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Dark Rides www.parkworld-online.com


Haunted House, Gillian’s Wonderland Pier


In a former workshop nestled beneath the Giant Wheel at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, New Jersey, the Haunted House is not just a building with black-painted walls and tracks and tricks planted on the floor. Making a soft opening in 2013, it's alive with weird and fanciful creatures against a background of bizarre and comical ornamentation, an environment created in=house by artist Wayne Seddon. The dark ride is a perfect blend of fright and whimsy that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.


As the former workshop, the building was already equipped with a fire suppression


system. The sprinkler system was extended out to the loading area and to the second level where there were some displays. The park acquired eight used ride cars with a buccaneer theme and 273 feet (83 m) of track from Italy’s Bertazzon. These cars travel at a slow speed so that guests can absorb the interior theming.


Pirates of the Wildwoods


There have been many dark attractions that have appeared over the years on the boardwalk and piers of Wildwood, New Jersey. Gone is Bill Tracy’s famous Whacky Shack, the Skua pirate ship, Jungle Land and the Castle Dracula attraction, not to mention at least four Pretzel dark rides. Today on Morey’s Mariner's Landing Pier in Wildwood is an Old Mill-type attraction named Pirates of The Wildwoods. Reverchon installed the ride as the Enchanted Forest over a decade ago. Then the ride was given a more sinister theme as Dark River, but for 2004, Halloween Productions completely revamped it as a 3-D pirate adventure. Riders wear special 3-D glasses to enjoy the total effect. Completely revamped for the 2018 season, Pirates of the Wildwoods


dark boat ride has refreshed interior scenes that have been painted with 3D fluorescent paints giving the illusion of movement when guests wear 3D glasses. Captain Bones, the ride’s cartoon mascot, leads guests on an interactive adventure to find the treasure of the Wildwood boardwalk. The Pirates ride was done by local Wildwood artist Peter Bieling.


Spook-A-Rama


What is a story about dark rides without a Pretzel dark ride that's been running in the same place for more than 60 years, especially when that place is Coney Island, New York? Spook-A-Rama was in a class by itself when it opened during the summer of 1955. Fred Garms and Paul Kleinstein, together with Bill Cassidy's Pretzel Amusement Company, put together a quarter-mile (0.4 km) course for 30 cars in and out of two buildings filled with animated talking creatures. Competing with about a dozen dark rides then operating at Coney, Spook-A-Rama topped them all. In May of 1965, Garms acquired the Shangri-La Ha Ha ride from Jimmy Onorato at Steeplechase Park for $3,600 and added its cars to the Spook fleet. More cars from New Hampshire's Canobie Lake Park later came aboard. Retiring in 1983, Garms turned Spook-A-Rama and the Wonder Wheel over to the late Denos Vourderis who transformed them and the surrounding properties into today's Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park. As the last permanently-installed dark ride in Coney Island, Spook-A-


Rama has gone through many stages of evolution over its half-century reign on Jones Walk. Once promoted as the world’s longest dark ride, even though much of it was in daylight, it's shorter now, and confined to one building across from the Wonder Wheel. Yet it remains, as ever, the classic Coney Island spook ride experience. Sights, sounds, smells and perhaps even spirits from the golden days of Coney can still be encountered along its twisted track.


58


SEPTEMBER 2018


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