Several years after they decided to take out Nashville's only fun family activity to replace it with a stupid mall, they've opened a new amusement park, which may not be too amusing from the pictures shown on TV. This makes me mad. It reminds me of how much I loved Opryland, and how its disappearance has left a void in my life...kind of.

It's called something Valley Fair, or something like that, and it looks like it's mostly for the kiddies. There appears to be basically no landscaping that appeals to the eye, like Opryland offered, and basically looks a little nicer than a Wal-Mart carnival.

I've not had a wide variety of amusement park experiences, like a lot of you have had, I'm sure...I thought since it's Summer, this would be a good time to discuss which parks are good, and which are not...and to complain about the lack of Opryland.

I don't remember having discussed this before...?

(Edited by Sexy Sadie at 10:08 pm on Jun. 9, 2003)

Opryland was a shining bright spot in my sucky elementary school years. I can probably say that 80%of the fond memories I have of the first decade of my life comes from Opryland times. Riding the swings because I was too scared to ride anything bigger. Getting terrified on the Wabash. Getting headbutted in the stomach by a deer in the petting zoo while my dad was talking to someone. Getting soaked on the Grizzly River. Getting soaked standing on the bridge over the Old Mill Scream (I would never ride that). The odd horror of riding 3-D Era Chaos as a small child. The fun horror of riding Blacklight Era Chaos and pretending that I was Han Solo. Getting scared by the ghouls on Halloween. Seeing all the pretty lights on Christmas. Getting a cool charicature drawn of me as Gambit, and one that made me look like DJ circa 1990. Having one of my 1st grade friends threaten to stop the friendship if I wouldn't ride the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster with him.

Man, Opryland totally ruled and now that I actually have friends, I can only imagine the possibilities. Oprymills sucks, but that goes without saying.

After that, I really loved Disney World. I have a theory about Disney World though: does everyone have a horror story associated with that trip? My parents almost split up right in front of me, leaving my chubby bowl-cutted 10 year old self to sob uncontrollably in MGM on a bench. Huh...but it was fun.

The Marvel Islands' of Adventure at Universal totally ruled. I mean, I pole-danced on Wolverine's claws! I was on a natural high for that entire day and I bought way too much Marvel memorabilia...some of which was bent/ripped when our bus got in a wreck on the way to a hotel. Huh...

Well, theme parks usually bring some bad moments, but the good outweighs it. Man, I miss Opryland...

(Edited by DigsySlattery at 11:10 pm on Jun. 9, 2003)

I basically loved every ride except for The Hangman, on which I had one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, and The Little Deuce Coupe. Chaos had its great times and its bad, Rockin' Roller Coaster was the greatest, Old Mill Scream was wonderful, Screamin' Delta Demon was fantastic, Wabash Cannonball was great, Grizzly was good other than the line which I rarely had the time or patience to wait in, Floom Zoom/Dulcimer Splash was great, too...am I leaving anything out? Oh, I liked the swings too (Tennessee Waltz) . Opryland's french fries were the best too, and Dippin' Dots. ...poor Opryland...

I have such fond childhood memories of that place. It would seem like we were going on a five hour trip to get there just because I was so excited and anxious the whole car ride with my parents and siblings.

I loved loved loved Opryland. Many days of many summers of my youth were spent there. *sigh* We would take a field trip there every year in grade school. The Floom Zoom was one of my favorites too.
Do you remember how you would stand on that bridge waiting to get soaked? And you would always have squishy shoes and wrinkley toes from being soaked all day. That's my first thought when I hear Opryland- wrinkley toes! And I loved Little Deuce Coupe(the spinning tea cup ride) that was inside and you got to cool off...and get sick from all of that spinning! Remember the Chaos lady's voice saying, "Please move quickly....your time is running out." Ok, enough nostalgia.

"Please move quickly to the exits, your time is running out."

