The Abandoned History of The Two Miracle Strip Amusement Parks & Florida's Lost/First Rollercoaster
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ค. 2024
- Join us on Expedition Extinct as we look up the lost history of Florida's First Rollercoaster - Starliner and the abandoned history of two Miracle Strip Amusement Parks. Originally created in 1963 this classic rollercoaster by John Allen operated for 40 years successfully until the closure of the original park led to a world of trouble as it moved, closed again, and was put into storage. Never to be seen again.
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Credits -
Check out the National Rollercoaster Museum here - rollercoastermuseum.org/
Special thank you to
Theme Park Review - / themeparkreview
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What’s the oldest rollercoaster you have been on?
Big dipper at the pleasure beach
Vampire it cwoa in the uk
Coney Island Cyclone or Zippin Pippin (i dont really count ZP as being over 100 years old although some do)
Jackrabbit at Kennywood 101 years this year
The Big Dipper for me too. Still a bloody good time.
It's so sad and frustrating that most small parks can no longer stay afloat due to greedy landowners and developers.
Your inclusion of period video and ads truly elevates these videos to the next level. Always super enthused when one appears in my feed!
Good pun I like it. Thanks for watching
I agree. They're top-notch
I understand this episode was all about the starliner, but as a kid from Georgia who's family vacationed in Panama City every year, let's take a moment of silence for all of the rides at miracle strip. That park was my childhood. I'll never get to share that with my children. All we have left is the memories. Dante's inferno, musical Express, the abominable snowman. Rootin tootin shootin, the log flume, the shock wave, The haunted castle ride and the haunted house, the spider, the bullet, the swings, the ferris wheel, route 65, the train and of course the starliner. I will remember these rides always. Rest in peace, miracle strip amusement park. I and many others will never forget you.
Truly a shame. People will never know the pure joy of going to MSAP and then end the night walking up and down the Strip with a unobstructed view of the most beautiful beaches and water!! Cheers to all my Brothers and Sisters who got to enjoy it!!!
I say the same thing every time I go to PCB now. We went to MSAP every year growing up. I loved that place!
I'm a Panama City native and Starliner was my first coaster ever. I'm so sad that it has disappeared 🥺
it's a big shame
Exactly
I’m a native also
Native PC too. Live in East Tennessee now. That was the one and only roller coaster I’ve ever been on. I lived there for 32 years. I had the time of my life at Miracle Strip back in the day.
Now we have riots on the beach. SMH I had a lot of fun times crusin the strip as a kid.
I am native aswell but I assure you the Starliner will rise from the ashes again like a Phoenix and be built again someday and rise to it's former glory and beyond🌠
I've literally ridden the Starliner hundreds of times. It was my very first coaster and will always be one of my favorites because it, and all of Miracle Strip will always hold a special place in my heart. This coaster and park represent some of my fondest childhood memories.
Glad you got to ride it
This one hurt when I seen it close. The Miracle Strip was a huge part of my childhood and these rides are some of my oldest memories.
You should do a video on Africa U.S.A. that was in Boca Raton, Florida. You can still see remnants of it in our neighborhood. (Bridge, fall, geyser) There were even roaming peacocks into the 90's and we still occasionally have flocks of parrots. Really cool history. Bettie Page posed with the cheetahs from the park and it's one of her most famous photo shoots.
It’s on my list for the future!
Can confirm! Ive seen it myself!
I have family in Boca and go there often. Let me know if I can get any footage for you. I have no idea where it's even at.
Man, I worked at Miracle Strip my senior year of high school in 2003. Such a fun job, so many great memories from that place. Still have my goofy "yearbook" that they gave all the workers at the end of the season.
Nearly every summer of my childhood was spent at this amusement park; such a fun place!
I grew up vacationing in Panama City Beach, and we went to Miracle Strip and Shipwreck Island many times. The property is still abandoned and a sad reminder of the fun that used to be found there. The water park is still thriving, so I wholeheartedly believe the amusement park would be as well if it still existed. Thanks for posting this video, it was really fun to watch and remember the good days.
Thank you for watching, glad I could help revisit some memories
1000% agree that the amusement park would be going great. We just went to shipwreck island this past may and it was packed.
My mom grew up in Panama City and I rode this coaster as a kid. I hadn’t thought about these memories in years. Thank you for this video.
