On Saturday, March 18, 30 Lake Compounce Fan Forum members gathered at Lake Compounce for the 2nd annual off-season tour. Lake Compounce officials Jerry and Eric met us and guided us through the park, stopping at the major work sites like Thunder n’ Lightning. We had a question and answer session in the new training room in the renovated Starlight Ballroom building, and we were provided with free pizza and drinks.
I may not be able to write a proper trip report this week. I've transcribed my notes into a rough draft:
Lake Compounce, 2006-03-18
LC is building a new driveway in anticipation in building the new maintenance building. The maintenance building with be two stories high, with radiant heat and wi-fi.
The Parkside Diner is being renovated to be more like the Croc Pot, in terms of how the traffic flows. Guests will enter through the side entrance and go through the serving area before exiting into the seating area. The soda stations will move outside. Food selections will include kielbasa, sauerkraut, and fish filet sandwiches. Ice cream and beer will be no longer be sold at the Parkside. The jukebox is being replaced with an MP3-based music system. In the long term, the Lake hopes to reduce their music to ASCAP-licensed only, cutting down on licensing fees from $15K to $8K. A lot of the 45's decorating the walls are from Jerry.
Thunder N' Lightning will be a ride with a detailed weather theme. There will be a weatherman at the entrance (I didn't get whether it would be animatronic like Boocifer or just video) giving a spiel with weather reports. Speakers in the queue will give occasional weather reports. There will be signs giving weather warnings (storms reported in the area, etc.). On top of the entrance building there will be a weathervane (burnt, as if struck by lightning). There will also be a lightning rod on the building. Even the landscaping will be themed with blue and dark purple flowers and ivy. The compressor building is themed like a log cabin. Eventually there will be a water wheel for the Saw Mill Plunge. There will be theming with logs and saw blades.
To increase throughput, Thunder N' Lightning will be two entrance queues near the Saw Mill Plunge (one for each arm) and a separate exit gate near the Ferris wheel. The ride will have 3-4 employees. In front of the ride a retaining wall has been built for food seating area. S&S will be here next week to work on the ride. It should be only 10 more days before Thunder N' Lightning will be running.
There will be a retail cart outside Thunder N' Lightning. There will also be a donut cart, where you can watch mini donuts made by the machine.
Enterprise has been totally renovated this year. The cars will be painted a copper color. The rest of the ride has gotten new paint, and there will be a new fence.
American Grille will become the Panini Grille. There will be two serving lines down either side of the counter. There will be about three types of paninis, pre-made but cooked to order. Paninis will take about 3-4 minutes to cook.
Boulder Dash and Saw Mill Plunge will be getting a new photo system. Apparently, Boulder Dash's was hit by lightning last year.
"The Big One" claw game will be moving to the new "triangle area". A Pong Pool game will be going in. There's also a new "Fish are Jumping" game going in.
The Carousel got a new wood floor. The artwork was touched up. Half of the horses (the standing horses) were sent out to be renovated. The horses will be sanded, sandblasted, repainted with "Japanese Oil", have their horsehair tails replaced, jewels replaced, 3 coats of varnish, etc. The person doing the renovation is the same person who does Idlewild's and Kennywood's. There wasn't enough time to do all the horses, so the standing horses will be done this year and the jumping horses next year. The work is $40-50,000. Gold leaf costs $5-6,000.
The Starlite Ballroom bar area has been converted into two training rooms, complete with an audio-visual system (TV, Powerpoint capability, sound, videos, etc.). The Starlite Theatre itself is getting a new sound system. RWS and Associates is doing some of the new shows. They do the shows for Santa's Village.
The lakeside has a new boardwalk and shade structures.
Q&A session:
The beer selection will be pretty much the same as last year: Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors, Killian's, and Smirnoff. They are considering adding a local craft brew. I have written down "Blue Moon Brewery", but I don't think that's correct. Blue Moon is owned by Coors and is has locations in Colorado and Canada. In any case, they would get their own private label beer, like "Lake Compounce Ale".
Garfield Drop Zone has always had the "no adults without children" rule. It's to allow ride employees to deal with unruly teenagers.
Regarding a possible smoking ban, they've had discussions off and on over the past three years.
Boulder Dash's trains (both of them) have been refurbished over the winter. Apparently, the seats were cracked at the end of last season.
The Trolley is actually leased from the Shoreline Museum. Next year is the last year of the 10-year contract, so it is up in the air what might happen after that. They could choose to lease again, or buy/build their own, or etc. The lease is $500,000 for 10 years. The capacity of the current trolley is 88. It weighs 44,000 lbs.
There's no special events planned for the 160th Anniversary of Lake Compounce, though Jerry offered to shake Rob Tonto's hand.
Chance Morgan Antique Cars (Corvettes) for 2007. 1956 Corvettes. Capacity 12 cars. 13 cars total (1 spare). 10 were bought from the Panama City park, and bought 3 more. They are electric-powered. 50's theme. Gas station, car wash, drive-in, on-ride photo, billboard (with police hiding behind). The cars will play music. 450-500 PPH capacity. No speed control-- just steering. They drive themselves.
The Lake looked mainly at kiddie rides at IAAPA. They are looking for rides that both kids and parents can ride at the same time.
They would like to get Wildcat running two trains, but it would need a lot of work to get that to happen. Brake work.
Season passes help to level out attendance and maintain a base level of attendance in the park. This is especially on weekdays. There are no plans to introduce a season parking pass.
The Lake plans to do work on the parking lots, starting in 2007. The work will start with the handicap lot. They'll get rid of the islands to add more spaces. It's not certain what will be done with the parking lot (pave it, just pave the walkways, etc.?)
The Lake's highest daily attendance was close to 15,000 (14-something).
This is the last year of the contract with Pepsi. It was a 5-year contract. 25,000 gallons of syrup per year. 3 million cups. 125,000 gallons of soda.
Line cutting. Same commitment to address line cutting.
Bees. They bleach the garbage every night and clean the soda stations. Not much they can do. (I just thought of an interesting idea-- hire people with portable, backpack vacuum cleaners to walk around vacuuming yellowjackets.) There's no rumor of any wild mice moving into the park. None whatsoever.
No new plans for advertising this year. Keeping the same theme.
The Lake Road move is still in the approval stage, with the Army Corps of Engineers and the state DEP. There are blue tailed lizards in the area.
Not expanding into the Boston market this year. $2 million/year marketing. Just PR in Boston, no ads. This year, promotions with AAA RI, Costco RI, Burger King RI.
T&L media day, 96.5 (WTIC?) promotion with (raffle/auction?) Give Kids the World.
Electricity was up 23% from last year.
Ghost Hunt. Fixing cars this year. Thinking of adding 4-person cars.
Cirque en Vol has a 3-year contract. Seating is still TBD, once the stage is built.
They're looking into developing the south end of the park. Everything past the catering buildings is wetlands.
Building more attractions on the mountain? Yes, they are looking into it.
Last October's Haunted Graveyard attendance was affected by the rain. New this year is a 3-D glow house in the Starlite Ballroom.
$50,000 training rooms.
LC is hosting NEAAPA's summer meeting.
Same park music as last year.
More lockers.
There will be a new LC web site revealed before the start of the season.
Maintenance building should be up by middle of August.
The family restroom will be built next to the existing restrooms in Kiddie Land. There's just one being built right now. More to come later. They're expensive.
Probably no more swing dances in the Starlite Ballroom.
No oversees employees this season.
Cirque en Vol is an 18-minute show.
The Lake purchased 100 acres near the parking lot.
