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Theme Park Supplier's News of the Week #2
Update : 13/08/13 - 16h39Published by François Mayné the 9 July 2013, New.
We publish today the second issue of our new Theme Park Supplier's News of the Week series of articles, a review of the latest news and releases of companies supplying the theme park industry worldwide.
This weekly report covers topics such as corporate announcements, financial news, contracts won, new products, projects completed or appointments. Check out our previous issues here.
Our round-up of this week looks at ACT lightning design's work at Puy du Fou, MACK Rides' Interactive Boat Rides openings in Belgium and the United States, Polin's latest water slides installations, Premier Rides' new record-breaking launch coaster at Six Magic Mountain as well as Sally Corporation's new digital marketing manager and trade show coordinator.
Premier Rides
Californian amusement park Six Flags Magic Mountain, a flagship property of Six Flags Entertainment Company, opened the world's tallest and fastest looping roller coaster Full Throttle on June 22, receiving excellent coverage both on local media and social networks.
Full Throttle is the newest collaboration between Six Flags and Baltimore-based manufacturer Premier Rides which has already supplied successful projects for the operator notably last year with Superman Ultimate Flight at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, recipient of a Best New Product award by IAAPA.
Full Throttle features a custom-built track above the park's mountainous terrain with three launch sections (the fastest at 120 kph/70mph) including one in reverse, a giant Top Hat and two inversions including a 49-meters/160-foot tall world-record vertical loop.
“All of us at Premier Rides are extremely excited about the debut of Full Throttle,” said Premier Rides' President Jim Seay. “We are honored to have teamed up once again with Six Flags to produce a one-of-a-kind thrill ride attraction that will give their guests an amazing ride experience that will certainly be a life-long memory! Six Flags has an amazing and well-deserved reputation for introducing cutting-edge thrill rides that exceed the high expectations of their guests. With the fantastic feedback Full Throttle is seeing, we are very pleased to be a part of Six Flags’ formula for success.”
“We are excited to add another world-record coaster to our existing collection of record-breaking attractions,” said Bonnie Rabjohn, Six Flags Magic Mountain Park President. “Six Flags is regarded as the industry leader in thrill ride innovation, and Six Flags Magic Mountain, with the most comprehensive collection of thrilling roller coasters anywhere in the world, is proud to build on our status as the Thrill Capital of the World. Guests can now ride Full Throttle, the most anticipated new coaster of the summer, and also feel the energy and exhilaration of a Full Throttle lifestyle with our new entertainment experience.”
Editor's note : We will devote a more comprehensive article about Full Throttle in a future update.
Turkish water park attractions manufacturer Polin has shared the recent completion of several installations all over the world.
At Chimelong Waterpark in Guangzhou, China, the company has launched a new mini-version of its popular Turbo Lance water slide, a ride combining a steep drop and a vertical uphill. This project is part of a bigger order that features several other mini slides, fountains, sprays and showers within a new children’s area. Polin is now developing kiddie-sized alternative for its thrill adult rides. "This allows parents to take their children on a ride that is much more thrilling than the typical water slides they usually find in children’s areas. These offer several advantages to parks' owners: they are original smaller scale thrill slides, they can be designed with any custom theme and they are very inexpensive, especially compared to the experience they deliver to the guests," said Sohret Pakis, Marketing Manager at Polin.
Also new for the manufacturer is the completion of an installation for the American cruise line company Carnival Cruises. After a massive renovation, the cruise ship Carnival Sunshine set sail in May with a new 1,500-sqm water park area on-board. Polin delivered three Aquatube enclosed water slides with a new traffic light system especially designed for, including the longest (102 m/334 ft) slide of all of the cruise line's fleet. A children’s water playground with 40 different interactive water features completes the facility.
Polin has also recently completed several amusement facilities for three large hotel resorts in Turkey and the Ukraine, including a themed water slide King Cobra, a now iconic product for the company, at the Waterworld Resort & Spa in Belek, Antalya.
As the summer season begins, MACK Rides reports the opening of two of its Interactive Boat Rides at Plopsaland De Panne in Belgium (Plopsa Group) and LEGOLAND Florida in the United States (Merlin Entertainments Group). These water rides take the same concept of a Splash Battle: guests enjoy a water fight on-board of boats equipped with water canons, they aim at targets to trigger effects (fire, water jets, etc.) while water canons are generally also installed alongside the basin for the visitors outside of the ride.
At Plopsaland, Wickie The Battle is one of the two major rides of a new themed zone named Wickieland and based on famous cartoon Vic the Viking, an IP fully owned by Studio 100, the parent company of Plopsa Group. MACK Rides designed a 155-meter/ 508.5-feet long route in a 2.500 sqm basin. The six 8-person boats have been custom designed to be like Viking ships, for an hourly capacity of approx 600 persons.
