Hurricane at Myrtle Beach Pavilion

So adults can ride Little Eagle? Cool! I assume tickets are the best option if we only have an hour or so on a Sat. night (March 23)?
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Don't.....look.....back! The Headless Horseman awaits you in 2002!
Model coasters and rides

You should go to Carowinds on the 23 ;). Really though, its your call on the tickets. I believe Hurricane took 4 to ride, but on the other side, when you stayed in your seat for re-ride, they did not recheck them. Yes, adults can ride Little Eagle, and its actually a pretty cool children's coaster (has a little bell on it, and a tunnel :P). If you are into water rides, check out their rapids ride, its probably the wettest I've been on and it has some suprises.

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|| Jonathan Hawkins ||
http://www.starcoasters.com
http://www.thrillspot.com

WCS4488 - buying tickets is the smarter idea? I don't get it. Tickets are only worth it if you are going to be riding less than 6 rides, including multiple rides on one ride. As for ops having slow loading procedures, again I don't know what you mean. For a park so small, they have a lot of high capacity rides. All of their rides can really push the people through, but it is usually so uncrowded that they do not run at full capacity. The Hurricane runs one train until 6pm, when the second train is usually put on. They usually wait until the train is half full to send one out, and occasionally this takes a few minutes. But the park is so deserted sometimes that you can't really complain can you? Even with waiting a few minutes at each cycle you can get in about ten rides per hour or more. If you bought a pass that works out to about $2.00 per ride, as opposed to about $4.50 per ride if you buy tickets. Unless you're there just to do a couple of rides and leave, buying the pass is definitely the way to go. -Allan

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Allan Hamby - FLCC Member.

At the slow pace they were working the times I went(one train on Hurricane and 5 trains on the Mad Mouse, with full lines), the wristbands were well not worth it. You get some tickets at the gate, and its fairly cheaper to buy tickets. But thats just my opinion.

*** This post was edited by WCS4488 on 3/13/2002. ***

Allan, wouldnt they have to get rid of the Attice (teen night club) to expand onto the beach?

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"Yeah, they did it in Superman 3"

I'll be riding Hurrican in August. Anyone else other the erica62317 ever ridden it at night? That's about the time I will be arriving at the boardwalk and I was wondering what anyone thought of it.(riding at night of course)

Coasterman Mike - Hurricane Cat. 5 - the winners of this year's Guess the Kennywood Sound at CoasterBash, ya me! The new sound guessing guy champion.

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Now, a card carrying member of ACE.
Total rides on Pittfall: 255
Total rides on Superman:UE : 633

Its pretty crazy at night, that when he lines tend to get longer. The park seemed to be dead in the afternoon the day I was there, but everyone started showing up in the evening.

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"Yeah, they did it in Superman 3"

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I'll be riding Hurrican in August. Anyone else other the erica62317 ever ridden it at night? That's about the time I will be arriving at the boardwalk and I was wondering what anyone thought of it.(riding at night of course)

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I went from around 7-11, and I thought it to be wonderful at night. Even in 3 hours, the ride really varied (don't know if its the coaster or the gerstlauer trains): Before a heavy rain, it was running quite painful but still fun, during the rain it was amazing, and after the rain it was a lot better than it had been earlier.

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|| Jonathan Hawkins ||
http://www.starcoasters.com
http://www.thrillspot.com

Joey, I do not think the Attic will be removed. It is a huge money-maker from what I heard a few years ago. Basically the Pavilion office (right across the street from the Hurricane's station and south of the Attic) would be relocated and the go-kart tracks possibly removed. However, a large portion of this expansion will go out over the ocean. From what I heard, the coasters will be on the beach but flat rides and kiddie rides may be on top of a boardwalk that goes over the water. By moving the loads of kiddie rides to this side of the street, room opens up on the current lot for larger rides as well. I heard this from the former GM in the summer of 2000 and it was still in the planning process, but it was a major financial venture for the city of Myrtle Beach and Burroughs and Chapin (the Pavilion's parent company) so I think it was pretty much set in stone. It will be much larger than one can imagine though, I believe he told me that preliminary figures being thrown around had reached as high as $100 million. Don't quote me on any of this though, specific details have had quite a bit of time to change, but I do know that's what I was told at the time. The Pavilion has the $$$ because it's owned by a large real estate company. Look out for even more expansion in the future. -Allan

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Allan Hamby - FLCC Member.

