Just a thread to talk and speculate about the future of Michigan's Adventure.

Thunderhawk seemed to be a HUGE success for the park in 2008, and I have seen large crowds there the days I have been there this year. Shivering Timbers is, of course, still the most popular ride...but I'm glad to hear people complementing Thunderhawk around the park. I found it to be a great ride, and it is alot smoother and comfortable than what people said about it at Geauga Lake.

Now, looking to the future. Michigan's Adventure is obviously growing in a good way, it will probably never be a huge thrill park, but it will probably end up being a large family park covering an expansive market with some thrilling rides. I hope to see more thrilling rollercoasters and rides added in the future, but I also hope to continue to see the addition of family attractions and water slides...possibly even some shows.

I'm just glad to see the park is going to grow. Cedar Fair purchasing this park really helped it, and keep Camille Jourden-Mark as the General Manager was a really good decision, this park will certainly continue to grow.

Alot of people comment on how much room the park has to expand, and I really hope that they fill that land with alot of good attractions and rides. Thunderhawk was the FIRST rollercoaster to be added since Cedar Fair owned the park. The last ones were "Mad Mouse" & "Big Dipper" in 1999. I hope to see an actually NEW new rollercoaster in the near future.

Now, has anyone heard any rumors for what'll be happening at the park for next year? While riding "Adventure Falls" yesterday, it seemed as if something was going on behind "Grand Rapids" but I didn't pay close attention to it, so I may be speaking of nothing.

The Duck Creek RV Resort will be opening up across the street next year. The owner is a Jourden, so can anyone confirm that the park will own this? (and become a Cedar Fair resort (own it) spot like Camper Village and the hotels and such).

I have also heard that they will connect Thunderhawk to Wolverine via a Midway to shorten the walk for next year (and this will include a new sit-down restaurant). I know this is just a rumor, but I'm wondering if there is any truth to it.

I have also heard from one of the employees, that Cedar Fair has some big plans for this park over the next few years and that they can "actually do stuff with the park now". So we'll see what'll come of that.

Anything on the wish-list?....Any predictions?

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Bretten Bailey

Perhaps a dam to keep the water in the "lake" and not flooding the train route area as well as the electical components of Wolverine Wildcat.

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DHollon - MidwestInfoGuide.COM

MIA is way to small to be getting a major addition anytime soon. I can't even see them connecting those two paths for a few years, since the train is sort of in the way.

Here's what I think.
2009: Nothin'.
2010: New waterslide.
2011: Reroute the train (i.e. bring it around to the other side of the park and get rid of the stupid layout on that side that's taking up a ton of space) and connect the two sides to form a complete circle. Probably add a restaurant or some sort of attraction on that walkway. Maybe another GL thing.
2012: Possibly a thrill ride (a smaller Screamin' Swing or similar-sized ride) on the new walkway from Grand Rapids to Shivering Timbers.
2013: Nothin'. Well, maybe something for the waterpark.
2014: If you're hoping for another coaster, I bet you'll have to wait at least this long for it. If attendance really, really spikes because of the previous additions (the thrill ride, the GL thing, the restaurant, the path, and the waterslide), you might get a small B&M floorless. Hydra or smaller. That would fit in with MIA well, I think. But, more likely, it will be a family coaster, quite possibly a spinning coaster.

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I dont know....you cant just get nothing for 2009. Capital Improvements are a MUST at all parks during the off-season, and Cedar Fair never doesnt really add anything during the off-season. (And think about it, without improvements during the off-season...the following season will not be good compared to the season the year before)

Rumors have it that they will connect the walk-way next year, but they would have to do something with the train in order to do that, so we will see.

Who Knows, we'll see soon.

And I do agree about the dam, I noticed alot of water underneath the lift hill for Wolverine Wildcat. It was like a freakin' wetland.

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Bretten Bailey

Well, you'll probably get new entertainment or something tiny like that. But look at Worlds of Fun. We haven't really gotten anything since Patriot. A few coats of paint here and there, a Cinnabon, and some remodeled bathrooms, but beyond that, not much.

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Yeah,

Michigan's Adventure seems like its been a "Hand-me-down" park for a while. The first full year it was owned, we got some new stuff (HydroBlaster, Be-Bop Blvd, RipCord, Timbertown Railway etc...). Since then the only technically "new" stuff has been Funnel Of Fear & Grand Rapids.

Dodgem, Thunderhawk, Swan Boats....all used rides. I'm not complaining though, that did add some new stuff to the park.

We have also gotten repaints on Corkscrew, a Coasters, Snoopy Boutique, 3-Point Challenge, etc...

