Alan is joined by Andrew Hyde, Jon Hymes, and Super Weenie Hut Jr to talk about all the new rides coming to local amusement parks.
Friday, April 14, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Christmas Comes to the Wizarding World
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Copyright Universal Orlando Resort |
Hogsmead will receive a new projection show for Hogwarts castle along with new stage entertainment and decorations. Diagon Alley will also be decorated for Christmas and feature new entertainment options.
Additionally an updated and expanded Christmas parade at USF will debut.
Michael Aiello hinted at more Potter announcements this year, hinting at news regarding Dragon Challenge's future.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
The Hidden Rides and Themed Attractions of...Maryland
Maryland is a state filled with contrasting imagery. Most people's exposure to the state comes via travel through the supercorridor linking DC to New York City and Boston through Baltimore where the majority of the population resides. But Maryland also features more than just vast suburbs and dirt bike riding impoverished minorities. To the west, the state juts into Appalachia, making contact with coal country and with a voting bloc as red as red can possibly be. East of Chesapeake Bay is the area surrounding Salisbury, including the major beach resort of Ocean City and the Assateague Island National Lakeshore. Maryland is a deeply complex place which has birthed complex media.
The Baltimore Metro area is home to something that doesn't typically fall in the categories I've listed, but for the sake of being completist, it seems like I should note it. Crab Towne USA has an outrageously good sign, but inside its home to the region's best classic arcade. Tons of 80s and 90s cabinets along with pinball can be found. Along with games, there's a restaurant and full bar, so you don't even need to leave until the doors close.
With regards to the fair and carnival scene in Maryland, there are some rural county fairs, but nothing permanent at the fairgrounds that might be considered exceptional. With this being the east coast, most of the biggest events (including the State Fair) are done by Deggeller, a multi-generation show family with plenty of big steel.
Adventure Park USA in Monrovia has something akin to a Western theme for its above average-sized family entertainment center. Their Schwarzcopf Wildcat is on its 5th location, having opened at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 1976. The other substantive steel coaster, a SDC Windstorm, moved north in 2015 from its prior location at Old Town in Kissimmee.
Western Maryland is a very different world than the DC/Baltimore area, resembling the coal towns of Central Pennsylvania or West Virginia rather than urban expanses. Wisp Resort expanded their summer offerings in 2007 with one of the first mountain coasters ever seen in North America, giving the region its first proper amusement ride. For the style, it's a really effective and fast mountain coaster too.
For historians, Rock Hall, MD is home to the Tolchester Revisited Museum...or at least it might be. Information is scarce about hours or availability, but there is probably a building full of archival material about this traditional ferry park that closed in 1962. A facebook page regularly posts pictures, but that may be all there actually is. The Spruce Forest Artisan Village in Grantsville crosses the lines of both open air museum and shopping experience, utilizing extremely old period buildings as the placeholder for various people to sell arts, crafts, and other goods.
There are two exceedingly well known amusement attractions in the state. The first, Six Flags America, is generally considered the bottom of the barrel for the chain and a dumping ground for used attractions from elsewhere. Opened in 1974 and now on its fourth identity, the park resides in what is now a predominantly African-American county in a predominantly African-American town. One can easily speculate as to whether or not this is a contributing factor to the attitude that the park is bad. Having gone and having dealt with some of the lousy customer service from their not predominantly black management, an alternative interpretation might be that being in that area the chain has decided to simply not put in effort and that it reflects in both ride acquisitions and middle/lower management. In any case, the park is home to distinctly interesting rides such as an Intamin hyper coaster, a Premier launched coaster, and the first B&M ever constructed (Apocalypse, formerly Six Flags Great America's Iron Wolf). Shows here often do well in TEA/IAAPA voting for the lowest of budget productions thanks to an above average talent base in the area.
The other non-unknown is Ocean City, Maryland and its selection of attractions. There's a consistent top of the chart dark ride here, some of the best mini golf anywhere in the world, and a wild selection of huge arcades and rides. I've been twice and always find myself wishing I had more time there. You're also a reasonable drive away from Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, and can take one of the many boat rides over to Assateague Island, home to a colony of wild horses that roam in clear sight. Also along the water in a most impossible-to-miss place is The Capital Wheel, a Chance Ferris Wheel with fully enclosed cars for all year use.
What would be a non-unknown is Glen Echo...had it survived. The venerable amusement park closed in 1968, a fact that is often ascribed to the after effects of racial integration. Several buildings and the entryway still remain and are maintained by the National Park Service. Among these is its 1921 Dentzel Carousel, which still operates for guests at the price of a paltry .75. Watkins and Wheaton Regional Parks also operate wooden carousels, and the Inner Harbor is home to the Charm City Carousel. Montgomery County, who operate the Wheaton carousel, also run a pair of miniature trains at the same facility along a 12 minute loop. None of these are high priced options and they all seek to serve every member of the community.
What would be a non-unknown is Glen Echo...had it survived. The venerable amusement park closed in 1968, a fact that is often ascribed to the after effects of racial integration. Several buildings and the entryway still remain and are maintained by the National Park Service. Among these is its 1921 Dentzel Carousel, which still operates for guests at the price of a paltry .75. Watkins and Wheaton Regional Parks also operate wooden carousels, and the Inner Harbor is home to the Charm City Carousel. Montgomery County, who operate the Wheaton carousel, also run a pair of miniature trains at the same facility along a 12 minute loop. None of these are high priced options and they all seek to serve every member of the community.
The Baltimore Metro area is home to something that doesn't typically fall in the categories I've listed, but for the sake of being completist, it seems like I should note it. Crab Towne USA has an outrageously good sign, but inside its home to the region's best classic arcade. Tons of 80s and 90s cabinets along with pinball can be found. Along with games, there's a restaurant and full bar, so you don't even need to leave until the doors close.
With regards to the fair and carnival scene in Maryland, there are some rural county fairs, but nothing permanent at the fairgrounds that might be considered exceptional. With this being the east coast, most of the biggest events (including the State Fair) are done by Deggeller, a multi-generation show family with plenty of big steel.
Adventure Park USA in Monrovia has something akin to a Western theme for its above average-sized family entertainment center. Their Schwarzcopf Wildcat is on its 5th location, having opened at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 1976. The other substantive steel coaster, a SDC Windstorm, moved north in 2015 from its prior location at Old Town in Kissimmee.
Western Maryland is a very different world than the DC/Baltimore area, resembling the coal towns of Central Pennsylvania or West Virginia rather than urban expanses. Wisp Resort expanded their summer offerings in 2007 with one of the first mountain coasters ever seen in North America, giving the region its first proper amusement ride. For the style, it's a really effective and fast mountain coaster too.
