Day 7: Designing the Guest Experience

After the amazing time I had enjoyed with Planning & Design the previous week, I was greatly looking forward to a second afternoon with them. As I entered the low building, Mr. Decker once again came out immediately to greet me and shake my hand. Today, he said, my time would be spent with his associate I met last week, Mark Schoelwer. Mr. Schoelwer's office is located just down the hall, desks cluttered with papers and blueprints. While a large wall-to-wall drawing of the Castaway Bay waterpark takes up the back wall, along the side current projects are displayed, tacked up one on top of the other.

I started off by looking through old design concept books sitting on Mr. Schoelwer's shelves. Some of them had actually come from the original Paramount Parks, others were theme park concepts that Mr. Schoelwer had brought with him from his former company. There was a very interesting packet for Kings Dominion's Planet Snoopy children's area, with a very interesting breakdown for each ride and each scenery piece in the new area. It's amazing just how much thought must go into each individual piece of an attraction.

As I was looking through these packets, Mr. Schoelwer was busy working on Camp Snoopy renovations for Knott's Berry Farm. A few different times, one of his associates came in with revised blueprints for the area. The entire area is getting revamped to celebrate Camp Snoopy's 30th anniversary, and it was great fun to watch Mr. Schoelwer pore over the plans and sketch in revisions as he went. I've always wondered how long it takes for projects like these to come to fruition. Mr. Schoelwer told me that big projects are usually started a few years ahead of time, but work usually picks up for a project about a year before it will open. A lot of decision-making actually happens even after a ride or attraction is announced to the public, as was clearly the case with Knott's Camp Snoopy.

Mr. Schoelwer and I took a break from the office after that and headed into the back of the building, where the sign shop is located. I had been back here the week before but today it was mostly quiet in the back. Upstairs, there are rooms full of old concept art, designs, and blueprints. There was a very cool Magnum XL-200 poster from 1989, as well as 3D models of Raptor and Shoot the Rapids. There was even some old merchandise - Mr. Schoelwer was kind enough to give me a CoasterMania! 2008 sweatshirt. After that, it was back into the main offices, where I met Barb Wozniak in the art department.

Mrs. Wozniak manages all art concepts and print projects from start to finish, for each of the eleven parks in the Cedar Fair chain. These projects range from logos to merchandise design to park maps to web graphics. Anything artistic you see for any of the parks comes out of Mrs. Wozniak's offices. She works with a team of four designers, who split up the parks between them and then rotate them on a yearly basis. Some parks, as they explained, are easier to work with than others. Each park is responsible for sending the art department ride and park photos; often times, a park will request a graphic with photos of a particular ride, but they've forgotten to send in photos in the first place! Coordinating with each park is often the most difficult part of the job, as well as handling the sheer number of jobs that the department gets. Their favorite projects are when they get to announce a new ride or attraction; in those cases, the art department gets really creative in designing their invitations. As they were telling me this, they began to pull out examples of the invitations and soon they were loading me up with all sorts of creations to take home and display.

And just like that, my time at Cedar Point had come to an end. It was 4:00 and my time was up, but I thanked Mrs. Wozniak and Mr. Schoelwer again before I headed out. I've had an excellent time at the park and I've learned a lot about just how much work goes into a park - it's truly incredible. More than anything, my time at Cedar Point has confirmed that amusement parks are truly my passion. Looking forward with that in mind, I'm more excited than ever for the IAAPA Convention and everything else I'll get to do this week. I'll have more updates soon!

-Wynn

HodgePodge: Week of September 30, 2011

Time for this week’s HodgePodge. Here it is:

No, not THAT Hodge Podge. (And if you got that bad joke, you and I should be best friends.) Anyway:

Magic Kingdom

Well, according to AllEars.net, the announced revamp of the parking lot that has caused so many fans to be up in arms began to see changes on the 23^rd. The lot, no longer representing famous mascots like Mickey and Minnie, now is divided into two sections: the Heroes lot and the Villains lot.

