Talk:Amusement park

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[edit] 2005

Since the funfair came to town this morning (Cambridge UK), I'm looking at improving some of the related articles.

First off I am proposing to move the section on Fairgrounds here to become an article of its own, either at funfair or fairground (the dictionary definition of fairground is as the place were fairs take place, but fairground gets more google hits and the University of Sheffield apparently has a National Fairground Archive). Amusement parks certainly grew out of travelling fairs and share some of the same rides. But in the UK, a travelling fair is significantly different from an amusement park.

There also appears to be some confusion over the use of the word 'carnival'. I suspect in the United States the word 'carnival' is used to describe a smaller travelling fun fair. However the article on carnival is exclusively about its Catholic Europe/South American use as public revelry most particularly associated with Shrove Tuesday but potentially covering the months from mid-winter to Easter. Funfairs are often to be found alongside these festivals but they are not the same thing.

There must also be connections with the tradition of medieval fairs and markets (partially covered at fair) and modern county fairs, state fairs and similar agricultural shows, most of which appear to be covered in a disjointed fashion. I would also expect to find some similar traditions in mainland Europe - as I child I saw a German travelling fair/funfair which had very lavishly decorated traditional rides.

This morning I also discovered there is a small British subculture of 'fairground enthusiasts' who are rather similar to train spotters, following travelling fairs around the country and photographing their lorries. -- Solipsist 13:18, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

  1. There seems to be a lot of regional bias towards the Americans and British. Other locations seem to be neglected.
  2. Solipist, I agree with you, the funfair article needs to be split.

Andrew pmk 02:20, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

OK I've now moved the section to funfair and started to grow it. It would benefit from some input on the European perspective and other international differences on funfairs.
I was tempted to move the section on Australian shows which now looks significantly out of place. However, it looks more appropriate to merged it with agricultural show. -- Solipsist 29 June 2005 18:03 (UTC)

May I suggest that the concept of a 'theme park' (from which this article is a redirect) is rather different from an amusement park or funfair? I think there is quite a lot to be said about the development of this concept in recent decades and the spread of this aspect of American culture throughout the world. Fluoronaut 12 December 2005 22:03 (UTC)

2 things. "Funfair" or "carnival" make me think "circus", which is a local (only?)/Canadian (only?) term for what both those terms imply, including a transportable fairground, complete with rides. Also, I've heard the oldest amusement park is in Denmark, N Swe. Anybody able to ID & locate it? Trekphiler 07:26, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Spam?

I'm sort of new to this, but I was confused when I posted a link to a site and then someone removed it removed because he/she considered it to be "spam". The site is not my own, and neither myself nor the site owner make money from the link. I only posted it because the content in the galleries would benefit the Wikipedia community. Can I get some explanation for this?

Edit in question: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amusement_park&oldid=33581261

WillMcC 23:09, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

The linked site sells DVDs and T-shirts. You've even got a 'store' link in the main menu - that's spam. If the site offered seminal information on the subject it might be OK, but in practice it appears to have little to offer. See Wikipedia:spam and Wikipedia:External links for more on guidelines. -- Solipsist 00:00, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

As I said, spam was not the intention (if I wanted to spam, I would write a bot and do exactly that) Calling it "spam" is a bit extreme. Your link defines spam as "advertisements masquerading as articles, and wide-scale external link spamming", which the link is neither. The only purpose of posting was to benefit the Wikipedia community, as the site owners have some pictures of rarely seen attractions (http://www.themeparkreview.com/photos/index.htm) in the gallery.

According to the "External Link" page, one can add "Sites with other meaningful, relevant content that is not suitable for inclusion in an article, such as textbooks or reviews." If it's the "store" section that's a problem, I understand, but to call it spam is rediculous. If this is the case however, you might want to remove the other links with stores too.

Alternatively, here are some sites that could be useful www.screamscape.com - An amusement park news and rumors site www.joyrides.com - A decent photo gallery of theme parks and rides, though no longer updated www.napha.org/

WillMcC 01:09, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox?

