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There's another aspect of excitement in the world of thrill rides. There's the excitement of the latest announcements of upcoming rides from an industry as secretive as the military at times, and the excitement of all the latest happenings at parks around the world. Sometimes the news is good, sometimes the news is bad, but our aim is to bring you the fairest, timeliest, most accurate details on everything that concerns you. COASTER-net's team of journalists is hard at work around the clock to bring you the in-depth scoop!
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Midway Park, Maple Spings, NY 08/25/04 - By: Joe Mueller -
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Midway Park, a little family park in New York, announced it was for sale today. The park has been open since 1898, and owned by the current owners family since 1951. The 40 acre Midway Park is up for sale for $4.2 million. Midway Park is the 16th oldest park in North America and contains 2 small rollercoasters. The park is situated on Lake Chautauqua and has about 100,000 visitors per year. The owners say that it is time for them to retire. They expect the sale to take awhile and plan to have it open through the 2005 season.
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Cypress Gardens Adventure Park, FL, USA 08/24/04 - By: Josh Thompson -
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 Cypress Gardens Adventure Park is now planning on a November grand opening. The original planned opening date in October was changed after Hurricane Charlie slammed into the park hard and caused $3-4 million in damages. As long as there are no unplanned incidents, the parks should make it's November opening date.
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 Six Flags European Division has now changed names. The company running the seven parks is now called Star Parks. If you remember back, Six Flags sold their european division in the spring to an unknown company. The seven parks currently operating under this company are Six Flags Holland, Six Flags Belgium, Bellewaerde Park, Walibi Lorraine, Walibi Rhône-Alpes, Walibi Aquitaine, and Warner Bros. Movie World Germany.
Read more at the official Star Parks website.
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Myrtle Beach Pavilion, Myrtle Beach, SC, USA 08/23/04 - By: Carl F -
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Mark McBride, the mayor of Myrtle Beach, is moving for the Pavilion to be left in it's current location. The mayor has said that he is all for redevelopment of the amusement park, but for it to not be moved from it's 11-acre site in downtown Myrtle Beach.
The Downtown Redevelopment Corporation has said that the mayor's efforts are a little premature considering that he just has ideas and no final plans. Although a vote over this issue is soon upcoming, many of the council members have said that they need to here more information before they can cast a vote.
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Valleyfair! Amusement Park, Shakopee, MN, USA 08/22/04 - By: Paul S. -
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Valleyfair! announced today that there will be a new flat ride debuting at the park for the 2005 park season. The new attraction will be a Huss Floorless Top Spin and be called RipTide. Valleyfair!'s sister park, Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA, just recently opened up RipTide at there park earlier this summer.
RipTide will reach a height of fifty-nine feet while seating thirty-eight passengers positioned back-to-back on the floorless gondola. RipTide will complete thirteen full 360 degrees rotations during the ride. The ride will swing the gondola back and forth until enough momentum is gained for the gondola to fully invert the passengers aboard RipTide.
Like RipTide at Knott's Berry Farm, this ride will also feature a fountain at the base of the ride creating a beautiful display. Riders aboard RipTide will get wet, and some even drenched, with variable programming for the fountains. During certain revolutions, the gondola will deflect the water onto on-lookers below.
RipTide will be located within the Midway Games area near White Water Country Waterpark. Riptide is scheduled to open in spring 2005 when Valleyfair! opens for its 2005 park season.
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Paramount's Great America, Santa Clara, CA, USA 08/17/04 - By: Joe Mueller -
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Several cars were destroyed Sunday afternoon at PGA. The cause was a large fire which is still under investigation. The Santa Clara fire chief said they are not sure how the fire started. They do know that wind was a factor in the fire. The flames were said to have spread very quickly. It took a total of 18 firefighters 2 hours to put out the blaze.
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Six Flags Over Georgia, Austell, GA, USA 08/17/04 - By: Paul S. -
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Although the Road Runner is alway able to escape the traps from Wile E. Coyote, he wasn't very successful escaping from a thirteen year old boy. A thirteen year old boy assaulted an actor in the Road Runner costume at Six Flags Over Georgia. The thirteen year old attacked the actor because he says the actor pecked him. There were many witnesses to the assault and say that the actor did not peck the thirteen year old.
The thirteen year old was then asked to apologize to the actor, but instead attacked him again. The boy took the actor, while still in the costume, by the neck and threw him up against the wall bruising him and dislocating his hip. The employee is fine but the costume is damaged. The boy has been banned from Six Flags Over Georgia.
