The first waterslide of its kind in the world, Omaka Rocka opens this spring at Aquatica, SeaWorld’s waterpark, in Orlando. Riders will speed down flumes into massive funnels, sliding high up one side and then the other, rocking back and forth, feeling a sensation of near weightlessness.

Thanks to Free range communications for sending the images through.

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]]> http://www.ridemad.com/omaka-rocka-aquatica-orlando-construction-photos/feed 0 http://www.ridemad.com/blackpool-pleasure-beach-superbowl-dodgems-building-demolished http://www.ridemad.com/blackpool-pleasure-beach-superbowl-dodgems-building-demolished#comments Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:16:47 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=342 As part of the plans to relocate the superbowl dodgem cars at Blackpool Pleasure Beach the existing building has been demolished this week.

To see the rest of the photos continue reading.

The ride is relocating to the old Whip building that has been lying SBNO for a number of years. The whip was relocated earlier this year for the new dreamland project in Margate.

A few of the superbowl cars were recently sold on ebay, one of which sold for £114.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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New for the 2009 season at Lightwater Valley is a rapid ride rented from Showman James Mellor. The ride will be at the park for the 2009 season after which point both parties will review it’s suitability for the park.

I visited the park in April on a warmish day and the ride has a constant queue with at least 15/20 minute wait times, I can imagine this will get alot bigger over the coming summer months when the temperatures rise in the UK.

The ride has took the place of the Pinfari Grizzly Bear coaster which stood at the park from 2004, this ride has since been sold. I certainly wont miss it.

This update contains approximately 25 photographs taking during April at the park.

Best Amusement Park
Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH

Best Waterpark
Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, New Braunfels, TX

Best Children’s Park
Legoland California, Carlsbad, CA

Best Marine Life Park
SeaWorld Orlando, Orlando, FL

Best Seaside Park
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Santa Cruz, CA

Best Wooden Coaster
The Voyage at Holiday World, Santa Claus, IN

Best Steel Coaster
Superman Ride of Steel
at Six Flags New England, Agawam, MA

Best Kids’ Area
Kings Island, Kings Mills, OH

Friendliest Staff
Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Santa Claus, IN

Cleanest Park
Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, Santa Claus, IN

Best Halloween Event
Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando, Orlando, FL

Best Landscaping
Busch Gardens Europe, Williamsburg, VA

Best Christmas Event
Smoky Mountain Christmas at Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, TN

Best Food
Knoebels Amusement Resort, Elysburg, PA

Best Shows
Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio, TX

Best Outdoor Night Show Production
IllumiNations: Reflections of the Earth
at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center, Orlando, FL

Best Water Ride
Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls
at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Orlando, FL

Best Waterpark Ride
Master Blaster at Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, New Braunfels, TX

Best Dark Ride
Amazing Adventures of Spiderman
at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Orlando, FL

Best New Ride of 2008 – Amusement Park
Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer Park, Erie, PA

Best New Ride of 2008 – Waterpark
Dragon’s Revenge at Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort, New Braunfels, TX

Best Carousel
Grand Carousel at Knoebels Amusement Resort, Elysburg, PA

Best Indoor Roller Coaster
Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Orlando, Orlando, FL

Best Indoor Waterpark
Schlitterbahn Galveston Island, Galveston, TX

Best Funhouse/Walk-

Through Attraction
Frankenstein’s Castle at Indiana Beach, Monticello, IN

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Want to discuss this further visit the forums or use the contact form at the top of the page.

Link to the forums

For anyone that’s a fan of dark rides especially the Haunted House or as its now known Duel at Alton towers there is only one real source for information about this ride and thats the haunted one website which has been updated recently.

There’s obviously alot of fans out there as we got together some time ago and wrote an article based on a behind the scenes tour and some history which was provided by the haunted one, this article is one of the most popular on this website with consistently over 1,500 views a month.

If you havent seen the site lately, check it out. http://www.hauntedone.co.uk/

Good luck with the new site Mik, im sure it will be a great success.

A decision will be made later in the year to draw up a masterplan to take the activities forward. Heres the full text from the BBC.

Developer Urban Splash has been chosen for the multimillion pound regeneration of Southport seafront.

The stretch of land, known as Southport Marine Park, includes the site of the now closed Pleasureland amusement park.

Sefton Council said it was impressed by Urban Splash’s idea to create a quality, eco-friendly development in the historic Merseyside resort.

A consultation will take place later this year to help devise a detailed masterplan for the site.

Urban Splash has won more than 200 industry awards and is currently working on major schemes across the north west of England.

‘New attraction’

Tony Corfield, Sefton Council’s head of tourism, said: “We are delighted to have an opportunity to work with Urban Splash who have an international reputation for delivering the levels of design and quality we are determined to achieve.

“During their impressive submissions, Urban Splash has vowed to create a distinctive new attraction featuring a wide range of activities.

“The company is also keen to work with the local community to produce a quality, eco-friendly development which includes exemplary architecture and embraces our reputation as England’s Classic Resort.”

