Maestro

If I had somewhere large enough to store it & display it, that'd be a cool piece to own. It's one of those "totally awesome it still exists, but I don't know what to do with it" items. I can confirm the crate Shaggy references. Wish I had spent some time digging through it when I had the chance. Always wanted a "Bat" head!

Couldn't have been said any better.

Yes! I have it somewhere. I haven't had a VCR in years, so no idea where I put it. :-)

I wish!! But, no.

Would love to see a heavily themed mouse in the old Tomb Raider building. Just enough floor space and height to make it happen, and there's lots of potential for theming interaction as you head towards the walls, dive towards the floor, etc.

I'm going to date myself here - but a few of my favorites memories are: - Winterfest 1986: seeing a light-up Christmas tree at the top of The Vortex lift, still under construction - Riding the Tumblebug with my family, sliding side-to-side and laughing hysterically - Racing my brother down the slide - The feeling of riding Outer Limits for the first time without the shoulder restraints - my first multi-looper with a lap bar. - The Smurf ride, especially the Winterfest version I witnessed a ton of really cool firsts, and lasts, during my tenure at the park as an employee - but will never forget those family memories in the younger days.

Thanks for the pictures, glad it went to someone who will appreciate it!

Great video, thanks for sharing. Loved the video of the Bavarian Beetle. And the live actors on the train. And the Enchanted Voyage. And .... :-)

Sorry, don't know about the chair. Also - don't have any info on The Freezer. I've got some history with Tower and Phantom Theater because they were staffed with actors from the Rides team, and the Rides team was responsible for them. The other attractions were managed through Entertainment, and I wasn't a part of that group.

It's been a while, so don't count this as gospel, but here's what I recall: - Most of the characters and props were still turned on and working. While the actors enhanced the experience, I don't believe they were designed to be the focus. In my opinion, there weren't nearly enough actors to make it the center of the attraction. Not all scenes had an actor. - Tough one to remember - I don't think there were a lot of adds, short of the props the actors used. - The line was always long, so I don't know that guest reception was the issue. There were a few attractions that were dropped after the first year. It was definitely labor intensive. Capacity was fairly lousy since every other car was loaded, the speed of the cars was slowed slightly, and the once per hour breaks. It might have just been more trouble than it was worth. - Never personally worked this attraction but was on-duty some of the nights it was open. My opinion? It was kind of a stinker. If memory serves me, a group went up in one elevator. Walked around the platform, which mainly consisted of a few temporary walls to hide actors, fake cobwebs, and a few hanging body bags. The main attraction was the electric chair gag. I don't recall how they got down - my gut tells me the associates staggered and paced the groups on the platform such that the guests just went back down the next elevator. Terrible capacity. I think what made it "cool" was the aspect of being up in the tower. Totally get why this one didn't make it past year one.

Agreed with Dane here. The spark will effect is fairly common, so I don't know if it's the same one (or not). The one at Phantom Theater was located in the electrical room scene (one ghost was hanging upside down by a rope tied to his foot, while another ghost pulled the rope). The fence for the spark wall ran most of the length of the scene, so you could move along the fence as the cars went by.

None of this is true. I was a Rides Manager at the time, and worked as a "scare-actor" on several occasions on this attraction. The roles of "scare-actor" (in the moving ride area) were played by Rides supervisors, managers, and full-timers. All of these folks had to go through training & certification prior to being allowed to participate. They wore full-theater makeup, just like the actors in the houses. As mentioned above, each associate had to wear a belt harness and was tethered by a cable to prevent the associate from getting too close to the track and moving cars. They did not jump in cars, or on cars, throw things into cars, etc. Every other car was loaded so that the actors had time to reset between guests. This was prior to half the cars being removed for Boo Blasters, so capacity was roughly the same as the current capacity. The ride stopped once per hour for about 5 minutes to give the actors time to rotate stations & get a quick break. Effectively, all the cars were unloaded, the ride was powered down for rotation, then restarted. I recall the following "stations" (I'm sure there were more). - Associate jumping out of a door with a chainsaw - Spark wall, where an associate hit a metal wand against an electrified "fence" to create noise and sparks (really cool effect, very grueling and hot work) - Associate hitting the back of the cars with a foam mallet (no, it wasn't metal, no it wasn't enough to damage the cars) - Associates poking through various "windows" and "doors" to startle guests - Associate throwing a fake "head" at cars as they passed - essentially, a "head" attached to a series of two cables that allowed it to swing towards the cars, but stop way short of contacting guests Similarly, the actors working the top of Tower were also Rides managers.

Love this idea!

I'm surprised they didn't repaint The Racer this season. Historically, surrounding rides get some love when a big, new attraction is built. Racer desperately needs it!

Meh to the Bradys. I spend more time looking at the old ride signs (among other things) and wondering what happened to them