American Heartland Theme Park is set to open in fall 2026 to the tune of $2 billion (see https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2023/07/26/american-heartland-theme-park-oklahoma-amusement-park-owner-mansion-entertainment-gene-bicknell/70465387007/). It will be 125 acres (so similar in size to the Magic Kingdom or Disneyland) and located near Vinita, Oklahoma, which is in the northeast part of the state. The current population of Vinita is 5743, although that number will increase significantly by the time the park opens, especially if it is going to handle 4.9 million guests per year (as announced). In addition to the theme park, the resort will include an indoor water park, a hotel, and a RV Park with campgrounds; the latter is part of Phase 1 set to open spring 2025. Mansion Entertainment Company out of Branson, Missouri is the developer, although to date, they have a limited project inventory. Gene Bicknell is the financier of the park; he had run hundreds of Pizza Hut franchises around the world. There are at least 20 former Disney and Universal employees with hundreds of years of experience working on the project. In Reviewtyme’s video (see above), the commentator mentions that the park calls to mind a canceled Disney theme park that was to be called Disney’s America. That park had been proposed for Haymarket, Virginia in November 1993 but canceled in September 1994 after underperforming at Euro Disney. There is the possibility that the park will never see the light of day, although the fact that it is privately financed gives it a greater probability.
ReviewTyme describes the 6 lands as he can best tell from the concept art (although the final design is subject to change). Liberty Village is the entrance land with shops, restaurants, and a theatre. There is some sort of transportation system akin to the Disneyland Railroad but which allows guests to drive vehicles around the park. Bayou Bay has a swamp boat cruise and a stunt show. Great Plains features a wooden roller coaster, family coaster, flat rides, a flying theater, and a Charlotte’s Web dark ride. Big Timber Falls features a Big Foot Falls log flume. Stony Point Harbor has flat rides, a concert venue, and a Haunted Lighthouse boat ride; this is also where the hotel will have an entrance to the park. Electropolis is the park’s futuristic land. It features a S&S shot tower and a Terminal Velocity launch coaster I researched and analyzed the new theme park based on what I have done for other potential locations in this project of mine. The overall location rating of 59.4 suggests that Vinita will be a relatively good location for a theme park (accepting for things like a limited workforce and proximity to a major airport). Being 1169 miles from the closest top tier theme parks in Orlando gives the park a high probability of not having to compete seriously with Disney and Universal theme parks (note: the small Universal park opening in Frisco, TX was not counted as a top tier theme park for this analysis). The weather score of 73 makes it comparable to San Francisco and Frisco, TX, worse than Los Angeles, but better than Orlando. The population of 2.6 million people within 100 miles (with Tulsa being the largest city) puts it behind most locations that would be considered for a major theme park (except for places like Dubai and Stockholm). In conclusion, I am hopeful that American Heartland will be a 2nd tier theme park if and when it opens. Like my recent review of the Lost Island Park (Waterloo, Iowa), I believe attendance will be an issue. However, it should be a good and inexpensive alternative to the Disney and Universal parks found in southern California and Florida.
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My teammates and I (along with another team) made it to the Finale for the "What If?" Imagineering Competition. As typical with Imagineering competitions, the finale is a solo project. Not everyone who qualified for the finale actually put together a project. Although the project was submitted on 8/20, the result is not expected until 8/27.
