth at work. I appreciate all the thoughts and opinions on this.

The park capacity is 1500 people at one time. If we hit that mark we have to stop allowing people entrance. If we sold only all day passes then we could hit that capacity and if everyone decided to stay all day that would be it for us. With the time system we may hit capacity but every 4 hours we would have a complete turnover, so you see it is in our best interest to do the timed system allowing for a greater daily attendance. We will use the same colors for the same times every day. When you purchase you wristband you will also be given an admittance ticket that is date stamped. Even if you come back the next day with your same wrist band you will not be allowed into the park without a new ticket. Of course you will always have upset guests who don't understand or feel they were cheated out of a few minutes. No matter how perfect a system there is not way around them.

Yes I hear you on this. It is a bit confusing and we are trying to work out a simpler way to explain this. No there will not be extra employees needed as the colored wristbands will be monitored at the entrance to each of the attractions where we would already have an attendant. For instance if you had on a red wrist band and your 4 hours where up then you would not be able to enter the lazy river or you would not be able to enter the playstructure. In theory if you wanted to hang out at the park and watch other people do things then you could do that. We will not kick out those whose wrist bands are expired they will just no longer be able to participate. At first it was our thought to just have an admission price and you could stay as long as you liked; 1 hour or all day. But we really have experience a MUCH greater interest that we had initially thought. There are still some uncertainties as to what our daily attendance will be and we thought it would be easy to start off with this time system and then drop it if it is not necessary rather than the other way around.

Oh it was a simplier time when enterprises were worthy enough to get their own postcards.

Thanks everyone for your input; it is good to get outside opinions. I see that Season Passes may be priced a little steep and we will definitely discuss this before we post our final prices. Because of the size of our park and capacity constraints we do need to make our season passes a little more exclusive. If they are priced too inexpensive then we run into a problem of too many season pass holders in the park and not enough room for those who come for the day. When comparing our season pass to season passes of Cedar Fair or Six Flags it really isn't a fair comparison. They offer a season pass to drive people through the gates, then they can really increase their per caps in food, merchandise , games...etc. We don't have those other income opportunities so to offer season passes at such a discounted rate really doesn't work for our business model of being a small neighborhood waterpark.

^ When I rode it they were running both sides and yes they actually waited until both sides were ready to launch and they sent them out at the same time. It was awesome to watch especially at night with the tracer lights on it. Lightnin' Loops may have just been an Arrow launch loop, which alone is kind of meh.. but two of them interlocking made the ride something spectacular!

Lagoon's Rattlesnake Rapids is alright. I like that it is in the wooded area and the tunnel is good. I think they need more attractions back in that area as it is a long walk back for just a rapid ride. I also think their pay for spray is WEAK. It is just a bunch of sprinklers and the timing is way off. I am much prefer the old style 12 seat boats. I think it really added to the ride to see who was going to get the wet seat. You knew you were going to get it if the boat spun around and you were facing backwards going in to the rapids channel.

At the time of purchase you will be given a color wrist band. For example: Yellow wrist bands will be from 10:00 - 2:00, Orange wrist bands will be from 11:00- 3:00 and so on. Once your color expires you may linger around the park if you want but you will not be allowed entrance to any of the attractions. Seems pretty simple huh? well here is where it gets a little tricky and it is something we are still trying to perfect. What happens if you buy your ticket at 10:30??? Well we had to set some cut off points. If you buy your ticket anytime between the top of the hour and :30 then you are included in the 10:00 color group. So at the least you will get 3 and a half hours. If you buy after the :30 mark you will be in the next color group but not allowed to enter the park until :45 of the hour (this would be the best time to buy as you could get 4 hours plus a bonus 15 minutes) If you buy after the :45 you will be part of the next color group and allowed entrance into the park immediately. See the chart below

Here is how we are thinking of pricing this park. We want to make sure that crowds are controlled so we have decided to sell tickets for 4 hours of admission. (I really don't think there is much more than 4 hours of entertainment value at this park so it seems fair) Cowabunga Bay Admission Prices - 4 Hours of FUN 48" and Above $15.99* Under 48" $9.99 Seniors (60+) $5.99 Military $12.99 All Day Pass 48" and Above $21.99* Under 48" $15.99* Summer Nights Discount After 4:00pm 48" and Above $12.99* Under 48" $6.99* Season Pass 48" and Above $99.99* Under 48" $79.99* These have not gone public yet so I would love to get your thoughts comments or other ideas before we lock into our price structure. Thanks for your help! -Shane PS- in the meantime another slide is going up...

Here is more Great Adventure GREATNESS! Lightnin' Loops! I put this ride in every RTC park I build.

Oh Mark...anything Schwarzkopf is always BETTER hands down....or should I say hands up?!?!?!