Hard Rock Park closing early...

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/breaking_news/story/547332.html
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/business/story/541558.html

Did you even read the articles?

Nothing in them states that they are closing early.

Nevermind, I guess you meant park hours. *** Edited 8/9/2008 11:27:11 PM UTC by Chitown***

I hope the park makes it.

Here's a few free (from me anyhow although they may have to pay the bands) ideas for new rides and theming

Heavy Metal - steel coaster

REO Speedwagon- launched steel coaster

Journey Wheel in the Sky- Frisbee

Styx- water ride

Jefferson Airplane/Starship- inverted coaster

Ring of Fire - Disk o

Outlaw Country themed wooden coaster

Kidz Bop childrens section

The Gangsta- rap themed coaster

Rob Zombie's House of Zombies - dark ride/haunted house synchronized to Living dead girl

Feel free to add any you can come up with

"The Cure" should be a first-aid station. Lol!

Meh. Closing at 10 or 11 instead of 1 during August is not the harbinger of doom, nor is scaling back operating days in the offseason.

Here's another free idea: M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G. Myrtle Beach is a pretty popular vacation destination for people from the western PA region, yet I'd never know Hard Rock park existed if I didn't visit amusement park websites. You can't have a destination park that nobody knows exists.

I like those ideas, john13601, I don't know how soon we'll see anything like that, though.

I hope the park makes it, too, but I'm not sure why. It isn't, for some reason, a park that's high on my list of must-sees. It's not that there aren't plenty of coaster credits for my list. The coasters are all originals, too, not a production model in sight. But none of them seem very exciting, it's almost like they scrimped on length and thrills for the sake of having enough attractions to go around. The same with the flats. While cute and well themed, there aren't many rides that we can't go on at our own regional park or fair. The rock and roll themeing is well planned, sometimes brilliant, but at the same time it seems a little tired. Or dated, maybe.

Hard Rock is facing challenges that any park in it's fledgling year faces. Particularly for one that cost a fortune to build- I'm sure for maximum impact they felt that they had to go "big" and debut a complete theme park rather than start small and grow the park as attendance and demand grew. They also started with a whopping entrance fee which would make sense considering their expenses and the fact that they market themselves as a world class attraction. I've heard it can be about a 2 hour experience, not good value for the money.

The article makes note that folks who travel to Myrtle aren't the types to spend that kind of money on a single attraction and I'd have to agree. Having been to Myrtle only once (a Coaster Con trip) I thought it was rather low-end. By that I mean families, students, or bikers will go for a week, rent a condo, are at the pool or beach during the day then stroll the strip at night. Certainly not the kind of money flying around like you see in, say, Orlando. And like the article states, a quick stop at a place like Family Kingdom, a mini golf course, a bungee jump, or haunted house, is sufficient and typical for Myrtle visitors.

A lot of people from Ohio and Michigan traditionally visit Myrtle every year. (Practically the only license plates I saw there!) But maybe not so much this summer. We as vendors have been amazed at how slamming busy the Ohio State Fair has been this year, best in years, spending is actually up. We credit this to beautiful weather, one, and "stay"cations. A lot of people are, at least this year, visiting local attractions and saving trips to places like Myrtle for when times get better.

So best of luck to Hard Rock. It'll be a shame if they fail, but for now it seems like a case of wrong time, wrong place. It looks like Pavilion had it right all along.

/\ I thought the Eagles mine ride was essentially a clone.

I don't know if this park was what Myrtle Beach needed. From what I've seen, it could have been (and perhaps was meant to be) a rock 'n roll IOA. It looks like they've fallen a bit short of that idea. The beach is king at Myrtle Beach, and Pavillion was right there for a low cost. Every time I've vistited MB we'd hit the Pavillion after dinner for a bit and have time left for other things-it wasn't an all day affair which seems to be what HRP was after despite whatever late night ticket structures they offer.

That aside, there is nothing at this park that would make me want to visit it, and I enjoy rock 'n roll. Coaster wise, I'd rather drop a few bucks on Swamp Fox than on the eptitome of a cookie cutter B&M (thats saying a lot) and a few kiddie coasters.

As someone who has been to both the Pavilion ($25) and Hard Rock ($50)... The Pavilion is SORELY missed. Not only was the ride selection 10x better, the food was good and cheap combined with an awesome beachfront atmosphere. While Hard Rock's theming is nice, it's still very "parking lot in a desert" compared to the old Pavilion.

/sigh

Here's hoping Hard rock gets their prices in order before things are too late.

I think that at this point, they did the best they could with opening an entire new theme park. They got a huge name in coaster engineering to supply them with a floorless coaster, and they have other milder rides that will attract families. What people aren't realizing is this is the first year for the park. If they can keep the admission price the same and add a new coaster every year for a few years, this could end up being a fantastic park! Have faith people! I don't think this concept is dated at ALL. Sure, the admission price is steep, but imagine that same admission price a few years down the line when there are 10 coasters and more flats. Plus, WHAT park gives you the option to get your money back if you feel it was a waste of time? That, to me, is so cool in itself that I'm rooting for this park to succeed.

Wow, no love for HRP. :(

We spent 13+ hours there and still felt bad leaving. I can say without hesitation that it's one of my family's favorite parks and pretty much the only reason I'd ever head back to the Myrtle Beach area.