For historians, Rock Hall, MD is home to the Tolchester Revisited Museum...or at least it might be. Information is scarce about hours or availability, but there is probably a building full of archival material about this traditional ferry park that closed in 1962. A facebook page regularly posts pictures, but that may be all there actually is. The Spruce Forest Artisan Village in Grantsville crosses the lines of both open air museum and shopping experience, utilizing extremely old period buildings as the placeholder for various people to sell arts, crafts, and other goods.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Parkscope Report: Atlantis Bahamas Review (Pt. 2)
In part 1 of this longer-than-intended Atlantis Bahamas review, I went over the history of the complex and how it is that there is a gigantic resort with buildings representing over 5 decades of development slammed together a short drive from Nassau. Now the stuff people will probably find more valuable: an review of that stuff.
First, arriving at Atlantis. The cheapest method to visit the Atlantis Resort and do the water park is to go via cruise ship for the day. There are loads of 3-4 night cruises from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Port Canaveral that make the stop, as well as longer cruises from the likes of Mobile, New Orleans, Jacksonville, New York City, and Baltimore. Nassau is one of the most visited cruise ports, and this is in spite of the fact that it is consistently rated as one of cruiser's least favorites. The draw of mass tourism in a comparatively poor nation like The Bahamas has made the city of Nassau one of the busiest, most polluted, and most crime ridden. Many areas of the city are basically off limits to tourists unless they want to invite petty crime or a mugging. It is very much the ugly side of this kind of economy and contrasts dramatically from the other islands in the chain. For groups larger than a couple, it may be economical to consider booking a room at the Quality Suites Paradise Island, which includes Atlantis entry for up to 4, and usually is significantly cheaper than individual day passes. Tourists can arrive via water taxi (follow the signs) for $4 USD each way or take a real taxi which can run from $5/person for a van load to $30 for the vehicle if you don't want to wait.
You can, of course, stay in Atlantis. Nightly rates include water park entry and can be expected to range anywhere between the low 200s for the older towers from the 60s to the 400s for the newest towers closest to the water park and casino. Airfare to Nassau is rarely cheap, and food at the resort is extremely expensive. Most guests effectively buy full board plans to defray costs while still eating well: an alternative is to leave the grounds and head to the Paradise Island Marina for cheaper eats or even head back to Nassau. If you do choose the meal plans, prepare for lines. We saw some massive breakfast queues on a Sunday morning with many people planning to leave and few outlets available. It seemed a little unwieldy.
If you are visiting for the day, you'll need to pick up your wristband a short walk from where the taxi will drop you off, outside, near the main entrance. Hotel guests will make the pickup at Aquaventure itself. Don't screw this up like us, or you'll need to walk 15 minutes back through the hotel lobby and casino to get back to the guest service desk to go back to Aquaventure and grab a chair. It worked out though, since while the pool opened at 10AM, the water slides were activated until 11. Hours seem to basically be 10-5 every day of the year, so you can plan around that (and probably the late start).
The water park doesn't have a clear individual gate, but basically allows for entry from anywhere in the surrounding area of the resort. Odds are exceptionally good though that you'll enter around the area of the shark tank that makes up one end of of the Mayan Temple's space. There are several pools (6 to be precise, 2 belong to particular guests only) that are part of the water park complex, two slide structures, and around a good chunk of these lie the River Rapids attraction. There are a couple of restaurants and bars here, and the beach is a short walk away.
I'm going to break from the description of the rides to discuss price, because having described the scope, I need to tell you that the usual "booked through the cruise line" price is around $180/person to go here. If you go on your own, the park's ticketing utilizes dynamic pricing, but is pretty much guaranteed to be somewhere between 110-135 USD per adult. That's a lot of money for a water park that has two slide complexes, a water play area, and something that sounds suspiciously like a lazy river. On our visit, the weather was not exactly cooperating: temperatures never left the mid 70s, and there were significant gusts around 30 mph. Water here is not really heated, so there wasn't a huge desire to spend too much time deeply immersed. There's also a "no glasses on body slides" policy which didn't do me any additional favors, so they basically got crossed out. So let's break those down, shall we?
The first slide complex built here was the Mayan Temple, which takes its shape after the Mesoamerican step pyramids found throughout Central America. There are some small children's slides which come off the side of the pyramid, but primary interest will be towards the trio of the Leap of Faith, Challenger, and Serpent slides. Challenger and Leap of Faith are fairly typical speed slides - Challenger has two tandem racing slides with timing at the bottom, Leap of Faith is a single chute. Leap of Faith is more the traditional "thrilling" high angle, straight, all one drop slide. However the slow down area is through a plexiglass chute in the middle of the shark tank. Challenger just dumps into a standard pool. Having recalled the experience of Aquatica Orlando's clear tube body slides, my wife and I thought it might not be the best use of time in such frigid conditions.
What would be a better use is the Serpent slide. This is a fairly standard inner tube slide which can utilize single or double tubes. After passing through some dark tunnels in the center of the pyramid, you dump into what is a bit like a lazy river, again, inside the shark tank. Because you much more slowly travel through here, you get a real chance to appreciate the sharks and the fact that you're basically riding along side them. One downer can be that other riders splashing down create waves in this kinda tight enclosed tunnel. Oh, and its a tight, enclosed, boxy space, which if you're highly claustrophobic might not be the best thing. But you also had to take a tube slide to get here. Just sayin'.
At Power Tower, the newer complex, the Abyss body slides are fairly short and lead to an inner sanctum within the mythical structure built by Atlanteans past. Again: it was cold. We skipped them. There are also the the "Drop" and "Falls" water coasters built on the second level of the tower: these were just straight up closed, presumably because there were few guests actually trying to go on slides. That left us with just one to do: The Surge. This is atop the Power Tower, and our willingness to ride got the lifeguard at the top to say, "This is torture, man!" Surge starts with a huge double down drop, followed by a water jet assisted uphill climb. There's some more standard water slide fare until you splash down in what could best be described as a tributary to the River Rapids.
Ah, yes. The star of the show, the River Rapids. Marketed as a mile long winding attraction, I'm a little skeptical of how that number was developed, but I cant prove it any different. There's two key components to it - the first few sections take place in a high walled channel which has tubes pushed through by a wave machine. This is pretty similar to the "action river" at Cedar Point, but with significantly more theming. After turning to a more sedate river for a short span, tube encounter a conveyor belt which takes them up to a faster river. This speeds up significantly, eventually leading to a series of concrete flume more similar to late 70s/early 80s water slide design than anything you'd expect at a park that looks like this. The Surge ultimately feeds into this attraction through its own set of concrete chutes, making the overall attraction there about 3-4 minutes in length. It's appreciable.
I checked out the food vendors and ultimately settled on just trying to get by with dining and picked up a couple of massive pretzels. These aren't the Bavarian or Superpretzels generally present at theme parks in the US, and might even be made in house. For $4.50, the price was entirely reasonable for a theme park. There's pizza, hot dogs, burgers, and other fairly standard fare here. No sit down restaurants. Bars are probably fine but not cheap. Nothing here at Atlantis is. But that's also kinda why you came here instead of anywhere else in Nassau, isn't it? We didn't spend that much time lounging in chairs simply because the conditions were sub-par for a nice nap. Way, way too windy. Still, Atlantis leaves plenty of things to explore.