Would someone create an infobox for amusement parks? It seems that parks would be ideal for an infobox where info like location, establishment date, owner, related themes, number of rides, number of rollercoasters, acreage (sq km), website, associated hotels/resort could be consolidated into a easy to read format? This could be easily be built from/consolidate the Disney park infobox Template:Disneyparkinfo. --Reflex Reaction (talk)• 23:52, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spammer on the loose

User 69.243.16.155 has been inserting a large number of external links on many coaster/amusement park related sites. All these links point to http://www.coaster-net.com/. I have removed most of them, but everyone should be on the lookout for when this user strikes again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=69.243.16.155 WillMcC 03:41, 12 February 2006 (UTC)


Some potentially useful info for inclusion in the article --Jason Ling 14:43, 6 April 2006 (UTC):

[edit] TOP 50 AMUSEMENT/THEMEPARKS WORLDWIDE

Legends for Chart:
A-Rank
B-Park & Location
C-Attendance

  A B                                                    C
  1 MAGIC KINGDOM at WALT DISNEY WORLD lake Buena
     Vista, Fla.                                      15,170,000
  2 DISNEYLAND Anaheim                                13,360,000
  3 TOKYO DISNEYLAND Tokyo                            13,200,000
  4 TOKYO DISNEY SEA Tokyo                            12,200,000
  5 DISNEYLAND PARIS Marne-La-Vallee, France          10,200,000
  6 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN Osaka, Japan                9900,000
  7 EPCOT at WALT DISNEY WORLD take Buena Vista, Fla   9,4000,000
  8 DISNEY-MGM STUDIOS THEME PARK at WALT DISNEY
     WORLD Lake Buena Vista, Fla                       8,260,000
  9 LOTTE WORLD Seoul, South Korea                     8,000,000
 10 DISNEY'S ANIMAL KINGDOM at WALT DISNEY WORLD
     Lake Buena Vista, Fla                             7,820,000
 11 EVERLAND Kyonggi-Do, South Korea                   7,500,000
 12 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS FLORIDA at UNIVERSAL
     ORLANDO Orlando                                   6,700,000
 13 ISLANDS Of ADVENTURE at UNIVERSAL
     ORLANDO Orlando                                   6,300,000
 14 BLACKPOOL PLEASURE BEACH Blackpool, England        6,200,000
 15 DISNEY'S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE Anaheim              5,630,000
 16 SEAWORLD FLORIDA Orlando                           5,600,000
 17 YOKOHAMA HAKKEIJIMA SEA PARADISE Yokohama, Japan   5,100,000
 18 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD Universal City, Calif  5,000,000
 19 ADVENTUREDOME at CIRCUS CIRCUS Las Vegas           4,400,000
 20 TIVOLI GARDENS Copenhagen Denmark                  4,240,000
 21 BUSCH GARDENS TAMPA BAY Tampa Bay, Fla             4,100,000
 22 SEAWORLD CALIFORNIA San Diego                      4,000,000
+23 OCEAN PARK, Hong Kong                              3,800,000
+23 NAGASHIMA SPA LAND Kuwana, Japan                   3,800,000
 25 KNOTT'S BERRY FARM Buena Park, Calif               3,580,000
 26 PARAMOUNT'S KINGS ISLAND Kings Island, Ohio        3,510,000
 27 PARAMOUNT CANADA'S WONDERLAND Maple, Ontario       3,420,000
 28 EUROPA-PARK Rust Germany                           3,300,000
 29 DE EFTEUNG Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands                3,200,000
 30 CEDAR POINT Sandusky, Ohio                         3,170,000
+31 MOREY'S PIERS Wildwood, NJ                         3,100,000
+31 PORT AVENTURA Salou, Spain                         3,100,000
+31 GARDALAND Castelnuovo del Garda, Italy             3,100,000
+31 LISEBERG Gothenburg, Sweden                        3,000,000
+34 SANTA CRUZ BEACH BOARDWALK Santa Cruz, Calif       3,000,000
 36 SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE Jackson, N.J.            2,800,000
 37 HUIS TEM BOSCH Sasebo City, Japan                  2,750,000
+38 SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN Valencia, Calif           2,700,000
+38 LA FERIA DE CHAPULTAPEC Mexico City                2,700,000
 40 SUZUKA CIRCUIT Suzuka, Japan                         200,000
 41 CAMP SNOOPY at MALI OF AMERICA Bloomington, Minn   2,590,000
+42 BAKKEN Klampenborg, Denmark                        2,500,000
+42 HERSHEYPARK Hershey, Pa                            2,500,000
+44 ALTON TOWERS Staffordshire, England                2,400,000
+44 BUSCH GARDENS (THE OLD COUNTRY) Williamsburg, Va   2,400,000
 46 SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA Gurnee, III                2,300,000
 47 SEOUL LAND Seoul, South Korea                       2250,000
+48 WALT DISNEY STUDIOS PARK Marne-La-Vallee, France   2,200,000
+48 SIX FLAGS OVER TEXAS Arlington Texas               2,200,000
 50 SIX FLAGS MEXICO Mexico City                       2,150,000
Note: + indicates a tie. Attendance estimated for calendar
year 2004.
Source: Amusement Business and Economics Research Associates

[edit] Lead tweak

An anon removed the following from the lead:

Disneyland in California (USA) was the first theme park.