They got a huge name in coaster engineering to supply them with a floorless coaster,

"Got"? If by "got" you mean "paid" that's something any park with the appropriate funds can do. Nothing special there bunky.

Yeah, I worded that badly. In any case, I was very impressed by what I've heard about the park. Sure, it's not a priority on my list, but I fully intend on getting there some day, and I have no doubt in my mind that there are a million wonderful things they can do with this park. Give it time.

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Mamoosh said:
They got a huge name in coaster engineering to supply them with a floorless coaster,

"Got"? If by "got" you mean "paid" that's something any park with the appropriate funds can do. Nothing special there bunky.

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No Moosh, you're wrong. HRP got B&M on his friendlist on Myspace and they took it from there. HRP got the mad hookup.

You're right, BullGuy, Eagles coaster is a copy of another one out there. The roller skater may be, too. I guess I meant that you don't walk in the place to find a bunch of standard rides like Boomerangs, Hang-n-Bangs, Batmans and the like, which they could have easily done. While the coasters may be on the lame side, at least they seem to have some thought behind them.

And Gonch, I'm glad you all had a good time there. If you're like me, you probably like to make the most of a park visit and experience everything if you can, not just run around and bust out all the majors. And HRP is the only reason I'd ever go think to go back to the Myrtle area, too.

It sounds like they're just not getting the bodies through the gate, though, which is a requirement for a successful venture. I think of Dollywood, which is a highly successful park in an area that might be considered similar, clientele and atmosphere-wise. Oh, minus one thing, of course, the beach- which BullGuy aptly labels as king. I'm afraid as stated above Myrtle visitors are stuck in their ways- beach, golf, eat, stroll or cruise.

I wonder if they wouldn't have had better immediate success in Vegas instead of Myrtle? It would have allowed them to go a little more on the edgy side with the park, adults would enjoy it better, concerts would be more successful, not to mention there could be gambling! I know ride-based attractions in Vegas tend to fail, but with the presence and high success of Hard Rock Hotel there they might have had a better shot.

I sincerely hope things get better for them.

HRP is advertising. I have seen ads in airplane travel magazines on my flights.

Awareness of the park is a total failure to date. Earlier in the summer I kept mentioning it to people and they had no idea what I was talking about. One even thought I was talking about the restaurant at Universal Orlando.

Everything Gonch tells me leads me to believe that it's a solid park. If no one is aware of it, that's not going to matter.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't have known Hard Rock Park even existed had I not been on RCDB looking up new coasters for 2008. Plus, at that point, I looked for the website on the Internet, and the site was a disaster. I couldn't get into half the click menus and the loading times were slow....plus, some pictures were sort of laid over top of other pictures. I haven't been on the site since, but the whole promotion seemed to be low key and poorly done. I've seen more advertisements for Busch Gardens and Sea World, and the closest one of these parks to me isn't somewhere I can just drive to and attend in one day, just like Hard Rock Park. Still, they manage to advertise way more than HRP.

If gas were at 2.50/gal and the economy was hovering somewhere *above* the commode - as Hard Rock was probably anticipating when the park was built, then the word of mouth would have started spreading, there would probably be more free media attention due to the visitors. My sister and mother live in Eastern NC, a little over two hours' drive away, and they found out about the place from me - after it had opened.

I've also seen it on the airplane mags....but Myrtle is really more a place people DRIVE to from east coast cities, right? People more and more aren't driving to vacations. Many aren't taking vacations as much, or at all, and are staying more local than to drive from NY/NJ/PA - which seem to be a huge slice of the license plates I've seen on my few trips to Myrtle...a couple years back. The hotel prices I'm seeing in Myrtle are ridiculously cheap, and the reports from people who've been are that the park is deserted compared to previous years at MBP...wrong time to open up a park in a ghost town.

Perfect storm - 1) people feel poorly about the economy, so they're working more and taking fewer vacations so as to avoid being laid off - or maybe because they're among the fewer employees left. 2) High gas prices meaning less money for vacations, fewer long-drive vacations like Myrtle. 3) Lack of advertising to the people who will still come to Myrtle. 2&3 play off each other because of the numerous billboards for the park on I-95 (which fots my NY/NJ/PA theory). 1&2 work together because when the park was planned and built, the gas prices were way lower and the perception of the economy was much stronger.

If they hang in there, the park reviews have been pretty positive...and least from Gonch and Tina, LOL.

I think that I'm going to get to go to HRP in about a month. I am excited because it seems as if they were thinking about me when theming the park.

But look at the lineup of pretty lame rides the park has installed. Compare that to the price of admission, and it doesn't look like a very good value.

Is a B&M Looper, 4 kiddy coasters, a dark ride, and 5 or so flats worth $50? Could THAT be part of the problem?

My solution would be to open later in the day; about 5ish. Keep the party going all evening until after dark. Remove all but one kiddy coaster and replace them with staple rides that well established parks have, such as a log flume, rapids, wood coaster, inverted coaster, and such. Unique shouldn't have to be less than what other parks offer...

This is how I see it without yet visiting as of yet. My tune may change after I go (get it? TUNE? lol)