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- Bangkok Bounce-Back
- How Themed Attractions and Destination Resorts are remaking the Malaysian attractions industry.
- A look at what Asian parks are doing to leverage social media.
- New attractions don’t stay new forever—which is why adaptable infrastructure is looking like the way of the present and future.
- Surf and Turf: Water and FEC attractions can mix successfully.
INDUSTRY FOCUS
- BALPPA leaders reflect on the association’s 75 years serving the UK industry.
- How attractions can and should benefit from local tourism boards.
- How Montreal’s Snow Village—the ultimate snow fort— earns cold, hard cash.
- The gas vs. electric go-kart conversation revs up.
DEPARTMENTS
THE MIDWAY
Funworld September 2007
INDUSTRY NOTES
Ripley’s Returns to Founder’s Home
New York City has welcomed the return of the name Robert Ripley, the founder
of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, to the place where he lived for more
than 30 years. On June 21, The Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Times Square
Odditorium opened to 550 invited guests with much lighthearted fanfare,
featuring a mix of entertainment personalities and celebrity “oddities.”
Among the special guests were Carmen Electra, Kelly Osborne (daughter
of rock ’n roll singer Ozzy Osborne), and Jenny McCarthy. Oddity guests
included “Lizard Man,” “Jalisa the Pop-eyed Girl,” “Wolfman,” and
the world’s oldest Siamese twins.
Despite its location on some of the most expensive real estate in the world, at 17,500 square feet, the Times Square Odditorium is the largest of the 30 Rip-ley’s Believe It or Not! museums currently operating.
“New York City is one of the most amazing cities in the world, and it’s easy to see why Robert Ripley made the Big Apple his home,” said Bob Masterson, president of Ripley Entertainment. “We are thrilled to bring Believe It or Not! back to the city where, in 1918, Ripley coined that now-famous phrase. Ripley’s Times Square Odditorium houses the greatest collection of unbelievable odd and unusual items ever assembled under one roof, from this world and beyond!”Among the oddities are a two-headed calf, a six-legged cow and an albino giraffe; locks of hair that belonged to Elvis Presley, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and George Washington; Ripley’s collection of Olympic torches; a 3,197-pound meteorite that fell to earth in China in 1529 during the Ming Dynasty; the gigantic skeleton of a prehistoric mastodon; and the skull of a tyrannosaurus rex.
The museum also features Ripley’s collection of 24 shrunken heads, the largest collection in the world and more than are on view at the American Museum of Natural History, according to Ripley Entertainment. The baseball uniform that Babe Ruth wore while playing for Robert Ripley’s team in a 1939 charity baseball game is also on display.
Ripley first came to New York in 1913 at the age of 23 at the urging of his close friend, author Jack London, either to pursue his baseball aspirations or to earn money from his talent as an illustrator. According to Ripley Entertainment, Ripley became the first millionaire cartoonist and in 1936 was voted the most popular American over Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Times Square Odditorium is open 365 days a year from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Admission is $24.95 for adults, $21.95 for students, seniors, and military personnel, and $18.95 for children under 13.
Fun Spot USA Boasts Tallest,Fastest, Most ExtremeBilling itself as having the world’s “tallest skycoaster,” “fastest dragsters,” and “most extreme go-kart tracks,” Fun Spot USA opened on June 2 on an 11-acre site in Kissimmee, Florida.
The park includes four go-kart tracks, including “Vortex,” which features a 32degree banked turn—steeper than the turns at the Daytona International Speedway— and a harrowing 40-degree drop. It also has “G-Force,” the world’s fastest amusement dragsters, which rocket riders from 0 to 110 mph in two seconds, and the world’s tallest Skycoaster at 300 feet. Other amusement rides, a NASCAR simulator, black-light miniature golf, and batting cages round out the offerings. John Arie Jr., the son of the park’s founder and COO of Fun Spot USA, said the partnership has high hopes for the fun center. “The ‘extreme’ part is what we were going after, but we’ve also come to find out we’re hitting a lot more of our targeted audience than we do in our Orlando [park],” he revealed. “We’re hoping to draw in a million or more to our park [annually], and we’re hoping to make it the third big nighttime attraction in Orlando, after Universal’s Citywalk and the Disney Boardwalk.” Arie adds that due to the positive attendance results the park has experienced, the facility is now in the process of adding two flat go-kart tracks. As for the future plans of the Fun Spot FECs, Arie would only say, “A third Fun Spot park is always a possibility!” |
The brainchild of John Arie Sr., who owns Fun Spot Action
Park in Orlando, the FEC is a partnership between Arie and
Larry Naddeo and Mike Spina of Happy Days. The latter operates
several amusement rides at Old Town, a retail and amusement
venue adjacent to Fun Spot USA. Atlantis Found at Shopping Mall in Israel
An unusual and imaginative family entertainment center called “Atlantis” opened
May 15 in the Arena Mall in Herzliya, Israel, located near Tel Aviv. The center,
coordinated by David Peretz and designed by Zvika Tamari of Modiin, Israel, is
14,000 square feet and can accommodate up to 600 people. Its extensive and very
colorful “sunken city” theme follows that of the mall.
