Hard Rock / Freestyle Music Park Discussion Thread

Thus comes the end of the Saga of Hard Rock Park.

I still believe in this park. You know how Disney periodically removes attractions to put in bigger and better stuff. This is exactly what they're doing. EPCOT is geting a Frozen ride and HRP is probably clearing room for an Intamin air time machine! It just makes sense. They will open next season bigger and better than this last Summer.

^I concur. That's clearly what is happening here.

They are going to add an Aquatrax also!

Get over it, folks. Hard Rock/Freestyle is done for Time Machine, Soak'd, and Max RPM are going to new homes and I'm going to take a wild guess where

Led Zepplin/Time Machine - Some park in Vietnam or Mexico

Soak'd - Great Escape

Max RPM - Darien Lake

Disclaimer: this is only my wild guesses (go figure), so I don't really know where these rides would actually end up at, but I'm hoping anywhere but the scrapyards!

^

Get over it, folks. Hard Rock/Freestyle is done for Time Machine, Soak'd, and Max RPM are going to new homes and I'm going to take a wild guess where

 

Led Zepplin/Time Machine - Some park in Vietnam or Mexico

Soak'd - Great Escape

Max RPM - Darien Lake

 

Disclaimer: this is only my wild guesses (go figure), so I don't really know where these rides would actually end up at, but I'm hoping anywhere but the scrapyards!

Does everything you like have to be relocated to Darien Lake? You said Skyhawk was going to Darien Lake!

^*faceplam* I don't think I ever said that Cedar Point would be moving Skyhawk to Darien Lake.

Only thing that needs to go to Darien Lake is this:

^

You read my mind!

I know exactly where they're headed!

^The rides from Hard Rock/Freestyle Park deserve a better home that the scrapyards!

^I'm reasonably sure that scrap won't be their fate, but let's not kid ourselves--these were hardly "great" coasters. Led Zep/Time Machine was the best of the bunch, and it was mediocre. The best attraction at Hard Rock was Nights in White Satin: The Trip (and it's long gone).

Thus brings the end of yet another Myrtle Beach amusement park (Pavilion being the first and also Nascar Speed Park)

I have to say part of the problem of Hard Rock/ Freestyle for me was that looking at Myrtle Beach I don't know what the city is trying to be. First it claims to be a summer destination then it claims to be year round. Meanwhile there are closed malls and places where amusement parks once were now vacant lots. Not a big fan either of hos Borroughs and Chapman who operated parks like Pavilion handled things. I really think the Myrtle Beach council needs to reconsider their plan for the city and what they want.

Having said this, I doubt these rides will hit the scrapyard, Iron Horse will make a good family coaster, Maximum RPM will be a novel coaster for a park(perhaps expanding it would make it better), and Time Machine would be a nice coaster for a park.

As for Soak'd, I never understood the idea of a water coaster and I don't really see the draw. Hershey Park had one but compared to the other coasters there it was meh.

In the case of Myrtle Beach, I think it's about two things: the beach and golf (including mini-golf).

^Ahem... When did Family Kingdom fall into the ocean? I think that everyone in this thread has completely forgotten that Myrtle still has a kicka$$ (And financially stable) park. Which is more than many cities in the US...

^Family Kingdom's proximity to the beach gives it an advantage. It's an OK little park (their dark ride is a guilty pleasure of mine). But would people go to Myrtle Beach simply because Family Kingdom is there?

^Ahem... When did Family Kingdom fall into the ocean? I think that everyone in this thread has completely forgotten that Myrtle still has a kicka$$ (And financially stable) park. Which is more than many cities in the US...

Well, you're not wrong. I didn't even realize there was one amusement park left in Myrtle Beach. But you don't see Family Kingdom pushing itself as a go-to destination outside of the surrounding area, something that Hard Rock/Freestyle tried to be, but didn't really do. Also, bad news makes better headlines, so it doesn't surprise me a good little park goes unnoticed. Not that its a bad thing, because at least Family Kingdom is good!

In the case of Myrtle Beach, I think it's about two things: the beach and golf (including mini-golf).

Exactly. If I really wanted to spend my time in theme parks on my vacation, I'd head to SoCal or Orlando where there's a ton of parks centered in one area. Myrtle Beach has astounding mini golf and your typical tourist-y beaches, but that's about it. This reminds me of San Diego's city council, but at least they can keep one park above water (i.e. not Belmont).

Quite honestly, if Hard Rock/Freestyle Music Park was built around a city with a bigger rock following (or just a bigger city in general), like Cleveland or L.A., it would probably be doing better off. Even then, the way they advertised and projected themselves would have still caused them to lag behind. Trying to establish a new theme park during a financial crisis did help bring it down, but there's so much they could have done to turn the park around. It's sad to see it go, but this just proves the importance of timing and reassuring your product. It was an awesome idea, but the execution, while at first was great, was overall bad.

Eh, I guess for now, we can rely on Dollywood as our go-to destination for musician-inspired parks.

I will always believe that this park was set up as a giant tax write off/money laundering project from the beginning. Way too much nonsense and seemingly dumb business moves throughout the whole process.

dt

I'm honestly completely surprised that Soak'd and Maximum RPM have been bought by someone. Both pretty much are capacity nightmares given their design (all mini-suspended coasters like Soak'd have been, and the ferris wheel lift hill for RPM... no thanks) and both are equally not that enjoyable in layout. I was seriously expecting them to bite the dust and be cut up.

Then again, this may give credibility to the whole Vietnam park rumor if they bought these for usage other than scrap metal.

Associating Myrtle Beach with being "only a beach" is more or less a recent construct as a result of the changes seen there. HRP failed because it had a bad business plan, but let's not lump in Pavilion with that. That place ran strongly for years and was only closed down because it was perceived in those halcyon days of exponential real estate value growth that the land it sat on was worth more as condos. It was killed stupidly in much the same way Palisades, Astroworld, or Opryland were, not because of being a soft or oversaturated market.

Well I think we can confirm Time Machine is going somewhere (track looks like it was taken apart carefully) hard to tell about Soak'd though.

How much is Time Machine?

I'll buy it, the layouts not bad.

And I can use the speakers to whisper profanities in peoples ears.

How much is Time Machine?

 

I'll buy it, the layouts not bad.

 

And I can use the speakers to whisper profanities in peoples ears.

It got removed recently from ITAL website so it got sold but it might've been around 11 million USD or something like that.

How much is Time Machine?

 

I'll buy it, the layouts not bad.

 

And I can use the speakers to whisper profanities in peoples ears.

 

It got removed recently from ITAL website so it got sold but it might've been around 1 million USD or something like that.

Did you mean $11 million USD? 1 million seems a little low for a B&M.

On Facebook about Grand Texas, they been the fans that are interested in the park were talking about this Time Machine Coaster, posted it on the page about it being for sale saying (this would be nice) not saying that the owner bought this, or may not happen, but if so this would be Perfectly Awesome for Houston, & Grand Texas!