The 5 Most Insane Carnival Rides

Posted by on February 26, 2009 | 35 comments

Have you ever been to an amusement park or carnival and seen a ride that simply pushes every limit you thought couldn’t be pushed? A ride that looks so intense, nauseating, or just downright torturous that you cannot beleive anyone would actually ride them…and enjoy them? Maybe a seemingly normal ride that is run in a way that makes it horrifying? I know I have! Here are the five carnival rides that I think fit the bill of being the most ‘insane’ out there.

5. Storm (Wisdom)

StormI can do spinning rides quite well but our number five ride, Storm, is one that’s too much even for me. Storm is basically a modern version of the Hustler/Tempest ride. The movements of all three rides are nearly identical, with the Storm’s components being upgraded a bit; for instance, Storm allows riders to board all at once and has a better safety mechanism.

While the Hustler or Tempest have cars that can spin freely, Storm’s cars spin mechanically. They don’t spin too terribly fast, nor does the main platform, as a matter of fact, the arms that hold the cars only spin at a moderate rate as well! The thing is that all three spin in the same direction. These combined movements make the ride faster than hell.

The lone Storm ride I had was at the New Jersey State Fair in 2008. When the ride was up to full speed, all I could see were the people sitting across from myself with everything around the car as a giant blur. If the ride lasted for 30 seconds, slowed down for a bit and then sped up for another 30 seconds, the ride would have been fine. Instead we got a full two minutes of crushing G forces and spin cycle-like rotation; as an added bonus, the ride was in full sunlight on a 90+ degree day with high humidity! Needless to say, I felt like crap afterwards.

Another ride that can probably be lumped together with Storm is the Huss made Take Off, which spins in a similar fashion to Storm minus one axis. Take Off also has the ability to rise up to a pretty steep angle and spin in opposite directions and such. The large ride vehicles on Take Off can also spin at an incredible rate, much faster than Storm’s vehicles, providing some very high G forces.

To sum it up: Storm, and subsequently Take Off as well,  make it on the list for having prolonged periods of high G forces.

Below is an old, shitty video of Storm taken by myself.

… The 5 Most Insane Carnival Rides

Hard Rock Park 2.0

Posted by on February 24, 2009 | Add a Comment

Hard Rawk ParkWhile it was expected, it’s now become official; Hard Rock Park has been sold to FPI MB Entertainment. Just some updates as to what’s going on with HRP, or whatever the new name will be.

First off, they’ve slashed their season pass cost from $150 (holy crap!!) to a much more appropriate $75. They’re also going to cut the entrance cost from $50 to around $35. Ok, seriously, I had no idea that Hard Rock Park was that stupid expensive to go to. Fifty bucks just wasn’t worth it for what was there. Dropping $50 dollars for admission to a Disney park, okay, I can see that, but HRP wasn’t even close to Disney standards from what I’ve seen. As for the season pass, well, I can’t believe people actually bought it. The new owners apparently feel the same way and will allow 08 season pass holders to use the same pass in 2009.

The new owners have also lowered their hopeful attendance outlook for 2009; they hope to attract around 800,000 guests this season. That’s down from the, oh about 3,000,000 that the original owners thought! Jeez, wishful thinking much? How did they really expect three million visitors? It reminds me of when I launched the first version of this site on AOL Hometown in like 2001; I was expecting hundreds of visitors a day! I managed to get 50 visitors…IN ONE YEAR.

Finally, the new owners are going to hire 750 employees to staff the park; that’s down from 2,000 that originally worked there. Why they needed two thousand employees completely escapes me. I mean did they have 15 people running the rides at one time; one employee for each row of the coaster train maybe? While yes, this would mean that there are 1,250 less job openings in these economic times when finding a job is almost a crap shoot, it would also mean that the park could possibly stay open for more than two seasons.

Hard Rock Park…looking at how the place was run, it’s almost no wonder they closed up. Their expectations were so high that they dug themselves into a hole before the first guest stepped through the doors. Maybe with the new owners at the helm, this park could be more than two-hit wonder!

Sources: The Sun News, Orlando Sentinel

It’s been a pretty slow week around here at the DoD3. I’ve been busy with other obligations and focusing more on this site’s search engine visibility, plus a bit of writers block! But alas, the weekend is here and so is another installment of the Theme Park Crapstravaganza! To make up for the lack of articles this past week, I’ll pull out arguably the best park map I have, a vintage 1983 Epcot Center park map. Unlike the previous Epcot park map, this one  is lovingly kept in a plastic bag and put in a place where it won’t get crushed or ripped.

