Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (SCBB) Discussion Thread

exciting stuff!

btw, happy birthday!

Happy B-Day and thanks again for keeping a close eye on this bad boy! The roof shingles seem more "haunted mansion" than "haunted castle," but am I going to make a fuss? No, I am not. Because a major new dark ride is cause for much rejoicing.

BRING IT!!!

A few notes from the weekend:

At least one of the ride cars has arrived on site, although I don't have any pictures.

The ride track is in the process of being installed, along with the spiral hill to the basement level.

The ride is still scheduled to open on/around Memorial Day weekend with some sort of a grand opening ceremony on May 27th or 28th.

^That's awesome, thanks for that information! I will be visiting the Boardwalk tomorrow(despite the rain!), so expect an update tomorrow afternoon!

~Nicholas (coaster-crazy)

Is there a projected opening date for this ride?

^Last date mentioned was Memorial Day Weekend.

The ride is still on schedule for opening on Memorial Day weekend with a grand opening ceremony on the Friday before the weekend.

fun pics! i haven't been to SCBBW in years and I miss it! Giant Dipper is so fun and the new Haunted Castle will be a definite draw for me to re-visit!

MINI UPDATE!

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk's website has put up a page for the NEW Haunted Castle darkride.

http://beachboardwalk.com/rides/hauntedcastle/index.html

It mentions that the ride will be infact opening on May 28!!!! Cool stuff. There is also so info about whats going inside this new spook.

Enjoy!

I was at the Boardwalk today, and they're making a lot of progress on the new Haunted Castle. In other news, their operations were superb today. They were able to dispatch Giant Dipper in about 25 seconds.

^As one of the Giant Dipper board operators yesterday, I really appreciate your compliment!

Welcome to today's update! The Haunted Castle is REALLY coming along and will be opening on May 28th, 2010. Most of the interior is being completed and all of the ride track is in. The facade facing the street is nearly done and the front side is looking great too. It looked like they were going to test ride vehicles within the next week or so. I am amazed at how fast this thing is coming along and I commend the workers on this great looking ride. Also, there appears to be a new building on the Boardwalk itself, possibly for food or something. If you haven't checked out the Boardwalk's website recently, you should check out the page they have on the new ride!

http://www.beachboardwalk.com/rides/hauntedcastle

Enjoy the update!

~Nicholas(coaster-crazy)

ADMIN EDIT: I went ahead and deleted your double post because it didn't have any purpose besides bumping the discussion by looking for responses. While we appreciate your updates, remember that responses will come in time--there isn't any need to ask for them specifically.

Front side of the castle.

Here is where the ride will come out at the end of the ride. Notice the track coming in - (doors are temporary)

Looking down the front side. Nice!

Closer up on the details.

New building on the front of the castle. What do you think will/should go in it?

This is where the Black & White ice cream stand will return to on the HC building.

Panoramic view.

Street side is getting closer to completion. Strange color combination though...

Another angle..

Full view of the back of the ride.

BONUS PIC!

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Stay tuned for next week's update and look out for the ride's opening on May 28th, 2010 !!!! Thanks for looking!

Cool pics!

If only Mr Six's DanceCoaster was going up this fast!

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Wow, two weeks gone by already? Sheesh, where is the time going! Anywho, I visited the site of the Haunted Castle today and boy was it looked good. All of the scaffolding was gone, track is all in, and themeing is nearly completely finished. They are still finishing up some electrical and painting on the outside of the structure. When I went last week I snapped a picture of the NEW cars on the track, and I forgot to post them! So the pics of the car will be from LAST WEEK, otherwise, the pictures are from this week. The ride is going to open on May 28th, 2010 - enjoy the update!

~Nicholas

Newly painted building next to the HC. Those 'cheese' slabs were blue last year!

Scaffolding is gone! Looking really nice.

Looking farther down the NEW HC...

Another look.

This photo is from May 4th, 2010. THE RIDE CAR!!!!!!111

This photo is also from May 4th, 2010. The ice cream stand is on the right, and the games next up in the 'red'.

Remember this little building across from the Haunted Castle in past updates? According to the workers, this will be a funnel cake stand - MMMM!!

Panoramic view of the ride - nearly finished!

Another beach-side angle...

Starting to continue painting. The color at the very top is what the rest will look like.

Street-side view basically the same... Looks good!

From across the street.

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NEXT UPDATE: Stay tuned as we approach the opening of the new ride. I am trying to get a behind the scenes tour of the ride before it opens as well as to try to go to the ride on opening day May 28th, 2010. Thanks for watching!

OOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!! The NHC ride cars!!!!!! They look so different!!! Very cool!!! Can't wait!!!!

Hey Nicolas, just wanted to say thanks for these amazing pics!!! Love 'em! Just wanted to know if you’d be able to video the grand opening of the new ride and post it up on youtube. That’d be awesome. If not, I’m very grateful for the pics.

Thanks again.

This is coming along nicely. The old haunted castle, while charming in its own way, had certainly seen better days. It's really good to see a smaller, classic seaside park like SCBB still adding or improving attractions. I'm looking forward to visiting this park again very soon, and again some time after the new haunted castle opens.

Thank you for the updates. As mentioned before, people don't always post after an update is made, but I can assure you that there are plenty of us following the updates and I'm sure I speak for many when I say that we do appreciate that the effort is being made to provide them.

^ I second that -- I appreciate your updates, but I don't often get around to responding.

I am hoping they do something to the building to make it look more like a *haunted* castle. At the moment, it look somewhat like a Disney castle!

Another minor note, the cars do have lighting which is somewhat visible from the picture posted of the ride car. The gargoyle's eyes light up red and the torches light up green/red.

One more thing: there are 11 cars total. One is a spare which makes for 10 cars on the track during normal operation. Also, one car is ADA accessible, but I don't have any details about that yet.

I'm sooo glad to see this ride getting a long past-due overahaul and very grateful that you're posting these updates. I haven't been to SCBB in several years but it seems I have a renewed sense of purpose to visit once again!

Will I see any of you at the Bay Area Bash this weekend?

I'll be there with my daughter on Saturday and youngest son on Sunday.

Awesome, see you there!

Here are a few crap-tastic pictures I took today at the park. Unfortunately, all I had was my iPhone. The cars were sitting the loading area at the time of the pictures being taken, but previously were being cycled through the station.

Meh, not bad for an iPhone though. Always a good albiet decent back up when you don't have the digital.

I meant to ask earlier, is the ride still a single level only like the original? I ask because there appeared to be a lot of space upstairs when the walls hadn't gone up yet. Not sure if this is attraction area or perhaps office space for the boarwalk.

^I agree, the iPhone's camera is good for a cell phone camera (which isn't saying much)! If the cars were cycling, I would have taken a video.

From a previous post:

Upon loading onto the ride, the car will descend underground via a spiral elevator. The majority of the ride will take place "underneath" the Boardwalk. At the end of the ride, the car will travel up to the boardwalk level via a ramp.

--

The building will be three levels:

top level (2nd story):

-new employee indoor/outdoor break area, ride department check-in area, admin offices

bottom level (1st story):

-ride loading area, food, and games on beach side

-operations office, lost and found, etc. on the RR tracks side

underground (sand level):

-main ride area

That sounds awesome, thanks! Sorry I didn't even think to look in previous posts. Been a long day.

^Neat huh? The game on the front side will be 'Boller Roller' and the food stand will be the Ice Cream place that was there before. Across from the ride on the edge of the Boardwalk will be a new funnel cake stand!

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

~Nicholas