Yes, without a doubt. Steve Herrell introduced the concept of super premium ice cream and it stood out, and spawned a flurry of new super premium ice cream shops in the Boston area. The mix-ins were just bonus.
I never went there as a kid, but did several times as an adult, when friends of ours had little kids. It was a cute little amusement park.
Gone now; a dispute between the owners of the land and the operators of the park ultimately led to its closure. It closed in 2009, and was demolished, with a Costco then built on the property.
Oh, a different kind of fantasyland.
One quasi-tourist activity that I did a few times as a child and teenager with my parents in the 1960e and 1970s, living in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein: Butterfahrten (literally, butter cruises). You boarded an excursion ship at the Baltic coast, and when the ship had left German territorial waters you could buy cheap Danish butter tariff free, and German goods like spirits and cigarettes excise tax free. Us children were taken along because we counted towards the legal quota per person. For the participants this less about doing the taxman one in the eye, and more about an outing, so it counts as tourism.
Later EU legislation first made these excursions more onerous (from the 1980s the ship needed call at a foreign port, which was effected by entering a Danish port, making a line fast to a bollard and immediately casting off), and since the full Single Market the tax saving model became inoperable. Butterfahrten ended in the 1990s.
The activity was immortalized by a contemporary song by Torfrock (song in German, I’m afraid)
That one is great!
Well, if we’re going to talk about Ice cream parlors, let me throw Greg’s Ice Cream of, again, Toronto, into the mix.
This place opened in 1981 and was at a very central location, on Bloor Street near the corner with Avenue Road, across from the Royal Ontario Museum. When you went in, it was in a shallow basement unit as I recall, slightly dark, but set up like a classic milk bar. They had far and away the best non-Italian ice cream I’ve had in my life. Better even that Laura Secord’s ice cream and that’s saying much. The cost was a bit more than an average ice cream, but worth every penny.
There was a whiteboard listing their varying “flavors of the moment.” A few of these were standard, quite a few were very original. For example, they had a very smooth Green Tea flavored ice cream. One very popular selection (well, I think it was up on the menu all the time) was “Coffee Toffee”. I really liked their peppermint and one that was called something like Chocolate Frost (basically like a low-content chocolate and maybe a bit creamy).
They later moved to a premises down the street at Bloor and Spadina. There were lineups outside it. Sadly, the shop didn’t survive the COVID-19 pandemic and closed after a good 39-year run.
Yes, this is a common pattern at the Disney parks. Something that can be exploited, will be exploited (then removed). (I’m thinking of the various free seminars that many of the Florida parks, at least, have had, over the years—wine tasting, drawing-the-characters lessons, etc. None remain so far as I know.)
Sadly I’ve been on a budget so tight over the past decade that I haven’t been back in that time—but this amazes me. A chain coffee shop!!! How low!
Another example; the parks used to allow disabled guests and their families to jump the ride queues. I went to Disney World with my brother, his wife and children and our mother in 2008. My mother hadn’t had her knee replacement surgey yet, so walking was difficult. So we rented an electric scooter for her. They allowed our entire party to go directly to the front of the queue. Since then, people abused that kindness by, as I remember, hiring people pretending to be disabled relatives. I believe the rule was changed so that the disabled guest could wait at the front of the queue while the rest of the family worked its way through the regular line. We wouldn’t have wanted to be separated like that.
Yes to all that. A couple of decades ago I recall seeing a party of about 20 kids—teens or college-age. Ten were in rental wheelchairs, and the other ten pushed. I watched them pull into a semi-open area (by the Shooting Gallery in WDW’s Frontierland, as it happens) and switch—the ten pushing got into the chairs, and the ten who’d been riding, now pushed.
Enough of that open abuse of the system, and Disney would get sick of people complaining about it.
It’s a shame that people like your party, who didn’t abuse the system and really needed it, got the door slammed in your faces (so to speak).
It has been a couple years since we went back, but I walk with a cane, and my wife and I are senior citizens. I had Cast members pull us out of the regular line to put into handicapped, and when we asked about handicapped, no CM demurred. Of course, there were only the two of us.
The advent of social media meant that a) any “clever hack” (read cheat) became known to millions, not just the extra scammy extra selfish dozens who’d each come up with it independently. And b) it normalized the idea of cheat codes that weren’t cheating, but were just “doing it the smart way”.
Doesn’t matter if it’s lines at Disney, all you can eat accessory bars at restaurants, airline miles, etc. When everyone knows how to game the system, and thinks that gaming is OK, the system must collapse under the weight of the gamesmanship.
It’s like the proverbial “all you can eat” buffet where everyone shows up with a guitar case they intend to fill with fried chicken. Ain’t gonna work … for long.
Some of those hacks are/were legit, but certainly not intended to be used by so many. Even IN&OUT has limited it’s so-called “secret menu”, iirc, The “10X10” is now not always available.
“Service Animals” has had it’s heart ripped out by assholes. Most started legit.
Last time I went, 2 or so years ago, my mom who normally uses a walker rented a wheelchair since she often has to sit down suddenly and a wheelchair is easier to do that in. We went to the front of the line for all the rides that she was able to go on. For some of them we had to wait until the handicapped-ready boat came around, so it didn’t always save us time.
But except for maybe Pirates of the Caribbean, none of the ones she wanted to and was able to go on had that long a line anyway. It’s not like we went to the very front of the line for Space Mountain and saved ourselves an hours wait.
The last time we went to Farrells in the mid-80s we had a bit of zany excitement. We went for the burgers, which we liked, and intended on ordering one of the more ordinary sundaes. Shortly after the food arrived I noticed all of the front-end crew was missing. As I was contemplating this one of the servers came out of the kitchen and made a phone call. When she returned to the kitchen a few wisps of smoke escaped through the swinging door before it closed.
We were pretty restive by now and less than a minute later everyone left the kitchen accompanied by more smoke. Our server came over and said, “Um, would you mind leaving, like right now? Don’t worry about paying.” We picked up our burgers and walked through the entrance just as the fire trucks arrived. “Lunch and a show.”
The submarines at West Edmonton Mall.
"The legendary submarine ride at West Edmonton Mall, known as the Deep Sea Adventure, was permanently dismantled and recycled in 2012. The iconic 38-tonne vessels were removed due to aging infrastructure and declining ridership, though the lake itself remains a central mall feature.
A quick look back at this iconic attraction:
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Opening: The ride debuted in 1985 as part of the mall’s Phase III expansion.
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The Fleet: The mall boasted four yellow, 38-tonne submarines, famously claiming at the time to have more submarines than the actual Canadian Navy.
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The Experience: Passengers took a 25-minute underwater tour on a submerged track, viewing artificial marine decor, sunken ships, and live aquatic life through portholes.
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Closure: The submarines ceased operation in June 2005. After sitting idle for years, they were cut up and removed from the lake entirely in March 2012."
I always wanted to visit that place.
Guess why?
I’ve been to the original Steve’s in Somerville. I also went to theone in Salt Lake City after they franchized it (and Steve had gone).
If you’re interested in his ice cream, you should know that the original Steve Herrell opened a new ice cream parlor in Northampton, Massachusetts (and another in North Amherst) called “Herrell’s”, where you can get his original stuff. Worth a visit
I’ve never been there but yesterday Defunctland posted a 48-minute video on Celebration City in Branson.
Yanno, maybe they ought to open an attraction called Defunctland. Which houses a museum of the decrepit remains of long dead amusement parks.
Kinda like this place is for signage:
I think that’s an understatement. I’m aware of Herrell’s but haven’t eaten there in forever. I’m a regular visitor of Boston area premium ice cream parlors - fortunately we have many to choose from.