Sooner than you think...
Opening day!! It's sooner than you think.
May 9 at 11am we open for the season. The rides are getting ready, trainings and orientations are about to take place, and our team members are gearing up for one heck of a summer!
Last week was spent assembling rides, almost all of the kiddie rides are ready.
Rides ready:
Frog Hopper
Carousel
Red Baron Planes
Helicopters
Umbrella Cars
Adult Bumper Boats
Kiddie Bumper Boats
Grand Prix Racers
Tilt-A-Whirl
Dragons Descent
Balloon Race
Casino
Thunderbolt
Sea Dragon
Tea Cups
Some rides that are almost ready include:
Log Flume
Cactus Canyon
Antique Cars
Barney Oldfield Cars
Bumper Cars
The rides left to assemble:
Astrosphere
Excalibur
Wild Mouse
Kiddie Swings
Flying Trapeze
On a separate note, the Astrosphere is going to be one of the last rides assembled, and then my work REALLY begins. Typically, I have about 2-3 days to completely set up all of the lighting and sound effects and test everything to make sure it all functions properly. With over 30 pieces of equipment, and thousands of feet of wiring, this is no easy task. As soon as we set up the ride, I'll have a video online of the whole process. You'll enjoy it!
-Jay
And So It Begins!
Today was the official start of the Preseason rush!
We spent all of today outside the shop in the "Kiddie Quad" getting the actual rides cleaned up and put together. So far, the Hampton Ride (Umbrella Cars) and TiltAWhirl are 90% setup and running, while merry go round is still bare, (waiting on a coat of paint) and red baron planes and helicopter are being cleaned, repaired and assembled.
I expect to see that most of the Kiddie Section will be done by Friday.
Photos to come soon!
PS. I am looking into the possibility of doing either and audio or video podcast sometime in the near future, to document my work at the park.
Stay Tuned!
-Jay
Progress Update
Greetings from Funtown!
Here's a quick update on our progress:
The hampton ride cars have been finished as well as the excal train. Most of the rides that were in have been rehabbed. Merry-go-round horses are still being painted.
I have started work on the lighting effects system for Tilt-a-whirl, and my colleagues have started work on fresh, new signage for the Bumper Cars building including new letters and lighting.
The wild mouse progress is continuing and during the first week of March we will have a visit from a ride engineer from Germany who works for the company that made our mouse!
Kiddie train has arrived and we are starting rehab on that, and I anticipate within a month Astrosphere will make an appearance for rehab and cleaning (gross). Stay Tuned! The updates have been few, but I am going to try to get better.
--
Jason S. Cote
Operations Coordinator
Funtown Splashtown USA
(Sent From My Treo)
New update!
Welcome back everyone!
Again, I apologize for the lack of updates, things have been very busy around the park. We have continued to paint track sections, mostly safety brake sections for the time being, the other shop is painting the simple track. We did go out and start assembly of the coaster in order to get the station connected to the switch rail so that we could pull off a car for rehab. We sucessfully unloaded numerous cars and one is currently being torn-down in our shop.
In other shop news, the Excalibur train is in hard rehab, replacing all worn parts with new, and replacing all worn lap bars. The train will also get a fresh set of knight decals to replace the worn out ones.
The hampton ride cars are in for rehab, and also all the kiddie boats have been repaired and repainted.
Grand Prix Racers are nearing completion and the Merry-Go-Round horses are in various stages of blasting, priming and painting. Keep in mind these horses havnt been painted in over 10 years!
The astrosphere motor and rectifier have been sent off-site for rebuilding and rehab. Hopefully we'll see a fresh coat of paint and possibly a slight increase in speed.
Tilt-a-Whirl cars are in for rehab as well, those cars are getting fresh painted wheels and new pinstriping.
Here's a quick list of rides that have been or are in the process of being rehabbed:
Antique Cars
Astrosphere (Motor and Controller)
Barney Oldfields
Bumper Cars
Excalibur Train
Kiddie Boats
Wild Mouse Coaster
Tilt-A-Whirl
Grand Prix Racers
Hampton Cars
Merry-Go-Round
Stay tuned for more!
More stuff to come soon!
Welcome back!
I haven't written in a while because this past week I was working in the front office on developing some computer programs for the HR people. This week i'll be back in the shop working on the coaster and other rides.. I stopped in on friday to see how things were coming a long and saw that a tilt-a-whirl car was brought in for rehab as well as my Astrosphere motor controller. The motor itself had been brought in weeks ago, it looks like these pieces will be going out for rehab very soon.
More coaster track was brought into our 3 buildings and the last of the bumper cars are in for work as well. Also the Excalibur train is being rehabbed now too. More on this Monday!
--
Jason S. Cote
Operations Coordinator
Funtown Splashtown USA
(Sent From My Treo)
Midweek Update
Greetings again from Funtown!
Today I spent the day working on various projects. The first part of my day was spent grinding old paint off the floors of some more bumper cars that are in the shop for rehab. Then the floors were painted and bodies waxed. After lunch, and a meeting with our payroll manager, i spent the afternoon disassembling antique car engine clutch assemblies. After taking our all the retaining clips and bearings, they went for a swim in our parts cleaner and then on to cardboard for drying. Tomorrow will be spent paining those assemblies. Also new to the shop are our Merry-Go-Round horses. Those antique horses haven't seen a paint job in about 20 years. Billy had one in our blast tent today and it looked naked, it was pretty humorous! Stay tuned for more photos and updates!
-Jay
Friday Update
Welcme back for another update on operations here at the park.
Today was spent finishing up a section of brake run that was primed and needed a first coat of purple. We are waiting on another section of brake run to "cure" after its second final coat of paint. Bill and the crew brought in a third section of brake run via crane. This section was massive, about twice the size of our current sections. This piece weighs well over a ton. I'm anticipating that this piece will take at least a week to clean, prep, prime and paint 2 coats. Then seven days for curing, and after that, Removal from the building via crane without damaging the new paint.
We also have been busy detailing bumper cars and grand prix racers. The photo you see is the interior of the bumper cars building when we were in there loading some more cars to bring to the shop. As you can see, numerous rides are stored there for the winter including: Bumper Cars, Umbrella Cars (hampton), Red Baron, Helicopters, Kiddie Train, Merry Go Round, Tilt A Whirl, and the Astrosphere scrambler and speakers. Also filling in space are the Cash Cube, one antique car and numerous juice carts.
More to come soon!
