New Wooden Warrior roller coaster will provide family fun at Quassy Amusement Park

by Joel Bullock on

Along with Six Flags New England and Canobie Lake Park, another New England amusement park will be debuting a new roller coaster in 2011. Middleburry, Connecticut’s Quassy Amusement Park will be replacing their aging steel roller coaster, Mad Mouse, with a family wooden coaster dubbed Wooden Warrior. The new ride’s name was chosen via a name contest that the park held with local schools.

Wooden Warrior was designed by world-class designers The Gravity Group. They’re responsible for The Voyage at Holiday World; a coaster thought to be the best wooden coaster in the World. Unlike Gravity Group’s previous designs, Wooden Warrior will be one of the company’s first smaller, family-sized designs. The ride will feature a rather short 35′ tall lift hill that will produce a top speed of 35 mph. In comparison, The Voyage doubles those stats topping out at 67.5 mph with a 163′ tall lift hill.


As you can see from the video above, Wooden Warrior doesn’t aim to be a white knuckle thrill ride. Quassy’s owners needed a coaster that was fun for all ages and from the video, it looks to be just that. Roller coasters don’t require a lot of speed to produce those joyous little pops of airtime that make them so much fun. I’m a huge fan of The Gravity Group’s other work and it looks like they may have another winner here, albeit in a pint-sized form.

Like many of my favorite roller coasters, Wooden Warrior will traverse Quassy’s natural terrain. For example, the initial hill is 35′ tall, but will drop riders a total of 45′ as the track hugs the park’s topography. The new wooden coaster is a huge update for the small park as they’ll go from having a 44-year old run-of-the-mill ride to a sure crowd-pleaser that will provide a unique experience.

Top ten overrated U.S. travel destinations/attractions

by Laurel Miller on

Whether or not you’re an American, there are certain places that are on almost everyone’s must-visit list. Some tourist traps, like the Grand Canyon or Disneyland, are worth joining the masses and ponying up the entrance fee (although I just checked the Magic Kingdom’s website, and Mickey and friends are bilking the parents of children under nine for $68 a pop).

Other much-lauded, highly anticipated hot-spots are simply not worth the time and expense. This is, of course, highly subjective: one man’s Las Vegas dream vacation is another’s Third Circle of Hell. It can also be fun to visit certain craptacular or iconic landmarks.

The below list is a compilation of my picks, as well as those of other Gadling contributors, in no particular order. You may be offended, but don’t say you weren’t warned.

1. Hollywood
Unless you love freaks, junkies, hookers, crappy chain restaurants and stores, and stepping over human feces on the star-inlaid sidewalks, give it a miss.

2. Las Vegas
I understand the appeal of a lost weekend in Sin City, really. And I will not dispute the utter coolness of the Rat Pack, Vegas of yore. But in the name of all that is sacred and holy, why does the current incarnation of glorified excess and wasted natural resources exist, especially as a so-called family destination?

[Photo credit: Flickr user Douglas Carter Cole]3. Times Square
A dash of Hollywood Boulevard with a splash of Vegas and Orlando.

4. South Beach, Miami
At what point does silicone become redundant?

5. Atlantic City, New Jersey
The poor man’s Vegas

6. Orlando
Toll roads, herds of tourists, shrieking children, an abundance of nursing homes, and tacky corporate America, all in one tidy package.

7. Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco
It’s hard to hate on San Francisco, but the once-glorious Wharf is a shadow of its former self. Hooter’s, Pier 39, seafood stands hawking overpriced, previously-frozen Dungeness crab cocktail, aggressive panhandling, and vulgar souvenir shops kill the mood.

8. The Washington Monument
The nation’s preeminent phallic symbol is admittedly an impressive piece of architecture. It’s also possible to get a great view from the car en route to other, more interesting historic sites and tourist attractions.

9. Waikiki
There is so much more to Hawaii, including beaches that aren’t man-made.

10. Mt. Rushmore
Faces carved into rock. Moving on…

[Photo credits: Times Square, Flickr user Falling Heavens; Waikiki, Flickr user DiazWerks]

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.

Theme park news roundup: New thrills on the way in 2011

by Leigh Caldwell on

Summer season is winding down, and that means it’s the time of year when theme parks start announcing their new attractions for the 2011 season. Here’s a look at the latest news and rumors about new attractions at U.S. theme parks:

Dollywood to open the Barnstormer

Dolly Parton’s theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, will add a $5.5 million ride called the Barnstormer. It’s designed to simulate stunt flying with the use of two pendulum arms. The ride will rise 81 feet in the air. Dollywood is also building a new barnyard-themed children’s play area around the Barnstormer.

The new ride will have a height requirement of 48 inches. It’s expected to open in March 2011.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay launches teaser Web site

Construction of a new attraction has been going on for months at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, but the park has made no official announcements as to what the new ride will be. It is widely believed that the new attraction will be a roller coaster. Park officials have only said that there will be thrils and animal encounters.The Tampa, Florida, theme park has launched a teaser web site, BuschGardens2011.com, with videos of park officials talking about their big secret. The latest video is with design and engineering VP Mark Rose, who does reveal that the 2011 project will have the largest footprint of any attraction at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

Cedar Point releases new ride clues on Facebook

Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, is giving fans of its Facebook page clues about a new 2011 attraction. So far, pictures of a windmill and a dinosaur have been posted.

The windmill picture links instructions for a class project on windy weather, and the dino image links to a site on dinosaurs for kids.

The theme park is promising that all will be revealed next week, on Aug. 24.

Hersheypark looking ahead to 2012

Often the first place that news about new theme park attractions emerges is through city and county construction permits that have to be obtained, and hearings that have to be held, when theme parks plan to build anything.

That’s exactly what happened this week in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, where Hersheypark theme park is building a new attraction for 2012.

At a municipal zoning meeting, Hersheypark officials revealed that new “marquee” attraction will be built in the park’s Comet Hollow area, and it will open in 2012. No word on what it will be, but the theme park is seeking permission for the new ride to have a maximum height of more than 212 feet.

Caught on tape: Basketball shot made from a theme park ride

by Leigh Caldwell on

Do you remember those Hampton Inn Hilton Honors Points commercials from a couple of years back with the amazing basketball shots? Teen boys banked shots off roofs and stairways or used a tennis racket to shoot them into the goal. The ads were all followed by the tagline “Want an easier way to score points?”

It turns out those were real teens, shooting real videos at their homes in Alabama, and uploading them to YouTube, where they were discovered for the ads.

And now the boys, who call their YouTube channel The Legendary Shots, have turned their attention to theme parks. Their latest video shows one of the them making a shot from the Stratos-Fear ride at Alabama Adventure theme park in Bessemer.

In the video information on YouTube, The Legendary Shots crew thanks Alabama Adventure staff for making the Stratos-Fear video, and a second ferris wheel video, possible.

Can a basketball/theme park commercial be far behind?