“The whole mall is about the sea and marinas,” said Tamari, “and we’re talking about the biggest mall in Israel, owned by Motti Zisser. The space I imagined was a big [aquarium] tank, so I decided to put an adventure for the whole family in there that is under the sea, meaning the ceiling is at sea level and the floor is the bottom of the sea.”
The Lost Continent of Atlantis serves as the background mural for the center, and re-creations of sea creatures and plant life are spread throughout the facility, which Tamari said, “enhances the sense of an undersea life habitat feeling.”
The center’s attractions include a MadWave motion theater by Triotech Amusements of Lavaltrie, Quebec, Canada, three additional simulators, a soft-play facility, a performing stage, bumper cars, and an “open shell” cafeteria, all themed to enhance the sense of an undersea adventure. There’s also a “convoy” monorail ride featuring four different vehicles.
Titanic Surfaces in Branson, Missouri
For those wanting to tour the biggest Titanic museum in the world,
they won’t find it in Southampton, England—the historic
vessel’s home port—or New York harbor, the planned
destination on her maiden voyage. In fact, the largest Titanic
museum isn’t located anywhere near a coastline but, rather,
in the city of Branson, Missouri.
Called “Titanic—World’s Largest Museum Attraction,” the exhibition is a scale model of the historic 883-foot-long ocean liner that sank on April 15, 1912. Designed by Idletime Network of Windermere, Florida, and opened in April 2006, it’s the result of a 10-year dream by John Joslyn, who coowns the museum along with his wife, Mary Kellogg-Joslyn. Joslyn was the second person to organize a research mission to the underwater site of the Titanic shipwreck.
One of the museum’s signature attractions is a unique audio tour of the ship. “The audio story was recorded by Bernard Hill, the man who played Titanic Captain Edward John Smith in James Cameron’s 1997 movie, ‘Titanic,’” Kellogg-Joslyn told FUNWORLD . “John actually recorded survivors’ stories for his television special on his expedition in 1987, and we have the voices of those survivors on this audio tour.”
Guests can also board a lifeboat and move from seat to seat to hear different survivors’ stories. The museum, open year-round, also features replicas of some of Titanic’s best-known features, including the grand staircase, the main bridge, and the wireless “radio room” from which SOS distress signals were sent. The museum also has 400 Titanic artifacts provided by several collectors, and there’s a popular interactive area for kids.
More information is available at www.titanicbranson.com.
Universal, New Line Form Partnership to Make Halloween Scarier Than Ever
In what has the potential for a frighten ingly good partnership,
Universal Studios joins forces with New Line Cinema this year to
bring three of Hollywood’s scariest characters of all time
to Universal’s two American resorts.
Later this month, three horror icons—machete-wielding Jason (“Friday the 13 th”), claw-fingered Freddy Krueger (“A Nightmare on Elm Street”), and chainsaw aficionado Leatherface (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”)—will be incorporated into Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights events at both Universal Hollywood and Orlando.
“This is by far our biggest Halloween event ever,” said Jim Timon, senior vice president of entertainment for Universal Parks and Resorts. “New Line Cinema brings an incredible horror tradition. We’re going to take characters that have only existed in the celluloid world and make them real. You’ll be living them up close and personal. We are going to go above and beyond how we deliver these characters—sparing no expense.”
Talks between Universal and New Line go back more than two years, Timon told FUNWORLD , and the partnership will not be limited to just this year’s Halloween events.
“Our relationship with New Line is intended to be long-term,” Timon said. “We’re new partners, and there’s a lot of opportunity for us with that company, and I can safely say New Line feels the same way. Whether that’s with Halloween or something else we might want to pursue in the future … we’re starting off on a great note.”
Halloween Horror Nights is a separately ticketed event; the Orlando price is $64.95 per person per night, with varying applicable discounts. Horror Nights will run in Orlando for 23 days between Sept. 28 and Nov. 3; there will be 10 event nights in Hollywood between Oct. 5 and Oct. 31. For more information, visit www.halloweenhorrornights.com.
