Westland Point originally opened in 1980 under the ownership of William Hapstall. Original concept plans presented the project as an entertainment complex which would have included a zoo, an amusement park, shopping district and campground. Hapstall got the idea for such a project from Warner LeRoy who had opened Great Adventure a few years prior; the two would later become business partners.
Before plans could be approved for construction to began, Hapstall needed to find a location. He knew that he wanted an area that captured natural beauty, i.e., an area that had a dense tree line and nice lake to adequately represent the overall theme of the complex which would be that of an "Enchanted Forest". In 1978, construction began on the first of the complex, the zoo. Originally, Hapstall wanted the zoo to be the main focus of the complex, occupying nearly half of the 80 acre site. Over the next year and a half, the complex took form and after 20 months of construction, Westland Point was complete.
The public wasn't too thrilled with lengthy construction of Westland Point but, on July 1, 1980, the complex held a grand opening ceremony and received rave reviews from the general public. The 80 acre complex included a 38 acre zoo and wildlife park, 15 acre amusement park, 17 acres of campgrounds situated near West Point Lake and a 10 acre entertainment venue, which included various shops, restaurants and a theatre. In 1988, the Westland Point decided to close the campground in favor of an expansion to the zoo/wildlife and amusement park areas of the complex.
In 1990, Westland Point opened Rolling Thunder, a dueling wooden coaster, as well as an assortment of other attractions and two new wildlife exhibits. Although Hapstall's main focus was the promotion of nature and wildlife, the crowds took an exceptional liking to Rolling Thunder which brought attendance and annual revenue to an all time, record high. In 1993, Westland Points nearby competitor, Busch Gardens, opened their newest thrill ride, Kumba. Hapstall quickly realized that in order to keep guests at Westland, he had to do his best to one-up Busch Gardens newest addition. Upon this realization, Hapstall contacted the manufacturer of Kumba, Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), in search of something that would have crowds raving once again. The following year, ThunderHawk opened and sent attendance through the roof once more. ThunderHawk, now to be known as Goblin's Revenge, was a 180 foot inverted coaster that featured six inversions and flew at speeds of over 60mph.
In 1995, the fate of Westland Point became unknown after William Hapstall suddenly passed away. With no one in place to take over ownership, Hapstall's business partner, Warner LeRoy, assumed the role has President and CEO for a brief period of time before selling Westland Point to Six Flags in 1998. By this time, Six Flags had ownership of LeRoy's Great Adventure after it was sold to them by Penn Central in 1992. No changes were made to Westland Point for the first year as a Six Flags property.
In 1999, Six Flags announced that Westland Point would re-open as "Six Flags Westland Point" for the 2000 season, they also announced that the wildlife section of the park would be removed as guests in that area were more interested in the rides section of the complex. This year also brought the addition of Deja Vu, a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang, as well as a full park rebrand. In 2002, plans were submitted for a large, new thrill ride but, before plans could be approved, Six Flags had to sign a newly enforced 10 year property lease; having no doubt about the success of Westland Point, they signed and over the next 10 years the park doubled in size.
Despite the success of this park, Six Flags decided not to renew their 10 year lease and announced that the park would close at the end of the 2012 season. The public, as well as city officials, were shocked to hear this news as Six Flags did not announce their reasoning for no longer wanting to continue with this park. For next 4 years, Westland Point stood silent; city officials opted not to demolish the remainder of the park in hopes of finding a new owner.
On May 7, 2016, it was announced that Westland Point had been purchased by Dechlave Theme Park Entertainment. The deal included, 180 acres, 4 coasters and other smaller rides and every remaining structure in the park. Dechlave stated they plan to invest 50million dollars to renovate, refurbish and re-open Westland Point.