But when it comes to rollercoasters and such, Thunderhawk was the first one to be added in almos 10 years (last being Mad Mouse & Big Dipper in 1999) and Shivering Timbers opened in '98. Back before Cedar Fair bought the park, there was a proposed plan to build a 210 foot tall coaster. I have a copy of the news release if anyone wants to see it...

New rides and stuff dont get added as often at Michigan's Adventure as they should...and lately most of that has been because of them trying to fix their water problem...which has now been fixed so we'll see what happens.

I know that employees there like to cause speculation, but they said something about big plans coming up for the park next year and the few that follow. (Like I said in my first post), but they love causing all excitement for sometimes things that are small.

But Time will tell.....

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Bretten Bailey

tornbretto:

Your thread inspired me to join this blog since I have been thinking about this very subject since experiencing two different Saturday MEGA crowds at MIA this past August 2008. From a person with an urban-planning background, here's my take on MIA's enormously portentious future:

Since that aforementioned couple of MIA trips those past August 9th and 23rd Saturdays, I remain happy about all of the hype and excitement (though I expected it) from the addition of the Vekoma-manufactured THUNDERHAWK suspended looping coaster and similarly am still amazed by how packed MIA was those two days - ESPECIALLY the 9th!

I mean, seriously, MIA staff - on that particular day and in the classic parking management Cedar Fair-style - herded cars/vans/tour buses (that's LOT'S AND LOTS OF TOUR BUSES - EXTRA PLURAL) with precision into so many of MIA's regular paved parking spaces that they had to overflow onto the gravel & weed periphery (out by the parking transaction booths at the main vehicle entrance). WOW. It got me thinking how all that is happening because of the credibility that MIA now has with its historic convergence of Cedar Fair association/ownership, its perception of finally having "REAL" thrill rides (i.e. - Discovery Channel favorite Shivering Timbers and the new Thunderhawk), its now having city water/sewer service (from Muskegon), its location in a metro area with 1.3 million people (Grand Rapids/Muskegon/Holland Metro Triplex), its location in the same state as 5 million people Metro Detroit and the fact that MIA has upwards of 200 BLANK ACRES to build whatever else they want to in the future (someone please chime in with the exact undeveloped acreage controlled by MIA/Cedar Fair).

With that said, let's examine the effect of a whole summer's worth of weekends like the huge ones I have experienced this past Summer 2008



In all of my decades of going to Deerpark/Deerpark Funland/Michigan's Adventure/Cedar Fair-owned Michigan's Adventure, I have NEVER waited in a line on ANY ride there longer than 10 minutes. The fact that, even with total available trains running at full capacity and perfect synchronization on Shivering Timbers, Thunderhawk and the other coasters, the waits of 25-45 minutes (albeit thankfully still not the 3-4 hour Cedar Point waits) bode well for significantly higher attendance figures for the 2008 season. Additionally, EVERY food stand, diner, souvenir shop or ride I passed had some form of line or happy congestion, adding much to the impression of higher possible attendance numbers for 2008 as well. On top of all that, most every other person I talked to was from METRO DETROIT and were speaking glowingly about MIA.

1] Consistant scenarios like that described above will get the attention of major hotel operators, entertainment providers (concert amphitheatre developers, year-round indoor waterpark operators, etc.), major food and beverage industry players (TGIFridays, BW3's, Sonic, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc.).

2] Ongoing expansion of the MIA complex could attract developments that add year-round entertainment value to the MIA area.

3] With a year-round MIA area tourism industry added to what is already primed to be a hugely significant MIA area summer tourism industry, the MIA area and the Whitehall Road corridor could be primed for development into a Phase One Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line or Streetrail line that connects the MIA complex to a downtown Muskegon transit hub for Muskegon Area Transit System (MATS) PLUS could put significant pressure on Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to replace the current MIA Russell Road Exit with a much more direct and dedicated MIA interchange directly onto/off of West Riley Thompson Road (where it already crosses above it).

4] The advent of a MIA-to-downtown Muskegon fixed-guideway transit link could set the stage for linking MIA ultimately to Central Station in downtown Grand Rapids (and by default to ITP/Rapid buses, BRT and streetrail transit) by way of a Commuter Rail link originating from a MATS transit hub, traveling east along the I-96 corridor and then into downtown GR (of course such a commuter line would be used more often as an employee/student/leisure commuter-mover between Muskegon and Kent counties).

There's a few beginning thoughts. What is unfolding right now at MIA can really mushroom into something VERY beneficial for all of Michigan's West Coast/the GR-Muskegon-Holland Metro Triplex. The coming of a future hyper- or giga-coaster (the very one intended by Mr. Jourden before Cedar Fair's intervention) is surely an eventuality now. MIA's future is going to be TOO SWEET to watch unfold. WOO HOO!!