The Dig is available for those who don't want to pay for the water park - a pass good to see it can be purchased at the same location as we picked up our wristbands, but is probably in the $40 range per person. Honestly: not a good deal. As a bonus for us having spent a ton of money already, we were fond of it. The Dig is an Aquarium, albeit an outrageously ornate and themed one as though you were walking through scientific experiments run by the ancient Atlaneans. There are some pretty fabulous tanks to see, and the overall appearance is dramatically different than the Merlin built Sea Life Aquariums I've gotten used to visiting in the United States. Aquaventure passes also allow for entry to Atlantis' beaches. Not wanting to be sandblasted, we chose against this, but there's actually a variety of activities here, including what seems to be a man made snorkeling lagoon.
Inside the resort itself, the main lobby features massive mosaics in the domed ceiling depicting the creation and destruction of Atlantis and some enormous Chihuly glass sculptures. Everything about Atlantis is big and impressive. It very much feels like something from the halcyon late 90s period in Vegas, but not updated to become a generic, cold Cirque Du Soilel/crap comedian-centric space. There are the Vegas-esque signature restaurants (Nobu, Bahamian Club, etc),and a Hakkasan nightclub, but the space around them feels much more in line with the overriding theme of the resort rather than smashed into it.
All this bears the question: Is Atlantis Aquaventure in the Bahamas worth the money? From the standpoint of the average individual or family, I find the value assessment questionable to get to "it's worth it." Assuming the best case scenario: $110 for admission, taking the water taxi both ways for the tune of $4 each way, a snack/drink totaling $10 a person - you're at $130. For a family of four, that's $720 US. That's a lot of money for a water park. Attraction to attraction, Atlantis doesn't have nearly as many slides as does, for example, Wet N' Wild Emerald Pointe. Of course, Atlantis offers a greatly different experience from more traditional water parks. There's a nice aquarium. There's the option to go use its beaches. It has fine dining inside the resort. There's gambling, even including a real sports book (the closest to the East Coast). But those can also be accessed for free or less money than the Aquaventure pass.
Those who read this review are more than likely part of some aspect of theme park fandom. From that perspective, the answer is a bit different. More than likely, you're already used to outlays of significant sums of money for entertainment and fun. Atlantis, while pricey and more money than almost anything in Orlando, is not really stratospherically higher in cost. And it is definitely well themed and "immersive". Atlantis is at least as well themed as either Disney water park, but featuring much more ambitious slides. There's no narrative payoff and no long origin story to read to the kids. If you feel that you need that in order to be invested in gigantic stuff to explore and project your own imagination to, then yes, I suppose that Atlantis might not be for you, and the premise of a snowstorm 22 years ago leading to the creation of Blizzard Beach may be functionally the only thing you can do. For everyone else, especially those who see themselves as being serious theme park fans, a visit to Atlantis should be a "must-do," hovering in rarefied air.
First, arriving at Atlantis. The cheapest method to visit the Atlantis Resort and do the water park is to go via cruise ship for the day. There are loads of 3-4 night cruises from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Port Canaveral that make the stop, as well as longer cruises from the likes of Mobile, New Orleans, Jacksonville, New York City, and Baltimore. Nassau is one of the most visited cruise ports, and this is in spite of the fact that it is consistently rated as one of cruiser's least favorites. The draw of mass tourism in a comparatively poor nation like The Bahamas has made the city of Nassau one of the busiest, most polluted, and most crime ridden. Many areas of the city are basically off limits to tourists unless they want to invite petty crime or a mugging. It is very much the ugly side of this kind of economy and contrasts dramatically from the other islands in the chain. For groups larger than a couple, it may be economical to consider booking a room at the Quality Suites Paradise Island, which includes Atlantis entry for up to 4, and usually is significantly cheaper than individual day passes. Tourists can arrive via water taxi (follow the signs) for $4 USD each way or take a real taxi which can run from $5/person for a van load to $30 for the vehicle if you don't want to wait.
You can, of course, stay in Atlantis. Nightly rates include water park entry and can be expected to range anywhere between the low 200s for the older towers from the 60s to the 400s for the newest towers closest to the water park and casino. Airfare to Nassau is rarely cheap, and food at the resort is extremely expensive. Most guests effectively buy full board plans to defray costs while still eating well: an alternative is to leave the grounds and head to the Paradise Island Marina for cheaper eats or even head back to Nassau. If you do choose the meal plans, prepare for lines. We saw some massive breakfast queues on a Sunday morning with many people planning to leave and few outlets available. It seemed a little unwieldy.
If you are visiting for the day, you'll need to pick up your wristband a short walk from where the taxi will drop you off, outside, near the main entrance. Hotel guests will make the pickup at Aquaventure itself. Don't screw this up like us, or you'll need to walk 15 minutes back through the hotel lobby and casino to get back to the guest service desk to go back to Aquaventure and grab a chair. It worked out though, since while the pool opened at 10AM, the water slides were activated until 11. Hours seem to basically be 10-5 every day of the year, so you can plan around that (and probably the late start).
The water park doesn't have a clear individual gate, but basically allows for entry from anywhere in the surrounding area of the resort. Odds are exceptionally good though that you'll enter around the area of the shark tank that makes up one end of of the Mayan Temple's space. There are several pools (6 to be precise, 2 belong to particular guests only) that are part of the water park complex, two slide structures, and around a good chunk of these lie the River Rapids attraction. There are a couple of restaurants and bars here, and the beach is a short walk away.
I'm going to break from the description of the rides to discuss price, because having described the scope, I need to tell you that the usual "booked through the cruise line" price is around $180/person to go here. If you go on your own, the park's ticketing utilizes dynamic pricing, but is pretty much guaranteed to be somewhere between 110-135 USD per adult. That's a lot of money for a water park that has two slide complexes, a water play area, and something that sounds suspiciously like a lazy river. On our visit, the weather was not exactly cooperating: temperatures never left the mid 70s, and there were significant gusts around 30 mph. Water here is not really heated, so there wasn't a huge desire to spend too much time deeply immersed. There's also a "no glasses on body slides" policy which didn't do me any additional favors, so they basically got crossed out. So let's break those down, shall we?
The first slide complex built here was the Mayan Temple, which takes its shape after the Mesoamerican step pyramids found throughout Central America. There are some small children's slides which come off the side of the pyramid, but primary interest will be towards the trio of the Leap of Faith, Challenger, and Serpent slides. Challenger and Leap of Faith are fairly typical speed slides - Challenger has two tandem racing slides with timing at the bottom, Leap of Faith is a single chute. Leap of Faith is more the traditional "thrilling" high angle, straight, all one drop slide. However the slow down area is through a plexiglass chute in the middle of the shark tank. Challenger just dumps into a standard pool. Having recalled the experience of Aquatica Orlando's clear tube body slides, my wife and I thought it might not be the best use of time in such frigid conditions.
