Japan's Abandoned Amusement Parks

Japan's Russian Village

 Io9: Japan has a wealth of bizarre abandoned amusement parks. For example, we've seen an entire Mount Rushmore left to rot and a graffitied giant model of Lemuel Gulliver.

In the town of Niigata, you can visit the remains of The Russian Village, a shuttered tourist attraction that once boasted such sights as a recreation of the Cathedral of the Nativity in Suzdal, Russia, fake cars from the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and (what appears to be) a woolly mammoth skeleton, hanging out in the middle of nowhere.

When the Niigata Russian Village opened in 1993, an entrepreneur hoped to attract tourist dollars by importing a little slice of Russia to Japan's west coast. This Russocentric Epcot Center managed to stay open for a decade before the park fell into bankruptcy. After another grand opening in 2002 — that lasted all of six months — the Village was closed permanently, leaving such weird artifacts as a fake taxidermied woolly mammoth behind.

From the looks of these photos taken by Ralph Mirebs, plenty of people still visit the Village, but nobody pays the entry fee (such as Vice Magazine, who found employees' costumes up for grabs). I don't know about you, but I find facsimile villages like this pretty fascinating. Cloning geography, for fun and proft.

Giant Model of Lemuel Gulliver

The Rise of Africa's Amusement Parks

Global Post: On Africa’s westernmost tip, a caterpillar coaster swoops past a pirate ship then a space shuttle labeled “Star Warld,” before crossing the gaze of Galdalf, a porcelain wizard clutching a Hamlet skull and a dartboard. Children scream.

“Get on,” insists a surly carnival operator, hissing at two reluctant riders before mocking them: “Vous avez peur? You scared?” He shakes his head, pelts his cigarette to the ground, then hops into the caterpillar train: Off we go. In this, Dakar’s largest amusement park, even the employees ride the thrills.

Welcome to Magic Land, a fortress of fun on Senegal’s Atlantic coast. The 20-acre hotel, water park, nightclub and amphitheater complex forms part of Africa’s most playful boom industry: amusement parks.

At least eight theme parks have opened or are scheduled to open in West Africa alone since 2000. The region’s roller coaster tycoons — some foreign, many local — brave one of the world’s least friendly business environments.

Power outages in Dakar last half the day; Nigeria’s last longer. Most citizens of either country can’t earn enough in 24 hours to ride Magic Land’s bumper cars for even 15 minutes. And yet, triumphing over power outages, corrupt governments and widespread poverty, Africa's middle class is flourishing. And that middle class, theme park operators say, craves roller coasters.

“More and more, Senegalese parents bring their children here to ride the attractions and play,” said Abdoulaye Ndiaye, security guard at Magic Land. “It’s super. We have given them a place to relax in a city where we don’t have a lot of space to play.”

However discouraging West Africa’s economics are, its demographics make it ripe for a theme park bonanza. Half the continent is under 20. By 2050, one in every fifth person on the planet will be a sub-Saharan African, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of millions of those will be teenagers with no place to go on a date.

South Africa has led the way in Africa's amusement parks with elaborate parks, home to hair-raising roller coasters, in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The continent’s kid-surplus hasn’t totally escaped the notice of the global amusement park industry. In 2009, Six Flags announced it would open its third non-American park in Nigeria.

“We saw Nigeria, a country with a population of more than 140 million people, a rapidly growing middle class, and relatively few theme-park options, as a good emerging market to expand Six Flags’ growing brand,” the company’s Executive Vice President of Strategic Development Andrew Schleimer told the Washington Times.

Two years later, Six Flags Nigeria has yet to break ground. Local variants, however, are filling its void — like Rosella’s Family Sports and Amusement Parks.

The Lagos-area park describes itself as "the actualization and physical manifestation of the great vision and commission by the Almighty God in 1985 to Prince Abraham Oluwatoyin Ololade (then Oluwatoyin Barber) to establish Amusement Parks where children of God will regularly seek succor against stress, boredom, and grief, seek rest, relaxation, and quiet time with God and most importantly, to Glorify God — a place with God.”

Manuel Marco, a 64-year-old Spaniard running Guinea-Bissau’s only amusement park, describes his operation as a set of 23 bumper cars – modest, but popular. “There were no amusement parks here, nothing,” he said. “I asked myself, why not? Why don’t we have anything?”

“This is a country with a lot of problems,” his assistant Nelson Balde added. “We have so many children who want to steal, just to have something to do. I brought this here for them.”