The Pleasureland fairground opened in 1913 but was forced to close in 2006 due to falling visitor numbers.

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If you book in advance you can get park admission for as little as £7.95 a great saving on the current 2008 gate price of £16.95, based on been over 1.3m.

Lightwater Valley has some great attractions and although its not as big as other theme parks like Alton Towers its a great option for a day out if you are in that part of the country.

The pricing is based on advanced bookings which are taken from March, here is a complete list of prices taken from the website.

I try and visit Lightwater Valley at least once a season, this one will be no different.

Lightwater Valley

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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Oakwood Theme Park has been snapped up for an undisclosed sum by European leisure park leaders the Aspro group.

News broke in December that the Canaston Bridge attraction, had attracted a mystery bidder. The theme park confirmed that an offer had been made and was being considered by management but refused to be drawn into speculation as to the identity of the bidder.

A statement issued on behalf of Oakwood Theme Park and the Aspro Group today confirmed the sale.

“I am delighted that Aspro has acquired the park, which is Wales’s largest paid for visitor attraction,” said former owner Paddy McNamara, “as they have an excellent track record of operating leisure parks across Europe.”

The Aspro group currently operates 32 leisure parks in seven countries: 13 in Spain, one in Portugal, one in Switzerland, one in Belgium, nine in France, five in Finland.

With the acquisition of Oakwood the company now owns three parks in the U.K. the other two being the Deep Sea World Aquarium in Fife near Edinburgh and Blue Planet Aquarium in Ellesmere Port, Chester.

The group described Oakwood as “a highly regarded amusement park with magnificent installations”.The tourist attraction celebrated its 20th birthday last year, after starting life as a dairy farm diversification in 1987.Since then, it has expanded to employ 350 seasonal staff and 45 permanent workers, and has invested more than £21million in new rides.

Among them are the famous Megafobia, rated as one of the world’s best wooden rollercoasters, and the £3m vertical drop rollercoaster Speed – the first of its kind in the UK.

Managing director and major shareholder, Paddy McNamara, bought out his older brother William, who is now chief executive of the £110 Bluestone complex, several years ago.

Oakwood will be open for the 2008 season from 20th March until 28th September.

Related links, Ridemad Trip report Oakwood.

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After the much publicised legal case surrounding Alton Towers and its neighbours the park is going all out to create a fantastic Halloween event this year called Scarefest. The event which will run from 13th October through to the 4th November will feature all manor of ghastly goings on.

A variety of events aimed at younger children which includes a pumpkin patch and trick or treat doors. Plus hotel guests also have access to spooky bedtime stories and trick or treat trail.

For kids a little braver they have a Halloween show in the park and various characters Patch, Frank, Skelvin and Phil. Plus fancy dress and a trick or treat trial.

For fearless and screaming teenagers and adults the park is utilising the haunted hollow with various characters in it and new for this year is the corn maze which is at the back of the hotel – the official web site describes this as a “spine tingling story of zombies and mayhem” Plus a variety of things going on back at the hotels.

Here’s a few pictures of the special scarefest promotional car, it looks like a ford Granada.

If you would like any further information about this great event I would check with the official website for more up to date details. Alton Towers

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com I’m quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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Before Camelot the coaster was based at Dreamland in Margate where it was known as the ‘looping star’. The coaster is 1197ft long, has a height of 36ft and contains one loop which is 31ft high. Looking at those stats it wont make enthusiasts travel but the general public will surely appreciate another attraction at new pleasureland.

I must say it looks allot better than it ever did at Camelot with a new Orangey red and blue paintjob.

The coaster isnt complete yet, the rest of the track needs to be installed and the lift chain etc, I would guess its 70% complete. I spoke to a couple of members of staff who told me the plan is to open it before the end of the current season.

It was nice to see the park quite busy again this afternoon.

Thanks to RCDB (http://www.rcdb.com) for the stats

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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The surface is synthetic and is made from polyethylene tiles which are joined together to form the ice rink.

The afternoon we visited there wasnt that many people about and the park was quiet im sure this gets very busy during school holidays though.

As you can see from the photographs its quite a large area.

Ride tokens are accepted with a single go for 6 tokens (£3)

For more information please see the Vitrathene web site.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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George sent me some information recently about the planned closure of a further two dark rides in the US The Zombie Castle (pictured above) and the flying witch both at Playland Amusement Park in Rye, NY.

In an attempt to put a stop to this Laff in the dark have started a petition to save these rides, for more information and to lend some support please visit The Editorial page.

If you would like to see some additional information about these rides please take a look at the Laffinthedark articles covering both rides in full detail including a behind the scenes tour.

Flyingwitch.
Zombie Castle.

Any support you can offer will surely be appreciated.

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I heard Camelot were opening Knightmare today so ignored the weather forecast and made the 30 minute trip to the park. Knightmare had been advertised on Local radio as well as taking some prime TV commercial slots in the granada region yesterday evening.

The station with train number 2.

When we arrived at the ride however all was not good, the operators had been doing some training earlier in the day in anticipation of an opening this afternoon and we were told operator fault caused the ride to stall before the first set of brakes.

