Archive for the 'Family & Kids' Category
Water parks vie to open first U.S. looping water slide
November 22, 2009 10:19am
The race is on to see which water park debuts America’s first looping water slide — a gravity-defying attraction that has awed Europe and Asia.
Noah’s Ark water park in Wisconsin and Jay Peak ski resort in Vermont both plan to unveil the combination water slide-thrill ride on Memorial Day Weekend 2010.
Canadian-based manufacturer WhiteWater confirmed that the two locations would install the first AquaLoop slides in the United States.
Coeur d’Alene to the North Pole: An Idaho resort goes all out for Christmas
November 21, 2009 6:49am
When not in Vegas, 1.5-million lights can only mean someone’s putting on one heck of a holiday party. Northern Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Resort, which claims to hold the world’s tallest living Christmas tree, puts on a family-friendly Holiday Light Show annually on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene. This year, the event runs Nov. 27 to Jan. 1.
One of the show’s highlights is a “Journey to the North Pole” boat cruise, which includes a visit with Santa at the North Pole Toy Workshop. And that towering tree? At 161 feet, the green giant beats, in height, the 76-foot Norway spruce in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. What’s more, each ornament on the Coeur d’Alene tree will be 10 feet tall.
The following accommodations package offered by the resort makes a Christmas-themed trip easy.
Deal: The “Holiday Light Show B&B” package, which starts at $145 per night (pre-tax), includes your room, two tickets to the “North Pole” and breakfast for two. Read the rest of this entry »
Yosemite: Curry Village ice rink opens today
November 20, 2009 2:57pm
Whether you’re on the ice to pirouette, or to practice skating in a straight line without causing any harm, you can’t have less than an awe-inspiring time at an outdoor rink in Yosemite. The national park’s ice-skating venue, which sits below Glacier Point’s cliffs, is naturally blessed with good views of popular landmarks like Tenaya Canyon, Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest.
And now you can see it for yourself. Located in the western section of Curry Village, the rink opens today for the 2009-2010 winter season.
Though the attraction got its start in 1928, after a Yosemite club flooded a parking lot, the rink is equipped to meet visitors’ 21st-century needs: Rental skates are available, as is a warming hut, and an ice-resurfacing machine comes through regularly to freshen up the rink. Non-skaters can watch the fun next to a fire pit close by.
Skating sessions are scheduled daily, from 3:30 to 6 p.m., and 7 to 9:30 p.m. Additional sessions are available on Saturdays and Sundays from 8:30 to 11 a.m., and noon to 2:30 p.m. Read the rest of this entry »
SeaWorld Aquatica’s 2010 expansion to include 4 new water slides
November 20, 2009 11:33am
The recently opened SeaWorld Aquatica water park in Orlando, Fla. will add four first-of-a-kind water slides in 2010, including a pair of inner-tube rides that go uphill with the help of a hydro-magnetic launch.
The twin Tornado Walls are V-shaped slides that start with a magnetic launch that shoots a six-person inflatable raft up the face of a vertical wall. One of the two launch sequences travels through a tunnel. After reaching the top of the water wall, the rafts race down the incline and along an uphill outrun with a small whoop-de-do hill.
Also on tap for Aquatica in 2010:
Ride-makers roll out new thrills for 2010 at Las Vegas expo
November 19, 2009 5:34pm
Roller-coaster and thrill-ride manufacturers from around the world descended on Las Vegas this week for the annual amusement park convention, offering a sneak peek at what we can expect to see in 2010 and beyond.
In my conversations with show exhibitors, I came away with one overarching message as I toured the massive International Assn. of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) show floor: All the latest and greatest rides are heading to Asia and Europe in 2010. By and large, recession-weary American theme parks are sitting on their thin wallets.
Here’s a few of my favorite new rides and attractions on display at the expo:
> Twist N’ Splash from Germany’s Mack Rides combines a spinning teacup concept with a Splash Battle water ride. Riders squirt each other and landlubbers with water cannons. Two European parks will get the new ride, officials said.
