Marineland is notoriously slow in opening new rides or attractions. They announced a while ago that there would be a Topple Tower ride. It was supposed to be ready last year, and it still isn’t ready. I was at Marineland on Friday (I’ll post pictures and info later this week), and Topple Tower is in place and they were testing it. I assume they will be opening very soon.
You can see the pavilion/waiting area to the left that has the same look/theme as other buildings at Marineland. The ride isn’t very tall, but seats quite a fwe people. While I was there they had it fall over and then brought it back to an upright position. The seats were filled with bags of something, probably so they could do a weight test. There is a walrus on the top of the ride. They were working on landscaping while we were there.
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Sweet… is that Wally the Walrus (or whatever Marineland’s mascot name is)?
The Topple Tower has an unoriginal name “Topple Tower”, and they keep using that ungodly looking pagoda style for their queues and buildings. Doesn’t hold much of a “marine” atmosphere…
I can just imagine how long it would take them to build a rollercoaster, if a simple ride takes this long. It’s as if they hire all their help in-house, maybe having employees help during their down-time.
I’m glad it’s almost done, but it’s about a year & a half after the original announcement (January 2006).
The HUSS Topple Tower is a very mechanically complex ride; despite this being the 5th installation worldwide. I’ve riden Dollywood’s and it’s a beautiful machine. The ride is suitable for famalies and yet offers enough thrills for the teens as well. It’s a perfect addition to the park.
The architectural style at MarineLand is consistent to the European theme, and I welcome that the new attractions maintain the same look and feel! The park is like no other.
MarineLand’s mascot is Waldorf, although that’s not who’s up top.
Even if the tower was seen tilting, that’s still a long way away from completing an actual ride cycle. While the ride may be mechanically identical to the other installations (Belgium, France, China, US), with these type of projects there are always custom aspects and it’s not just “dump in the program and go”. The certification process would also only begin once the ride is fully functionining. I’d wager it’d be open in late July or early August.
The name of the mascot is actually King Waldorf. XD
As for the name, was it announced that the attraction would be named Topple Tower? If not, they could add the name when the ride opens. Even if it is the name of the ride I wouldn’t care. Marineland isn’t the greatest with naming their rides.
I’m hoping this will open in August or before then, because I visit the park once annually (except for last year) and I would like to visit sometime before school starts.
Marinelane is a dissapoinment. So in that respect, you are correct when you say the park is like no other. If you compared the amount of revenue to the amount of development its probably very sad. The park has far too much undeveloped area, and has updated very little in the way of attractions over the years. Attractions get announced, and then drag out for YEARS before they are are actually opened etc… Terrors of the sea anyone? Don’t get me wrong, seeing the marine life and wild life, its always a good time. I personally like the park, but if you have been once in the last 10-15 years, you have pretty much seen it all, save one or two marginal attractions. The park appears to rest knowing tourist who visit the area generate enough one time revenue to warrant not adding things annually like just about every other theme park on earth.
I love Marineland. As a local, spending $40 for a year’s pass is a great deal.
I believe the ride will be called Topple Tower. There used to be something on the Marineland web site about the ride, but now I can’t find anything at all about it.
It is definitely a walrus on top of the ride, but I’m sure it’s not King Waldorf as there is no crown.
I should be going back again today, so I’ll try to get a couple more pictures that show things clearly.
Yeah, I tottally agree with you, the deal they run of buy admission one day, add an extra 5 bucks (I think thats the amount) and get a season pass is a great deal. Like I said I like the place, but the lack of new attractions compared with the available land is sad.
If they ever build another rollercoaster, it’ll probably take a few good years. They may invest into the park, but they certainly have no time-tables as to when. How much of this 160 million has already been invested into the park, and is there even any work being done on the new aquarium?
I like the park, but I haven’t been there since 2000. Sad thing is that I really haven’t missed much… sans a few new rides. This Topple Tower will probably be used as a marketing tool for 2008 instead of this year.
You just got to wonder how much money they actually invest into television advertising. Almost every station every hour has at least one Marineland ad. That has to cost a pretty penny after awhile.
I’ve heard of no other rides or attractions being planned, other than the new aquarium. The aquarium is going nowhere. Last year I took a picture of a cleared field, and this year it looks exactly the same. It looks like they have done nothing in the last 10 months (since I took that picture).
Unfortunately thats how it is in a tourist area, parks don’t invest because they know people will come no matter what they do. Most park chains are also heavily in debt right now which means no more huge thrill rides and a focus on “family” entertainment instead, instead of what the public wants and craves, huge ride upgrades. Cedar Fair, Six flags are both in huge debt just from giving the public what they want, bigger and better rides. It seems the theme park industry is a losing industry, people think of amusement parks as enormously overpriced so they try to avoid parks as much as possible save that one family visit a year to a park yet the park chains are the ones in real debt despite the overpriceyness of the parks in general.
Marineland DOES have a lot of custom and unique rides though so that could be part of the reason why it takes so long to install a ride there, but overall the length of time it takes to install something there is much longer than other parks.
I’ve had no reason to return to Marineland. Unless they increase their ride offerings, or aquarium attractions, I probably won’t be back for awhile, and the last time I visited I believe was 1999.
It is my understanding that all construction is done in-house by a small team and that is the reason for the slow process. However this slow is just wrong. It shouldn’t take an entire year to build a family ride this size.
Maybe if they scaled back their investment in costly commercials, they could invest in attractions
Sara and Dan, this park was never planned on having any rides. They just added them as a bonus because of the amount
of land. And Dan sholud go back cause it has improved.
Slow is right. I agree with you. Dragon Mountain was originally planned to have some kind of waterfall after the first tunnel, and that still hasn’t happened, although there is a lot of scaffolding past the first tunnel.
Topple Tower’s Walrus went on top of the tower when i was there. I watched them do it. It was on june 27th. It has been quite a while. Hopefully it should open this week, it looks a lot better then before.