A very interesting and exciting first post there, though I dont believe they get the types of crowds that would warrant a bus system to and from it. Most weekdays the parking lots arent even half full. I would say half the Saturdays the parking lot isnt packed to the brim. I have spent many a days there as both an employee and a guest over the last few years and by far Saturday is the busiest day there.

By day from busiest to slowest:

Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Friday
Wednesday
Thursday
Tuesday

NOTE: Its fairly consistent though the year that considering the month, the days will be about the same amount of crowds as the rest of the same days in the month.

By month from slowest to busiest:

September
May
June
August
July

Even with all of that - the crowds dont really start to pile in until school is out for a few weeks and as soon as school starts again it is dead as a doornail (for the most part), and this is by no means CP crowds, except for the one or two saturdays where they let way too many people in the park for it to be worth it for the guests and the waits are utterly ridiculous. Most days the waits for every ride are less than 20 minutes, and it seems like they got the crowd control aspect right with TH. Has MiA ever hit a million guests for a summer? Granted the Duck Creek RV Park is a great asset to the area, I dont believe that its THAT big yet.

Another thing is that I felt (note: felt) that the addition of TH was a great thing to the park, but it didnt have nearly as much of an attendance effect as the addition of ST had. It had a great impact on the experiences though. I think that they got it right with TH.

Do I expect them to add anything big to the park next year? I doubt it, though I would not be very surprised if they added or took out a flat ride. Some of the flats just need to go - like Trabant, Thunder Bolt (now that it doesnt go backwards) and maybe Falling Star - but I dont want to see Falling Star go away, its a good ride. I dont think that with all of the land that they have any reason take out a ride, but I am just saying.

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Duck Creek is NOT owned by the park, but rather relatives of the General Manager's.

The stuff going on behind Grand Rapids is all for the water/sewer project.

The midway behind Wolverine Wildcat rumor has been around since 1995, when they put in Adventure Falls. Back then it was a midway to connect Adventure Falls to Wolverine Wildcat, as there was no Shivering Timbers back then. Take this rumor with a grain of salt.

Attendance was clearly up this year, as shown by huge crowds the entire month of August. The park has not, however, reached 1,000,000 guests in one year.

New attractions are NOT a must. For 2003 the capital improvement was refurbished restrooms. That's not a new attraction if you ask me. Heck, you can barely classify 2007's 3-Point game as a new attraction.

Any other questions/clarifications?

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2008 - Michigan's Adventure - Adventure Falls TL
2007 - Cedar Point - Maverick

Just for laughs (at my expense), I thought I'd share some insight on riding Thunderhawk (TH) properly. On the busy Saturday of August 9 that I referred to in my post from yesterday, I went on TH AND LOVED IT (enough to ride it exclusively for the rest of the day minus a couple of spins on Shivering Timbers <ST>).

The comedy part comes from me being the stupid rider that ignored what the professional (and fun) ride operators were telling us as we boarded for our quintuple flips on TH. Namely, they were mentioning something ( . . . . blah, blah, secured, blah, blah, leave on platform, blah, blah, blah . . . . ) about leaving behind anything that was not secured - especially slip-on shoes and sandals (BING! - I was conveniently wearing EXACTLY the type of slip-on penny loafers that now I know TH drools over).

I sat my happy, ignorant behind in that nicely padded orange bucket seat (THE BACK - I am a "maximum drop sensation" junkie - I can't help it and am not interested in trying any other seat - even the front with its "view" <BAH!! Go' On wit' 'dat!!>) with my feet -IN PENNY LOAFERS - dangling happy as a Jay Bird. The operator thumbs went up in unison, we rose to 105 feet, zipped down that phat first curve to the base of the roll-over, executed the roller-over like smooth fighter pilots, hit that really surprising moment of zero-G as you bank then drop by the station and then - IT HAPPENED! We arched up into that back-flip-like sidewinder element and my d@#^ shoes got snatched right off my feet!!

We finished the 360-degree bank and double corkscrew helix segment with my feet and their owner looking really stupid. As we approached the station after the break run, I was noticing that the station staff were pointing toward the back of my train and laughing their a*#es off - ALL WHILE ONE OF THEM WERE DANGLING MY GOOFY LOAFERS - one in each hand - GINGERLY FROM THEIR FINGERTIPS.

There is nothing quite as embarrassing as a packed Thunderhawk station (with easily 100 or so people in it at the time) with the entire place cracking up upon your return. I got out of my seat (actually I jumped down since I had by then done one of those "Looney Tunes" shinking-down-to-tiny-size-in-embarrassment numbers), sheepishly retreived my shoes (and let me tell you, after shrinking down like that, those bad boys were HEAVY as hell ) and vowed to warn anyone who would listen to "TAKE OFF YOUR D@M% SHOES ON THUNDERHAWK WHEN THEY TELL YOU!!"

