Boomers closes at Dania Beach, Hurricane will be torn down

Shame. I liked that ride.

Me too. The whole place wasn't terrible. We hung out there on a weekend night, and while it was a little overrun by teenagers, there seemed to be a decent amount to do.

Yeah, I felt like the creepy old guy more so when I was at Boomers than at other parks. It had more of a Chuck E. Cheese vibe than an amusement park. I visited on two separate occasions (both business trips), but during one of them I was at least with a coworker.

There is another Boomers up in Palm Beach. I'm hoping they will honor some tickets all day passes that I received. Shame about this one closing (though I don't remember a time it was "nice". That property is just way too valuable for putt putt and go karts.

This sucks. :(

Well let's see, Palace sells all of their stand alone water parks, now this, what's next on the block?

I know that this has been talked about ad nauseum before, but now that it's officially set to be demolished, isn't there a way that someone could purchase the ride and move it?

Shirley it's got to be attractive to someone in a smaller market. Or is the cost of dismantling, transporting and reassembling too close to the purchase price of something new, which would obviously be a better investment? Or is it just perhaps too far gone? I don't know these things, so forgive me if I sound naive.

(Doesn't BGT have some land opening up? heh heh)

There's been examples of SBNO coasters that deserve good homes, but the problem always seems to be finding a buyer. Small parks should be ripe for such relocations, but the cost of moving and refurbishing the rides can be prohibitive. I think the latest successful example is Green Bay's Zippin Pippin, but those stories are few and far between.

And don't call me Shirley.

It's such a great coaster. I would love for someone to buy it and relocate it. It's been one of my biggest amusement park wishes since the ride closed.

It would be a great addition any park, big or small, chain or independent.

wahoo skipper said:

There is another Boomers up in Palm Beach. I'm hoping they will honor some tickets all day passes that I received.

That one is owned by a different company. Miami Seaquarium is the only other Palace property in Florida.

Tommytheduck said:

now that it's officially set to be demolished, isn't there a way that someone could purchase the ride and move it?

Maybe a couple of enthusiasts with no knowledge whatsoever of the legal aspects of buying, disassembling, and storing a wooden coaster will step in, as we saw at Geauga Lake.

Only if the buyer keeps a secret identity.

The Zippin Pippin wasn't actually dismantled and moved. The city of Memphis started to dismantle the coaster, but a large section of the ride collapsed and the city just demolished the rest.

What Green Bay acquired was the name, design and configuration of the Zippin Pippin as well as such wood as was salvageable.

Poor guy. Thinks he's Ethel Merman.

Tommytheduck said:
I know that this has been talked about ad nauseum before, but now that it's officially set to be demolished, isn't there a way that someone could purchase the ride and move it?

Shirley it's got to be attractive to someone in a smaller market. Or is the cost of dismantling, transporting and reassembling too close to the purchase price of something new, which would obviously be a better investment? Or is it just perhaps too far gone? I don't know these things, so forgive me if I sound naive.

(Doesn't BGT have some land opening up? heh heh)

I don't know for certain, but my gut feeling with a wood coaster in Florida is that there isn't much that would be moveable. My understanding, and I may be wrong about this, is that even on most coaster relocations, most of the wood is replaced anyways. The only exception to this that I know of is moving the Meteor to Little-A-Mericka. I believe Phoenix at Knobels was mainly new wood, as well as most of the other major relocations. Don't forget: a wood coaster isn't like a steel coaster in that undo a few bolts and you'll be back in business.

Except maybe in the case of Miracle Strip's Starliner, which I believe was dismantled and moved to Cypress. I saw it but it was down the day I was there and I never got a ride. It had been altered somewhat to fit the space, I believe in the turnaround portion, but it had the appearance of being the same ride and structure. I could be wrong.

Fast forward to 2014 when the new Miracle Strip announced the planned return of the Starliner, but from renderings it is clearly not the same ride. Not even remotely.

Oh, and thank you Slith, for the clarification about Zippin Pippin. And I guess it makes sense since the original ride was so old, but furthering the proof that rides don't get actually moved that often. At least they stayed truer to the original design, right?

Yes, Starliner was slightly altered to fit at Cypress. The turnaround was pushed in a bit which I believe led to the flattening of some previous dips, and also the station was straight as opposed to original curved one. (much like CP's Blue Streak change in 1994). The tunnel was also missing.

I was fortunate enough to ride both versions and both were in fact decent.

I can't immediately find a source on the Internets, but I *believe* there were a few alterations to Zippin Pippin's layout to accommodate the site at Bay Beach. In Pippin's case, because the wood had been left exposed to the elements for a number of years much of it wouldn't have been usable in any case.

...and I suppose that will be the case for most all wood coasters that have been moved to a different park.

Blue Streak's station was never curved. It did, however, have separate load and unload platforms. There was a slight start to the turnaround curve at the very front of the load platform, but it was slight. The entrance was from the midway side under the gable and the queue ran inside the building, back and forth between the gable and where Calypso is now.

Dania Beach Hurricane was my 300th Roller Coaster in November of 2000 when ACE had a gathering there. For the next 11 years I made a pilgrimage to South Florida to take in the sights and sounds of South Beach and of course, ride the Hurricane.

Thanks for the memories!