During that shameless April Fools prank, which was a Voodoo video but turned into a Rick Roll, I promised that there would in fact be a Voodoo video; well it’s finally here!

Just some quick facts about the ride; Voodoo/Possessed is an Intimin Impulse coaster at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, PA. The coaster was first built in 2000 at Six Flags Ohio (later known as Geauga Lake Amusement Park) under the name Superman Ultimate Escape. Once Six Flags sold the park in 2003, the coaster was re-themed as Steel Venom and went by that name until 2006; I’m not sure what happened during the 2007 season with Steel Venom. Geauga Lake closed their amusement park (but kept the waterpark) after the 2007 season. The coaster then debuted as Voodoo in 2008 at Dorney Park, and was then renamed to Possessed in 2009 after a possible Six Flags trademark violation.

Considering that Voodoo (now re-named Possessed) isn’t exactly a long ride, I decided to take a bit of artistic freedom with this video; it turned out pretty weird with lots of effects and color changes. Hope you all enjoy it!

The song is ‘Ultrasonic Sound’ by Hive (aka the song in Pico’s School!)

Coney Island CycloneMany parks in the northeast US opened on April 4th, but I got my first taste of theme parks in 2009 on Sunday the 5th with a visit to Coney Island, NY. It was pretty nice out, probably around 65F with only wispy clouds decorating the sky. The drive to Coney Island was hectic as always with annoyingly narrow road lanes, aggressive drivers, and sudden lane changes.

Upon arriving on Coney Island, I drove down Surf Ave, hoping to find street side parking, but to no avail. I then ended up on Brighton Beach Ave, which is this sucky, crowded, pedestrian filled road that travels under an elongated subway overpass; I eventually managed to escape down side street to turn around.

I finally pulled into the Keyspan Park parking lot, resigned to paying whatever to park there. However I found no one manning the gates or patrolling the lot so I just pulled into a spot and hoped that I was allowed to do so for free!

Coney Island BoardwalkThe boardwalk was fairly crowded with everyone enjoying the unusually great weather. I strolled down the boardwalk, past the vacant lots that are Sitt-land, past Deno’s Wonderwheel Park, and past the remains of Astroland on my way to the Cyclone.

I took a few pictures of the Cyclone before purchasing a ticket to ride which cost $8.00 bucks; expensive but then again it is the Cyclone. Hey, it’s better than paying $10 bucks to cross the Verrazanno Bridge! The Cyclone was great as always with it’s abrupt drops, turns that toss you to the side of the seat, and its out of control style.

VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W
VLUU L310 W / Samsung L310 W

After riding I scoped out the old Astroland site to see what was left…which isn’t much. The Water Flume sat there in pieces, some parts stacked neatly with others seemingly strewn about. All of the flatrides like Breakdance and Scrambler were gone, stored somewhere in Staten Island. The only remaining ride is the AstroTower, which is probably very tough to remove. To be honest, the AstroTower is practically a Coney Island icon along with the likes of Cyclone, Wonderwheel, and Parachute Jump; I can’t imagine seeing the Coney skyline without it!

… Trip Report: Coney Island, NY 4/5/09

wonderwheel1Here’s some theme park and amusement related openings in the Northeast US for April 2009. Many of the parks open on a weekends only schedule in April so I urge you to check the park’s official site for hours.

Major Parks/Attractions

Small Parks/Attractions

Other

  • 12h Street Amusements; Coney Island, NY: they usually open along with the other parks in Coney Island.
  • Belmont Fair; Elmont, NY: The Belmont Fair is open every Th, F, Sat, Sun from April 2nd through April 26th.

April 2nd update: **I made this video for April Fools Day as a little prank; I’ll leave it up for fun though!** 😀

Well it took me long enough to make this video! This is a video (and some photos) of Voodoo at Dorney Park in Allentown, PA that I took back in October. It’s pretty short, but the music selection is great! Hope you all like it!

😉

Bizarro SFNE

Update: Bizarro ride review coming soon; stay tuned!

5/4 Update: Added a post with some construction photos of Bizarro at Six Flags Great Adventure. Check it out!

For months now, park fans have been wondering if the names of Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure and Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England will be changing to complement the off season re-themeing of each coaster. Thanks to Dunkin’ Doughnuts (who by the way have great coffee and breakfast sandwiches along with their apparent inability to keep a secret) we now know the name to at least Superman: Ride of Steel and it’s bizarro…no really, it’s Bizarro! To the right is a scan from SFNE Online, which I shamelessly purloined from Screamscape. You can click the image to see the full sized, un-framed image.

So…Is anyone else with me in thinking that Bizarro just doesn’t fit a 200+ foot hypercoaster? Like I can totally see it being the name for a backwards standup coaster or something (because that would be bizarre) but a large coaster should have a name with more OOMPH! I also seem to think of the pizza chain Sbarro when I see the name Bizarro, but that’s a whole different story…

Who the hell is Bizarro anyway? (I really don’t know…I didn’t even know who Jimmy Olson was at first either!)

Here’s an illustration of Bizarro…

Bizarro

Apparently he is some steroid abusing freakazoid! Actually he’s an enemy of Superman who sort of looks like a combination of Superman, Joker, and Barry Bonds (you know, the steroid physique.) Appropriately enough, Bizarro is from Bizarro World, which is somewhere in Texas I think.

This begs the question, will Medusa get the Bizarro name as well (see below)? After all, both rides have a similar blue and purple color scheme. As we can see from the picture, those are in fact Bizarro’s colors. There’s been much speculation over in the GAdv Online forums that Medusa’s new name might be Monarch (yet another Superman villain), which seemed like a good name; however with these recent developments we may have two Bizarros on our hands!

Update: Medusa is going to be called Bizarro, it’s up on Great Adventure’s ride listing…unless this is an elaborate joke. Also, Bizarro is Here, a new website, has been found.

Another Update: Just saw this video over at Seetheride.com , which deals with the Medua/Superman:ROS transformations. It has Mark Shapiro among others talking about the rides, showing some of the features, and talking about their (kayfabe) dealings with Clawshun/LexCorp.

Yet Another Update: Both Bizarros are now open. Ride and try not to be turned into one of Lex Luthor’s minions.

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