Should it be restored? - RoyBoy 800 23:19, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Cite it, then we can put it back. Timetrial3141592 00:47, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Noteworthy amusement, theme and water parks

I removed this list from the article -- making a selection is clearly POV. We already have a comprehensive list at List of amusement parks. bogdan 19:07, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External links section

The External Links section was a bit of a mess, so I trimmed down the listing of links and changed the tag. Of the sites that remain, I believe that there are better sources than some, but I deleted anything that did not offer a directly valuable resource beyond this page. If anyone wants to add a link, please check Wikipedia:External_links and propose it first on this page --WillMcC 20:54, 7 December 2006 (UTC)


SUGGESTED LINK - http://www.coasterimage.com/mapindex/index.htm Contains maps with links and locations for what seems to be every amusement park in north america. Also state specific maps as well. Very useful information.

SUGGESTED LINK - * Negative-G - Photos and information about amusement parks and roller coasters.

SUGGESTED LINK - * EuroThemePark www.eurothemepark.net - An online MMORPG which is based on theme/amusement parks, you build your own.

SUGGESTED LINK - * The Coaster Forums - Discuss theme parks, roller coasters, flat rides, other rides, water slides, trip reports, upcoming trips, and more at these forums! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.213.193.72 (talk) 17:56, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

SUGGESTED LINK - * Defunct Parks A catalog/encyclopedia of N. American amusement parks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.140.213.33 (talk) 15:37, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

SUGGESTED LINK - * Watch Tower Amusement Park —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.217.143.147 (talk) 16:56, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] References/rewrite

I am going to tackle the task of inserting some references for the article. Any suggestions appreciated. --Tinned Elk 00:25, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Done for now. Still needs some added work. --Tinned Elk 01:17, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New section on Alternative Energy Theme Parks

As a new wiki editor, I just added this section. OK? There is a lot of activity and discussion in the business world about alternative energy theme parks, but it is difficult to find wiki-quality references. If anyone has seen a propsal or plan that can be referenced, please enter some text in this section. I'll continue to look, myself, but this first entry was the only one that came up on Google. I have a quote about an Epcot contact in an email saying that such a new style park is a "no-brainer", but that can't be referenced until it is reported. I also have a quote in email concerning Disney and Las Vegas as a another place a park might be going - lots of sunlight there. This first Cape Cod entry obviously exploits their wind potential. Nukeh (talk) 15:46, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

The Manapouri power plant "ride" is one of the scariest things I have ever done. If any wiki people have pictures of the bus going into or through the tunnel to the power cavern, it would be nice of you to link here through wiki media and edit the text accordingly.Nukeh (talk) 23:18, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

While I certainly believe you were editing in good faith, what you linked to described either (a) a tour of a hydroelectric plant or (b) a stab in the dark latching onto currently-hot buzzwords as a hope of jump-starting tourism (yes, I looked at both references). I toured Hoover Dam 4 years ago, and I would hardly call that a theme park, as there was no theme; it was a hydroelectric dam. For that matter, having medical restrictions is not one of the defining characteristics of a theme/amusement park. Convenience stores have warnings about the use of microwave ovens for people who use artificial pacemakers, and they certainly aren't amusement parks.
Let's assume for a moment that there actually is a desire to construct amusement parks whose theme is alternative energy. By extension, we would then need to craft separate subheads on all the different types of themes there are--movies (like Universal Studios Hollywood and Disney's Hollywood Studios), fantasy (like Disneyland) or even chocolate (like Hersheypark). The article should be generic, with the actual theme discussed in the article for the individual parks.
McDoobAU93 (talk) 22:34, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps I should start a new page and think of a better title. Any suggestions? Perhaps a Hover Dam tour and other things educational could be included. Nukeh (talk) 01:18, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Description of notable tour elements could certainly be added to the various facility articles; I looked at Hoover Dam's page and it does mention the tour but it doesn't have too many details. Or, you could start an article on the power plant in New Zealand you visited. However, don't approach it as a theme park, since that's not what it is. --McDoobAU93 (talk) 02:06, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ontario Place

Ontario Place is many things. Inside a mall is not one of them. Heads up, I'm going to edit that notation. DJSparky (talk) 03:38, 2 May 2008 (UTC)