Hard Rock Park/Freestyle Music Park

DiscoverMyrtle Beach claims that the rides will be operating again at Freestyle Music Park possibly for the 2012 season. No news yet, but I’ve heard that a former investor of the park (back when it was known as Hard Rock Park) is getting other investors onboard for a re-opening. I’ve been keeping up with this park’s downfall, and it’s sad that it was doomed from the start. At least The Pavilion went out with some dignity. 

Six Flags Magic Mountain

One of my favorite sites, Roller Coaster Philosophy, has a nice piece on Magic Mountain coasters.

Knott’s Scary Farm

With The Haunt underway, a nice discussion thread is up at Theme Park Review that gives some trip report photos and the always-present TPR humor.

Universal Studios Hollywood

Theme Park Adventure has some in-depth articles and pictures on the new haunted houses and scare zones for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, this time themed around Hostel and The Thing.

IRM

International Rides Management is putting some old attractions from Morey’s Piers up for sale on Facebook. If you want to make a backyard amusement park in the vein of Neverland Ranch, this could be your big chance!

EPCOT Center

Finally, let me state that I don’t think this will ever be sold, at least not for a long time. However, I wanted to share this eBay auction by Mouse Surplus. It’s an old vehicle from Horizons retrofitted with the original speaker system by General Electric to play the theme song when you sit inside it. If you have at least $10 grand, I’d give it a shot.

That’s it for this week. See ya!

Monday News: Coasters and Haunts

Happy Monday! Not a slow news week at all. I’m sure you’ve all heard about Avatar-Land, so I’ll refrain from mentioning that. Here’s some news about what’s going on in the amusement world.

In Australia, Buzzsaw opened Friday at Dreamworld. Shooting riders up 15 stories, it then takes a 360 degree turn before plummeting back down at 105mph. Plus, it has a haunted old west backstory. Here’s a nice shot of this mother courtesy of MiceChat:

http://www.dreamworld.com.au/Rides/Thrill-Rides/BuzzSaw/The-Ride.aspx

Now, here’s something that really isn’t news, but it might be news to some of our readers. Here’s a video of the world’s steepest coaster, Takabisha at Fuji-Q Highland park, with the first drop at a straight angle of about 90 degrees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6SVWEyPSu0

So, I figured since it was nearing October, I’d share some haunted attractions with you. The first is called Blackout. It’s located in NYC for its second year run. Many have claimed this as one of the top 10 scariest haunted houses due to the mere fact that it breaks the rules of most other haunted attractions. You will be touched. You will crawl. You cannot talk. Oh, and did I mention you have to brave this alone?

http://blackoutnyc.com/

Over at Knott’s, the Haunt is about to be underway. Some of the rides such as the mine train have been nicely dressed up for the season. If you go, don’t miss The Hanging! It’s the only show in the country to rival Universal’s annual Bill and Ted program.

 

Being an Ohioan, I have to share some favorite local houses of mine.  First up, make sure to check out Akron’s Haunted School House and Laboratory, the former of which used to be a real school. Admission is separate for both houses, but trust me when I say that you really need to go through both to get the full effect. The lab has three stories, and the school has four. These include some of the absolute tallest animatronics you’ll find in any haunted house as well as possibly Ohio’s biggest ball of lightening ever.

http://www.hauntedlab.net/

Also, The Factory of Terror, formally located at the old Hercules Tire Factory in downtown Canton City until last year, was awarded the “Longest Haunted House” world record by the guys over at Guinness. I think they’ll be keeping that award this year as well. Also, they have the longest mirror maze in the state, a new addition to the new location. Here’s their awesome logo:

http://www.factoryofterror.com/information.html

And speaking of my home state, a special event was held yesterday to celebrate the memory of long gone, but not forgotten, Ohio parks. Here’s the website for more info along with great history pieces and photos:

http://www.northohioclassicparks.com/index.php?p=1_9

And that should be it for now. I’ll be bringing you an update on Cedar Point’s Halloweekends event later in October. Until then, Happy Pre-Halloweening!