And finally taken from further back showing the train in relation to the rest of the track. Train is on the left hand side.

I didnt get chance to speak to any officals but a couple of ride ops told us a boost section at the top of the lift hill wasnt switched on, the resulting the car didnt have enough energy to make the first set of brakes.

I thought they might lift it off but the intense rain must have put them off, the rain didn’t ease during our 3hr trip. I felt a bit sorry for Camelot, with the delayed opening plus the amount they must have spent on advertising.

Hopefully this is a minor stumbling block and the ride can be open tomorrow without any such trouble. I’ll just have to wait another week to ride it.

That aside it does look like an excellent ride, heres some general photographs I took.

Finally train number 3.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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May 2007 – Blackpools Noahs ark is getting the second part of a much needed paint job to the exterior. The ark is just over 85 years old and considering the Blackpool climate has survived pretty well since the hey days of 1922. The first part of this work took place at around the same time in 2006 with alot of the exterior animals, policeman and Mt Ararat been spruced up. At one point during the 2006 touch up Noah was left headless for a couple of weeks. For some reason perhaps budget the paint job was never completed. Heres a bunch of pictures taking on May 12th. As usual if you have any comments please dont hesistate to get in touch.

Noah standing proud.

Here you can clearly see the amount of scaffolding they have used.

The amount of work on the front of the Ark is quite extensive.

A close up showing the dinosaur caged in scaffolding.

A couple of shots taken from the rear of the Ark.

The Polar bear at the rear of the Ark, I was always puzzled why this didnt get painted back in 2006, for me looking up at the ark it always looked out of place with the freshly painted animals around it.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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Now open, click here to see a complete behind the scenes tour

I love watching new rides take shape and infusion is no different. Ever since pleasure beach announced the closure of pleasureland and the replacement ride for the Blackpool log flume ive been heading up to Blackpool every couple of weeks to check the status at first the log flume demolition up until today when the ride is almost in service. Ive heard today from 3 different ride ops that infusion will open on Wednesday 2nd May 2007.

Apologies for the quality of the photographs, they were all taken with a mobile phone.

Theres been loads of rumours about the water effects, where they will be, how wet you get blah blah. Here’s a brief look at some of the main ones.

Firstly the bottom of the main drop to the right of the photo showing the fountains, although not very clear in the photograph theres about 8 fountains in a line jumping up and down, I suppose the not knowning if you are going to get wet or not is the fun part.

You can also see in the background a load of fountains shooting water up into the air, this is going to look fabulous when you are on the ride.

What is missed from the photographs just to the side of the station is a waterfall effect in the shape of a quarterpipe, I couldnt get close enough to take a picture of this unfortunately.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used(apart from these), to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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I took a quick visit to blackpool this afternoon mainly to get out of the house but also to take a look at the current status of Infusion the parks new coaster for 2007. The track is almost complete now, with only a few pieces left to complete the jigsaw. Anyway heres a few of the pictures I took, sorry about the lighting in some it was very overcast.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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Well its that time of year, when were all bored waiting for the 2007 season to kick off again in Febuary. Ive been trawling the web looking for dates of the last few days, anyway heres a complete list off the parks I have links to and the opening times for 2007.

Alton Towers : 10-25th Feb They are holding a special event, park entry is free and some kids rides will be open for details see Alton Towers

Bottons Pleasure Beach : Open weekends from Early March Bottons

Brean Leisure Park : opens 24th March 11am-5pm Brean

Camelot Theme park : opens 31st March 2007 – No news on the new coaster opening times Camelot

Chessington : Main theme park opens 24th March, but the zoo opens 10-25th Febuary. Chessington

Drayton Manor : 24th March 2007, Drayton Manor

Flambards : 3rd Febuary, check the site for further details. Flambards

Flamingo Land : 24th March 2007, Flamingo Land

Great Yarmouth Please Beach : No details yet, check the site for the latest information, Great Yarmouth

Gullivers world : (10th Febuary, Warrington – Limited rides £5.50 per person), (March 24th Matlock), (Milton Keynes, 10th Feb – Limites rides £5.50 per person Guillivers, make sure your volume is down

Lego Land Windsor – 17th March. Legoland

Lightwater Valley : Theme Park : 31st March 2007. Lightwater Valley

Oakwood : 31st March 2007. Oakwood

Pleasure Beach Blackpool : Febuary 10th. Blackpool

Pleasurewood Hills : April 1st 2007. Pleasurewood Hills

Thorpe Park : 10th Feb 2007. Thorpe Park

West Midlands Safari Park : 10th Febuary 2007, West Midlands

Not a complete list of every park, but it gives enough detail to be able to plan trips in the office without having a window popup with rides on when the boss is around.

If you want me to add any just drop me a email : paul@ridemad.com

To the left of this image, the old log flume ride station is now completely flattened.

At the moment they seem to be ranging from 2-3ft in depth.

To see the remaining pictures visit http://www.ridemad.com/photo/v/blackpool/2007slc/