I was looking for an Intellectual Property (i.e. IP) that would work well with a patented Disney technology for a rocking boat ride (which Disney may use on a Moana ride). I settled on Life of Pi (of 20th Century Fox, which is now owned by Disney). I put together a Google Slides presentation (somewhat resembling a book report) for my presentation. You can access the presentation at the following link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bF_0ADo7PXhzfGO8DgvKY2u53VqHGq31_43rkVuzQMk/edit?usp=sharing. My first trip to the Lost Island Theme Park in Waterloo, Iowa (opened in 2022) occurred on Monday, July 24, 2023. I had only decided to go to it the week before after seeing the attraction line-up. The park is about 4 hours from where I currently live, so it does require some planning. The date I chose was basically the last open date I had for the remainder of the park’s operating season (which goes until late August) due to the fact that I had upcoming vacation time followed by Vacation Bible School at my church. The theme park’s hours on my day were 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The waterpark, which carries the same name and actually preceded the park, also had the same hours that day. Of planning note, there is a 1-Day Island Pass that allows one admission into both the theme park and the water park. The water park is located down and across the street from the theme park, so it’s not a simple park hopping (although probably not too different from Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios). I was about the 8th car in the parking lot at 10:15 a.m. on my day. I took a quick picture of the entrance sign and was the first one to walk up to the front gates. There were 4 cast members there who were chatting a bit. None of the ticket kiosks were open as their system doesn’t come online until the park opens. Having done my planning, I had purchased my ticket online. When the clock hit 10:30 a.m. right on my phone, the cast member scanned my ticket. I went in and had my picture taken with the costumed Tamariki–a black human-like creature with beady eyes. Lost Island is divided into 5 lands called “realms.” Rather than using the official names of the realms, I will keep it simple by using their English equivalents (with associated color in parenthesis): Fire (red), Water (blue), Earth (green), Air (purple), and Spirit (multi-colored). There are 3 main attractions in the park: Volkanu: Quest for the Golden Idol shooting ride in Fire, Matugani launch coaster in Earth (opened in 2023), and Nopuku Air Coaster in Air. I rode each of those rides 4, 5, and 4 times, respectively. My first ride was Volkanu as I figured I would want to do it a lot during the day. Volkanu is a shooting dark ride from Sally Dark Rides. It cost $5 million to design and construct the ride, so you would not expect to see such a ride in a theme park in Iowa! Although I was the first regular guest into the park, there were some others ahead of me in-line. The cast member told me it was a group of special guests from a company that had helped to market the park. On my first time, I was ushered into the well-themed pre-show ride, which told me that I was needed to break some idols (why do they have to involve those?) as part of helping to save the inhabitants from those who want to do some evil. The queue was rather darkened but had some special props. After grabbing some 4-D glasses (although I managed to forget on my 4th ride), I got in-line at the loading station. Two of the times I rode by myself and the other two times I rode with others (it’s a little easier to score higher by yourself). The ride uses a combination of screens and Audio Animatronics to tell the story. The theme of the ride is rather dark, and it feels like I was facing pure evil when I encountered the lava monster. Not to spoil it, but he gets defeated each time. The scores for shooting targets allowed for good re-rideability as well as a break from the summer heat. Matugani (the launch coaster) was still undergoing testing when I came out of Volkanu, so I rode some flat rides (“flat rides” basically refers to rides that are outdoors, off-the-shelf style rides that are not roller coasters). They have a good variety around the park, including some that are not so common at other amusement parks. Surprisingly the drop tower has a pre-show. I was able to walk right on Matugani without a wait, as I did the other 5 times throughout the day. Matugani was delayed in shipment from Europe so it did not open with most of the rest of the park in its initial year. But it is arguably the best ride in the park! It’s a super smooth coaster that launches out of a snake’s head. One fan, in particular, likes it so much that he has ridden it over 1000 times in its first season. It took me a while to get over to the Nopuku air coaster as I was prioritizing some of the other rides in some of the other realms. In an air coaster, riders are suspended from the train so that their feet dangle. Although the coaster went through some testing for smoothness before opening to the public, there are some rough patches where the train feels