Back when I was a kid.. maybe ten or twelve years old, for my birthday party Id usually want to go to an amusement park. The night before Id have friends sleep over then the next morning my dad would drive us to somewhere like Magic Mountain and drop us off for the day. I used to get so excited back then. From the time my friends arrived the night before until we were done with the first ride Id have butterflies in my stomach. That was how I felt arriving at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Expo in Orlando. Its the biggest expo of its type and nearly every inch of the Orlando Convention Center was covered with fun, or stuff somehow related to fun.
The Expo last for four days but I only had two to get through the whole thing. Id been wanting to attend for years but, outside of fun, there was never a reason. Lucky for me their press policies are rather lenient and it was easy to get a press badge. You can imagine all the exhibitors looking down at my badge, Ice Cream Man – Press. It took me over a half hour just got get out of the press area because there was so much print material lining the walls that needed to be sifted through. Luckily, I was paying attention to time and remembered that The Gravity Group was having a press event at their booth. We profiled The Gravity Group in Off the Wookie #3. Theyre one of the premier wood coaster design companies in the world and I used the publication as a reason to find out more about what goes into designing and building coasters. When the time came everyone gathered around and they unveiled that The Gravity Group was working on a new project. Instead of just doing the ride structures, they decided to design new trains. This might not sound that exciting but it forever changes what can be done with wood coaster design. The Timberliner might be out in 2009 and you know well be taking the ice cream truck by to test it out.
On a scale of 1-10, my level of being overwhelmed was a 9.7. I had no idea where to go or what to do and felt like a tourist walking outta the subway at Times Square. Eventually I gained my composure and headed to the far corner of the convention center. Im guessing you coulda fit four or five football fields inside of the convention center. I tried to find a good place to snap a pic to show the hugeness of it all but had no luck. I figured the only way I could come close to seeing all the booths, rides, and games was to systematically canvas each aisle. This sounds reasonable but with two days and over fifteen hours in the hall, it was still going to be tough.
One of the first places I stopped was a mini bowling alley. Id played a small version of this earlier this year at ATP in England and the softball sized bowling bowls are quite fun to chuck at the pins hanging of string. Right next to that was an air-soft shooting range and I took out some monsters there before moving on. Games are a large part of the amusement industry and all game makers brought out their newest and best models to display. Its great to play games like Safari Hunter for free, you just have to make sure not to get stuck in one place for too long. Stern Pinball was in attendance with their three newest machines, CSI, Shrek, and Batman. Gary Stern, whos the owner was at the booth and I chatted him up for a bit and told him I owned a Stern machine, Meteor, from the seventies. As much as I wanted to settle in for a session, I decided Id only play one ball on the CSI machine. Luck have it, one ball lasted me almost 15 minutes. Some of my other favorite games were Skee Ball of course, the Cobra punching bag, and the hilarious Textminator where you have a telephone pad and try to text words in as fast as possible.
As expected, Rides and Roller Coasters were one of the biggest parts of the convention. None of the companies brought in any full size coasters but there was a three-story carousel from Argentina in the center of the hall and tons of other rides. I like a lot of the rides but my main love will always be wooden roller coasters. I stopped by Great Coasters International to see if I could pry some information out of them about their new woodie at Magic Mountain but they wouldnt budge. I did find an animated ride-along video on Magic Mountains site but I wanted to see a more realistic rendering of how the coaster was going to look. There were numerous motion simulators, the coolest one being able to flip riders upside-down. Companies like Rides 4 U were even selling used coasters and rides and youd be surprised what kinda deal you can get on a Pirate Ship ($56,000) or a Mini Shot Tower ($100k). The water park industry was well represented and you could check out all the new innovations there including the Aqua Loop water slide and their ever popular Master Blaster slide. The Bailey company from Canada had a budget version tube and sled type coaster called Pipeline Express that I wanted to ride. Too bad theres none in the US yet.
Costumes were something I wasnt expecting to see a lot of but I passed by over a dozen booths with costumes and mascots ranging from a few hundred bucks to over ten thousand. I think were going to order an Ice Cream Man Mascot from Mascots Direct mainly because its so reasonable and they want to make it. I decided early on that Id get a bunch of pics with em, especially when people were inside. You can never give too many high fives if youre a mascot.
Similar to when you go to an amusement park, you often forget to eat ahead of time. Then when you do, your choices are either pizza, funnel cakes, or some other form of sugar. Imagine places like this spread out throughout the convention center. I was happy they werent all in one place because youd turn a corner and POW! There would be cotton candy (lovely bins of Flava Puff), or mini donuts, or the most popular food at the expo, Pizza. Noble Romans Bistro and Perkys Pizza always had a line and I was thankful for my mini slices I devoured. Oh. Ice Cream! There was a ton of that too. Kemps was there, Snowie, Hershey, Dippin Dots, and more. The slush drink category was also fully represented with Slush Puppies, Icees, Jolly Rancher all pouring out the good stuff.
Youve prolly seen bouncy houses around your neighborhood, possibly at a birthday in a local park. At the back of the center they had a whole section of vinyl inflatable creations that made your average moon bounce look like a roach motel. These things were HUGE. There was a three story slide. I dinosaur slide that had to be a couple stories tall and fifty feet long. Im not sure if you could ride him but there was a wooly mammoth too who caught everyones eye. My favorite were the inflatable water slides, especially the massive Hippo Slide. Im gonna try to see if we can get one out to one of the JellyNYC pool parties next summer. Speaking of Jelly and NYC, I ran into the good folks from Coney Island at the convention and chatted them up about the future of the legendary park. With so many rumors around its hard to have any idea whats really going on. Check out www.thecidc.org to get information from the folks who are trying to save Coney Island.
I could type this review for days. I have a thirty pound bag of brochures, magazines, and info that I could plow through and write about but I gotta get running to put up xmas lights. But I gotta bullet point list some of my other favorites real quick
– Micro-Reality remote control car racing on an oval track
– All the plush stuffed creatures
– $495 oversized boxing gloves
– Happy Boo Day sign for crew member James
– I finally found the main company that makes temporary tattoos. If you need any, go to the source and get the best deal – www.tattoosales.com
– Getting to check out the Sky Trail Ropes Course
– Learning about the Lost kids Tattoos, a great idea
– Meeting folks from Give Kids the World. Wanna do Ice Cream Social there in 2009
– Stopping by the American Coaster Enthusiast (ACE) booth and getting a recent mag and newsletter.
Thanks to the press folks at IAAPA for letting me come out and play for a couple days. The Expo was one of my favorite things I did all summer. Hopefully Ill get through my bag o goodies soon and Ill prolly do some li’l news pieces on some of the companies I forgot to mention. For now, Ive got profile pics for days!