What would be a better use is the Serpent slide. This is a fairly standard inner tube slide which can utilize single or double tubes. After passing through some dark tunnels in the center of the pyramid, you dump into what is a bit like a lazy river, again, inside the shark tank. Because you much more slowly travel through here, you get a real chance to appreciate the sharks and the fact that you're basically riding along side them. One downer can be that other riders splashing down create waves in this kinda tight enclosed tunnel. Oh, and its a tight, enclosed, boxy space, which if you're highly claustrophobic might not be the best thing. But you also had to take a tube slide to get here. Just sayin'.
At Power Tower, the newer complex, the Abyss body slides are fairly short and lead to an inner sanctum within the mythical structure built by Atlanteans past. Again: it was cold. We skipped them. There are also the the "Drop" and "Falls" water coasters built on the second level of the tower: these were just straight up closed, presumably because there were few guests actually trying to go on slides. That left us with just one to do: The Surge. This is atop the Power Tower, and our willingness to ride got the lifeguard at the top to say, "This is torture, man!" Surge starts with a huge double down drop, followed by a water jet assisted uphill climb. There's some more standard water slide fare until you splash down in what could best be described as a tributary to the River Rapids.
Ah, yes. The star of the show, the River Rapids. Marketed as a mile long winding attraction, I'm a little skeptical of how that number was developed, but I cant prove it any different. There's two key components to it - the first few sections take place in a high walled channel which has tubes pushed through by a wave machine. This is pretty similar to the "action river" at Cedar Point, but with significantly more theming. After turning to a more sedate river for a short span, tube encounter a conveyor belt which takes them up to a faster river. This speeds up significantly, eventually leading to a series of concrete flume more similar to late 70s/early 80s water slide design than anything you'd expect at a park that looks like this. The Surge ultimately feeds into this attraction through its own set of concrete chutes, making the overall attraction there about 3-4 minutes in length. It's appreciable.
I checked out the food vendors and ultimately settled on just trying to get by with dining and picked up a couple of massive pretzels. These aren't the Bavarian or Superpretzels generally present at theme parks in the US, and might even be made in house. For $4.50, the price was entirely reasonable for a theme park. There's pizza, hot dogs, burgers, and other fairly standard fare here. No sit down restaurants. Bars are probably fine but not cheap. Nothing here at Atlantis is. But that's also kinda why you came here instead of anywhere else in Nassau, isn't it? We didn't spend that much time lounging in chairs simply because the conditions were sub-par for a nice nap. Way, way too windy. Still, Atlantis leaves plenty of things to explore.
The Dig is available for those who don't want to pay for the water park - a pass good to see it can be purchased at the same location as we picked up our wristbands, but is probably in the $40 range per person. Honestly: not a good deal. As a bonus for us having spent a ton of money already, we were fond of it. The Dig is an Aquarium, albeit an outrageously ornate and themed one as though you were walking through scientific experiments run by the ancient Atlaneans. There are some pretty fabulous tanks to see, and the overall appearance is dramatically different than the Merlin built Sea Life Aquariums I've gotten used to visiting in the United States. Aquaventure passes also allow for entry to Atlantis' beaches. Not wanting to be sandblasted, we chose against this, but there's actually a variety of activities here, including what seems to be a man made snorkeling lagoon.
Inside the resort itself, the main lobby features massive mosaics in the domed ceiling depicting the creation and destruction of Atlantis and some enormous Chihuly glass sculptures. Everything about Atlantis is big and impressive. It very much feels like something from the halcyon late 90s period in Vegas, but not updated to become a generic, cold Cirque Du Soilel/crap comedian-centric space. There are the Vegas-esque signature restaurants (Nobu, Bahamian Club, etc),and a Hakkasan nightclub, but the space around them feels much more in line with the overriding theme of the resort rather than smashed into it.
All this bears the question: Is Atlantis Aquaventure in the Bahamas worth the money? From the standpoint of the average individual or family, I find the value assessment questionable to get to "it's worth it." Assuming the best case scenario: $110 for admission, taking the water taxi both ways for the tune of $4 each way, a snack/drink totaling $10 a person - you're at $130. For a family of four, that's $720 US. That's a lot of money for a water park. Attraction to attraction, Atlantis doesn't have nearly as many slides as does, for example, Wet N' Wild Emerald Pointe. Of course, Atlantis offers a greatly different experience from more traditional water parks. There's a nice aquarium. There's the option to go use its beaches. It has fine dining inside the resort. There's gambling, even including a real sports book (the closest to the East Coast). But those can also be accessed for free or less money than the Aquaventure pass.
Those who read this review are more than likely part of some aspect of theme park fandom. From that perspective, the answer is a bit different. More than likely, you're already used to outlays of significant sums of money for entertainment and fun. Atlantis, while pricey and more money than almost anything in Orlando, is not really stratospherically higher in cost. And it is definitely well themed and "immersive". Atlantis is at least as well themed as either Disney water park, but featuring much more ambitious slides. There's no narrative payoff and no long origin story to read to the kids. If you feel that you need that in order to be invested in gigantic stuff to explore and project your own imagination to, then yes, I suppose that Atlantis might not be for you, and the premise of a snowstorm 22 years ago leading to the creation of Blizzard Beach may be functionally the only thing you can do. For everyone else, especially those who see themselves as being serious theme park fans, a visit to Atlantis should be a "must-do," hovering in rarefied air.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Immersive Irony Experience Theme Park Podcast- Crystal Beach Memorial Episode
Alan is joined by Victoria Wolcott, Chair and Professor of History at University at Buffalo, SUNY to discuss the history of race relations in amusement parks, pools, and other areas of recreation in the United States. Check out her book 'Race, Riots, and Rollercoasters' available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Parkscope Report: The Sordid History of Atlantis Bahamas (Pt. 1)
Universal Studios has pushed hard in recent months the specific nomenclature of "Water Theme Park" for the upcoming Volcano Bay. This has, in turn, led to much discourse on social media about the term, what it means, and whether or not it is even a thing that exists. Those against the term suggest that no water park meets the criteria of Disneyland with having multiple themes, and thus it is not an actual thing. Proponents often point out that having multiple themes is not a requirement for a theme park: merely that there is a theme at all is sufficient. While these ultimately very important battles rage on outside the realms of public understanding or care, the reality is that this discussion could have easily taken place and been concluded eons ago. There is an "immersive" water park outside the Disney bubble already in the hemisphere to visit. In fact, it is relatively easy to go to using one of Disney's own methods of cash extraction: cruise ships.
Before I review my experience there, I think it would be good to explain the history behind Atlantis Paradise Island and how it came to be that the present-day most expensive water park in the world exists on a tax haven off the coast of Florida. Why? Well, it's actually kinda interesting. A lot more so than the story of the guy who's orange groves Universal and Disney bought out.
