Park Hoppin’

Have you ever seen an alligator as part of a menagerie carousel? I never had, so was surprised to find one on display adjacent to a carousel, often called the "Flying Horses" by local residents of New Orleans, when I visited the Hines…
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For years I thought I knew what made a good roller coaster. It should be fast and smooth with non-stop action, filled with surprises, and never a slow moment or pause to regain one’s composure until the final brake run. In other words, it…
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Las Vegas is a great place to have a trade show. There are lots of things to do there besides gaming, and the weather is usually good. In the past IAAPA held a show there, but then zeroed in on Orlando, which is a popular location. The…
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I don’t know about you, but I’m now fully recovered from the holidays and especially, from the recent IAAPA Attractions Expo in Orlando. It was bigger and better than ever, and it offered a chance to catch up with 20,000 of my closest…
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Elsewhere in this issue (page 64) Gary Kyriazi makes the case for bringing back some classic and legendary wooden roller coasters. These early coasters were heavily twisted and the amount of track maintenance they required shortened their…
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When is the last time I wrote about amusement park retail goods? I’ll give you a clue. Never! So it comes as a surprise to write about it now, but I feel compelled. I attended the recent Walt Disney World media preview of Toy Story Land at…
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There are turbulent roller coasters and gentle spinning carousels, like this menagerie merry-go-round I’m riding in the photo. Unlike most summers where I’ve made a bee-line to the newest coaster when I enter the park, this summer has been…
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Taking time off from riding roller coasters this summer until my ribs healed from a recent accident, my thoughts turned to my second favorite group of attractions, namely dark rides and dark walk-throughs. Not the modern, high-tech dark…
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This my favorite time of year, the silly season, when the parks open and new bragging rights are claimed. By bragging rights I mean new world records, and this has been going on now for nearly a century. Back in the 1920s, before…
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In mid-April I decided to attend the 33rd annual Ocean City, New Jersey, Doo Dah Parade, which celebrates the end of tax season. It kicks off the summer season for the city’s two amusement venues, Scott Simpson’s Playland’s Castaway Cove…
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