Park News
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Timber! Walibi Rhone-Alpes reveals woodie plans
Some ingenious lumberjacks have been scratching their heads figuring out how to cut wood quickly and easily in the forests around the French amusement park Walibi Rhone Alpes, or so the story goes. This coming spring they will be get the ultimate weapon, courtesy of the Gravity Group. Timber! will be the park’s first wooden coaster, flying
through the woods at up to 56km/h. The 446m-long (1,464ft) ride will feature a first drop of 16/7m (55ft), maximum banking of 59º and 11 moments of airtime plus interaction with surrounding rides including the wild mouse coaster Scratch. Two 12-passenger Timberliner
Walibi Rhone-Alpes’ Luc De Roo (left) samples the new train alongside Korey Kiepert from the Gravity Group
trains will be provided on Timber!, each with a rotating blade on the front as part of the ride’s eye-catching theming.
“It will offer a combination of a twister coaster and out-and-back,” Walibi Rhone-Alpes director general Luc De Roo tells Park World. “It’s a good compromise between thrill ride and family ride, and will offer a lot of different sensations for our visitors. We chose the Gravity Group because of the unique layout that Korey [Kieppert] offered to design for us.” De Roo adds that Timber! represents the start of a
new period of growth for the Compagnies des Alpes (CdA) operated park, which is located between the city of Lyon and the French Alps. “Attendance was up 10% last year, and with this we expect a bit more, but we are being conservative because the political situation is still a little stressed at the moment in France.” Timber! will be the anchor attraction of a new Canadian-style adventure area launched for 2016, where it will be joined by a new food & beverage operation, shop, photo booth and Zamperla Barnyard ride. Theming will be completed in-house by the design department of CdA.
Shanghai’s Mythos Adventure Park
Kernels
Zamperla has sold the trailer-mounted Endeavour ride it introduced last summer at Coney Island in New York and will replace it a 24-seat park model for 2016. A 48- seat version (with two instead of one-abreast seating) is currently under construction for Six Flags Over Texas.
Connecticut’s Quassy Amusement Park is to introduce a Reverse Time ride by SBF/Visa, for the 2016 season. The 24-seater attraction is set to replace a Chance Trabant, which has operated at Quassy since 1965. While Reverse Time will make a similar motion, the addition of outward-facing seats and an LED lighting package will give it a fresh twist.
Sahara Sam’s Oasis waterpark, West Berlin, New Jersey, is set to break ground on a 10,000 sq ft (929 sq m) expansion to the indoor year-round section of the complex. The $4 million dollar expansion is expected to open in six months and will include two additional water slides as well as a family leisure pool. The slides are headfirst, mat racers manufactured by ProSlide.
England’s Drayton Manor Theme Park welcomed a new head of park operations at the end of 2015, just as the Staffordshire park was rounding off its 65th anniversary. Steve Lomas, aged 48, started his career in 1990 with The Tussauds Group at nearby Alton Towers, He later left Tussauds to work at Wonderland – Dubai’s first theme and waterpark, before leaving the industry to work for the Food Standards Agency and the one-time brewer Whitbread.
The attractions operator Compagnie des Alpes (CdA) is to consolidate the on-site and online ticketing and access four of its European leisure park properties as a result of a new deal with Gateway Ticketing Systems. The parks in question – Walibi Holland, Walibi and Aqualibi Belgium and Bellewaerde, also in Belgium – collectively welcome almost 3 million guests a year.
embraces media-based attractions The People’s Square Mall in Shanghai is opening an FEC next summer packed with media-based experiences, and the British company Holovis Attractions has landed the contract to design, build and deliver it in partnership with mall owner Liuyu Investment Company. Mythos Adventure Park will present shoppers and fun seekers
with an array of immersive game-based simulation experiences delivered in 2D, 3D and with added interactive and Augmented Reality (AR) elements. Game content will be provided by Holovis Media. The attractions include a Holovis Mini Immersive Tunnel, interactive ImmersiveTheatre, a two-person MotionDome and four Holovis driving rigs motion bases with Oculus Rift headsets. “This will be the most focused and integrated FEC experience
ever delivered,” declares Holovis CEO Stuart Hetherington. “We will even bring to life the facility’s food court with the world’s first projection mapped and AR feature wall, depicting a mythical and ever evolving real-time scene, which unveils hidden surprises.”
Mr Mu from Mythos Adventure Park (left) celebates the deal with Holovis’ Stuart Hetherington (centre) as his colleague looks on
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The famous British amusement park Blackpool Pleasure Beach has partnered with Accesso to embark on an expanded agreement that will see the park using the company’s Siriusware point-of-sale system beginning with the 2016 season.
Used Rides Europe (URE) has sold a brand new Ferris wheel by the Dutch manufacturer Lamberink to Powers’ Great American Midways for April 2016 delivery. The 33m/108ft-tall ride comes with 24 gondolas and is transported on just three flat bed trailers. This is the second Lamberink wheel sold to the States by URE. A ride sold previously to Ray Cammack Shows will make its premier at the 2016 Livestock Show in Houston, Texas. Lamberink has meanwhile announced that it plans to build a 45m (148ft) transportable wheel with 36 gondolas that can be moved on only 6 trailers. There has already been strong interest from several US companies.
The British media-based and simulation attractions specialist, Simworx has appointed a new business development manager to help it increase its exposure to the museum sector. Andy Gray arrives from the Science Museum Group and takes over the job title from former theme park operations man Edward Pawley, who has been promoted to position of sales director.
JANUARY 2016
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