-----------------------------------
In 1922, Harold Christie had set up H.G Christie, a real estate firm in Nassau, Bahamas. A lifelong resident, Christie reportedly grew up impoverished [1], but went about selling real estate to non-residents and came to the conclusion that by asking his commission be paid in land rather than money, he would be able to amass a fortune in holdings. Christie recognized somewhat early on that the Bahamas had some key aspects which made it highly appealing: it was a tax haven while still part of the British Empire. There was and is no capital gains tax, inheritance tax, personal income tax, or gift tax on the island chain. It also had geographic proximity to the US which made it an appealing stop for tourists. Christie used these to his advantage, pushing the Bahamas into the global consciousness and associating it with fun and sun. For this, he was rewarded with knighthood.
One of the parcels of land he would come to sell was a significant island near to the capital of Nassau. Hog Island, as it was known then, first appears in historical record in - what else? - litigation. Thirty-two acres of the island had been owned by an individual named John A. Burrows, and upon his death in 1913, it was to be divided amongst children and grandchildren per his will [2]. This section of land was first sold to a non-resident in the 1930s, and became the holiday estate of Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren. Wenner-Gren had an illustrious career, patenting vacuum cleaners and becoming the owner of Electrolux, To theme park fans, he's most well known for the company that was based on his initials: ALWEG. Yes, this is the guy who's company built the original Disneyland Monorail.
Wenner-Gren received an offer in 1959 to buy the land from another insanely rich individual, Huntington Hartford. Mr. Hartford was the heir to the riches of A&P Supermarkets and rather than operate the company, chose to sell it and invest in minor things like oil shale. As you might expect, he was among the richest men in the world, and could do things like buy an island in the Bahamas, construct a golf course on it, and have consensus top ten all time golfer Gary Player be the course's pro. Rich as he was, that he was an inheritor and not a great businessman himself is illustrated by the actual acquisition of the land. The terms of the sale were drawn up on the back of a dinner menu and signed by the parties. However it was later determined that the menu contract lacked sufficient information and terms, and was ruled null and void. Hartford and his lawyer were forced to re-negotiate the price.
Together with an expat by the name of James Crosby, Hog Island became Paradise Island under Hartford's ownership. Crosby's company, the Mary Carter Paint Company gobbled up 75 of the island's territory in 1966, and construction began on the first tower, completed in 1968. By this point, the company was leaving the paint business and entering real estate, leading to the renaming to Resorts International and with it, a push for casino gaming. The casino business was not entirely a new discussion in The Bahamas; it was actually Sir Harold Christie who had first heard the pitch way back in the 1940s. In that case, the pitch came not from businessmen, but from Lucky Luciano. It has been theorized that the non-committal of the Bahamanians to the idea of the casino contributed or directly led to the murder of gold magnate Sir Harry Oakes [3] in 1943.
Resorts International, while just as hooked on expansion of gaming as the mob (less as a method of laundering money, more because it was profitable) looked to convince the public by finding legitimate businessmen to promote its developments in places like Nassau and Atlantic City. Still, this was not a traditional hotelier, and legalized gambling was in its infancy in America. Most of the known people with high level of knowledge about operations of casinos were at tables themselves, in federal penitentiaries from RICO investigations, or dead following the Cuban revolution. Even while trying to show themselves to be entirely clean, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission managed to unearth evidence that Crosby had paid bribes to the country's Prime Minister in order to obtain the license held by the Bahamian Club. In order to fulfill the desires for the resort, that entire building was picked up and moved to Paradise Island, thus taking with it the license. The name is still attached to a restaurant that operates today in the conference center/Beach Tower complex.
Enter the future 45th president of the United States. In 1986, with costs mounting on the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, James Crosby died on a NYU Medical Center operating table at the age of 58, throwing Resorts International into total disarray. Donald Trump, another child of privilege (his dad was a real estate developer who once tried to pave Coney Island NY) entered a fierce bidding war to take over controlling share of Resorts International in the aftermath of Crosby's death. Unable to drum up external funding for completion of the Taj Mahal, Trump stated he would pay for it himself if he was given 100% ownership of the organization. [4] TV mogul Merv Griffin saw an opportunity as well, and exceeded Trump's bid by nearly 160%. Lawsuits followed, and when the smoke cleared, Merv Griffin owned Resorts International, and Donald Trump owned the Taj Mahal.
In a matter of months, Merv Griffin's new resort empire began to crumble. The purchase was financed with junk bonds and interest payments to investors stopped coming. 13 months after settling with Trump, Resorts International entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with bondholders ultimately assuming control of the company in exchange for debt forgiveness. Paradise Island was to be sold to drum up cash. At this point, the history of Atlantis includes a future US president, a Prime Minister, a mob boss, vacuums, Disney's monorails, fracking, and an all-time great golfer. The next sale of the resort couldn't be to a run-of-the-mill developer. That would be too boring. It had to be someone with panache. Someone with confidence. Someone with money. Someone who had protest songs written about his work.
Sol Kerzner made the decision in 1989 to buy Paradise Island out of bankruptcy and turn it into a shining light in the Caribbean. [5] Kerzner was not new to the idea of massive, themed, gambling & amusement resorts. He built one of the world's most famous in his home country in 1979. Kerzner was a Russian-Jewish immigrant to Johannesburg who, unlike every one else in this story up until now, actually grew up wanting to be in the hospitality business. He followed his family into management of hotels in South Africa and eventually proved to be the brightest and best of the bunch. Kerzner convinced South African Brewers (The SAB in modern day SABMiller) to go in on a whole hotel chain that he'd manage. Ultimately Kerzner constructed his crowning achievement: Sun City. With huge hotel towers, artificial lakes, a water park, casino, and arena, Sun City is renowned as one of the most gorgeous resorts in the world. And it was also segregated, just like all of South Africa at the time. As tremendous economic pressure was put on the apartheid government, "Sun City" became the theme to the world's frustration, featuring everyone from Joey Ramone, Afrika Bambatta, and Hall & Oates. Sun City, like the country it was in, fully integrated in 1994.
Kerzner saw the tremendous potential on Paradise Island and chose to buy it himself, developing an eponymous real estate company in the process [6]. From 1994 to 1998, the newly branded Atlantis became home to hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements, capping with the construction of the monumental Royal Tower, taking the somewhat dated and boxy 60s-style resort buildings and injecting the flair of Disneysea and Islands of Adventure into the resort. A $1 billion dollar expansion followed in 2007, adding yet more rooms, conference facilities, dolphin habitat, water park attractions, nightclubs, and more.
If you haven't managed to keep track to this point, Paradise Island has been owned by:
-some guy named John A. Burrows
-that guy's immediate and extended family
-Maybe Sir Harold Christie?, the man that developed The Bahamas
-Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren, AKA Mr. ALWEG
-Supermarket scion Huntington Hartford
-Some conglomerate that made paint
-Some conglomerate that used to make paint which had Donald Trump as primary shareholder but wanted to build casinos
-Merv Griffin, the guy that came up with Wheel of Fortune
-Some people that bought bad bonds
-Sol Kerzner, the guy that built Sun City and Mohegan Sun
The Atlantis of today is monstrous in size and acts as the second largest employer in the nation of The Bahamas. As has been the case since the day the first casino license was handed out, Bahamian residents are forbidden to gamble inside this palace to sin. All bets are placed by tourists who occupy the nearly 5,000 rooms and arrive by cruise ship seeking somewhere safe and clean to tour.