like it lunges forward. To go on it four times was enough of a challenge for me. The other attraction that is worth describing is Yuta Falls, which is the other ride that opened in 2023. It is a chute-the-chute style ride (similar to the Wave at Minnesota’s ValleyFair). It is the only water ride in the park, so it is an important one on a hot day (I rode it 3 times). Unlike most chute-the-chutes, this one has two drops–first a small one and then the main one. It gives the ride a really neat aesthetic. One of the times, I rode with some other people, including a teenage girl (probably an orphan) who was distraught the whole time due to her chaperone not being able to ride it with her. I felt really sorry for the girl. The food was fine. For lunch, I had coconut shrimp and French Fries (one of the cast members brought the latter to me as they were out when I was paying). I also had a pineapple twist ice cream (essentially a Dole whip). I had previously described the opportunity to pray in a theme park. To cool off in the afternoon, I found some shade and did 30 minutes of prayer. It was a good way to rehydrate and recharge for the last few hours of my time in the park. As you can see in my pictures, attendance was rather light the day I was at the park. I think they have struggled with attendance into their second year. They have definitely invested a lot in the park, including things like costumed characters, a children’s book based on the park, and workers that they have brought in from around the world. I hope the park makes it through the next few years, because once people know about it, I could see families from the upper midwest making it part of their regular summer plans. It has been a 1.5 months since my last post. My time has been spent with time away (priest gathering, mission trip) and working on tasks for my team in the Imagineering competition. I will have my trip review of Lost Island up soon, but for now I wanted to link you to a recent video by an acquaintance from the Imaginering forum. This 3:14 video (he goes by "Pi" for a reason) highlights Barbie's connection to Walt Disney World. This video will especially be enjoyed by those who enjoy the current cinematic offerings of The Barbie Movie/Barbenheimer. This ride is part of Team Loki's Nintendo Bay proposal for Disney's California Adventure. For the entire project, see https://monorailred719.wixsite.com/nintendo-bay. The world’s most beloved cream puff, Kirby, now has his own theme park ride! Guests will travel to Kirby’s Dream Land through the popular spinoff of Kirby’s Pinball Land. Guests enter into the queue by passing between a sign that features a large Kirby that arches over to a warp star. Before guests enter the building portion of the queue, they will see a fishing pole cast into the sea–an Easter Egg from the title scene of Float Islands in Kirby’s Dream Land. The queue building is designed to be a tropical-themed hall with seashell accents. There are fountains in the hallways and stairs leading up to what would appear to be bedrooms. A stylized version of the ride’s pinball table is seen in the queue giving a guest a preview of what is to come. The ride vehicles are different colored versions of Kirby. Each vehicle holds up to 6 guests (2 rows of 3). At the middle of the front row is a button that allows guests to either inhale objects or exhale projectiles to launch at enemies. There is also a display that keeps track of the running score for the vehicle. These are trackless vehicles that take a somewhat randomized path in each stage–traveling in straight lines as would happen on an actual pinball table. Upon leaving the loading station, the pinball vehicle comes to the ball shooter lane. It stops on the ball shooter only to be launched–with sound effects and lights to give guests the impression that they are going fast. Throughout the ride, the vehicles rotate slowly–1 rotation every 6 seconds–that gives guests the experience of spinning (similar to the vehicles in Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin) without making it nauseating for the guests.
The three stages are different lands that are connected to make one table (similar to how there are three stages on every table in the video game). Every stage on the pinball table has a drain, two flippers, two slingshots (a.k.a. bumpers), two outlanes, and two rollover switches (with return lanes). Stage 1 is the Float Islands (note: this land is not in the game Kirby’s Pinball Land). The music is based off the Kirby’s Dream Land, as heard in Kirby's Dreamland - Float Islands. The floor of this stage is blue (for water) with bronze-colored stars. There are also palm trees that line the sides and cave portions (where the locks are). At the middle of the stage is Blipper, who is a fish that wears goggles and acts as a bumper in pinball. In the deeper pools on the edge of the stage are a couple of Squishy (squid) enemies. The boss in this stage is Kaboola, who is an airship with double canons. Stage 2 is the Green Greens (a.k.a. Whispy Woods in Pinball Land). The music is based off the Kirby’s Dream Land, as heard in Green Greens (From "Kirby's