Disney ship. Virtual portholes. Rich possibilities.
November 19, 2009 4:25pm
They’re still more than a year away from sailing their next new ship, but the Disney cruise people want you to know they’ve come up with a cure for the common inside cabin.
Just about every ship has them. They’re the cheapest units on board, those rooms in the middle of the vessel, closest to the droning engine, farthest from those soothing blue horizon views.
But wait! The Disney Dream, due to sail in January 2011, will feature “virtual portholes” in its roughly 150 inside staterooms. Through these round monitors, guests will not only see the sea in real time (thanks to on-board high-def webcams), they’ll occasionally get animated visits from a haunted pirate ship or Disney characters like Peach (the starfish from “Finding Nemo”) or Mickey Mouse.
The underlying idea here isn’t new.
‘Holiday Festival of Trains’ rolls into Nixon Presidential Library
November 16, 2009 9:14am
All aboard, children of all ages: This week, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum will open its holiday-themed world of miniature toy trains, wending through old snow-covered villages, past an 1890 Bavarian castle, over mountain passes and near thousands of trees.
Though a preview evening tonight for the “Holiday Festival of Trains” exhibition is only for Nixon Foundation members and their guests, the exhibit opens to the general public on Nov. 17, said Olivia Anastasiadis, the venue’s supervisory museum curator.
The exhibition, which runs through Jan. 10, will hold a number of attractions, like the Mountain of Trains featuring a 40-foot-long platform and more than 16 trains moving along 1,500 feet of track. Also on display will be vintage monorail model trains as well as pieces of monorail trains first used in 1959 at Disneyland. A Lego train scene boasting a 20-foot-long suspension bridge was constructed by members of the Southern California Lego Train Club, and Lego’s classic Emerald Night train will be riding these rails. Read the rest of this entry »
Sneak peek: A scene-by-scene look at Hong Kong Disneyland’s Mystic Manor
November 15, 2009 7:00am
Mystic Manor takes visitors on a circa-1908 tour of an ancient artifact collection belonging to a world-renowned adventurer and explorer. Inside the Victorian home on a remote jungle hilltop, Lord Henry Mystic’s museum comes alive when his mischievous monkey opens an enchanted music box.
Set to open as early as 2013, Mystic Manor is part of a nearly $500-million expansion at Hong Kong Disneyland that calls for the addition of three themed lands.
Mystic Manor will serve as the Chinese theme park’s ghost-less Haunted Mansion, with tributes to the classic Disney attractions Indiana Jones Adventure and Enchanted Tiki Room included throughout the ride.
Spoiler Alert: Join us as Disney Imagineer Dustin Schofield, who worked on Mystic Manor, takes us on a scene-by-scene tour of the new attraction:
Big Grizzly Mountain coaster coming to Hong Kong Disneyland
November 14, 2009 4:48pm
The Big Grizzly Mountain roller coaster at Hong Kong Disneyland will take riders through an abandoned gold mine packed with dynamite and overrun by grizzly bears.
Set to open as early as 2012, the runaway mine train ride is part of a nearly $500-million expansion at Hong Kong Disneyland that calls for the addition of three themed lands.
Big Grizzly Mountain will serve as the centerpiece of the Grizzly Trail themed land, the Chinese park’s version of Frontierland. The new ride blends the themeing of Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster with the setting of the Grizzly River Run water ride at Disney’s California Adventure.
Hong Kong Disneyland to add ‘Toy Story’ themed land
November 13, 2009 8:54am
Visitors stepping into Toy Story Land at Hong Kong Disneyland will feel like “Star Wars” action figures in a land of Barbie dolls — smaller-than-life interlopers in a land of larger-than-life toys.
Super-sized Tinker toys, Lincoln logs and dominoes line the walkways as towering “Toy Story” characters Rex the dinosaur and Woody the cowboy welcome visitors at the twin entrances to the lushly landscaped land.
Set to open as early as 2011, Toy Story Land is part of a nearly $500-million expansion at Hong Kong Disneyland that calls for the addition of three themed lands.
The three new rides include:
