Portal:Amusement parks

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An amusement park is a collection of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a fairly large group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground and caters for all ages. Amusement parks evolved in Europe from pleasure gardens, which existed for the recreation of the people, while charging a fee. In the United States, expositions were another influence on the amusement park. Amusement parks were the historical precursors to modern theme parks as well as the more traditional midway arcades and rides at county and state fairs (in the United States). Today, amusement parks have largely been replaced by theme parks, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. The oldest amusement park in the world is Bakken, at Klampenborg, north of Copenhagen, Denmark, which opened in 1583. Amusement parks collect much of their revenue from admission fees paid by guests attending the park. Other revenue sources include parking fees, food and beverage sales and souvenirs. Some parks charge an entry fee which allows unlimited access to all attractions, whereas others offer free admission but charge guests for each attraction. View new selections below (purge) Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada had 26 rides when it first opened in 1981. Today, there are 65, including the attractions inside the adjacent water park, Splash Works. Since the opening of the amusement park, at least one attraction has been added every year except 2009. Canada's Wonderland's newest attractions are Leviathan, a 306-foot (93 m) Bolliger & Mabillard roller coaster, and Dinosaurs Alive!, an interactive children's area featuring animatronic dinosaurs. Both were added for the 2012 season. Up until 1992, Canada's Wonderland did not have a water park. Eleven years after the park opened, Splash Works was constructed in the area surrounding the Mighty Canadian Minebuster. Original plans and park maps during construction of the park show that the area that is now Splash Works and White Water Canyon was supposed to be a themed area called "Frontier Canada", a section of the park devoted to the Canadian wilderness. Although this section was never built, several of the elements that were to be included are now scattered across the park. Detail view of Parachute Jump tower on Coney Island, New York The Parachute Jump is a non-operating amusement ride on Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, New York. Twelve cantilevered steel arms protrude from the top of the tower, each of which supported a parachute attached to a lift rope and a set of surrounding guide cables. Riders were belted into a two-person canvas seat hanging below the closed chute and hoisted to the top, where a release mechanism would drop them, the descent slowed only by the parachute. Amusement parks • Funfairs • Marine mammal parks • Miniature parks • Pleasure gardens • Waterparks Amusement rides • Carousels • Drop towers • Ferris wheels • Log flumes • Observation towers • River rafting rides • Roller coasters • Water slides Adventure Parks Group • Busch Entertainment Corporation • Cedar Fair Entertainment Company • Compagnie des Alpes • Herschend Family Entertainment • Merlin Entertainments • PARC Management • Six Flags • Themeparks LLC • Universal Studios Theme Parks • Walibi • Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Entrance to Gardaland Gardaland is a theme park located between Peschiera and Lazise, at Lake Garda in Italy. Built on the eastern shore of Lake Garda at Castelnuovo del Garda, the park opened in 1975. It has expanded steadily in both size and attendance, topping 1 million visitors annually for the first time in 1984. By 2004, attendance had reached 3.2 million. Run and operated by the Merlin Entertainments Group, the park is promoted as first in Italy. It is currently home to a total of 54 rides including five roller coasters; Blue Tornado, Magic Mountain, Sequoia Adventure, Orto Bruco and Fuga da Atlantide. ...that Knott's Berry Farm was originally a pie stand and restaurant? ...that sponsors of Seaworld, Southwest Airlines, promoted the chain by painting three aircraft to resemble killer whales? ... that the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada is Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland? ► Amusement parks ► Roller coasters From the Roller Coaster WikiProject: {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Roller Coasters/to do}} Amusement parks Business and economics Culture Engineering Society Technology What are portals? List of portals Featured portals Shortcut to this page: P:AP