Santa Clara, October 2005 (722 KB)

Post by **steven** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 6:39 pm

Steven

BrianPlencner · Post by **BrianPlencner** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:43 pm

Steven,

In case you have not seen pictures of it, here is what Gurnee does to their tower in October

At night, they have a set of spotlights on it, and they have orange colored lights inside the cabin, making it look like its on fire. In fact, when the park did this for the first time in 2003, local residents actually called 911 in panic, as well as calling the park, as they thought the ride was actually on FIRE.

I mentioned in another thread that the park now uses a few of the Sky Whril cabins during Fright Fest. Here's one of them.

jonrev · Post by **jonrev** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:58 pm

The monkey is cool!

that_guy · Post by **that_guy** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 8:14 pm

Why is it just sitting there?

Shockwavegirl · Post by **Shockwavegirl** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 9:41 pm

Actually, they did the fire effects on Sky Trek Tower back in '96. I was working there that year, mostly at Space Shuttle America as acting Lead, so I saw it frequently. It didn't have the King Kong theme, just random ghosts and skeletons hanging off the side. But every year there is talk of the Gurnee residents thinking it was a real fire calling 911....like the employees wouldn't know first and have called.

But regardless, they have had the fire effects prior to 2003.

BrianPlencner · Post by **BrianPlencner** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:42 am

that_guy wrote:Why is it just sitting there?

I'm guessing your asking about the Sky Whirl Cabin? Well, the reason its just "sitting there" is because its actually part of a bigger halloween scene. Just to the left of the cabin was the witch doctor's hut, and the cabin was used as some kind of "Cage".

Near the pictorium, they did the same thing with 2 red cabins, and made them cages for humans that were taken as prisoners by the ape people who took over Sky Treck Tower. But, those 2 had props on them (vines, weeds, etc).

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:56 am

Brian,

Do you know if the park kept a lot of the cabins?

BrianPlencner · Post by **BrianPlencner** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:06 am

redfishpaw wrote:Brian,

Do you know if the park kept a lot of the cabins?

They actually had ALL of them at the end of the 2004 season. In April of 2005, I was at the park to get my pass processed early (long story, won't get into it here), and while I was riding in a van to the front of the park, we went by where they used to be in the boneyard. Alas, they had all been removed. In June, the park confirmed that they had been scrapped.

I believe all that remain at this point are 4 cabins (2 red, and 2 blue). I'm going to try to get to the park this weekend and see where in the park they put them for Fright Fest. If they did, I'll take some pictures and post them.

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:18 am

Thanks Brian,

It's too bad the park threw out all of those cabins.

I was hoping to get to the park myself to take some photos this fall, but things are a bit hectic for me right now.

jonrev · Post by **jonrev** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:33 pm

I wrote a letter to SFGAm asking for a Sky Whirl cabin. They haven't replied so i'm going to have to call them.

Steven, how did you get your 3 cabins?

Post by **steven** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 3:32 pm

Wow, talk about topic drift! Not a single word on the Santa Clara photos that I put up for comment...

Regarding the Sky Whirl cabins, as mentioned, I'm planning to write up the story of that as a feature for the site. Meanwhile, I'll say that I did not get them by writing or calling the park. The park kindly offered them to me and to some others. I was the only one who took them up on the offer.

Steven

that_guy · Post by **that_guy** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 5:33 pm

Sorry to ask, but was the cabin left as is? because I would laugh my head off to see just a plain bright blue "cage"

in a fright fest set up… sorry couldn't help it.
Also regarding the SC pictures, that Whale looks really familiar. It reminds me of some of the slides and kiddy stuff that you can see while riding the Demon but it doesn't look anything like a slide so…yeah.

Shockwavegirl · Post by **Shockwavegirl** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 6:13 pm

Sorry Steve......back to the topic then...sorta...

I am not sure that I like SC's halloween themeing...although it is probably more kid friendy. I like Gurnee's dark and forbidding theme during Fright Fest.....Nick or Treat just doesn't seem to be my style.

BrianPlencner · Post by **BrianPlencner** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 6:22 pm

Yes Sorry Steve. I did not mean to cause the topic drift.

All I was just trying to do was show how SFGAm compairs to PGA as far as halloween goes on the tower.

I do like the effect of the spider web on the Columbia. SFGAm does a spider theme to, but its on Eagle. They put a ton of cobwebs up in the Eagle Station.

Bush985 · Post by **Bush985** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 6:52 pm

Steven,
Good to see that you ended up getting some photos. We have more photos of the decorations over at NorCalCoasters.Net. Also I'll have more to come in the next few weeks.

On that note, it's a nice step in the right direction for PGA to start honering one of the larger theme park holidays.

-RD