Holiday Gift Ideas for Theme Park Fans

The holiday season is officially here and it’s time to go shopping for your fellow theme park fan! Listed below are some ideas I came up of what to buy a theme park fan for Christmas. Some of these items I personally own and others are on my wishlist as well.

Amusement Park Books

Coasters 101: An Engineer’s Guide to Roller Coaster Design: Shameless self plug here. The most in-depth look at how modern roller coasters are designed from concept to creation, including some of the physics and engineering equations used.

Theme Park Design: Behind the Scene with An Engineer- Steve Alcorn’s book is a must read for anyone considering a career in the theme park industry.

What Would Walt Do? – The story of a construction worker during the creation of the Walt Disney World resort after the death of Walt Disney.

Disney World Saving Guide - An ex-Disney employee reveals tips on how to save money on your next vacation to Disney World.

Things To Do in Theme Park Queues – This entertaining book will make your visit to a busy theme park even more enjoyable.


Theme Park Games

Theme Park (Nintendo DS):  Control everything, from the speed of your rides to the amount of ice in your drinks
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum: Let’s face it, it’s going to be awhile before RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 comes out (if ever) so this is the next best thing, especially with RCT3D being so disappointing. RCT3 Platinum combines the excitement and roller coaster, theme park fun of the Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 with included expansion packs Soaked! and Wild! Now enjoy more options than ever. Build your own water slide or create your own safari with real animals. Watch guest reactions to your ultimate theme park!

Theme Park Toys

K'NEX Thrill Rides - Hot Shot! Video Coaster: Featuring a coaster car with on-board digital video camera, builders can now see what it would be like to ride their own creations, can share their building achievements with family and friends, and can even edit their own personalized movies.

Turtle Amusement Park Ride Model by Coaster Dynamix: This model is hand-assembled in the USA using laser-cut birch plywood.

Other Suggestions
Give a season pass to your local amusement park, zoo, or aquarium.

Give Yourself a Raise: My free report on how to make a residual income from the internet in your spare time (second edition).

What gifts are you getting your fellow theme park fans for the holidays? Please let me know by commenting below!

Second Edition of Coasters 101 Released

Pick your amusement park, anywhere on the planet, and where are the longest, most aggravating lines? The roller coasters! A blazing fast thrill ride that just keeps pushing the envelope - to the daredevil delight of thousands. But as loopy as the creativity gets or the steeper the drop, or the faster the turns and the louder the screams- one thing they aren't, overall, is unsafe.

Find out how roller coasters are designed with the highest of safety standards by reading Coasters 101: An Engineer’s Guide to Roller Coaster Design by Nick Weisenberger. Warning: Side effects of reading may cause dizziness, nausea, or the sudden urge to visit a theme park.

The newly revised Second Edition includes interesting added content like:

• Evolution of the roller coaster
• Detailed description on launch systems
• A people powered coaster
• How a 4th dimension coaster works
• the modern vertical loop
• and much more!

Click here to see all available formats where you can purchase the book.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3DS Drama

RollerCoaster Tycoon for the Nintendo 3D  was released yesterday... I think. Amazon.com currently lists it as “Out of Stock.” Not surprising, as the game has been hit by delay after delay, which according to one reviewer (who somehow actually got their hands on the game) “took the game from ‘unplayable and terrible’ to just ‘terrible’.” That’s very troubling and disappointing for all RCT fans to hear. It's been eight years since the last RollerCoaster Tycoon game, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, initially hit retailers. You would think in that time span the developers would have thought of some cool new features other than adding a new story mode.

In fact, RCT3D appears to be missing many features which were a staple of past games, like you can’t name your rides or adjust their color scheme, terrain can’t be modified (which means no tunnels!), no weather, no fireworks, no signs, and many missing ride types.I think one reviewer summed it up best: “RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D is a lazy, featureless shell of its predecessors”.

I have not played the game personally, but RCT3D sadly sounds like it does not deliver the goods. You’re better off pulling out your old copy of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. RCT fans will have to wait until the true RCT4 comes out on PC (if it ever does) to get their coaster building fix.

Have you played Roller Coaster Tycoon for 3Ds? What do you think? Share your review below!

Roller Coaster Design Project

Have you ever wanted to design your own roller coaster? Sure, many of us have. But I’m not talking about using a computer game like RollerCoaster Tycoon or NoLimits. I’m talking about using real roller coaster physics formulas and equations. I recently had the chance to interview a mechanical engineering college student and aspiring roller coaster engineer who has done just that! He has designed his very own GCI inspired wooden roller coaster using only a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and MatLAB. Read all about this roller coaster design spreadsheet on my Excel Spreadsheets Help blog.

Funny Fridays: Reasons for going to an amusement park

I'm starting a new Friday series where every week (or maybe every other week honestly) I plan on posting a funny graphic, image, or video. Today, we begin with this eCard from someecards.com.

Cedar Point 2013 GateKeeper Layout

The layout for Cedar Point's 2013 record breaking wing coaster has leaked online a day before the official announcement. GateKeeper will be large and in charge at the front of the park. This will be B&M's fifth wing coaster built in three years and will be the world's tallest, fastest, and longest. The official announcement is scheduled for 3:30pm EST tomorrow (Monday, August13). Pictured below is the Gatekeeper layout image released by the Sandusky Register and on Cedar Point's website.

Books in Theme Park Stores

This post is a continuationof the conversation I was having with a colleague about theme park books. Until this conversation happened, I had never really thought about trying to get a book stocked inside a theme park store before. Outside of Disney, there’s only one type of book I recall seeing in a theme park shop and they all belong to the same “Images of America” series (Holiday World and HersheyPark). Disney has a few smaller sized books such as the “Imagineering field guides” and “Fnd the Hidden Mickeys” that were intended to be taken into the theme park with you. In my experience and travels I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen anyone reading a book at a park before. If you’re looking for something for guests to do while in the queue you’d be much better off developing some sort of interactive iPhone or iPad application.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. The Columbus Zoo does have a few books in their gift shops but they’re mainly picture books. I would try to get something physical put together first before pitching the idea to a park. Based on the books I mentioned above, it seems most parks might be more willing to stock a book in their gift stores if the content were about their specific park or product (you think you’d find a book about HersheyPark inside Cedar Point? Yeah, right).

What do you think? Have you ever seen anyone reading a book in a theme park? Are there any specific park stores which come to mind that stock a variety of books? I would love to hear your feedback!