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Cypress Gardens Adventure Park, Florida, USA 08/17/04 - By: Paul S. -
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Florida's first amusement park lost about three million dollars from Hurricane Charley's destruction. The Hurricane ripped off a $500,000-$600,000 roof that would have eventually covered a skating pavilion. Flowers, trees, a second roof from a small building, and vendor booths around the park were also damaged by Hurricane Charley. However, the newly constructed steel roller coasters, NaviGator and Storm Surge, don't look like they took any damage from Charley.
Park owner, Kent Buescher, was devastated when he visited the park to survey the park's damage. He says that everything they have worked on for the past six months have been lost.The park's Management plans on re-building and re-planting everything that was lost due to Hurricane Charley. The park's signature botanical gardens were not insured, but luckily, the buildings were.
Park Management hopes to re-open the tourist destination in the fall. Cypress Gardens Adventure Park is expected to re-open with four roller coasters, eleven kids' rides, two water rides, twelve family rides, and seven thrill rides.
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A 14 year old girl was killed on a bungee ride in Cologne, Germany. Three park employee's are facing charges after the ride was started before the 16-year old and 14-year old passengers were straped in. The 16-year old managed to hang onto the ride compartment, but the 14-year old was hurled to her death. The ride remains closed while the investigation takes place.
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Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH, USA 08/16/04 - By: Carl F -
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 Top Thrill Dragster was down again this past Saturday for repairs that took around 11 hours. A launch cable came unhooked from one of the cars, but caused no injuries.
The cables were replaced after the incident and the coaster went through several test runs successfully before reopening an hour before the park's closing.
A similar incident occured on Top Thrill Dragster a month ago, injuring four riders when one of the launch cables broke. This is the third time that Cedar Point's record holding coaster has been down in the past two months.
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Wet 'n Wild, Las Vegas, NV, USA 08/15/04 - By: Joe Mueller -
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Wet 'n Wild water park in Las Vegas, NV is to close permanently on September 26th. Wet 'n Wild Water Park opened in 1985 and was one of the most popular areas on the strip. As some may know Wet 'n Wild has been featured on more than one television show as one of the Best Water Parks in the United States.
The company who owns the property Wet n' Wild is on canceled the lease. They plan to destroy the park and build a 3000 room hotel. The hotel is to be called Palace of the Sea. It is still unknown what is to happen to the rides in the park.
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An amusement park attraction in Ansonia is closed after a piece of the ride flew off, striking a woman. The accident occurred at the Holy Rosary Church's Italian Festival. Police were still looking on how the accident happend and it went into the late night.
A witnesses said the foot rest of one car came off while it hit the platform and then tore off hitting the other cars and the women. They women got off the ride with her mouth bleeding and holding her jaw.
The festival remained open but the ride, called the Sizzler, was closed.
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Hurricane Charley Impacts Florida Parks, Florida, USA 08/14/04 - By: Carl F -
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The day after Hurricane Charley blew its way through most of Florida, killing at least 15 and causing well into the billions worth of damage, most Florida theme parks are reopening their doors.
The Category 4 storm hit Florida with winds around 145 mph and the downpour of rain, closing all the local theme parks and bringing on evacuation of many areas. Except for Disney's Animal Kingdom and Typhoon Lagoon, all theme parks have reopened today with minimal damage. No damage to any of the rides and attractions has been reported by any of the parks and it seems that the extent of the damage only goes as far as cosmetic damage to building, the landscaping, and the usual downed trees.
Hurricane Charley has since moved its way up the East Coast, hitting South and North Carolina, and is expected to hit Virginia by Saturday night.
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Paramount's Kings Island, Kings Mill, OH, USA / Paramount's Canada's Wonderland, Vaughan, ON, Canada 08/12/04 - By: Christopher Dean -
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 Coming in 2005, Paramount's King's Island and Canada's Wonderland present The Italian Job Stunt Track, Paramount calls it a "High-Speed Mini Cooper™ Stunt Car Ride", and it appears to be the product of coaster masterminds Premier, who just recently opened Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida.
 From the Canada's Wonderland and King's Island official websites: "Park guests will experience what it’s like to be a Hollywood stunt driver and go behind the scenes of an action movie. Guests board their very own MINI Cooper S tricked out with audio  special effects adding to the multi-sensory sensation of the experience. Once strapped into their custom stunt car, rubber meets the road as the MINIs peel out to begin their chase sequence. Drivers twist through a parking garage, dodge near-collisions, race down stairs, chase through tunnels and narrowly escape massive explosions triggered by gunfire from a menacing helicopter. Tires skid out one last time as the stunt cars crash through a billboard and splash down into an L.A. aqueduct concluding the chase sequence and their trial as a stunt driver in this screen test!"