Dwarfing every other park in the region is Heritage City, a 25,000-acre nature reserve and theme park planned outside Abuja, Nigeria. “Africa’s First and Only African History Theme Park” bills itself as an Epcot of Africa’s pre-slavery renaissance period, a place where kids will tour replicas of Timbuktu and other medieval African kingdoms.

Japanese Theme Park to Launch Record-Breaking Coaster

The Independent: A Japanese theme park is about to launch a roller coaster with the world's steepest vertical drop.

The Takabisha ride is scheduled to open at the Fuji-Q Highland Amusement Park near the base of Mount Fuji in Yamanashi prefecture on July 16 and will feature seven major twists over its 1,000-meter length, a sharp rise to a peak of 43 meters - which triggers a moment of weightlessness before riders take what the operator of the ride describes as "a nosedive" - and sections that plunge riders into complete darkness.

The part of the ride that is ground-breaking, however, is the breakneck freefall at 121 degrees. The park has applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to have the ride certified as the steepest in the world.
Thanks to the assistance of linear motors on the cars - as well as the effects of gravity - riders on the Y3 billion ($42 million) attraction will reach a speed of 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour and the ride will last for just 112 seconds.

Once the ride has been certified, it will be the 14th Guinness World Record set by Fuji-Q. The park is already home to the Fujiyama ride, Dodompa and Eejanaika, putting the park among the leading venues in the world for thrill-seekers.

The Kingda Ka ride at the Six Flags Great Adventure park in New Jersey is the present holder of the title of the tallest steel roller coaster in the world, at 139 meters, with a maximum vertical drop of 127 meters. The prize for the fastest coaster goes to the Formula Rossa at Ferrari World, in Abu Dhabi, which only opened last November and reaches an impressive speed of 240 kph (149 mph).

The record that Takabisha is looking to overhaul has been held by the Mumbo Jumbo ride at Flamingoland in Yorkshire, northern England since July 2009. With an incline of only 112 degrees, Takabisha will be fully 9 degrees steeper for the riders.

Admission to Takabisha is Y1,000 ($14) after an entrance fee to the park has been paid, but there are restrictions on the age and height of anyone wanting to take the ride.

Let Your Kids Run an Amusement Park

USA Today: As the summer months roll on, many families will visit an amusement park. Before screaming their heads off on their favorite rollercoaster, it might be fun for your kids to check out "My Amusement Park" on the Nintendo DS. The game will teach them about the business of running an amusement park while also challenging them to solve fun logic and memory puzzles. It is a perfect game to pack for the trip that gets you to the real park. 

Published by Scholastic, this DS game invites kids to design their own amusement park. They are provided with the layout of an empty park and $900 to start purchasing attractions. As the park builder, kids choose a theme which can include Mountains, Safari, Desert or Tropical. Next, they scroll through a variety of rides, food pavilions and amusements to add to the park. Each costs money to build. For example, if you select the Octopus Ride, it will cost you $200 to build, where a Bumper Cars ride will cost $500. 

But there is more to building a ride than just selecting it and paying the money. Kids will also need to play memory games to help construct the ride. They will look at the ride's schematic plan and try to remember where all the pieces go. Then the ride will break apart, and they will be tasked with using the stylus to drag and drop the scrambled parts into the correct places. 

Kids can run through the initial $900 pretty quickly. Luckily, the game provides many ways for players to earn more money so that they can continue to expand their park. One way is to play a maintenance game. The game sends alerts when a ride, food venue or special attraction breaks down. When kids click on the alert, they are taken to a special game where they must drag pipes or wires onto a schematic to make them all fit. By solving this puzzle correctly, kids fix the ride or attraction and it starts making money again. 

There are also six management games to play to earn more money. These vary greatly, but many involve logical thinking. For example, the one called Parking Lot Jam is a take-off of the popular "Rush Hour" puzzle where cars are jammed into a parking lot grid. You have to figure out the order in which to move the cars to create a path for the designated car to make it to the exit. In another game, you must study the ride's seating area, and then grab parts off a conveyor belt to match the picture on the top screen and recreate the ride's broken part. 

For parents looking to add some intellectual challenge to their kids' gaming, this is a perfect choice. Kids will love the build-your-own-park theme and will enjoy playing the logic games to earn enough money to build their favorite rides. 