Dream Land"). The floor of this stage is green (for grassland). At the center of this stage is Cappy–a ghost-like statue that loses (i.e. lifts) a mushroom hat when it is hit or inhaled against. As targets that fall down in the stage, there are 6 Kabus, which are brown statues of heads. Each set of 3, though, is guarded by a Gordo–a painful spiky enemy. Finally, the boss of this stage is Whispy Woods–a tree with a face that drops apples and sends puffs towards Kirby Stage 3 is the Bubbly Clouds (a.k.a. Kracko Land in Pinball Land). The music is based off the Kirby’s Dream Land, as heard in Kirby's Dream Land - Bubbly Clouds. The floor of this stage is a grayish-white that resembles clouds. At the center of this stage is Mr. Bright–a sun with boxing gloves. There is a Scarfy–an orange cat-like creature that gets mad when Kirby tries to inhale him. On the upper part of the stage along the walls are a couple of Cloudys, who are clouds that slow down the pinball. Finally, the boss of this stage is Kracko–a cloud with a big eye that creates lightning to try and throw off Kirby. Following the defeat of Kracko, guests ride the Warp Star Tunnel to one of three rooms–a boxing arena (from Kirby’s Dream Land), Rainbow Resort (from Kirby’s Adventure), and the checkerboard Castle Lololo (from Kirby’s Dream Land) . The reason for why there are three rooms is so that each group of guests will have the opportunity to fight Kirby’s archnemesis, King Dedede, “alone.” It also provides some variability for a re-ride. When King Dedede sucks in, the vehicles stop their trajectory and instead slowly move to the King. At one point, King Dedede freezes the flippers causing the vehicle to bounce from one flipper to the other all while approaching the drain. At the last moment, when all seems lost, the flipper comes in motion again to bounce the vehicle off of the slingshot and back towards Dedede. After defeating the King, the victory dance music begins playing. Guests exit the final battle room to get their final score. An AA of Kirby waves to guests prior to them disembarking from their vehicle. What if Disney (rather than Universal) had won the theme park rights to Harry Potter? What if Disney had constructed a patriotic theme park called Disney’s America in Haymarket, Virginia? What if Disney had built WestCOT (a west coast version of EPCOT) rather than California Adventure?
Typically Imagineers work in the world as it currently is–with particular limitations due to money and space. But some of the biggest decisions are made by higher-ups behind closed doors. And if things would have gone slightly different in those discussions, we might be looking at a completely different theme park experience. That is the basic premise behind the current Imagineering competition (on WDWMagic.com) that I’m in called “What If…?” (based off the Disney Marvel show of the same name). We have 3 teams of about 8 players each that will be tackling different scenarios in a rather informal setting (there will be winners declared, but no eliminations until the semifinals). It is a way for me to use and develop some creative skills, which is always better than just sitting around bored! The first real prompt of the competition is “What If…Disneyland’s Galaxy Edge didn’t exist?” Teams are tasked with designing a different land for that same space. Although the submission isn’t until tonight, I can hint that my team’s project will involve an autumn theme. Bible: Acts of the Apostles Taking the beloved 1964 World’s Fair Carousel of Progress as a jumping board, Bible World’s version gives vignettes of what happened in the early Church. Like most of the Apostolic Age Land, the attraction focuses on what happens after Pentecost to the martyrdom of most of the Apostles (except for John, who died naturally around 100 AD). The early Church is particularly detailed in narrative form in the Acts of the Apostles written by the evangelist St. Luke. The 21-minute show begins with an introduction. The introduction describes some of the challenges that were facing the early Church–persecution from the outside, pastoral needs within, the need for continuity with the Jewish community but also the need to form the new Christian community. As the theater turns, the well-known Sherman brothers song “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” plays for guests. Scene 1 focuses on the rapid growth of the Church. The Apostles, with Peter as their leader, were preaching the Gospel especially to Jews in synagogues. In this scene, guests will hear part of Peter’s preaching on Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36)–a feast with Jewish origins but transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Disciples in the Upper Room. Those in attendance are exhorted to be “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins (2:38). Following the speech, James then goes on to tell the assembly some practical things: instructions for the following: the “breaking of bread” (i.e. the Christian worship), the enrollment of widows in the pastoral care of the community’s leadership, and the opportunity to support the material needs of the