The park unveiled its master plan two weeks ago and today the LA Times quotes the park's spokesman detailing a line-up of 14 new rides for the park.
Here's what the Orlando Thrill Park plans:
Will a pure iron park succeed in Orlando? Now that we know what kind of iron this park will bring, what do you think?
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S&S Power Drop (damn things I swear I nearly had a heart attack at the top of this one):
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ReviewPhotos-g32122-d104416-r46372683-Knott_s_Berry_Farm-Buena_Park_California.html
Mondial Revolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cn7Lk3M7Vc
Intamin Mega Splash:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNv7ZlpWvY&feature=fvw
Chance Morgan Unicoaster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyYqJZCroeg&feature=player_embedded
Vekoma Motorbike roller coaster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpjWObqZ3Cg
Mack Launch Coaster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOXTupSag6M
Vekoma Suspended Launch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIlbD8Zn1XA
Vekoma Flying Stingray:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaDizVi8yH0
Prototype for the dive pretzel coaster:
http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/themeparks/la-trb-orlando-thrill-park-20102411-p,3,4414978.photo
Intamin ZacSpin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjhBgaiBx7E
Inverted Intamin Launch Coaster, I think like Volcano the Blast coaster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s6ojXGIdxs
And an S & S (formerly Arrow) 4th Dimension is like X2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-y-0IFiZqY
Was trying to find them myself, so thought I'd put what I found up here. Might be wrong though...
Their capacity is terrible.
Iron rides put through a few hundred people an hour while theme park dark rides and shows can put through 1,000-3,000 per hour.
With no shows and no dark rides, the Orlando Thrill Park will lack the audience-eating safety valves that make the wait times for the iron rides bearable at other parks featuring a mix of both. As a result, this park won't be able to handle more than a few thousand people at a time.
You can get away with that in a regional theme park, with few out-of-town visitors. But this is I-Drive, in the middle of the biggest theme park market in the world.
I'd like to compare OTP with Legoland, another park whose design creates inherent capacity problems. Legoland's addressed its capacity issues by selecting relatively out-of-the-way locations in the United States - Carlsbad in California and Winter Haven in Florida. That distance from the "local" mega-attractions helps dissuade casual visitors, leaving the park for motivated fans.
What will OTP do to address this capacity issue? Will it keep ticket prices high? Will it implement an advance reservation/purchase system? Or will it allow itself to be overrun at opening, potentially creating bad word-of-mouth that dissuades future visitors?
That being said, there are only about half as many coasters as there are at Cedar Point or Six Flags Magic Mountain. Add to that Robert's suggestion of throughput issues and there may be a problem. Perhaps we may see some doubling up of the thrill park with Universal or Busch Gardens Tampa, which has a comparable amount of coasters.
How long was that Harry Potter line on opening day again?
I keed - you have some extremely valid points there...that I'm sure will be completely ignored by the park planners.
An iron park appeals to a much smaller segment of the market than something like Harry Potter. Will the coaster freaks who come here like it enough to consider it worth the cost or wait? We'll see.
I don't see how this park can be successful around Giants Like Disney, Universal, and Seaworld. Who knows, maybe I am underestimating the thrill seekers of Orlando...time will tell.
Families come to Orlando for the cutting edge in ride technology and theming, and there's more competition in that department than ever before. Visitors already have to make hard choices about limiting or cutting out world class park attractions. How on earth are ancient Vekoma SLCs and drop towers going to possibly compete for that precious time?
Maybe if the admission is dirt cheap and/or per ride ticketed, and it can attract some locals and visitors with partial or rest days, it can find a niche. Otherwise I just don't see how a park like this thrives in Orlando's amusement jungle.
If the iron park doesn't find a way to keep guests cool (and, no, those fans with mist don't count), they may suffer.
Bah! This is a tourist trap.
Whilst that may seem appropriate, given the attractions on offer, it will cause some difficulties in the future.
Firstly, Universal have done a very good job of attracting the teen/young adult market who have been somewhat looked over by Disney.
Being in such close proximity to Universal will mean OTP will almost certainly be competing with Universal to attract this market segment.
Universal are offering a world-class theme park experience akin to Disney but with added thrill, whilst OTP are offering a collection of fairly standard amusement park fair aside from a small handful of attractions.
If OTP want to compete prices will certainly have to be lower than at Universal, but by under-cutting Universal they run the risk of facing major capacity issues.
Is that the lot their talking about?
Wonder which financial approach they will use: "scratch off" or "power ball."
It would have been GREAT if they'd build this on the old Mercado site.
Really, I just have little interest in this heap of metal it sounds like they will be throwing up somewhere in the middle of the international drive area.
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