I find myself saying that sometimes. I also remember the gajillion clocks that were hung in there and the constant ticking was enough to drive you crazy. One year they were gone...someone may have gone crazy...

Did it get stuck while you were on it?

No, it's just that I weighed about seventy or eighty pounds, and the harness was about a foot away from my body. I feared for my life because I thought I was going to fall out, and this was before they put handles on the harnesses, so I was holding onto my brother while crying and screaming. Yeah, it was not fun, but I was also very young.

Has anyone else been to Cedar Pointe? I only lasted like two or three rides and got sick...real sick. We had to leave the park sick..you get the point. But because of this fact, I want to go back and face it again. I swear I will make it to four rides this time!

Man that bear in the Grizzly River Rampage scared the crap out of me. I always had to close my eyes during that part. Does anyone remember in the really old days of Opryland how they had people walking around in General Mills costumes? Instead of Micky and Minnie, we had Count Chocula and the bee from Honey Nut Cheerios. Opryland was so wussy, but so charming. It was awesome.

My parents got in a huge fight at Disney World too. They're divorced now (unrelated to that incident, as far as I know).

I believe I might remember the honey bee...but then, I may be too young to have experienced those days of Opryland.

I totally remember that Keith. I always thought it was cool. The mummy was there too. I'm sure foldsfan would remember the other ones since he talked about it in the cereal thread a while back.

It is late... and I've had a hard night... and so I feel justified in doing this...

Dah-Dah-Dah.... DOLLYWOOD!

I never went to Dollywood. I always wanted to though. Instead, we went to the go-kart places in Gatlinburg. They ruled.

Wow, I guess that explains why I have a picture of myself with Count Chocula. Crazy...

Now I want some Count Chocula...

Two words: KING'S ISLAND. It's easily better than any of the Six Flags parks. And yeah, Cedar Point is cool, but it's too far away to drive to from here. King's Island is the shit, especially if you like roller coasters. And I do - for several years, I was a member of ACE - American Coaster Enthusiasts, America's one and only roller coaster fan club. My favorite roller coaster, the Beast, is at King's Island, as well many other great ones.

Where do I begin? I miss Opryland so much this time of year. It's true that their roller coasters were weak, but at least they were roller coasters. And what I could really use this time of year are some water rides. I was never really into going to spend a whole day at the park. What I would do with my season pass was go to the park at about 4 or 5 pm on a week day and just hang out there at night. That way, it wasn't so crowded or so hot. You could get a nice frozen beverage and just relax. I can't tell you how many times that at 5 or 6 pm, when no one knows what to do and my friends and I are bored, that I wish we could just get in the car and head over to Opryland.

Have ya'll seen wasted-off-butter.com's Opryland Memorial? Click on the box that's second from the left on the top row.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 3:53 am on Jun. 10, 2003)

I completely agree, JC. Six Flags is a bunch of chump roller coasters... while it's very easy for me to attend Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and have a good time, I'd much rather go the extra mileage in order to go to King's Island. And even though King's Island is more expensive than six flags, you end up getting more for your money, by far. The Beast is a great ride, as is the Little Beastie... Top Gun is fun, too, though overrated... but regardless, I love me some King's Island.

isn't it "please move quickly through the STATION, your time is running out" ? I could be wrong.

remember when the lights would be messed up & you'd have to ride chaos with all the lights on?

Well, let's face it - it was this lack of roller coasters that caused Opryland to shut down. The park was losing money and Gaylord had no real clue as to save it (they didn't want to take the leap financially to build anything new even though that's always the key to a park's survival). They even had a supposed offer from Six Flags to purchase the park, but Six Flags wanted the land behind the then smaller Opryland Hotel to expand, but Gaylord wouldn't have this (and have since expanded the hotel). Season tickets are the lifeblood of an amusement park and in the end the park was largely attended by out of towners and old folks wanting to see the shows and that doesn't support the bills. They need the kids to keep coming back, buying food and stuff, all summer.