At LEGOLAND Florida, The Quest for Chi is the centerpiece ride of a new themed area based on another famous IP: The World of Chima. Guests board life-size versions of the Lion Tribe’s watercraft featuring a LEGO modelled character at the forefront. The ride features 12 boats of 8-passengers (two are wheel-chairs accessible) for a duration of about 5 minutes 30 and a capacity of 1,200 guests per hour.
Sally Corporation has promoted Lauren Wood to the newly created position of digital marketing manager and trade show coordinator. She joined the dark ride and animatronics design/manufacturing company in 2008 as a member of Sally's business development team. A graduate of Jacksonville's Stanton College Preparatory School, she holds a bachelor's degree in international affairs from Florida State University.
Prior to joining Sally Corporation, Lauren Wood worked at Adventure Landing on Jacksonville Beach as a group sales manager. In her new position, she is responsible for the company's social media and website, in addition to coordinating Sally's trade show display booth requirements.
Puy du Fou's creative team has entrusted light designer Koert Vermeulen and ACT lighting design with the task of rethinking the entire lighting of La Cinéscénie, the world's largest night show presented each summer since 1977.
Applauded by more than 10 million spectators (14,000 seats at every performance) and rewarded by the prestigious Thea Classic Award in 2011, La Cinéscénie recounts the history of the Vendée region during two hours from the Middle Age to the second world war. Each show features more than 1,200 actors, 120 horseriders, 300 animals, 24,000 costumes, 1,000 fireworks, 80 technicians as well as 3,000 projectors, 150 water jets, 3D video mapping projections and a 7.5.1 surround sound system especially designed for the 23 hectares/57-acres of the stage.
“To enhance the epic atmosphere of the show and to express the poetry of the story through an elaborated lighting embellishment, we applied our expertise of big stage events along with our experience in lighting design of several theme parks and themed attractions such as Futuroscope, Disneyland Paris, Parc Astérix, Efteling and Tivoli,” stated ACT lighting design.
The new equipment and techniques consisted in the addition of side lighting equipped with narrow angle moving lights, colourful front lighting with custom made RGBW LED fixtures and back lighting with Sharpies. “Thanks to this technology, we could create new dimensions of volume and depth to the main stage and obtain new possibilities in terms of colour changing and positioning, as well as an extra effects and precision to particular scenes,” added ACT.
Does your company work within the amusement park industry? If your are interested in sharing news with NewsParcs, please contact our editor François Mayné via contact@newsparcs.com
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Our Theme Park Supplier's News of the Week is a round-up of the latest news relative to companies supplying the theme park industry around the world. This weekly report covers topics such as corporate announcements, financial ...
The NewsParcs' Theme Park Supplier's News of the Week is a round-up of the latest news relative to companies supplying the theme park industry around the world. This weekly report covers topics such as corporate announcements, ...
Our Industry Roundup is a summary of the latest major news related to the theme park industry worldwide. We report news specifically on operators, owners, trade associations and related organizations, including trends, attendance...
NewsParcs will do a full coverage of the IAAPA Attractions Expo 2013 in Orlando to have a look at the latest trends and developments of the global theme park industry.
Full Throttle features a custom-built track above the park's mountainous terrain with three launch sections (the fastest at 120 kph/70mph) including one in reverse, a giant Top Hat and two inversions including a 49-meters/160-foot tall world-record vertical loop.
Also new for the manufacturer is the completion of an installation for the American cruise line company Carnival Cruises. After a massive renovation, the cruise ship Carnival Sunshine set sail in May with a new 1,500-sqm water park area on-board. Polin delivered three Aquatube enclosed water slides with a new traffic light system especially designed for, including the longest (102 m/334 ft) slide of all of the cruise line's fleet. A children’s water playground with 40 different interactive water features completes the facility.
At Plopsaland, Wickie The Battle is one of the two major rides of a new themed zone named Wickieland and based on famous cartoon Vic the Viking, an IP fully owned by Studio 100, the parent company of Plopsa Group. MACK Rides designed a 155-meter/ 508.5-feet long route in a 2.500 sqm basin. The six 8-person boats have been custom designed to be like Viking ships, for an hourly capacity of approx 600 persons.
Sally Corporation has promoted Lauren Wood to the newly created position of digital marketing manager and trade show coordinator. She joined the dark ride and animatronics design/manufacturing company in 2008 as a member of Sally's business development team. A graduate of Jacksonville's Stanton College Preparatory School, she holds a bachelor's degree in international affairs from Florida State University. 
