Nor Easter 2010

[mrceagle]

 

This weekend I attended Ace New England’s Nor Easter event. The event was hosted this year by Lake Compounce in Bristol CT. I Missed the beginning of the event the driving time after picking up my friend was nearly 3 hours. Lake the last Nor Easter held at the park we were allowed to drive through the park to the ball room. I opted to park next to the parks new wipeout ride.

 

 

Seems I didn’t miss much, the mingling time and the Q&A game. Though it seems this game was used to announce the addition to Santa’s Village which I already new about and more. There was an update on events then The presentation by Lake Compounce.

 

Santa’s Village – The park is investing nearly 1.3 million with one new attraction, one returned attraction and many capital improvements. New this year is Ho Ho H20 an Interactive play structure form White Water West the attraction will cost $900,000 to buy and install. Returning is the Jingle Jamboree Animatronic show with new animatronics by Advanced Animatronics. The upgrade is expected to cost around $200,000 dollars. Capital improvements will be a new floor at the St Nicks Church, Polar Expresso is coming to the Polar Express station, and the Former arcade will transform into a First Aid and Guest Services center.

 

 

Jerry Brick (LC) – Last year added fiber lines and new restrooms to the park. It was a tough year for the park. Capital improvements continue to be implemented Investing 700K in Bathrooms (by wipeout), Saw mill new roof, Ferris wheel rehab, new games, paint, and kiddie land fencing (if it arrives on time). Rd work, Boulder dash got 750 ft of retracking, Wildcat got some work. The park also got an extra train, a new CP Huntington from Chance. The Park will Continue to operate the Train bought off Wild West World and Story Land will Rehab the trains for them and finish the park Original train.

 

 

Haunted Graveyard should still be around for 2-3 more years on the contract. Could be 2-3 years before the next coaster, Jerry wants a family friendly coaster that can accommodate guests in a 42-48” height range. The park had to destroy the Garfield props, kiddie land will remain Circus world. New trains for boomerang (300K),

 

Story land - They want to get something going with the heritage building. The park will have new shows through RWS. From what I was told at the end of last season by park management is the 2 live shows will be switched out as 2 acts will leave the circus and be replaced by new acts.

 

 

We took a brake form the presentations and jerry took us around for a park tour. It was cold and raining but the tour stayed primarily to the Maintenance area. We got a full tour of the main building which is used for maintenance, upstairs offices, and the sign shop. The shop had some interesting things rapids boat getting new tub, car ride chasse, storage area with ride parts. It was fun to look at all the new and used parts.

 

 

We looked through the other buildings. The food storage building was doubling as a rehab building to put the finishing touches on the Ferris wheel gondolas. The park has a paint shop with booth to allow then to do more then paint signs and simple rehabs. We also saw a secondary maintenance shop. They were working on Thunder and Lightning’s car at the time. A few interesting facts the shop was built in house and the Building is heated off of waist oil.

 

 

I and a few others took an opportunity to look at a little of the Haunted graveyard as well as get a back stage shot of the flume. We worked our way around the front of the park to the Dance hall and got on with the presentations.

 

 

SFNE – Larry Litton - There was a mud slide at the park, 2011 could see a coaster but they don’t know, they remodeled the snack shop, Granny may. New Johnny Rockets in water park, (water park needs more food stands). There is a new kiddie area in water park (Mr 6 Splash Island) Kiddy wave pool, river, and splash pad, interactive water jets. There is a new Mr 6 game show going into the Rockville Gym. Other shows Starburst Concert Series is back and the Glow in the Park Parade is returning with a new float. There will be a new East end entrance parking lot entrance. Park is pushing further along to go green. Ware house (Malty Million Dollar with offices, entertainment offices, 40,000 sqft, food storage. This is a new Level of Flash Pass the Platinum pass (100 sold a day, ride 2 rides in a row, pretty much no wait), SFTV will get added to one other area(expanded park wide 2011).

 

There were a few In ACE presentations and the Raffle. The Raffle had passes to story Land, Santa’s Village, Six Gun City, after 5 passes to Quassy, as well as other small things. The last presentation came form the New Whalom Park Ownership Program.

 

 

New Whalom Park Ownership Program – Scott Lanciani/ Michael Coutermarsh – The Presentation was an update on the original Whalom property. As well as giving notification of the plans the group is working on. The big news is the Groups Event Series and that the Launch even is a dance night being held in Gardner, MA. (Event Series Page, RSVP on Facebook). There is also a new web page, newwhalom.com, which was launched at the beginning of the year. There is a Museum in the works with an attached FEC. This move was in reaction to the City forcing the move forward to build the condos on the parks main property. The program will continue to move forward.

 

In all it was a good day. Weather wasn’t great in fact the drive home was a nightmare. There are a lot of small but positive moves being made by all the parks. I had a good day and I would like to thank Jerry for his support of ACE and creating a great event.

 

 

View More Photos - http://www.newwhalom.com/Photos/NorEaster2...easter2010.html

[mrceagle]

I have updated the photo page with more images and sub pages to display the larger images. they not have captions to explain the photos. I also added navigation to make viewing the large images easier. Hope you all enjoy it.

 

Check it out here

[kidcoaster 2]

I enjoyed reading that. Thanks for the report!

[mrceagle]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Hope you got a chance to look over the Photo page. I added some great captions with info on the park to the Photo view pages.