PLAZA DE CARNIVAL -Main Entrance -Various Shops and Restaurants -Midway Games -Delirium (Giant Frisbee Ride) -Windseeker (Mondial Windseeker) -Skywheel (Chance Double Ferris Wheel) -Spinsanity (Themed Tea Cup Ride)
MARVEL COMIC VILLE -Goblin's Revenge (B&M Invert) -Rise of the Silver Surfer (B&M Hyper) -Captain America: the Ride (Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang) -The Vulture (Custom Vekoma MK1200) -Falcon's Fury (Intamin SkyJump) -Daredevil Stunt Fall (S&S Shot Towers) -Ironman's Ring of Flight (Larson Super Loop) -Storm Surge (Scrambler Ride) -Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (4D Dark Ride)
FRONTIER VALLEY -Medusa! (Arrow Custom Mega-Looper) ***WILL NOT OPEN WITH THE PARK*** -Sidewinder (Gerstlauer Spinning Coaster Model 380/4) -Frontier Forger (Zierer Custome Tivoli Model Family Coaster) -Buccaneer (Zamperla Swinging Ship Ride) -Wave Swinger (Spinning Swing Ride) -Lakeview Racer (Classic Racing Wooden Coaster) ***ONLY ONE SIDE WILL OPEN WITH THE PARK*** -Barnstormer (S&S Screamin' Swing) -Viking (Premier LIM Shuttle Loop) -Wild Rider (Troika Ride)
***CREDITS*** -Main Testing by zacattack -Additional Testing by Coasterkidmwm -Trees, Flowers and Foliage by nSeven -Game and Food Stalls, Photo Booths, Restrooms and Fences by Plantoris -Windseeker, Screamin Swing and On-Ride Cameras by Projektion -Some of the 3d buildings - Sketchup Warehouse -Premier LIM Shuttle Coaster by the No Limits Team (NL1 Import) -Wooden Coaster by cool5 -Larson Loop by TheCodeMaster -Miscellaneous Scenery Contributes by ByeTom (paths) & Mkj442 *And any/everyone else who's made any contributions to this park...THANK YOU ALL, IT'S MUCH APPRECITATED*
This park yet again was pretty expansive, I don't own a good enough computer to really do the park justuce - but I can really see you've tried to optimise this as best as you can so no complaints on that front if I'm honest.
The overall feel of the park was good, ti felt busy without being too expansive, everywhere felt filled and you had a really good mix of attractions, flats and coasters. There was a nice spread of adult rides and less intense rides - one thing I'd have liked to see in the future is basing the younger area much closer to the entrance gate. Kids don't like walking far - the area should definitely represent that (for examples see where Alton Towers and Drayton Manor put their kid's areas!)
I think you managed to effectivly "American" theme everything, it was all fairly unique in comparison to other, although nothing really had a strong theme to speak of. Granted excessive themeing would have killed FPS but it's certainly an area of improvement in terms of the park.
I felt the coasters were reasonable, all felt a little bit too... stock. There didn't really seem to be any major rides that stood out as innovative or special (unlike some of your other creations) and that somewhat disappointed me. The rides that I rode had some significant trackwork issues such as pumping and some odd shaping. I'd also argue you didn't really stick to (current) shaping and style of some of the rides, noticable the B&M Giga which I think needed the non-staggered seating to work with the layout (and some slightly intamin airtime!)
Again, you've achived the creation of another full park, which is certainly to be commended - and it's good to see you improving aspects of your park each time!
I have enjoyed each of your parks as they've come along, and each has been an improvement over the last. This is no exception. While few things in life are perfect, this is a really strong collection of coasters that is presented in an attractive and realistic way. Your storylines add much to the overall experience and your work more than supports your imagination.
It's really quite a big park so I'm just going to keep it general and quick. You know from my testing notes that I truly could not find much to fault, nothing big anyway. There's almost always room for improvement, but I love to see that you really do learn quickly and put the knowledge to good use. Things like the shaping on the Arrows are noticeably better than last time, as is ride placement. It is easy to imagine this as a real park with a real line up of coasters.
So yeah, well done. I look forward to testing and riding for the next one. Sorry I'm late with my rate and I hope you get others; you really deserve to get some comments and constructive criticism on this large and well-done project. I look forward to seeing the Arrow mega looper with its new colors and trains.
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