—Jeremy Schoolfield
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Walibi
Belgium Unveils ‘Vertigo’ Schlitterbahn Galveston Island Unveils Huge Expansion
Schlitterban waterpark on Galveston Island, Texas, showcased a massive expansion
completed in the off season when it opened for business on April 21. The project
increased the park’s guest areas by almost 30 percent and added seven
new attractions and a host of guest amenities to the facility’s offerings.
One of the main features of the expansion is the enormous new “Blastenhoff Hot Tub.” “The hot tub has a swim-up bar,” explained Jeffrey Siebert, corporate communication director for Schlitterbahn Waterparks. “We also added the ‘Treasure Island’ kids’ area, a new river that goes around the whole experience and is a combination of a river system and a tube chute, dueling speed slides called ‘Cliffhangers’ that are the tallest attractions in our company at 81 feet, ‘F5: Twin Twisters,’ which are completely enclosed body slides that wrap around like pretzels, and new beaches with cabanas.”
The new river system that Siebert spoke of is a series of interconnected waterways that Schlitterbahn terms “transportainment,” which serves to transport guests from one attraction to another and reduces or eliminates waiting in line.
Mongolia Gets Its First Theme Park
The country of Mongolia will open its very first theme park in late 2008 or early 2009 in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.
Designed by Forrec Ltd. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the 89-acre park is a joint venture of Mongolia’s Bodi Group, a real estate development company, and the Golomt Bank. Heavy construction is expected to begin in early 2008.
“The theme of the park will be Mongolian folk tales,” Forrec’s Mitch Petty, the project manager, told FUNWORLD , “and it will be a combination of indoor family entertainment center and an outdoor play park linked by a vibrant high-energy retail street. The climate is pretty harsh—Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world—so that’s why it will have the indoor FEC.”
Petty said the park will also feature traditional park favorites like drop towers, wave swingers, a 200-foot-tall Ferris Wheel, small children’s rides, paddle boats, and antique cars, and might also include a Wild Mouse-type ride, a wave swinger, and a carousel.
Two Existing Theme Parks Purchased Six Flags Inc., which operates Discovery Kingdom, will purchase the city of Vallejo’s $52 million interest in the 135-acre theme park, ending a profit-sharing agreement between the two entities that dated back to the 1980s. In January, Six Flags announced it had invested $16 million in the park in the form of rides, shows, and animal attractions. The park’s decline in attendance in 2006 is blamed on heavy rains during the operating season. Meanwhile, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) has announced it will purchase The Holy Land Experience, a Biblethemed park that has suffered declining attendance for the past several years. TBN, which said it has more than 12,500 television and cable affiliates worldwide, is the world’s largest religious network, with nearly $200 million in annual revenue. It said it will make operational changes at the park and invest in new attractions. The financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed. |
Two theme parks that experienced attendance declines in 2006— Discovery
Kingdom in Vallejo, California, and The Holy Land Experience in Orlando— were
purchased recently by new owners who plan to make significant changes
to the parks. 
Wind Tunnels Might Be the NextAdventure on Cruise Ships
SkyVenture, the skydiving wind tunnel company that is installing vertical wind chambers all over the world to serve as amusement attractions and skydiving training centers, is currently in discussions to bring its attraction to a new type of venue.
“We’re in pretty heavy negotiations with a cruise line,” said Trevor Thompson, vice president of operations for the company, “and we’re definitely working in that direction.”
Wind tunnels would be another element in the growing trend of cruise ships adding major on-board amusement attractions. Already, large water-slides and other waterpark elements, climbing walls, water balloon battle stations, and surfing machines have recently debuted on cruise ships. But the addition of skydiving wind tunnels would almost certainly mark the industry’s most expensive commitment to an amusement attraction to date.
Thompson noted that SkyVenture is also researching the possibility of installing its wind tunnels in waterparks. “The largest expense to the waterpark is heating their water, and the biggest concern of a wind tunnel is getting rid of its heat,” said Thompson, “so it may be a great fit.”
SkyVenture currently has 10 licensed tunnels operating around the world and 16 more that are due to open soon or are under contract for construction. Thompson said the company had finally overcome the series of hurdles that had prevented its much-delayed Universal Studios CityWalk tunnel in Los Angeles from opening, and he expected it to be up and running by the end of 2007. This one-of-a-kind tunnel features a 30-foot-tall acrylic tube that will allow 360-degree viewing of flyers in the wind chamber from almost anywhere in CityWalk.
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SeaWorld Orlando Rolls Out Trio of Kiddie
Rides