Allan,

Doesn't Myrtle Beach Farms still own the Pavilion?

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Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like bananas.

Homey G, Myrtle Beach Farms was started by Simeon Chapin and owned the Pavilion for years. In 1990, it joined the Burroughs and Collins Company, another large real estate developer, and became the Burroughs and Chapin Company. Around the time of this merger is when the plans for the Pavilion really cranked up, so I'm assuming the Burroughs and Collins side of the merger is the one with the big bucks. But, it is now all under Burroughs and Chapin's belt. That is pretty interesting stuff too and the Pavilion is best friends with the city of Myrtle Beach since B&C has given the city tons of land. That is my best guess as to why they are helping to pay for this project. This is the first time in a loooong time I've mentioned this boardwalk project and I think I am going to have to fire up a few old connections I have with the park to find out what current plans are. I'll post details as soon as I find out. -Allan

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Allan Hamby - FLCC Member.

The Hurricane opens up for the season this Friday and I plan to get in my first coaster ride of the season on saturday (Mind you i'm driving 5 hours to ride this thing!). It's been a few years since I was last down that way, the corkscrew was still operational on my last visit. I took a trek down two weeks ago and talked to the crew who was running the first tests of the season on Hurricane. 3/4 of the trains were filled with sand bags for a few runs which looked pretty slow coming back over the camel back after the first helix. A few more runs later and the crew jumped in for a few rides in the last three cars. Interestingly enough they were all riding with the laps bars up! Wow.. I tried to offer money for a chance to catch a ride, but no go. Bastages!! :)

Wow, Allan, its different to see a park with a good relationship with its city for once!
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"Yeah, they did it in Superman 3"

Don't know if this means anything and I am still waiting on a response from the park manager regarding this, but here is an article I found online about the park that was written a few months ago. It's a pretty vague article and I don't think it explains much at all, and the rumors about the Pavilion relocating have been going around for years and I just don't think it will happen. Keep in mind this "park" they talk about further down the article is nothing but some grass and benches from what I hear and has nothing to do with the Pavilion. But anyway, here it is:

The Myrtle Beach Downtown Redevelopment Corp. met privately Wednesday to discuss redevelopment of the Myrtle Beach Pavilion and acquiring property for downtown parking.

The group's board of directors voted to discuss those items in executive session because they were sensitive negotiations that could be affected by publicity, according to Executive Director David Sebok.

The discussion concerned the possibility of redevelopment negotiations and property acquisitions, two exceptions to state laws governing open meetings.

``We discussed changing land use for bringing in economic development into the area,'' said Councilman Chuck Martino, who joined the group Wednesday as its council representative. ``The other issue had to do with a contractual matter of a land acquisition.''

Pavilion owner Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. has not reached a deal with the redevelopment corporation, according to spokesman Pat Dowling. He said the company remains open to the idea of redeveloping the Pavilion property, but is waiting for more details about the proposal's feasibility and cost.

The group is charged by the city with bringing business and development to the area around the Pavilion. Relocating the Pavilion is one possibility.

The executive session followed the corporation's regular monthly meeting, in which Sebok updated the board on several ongoing projects. An oceanside park at 11th Avenue North could be completed by May, Sebok said. The park will include walkways and landscaping, but Sebok said nothing will be allowed to interfere with the park's best amenity: the ocean view.

``When you drive down 11th Avenue, you'll be looking at about 200 feet of ocean view,'' he said.

The park is the final part of renovations which will turn 11th Avenue North into a downtown gateway. Construction crews now are rebuilding the street, adding landscaping and other amenities. The renovation is two weeks behind schedule because the city found water pipes it previously didn't know about that slowed the work.

The city will commemorate the project's completion with a ribbon-cutting event and street party, according to Kelly Mezzapelle, the city's downtown revitalization coordinator.

The redevelopment corporation also voted to arrange a joint meeting at 8 a.m. Jan. 31 with City Council and the city's Planning Commission. The meeting will allow all three bodies to exchange ideas on parking, zoning, transportation and financing.

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Allan Hamby - FLCC Member.

