Resurrection!
Mike Lippart sent in a note last week, and it looks like a miracle has happened:You might already know this as I am sure you have been told, but Action Park has been re-opened (2008?) under the more bland Mountain Creek Waterpark (http://www.mountaincreek.com/). Many of the same attractions are still there…Cannonball, Tarzan Swing, the diving cliffs, and even the wave pool. They have also cranked the safety up, reducing the drop of many of the slides and reducing the depth of the wave pool (it once was 10 feet deep, now it is 6 or so). I have been told by a friend that the Cannonball still empties into a “frozen lagoon”, as per his words. He also woke up the next day with various dings and cuts, and an “epic soreness” everywhere, although his kids had a blast.
Interesting to note that the water is so cold because the pools there (also for the Tarzan Swing) are fed from the mountain’s natural springs. Yes I stole that from the Wikipedia page, so take that as you may.
They still also have the water ride with the loop in it.
This made me curious so I looked up the water park in Wikipedia. Here's the skinny:
In 1977 the owners of the Vernon Valley/Great Gorge ski area decided to follow a trend that other resorts of this era had done by putting in an alpine slide to draw people to the area during its offseason. The next year it opened an amusement park (Action Park) on the premises with various attractions, the majority of which were water-based such as waterslides and pools. Action Park quickly became one of the most popular destinations for residents of the surrounding area, as there were not many amusement parks— and certainly not many water parks— in the New York metropolitan area. Its popularity, however, went hand in hand with a reputation for poorly-designed, unsafe (yet thrilling) rides; inattentive, underage, underpaid and sometimes under-the-influence employees; equally intoxicated and underprepared visitors that rarely paid attention to the rules that were posted and explained to them — and the poor safety record that followed from this perfect storm of circumstances. This, along with various other factors including the bankruptcy of its parent company, resulted in Action Park shutting down in 1997 (although its last operating day was Labor Day 1996).
Due to the bankruptcy the Vernon Valley half of the ski area was sold to Intrawest, which renamed the resort Mountain Creek in 1997. Intrawest then began to redevelop the former Action Park property it was now in possession of, and in 1998 with a renewed emphasis on safety most of the old "Waterworld" at Action Park was reopened as Mountain Creek Waterpark. The water attractions were now equipped with warning signs and the Alpine slide, which was removed at the end of the 1998 season, required riders to wear safety equipment.
From 2002 to 2011, during the summer season, Palace Entertainment operated the water park. Palace Entertainment is the US Branch of Parques Reunidos, which manages and owns many other parks globally as of 2007. Management of the Water Park has now been turned over to Crystal Springs Resort.
So there you have it. Action Park was barely even closed before it reopened under a different name, although it apparently lost much of its incredibly dangerous nature in the process.
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