Archives | June 2010 | Bemusement - The Attractions Industry Blog

Monday, June 28, 2010 Theme Parks: Fans sneak a peek under the red roof of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi 20 fans were given an exclusive sneak preview inside Ferrari World Abu Dhabi on Saturday, June 26th. The fans were amongst the first members of the public to be allowed underneath the distinctive red roof. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi will host over 20 rides and attractions, which will appeal to families and fans alike.

Related : At Ferrari World, Speed is the Thing / Ferrari World Abu Dhabi to Open October 28, 2010 / Ferrari World Abu Dhabi Honoured at Cityscape Abu Dhabi Awards / Aldar Announces Completion of Ferrari World Abu Dhabi External Structure / Ferrari Theme Park in Pole Position as Construction Starts / Big DEAL in Dubai About Ferrari World Abu Dhabi: Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the world’s first Ferrari theme park and largest attraction of its kind, is set to open to the public on October 28th at 12 noon. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi will be the world’s largest indoor and first Ferrari theme park. It will be an intense multi-sensory experience and a must-visit for enthusiasts, fans and families. With over 20 unique rides, attractions and shows, including the world’s fastest rollercoaster, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi will be a celebration of Ferrari’s past, present and future. Due to open in 2010, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is set to be one of the signature features of Yas Island, a 2,500 hectare island dedicated to leisure, entertainment and lifestyle. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is a world-class development by Aldar Properties PJSC, Abu Dhabi’s leading property development, management and investment company and will be managed by Farah Leisure Parks Management LLC, a joint venture between Aldar Properties PJSC and ProFun Management Group Inc., an international leisure facilities management and operating company.
Posted By Charles Read -- At 11:22 AM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Amusement Parks, Attractions Business Tags abudhabi, construction, Dubai, ferrari, ferrariworld, uae
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Monday, June 21, 2010 Waterparks and the Breast-Feeding Controversy Here is an issue that, for park operators in the US, has all the ingredients of a made-for-TV news story - for all the wrong reasons. Mom comes to your waterpark with toddler either alone or with friends or family. She breastfeeds her baby in public. Some of your other visitors are offended and complain. What do you do?

By Greg Van Gompel Related: What is enough time to build a casino?/ Are amusement rides part of the real property?/ “Busted” at Mall of America – a Lesson in Amusement Park Security If you’re not prepared ahead of time with your public relations person and your legal counsel, you may have bought yourself a “feeding” frenzy for all the news outlets in your area. Big Splash Water Park in Tulsa was the latest property to get hit with this issue, as evidenced in this June 15 story from News Channel 8 (KTUL). Speaking from first-hand experience, most, if not all of your outside assistance (i.e. your legal and P.R. help) will be frozen if you call them on the spot, should this issue arise. So how do you get prepared? First of all, there are a number of competing legal and societal boundaries that accompany this issue. Legally, you want to pursue whether your state has a statute on breast-feeding. You need to know what does it say, what doesn’t it say and what it allows and how it may have been judicially interpreted. Park operators may wish to look at some of the comments posted by the general public to these types of news stories to get a feel for the strongly polarized views that people have, for pointers on what to address should the situation occur on their property. It may be wishful thinking to imagine it won't come at your facility, for the Tulsa incident is the second one I am personally aware of occurring in the past 8 months. Blooloop Note: From a UK perspective we were really suprised by this item (and by the comments to the news story!). Breastfeeding is actively promoted by the UK Government because it is medically proven to be best for babies, in fact by coincidence this week is National Breastfeeding Awareness Week. A mother breastfeeding in a park in the UK wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. Any thoughts?
Posted By Greg Van Gompel -- At 4:29 PM \| Comments (8) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Amusement Parks, Attractions Business, Legal/safety, Waterparks Tags breastfeeding, parenting
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Thursday, June 17, 2010 Holiday World's Will Koch remembered. The amusement industry woke to the sad news on Monday 14th June that Will Koch, president of Holiday World and Splashing Safari in Indiana had passed away the night before. We at Blooloop had reason to be grateful to Will as a valued contributor to our blog, Bemusement,