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Tentatively named "The Great Nevada Roundup", a group of people from Boulder City, Nevada (just outside of Las Vegas) want to build an "Old West" themed park with rides, replicas of old western buildings, entertainment venues, and possibly an equestrian area.
You can read the full article here.
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 Six Flags Great America is to recieve $35,000,000 for 2005 improvements, including a new waterpark. No more details were released in the conference call.
Six Flags Inc. also announced that attendance was down 4% while per capita spending was up 2.8%. While part of the $2 billion debt was payed off with the $260 million sale of the Cleveland and European parks, a large chunck of the debt sits unpayed.
Six Flags Inc.'s stock dropped 11% after the announcement.
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Six Flags Marine World, Vallejo, CA, USA 08/09/04 - By: Josh Thompson -
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 Six Flags has requested permission to move a captive orca whale from Argentine to their Marine World amusement park. If permission is granted, they hope to breed the new whale named Kshamenk, with their new whale Shouka. The whale will be on loan from Mundo Marino, an aquirium in Buenos Aires. The park also said that it is very likely that Kshamenk will participate in the park's show along with Shouka.
Of course there is strong thoughts against this by animal rights activists. The assistant director of the International Marine Mammal Project for Earth Island Institute, said the whale should be released to the open seas. Marine World says the purpose of this is to breed the whales and learn more from these amazing creatures.
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Geauga Lake, Aurora, OH, USA 08/04/04 - By: Paul S. -
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Three workers at Geauga Lake were terminated after failing to lock the safety bar for the first car on the park's looping coaster, Double Loop. The workers did not check the safety bars for the first car of the train when the ride was started. There were two riders in the front car.
The Double Loop requires the ride operators to step on a pedal to lock and unlock the ride's restraints. Luckily, a high-tech device, known as the electronic eye caught the problem and stopped the ride immediately.
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Alton Towers, Staffordshire, England, UK 08/03/04 - By: Josh Thompson -
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A judge has ruled against Alton Towers in the case brought forth by two people who live near the park.The couple claims that they have to put up with high noise levels from Alton Towers on a daily basis. The two major complaints they have are the firework displays and the PA system in the park, but mainly on Oblivion.
A district judge visited the home of the couple and said that the fireworks we "intrusive" and actually rattled the windows. Oblivion was also brought fourth in the issue due to the "don't look down" message that is broadcasted as the car hangs over the edge. The couple simply put it that the screaming and mechanical noise is to much.
Officials at Alton Towers are very disappointed that the judge ruled against them. The park has made an attempt to please guests by limited fireworks to a half hour. Simply put, "it's a theme park, and it is inevitable that there will be some noise associated with our business."
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Lake Compounce, Bristol, CT, USA 08/03/04 - By: Carl F -
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 On May 16th of this year, a 5-year-old boy was hit by a falling tree branch at Lake Compounce and killed. People are now looking into who to place the blame for this accident on.
It has been reported that Lake Compounce did not have a contract with landscaping company that trims the trees at the park. One of the big questions that need to be answered is, who's responsibility was it to check into the dead tree and have it taken care of before it became a danger to anyone.
There are many groups looking into this accident, including Lake Compounce, the landscaping firm, and the Department of Environmental Protection. All sides says that it may be possible to reach a settlement without the use of a lawsuit.
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Motorworld, Virginia Beach, VA, USA 08/01/04 - By: Devin Olson -
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The final nail has been put in the coffin of plans for a theme park for Virginia Beach with land previously expected to turn into a theme park being sold for use as a light industrial park.
Developer Edward Garcia's vision of a park with eight themed sections for Virginia Beach to be built on 40 acres was approved as far back as 1986, however what did end up on part of the site was the Ocean Breeze Waterpark and then later, the Motorworld go-cart park and miniature golf course.
Now, the land has been sold to developers looking to build office buildings and warehouse facilities on the site adjacent to Motorworld and Ocean Breeze.
In 2000, the park had added a number of rides including a Reverchon spinning wild mouse, but the next year all of these attractions were removed from the property.
Another plan from 1999 called for an oceanfront amusement park to be built on the Virginia Beach boardwalk, however those plans failed to materialize as well.
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