I’m pleased I got to ride Starliner in the early-1990s, when it was still at the original Miracle Strip Amusement Park. Miracle Strip was a great amusement park. Their take on enclosing common rides like scrambler and trabant in a sculpted building that looked like an abominable snowman and devil, and adding mirrors, disco lights and loud music, made for a unique ride experience not found anywhere else. What a wonderful place Miracle Strip was.
It had some classic for sure
I got to ride it as well as a child. This video brought back some nostalgia!
Exactly
Brings back memories
Honestly the Lego Group should've kept the StarLiner. Because of how old it was it should've been considered a historical site of sorts.
Agreed!
Lego don't have much to do with legoland parks they are run by merlin entertainments
That was true until a year or two ago where Lego then bought Merlin entertainment so they actually own their parks again
@@99sharkbate oh
@@99sharkbate The lego investing group bought a stake, but the Lego group still does not operate the parks. Legoland employees are still Merlin employees.
Oh wow, you knocked some memories loose. My grandparents lived in Panama City in the '90s and I spent a couple of summers there and went to Miracle Strip a LOT. That devil head was so iconic and the dragon mouth on Star Liner was a Total Recall moment for me.
Awesome you got to ride it at Panama
The devil's head was called Dante's Inferno fyi
Lived in PCB for 18 years and rode the Starliner many times. I then moved to Orlando and happened to be at Cypress Gardens and was surprised to see the coaster there. So I have rode the Starliner at both locations. Very cool part of Florida and PCB history.
He actually did this one! Was super excited for it.
I am always impressed how you make such well documented stories about theme parks and rides that i don't even know about. I had no nostalgic investment in this story, but you really captured a satisfying emotional narrative about a historic ride.
I lived near Panama City beach as a kid and went to this park multiple times. I remember having a lot of fun there. Thank you for taking me down memory lane with this video!
I’m so glad you got to this one. It’s always overlooked. This was the park of my childhood. I miss this place so much
I'm so happy you did a video on Starliner and Miracle Strip! I will say though that even though the tribute park that opened later shutdown due to the eviction there is another park in its place again! Its called Swampy Jack's Wongo Adventure, and they pay homage to a few of the old Miracle Strip attractions there like The Abominable Snowman and Dante's Inferno. I only just recently found out about this place! Cheers!
That is awesome!
@@ExpeditionThemePark I got a lot of friends that work there, definitely kept a lot of the historical elements. One such being a recreation of the abdominal statue. A lot of locals sell art of the classic miracle strip attractions such as Relief skate shop. I will say look into the history of shipwreck Island, magic mountain, and the gondolas were all on the same corner as miracle strip. Definitely coming from a past shipwreck employee there is so much history in one block!
@@ihatesociety1399 Add the history of the Volcano Alvin's Island that was across the street too. I just came back from a quick fishing trip in PC and driving by this intersection wasn't a bit nostalgic and depressing too. So many memories. :)
The first roller coaster I ever rode! Love it even as I grew older. Miss this place very much. PCB has changed so much.
Thank you so much for making this video! I grew up in the Panama City area and it was a treat to get to go to Miracle Strip. It really is a shame that Miracle Strip couldn't be revived. Panama City Beach has been trying to rebrand itself as a family friendly destination for years and lose the spring break image.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!!
Luckily Shipwreck Island is still doing well.
I was so excited when the Starliner came to Cypress Gardens! Sad that such a historical coaster is no more…
Yeah! Did you ride it in the short time
It was open?
@@ExpeditionThemePark - Rode it several times. I also used to go regularly and watched as it was being built!
@@GregsVlog wow, that's so cool! it's sad that that coaster had such a bad fate.
I miss this amusement park so much. What I didn't see in the video (sorry if I missed it) was the unique way they themed their Tilt a Whirl, Scrambler, and Trabant rides. You can see the buildings for them in the video. The devil one was themed as Dante's Inferno, the Scrambler was the Abominable Snowman, and the Dungeon was a Tilt a Whirl. The inside of each ride featured strobe lights and music. The Scrambler one even had mirrors on the walls to make the ride experience more crazy. I still wish more parks would copy those ideas.
It’s always heartbreaking when a coaster that meant so much to so many people isn’t able to be saved, even more so when its original park falls into abandonment. I never knew much about these smaller Florida parks, but for some inexplicable reason they are extremely interesting to me. Maybe it’s because they were in such a major tourist state. I hope I can visit the museum someday and get a glimpse of a part of this wonderful ride.