By playing, kids will start to understand how a real amusement park makes money. The game creates an artificial time within the game and periodically designates the end of a day. At that time, kids earn money from the attractions they have built. They will also have to budget money to save so that they can afford the more expensive rides. 

The game has a excellent support system and offers players suggestions of things to do through the park's information booth. These suggestions change as days pass in the park, but lead to the game's eight different memory and logic games. 

Even kids as young as age 5 can play "My Amusement Park" because the game speaks all of its instructions out loud. While the budgeting part of the game may go over their heads, they can still have fun building rides and playing the logic and memory games because all of those games come in three levels of difficulty. Older kids will want to play the games on the higher difficulty levels for more of a challenge, and because they will earn money more quickly. 

"My Amusement Park" is a good introduction to simulation games for kids ages 5 to 8. Nothing ever gets too complicated in this game, and there is very little micromanagement. Some older kids may feel that the parks they build are too small, but for the kids targeted by this game, the smallness is just fine. 

So here is a good prescription for having fun this summer: plan a trip to your favorite amusement park; and when you do, remember to pack the sunscreen and this "My Amusement Park" game. You will be amazed by how your kids become more savvy about the business of running a park.

Girl Dies After Fall From Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel at Morey's Mariner's Landing Pier 

Phillycom: An 11-year-old Atlantic County girl on a year-end school trip to a Boardwalk amusement park died Friday afternoon after she fell from a Ferris wheel. Abiah Jones, of Pleasantville, was at Morey's Mariner's Landing Pier with classmates from the PleasanTech Academy Charter School when she plummeted from the 156-foot-high Giant Wheel about 12:30 p.m., authorities said.

Harrolt Butron, a park patron, saw the girl land on a metal platform at the bottom of the ride. "Everyone came over," Butron, of Puerto Rico, said in Spanish. "They tried to do CPR," but Abiah remained motionless, he said.

Donnalee Landwher was with her family at the popular amusement pier at Schellenger Avenue and the Boardwalk and saw paramedics working on the girl. "When I saw them doing chest compressions, I knew it was bad," said Landwher, of Monroeville. "I knew they were trying to revive somebody, and it wasn't going to happen."

Students in green shirts, who appeared to be part of a group, were stuck in the wheel's open-air gondolas while medics tended to Abiah, Landwher said. She was transported to Cape Regional Medical Center in Cape May Court House and pronounced dead at 1:14 p.m., Wildwood police said.
Wildwood police and the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office were investigating the accident with members of the state's Department of Community Affairs, which conducts annual inspections of amusement rides.

Like hundreds of other students around the region, Abiah was on a field trip to the park, authorities said. She was alone in one of the Ferris wheel's 40 cars when she fell out, said Wildwood Commissioner of Public Safety Anthony Leonetti. It was unclear Friday evening if the ride had been in motion or how high Abiah was when she fell, he said.

The fall did not appear to be due to mechanical error, police and the amusement park company said.
The Giant Wheel, built in 1985, is one of the tallest Ferris wheels on the East Coast. It last passed inspection March 17, said Hollie A. Gilroy, a spokeswoman with the Department of Community Affairs.

Employees check the rides several times a day, said Tim Samson, a Morey's spokesman. The wheel's cars have a locking gate but no seat belts, he said. "On behalf of the Morey family and staff, I offer our sincerest thoughts and prayers to the family," Will Morey, president and chief executive officer of the Morey Organization, said in a statement.

An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 students swarmed the amusement pier Thursday and Friday during its annual Education Extravaganza, said Lindsey Young, a Morey's spokeswoman. For 17 years, the park has hosted the event for students from grades 3 to 12 to learn about ecology, peer leadership, and physics.

The accident was the first fatality of a patron in the history of the organization, Young added. The trip to Morey's is a much-anticipated school pilgrimage, said Haddon Township Superintendent Mark Raivetz. More than 160 eighth graders from Haddon were at the park Friday. "It is one thing our eighth graders have looked forward to," he said. "You know about this from the time you're in the first grade. It's one of those township traditions."

The district sent an e-mail to the school community Friday afternoon to allay parents' fears that their children had been injured. "When you kiss your kids goodbye in the morning and say, 'You're going to have a wonderful, fun day,' this is the furthest thing from your mind," Raivetz said.

