Canobie Lake Park adds new roller coaster: Untamed in 2011

by Joel Bullock on

Next year, New Englanders will be thrilled, or terrified, by an ultra-steep new roller coaster opening at New Hampshire’s Canobie Lake Park. In 2011, the historic park will be home to a modern thrill machine in Untamed. Untamed was designed by German roller coaster designers Gerstlauer. It will be one of the designer’s Euro-Fighter 320+ models that have currently only been built in Europe. For more information, you can view diagrams of the ride’s complete layout and also visit Gerstlauer’s website.

At only 1,184 feet long, Untamed will be a compact coaster, but guests will be treated to an onslaught of thrills. The ride will begin with a rare vertical lift to 72 feet. Then, the small 8-person cars will roll over the crest and plunge riders into a beyond vertical 97-degree drop. It will be one of the steepest roller coasters in the United States. After the drop, the cars will navigate three loops including a vertical loop, an immelmann, and a zero-g roll. While brief, Untamed will be quite an action-packed little coaster.

Here’s a POV video of Rage at Adventure Island. Like Untamed, Rage is a Euro-Fighter 320+. So, they should have identical layouts. This video was filmed with permission from the park.


I imagine that Untamed will be great for Canobie Lake Park and the region in terms of tourism. Modern thrill rides, even roller coasters this small, can provide a substantial amount of media attention for amusement parks. Canobie Lake is now officially on my radar as I’ve never ridden a Gerstlauer Eurofighter or really any roller coaster this steep.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Ian’s Shutter Habit]

Hezbollah theme park: an attraction designed with terror in mind

by Tom Johansmeyer on


Are you always searching for a roller coaster that will make your hair stand on end? Well, if you really want to scare yourself, skip the traditional amusement park rides and catch a flight out to Beirut. There’s a “theme park” in town that will open your eyes wide and keep you looking over your shoulder.

Hezbollah has gotten into the Disney business.

Identified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, Hezbollah’s new endeavor isn’t doing a thing to change that perception. Called “Landmark for the Resistance,” the theme park celebrates the group’s military efforts against Israel. Enter the park, and you can wander among implements of mayhem and destruction, from tanks to machine guns … and you can even get some photo ops of the kids with their fingers on the trigger!

Designed and built by Hezbollah, Landmark for the Resistance cost a mere $4 million, a pittance compared to what it would cost to get an attraction up here in the United States. So far, the park’s been a success, one of the few in a country that has had trouble attracting tourists because of … well … Hezbollah.

Buoyed by the strong response, especially the smiling children, I suspect, Hezbollah has already committed to expansion plans. Look for a cable car wandering around the guns ‘n’ ammo soon – and a hotel and a restaurant.

Photo of the day (8.5.10)

by Meg Nesterov on

This photo by narinnr from Kagoshima, Japan (the Naples of the East, says Wikipedia) captures a Ferris wheel built atop a shopping center next to the train station. How fun is that? Imagine if you could kill time between trains at Penn Station riding high above New York?! I’m partial to the Gravitron when choosing an amusement ride, although spinning around against centrifugal force is probably not so fun before a long train ride.

Even more interesting are the statues in front of the Ferris wheel, part of the Satuma students’ monument, dedicated to 19 Japanese students smuggled into Britain in 1865 to learn Western technology. Imagine being the first in your country to study abroad and being responsible for the start of the industrial revolution. Kinda makes a semester abroad in Prague drinking as much beer as humanly possible seem a little weak.

Do you have a photo that will inspire many Google and Wikipedia searches? Or maybe an interesting monument or an unusually-located amusement ride in your travels? Upload it to Gadling’s Flickr group and we might use it for a future Photo of the Day.

Woman dies after falling out of roller coaster in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

by Leigh Caldwell on

A 21-year-old Lafayette, Louisiana, woman has died after an accident at Dixie Landin’ amusement park in Baton Rouge.

Witnesses said Lindsay Zeno fell about 30 feet from the Xtreme roller coaster at the park late Sunday afternoon.

State fire officials, who are charged with regulating the park, have said that there were no obvious mechanical failures on the ride. The ride passed its last state inspection, about a month ago.

State fire marshalls and the local sheriff’s office are continuing the accident investigation this morning.

Tadbatha Arnold, who says she witnessed the accident, told WAFB that the chest restraint on the ride was up and she saw Zeno trying to pull it down before Zeno fell from the coaster.

Xtreme is a steel roller coaster that was built in 2000. It was moved to Dixie Landin’ in 2007 from a theme park in the Netherlands. The coaster has a top speed of 37 miles per hour.

Travel Trends: Theme park attendance down, Disney remains strong

by Gadling Staff on

The outlook for theme parks in 2010 is quite upbeat compared to 2009. Last year, attendance slipped as the rough economy forced millions of people to stay home and snap shut their wallets.

This year, the improving economy, coupled with dozens of new attractions opening at parks around the country, is expected to pump up attendance figures at North American theme parks.

“The industry is well positioned to have a good year this year,” says Gene Jeffers, executive director at the Themed Entertainment Association. “They actually did well last year, considering the economy.”

In 2009, attendance at North America’s 20 most-visited theme parks slipped 1.1% from 2008, to 121.4 million visits, according to newly released data from the TEA.

Disney’s parks in Florida and California, however, bucked the downward trend by posting year-to-year increases.

In fact, the number 1 amusement park was Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World with just over 17.2 million visitors, up 1% from 2008.These parks are less affected by downturns in the domestic economy than many other parks since so many visitors come from overseas. Disney, and other parks, also worked hard to attract visitors with favorable pricing.

“Disney has so many resources that they can make hotel-park combo deals,” explains Jeffers. “They tried to make sure that, even in difficult times, people could come for the day and enjoy the park.”

Still, many other destination parks posted declines. The same was true for many regional parks that heavily rely on locals to lift attendance figures.

For instance, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay posted a 12.3% decline, to 4.1 million visitors. Kings Island in Ohio was down 4%, to 3 million visitors.

In 2010, the outlook for the theme park industry is good due in part the improving economy.

But another factor playing into this is that dozens of new attractions are opening this year. Among these is the 5,100-foot-long rollercoaster Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion in Virginia; the first phase of the new Luna Park Coney Island in New York City; and of course the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando.

“That’s a fairly large factor in our outlook,” says Nima Samadi, industry analyst at research firm IBISWorld. He expects U.S. attendance at all theme parks to increase 2.8% over 2009, when attendance by his estimate slumped 4.6% from 2008.

“Nearly everyone has been to a theme park before,” says Samadi. “So, the parks really need to entice people with new attractions to get them to come back.”

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Data source: Themed Entertainment Association

See more Travel Trends.