Archive: October, 2007

Jeff and Pat review this week's news in the amusement industry.

• Six Flags Discovery Kingdom will have a really big Christmas tree, but they're pissing off animal rights activists without any help.
• Kings Dominion announced Dominator from Geauga Lake, and it remains the world's longest floorless coaster. A "debate" about recycling ride names reminds us of the old Batman coaster nonsense. Gonch makes an argument for reusing names.
• Strange flume accident in Thailand. Asian news agencies don't seem to keep stuff on their Web sites for very long.
• Coney Island's Astroland gets one more season, probably because the developer hasn't been allowed to do anything else.
• Busch moves the theme park headquarters from St. Louis to Orlando. It was like building boats in North Dakota. Weird.
• Cedar Fair announces the park is now California's Great America, and rides for 2008 and 2009. Read between the lines, 49ers: Our price is very, very high.
• Jeff spent the weekend closing Cedar Point. Pretty solid crowds for being so cold. Jeff can't close the park the way he used to, due in part to the walking around and drinking (and the cold).
• The conspiracy theories about Geauga Lake are getting really old. Time to let it go.
• Quarterly results are on the horizon. Halloween events seems like gold in terms of adding attendance to the season totals.
• Jeff is going to IAAPA in a couple of weeks, and wonders if there's really a story to cover there. Booth babes are not a story.

Jeff (inspired by Diana) and Pat review this week's news in the amusement industry.

• Recorded at Cedar Point during BooBuzz 2007.
• Cedar Point's Tony Clark talks about Halloweekends, parades and the next attraction for Cedar Point (or not).
• Cedar Fair maintains its quarterly distribution, but Jeff is not pleased with the unit price.
• These late season events are clearly good for the numbers as they pad the fourth quarter.
• LA Times writer is exhausted by his time as a creepy guy at Knott's Berry Farm's Halloween event.
• Disney is going to spend $1.1 billion on California Adventure. Jeff and Gonch both see the trend that the parks are there to fill the hotels, not the reverse. That's where they're creating growth.
• Safety improved according to consultant paid to say what you want?
• Gonch says Wild West World was like him giving millions to his kids to run a new park. Jeff liked the sign.
• Diana gets a slow clap for riding Skyhawk. Had a good time on ERT.
• Jeff and Tony talk off-topic on radio. Morning show hilarities ensue.
• Tony gets a word in on golden tickets and last rides of the season on Maverick.
• Behold, it's Mr. Microphone!

Jeff, Mike and Pat review this week's news in the amusement industry.

• No takers for Wild West World. Shocker.
• Slightly off-topic, residents of Kauai have a case of NIMBY that's familiar. Gonch says that for better or worse, you can't stop progress.
• Florida theme parks said to be relatively resistant to economic trials and tribulations. Jeff remembers Orlando right after 9/11, amazed at how busy it is now. Gonch does the math.
• Attendance down at fair in Tulsa, official says it has nothing to do with the loss of Bell's.
• The 49ers want to build a stadium next to Great America and cause what Cedar Fair calls a parking nightmare. Cedar Fair has a win-win situation, where if the 49ers and local officials want it bad enough, they'll pay dearly, otherwise the park can go about its business.
• Stupid criminal of the week story.
• Morey's considers new trains for its SLC. Ever meet an SLC you liked?
• County assessor for Great America gets in on the action with a completely irrelevant opinion, and lacks common sense that tax assessed values have nothing to do with fair market values.
• Short and terrible show, but we're getting closer to 100!
• We'll see some of you at BooBuzz this weekend.

Jeff and Pat review this week's news in the amusement industry.

• Gonch gets picked out of a crowd for his voice at Kings Island.
• Relatively few CoasterBuzz Club members actually post in the forums. Site visitors in general don't post all that often.
• The CoasterBuzz Club Fall Affair at Holiday World was an amazing success! Good times at the Lake Rudolph campground.
• The Voyage at night in total darkness is completely ridiculous, in a good way.
• Beware of Kupcake the Klown.
• Some minor notes on the Geauga Lake ride park closure. Folks from the company thought we were pretty fair in the last show.
• Michigan's Adventure gets Geauga Lake's SLC. Jeff thinks it's a lot of ride for that little park, but Gonch doesn't think so.
• Cedar Fair should really release park-by-park attendance this year as a baseline to see how it improves.
• The sale of Cypress Gardens and Wild Adventures is a real bummer for Kent Buescher.
• Dubai and the UAE is becoming the Vegas-Orlando-Caribbean of that part of the world.
• Six Flags announced a lot of stuff.
• Hershey announces Fahrenheit, and we wonder where it will go.
• Cha-ching! Land rush around Hard Rock Park.
• What is Disney's plan with their new resort on Oahu?
• See Jeff speak at IAAPA.
• Some off-topic nonsense about Halo 3 and video games.