Police interviewed Haddon students who were near the Ferris wheel when the girl fell, Raivetz said.
Nicole Kramer, 12, a sixth grader at Upper Township Middle School in Cape May County, said she and her classmates learned of Abiah's death on the bus ride home. A teacher asked for a moment of silence. "I know three or four girls who saw it happen," Nicole said. "I was going to ride the Ferris wheel at the time it happened, but after, I was too scared. I was sobbing."

According to a 2010 report from the National Safety Council, the estimated number of amusement ride-related injuries on fixed-site rides nationwide was 1,086 or 0.6 per million patron rides. Colleen Mangone, a spokeswoman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, said the odds of being seriously injured at one of the United States' 400 fixed-site amusement parks are 1 in 9 million.

Morey's Piers, family-owned since 1969, has more than 100 rides on 18 acres at the Shore. Its three amusement piers closed Friday afternoon and were scheduled to reopen Saturday morning.

Amusement Parks By The Numbers

The Telegraph: Here are some of the world's biggest attractions:

Tallest rollercoaster: Kingda Ka in the Six Flags Great Adventure park in New Jersey is the world's tallest steel rollercoaster, measuring 456ft tall. The ride accelerates up to 128 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds. However, it is no longer the fastest rollercoaster in the world. That title was taken by Formula Rossa opened in November 2010.

Largest Ferris Wheel: The world's largest ferris wheel is the Singapore Flyer which is so tall that it offers passengers a bird's eye view of the city-state as well as parts of neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia. Standing at 541 feet high, the Singapore Flyer is 98 feet taller than the London Eye. However, both will be trounced by the planned 682 feet Great Wheel of China in Beijing, which is yet to be completed.

World's biggest carousel: The Carousel at House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin is reported to be the world's largest. The indoor carousel includes 269 different beasts from around the world without a single horse head (zebras excluded). The carousel itself has over 20,000 lights and 182 chandeliers.

World's highest water slide: The giant Insano water slide in Fortalez Brazil is the highest water slide in the world at 134ft high, a record listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Its height is equivalent to that of a 14-storey building.

Biggest theme park: Disney World in Florida is the world's biggest theme park, measuring 47 square miles. But in 2012 it will be surpassed by the Dubailand complex, a landmass roughly the size of Orlando itself. The complex will become home to six amusement parks including Six Flags, Universal Studios, Dreamworks, Marvel and Legoland. Dubailand's Falcon City will have life-size replicas of the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids, and the Taj Mahal.

Amusement Park Rides That Know When You're Scared

New Scientist: What would it feel like to ride on a roller-coaster that reacts to your emotional state? Visitors to amusement parks may soon be able to find out.

A team from the University of Nottingham, UK, have used "bio-feedback" to adjust the function of a bucking bronco ride and other amusement-park experiences. They say that ride designers are already expressing an interest in their findings.

Riders who tried the bronco were hooked up to an adapted medical sensor that monitored their breathing. The readings from the monitor were fed back to the bronco controls; as the breathing became less regular, the bronco began to speed up. It made for a tough challenge, as the jerky motion of the bronco is hardly calming. "At some point your breathing speeds up, you lose control and fall off the ride," says Joe Marshall, part of the Nottingham team.

Riders tended to concentrate very hard on the experience, in contrast to the flamboyant yee-haw shouts that riders usually emit, adds Marshall: "Pretty much everyone said it was an odd experience, not like anything they'd experienced before."

Marshall's colleague Steve Benford, together with artist and engineer Brendan Walker, is working to together to explore new ways of making rides scary. They used biofeedback to transform the experience a common piece of playground equipment - a swing - into a sinister out-of-control ride. The motions of the swing were driven by a motor that was controlled by the breathing of a person standing nearby. To make the experience unnerving, the person's breathing was monitored by a sensor in an adapted NATO gas mask that they were wearing. The mask was also connected to a loudspeaker, so that the breathing could be heard by everyone present. "The emotional value we're interested in here is fear," says Benford. Riders described the experience as "really disquieting," he adds.
 
The Nottingham team say they have presented their work to the companies that run Alton Towers and Thorpe Park, two large UK amusement parks. They hope that their work will inspire a new generation of ride designs, but note that there is a historical precedent for what they are doing. Most rides are now totally automated, but fairground operators used to monitor the expressions of customers' faces and adjust the speed of the ride accordingly. "In some ways this is a step backwards," says Marshall.

Coney Island Unveils 'Scream Zone'

NBC New York: This summer, Coney Island will debut the first new roller coasters to be built in New York City since the Cyclone opened in 1927.

