Velo_editor

About the carousel timeline at Opryland - I worked right across from this spot in 1992 and it was a music show at that point. No carousel. Just a musical comedy show. It was actually fairly funny, but then I got to hear it EVERY DAY and it grew tiresome. Maybe the new carousel came in after that year? Honestly I only remember the original one and I assumed that spot simply became a show venue until the park closed, but I stopped going to the park around 94. Also, Pete Owens has been on the news a lot here. He's talking up the freezing and snow technology they'll be using to keep the snow park with snow even during the heat of the summer. But no word on actual attractions/rides, of course.

That's some mighty fine writing on that Opryland brochure. Seriously. Makes Opryland sound very inviting at night. Sadly my only memories of that park at night were as an employee and it meant I was about to escape another hellish day of working at a coke stand.

Eric, I'm almost positive this is the same property. A lot of this land used to be the farm where the animals from Opryland's petting zoo were kept and fed during off-season. I had always heard Gaylord wanted to build a park on that side of Briley Parkway, and the property is, ironically, almost the same size as the original Opryland park.

This particular part did not flood though it wasn't far from where the flood waters reached. I would say, compared to the original Opryland site, this is a far better location for a park. And I'm hoping (as Robb pointed out) that the future expansion might include some rides. Really exciting news for Nashville!

Great thread and I wish I could get back to the park before the end of the season. LOVE how the new coaster is dominating the skyline in places and it just looks massive compared to the rest of the park's scale. Question - can you eat the delicious cinnamon bread while riding rides? And of so, if you ate the cinnamon bread while riding Flying Eagle would you survive from such awesomeness?

^ Wow this looks awesome! I love mines and haunted houses, so a great combo. Wish I lived in Colorado.

I've been known to divulge info to scare actors who are portraying clowns that might wife is severely afraid of them. I'm probably going to hell for that, but it does make things a lot more fun!

Ah yes. I am sure my brother and I looked funny being the only ones on the train and both riding in the second to last seat. And that ride was definite not slow at any point. Must hust be the way it appears in the video. Funny or not there was no way I was going to ride Cyclone without being in the Magical Seat!

Cyclone was a painful blast and seemed to fly for us as well. In a strange, perhaps sadomasochist way, I kind of liked that ride. Oh and GASM was running great at the night ERT as well. So the two very rough, typically painful woodies at SFOG were a lot of fun for me.

Goliath is taunting us. We're hearing it every minute or so. Can't wait for the ERT!!!

Ah... I was hoping this link went to another random pic of Robb with a hand puppet!

BINGO!

I said that cliff hanger was both red and yellow... hence "orange". And I guess because of Clemson? Orange sports. Nope on Clemson. Where is Ernie from?

Basketball? There are other sports in the area. A huge stadium not too far away too.

I want to hear someone answer the "Orange" clue correctly!!

A takeover by TPR is on the minds of the hotel's staff. When I booked a room, the front desk clerk said she was concerned about having enough chlorine on hand to keep the pool and spa in a sanitary state. I guess they've seen pictures from past trips, huh?

I would like to take this as an opportunity to announce that I'm building an incredibly large theme park and resort center in the Nashville area. I will also be lining up a MLB expansion team that will play in a brand new, overly large and expensive ballpark that I will be building next to what will be the world's largest aquarium dedicated solely to trout. There will be many hotels. Details will be forthcoming but I've already convinced a local town council to approve the plans site unseen. Sorry, back to the thread... Yes, Nashville needs a park and a REAL one at that!

I was at the Sahara for a video conference at NAB back in April. I actually stayed at Harrah's and was only in Sahara for a few hours, but I have to say the casino was much nicer than I expected. It was honestly in better shape - cleaner and smoke-free - compared to Harrah's. In reality all of those aging casinos, Sahara, Riveria, Harrah's, Flamingo's, etc., are in need of major rehab but the corporate owners seem more content to let them slowly fall apart. One day they'll just tear them down and build something new. Sahara's problem, aside from being rundown, was it was just too far up the Strip from the action. I believe there's an abandoned property or two to its south that separates it from the next active casino. I left a bustling Harrah's casino to find maybe 20-30 people scattered about the Sahara casino floor. BTW, Harrah's is pretty bad too. I usually stay at The Mirage and it's a night and day comparison. I love the Mirage. I really wish I rode Speed. We got to the meeting early in hopes of riding, but for some reason it was closed. Oh well...

