Story Land PTR July 2010

This trip was sort of last minute coming up just a day before. But I got up and wrapped up a few things so I could enjoy the day. I went with my parents and niece. They had return passes so I only needed a ticket for myself. Though not unexpected I found us leaving late and not arriving gat the park till 1:15 that day. I got a ticket at a discount $23.99, a $2 dollar increase form last year. While not terribly expensive compared to some parks it was given the 4 hours and 45 minutes left to the operating day.


We made out way in and while my parents brought my niece to the restroom I walked over to the Yum Yum Junction. The building is no longer a gift shop, Instead it has been converted to a candy, Ice cream and fudge shop. It was a nice change. The majority of souvenirs it offered can be found in other locations so it wasn’t a loss. The new food options were welcomed, but I was surprised that they not use the candy shop as a primary exit. They even promote it on the sign.



After meeting up with my group I talked briefly with the park’s New GM it was nice to hear that he is settle in comfortably. He strongly recommended the shows. With that we went on with our day. We mad our way over the hill to the Polar coaster. The ride was a blast as usual and it’s always a joy to ride a coaster that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.


We road the Bamboo chute, the parks flume ride, another custom design Hopkins ride. We checked out the online photo from the ride but didn’t buy after seeing the $12 dollar price. When the price was 8 we would buy on every year on multiple rides sometime more then once a year. No we just move on without buying anything. I snapped a shot of the screen none the less.


As we made out way to the front we came up to the Professor Bigglesteps lab. The park removed the large cannon on the off season and in its place is a building with 2 midway style games and a small gift shop. I wish they could have kept it. I have always seen the Cannon as an iconic aspect of the park so I found it strange to see it gone. Wish they could have kept it. The cannon was a set piece for the Journey to the Moon dark ride that operated in the dome.


The games are a Ring toss with coke bottles offering a $1 dollar 5 ring and $5 dollar bucket options. The second game is a duck race winner ever time attraction for $2 dollars. The Crab crawl water race game is now $2 dollars and I suspect but wasn’t able to confirm the roller ball race game in Mexico also gone up.



My niece for the first time wanted to use the Ball play/foam factory area. This attraction along with a show theater replaced the dark ride when it was removed. My niece had fun and some adults seemed to get into it but like most of the playgrounds the adults just watched.

Canobie Lake Park PTR July 17th

It was ACE day at Canobie and I was eager to visit the park. I have not signed up for the event do to the price(40 with picnic) but figured I’d use one of my holiday tickets to visit the park and hang out with my fellow ACErs. ACE had a good turn out 34 is you include myself. I got to the park at 10:20 and I met up with the ACE group. I basically became the photographer for the ERT event. The day included morning ERT on Corkscrew and Min of Lost Souls, the parks dark ride.



The park took over most of the Gift shops this year and in turn they got rehabs. The latest one to open is the store in the Canobie mall. Now the Pink Lady it’s a gift show geared towards the female guests. The shop is not open air and the wall to the outside has been removed.



The group had a picnic set up for noon so for the first hour of the day I hung out with a few of them and hit the rides on that side of the park. When the group went off to their picnic I took in the Jackpot Casino and its AC. There I ran into A long time employee Anna, She has been working at the park as a casher, and long time information booth employee. She now handles the redemption counter at the jackpot. We talked about park employee past and present as well as talked about the owners of the park. It was pleasure to talk to an employee with such love for the park.


I had expected to get a phone call so I walked over to the picnic ground and looked to see if the ACE group was still there. The employee at the entrance was nice enough to let me in so I could check in. I spent some time there talking to the other ACE members that were in attendance and took the opportunity to get a nice shot of cannonballs fist drop on an angle you can’t get inside the park.


After some time chatting it was back to rides. We kept this up until it was time to see the park headliner show, Michal Jackson. Before the show started there was sort of a commercial/preview video that talked about the other shows, the parks Halloween event Screeemfest, and the recently amounted October fest running form Sept 18th through October.

Nore Easter 2010

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.

See all the photos here - Nor Easter 2010 Photo Gallery

Santa's Village Invest big in 2010

After riding the economy out a bit Santa's Village is investing in the 2010 season. 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 teh attraction will cost $900,00 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 Polor Express station, and the Former arcade will transform into a First aid and Guest services center.

Read more:
http://www.record-enterprise.com/Articles-...theme_park.html

Screeemfest at Canobie Lake Park 09 PTR

After a few missed opportunities do to weather I Finally made it to Canobie Lake Park for their Halloween Screeemfest event. Being Columbus Day and with a threat of sprinkles I was not surprised to see light crowds. I head the weekend was well attended. I arrived slightly after 5 and entered with a ticket I bought opening day. I was greeted by one of the parks Ticket takers Dressed as a bellhop. Being early in the day and reasonably bright I figured I’d explore the park and see what they have for decorations.


The park had a few good set ups a small cemetery on a side path and a few props set up here and there. They are no were near as decorated at other local attraction like SFNE or LC but given it’s their second year, technically 1st, they are off to a good start.






While there for the haunts and shows primarily I did take in a few rides. All rides were set up with extra queue to handle busy days but were not needed today. Throughout my visit I went on Cannonball, Wave Blaster, Wipeout, Star blaster, Davinci’s Dream, Frisbee, and Corkscrew


See the entire report, Haunt descriptions (optional) and 70 photos here:
http://s6.zetaboards.com/New_Whalom_Park/t...x=0#post8001216