Six Flags might not be up there with Cedar Point, but like that park, they continue to build new coasters every two years. Six Flags Magic Mountain (north of LA) is actually now the leading park in the country for roller coasters. They even surpassed Cedar Point.

Chaos was an interesting creature. I vividly remember when it opened, and it was amazing in a certain sersory-overload kind of way, though the actual ride itself was pretty uninspiring. The 3D Glasses were a nice touch.

I think ultimately how great of a ride it was varied according to how well the video screens/lights were working. When it first opened, you had the giant circular screens on the ceiling and the floor as you spiraled upward, and then all of the smaller screens as you went back down. If I remember correctly, the big circular screens started having problems the first or second season it was open. After a couple of years of those screens working and not working, they eventually just left them turned off, so it was just spiraling upwards in the darkness. After a couple of more years, even the smaller screens and strobe lights on the way down started to malfunction, and eventually, they just left those turned off, so the whole ride was just a darkride. But despite all of its problems, I did love Chaos in a certain kind of way, although it does turn my stomach when I think about the millions upon millions of dollars that Opryland spent to build it when they could've built a really impressive "regular" roller coaster with that money. Chaos was one of the only Opryland rides that didn't get relocated to another park when it closed.

I just turned in a 28 page paper on Disneyland. I'm thinking in terms of amusement parks.

I believe it's called "Music Valley Fair." (I'm guessing this because it's on Music Valley Drive.) It's not associated with Opryland or Gaylord Entertainment. It's owned by the same guy who owns Grand Ole Golf. I don't think he was trying to replace Opryland. Instead, he realized that there are no amusement-park-type places in Middle Tennessee so he was trying to fill the void.

Does anyone remember Magic World in Pigeon Forge? That place rocked! They had a little park with these stupid plaster dinosaurs. However, they gave the park educational value so we could take field trips there. Now the place is a deluxe miniture golf course.

it was like i lost my childhood when opryland closed. i wouldnt even stop to eat or go to the bathroom, or even to the petting zoo, while there. i remember the first time i was tall enough to go on screamin delta demon, and it was kind of a let down because it was so short. i remember going on the old mill scream with friends and us looking at each other every time as we were ascending and saying, "why are we doing this!? why do we continue to put ourselves through this torture?? we could die!" and then riding it again. remember the kiddie play area [before it turned into that huge play island] with the huge netted rooms of balls and the soft pyramid that you could climb to the top of? my toes used to get cuts under them from me climbing that thing over and over. i even really enjoyed the kid-rockin roller coaster through an age where it was no longer acceptable to do it in front of your friends- it really took your stomach! here is the order that i would do everything [if i skipped the sky ride and wore my bathing suit with umbros]:

dulcimer slide
screamin delta demon
[stopping only for a moment to see those amazing puppets with the sticks attached to the hands that my parents never bought me]
old mill scream
wabash cannonball [one of my favorites]
kiddie park
tin lizzies
swings
bumper cars [only when in the mood for injury]
grizzly river rampage
chaos
rockin roller coaster
[and cool down with] little deuce coupe
if i had time, i would do the screamin delta demon again on my way out because there were exits from the park from it.

i never did the hangman because the lines were always too long- and i had done similar rides at other theme parks and found them to be anticlimactic.

i will never forgive opry/gaylord, ever, ever. it was like something was stolen from me. its also really upsetting to know that even though opryland kind of sucked, and other people have been to cooler amusement parks, i can never show them opryland. it might as well have been my elementary school or something, its just that significant.

and yes, it was, "please move quickly through the station, your time is running out." which just made you more anxious and hostile to the white trash that dabbled while in line and left a big gap so that you couldnt move a little closer to see the inside with the neon lights.

p.s. come home soon etcetera!

(Edited by stopforme at 11:30 am on Jun. 10, 2003)

Wow, what class was that for?