Scream Zone, a new amusement park featuring four thrill rides, will operate alongside Luna Park, which opened last year.

The new Soarin’ Eagle coaster will suspend riders horizontally and send them upside down in dives and swoops. Another coaster, the Steeplechase, creates a modern version of the historic Coney Island ride involving horses racing around a track.

“Last year we brought the fun back to Coney Island, and now it’s time to Scream,” said Valerio Ferrari, president of Central Amusement International, the company responsible for Scream Zone and Luna Park.

The Sling Shot may be the scariest new ride, launching passengers more than 150 feet into the air at speeds faster than 90 mph. The Zenobio offers a more moderate thrill, taking riders up 100 feet at speeds of 60 mph.

“Last summer was Coney Island’s biggest in nearly a half century, and this year – with the addition of the first new roller coasters since the Cyclone opened in 1927 – it’s going to be even bigger,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement.

The city’s Coney Island Revitalization Plan will foster development on Coney Island over the next few years. In 2009, the city rezoned Coney Island and purchased 6.9 acres of land to create new amusement parks in the area.

The city has spent more than $6.6 million on Luna Park and Scream Zone. Central Amusement International has spent an additional $30 million on both parks over the past two years.

The Scream Zone will open for weekends through Memorial Day, when it will begin daily operations. Visitors will be able to pay for single rides at $7 to $20 per ride using refillable cards.

Universal Ponders Wizarding World of Harry Potter Expansion

Los Angeles Times: With the unprecedented success of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal Studios executives are already wrestling with the question of how and when to expand the perpetually congested 20-acre theme-park-within-a-theme-park at Islands of Adventure in Florida.

Although officials won't discuss specific plans, several signs point to preparations being made for phase two of Wizarding World:

* In January, survey markings that possibly may be mapping out the potential expansion began appearing in the backstage areas behind the Lost Continent, the themed area of the park that was partially taken over to make room for phase one of Wizarding World.

* Visitor questionnaires suggest Universal Studios is considering doubling the size of the themed land within the next year or two to make Wizarding World "twice as big with twice as much everything."

* Universal Studios' licensing contract with Warner Bros. requires the theme park to incorporate elements from the final Harry Potter films, the last of which will open in theaters in July.

Universal Studios Orlando saw a 36% spike in attendance after the opening of Wizarding World in June 2010, drawing an additional 1 million visitors in just three months. During the same period, merchandise sales more than doubled while food sales jumped nearly 60%. Analysts expect the attendance lift and corresponding sales uptick to continue for several years.

The wild popularity of Wizarding World, which has seen shoulder-to-shoulder crowds and hour-long lines just to enter shops, has led to speculation that Universal plans to scrap the rest of the Lost Continent attractions to make room for a phase two expansion of the Potter-verse. Among the most oft-repeated rumored plans:

* Change the "Eighth Voyage of Sinbad" stunt show into a Harry Potter-themed live show.

* Convert the Lost Continent market into Diagon Alley, complete with a Leaky Cauldron restaurant.

* Transform the "Poseidon’s Fury" special effects show into an indoor steel coaster or a dark ride themed to Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

For now though, expanding Wizarding World remains wishful thinking.

Life's a Roller-Coaster Ride for 88 Year Old

Thelma Gratsch (front) rides the Diamondback

Cincinnati.com The old brewer's mansion in Mount Auburn where she was born in 1922 has long been shuttered and left to fade out of existence. But Thelma Gratsch doesn't intend to go out that way.

The soon to be 89-year-old Mount Lookout woman refuses to be sidelined by age. She's too busy laughing her way through life to call it a day.

"You adjust with the times," Gratsch said. "I've had fun all my life because that is the way that I was raised." Fun, for Gratsch means, getting wet, going fast, going upside down and getting whipped around like a cheerleader's pom-pom.

The 4-foot, 11-inch Gratsch refuses to stay off roller coasters. Gratsch was born in the Roaring 20s, a boom time for coasters. She became a regular patron of Coney Island at an early age. At the time, a nickel bought you trip on the Island Queen from the Public Landing to Coney Island.

Coney had three coasters then and Gratsch grew up riding them. When Kings Island opened in 1972, Gratsch was a 50-year-old married mother of nine.

Don Helbig, now the park's spokesman, remembers Gratsch from his teen years, when he was a park season pass holder. "She proves the theory that age is mind over matter; if you don't mind it, it doesn't matter," Helbig said. "It's always good to see her at the park."

