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Theater Royale was empty this year.

Magic Mountain had a double wheel with a twist. Each of the 2 wheels consisted of 4 arms. At the end of each arm was another small wheel with 4 arms. At the end of each arm was a cabin. So when you when up, the main wheel was spinning, and so was the smaller wheel you were on. It was a lot more thri...

You are right about Evolution Of Rock 2. I also believe that the marching band made a guest appearance. But that show was also played to a recorded orchestral track, even though the vocals were all live. The early shows had a (16? piece) live orchestra, along with the live vocals. No tape was used i...

Just one level.

Hmmm. I worked at the park in 1985, during the transfer to the City, and one of the issues was the fact that Marriott didn't actually own the land that the park sat on. It was set up under a 100 year lease. That was part of the problem - when Marriott initially tried to sell the park, they took a do...

The carousels were at least 20 feet in diameter, with about a third facing the public. They moved very slowly. The problem was, when it was crowded, everyone pushed to the left side, where the food came out, and everytime there was a tray of burgers that came out, there was a mad scramble to get the...

The trolly tracks remain in Gurnee because the parade floats use them. Or, at least they did the last time I was there. It was actually a rather cleaver design, so the floats could be built to maximum size and not have to worry about having float drivers hit anything. I recall that some of them bare...

I remember walking into the tech services department and seeing the wall of reel-to-reel tape recorders all playing back the audio for all the areas in the park. They were bi-directional, so that when the tape got to the end, it would switch directions and continue playing. Must have been mono feeds...

Lots of parks do this now. Almost all the restaurants at Cedar Point are run by "imported labor". There are just not enough locals willing to work for the low wages to keep things going. I talked to one employee, from south America, and she said that they get to work for 120 days, then get...

I remember from my first visit, that several of the restaurants had these food carousels... The food was cooked in the back, and this carousel rotated the fisnished burgers, fries and drinks out front so that you could pick up what you needed, and then go check out at the register. I believe this wa...

Gurnee recieved more rides than Santa Clara for one reason. Attendance. Even though Santa Clara had a longer season (by almost 2 months!) it never came close to generating the attendance that Gurnee did. Marriotts simply put in attractions where it needed growth. It was clear that the people of the ...

I was told that the skyrides were finally retired from Gurnee because it became too much of a hassle to evacuate passengers when there was a mechanical problem. They had to bring in a long reach fire rescue vehicle that was stationed an hour away, and the Village of Gurnee started to complain about ...