Cedar Point to add dinosaur attraction
8/19/2011SANDUSKY — Cedar Point will build a $1 million animatronic dinosaur exhibit on a four-acre wooded island near the back of the park next year and will add a mat-racer slide complex to its adjacent water park, the amusement park announced Friday.
However, tickets for the walk-through journey back in time to visit about 50 life-sized moving dinosaurs in the planned “Dinosaurs Alive!” attraction will extract an extra $5 bite from park-goers wallets, park officials said.
The dinosaurs in the exhibit will roar and move, and each will be handcrafted and covered with skin-like materials that will replicate their external features, park officials said. In addition, four of the dinosaurs will have interactive consoles to allow guests to guide their movements and create an up-close look at how these dinosaurs moved their arms, tail, eyes, and mouth.
“We are extremely excited about introducing Dinosaurs Alive! to our guests next summer,” John Hildebrandt, vice president and general manager of Cedar Point, said in a written statement. “Our guests will have the opportunity to visit the Jurassic Age up close and see some of the amazing creatures that called it home. Dinosaurs Alive! will be educational but fun, too.”
The approximately three dozen types of dinosaurs that will be on exhibit will range in size and height from a Ruyangosaurus that will stand nearly 40 feet tall and 72 feet long to an Angustinaripterus that will only be two feet tall and eight feet long. The interactive exhibit, which will replace the pioneer-themed Paddlewheel Excursion, will include a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Irratator, Baryonyx and Spinosaurus, the largest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs. A plated Stegosaurus and three-horned
Triceratops will also inhabit the island along its half-mile-long path that will allow guests to explore underneath several of the larger dinosaurs providing what the park called “a very intimate encounter with the prehistoric beasts.”
Next to Cedar Point, the Soak City waterpark will add a new mat-racer complex that will offer racers a speedy ride through a series of dips and plateaus, park officials said.
Contact Larry P. Vellequette at:
lvellequette@theblade.com or
419-724-6091