In a good season, Gratsch will visit the park 60 times. Her favorite ride, at least until time and engineering throws another dazzler her way, is the Diamondback. "It's like you are riding a convertible down the highway - at 80 miles per hour -- and it's like you are floating through the air and you are just going with it," Gratsch said.

As one of the first to ride the Diamondback when it opened in 2009, Gratsch decided to take her complimentary T-shirt with her to Mass at Christ the King the following Sunday. Before Mass was over, when announcements were made, a few words of prayer where sent Gratsch's way: "We thank Jesus that Thelma Gratsch survived the Diamondback."

Amen to that.

Experts: Roller Coasters Getting Bigger, Faster and More Dangerous

HULIQ: The sharp turns, ups and downs, and high speeds of today's roller coasters bring a lot of thrills, but they also killed a 46-year-old man who fell from a roller coaster and later died in Houston at the end of March, while a 3-year-old boy was killed in a Chicago suburb after falling out of a roller coaster April 2; thus, the roller coaster season is underway with expected injuries in the thousands nationwide during the spring and summer amusement park seasons, say experts.

Roller coaster injuries and even deaths are not uncommon, states the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Moreover, amusement park rides may be the cause of unexplained head, neck and back injuries seen in accident and emergency department, say doctors. At the same time, it’s up to individual states and various U.S. government agencies to inspect and regulate “amusement rides.”

"The likelihood of being injured on a ride, injured enough to require a visit to an overnight hospital stay, is one in 10 million," said Beth Robertson,  spokeswoman for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.. "The chances of being fatally injured are one in 790 million."

While those are pretty good odds if you’re a roller coaster fan thinking of hitting the parks this spring and summer season, there’s some other factors to consider, says Bill Avery, president of Orlando-based Avery Safety Consulting.

“For one thing, people might feel banged-up after a ride, but shrug it off during their visits. They wake up the next morning, and they can't move, and they go to the ER. And they find out they have a broken neck," explained Avery, a former amusement park ride industry safety expert who often serves as an expert witness in lawsuits involving amusement park injuries.

Moreover, ongoing roller coaster investigations by the British government have examined “the root causes of injuries and deaths on amusement rides in England.” Those studies found incidents occurred when G-force levels were within established limits of human tolerability.

"The G-forces were still important, but considered of secondary importance due to modifying factors related to the ergonomics of the passenger containment system as a whole," the British study reported.

“We’re concerned roller coaster G-forces will reach and exceed the body’s threshold of tolerance, giving rise to a wave of amusement park injuries each year,” stated Dr. Robert Braksiek, who also noted the British study of roller coaster incidents.

The Busch Gardens Tampa Bay web site notes how the park “will introduce a new breed of speed that invites guests to celebrate the spirit of the cheetah. This new generation of thrills emerges from the crossroads where up-close animal encounters and awe inspiring rides come together.”

The Busch Gardens web site also notes that “the centerpiece of the new attraction is Cheetah Hunt, a Linear Synchronous Motor (LSM) Launch Coaster that uses the force of repelling magnets to launch riders from 0 to 60 in a matter of seconds - not once, but three times.”

Moreover, the popular web site ultimaterollercoaster.com points to those “must ride” attractions at amusement and theme parks that offer what kids want, pointing to roller coasters that are “big and fast, intimidating and scary.”

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Hersheypark Bullish on Business

PennLive: In 2007, Hersheypark had one its best years. Attendance hit an all-time high, buoyed by a new attraction, the 100th anniversary of the park and excellent weather.

Then the recession hit.

In 2008, attendance dropped roughly 5 percent as unemployment climbed and families watched their budgets closely.

“Like every other business, we certainly felt [the effects of the recession],” said Frank O’Connell, Hersheypark’s general manager.

But things are starting to turn around. In 2010, more people started traveling and visiting destinations such as Hersheypark. Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, which owns and operates the park, is hoping that trend holds true for 2011.

Hersheypark isn’t alone in seeing an upswing. Profits were up at many of the nation’s parks as families sought out fun close to home and began traveling again. Better weather helped, too, and some parks enjoyed record attendance.

Hersheypark doesn’t release attendance numbers, but O’Connell said that in 2010 roughly 8 percent more people traveled to the Derry Twp. park than in 2008. Those within the amusement industry are optimistic this year will be even better. Rising gas prices might even help parks by encouraging families to spend their vacation time near home, they say.