parish (cf. 3:42-47). Scene 2 highlights Saul’s Conversion around the year 34 AD (Acts 9:1-19). The Church commemorates this major event on January 25th of every year. In this vignette, a Christian disciple named Ananias tells of a vision he had received–that he could find the Church’s biggest persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, ready for conversion at the house of Judas. Ananias also shares his hesitancy to go to the house given what he had heard previously of Saul. Saul, for his part, conveys that he has been temporarily blinded by God on the road after setting out to imprison Christians. But upon hearing Jesus say to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:5), Saul has realized that he has been working against God. Ananias speaks of God’s desire for Saul to regain his sight and get baptized as a Christian with the name “Paul.” After those words, the “scales” that were covering his eyes are lowered (along with his hands) so that guests can now see Saul’s eyes. Guests experience the Council of Jerusalem (c. 48-50 AD), as depicted in Acts 15, in Scene 3 of the attraction. The Council was convened due to differing factions on the delicate question of whether circumcision was required for Gentile (i.e. non-Jewish) converts to Judaism. We see some of the debate taking place between Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James. Peter explains to those assembled that the Gentiles are to be included among Christians without the “yoke” of circumcision (Acts 15:10). James describes the things the Gentile converts need to avoid: “pollution from idols, unlawful marriage, the meat of strangled animals, and blood” (15:20). Scene 4 brings to life Paul setting out on the 2nd of his 3 (N.B. a 4th involved his journey to Rome) missionary journeys around 49-52 AD (Acts 15:36-18:22). At this time, Barnabas has separated from Paul and taken John Mark with him to Cyprus. Paul, not having any ill-will to Barnabas for the separation, has chosen a new associate Silas to join him. Paul shares with Silas about the churches that he has already established (Antioch in Syria, Iconium, Lystra, and Antioich in Pisidia) and what he needs to follow up on when they visit the churches. They also discuss some of the possibilities where they will go–Troas in Asia Minor and sail onto Macedonia to the cities of Phillipi and Thessalonica. After one last rendition of “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” guests come to the unloading area. Guests leave having been “flies on the wall” of some of the most important scenes in the life of the early Church.
Taking the place of Tomorrowland is Apostolic Age Land. This area focuses on what happened in the early Church after Pentecost to the end of the age of the Apostles (generally viewed as the death of St. John around 100 AD). The land is designed with architecture that is reminiscent of the 1st Century AD (except for Apocalypse Mountain, which seems outside of time), although later versions of Bible World would make this land more of a sci-fi theme. The overview of the land (numbers indicate where they are on the Miracle Kingdom Map): Attractions (will be described in later posts) 62 Damascus Speedway 63 Apocalypse Mountain 64 Assumption Orbiter 65 Holy Spirit People Mover 66 Carousel of Progress: Early Church 67 The Saint’s Sin Blaster 68 Joy Floor (with Monster’s Inc.) Dining 69 Onesimus’ Outpost Cafe–although the Audio-Animatronic Sonic Ray is difficult to improve on, there’s a great story behind this cafe. According to the Letter of Philemon, Onesimus had been a slave, but thanks to Paul’s intercession, he became a free Christian. As an AA in the restaurant, he now sings spiritual songs for everyone who is there to eat burgers, sandwiches, salads, and soups. 70 Gaius’ Goodies–named after the Roman soldier who converted to Christianity, guests here will find delicious ice cream here. 71 Shipwreck Snacks–Paul had been shipwrecked on one of his missionary journeys. He discovered some great popcorn that is now sold to guests. 72 Thomas’ Coffee & Tea Co.--the Apostle Thomas died in India. Chances are he sampled some Indian teas, so now caffeinated beverages are available to guests. 73 Peter’s Vision–In Acts 10:9-16, Peter experienced a vision from God when he was angry. He saw a sheet descending from the sky with 4-hooved animals on it. God told him to slaughter them and eat them. He first rejects the idea on account of Kosher, but God tells him not to call anything unclean. Anyways in this quick-service taking the place of the Lunching Pad, guests can eat sausages–from Hot Dogs to even ones with alligator. 74 Caesarea Terrace–Paul was jailed for a while in Caesarea with a great view of the emperor’s palace. Here, guests can view the King of the Universe Castle while eating some fried food.
Shopping 75 Corinth Traders–Corinth was a major trading center in the ancient world. Guests can buy apparel and souvenirs here. 76 Paul’s Mission Depot–prior to Paul leaving on his various missionary journeys, he would have to secure appropriate supplies. Guests can buy merchandise and design-their-own action figures. Happy Easter!
