Saturday, February 23, 2008

Tidbits From All Over

Late February means that it’s still the off-season for most parks. But until the usual tales of ridiculous enthusiast public behavior and Six Flags jacking up parking fees three times in one day begin to rear their ugly heads, we here at ARN&R still have some exciting news to report.

-Work still continues at Universal Studios Orlando on the Simpsons Ride, which will replace the park’s beloved Back To The Future Ride. A source which declined to be named tells ARN&R that the ride is still on target for a Spring opening, and will mirror the popular Fox animated show closely. He went on to say that the ride will be underwhelming the first three times guests ride it, will become wildly entertaining for rides 4 through 10, and then begin a slow but steady decline in amusement during subsequent experiences.

-Idaho’s Silverwood Theme Park continues to gear up for what park owner Gary Norton calls “the most exciting season in our history”. In addition to the well-publicized news that Silverwood has purchased Six Flags Great America’s Vekoma lawn ornament Deja Vu, the park plans to open a new food court in its Boulder Beach waterpark, and move forward with a botanical beautification project. Sliverwood has also been aggressively recruiting new employees through newspaper ads, internet postings, and job fairs, and has added nearly five hundred new hires. Norton denies the rumor that most of these new employees will be used to manually lift Deja Vu trains “tug of war” style up the lift towers during the coaster’s many mechanical failures.

--CMV