Epcot Center 1983 1
First let me say that this map is from the 1983 season which is one year after the park opened. I wasn’t even a thought yet in 1983 so I don’t have any stories to share from this trip!

The cover, which is made from cardboard, features an awesomely 80s design with bright retro-tastic colors. The cover simply proclaims “Walt Disney World Epcot Center.” Back then the name was EPCOT Center, with EPCOT being an acronym for “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” Today, the park is simply known as ‘Epcot’ with the acronym notation as well as ‘Center’ being dropped.

Epcot Center 1983 2The park map resides on the second page for easy viewing. The map is fairly utilitatian, simply showing the locations of the pavilions. Some things to notice in this map:

  • Two Future World pavilions, Living Seas and Wonders of Life, were not around in 83.
  • Horizons was there but still under construction.
  • In World Showcase, the Norway and Morocco pavilions have not been built yet.

Epcot Center 1983 3Here’s a nifty little feature; it’s a cardboard wheel that can be spun to show what every pavilion has to offer. I have it stopped on World of Motion among other things.

Let’s check out the attraction pages next…

… Crapstravaganza Week 16: Epcot Center 1983

Jimmy Want’s the Truth!

Posted by on February 16, 2009 | Add a Comment

Jimmy OlsonI’m a little late to this one but it looks like a website named Jimmy’s Truth 2 Power was launched back in January by proprietor Jimmy Olson (pictured), photographer for the Daily Planet newspaper. Wait, what? Daily Planet? Hmm…let’s inspect here. The blog starts off innocently enough, the first post is ‘Jimmy’ simply photographing scenes around Metropolis and expressing his desire to write for the Daily Planet, just like his friends Clark Kent and Louis Lane. Well you always need a goal in life to move towards and…wait a minute! This is obviously part of the viral stunt launched by Six Flags to promote their Medusa/Superman: Ride of Steel renovations.

In Jimmy’s latest video blog post, he drops a bombshell that many of you probably figured out already, Clawshun Industries, the company allegedly responsible for transforming Superman:  Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England and Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure, is actually LexCorp. Of course, LexCorp is owned by the evil villain of Superman fame, Lex Luthor! Jimmy says he’ll do some investigative reporting and get back to us.

I’ll admit, this isn’t a bad viral marketing campaign; considering that little is really known about the transformations, it’ll be fun to see what’s revealed over the coming weeks. However one has to wonder why the heck Medusa, a ride in a wild west themed area,  would be transformed to a Superman theme? Perhaps Six Flags Great Adventure has some plans for Frontier Adventures?

*2/19 Update*

There’s a new post over at Jimmy’s Truth 2 Power including video. Apparently Jimmy contacted an informant inside LexCorp about the projects. There’s also a new site available, LexCorp International. Jimmy also asks us for some help in trying to decode a lead. You can check out Truth2Power to watch the video and figure out the puzzle for yourself…or you can see the spoiler.

*3/2 Update*

I received a package from ‘Jimmy Olson!‘ What the heck?!

*3/4 UPDATE!*

Yet another update to Truth 2 Power; actually another three updates! The first update basically recaps the 2/19 update with the security monitors and such. The second explains the meeting Jimmy had with the informant from LexCorp and how we need to help build an “anti-brainwashing beam;” well Jim, I do have an old laser pointer laying around somewhere 😉 . The final post features audio from a mole whose on the inside; she instructs us on how to find the blueprints for the said anti-brainwashing beam. Hop on over to Truth2Power and see if you can figure out this latest puzzle!

3/11: Yep, another update to Truth 2 Power with another decode the code game to find out the find out-able.

Hop over to the Truth2Power Webiste!

Crapstravaganza Week 15: EPCOT 1998

Posted by on February 14, 2009 | 1 comment

Epcot logo in 1998Fifteen weeks…fifteen! I can’t believe it’s been fifteen damn weeks since I’ve started the Crapstravaganza series! As we enter the final 1/3 of the off season, I can’t help but to notice that I haven’t posted much Disney stuff aside from the Winter Waterpark Crapstravaganza which featured Disney’s waterparks. I guess the crapstravaganza is past due for a full fledged Disney map, so this week we have a 1998 map from one of my personal favorite Walt Disney World parks, Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, better known as EPCOT!

Before I start, let me just warn that the following linked images are much larger than normal, so 56k’ers beware!

… Crapstravaganza Week 15: EPCOT 1998

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