Hope so too!
I spent my childhood in Panama City and we would visit Miracle Strip Amusement Park. I was too small to ride it at the the time, but I remember it well. It was a pretty impressive structure! (BTW, it is Panama City Beach, not simply Panama Beach). I would love to see you do a video on Panama City Beach's other amusement park - Petticoat Junction. Specifically on the Magic Carpet dark ride. That was one of my favorites as a child.
I can take a look at it!
My mom talked about going to Petticoat Junction when she was a kid in the 70's
@@cassiewilson8680 that's so cool! It was a really neat place!
I live in Panama City and I absolutely hate that we got rid of Miracle Strip and especially the Starliner. Also Dante’s Inferno was an amazing ride as well.
Its a shame they couldn’t keep the starliner in Legoland. It would have been a great option for the older crowd. Also is it just me or does starliner 2.0 look very similar to white lightning at funspot orlando
It really does. Real shame they didn't keep it.
@@ExpeditionThemePark i wonder if GCI took the idea to funspot
I bet it would have a lot to do with maintenance, esp on a wooden coaster in a high humidity area.
That is what they did... FUnspot wanted a woodie, and GCI had the plans for Starliner 2.0 already drawn up, FUnspot greenlit and planned on using the original trains, but GCI track is too twisted for PTC trains and they installed Millennium FLyer trains. @@coastersandcars
This video had so much nostalgia! I grew up 3 minutes down the road from Cypress Gardens. I was 9 in 2004 when the hurricanes hit. We used to go to Cypress Gardens all the time. I rode Starliner plenty of times!
Legoland is cool and all but man, Cypress Gardens was so much fun
A truly great documentary - I enjoyed it very much. It always makes me sad to see an old park close...I loved the quick shot of the coaster hand brake...very cool! John Allen was a great man - I was fortunate enough to film the included interview.
-Scott Campbell
Cyclone Productions
I had no idea that those coasters at LegoLand Florida were so historic! That is absolutely amazing to find out!
Went to miracle strip amusement park every summer in my childhood all the up to my late teenage years. Have so many memories, that was my family summer vacation spot. Sad they knocked it down
Oh man- I loved going to the original park when my church's youth group would do their annual summer trip!
You had me all ready to jump on a plane to go ride this only to hear it never happened. You had me crying. Such an amazing video but I'm also glad that the museum picked up one of the cars at least. It's always sad when an old theme/amusement park closes down. Thank you once again Sam for your gorgeous documentaries. 🥰
Thank you for your kind words :)
I LOVE that you covered this park and especially Starliner. This park was a symbol of my childhood and you’re the first one to do a video on it with a lot of details I didn’t know ❤️
As someone who moved to Panama City Beach after the first Miracle Strip closed and never got to ride it this answered so many questions I had about that park's past (and the most recent version's too). So thank you. Also interestingly a few years ago a new par was opened in the 2nd location's footprint. I haven't been yet but they are at least trying to keep amusement parks alive here.
Ah that’s good to hear!
Visited Cyprus Gardens many times as a kid in the late 60s. I remember the signature ski shows and garden boat tours with the southern belles.
INCREDIBLE video my friend!!! Watching it brung back so many incredible memories of spending endless summers in that park!! Road The Starliner many of times!! That was actually the first rollercoaster I ever road on!! 🤘🏽🤘🏽🔥🔥
This was my first real roller coaster. My family vacationed in PCB pretty much every year until I graduated high school. I loved this amusement park and especially this roller coaster. The other attraction I enjoyed the most at Miracle Strip was the haunted house called Old House. I'm not sure what happened to it, but it just wasn't there one summer. Luckily, it's sister house is Mysterious Mansion in Gatlinburg, TN and is still very much alive and well. The dark ride haunted house was another favorite of mine. It has since been relocated to Oxford, AL at the Terrortorium. Great video. This was serious nostalgia for me.
Thank you so much
I never knew this was the 1st coaster in Florida. It was the the 1st roller coaster I ever rode as a kid too. I had no idea it was so iconic. I feel lucky to have ridden it.
Very lucky!
Incredible history, great footage, sad for the starliner and the two magic strips but i am glad cypress gardens found a new future, I always have a extra weak spot for the more special parks with iconic scenery
Aw this was a great trip down memory lane. This was my very first roller coaster! Thanks for the great video!
