Nor Easter TR

[mrceagle]

Since this is a Nor Easter event Travel time and all that isn’t that important so I’ll skip to the good stuff.

 

Nor Easter was held in Natick, MA this year. The town is quite nice with a great downtown. Every building in the area was well kept and even the new building (fire, police, Library and City hall) all fit in with the old Churches and other building.

 

We had midway games this year like Fishing Hole, Basketball shoot, Target shooting, etc. They brought back coaster Jeopardy. There was food and plenty of time to talk.

 

The big park of Nor Easter is to find out what all the parks area doing in the NE area. SFNE was the only park to send reps but Jerry Brick had informed up in advance and sent a quick update.

 

SFNE – Well new management begets new changes. Our local SFNE is no exceptions. Much of there time was confirming a lot of news that has been online for a while. The park will be celebrating 45 years of SFI (right out of the Disney handbook). With this celebration you will be seeing many new things including the Brunch with Bugs character meal and similar deal with Scooby Doo.

 

They will be adding a parenting area in the location of the lockers/bathrooms by the Tornado slide. They will be the first park to get it and be a trial park. Another such starter project is the Justice Lounge, a meat and great area located in the former sight of Joker’s wildcard. They will have a Paintball (target game) game set up in the old Crack Axle Arcade. There will be some internal Improvements like Flower gardens (landscaping) to celebrate the 45th anniversary and an added ramp to the back area of North end. Cyclone will also get painted and its queue reworked. The coaster will not switch loading and unloading sides.

 

While they are adding catapult (Swat) and Splash Water Falls (Diablo Falls) they will also be removing a number of attractions. The Rock wall, Colossus (ferries wheel), Joker’s Wildcard (indoor whip out), and I forgot to ask but fallowing SFI trends Chaos. So were looking at 4-5 attractions out

 

Also the Season parking pass will change. We all know prices have increased to $15.00 for a single day or $50.00 for a season parking pass. But they have done away with The Visor passes. They will be switching to Stickers. I assume this is to prevent people from handing off parking passes like so many of us have done in the past.

 

I do want to thank the 3 Managers from SFNE for coming to the event.

 

Funtown - A member came up and gave us a general update on Funtown Splashtown USA. Over all there wasn’t much to talk about. The park is still looking into an expansion that will take the place of the mini golf course. They might start this for this year but no direct word was given. There are no rumors as far as any ride additions for the dry park. Though, I would imagine if York’s Dose shut down its ride side that some of the flats like the round up might find there way to the park.

 

After this I got up and presented on behalf of the NH parks.

 

Santa’s Village - on top of a continued effort on internal improvements the park will be Refurbing and extending there antique Car ride. The park has also added Reindeer games to the park. The games will be located in the Reindeer Rendezvous Barn and consist of two games. The games are Pin the tail on the Reindeer and ring toss, were you will try and get the ring on the antlers. Given that Reindeer naturally shed there antlers you will likely find them using real antlers. Prices for Single day admission will go up this year. The new prices are 21.50 for a single day and children 3 and under are Santa’s Guest and enter free. Parking is free!

 

Story Land – The park will be going simple but will still add a ride for the 2006 season. The park will install the Flying Skooters from Whalom this year. The ride was refurbished with Larson parts and will be instilled in parks Sea Shore area of the park. The ride has been completely painted with Colorful Tropical fish and will be called Flying fish. The ride has been installed in the Location of the Whirling Whales while the whales have been given a new spot next to the sandcastle. If all works out we will see a large scale expansion and a new themed section next year. The park will also be closing the Heritage so take a trip and go through while you still have a chance. The parks admission is staying at $22.00 while children 3 and under continue to get free entrance. Parking is free!

 

Canobie lake Park Canobie despite no real ride addition is up to the most. They will be keeping the Skater ride and adding it to the Official Line up. The park is building new bathrooms in the Canobie mall which will take up the entire back right of the building. The shops are getting face lefts along with many smaller aspects like widening the walkway in from of the Vertigo Theater and paratrooper ride. The park has refurbed the Tilt-a-Whirl giving it a 50’s theme and the name has been changed to Twist and Shout. The Flying Skooters got more work and the Land Sea Rescue (kiddie ride) were also worked on this season.

 

The parks Big addition this year was a brand new fence around the outer parking lot and entrance. The new fence is Rod Iron with wood paneled rood peeks. A new sign was added that incorporates Florissant light and rode Iron and has a very classic look. This theme will carry into the parks new entrance which should be built for 2007.

 

The park is completely reworking there shows this year. Bozo and Elvis have been retired and new shows are being brought in. The ball room will host a Cher Show and will receive further Improvements to handle the shows. The kiddie land/midway stage will host 2 shows. CL5 is a teen pop group style show with a male female cast. And the kids can watch Canobie’s newest character Professor Uncanny. The western stage will host 3 hot Tickets and variety music show with jazz, country, ragtime, etc. The Canobie Critters will be back as well as the spring season Science show and the Canobie Ramblers. Tickets have increased to $27.00 for adults and 18.00 for children. Parking is free! But don’t forget that Opening day, April 22, Canobie will be having there opening day sale/ you can buy tickets good for any day during the season for $19.00 each.

 

Parks not mentioned at Nor Easter but still adding attractions.

 

Lake Compounce – Adding Thunder and Lighting an S&S Screaming Swing ride. The park is also adding a new food stall and Family Restrooms. Like always the park is keeping up with park improvements. Tickets are $32.95 for both the park and Water Park. Children’s rates are $23.95 while seniors get a fantastic $16.95 price. Children 3 and under are admitted free.

 

Quassy – will be expanding there Saturation station to include 2 new tub slides.

 

Clark’s Trading Post – This technically road side attraction is planning to extend there rail line. The expansion will take the train to a plot of land they own. This land is planed to be a future park.

 

Over all it was a great day. Everyone seemed to have a good time and even a few people that went to the lake Compounce back stage tour were able to make some of the event. Now it’s time to get out selves ready for the park openings starting in 4 weeks.

[ECZenith]

Thanks for the report, I was hoping a TPR New Englander made it to the event. Surprised to hear of so many ride removals at SFNE!

[mrceagle]

So was I. It realy Dosn't reflect well on the park. Though maybe it will help the other great parks like Canobie lake park and Lake compounce.