NOTE: I was fortunate, really, to have my shoes fly off when and where thay did. Apparently their trajectory took them in clear sight of the TH staff who got to witness the whole thing AND they fell directly next to the little stairs the staff take to get up to the TH platform. If it hadn't gone down like that, I would have had to wait until WAY after closing time to HOPE to get my shoes back. Dodged a bullet and created a nice MIA moment for posterity with that one.

Between Timbertown railway and Wolverine Wildcat their is a massive spot of land that could easily fit a new midway. As of now the parks trash compacter in in the area that the supposed midway would be going. It would be a very nice midway. All around Wolverine Wildcat they planted new trees. Even between TTR and Thunderhawk their is room. I worked on the Timbers crew this year. Every day i rode the train to Grand Rapids Junction as part of my rotation and tested Wolverine and after much viewing I belive that their would be plenty of room. Theres even a spot where the train turns away from Wolverine where a massive indoor Resturant could go. Thats just my opinion.

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Timbers Crew 08...
Timbers crew 09..!

Just thought I'd let you guys know....not sure how much truth there is to this rumor, but I've heard it from several people (only a few of them work at the park). I heard about this a few weeks ago (and even thought about it being cool and a possible idea), but didnt say anything on here because when you dont know what its going to be, anything is possible.

But now the rumor has appeared on Wikipedia. Now I know that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, but I thought I'd post it here now seeing as its getting hyped more and more and now that its on Wikipedia.

Apparently, a new flat ride will be going in at Michigans Adventure.

According to the writer of it on Wikipedia. He/She claims that it'll be built along a path that connects Wolverine Wildcat/Thunderhawk to Shivering Timbers. It is also claimed to be a HUSS Giant Frisbee. It is stated that a name is still under development but that it'll be announced in a few weeks.

Hope Hope Hope!

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Bretten Bailey

^that would be a great addition to the park. They haven't (to my knowledge) expanded thier collection of flats in a while and a nice easy flat ride addition is more likely than a new major attraction like a roller coaster after just adding thunderhawk.

My opinion is that we should expect MIA to jump on the Halloween weekends like other park anytime soon. CP has been doiung it for over ten years and it has worked out great for them. Many other parks are doing some sort of Halloween celebration. It seems only natural that MIA would join in.

For thbose of you that say MIA is too small to pull it off..... I think it may start small, with reduced ride openings to allow them to operate with a reduced staff. Say thay open the park with some of the games, food stands, and lesser popular flats closed.They also don't have to be open every weekend between Labor day and Halloween that would allow them to "ramp up" for the celebration.

Several smaller attractions in Michigan pull off huge Halloween celebrations. look at Greenfeild Village or Cross roads Village. Both are small outdoor museums that have Halloween specials. If they can do it MIA sure has a chance to be really sucessful at it. And it could be a great improvement to thier bottom line every year.

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Jim says; "The Potential energy of the system at the height of the lift hill is equal to the Kinetic energy at the bottom of the hill...."
Jim's friends say; "Just shut up and ride it would you."

I agree....I can really see it working. It definately can be done and I think it would be great. It could pull in some extra revenue and will really rev up the park in many ways.

I stated something like this in the Cedar Fair 2009 thread about how I think/hope that Michigans Adventure operates extended weekends and does Halloween stuff next year. It may be Michigan but September 14th is quite early.....

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Bretten Bailey

Regards to the Halloween Idea: I dont know how the park can possibly keep operating much longer in the calendar year - At least this year, the park only had more than 500 guests once past Labor Day, from what I can tell. And the whole last weekend they were open this year, I counted six cars in the parking lot. I know it had something to do with weather (it was raining steadily), but I'm just not sold that a Halloweekend idea could realistically get off the ground at MiA. Its not because the park is too small. I believe if they were to do a Halloween thing - I think it would make more sense to close it down from after the Bonus weekends until Columbus Day weekend. And then open up the majority of the rides - everything except the water rides and perhaps the kiddie rides for a while and have a halloween theme. But, they just arent making much money as it is now during the weekends after labor day - what would they get if they stayed open more, ya know?

That would cost a lot of money. Not saying its a bad idea, I just cant see MiA doing this next season or anytime soon.

When it comes to this proposed new ride - I would like to know where exactly on this new proposed midway this new frisbee would go, what they are going to do with the giant dumpster on the side of Wildcat, name of the ride, theme of the ride, and is it good for bigger people (I barely fit on TH this year!)?

Plus, its Wikipedia. Not saying I dont believe whats on there, but with that sort of thing, you kind of need to have proof or at least a word of mouth from someone in charge. Itd be great to start building that way.

At least we have something to talk about!

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