where he wrote about the challenges faced and rewards gained at the helm of a popular theme park. I remember thinking that here was a true Renaissance man: an engineering graduate with a Masters in computer science running a successful, independent amusement park, who wrote with skill and apparent ease and was kind enough to take the time to contribute when he no doubt had a whole bunch of more important things on his plate. Holiday World is a family theme park in two senses, in that it is owned and operated by members of the Koch family and in that it targets and markets itself to families. Will shared his thoughts with readers as the park moved into the dormant season. He wondered about how the downturn in the economy might affect attendance. It also shone through in his writing that whilst he was clearly an astute businessman (you don’t triple attendance in 15 years without being very smart) he was determined to run the park along the lines set down by his father Bill and mother Pat , his parents having taught him “about how to treat others, and how important it is to respect employees, vendors, peers, and customers”. Related: Funeral Arrangements Set for Park Owner / Holiday World Loses Park President – Will Koch A park man through and through, having started working at Holiday World at age 11, and having performed a variety of roles including costume character elf (complete with green tights) to roller coaster designer and, for the last 20 years, president, Will saw himself as “richly blessed in his life”. Although he was taken from his family tragically early, he has left a great legacy in the enormous warmth with which he was regarded and of course in the laughter and smiles of the millions of people who have enjoyed and will enjoy visits to Holiday World. Many have commented (via Twitter) on the news of Will Koch's passing and a few of those comments are highlighted below, together with a link to Will’s posts on Blooloop's Bemusement blog. Our sincere condolences go out to his family and friends and those who had the privilege to work with him. In lieu of flowers, the family have asked for donations to be made to the Lincoln Boyhood Drama Association (www.lincolnamphitheatre.com/History_Mission.htm) or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (www.jdrf.org) Will Koch's posts on Bemusement The Economy and Regional Theme Parks / Off Season - Free, Unlimited Bon Bons / Focusing on Families / Living the Tradition: notes from a Family Owned and Operated Theme and Water Park Tweets @HolidayWorld Don't worry about any thunder you hear, its just Heaven's newest wooden roller coaster. :-) A very sad day in the amusement world, with the sudden death of @holidayworld's Will Koch. A truly decent and insightful man and pro. RIP Will Koch...you made @HolidayWorld one of the best parks in the world. Can anyone name a nicer and more well respected guy in the amusement industry than @HolidayWorld's Will Koch? I don't think so. Still in shock from the death of #willkoch i will miss his splashing commercials... and the back slapping at the pilgrim cafe. And in the surrounding community, and all who knew and loved him. Long live @HolidayWorld and everybody's friend, Will Koch! Our deepest condolences to you and yours from the entire crew @fearfair Today our thoughts are with @HolidayWorld. May you find comfort in each other as you mourn the loss of your leader and friend. Sincere condolences to the family of Will Koch. His legacy is seen in the smiles on everyone that passes through @HolidayWorld. Will Koch went to heaven with expansion plans to handle the bigger crowds. God bless you all. @HolidayWorld Absolutely fantastic day at the park right now. I've seen many more smiles than usual. Will would be happy. :)
Posted By Charles Read -- At 2:49 PM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Amusement Parks, Attractions Business, Waterparks Tags Holiday World, Indiana, themepark, waterpark, will koch
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Friday, June 11, 2010 What is enough time to build a Casino? In 2006, Philadelphia Entertainment and Development Partners, L.P. (PEDP), consisting of the Foxwoods group won in a five-way bidding for two slots licenses for the city. The Foxwoods investors include the Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut, as well as the charitable interests of three prominent local entrepreneurs: Center City developer Ron Rubin, New Jersey lawyer Lewis Katz, and Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider....

By Greg Van Gompel Related: Are amusement rides part of the real property? / “Busted” at Mall of America – a Lesson in Amusement Park Security / Theme parks & resorts : Pondering safety and legal liability / Since then, the process has taken enough twists and turns to be its own roller-coaster ride. In September 2009, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board granted a two-year extension of the casino license for the project, ordering that the project be built as originally proposed at a South Philadelphia site on the Delaware River. The extension called for a temporary facility with 1,500 slot machines to be up and running by May 29, 2011. Originally, plans called for an initial $670 million phase of the project to include 3,000 slots. Failure to meet earlier deadlines in the process currently cost investors $2,000 a day in fines since December 1, 2009. After the gaming board on April 29th rejected PEDP's request for another six months to secure financing, a mere three weeks after casino mogul Steve Wynn withdrew from the project, the investigative division of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board petitioned the board to revoke the slot-machine license. A complaint filed by Cyrus Pitre, chief counsel for the division, asserts that PEDP "has no funds, no prospects of funding, and no viable alternative plan to construct the facility for which it was licensed by the Board." The Foxwoods investors had 30 days to respond to the petition, so on Thursday, May 13, 2010, PEDP asked that the deadline be pushed back to July 1, noting that this was the first time the gaming board has tried to revoke a license since the state legalized gambling in 2004. In a motion filed with the Gaming Control Board, PEDP argued that it "has only limited guidance as to matters of procedure and substance as it prepares its defense." Lawyers for PEDP said that given "the gravity of the ultimate sanction" and "the substantial investment and efforts of PEDP in this project," they needed adequate time to prepare a response to the gaming board's complaint. "PEDP does not anticipate being able to do so by June 1, 2010," stated the filing. On May 19th, the board denied PEDP’s request for more time. Late in the afternoon of June 1, 2010, PEDP timely filed a response to the petition but no details of PEDP's response were immediately available. A spokesman for the gaming board said the board will determine whether a hearing on the appeal would still be necessary. Keep yourself strapped in for further details on this ride.
Posted By Greg Van Gompel -- At 12:54 PM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Legal/safety Tags Casino, legal
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Imiloa Fulldome Fest looking for a few good shows – June 15 cutoff A note from Shawn Laatsch, the planetarium manager of the Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai'i: “Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii will be hosting a full dome film festival from October 5 - 10, 2010 immediately following the ASTC 2010 Conference in Honolulu.