The Bible World logo is essentially a golden-leafed Bible with a red ribbon. The letters ‘B’ and ‘W’ are drawn in a simple illumination form. As seen on Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, before the invention of Heidelberg’s printing press, monks would copy out manuscripts of the Bible. Sometimes they would use illuminated letters (with little drawings) to make the first letter stand out from the rest of text. Although I prefer the older illuminated Bibles, some monks in my state of Minnesota recently assembled an illuminated Bible called the St. John's Bible, as seen below. I wrote a blog post after the second challenge of the “So You Want to Be An Imagineer?” Season 20 (see tundraland-and-weird-als-version-of-living-with-the-land.html). In this post, I will recap the rest of the season. Once again, the competition is similar in style to Survivor–it started with 2 teams of 8 (which got re-shuffled after several challenges) until the merger of the final 10 players. Those who make it to the merger but fail to make it to the Final 3 get to make up the Jury, who get to vote for the ultimate winner. This season was called “All-Stars” (invite only), and it was also revealed that it will be the final iteration of this competition (although there will be other competitions going forward). Well, I only made it one more challenge after my previous post. Challenge 3 was to design a Pandora: Avatar of Water land for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland area. I hadn’t seen the movie up to that point, so I went and watched it on my day-off (the guy who took third place did the same thing). It was to be a double elimination (so one player on each team would be eliminated from the competition). I was one of the two on my team nominated for elimination. I had a PoMVP (basically an Immunity) that I could have used to save myself and force someone else to be considered for elimination. However, I was going on my annual retreat the following week, so I decided not to use it. The decision essentially came down to not wanting to eliminate someone who would have been able to contribute more at that point of the game. I was officially eliminated in 13th place. Some of the players had picked me to go far, to even possibly win it, so it was a bit of a shocking elimination. But I had peace with it, and it allowed me to focus on my retreat and work without feeling tied down by the game. My role became more of a casual observer–watching the podcasts when they would come out after each project (with the subsequent elimination) A video summary of the projects (along with jokes) can be found below. You will note early on my concept art for the Southern Lights show in Tundraland. Other projects that the remaining players were able to design were the following: a musical, a dark ride for Dollywood, a business at Downtown Disneyland, a Nickelodeon Land replacing Toon Lagoon at Islands of Adventure, a Creepy Pasta (i.e. a type of film) themed area, E-ticket “mountains” for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Nintendo Sci-Fi land, a World Showcase holiday event, and a museum/theme park.
There were a lot of great players in the competition, most of whom I had met previously. One of the previous winners of the competition left in 15th place. One of the most active Imagineers on the forum, spacemt354 decided to leave (i.e. he was not eliminated by the judges) on a high note (in 9th place) after the attraction-heavy Nickelodeon Land project. Another stalwart, Disney Dad 3000 (my pre-season pick to win it all), also left the game (in 8th place). Brer Panther, known for his cartoon characters that work their way into projects, finished in a very respectable 7th place. The remaining eliminations were very difficult. PerGron (aka Dark PerGron), known for his writing and nature focus, finished in 6th as part of a double elimination. The Final 5 was whittled down to 3 with the two main judges each getting a pick as well as the Jury. This left AceAstro (an all-around player) and monkey92514 (known for his comedic projects; he would have probably been eliminated in 13th place had I used the PoMVP) finished in 5th and 4th, respectively. Two of my original top 3–Tegan pilots at chicken (#2), and Pi on my Cake (#3)--made it to the Final 3. The Cinderella finalist was OSUPhantom, who had not been in an Imagineering comp for something like 13 years. I have yet to study their final projects, but after a Tribal Council, the 7 Jury members got to vote for the winner. Tegan, getting one vote from the Jury, finished in 3rd place. Pi and OSUPhantom both received 3 votes. So Tegan, on “live TV,” got to cast the deciding vote giving it to the player who had the most remarkable–Pi. As I have said before, everyone on the Forums and in the Comps are very creative. I’m glad to have them as acquaintances, and I look forward to more Imagineering (including Comps) in the months and years ahead! |
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