Too much has been said for me to respond to regarding Opryland. Nothing I'd have said would have been new apart from these two items:

My favorite Opryland memory was of going with my good friend when both of us were terrified of roller coasters. We broke up from my family and reunited for lunch. At lunch, we told them we'd gone on Hangman and loved it. So they asked us to ride it again, and we did, just to spite them. I've had a roller coaster obsession ever since.

The Hangman is now at Six Flags Marine world in California. It is called Kong and is unchanged from its old form. The rest of Opryland's rides were bought by a park in Indiana that I've heard never opened, so all of Opryland's rides are sitting in peices in a field somewhere, rusting away. I'd love to go visit.

Will

History of the Modern American City, and the research paper didn't have to be that long. I just got carried away because I'm a nerd.

My only pronounced memory of Opryland is the Grizzly River Rampage, which I liked because it would splash me and cool me off when it was 95 degrees. I always looked for the "bear" in the cave but could never see it. All my friends told me they could see it but I maintain it was just a disembodied growl in a dark cave.

(Edited by etcetera at 7:29 am on Jun. 11, 2003)

I'm assuming I'm the only one here that actually worked at Opryland? I worked there back in 93 and had to stay in a coke cart for half the summer getting stung on a regular basis by the bees that would swarm around the leaky pink lemonade machine. Cleaning the cart at night was an especially nice treat and the smell that is produced the next day when you decided to skip the said cleaning was a great way to start the morning.

The only treat of working there was getting into the park for free. I would often use lunch time to ride Chaos multiple times. JC's right, the first season they had the screens working in the big room but the lower one continually got pounded by folks who would sneak drinks onto the ride. The screens were too expensive to fix so they just eliminated them. What came next was the dark room with loud, threatening music. It worked okay, created a sense of dread, but that couldn't quite compare to the odd, creepy feeling the screens with their giant ticking clocks produced. I also noticed that it seemed the speed of the ride varied, that on some rides the brakes would kick in too soon slowing down the ride before it even got to the normal breaking area. I often wondered if it had anything to do with the operator (I always assumed that operators really had nothing to do with the ride other than starting it with that big green button, but who knows).

The braking is generally set, but the brakes can be altered daily during the test runs according to how the coaster is running (based on temperature and humidity), or how many trains the ride is using that day (based on anticipated crowd volume). But once the braking is set for the day, the operator does just push buttons to start the ride/release the restraints/etc.

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 9:33 am on Jun. 11, 2003)

Did you learn all that from your roller coaster fan club?

did your cart have those fruit juice drinks that were kept in the fruit shaped bottles? those were awesome...

I'd forgotten those! Those were great!

I also loved the music on Chaos... it was awesome.

Will

Shut up, Keith.

No, mine sold just cokes and pink lemonade along with some frozen ice cream bar-type things.

My most vivid memory of Opryland is of the time that bastard richarddawson convinced me to ride the little deuce coupe.
I got sick... real sick.

I wish there was an emoticon for giving someone the finger because if there was richarddawson would be getting it right about now.

What about the time that black dude stole your wallet?

i dont think ive ever been to opryland. i suddenly feel very deprived. i have been to just about every six flags in the south (and chicago) though. i hate theme parks. probably because i used to go so often that it wasnt a treat anymore. it also might have to do with my fear of roller coasters. i had a very horrible experiance at age 6 and havent been on one since. i was thinking about things i wouldnt do for 100 bucks the other day and ride a roller coaster was one of them. that would be a good thread.

That's probably because you were about two when they shut it down.

psh. i was like eight.

Eight? Wow... I feel old.

Seriously Rachel, get up the nerve and ride a coaster. I was like 12 or 13 when I finally came around... and I regret the mistakes of those 12 or 13 years.

Will

actually, i dont know. i remember it being shut down for a mall and i dont think i would remember that if i was two.

and i have ridden a roller coaster. just once. shudder.