For those that want to ride the Hurricane at night, the park closes Sundays at like 6 or something until AFTER the week of Memorial Day(that also means they do not open until 4 on Friday). I know that sounds crazy to close at 6 MMD weekend, but traffic is sooooo bad from motorcycles, they probally have justification for it.
In general, evenings are dead, Usually around 8 or 9 on weekends, a huge line forms, & the place moves in slow motion. The lines never really last for more than an hour, most the people ride once or twice, then continue on in search of the Myrtle experience.
The ride ops do make the wrist bands a rip a little in that they act mad that they're working, act mad that you're there, and they think too much, resulting in SLOWNESS. I've never had a good relationship with any of the ops at the Pavilion, as the more local people all know who runs the Fox:).......with a wrist band, if I get to the park around 6 on a so-so busy weekend, around 10 is the max per day rides. Off a 25 dollar admission, a person should get more rides. They do not know the importance of moving the people. I'm telling you, what's more fun? Making it exciting for people, sending out trains, & occasionally smiling at people, or making your job suck by being in a bad mood and operating so slow that you upset people?

And as for the second train operating, that is just unheard of. They have never broke out with the second train. They just swith 'em out, run which ever one is less broken at the time, lol. If they have done it with two trains, I'm really sad that I wasn't there. 1), I don't think the ops are trained for that, 2)if they did use the second train, it would be so efficient there would never be anybody on either train because not that many people really ride. Like said previously, most people ride & move on.

It will cost a person $5 to ride the Hurricane once, along last years guidelines. That's stiff, IMO to ride. $3.50 is more bang for your buck on the Swamp Fox.

I go there as much as possible, I live in NC but it's still close, so I'll be checking the calendar to see if anybody's going to be there.

HydroSurge, no joke StarCoasters, that is the most soaked a person can get. It looks like nothing, until.......
Don't miss their Catepillar(the only flat ride I like), either!

.....as for expansion, I heard something was supposed to happen several years from now when some leases come up. I'm hoping they stay put, although that is bad for expansion, & there's really not too much room across Ocean BLVD. Even without the Attic & the stuff across the street, our beaches are fairly eroded, so the ocean is always getting closer to the street, you know.

PCR - no idea what you are talking about with operations on the Hurricane. Two trains are run almost every day after 6pm. You must have gone on a bad day. The ops are trained for it and they absolutely DO run two trains a lot more than you'd think. As for the ops, I don't know what you mean either. They are not the fastest crews in the world but they don't really need to be either. You must be going on some really weird days to find one hour waits and one train running on the Hurricane. There isn't too much to complain about with this park though - it is just about the classiest oceanside park in the country, which could not have been said just five years ago. -Allan

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Allan Hamby - FLCC Member.

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as the more local people all know who runs the Fox

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That man is my favorite of all of the ride ops I have ever encountered. He is an example of how those running the ride can make the experience better.

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|| Jonathan Hawkins ||
http://www.starcoasters.com
http://www.thrillspot.com

They had 2 trains running both of the days I was there, and the ride ops were very friendly.:)

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"Ruba dub dub, thanks for the grub...yay god!"

Ok, here is the official word from the park. The park IS remaining at its current location for the forseeable future. The park is very determined to stay in its location and will only move unless given an outstanding offer from the city of Myrtle Beach. This includes financing the entire move, purchase of their current property at a very fair price, and a good location to move to found by the city. Until then, the Pavilion is dismissing any offers the city makes. As for the boardwalk/pier project, that is still in plans. The pier is probably not going to happen because of laws preventing the construction of very large piers. The proposed pier is large enough to hold many rides and would be absolutely massive. This will probably never leave the drawing table unfortunately. The boardwalk, however, is also on the drawing table, but may became reality some day. It is still being kicked around as an idea and has gained some attention. However, if this idea does materialize, it is many years down the road. For now, the park is looking to attract visitors through more reasonably-sized attractions. No specifics, but I do know that two years ago a free-fall tower was definitely in the works, but I was told it would show up no later than the 2002 season. I highly doubt it is coming this year, so maybe something happened to the project. I really don't know, but I do know that when the Hurricane was built, the free-fall tower was slated to be coming soon. However, since then, new management has been brought in and maybe this changed things around. A lot of ideas the former GM had never materialized under the new management. Pretty interesting stuff, but the one thing I drew out of this for sure was the Pavilion is staying in its location but will be expanding eventually. -Allan

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Allan Hamby - FLCC Member.

well, Homey G, looks like I'll have to get to your "neck of the woods" sometime soon....at least I won't have to "waste" any more time watching the NCAAs..:(...poor Gators!

Wasn't there some sort of "event" at the Pavilion last year?

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It's March, but the Madness is over in Mudville, Mighty U-D has struck out...
If you can't laugh at yourself, at least stop laughing at ME!