Looking to restructure debt incurred during the financial crisis, Kerzner sold Atlantis Bahamas to Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) while retaining the contract to manage the properties under Kerzner International (and subsequently inviting lawsuits from furious hedge fund managers. As wild as all these previous owners have been, BAM is not particularly exciting, but poetic. Brookfield possesses a mammoth 226 billion in property acquired via cash from US and Canadian pension plans. In a strange sort of way, it is millions of former social servants, autoworkers, and machinists that own Paradise Island today and they don't even know it.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] While not impossible for Sir Harold Christie to have grown up poor, I shant mince my words. The Bahamas, like virtually all of the Caribbean, has historically favored whites who's families operated commerce during the slavery years of the 16th-19th centuries. In the Bahamas, the government was white majority until the late 1960s. He would have had much more access to influence important individuals. He may also have had significant holdings of land from his family, as land claims were passed from generation to generation and are/were not racially specific. Christie's son took over the business from him following his death and is still involved in real estate sales in the islands.
[2] Cited from: Katheder, Thomas. "Purchasing Real Estate in the Bahamas." The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review (1997): 197-252. For what it is worth, this was produced by the general counsel for The Walt Disney Corporation, potentially after the acquisition of what is now known as Castaway Cay (referenced inside). The litigation actually took place in the 1960s following Mr. Burrows' sisters passing away. They had tracts on the island as well and claims to their land were put forth at that point. Those have long since been developed.
Oh, and John A. Burrows? Well, there's not a ton out there to work with to help us understand who he or his family was. There are many, many Burrows in The Bahamas, and a great many of them are of African ancestry. A John A. Burrows was elected to be a pastor in the Abaco Islands as reported in the May 1901 edition of "The Missionary Herald of the Baptist Missionary Society."
[3] Oakes was found battered to death, strewn with feathers, and partially immolated. Multiple books and films about the murder and attempted framing of Count Alfred de Marigny have been produced since. Theories about Oakes actual murderer range from the Duke of Windsor (King Edward VII, who abdicated the British throne in 1936) to the Mafia to even Sir Harold Christie himself.
[4] Or did Trump intentionally look to take total control of what would likely be an incredibly profitable enterprise? Well, in any case, it didn't go the way he wanted.
[5] Kerzner also played an important role in the evolution of an industry that has damaged Atlantis' status and caused Las Vegas to turn to nightclubs: the Indian Casino. Kerzner was the force that helped make Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT a reality after the runaway success of Foxwoods (now MGM Grand), also in Connecticut. Mohegan Sun has since expanded beyond the reservation in Eastern CT into the Poconos with an eye to Massachusetts and South Korea.
[6] Kerzner International and Sun International are his two main real estate companies, and aside from the fact that they exist and have separate websites, there's not a lot to tell you about how precisely they operate. Since selling Atlantis in 2012, Kerzner has managed to bring this story somewhat full circle, constructing a casino with his Sun International subsidiary/company/whatever it is inside Trump Ocean Club, a 70 story hotel/condo tower in Panama City, Panama.
Before I review my experience there, I think it would be good to explain the history behind Atlantis Paradise Island and how it came to be that the present-day most expensive water park in the world exists on a tax haven off the coast of Florida. Why? Well, it's actually kinda interesting. A lot more so than the story of the guy who's orange groves Universal and Disney bought out.
-----------------------------------
(Sir Harold Christie)
In 1922, Harold Christie had set up H.G Christie, a real estate firm in Nassau, Bahamas. A lifelong resident, Christie reportedly grew up impoverished [1], but went about selling real estate to non-residents and came to the conclusion that by asking his commission be paid in land rather than money, he would be able to amass a fortune in holdings. Christie recognized somewhat early on that the Bahamas had some key aspects which made it highly appealing: it was a tax haven while still part of the British Empire. There was and is no capital gains tax, inheritance tax, personal income tax, or gift tax on the island chain. It also had geographic proximity to the US which made it an appealing stop for tourists. Christie used these to his advantage, pushing the Bahamas into the global consciousness and associating it with fun and sun. For this, he was rewarded with knighthood.
One of the parcels of land he would come to sell was a significant island near to the capital of Nassau. Hog Island, as it was known then, first appears in historical record in - what else? - litigation. Thirty-two acres of the island had been owned by an individual named John A. Burrows, and upon his death in 1913, it was to be divided amongst children and grandchildren per his will [2]. This section of land was first sold to a non-resident in the 1930s, and became the holiday estate of Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren. Wenner-Gren had an illustrious career, patenting vacuum cleaners and becoming the owner of Electrolux, To theme park fans, he's most well known for the company that was based on his initials: ALWEG. Yes, this is the guy who's company built the original Disneyland Monorail.
(Huntington Hartford)
Wenner-Gren received an offer in 1959 to buy the land from another insanely rich individual, Huntington Hartford. Mr. Hartford was the heir to the riches of A&P Supermarkets and rather than operate the company, chose to sell it and invest in minor things like oil shale. As you might expect, he was among the richest men in the world, and could do things like buy an island in the Bahamas, construct a golf course on it, and have consensus top ten all time golfer Gary Player be the course's pro. Rich as he was, that he was an inheritor and not a great businessman himself is illustrated by the actual acquisition of the land. The terms of the sale were drawn up on the back of a dinner menu and signed by the parties. However it was later determined that the menu contract lacked sufficient information and terms, and was ruled null and void. Hartford and his lawyer were forced to re-negotiate the price.
(Britannia Beach Hotel, now colored pink and named the Coral Towers)
Together with an expat by the name of James Crosby, Hog Island became Paradise Island under Hartford's ownership. Crosby's company, the Mary Carter Paint Company gobbled up 75 of the island's territory in 1966, and construction began on the first tower, completed in 1968. By this point, the company was leaving the paint business and entering real estate, leading to the renaming to Resorts International and with it, a push for casino gaming. The casino business was not entirely a new discussion in The Bahamas; it was actually Sir Harold Christie who had first heard the pitch way back in the 1940s. In that case, the pitch came not from businessmen, but from Lucky Luciano. It has been theorized that the non-committal of the Bahamanians to the idea of the casino contributed or directly led to the murder of gold magnate Sir Harry Oakes [3] in 1943.
Resorts International, while just as hooked on expansion of gaming as the mob (less as a method of laundering money, more because it was profitable) looked to convince the public by finding legitimate businessmen to promote its developments in places like Nassau and Atlantic City. Still, this was not a traditional hotelier, and legalized gambling was in its infancy in America. Most of the known people with high level of knowledge about operations of casinos were at tables themselves, in federal penitentiaries from RICO investigations, or dead following the Cuban revolution. Even while trying to show themselves to be entirely clean, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission managed to unearth evidence that Crosby had paid bribes to the country's Prime Minister in order to obtain the license held by the Bahamian Club. In order to fulfill the desires for the resort, that entire building was picked up and moved to Paradise Island, thus taking with it the license. The name is still attached to a restaurant that operates today in the conference center/Beach Tower complex.