I worked in the park back in 1992 or so. I was stuck in a coke stand for the first half of the summer that had a leaky pink lemonade machine. That attracted bees and so I was stung at least 3-4 times and learned very quickly how to swat and kill bees with one precise swat of the lid to the ice container. For some reason I was obsessed with riding Chaos so I typically rode it about 5-6 times a week. No ride was ever the same and no element seemed to consistently work on it. Anyway I do remember the rumor of expanding across the river. I never knew if it was anything more than just that, a rumor. I'm pretty sure the land they would have used is now the Shelby Bottoms Greenway. It's the only land across the river they could have used since most of the opposite shore is lined with houses in Inglewood on the higher bluff. They would have had to do a lot of work to get that land ready to build a park on it as it's a flood plain and was under water in the great flood last year. There's now a pedestrian bridge that crosses the river in to the Bottoms, but it connects further up the river at Two Rivers Park and the Wave Pool.

You know I don't remember going to Opryland for any Halloween-related festivities. Was it something they did in the final couple of years?

Great answer. I think Dollywood and Opryland are polar opposites on how to handle things. Dollywood sees a huge opportunity with their shows as it makes a lot of money from folks who probably never step foot on a ride (save for maybe the train). BUT, they also know the importance of rides and attractions. They're not overloaded with rides, but each one is high quality and well-themed. Opryland never fully understood the ride part of the equation.

Ah, yes now I can place the station as being there. Thanks! You're right about the construction delay. The economy and flood definitely played a role in delaying their expansion. But now it's full steam forward. The hotel itself seems to have fully recovered from the flood. It was extremely crowded with conventioneers, tourists and I assume some regular hotel guests and all of the major restaurants had long lines.

I love dark rides and definitely wish there were more of them. I thankfully had the chance to ride the Flooded Mine that used to be at Dollywood. And my favorite still has to be the old Speelunker's Cave at SFOT. I'm a sucker for any mine/cave motif ride. I always think of dark rides as a nice, brief escape from the summer heat. Of course lots of others do as well, so the lines tend to be long. Thank goodness for flash passes!

Yeah, my pictures shows what's left for now but I can't imagine they'd leave the pump house as ugly as it is. The rocks they might leave just because they can probably play off the motif since there's plenty of fake rock inside the conservatories. The whole area is kind of weird, though. This is kind of no man's land between the parking lots and the hotel/convention center and as they build out closer to the parking lots, I would assume they'll tear down stuff like the buildings, the odd remnants of broken up park pathways, etc., just so it doesn't look so abandoned and haphazard. Hopefully they'll at least keep the big boulder wall though.

Thought I'd post an update on Opryland: Opryland USA is long gone, but as others have reported (and shot pictures of), the remnants of the Grizzly River Rampage can still be found near the Opry House between Opry Mills mall and the Hotel. A month or so ago I shot some pretty cool pictures of the remnants but my camera card was corrupted and I lost them all. We just returned to visit the Hotel and we’ve discovered that a great majority of the ruins are gone! The Opryland Hotel is adding on to their convention center and they’ve torn down the river path and the bear cave is now gone. There are still a few structures here and there and I was able to take some shots with my iPhone. Who knows how long they’ll be here. It's sad to think the entire park is about to be gone. The iconic boulders of the Grizzly River Rampage still stand. Construction is underway and has removed the old river bed and bear cave of the ride. Remnant of a park path in the foreground and some of the ride's walls can still be seen. In the background you can see they've cleared everything out. I'm not sure what this building was for but I'm pretty sure it was part of the ride. Another view of the largest remaining part of the boulder facade. Park path and part of the wall can still be found here.