(See http://www.astc.org/conference/index.htm for info on the ASTC - Association of Science-Technology Centers - conference and post conference offerings). I still have a FEW open slots left for content, and my deadline to receive a commitment for entries is June 15th - email slaatsch@imiloahawaii.org to secure slot(s) for your shows. Here is an update - currently we have 35 full length shows slated for the film festival! So far we have entries from Antares Fulldome Productions, California Academy of Sciences, Chabot Planetarium, CocaCola Planetarium, Evans & Sutherland, Hamburg Planetarium, Mirage IIID, Morehead Planetarium-UNC, Museum Victoria, National Space Centre, Starlight Studios, Softmachine, Sky Skan, Spitz, and Sudekum Planetarium. During the full dome film festival, we also will have a planetarium post conference with paper sessions, panel discussions and a trip to the Maunakea Observatories - information is available online at the ASTC website above. Content must be submitted via hard drive as dome master files at 30fps with 5.1wav audio files. Only full length shows please (20-45 minutes)! All content must be submitted to Imiloa by August 15, 2010 in order to assure time for slicing and quality control screenings. If you can send it sooner, it would be a great help to us!”
Posted By Judith Rubin -- At 12:19 AM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Museums, Planetariums, Science Centres Tags conference, fulldome, Planetarium, space
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Tuesday, June 08, 2010 South Africa : Theme Parks, Aquariums and Football. Providing a neat template and an inspiring example of how the best attractions can both entertain and educate, Durban’s uShaka Marine World is home to 3 integrated organisations, each of which is vital to the wellbeing and development of the other. Visiting English football fans, after watching the national team provide plucky resistance before losing agonisingly on penalties in the quarter finals of this year’s World Cup should pay a visit…

Related: Will the FIFA World Cup also bring visitors to uShaka Marine World? / Modern zoos and aquariums are leaders in biodiversity conservation / The Oregon Coast Aquarium to Celebrate World Oceans Day June 8 / Animalive`s ChatterBox Mini at Sea Life Centre Once spotted in close proximity to a large gorilla in these pages (see : African Zoos and Aquariums Gathering in Uganda), Judy Mann, Director of uShaka Sea World (http://www.seaworld.org.za/) will be posting dispatches from South Africa, a nation on the edge of its seats as sport’s greatest occasion is just a few days away. It will be fascinating to see how many people attend the tournament and also how many also take in the country’s attractions as part of their visit; the region’s museums, zoos, aquariums and theme parks are naturally hoping the games will lead to greater visitor numbers. Founded in 1951, the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) is a non-government, non-profit organisation based at uShaka Marine World. Its mission is to “stimulate community awareness of the marine environment through education and to promote wise and sustainable use of marine resources through research”. It achieves its goals through the operation of 3 divisions, each primarily focused on the West Indian Ocean: effectively the theme park and aquarium fund the research and conservation work: • Sea World at uShaka Marine World A world class tourist attraction providing a ‘window’ into marine biology and home to a large and diverse collection of marine life. The spectacular aquarium, dolphin and seal stadiums and penguin rookery are open throughout the year to promote conservation awareness amongst guests, as they experience close contact with some of nature’s most amazing marine creatures. • The Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI) promotes sustainable development and wise use of marine and coastal resources. With over 50 years of experience in marine research in Africa, this leading research institute manages over 40 projects on topics as diverse as linefish management to coral reef biodiversity studies. • The NPC Sea World Education Centre aims to ensure that each guest leaves Sea World with more knowledge and respect for the magnificent biodiversity of the marine environment. Over 90,000 children visit the centre every year for specially designed lessons, tours and courses, tailor-made programmes ensuring that learning about the sea is fun and exciting. The images above and below provide a few glimpses of the park’s attractions. Although the English are unlikely to be seen strolling along Durban’s famous Golden Mile, the followers of Spain and Brazil (both of which should but won’t win), Portugal and The Netherlands (could win but won’t), Australia and Japan (won’t win) and Germany (shouldn’t win but will) would do well to take their mind off the “beautiful game” for an afternoon and visit this leading aquarium and theme park .
Posted By Charles Read -- At 5:34 PM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
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Categories Amusement Parks, Attractions Business, Waterparks, Zoos & Aquaria Tags
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