(Atlantis Beach Tower in the Merv Griffin years)
Enter the future 45th president of the United States. In 1986, with costs mounting on the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, James Crosby died on a NYU Medical Center operating table at the age of 58, throwing Resorts International into total disarray. Donald Trump, another child of privilege (his dad was a real estate developer who once tried to pave Coney Island NY) entered a fierce bidding war to take over controlling share of Resorts International in the aftermath of Crosby's death. Unable to drum up external funding for completion of the Taj Mahal, Trump stated he would pay for it himself if he was given 100% ownership of the organization. [4] TV mogul Merv Griffin saw an opportunity as well, and exceeded Trump's bid by nearly 160%. Lawsuits followed, and when the smoke cleared, Merv Griffin owned Resorts International, and Donald Trump owned the Taj Mahal.
In a matter of months, Merv Griffin's new resort empire began to crumble. The purchase was financed with junk bonds and interest payments to investors stopped coming. 13 months after settling with Trump, Resorts International entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with bondholders ultimately assuming control of the company in exchange for debt forgiveness. Paradise Island was to be sold to drum up cash. At this point, the history of Atlantis includes a future US president, a Prime Minister, a mob boss, vacuums, Disney's monorails, fracking, and an all-time great golfer. The next sale of the resort couldn't be to a run-of-the-mill developer. That would be too boring. It had to be someone with panache. Someone with confidence. Someone with money. Someone who had protest songs written about his work.
Sol Kerzner made the decision in 1989 to buy Paradise Island out of bankruptcy and turn it into a shining light in the Caribbean. [5] Kerzner was not new to the idea of massive, themed, gambling & amusement resorts. He built one of the world's most famous in his home country in 1979. Kerzner was a Russian-Jewish immigrant to Johannesburg who, unlike every one else in this story up until now, actually grew up wanting to be in the hospitality business. He followed his family into management of hotels in South Africa and eventually proved to be the brightest and best of the bunch. Kerzner convinced South African Brewers (The SAB in modern day SABMiller) to go in on a whole hotel chain that he'd manage. Ultimately Kerzner constructed his crowning achievement: Sun City. With huge hotel towers, artificial lakes, a water park, casino, and arena, Sun City is renowned as one of the most gorgeous resorts in the world. And it was also segregated, just like all of South Africa at the time. As tremendous economic pressure was put on the apartheid government, "Sun City" became the theme to the world's frustration, featuring everyone from Joey Ramone, Afrika Bambatta, and Hall & Oates. Sun City, like the country it was in, fully integrated in 1994.
Kerzner saw the tremendous potential on Paradise Island and chose to buy it himself, developing an eponymous real estate company in the process [6]. From 1994 to 1998, the newly branded Atlantis became home to hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements, capping with the construction of the monumental Royal Tower, taking the somewhat dated and boxy 60s-style resort buildings and injecting the flair of Disneysea and Islands of Adventure into the resort. A $1 billion dollar expansion followed in 2007, adding yet more rooms, conference facilities, dolphin habitat, water park attractions, nightclubs, and more.
If you haven't managed to keep track to this point, Paradise Island has been owned by:
-some guy named John A. Burrows
-that guy's immediate and extended family
-Maybe Sir Harold Christie?, the man that developed The Bahamas
-Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren, AKA Mr. ALWEG
-Supermarket scion Huntington Hartford
-Some conglomerate that made paint
-Some conglomerate that used to make paint which had Donald Trump as primary shareholder but wanted to build casinos
-Merv Griffin, the guy that came up with Wheel of Fortune
-Some people that bought bad bonds
-Sol Kerzner, the guy that built Sun City and Mohegan Sun
The Atlantis of today is monstrous in size and acts as the second largest employer in the nation of The Bahamas. As has been the case since the day the first casino license was handed out, Bahamian residents are forbidden to gamble inside this palace to sin. All bets are placed by tourists who occupy the nearly 5,000 rooms and arrive by cruise ship seeking somewhere safe and clean to tour.
Looking to restructure debt incurred during the financial crisis, Kerzner sold Atlantis Bahamas to Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) while retaining the contract to manage the properties under Kerzner International (and subsequently inviting lawsuits from furious hedge fund managers. As wild as all these previous owners have been, BAM is not particularly exciting, but poetic. Brookfield possesses a mammoth 226 billion in property acquired via cash from US and Canadian pension plans. In a strange sort of way, it is millions of former social servants, autoworkers, and machinists that own Paradise Island today and they don't even know it.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] While not impossible for Sir Harold Christie to have grown up poor, I shant mince my words. The Bahamas, like virtually all of the Caribbean, has historically favored whites who's families operated commerce during the slavery years of the 16th-19th centuries. In the Bahamas, the government was white majority until the late 1960s. He would have had much more access to influence important individuals. He may also have had significant holdings of land from his family, as land claims were passed from generation to generation and are/were not racially specific. Christie's son took over the business from him following his death and is still involved in real estate sales in the islands.
[2] Cited from: Katheder, Thomas. "Purchasing Real Estate in the Bahamas." The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review (1997): 197-252. For what it is worth, this was produced by the general counsel for The Walt Disney Corporation, potentially after the acquisition of what is now known as Castaway Cay (referenced inside). The litigation actually took place in the 1960s following Mr. Burrows' sisters passing away. They had tracts on the island as well and claims to their land were put forth at that point. Those have long since been developed.
Oh, and John A. Burrows? Well, there's not a ton out there to work with to help us understand who he or his family was. There are many, many Burrows in The Bahamas, and a great many of them are of African ancestry. A John A. Burrows was elected to be a pastor in the Abaco Islands as reported in the May 1901 edition of "The Missionary Herald of the Baptist Missionary Society."
[3] Oakes was found battered to death, strewn with feathers, and partially immolated. Multiple books and films about the murder and attempted framing of Count Alfred de Marigny have been produced since. Theories about Oakes actual murderer range from the Duke of Windsor (King Edward VII, who abdicated the British throne in 1936) to the Mafia to even Sir Harold Christie himself.
[4] Or did Trump intentionally look to take total control of what would likely be an incredibly profitable enterprise? Well, in any case, it didn't go the way he wanted.
[5] Kerzner also played an important role in the evolution of an industry that has damaged Atlantis' status and caused Las Vegas to turn to nightclubs: the Indian Casino. Kerzner was the force that helped make Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT a reality after the runaway success of Foxwoods (now MGM Grand), also in Connecticut. Mohegan Sun has since expanded beyond the reservation in Eastern CT into the Poconos with an eye to Massachusetts and South Korea.