Amusement park operators generally believe that high gasoline prices aren’t a problem because most of their visitors come from a short distance. In the case of Hersheypark, most visitors come from within 250 miles of Harrisburg.

The main factor that drives attendance, aside from the broader economy, is the weather. “Clearly, we see noticeable differences when we see unfavorable forecasts,” O’Connell said. While some bad weather each year is expected, the problem is when a summer becomes unseasonable, either too hot, too cold, or the real killer: too wet.

With instant forecasts available on TV and smartphones, a family can change their travel plans hour by hour. Better weather during the summer and fall across much of the country was a big factor in the better attendance numbers last year.

“The past two years had been rainy and cold, dampening attendance in many parts of the country,” said Dennis Spiegel, a theme-park consultant who is president of Cincinnati-based International Theme Park Services Inc.

Amusement parks are trying new ways to get more repeat visitors. One of the nation’s oldest parks, Kennywood, near Pittsburgh, began selling season passes last year for the first time in its 112-year history.

“And parks are spending more on new rides and attractions this year than the previous season,” said Gary Slade, editor and publisher of Amusement Today, a trade publication. “Everybody is beyond positive,” Slade said. New roller coasters are opening at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla., and at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta.

Hersheypark hasn’t built a major attraction in a couple of years. But rumors are swirling around a new project code-named “Attraction 2012” and the construction work that has begun in the Comet Hallow section of the park.

Most amusement park pundits are expecting the park to build a steel roller coaster. When asked, O’Connell laughed and at first denied the park was building anything. Then he relented and revealed a new project.

“We’re building a slushy stand,” he said.

Crowds Returning to Amusement Parks

Online Journal: Amusement parks have started to rebound from the economic recession, drawing new crowds and spending more on new attractions.

According to Forbes, crowds at many parks across the United States increased last year, with some amusement parks breaking attendance records. Profits shot up as some families began traveling again while others looked for recreational activities that were close to home.

The two biggest operators of regional amusement parks, Texas-based Six Flags Entertainment Corp. and Ohio-based Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., each reported that attendance was up nationwide in 2010. Other parks across the country also reported at least modest gains.

While amusement parks are sometimes thought of as recession-proof because they offer families a full day of entertainment at a relatively affordable price, business at parks took a steep dive in 2008 and 2009. Desperate to pay off large debts, several companies made moves to sell parks.

But this year attendance was up by just under 1 million at Six Flags' 19 North American parks, for a combined total of 24.3 million visitors. Six Flags says this was partly due to the growing success of their Halloween and Christmas events, with over half of its attendance increase came during the last three months of 2010. In 2010 amusement park visitors also spent more cash on cotton candy, hot dogs and souvenirs.

The news was more mixed for Walt Disney Co., the largest amusement park operator in the United States. The company reported that attendance was up at Disneyland in California, but declined at Walt Disney World resort in Florida in 2010. But one of Disney's main competitors, Universal Orlando, had a big spike in attendance with the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction.

Forbes said that warmer weather in the summer and fall of 2010 also made a difference. 2008 and 2009 had been unusually rainy and cold, keeping the crowds away.

Amusement Park Horror: 1 Dead, 28 Injured

Daily Mail: A boy of six has been killed and 28 others - mostly children - were injured after a miniature train overturned in an amusement park.

Families were cooking barbecues and relaxing in the sun when the train packed with five- to ten-year-olds and their parents suddenly came off its rails and turned a peaceful Spring Saturday into a scene of horror.

Dozens of bodies were thrown onto the grass at Spartanburg Park in Charleston, South Carolina, which turned into a makeshift hospital as the survivors huddled together to comfort one another until doctors arrived to treat them.

Benjamin Easler, six, who was on the train, was fatally injured and was taken to hospital but died.

His father, Dr Dwight Easler, a local pastor, was also on board, as was his pregnant mother Tabitha and his two brothers. Mr Easler suffered cuts and broken bones but Mrs Easler’s baby appears unharmed. The brothers suffered broken arms.

Police have now begun an investigation into the crash and will be looking into the possibility that the train was sabotaged or that something had been deliberately left on the tracks. Spartanburg County Councilman David Britt, whose district includes the park, said the state Department of Labour, Licensing and Regulation inspected the ride Wednesday.

'It's tragic,' Britt said. 'It's a terrible nightmare. 'When you see the accident scene, it's amazing anybody survived, because the train turned over and those kids were raked across the rocks.'

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