Park Closing

[RawkStar4179]

A few weeks ago it was announced that Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Panama City Beach had been sold and would be torn down after the season ends on Labor Day. Sadly, the Starliner, a woodie built in 1963, will be torn down. The rest of the rides will be sold off, probably to travelling fairs, but rumor has it the O2 Tower (S&S Super Shot) will be sold to Cypress Gardens' new owners. A developer bought the property, which is right across the street from the Gulf of Mexico, and will be building condos on it. Just what we need, more condos and parking garages to block the view of the Gulf. Hundreds of teenagers will lose their summer jobs (*THE* coolest place to work during the summer for a teen, by far), and the closest park will be either Six Flags New Orleans or Great Adventures in Valdosta.

[Harpo]

That really is unfortunate. While not a huge coaster, I thought Starliner was great. While it's probably not too likely, I hope someone will turn up that'll buy Starliner and move it to another park, rather than merely destroying it. I also thought Miracle Strip was a neat little park, with some very interesting themed attractions, and a pretty good stage show. I'm glad I was able to get there in 2003.

Seems to be a rash of closing parks. Myrtle Beach Pavilion is likely to close, and J's Amusement Park in northern California didn't reopen this year. LeSourdesville Lake remains a question mark as to if it'll reopen with a new owner. And Conneaut Lake Park seems to be operating year-to-year, with it being a close call each year as to if it'll open. The small parks often have some interesting or unique features. I encourage amusement park fans to try and visit a small park, if you can, thereby giving these places the support they need to remain profitable and stay in operation.

[leonardofury]

Well, you could buy it and put it in your back garden, Harpo:D ;) .

[Harpo]

Hmmm, a tune from the Wizard of Oz pops into my head:

"If I only had the money...." :D

Perhaps I should stand out on a street corner with a sign:

"Brother, can you spare a few million dimes?"

[leonardofury]

Or how about "I'm not going to lie, I need a rollercoaster"

[ekimmel]

Any idea how much money it would take to buy and move a roller coaster like that? I imagine it ain't cheap.

[kbendiksen]

Originally posted by Harpo
I encourage amusement park fans to try and visit a small park, if you can, thereby giving these places the support they need to remain profitable and stay in operation.

I agree with you on that Harpo. Me and my kids visit the smaller amusement parks alot and we have just as much fun at them as we do at the bigger chain parks. Over the years I have seen many family owned parks close because of the bigger parks. In my area of Ma. I've seen two fantastic small family owned parks close. Mountian Park in 1987 and Whalom Park in 2000. Every year I visit the small parks in the New England area. One of my favorites is Qussay in Middletown CT. they have a few classic rides you don't see any more in the parks as does Canobie Lake in Salem NH.

[Harpo]

I really enjoyed Canobie Lake Park. I would have liked to have spent more time at that park, but I spent all that my schedule would allow for that trip!

Have you been to Lake Compounce, which isn't too far from Quassy? Although they've had some unfortunate accidents at Lake Compounce, I rather enjoyed that park, too. I thought Boulder Dash was an excellent coaster.

[kbendiksen]

I go to Lake Compounce at least 3 times every summer. The Boulder Dash is one of the best coasters I have ridden. Even though they had some unfortunate accidents in the past I don't let that stop me from visiting the park.

[Harpo]

I've only been to Lake Compounce once, but my impression of the park was very good. The accidents really surprised me, making me think they may be the victims of some really bad luck.

However, I have always maintained that the best of parks can have a bad day, and the worst of parks can have a good day, so I can't say with 100% certainty that I didn't merely visit Lake Compounce on a good day. But, that day I went, the staff seemed very attentive, the park was spotless, the people were friendly and efficient, and the park seemed well maintained. That impression tells me that they've either had some freakish bad luck, or they were uncharacteristically good on my one visit.

Since you visit more often, perhaps you can shed some light on it. What is your general opinion of how Kennywood Entertainment runs Lake Compounce? Did you visit the park when it was under Hershey's ownership? Do you notice any significant operational differences between how the two run that park?

Thanks!

[kbendiksen]

In my opinion Kennywood does a fantastic job running Lake Compounce. Every time I visited the park it was always spotless, Park empolyees are very polite and freindly(haven't ran across 1 rude empolyee yet) and the ride operators to me at least seem to take their jobs very seriously. From a visual stand point the park does look like they maintain it very well. During my past visits to the park I have seen them close rides down to inspect them through out the day. They also seem to listen to what the park goers say. Last year they were doing a survey and were asking people about their thoughts on the park and the last question was about improving the park if you answered how about a new ride they ask you which ride you would like to see added to the park. (and you guessed it they got a new ride this year an s&s power tower).
As for there being any operational differences between how the two ran the park I never really noticed, reason being is the way I described it is how the park has always been from my 1st time visiting the park to my current visit which was last summer. Both companies seemed to take pride in how they ran/run the park.
I visited Hershey Park in 2000 and enjoyed my visit very much I'm hoping to go back their when I go on vacation next month. I have never been to Kennywood and hope to visit that park sometime in the near future. I do hope when I get a chance to go to Kennywood I find that its ran just like they run Lake Compounce.

[Harpo]

That's good to hear. So, it reaffirms my thinking that they probably ran into some freakish bad luck at Lake Compounce, which is very unfortunate.

I think Kennywood is rather well run, too. I've been there a couple of times, and found the staff to be friendly and generally attentive, and the park to be very clean. I like riding their classic rides, such as Jack Rabbit, Racer, Noah's Ark, and a neat spin-n-go-puke ride called Kangaroo. The car race ride was also really neat. (I forget its name.)

[rwk]

It's a shame when small family owned parks that have dark rides close because then all we have left are the corporate, six flags-type parks with the giant extreme coasters and thrill rides (and most likely no traditional dark rides) and expensive prices and huge crowds. Dorney Park near me is turning into that type of park since Cedar Fair (Cedar Point) became the new owners 12 years ago. It morphed from a small family picnic park to a regional corporate park to compete with Six Flags and Hersheypark. It gets insanely crowded now with all the NJ/NY, etc. crowds since they started adding big rides like Steel Force, etc.

[Plokoon11]

The amusement parks need to konw, that some of us dont like loops, or very tall rides, or even maybe coasters! They seem that big scary, butterflyen, rides, are the key to more people!

Very clever rides are the key, fyi, like darkrides, carrides, clever flatrides, ect. Everytime, I go to a park they remove all the traditional rides! Morey's piers, ust to be 6 diffrent piers, with all such clever rides, and it was darkride heven, planet of the apes, starwars ride, King Kong. It was a competive fight between the piers, then Hunts got beaten by Dinosaur pier, which destroyed Whacky Shack, keystone opps, jackrabbit, and others, Morey then took Dinos rides and smashed them. Morey then defeated sportland pier, sashed there darkrides and other rides, then moreys Smashed Marines Landing, and fun pier. Morey's won the so called "Battle of the piers" and built fricken scary skydiver, Noreastern, great White, A big flume, added small kiddie rides, they even smashed some of there rides, and darkrides. NOW they freaken add Stratosfear, whats next, another big giant coaster! Each year, when I come down, I think I feel that it gets stupiter and stupiter!

That s whats happenen to these Kenny wood, Dorney Park, Miracle Strip, and other.

Koenobles, seems to be cool with there rides, and not coaster hyper!

[Squid2]

Just as a side note... the Starliner is being moved to Cypress Gardens, not being torn down as originally reported. And several of the rides from Miracle Strip were bought by various parks and have been installed... for instance, four of the rides are now at Lake Winnie in Georgia.

Squid2