[6] Kerzner International and Sun International are his two main real estate companies, and aside from the fact that they exist and have separate websites, there's not a lot to tell you about how precisely they operate. Since selling Atlantis in 2012, Kerzner has managed to bring this story somewhat full circle, constructing a casino with his Sun International subsidiary/company/whatever it is inside Trump Ocean Club, a 70 story hotel/condo tower in Panama City, Panama.
Friday, March 24, 2017
The Hidden Rides and Themed Attractions of...Manitoba
Fewer people live in Manitoba than in the state of Maine in spite of being bigger than France, Afghanistan or Madagascar. Over half of the population of the province lives in the Winnipeg metropolitan area. During this series, we've done some sparsely populated places. Manitoba is definitely sparsely populated. The capital city re-entered the spotlight to Americans when the Atlanta Thrashers were moved out of the American Deep South and back to proper hockey territory to become the new Winnipeg Jets. In addition, 2014 saw the opening of the largest museum in the region, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, open to rave reviews for its forward thinking design and impressive content.
Why would you be here though? Well, Winnipeg is a classic stop on the Transcanadian Railway and Highway, so those looking to cut through the entire country are bound to run into it. As one of the more important stops for the railroad, it has a gigantic railway hotel (Fort Garry). Geographically, we're talking primarily prairie land. The highest point in this massive area is Baldy Mountain, many hours north of Winnipeg, and less than 3,000 feet tall. Cities not necessarily thought of as "mountainous" like Oklahoma and Maryland actually have greater elevation changes. But stuff can be wild out here too. Bison are indigenous to the area just as they are America's great plains, and there are many of them on farm land today. But you might have seen that sort of thing prior. I understand.
We'll start then not with an amusement park, but straight up soft adventure tourism. From Winnipeg, Canada Rail will take you north, far beyond where most vehicles would dare venture. Churchill is, in the grand scheme of things, not that expensive to visit. The train fare is usually hovering in the $250 -350 USD round trip zone, which isn't that when you consider that it is a two night journey that takes you within 70 miles of the Nunavut border. Why go there? Well, there's a lot of unspoiled wilderness there, and there are opportunities that abound such as swimming with belugas and seeing polar bears. I'm not going to delve into a lot of the ramifications of global warming and how it is affecting polar bear populations/migration towards permanent land masses, but suffice to say that it is not a challenge for large parts of the year to see polar bears, and you see them via "tundra buggys," which is how this remote outpost is on our list. A Tundra Buggy is basically an airport shuttle like you'd see in much of Europe or at Cincinnati airport to take you between gates/planes with monster truck tires on it. You'll cruise around and see the largest land based apex predators in the world come up to bus and think very seriously about how they might eat you.
In recent years, time has worn down the permanent ride offerings in Winnipeg quite significantly. Grand Prix Amusements dropped its Chance Toboggan, and Tinker Town Family Fun Park's two Herschell coasters bit the dust after the 2011 season. Tinkertown is really the only true outdoor amusement park in the province now, offering a mix of family rides and kiddie attractions. Grand Prix Amusements joins the likes of fellow Winnipeggers at U-Puttz, Thunder Rapids in Headingley, and Meadows Golf and Amusements in Winkler as regional Family Entertainment Centers with the usual mix of arcade games, go-karts, and mini golf.
Assiniboine Park is home to a rideable miniature train and toboggan run in addition to the main attraction of a zoo. For those unable to make the adventurous journey north to Churchill, the Churchill-themed polar bear exhibit may scratch at least a little bit of that itch. Manitoba Live Steamers also run trains for the public during the weekend prior to Labor Day Weekend each year in Winnipeg.
For less permanent excitement, there's little doubt that the Red River Exhibition in Winnipeg is the biggest event in the province. The midway is brought in as part of the old Conklin Shows route now serviced by NAME, and will feature a nearly identical lineup as what is seen in Regina and at Calgary Stampede around this time frame. Come October, scares of a more ethereal nature may be found at Six Pines Haunted Attractions which seems to meet the basic criteria for a rural based haunt.
Why would you be here though? Well, Winnipeg is a classic stop on the Transcanadian Railway and Highway, so those looking to cut through the entire country are bound to run into it. As one of the more important stops for the railroad, it has a gigantic railway hotel (Fort Garry). Geographically, we're talking primarily prairie land. The highest point in this massive area is Baldy Mountain, many hours north of Winnipeg, and less than 3,000 feet tall. Cities not necessarily thought of as "mountainous" like Oklahoma and Maryland actually have greater elevation changes. But stuff can be wild out here too. Bison are indigenous to the area just as they are America's great plains, and there are many of them on farm land today. But you might have seen that sort of thing prior. I understand.
We'll start then not with an amusement park, but straight up soft adventure tourism. From Winnipeg, Canada Rail will take you north, far beyond where most vehicles would dare venture. Churchill is, in the grand scheme of things, not that expensive to visit. The train fare is usually hovering in the $250 -350 USD round trip zone, which isn't that when you consider that it is a two night journey that takes you within 70 miles of the Nunavut border. Why go there? Well, there's a lot of unspoiled wilderness there, and there are opportunities that abound such as swimming with belugas and seeing polar bears. I'm not going to delve into a lot of the ramifications of global warming and how it is affecting polar bear populations/migration towards permanent land masses, but suffice to say that it is not a challenge for large parts of the year to see polar bears, and you see them via "tundra buggys," which is how this remote outpost is on our list. A Tundra Buggy is basically an airport shuttle like you'd see in much of Europe or at Cincinnati airport to take you between gates/planes with monster truck tires on it. You'll cruise around and see the largest land based apex predators in the world come up to bus and think very seriously about how they might eat you.
In recent years, time has worn down the permanent ride offerings in Winnipeg quite significantly. Grand Prix Amusements dropped its Chance Toboggan, and Tinker Town Family Fun Park's two Herschell coasters bit the dust after the 2011 season. Tinkertown is really the only true outdoor amusement park in the province now, offering a mix of family rides and kiddie attractions. Grand Prix Amusements joins the likes of fellow Winnipeggers at U-Puttz, Thunder Rapids in Headingley, and Meadows Golf and Amusements in Winkler as regional Family Entertainment Centers with the usual mix of arcade games, go-karts, and mini golf.
Assiniboine Park is home to a rideable miniature train and toboggan run in addition to the main attraction of a zoo. For those unable to make the adventurous journey north to Churchill, the Churchill-themed polar bear exhibit may scratch at least a little bit of that itch. Manitoba Live Steamers also run trains for the public during the weekend prior to Labor Day Weekend each year in Winnipeg.
For less permanent excitement, there's little doubt that the Red River Exhibition in Winnipeg is the biggest event in the province. The midway is brought in as part of the old Conklin Shows route now serviced by NAME, and will feature a nearly identical lineup as what is seen in Regina and at Calgary Stampede around this time frame. Come October, scares of a more ethereal nature may be found at Six Pines Haunted Attractions which seems to meet the basic criteria for a rural based haunt.
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