I grew up going to Panama City Beach every year until i was 24! Rode the ride and have so many happy memories. I live in Navarre Beach now (about 1.5 hrs away) and wish it were still open! At least if we want we can still go to Shipwreck Island!
Awesome job on this video! I remember that park fondly.
Miracle Strip was a great park, and I really miss it. Don't get me wrong, Disney, Universal, etc., Are fun, but there was just something awesome about MSAP
Those parks by the Beach always have unique charm
Thank you so much for doing this video. I grew up close by and used to go to this amusement park as a child, it was my first roller coaster experience. Lots of great memories. Its sad to see how it turned out.
Even with all the amazing steel/hybrid coasters out there, I do still love getting on and riding a good woody...man context is everything sometimes 🤣
haha right?!
I was unaware of this history of this coaster. I was born in Fort Walton Beach and made many trips over to PCB and Miracle Strip Amusement Park over the years. Personally I always found it to be a rather rough coaster ride.
I really enjoy these lost history videos of smaller parks and rides. Well done.
Thanks!
Thank you so much for making this video. Miracle Strip Amusement Park was my home park from the day I was born until the day it closed. I always lived no more than 2 hours from the park. I loved The Starliner. It was such a fun coaster. I never remember it being a rough ride. I miss the park, too. I have a lot of great memories attached to it. I actually own a piece of The Starliner. The people who were planning on bringing it back to it's home were selling off pieces of it to help bring it back to PCB.
I did hear that but couldn’t find any confirmation. Thank you so much for watching
@@ExpeditionThemePark, you are very welcome. I really enjoy your content. Keep up the great work. The pieces of The Starliner they sold also came with a handwritten letter/note.
You did an awesome job of celebrating this classic coaster. Thanks
Thank you!
So many wonderful memories. Dante's Inferno was one of my favorites.
Sad story. Wish my kids could grow up with that park as I did. Great memories
I truly miss MSAP and the Starliner, they were a huge part of my growing up and was a looked forward to weekly event. I had the pleasure of being on one of if not the last Starliner ride the last night of operation and that will always be a cherished memory.
Thank you for showcasing this great ride and I hope for its return even is it is only as a remembrance in the National Roller Coaster Museum because I’ll gladly make the trek to see even just the cars again.
(Side note, please if you can edit your mentions of the city’s name, it is Panama City Beach not just Panama Beach. For a local and someone with a connection to the park and town that became a huge disconnect to how nice the video was in remembering its legacy)
Nicely done Sam
Thanks Richard
You handled this topic with dignity and grace.
I spent my childhood at miracle strip amusement park and water park and loved every minute of it..
i visited miracle strip @ pier park countless time throughout my childhood, i really loved the park and enjoyed watching the rides, especially sea dragon
it's a shame that the meeks failed to bring back starliner, i never visited the original park but i can understand why they wanted to bring it back.
Would be nice to open a new park with the dark carnival rides theme
Always!
I mean there is a new park on the site of the 2nd Miracle Strip. This one is called Swampy Jack’s and it is a small FEC that has an indoor scrambler like the old Miracle Strip with some other little attractions. It is slowly growing.
Love this video!
Panama City Beach used to be a tourist town with charm. Sadly it’s tried so hard to be like Destin, FL that it has lost it’s identity. Panama City Beach is a shadow of it’s former self.
a shame!
PCB had to move away from their spring break image
@@bigbiscuit6751 That it did, but lost it’s charm a long time ago chasing after MTV in the first place.
i worked this ride and many other at Miracle strip rides the final year it was open, it was my first job! boy i miss those days! great video
I rode that one Once and the one at Petticoat junction several times...it was a few miles East of this one, and also had a Steam engine Train.
Hey, Theme Park History! Please do the History of Lights, Motors, Action: Extreme Stunt Show at Disney's Hollywood Studios!
I will! Not sure when
@@ExpeditionThemePark You know... I only got to see the show in it's entirety ONCE. every other time, the building had to be evacuated because a storm was rolling it.
Man does this video bring back some amazing memories. I remember the miracle strip…. I also remember being able to see the beach when riding down the main drag of PCB and down Thomas at. Now it’s nothing but high rise condos and Hotels. Would of been cool to of seen the star liner come to wild adventures, but they already had a fun wooden coaster, the cheetah. Still would of been nice to of seen it there.
I loved this place as a kid. I think i went around the 2005 era. Loved dantes and abomidable and star liner.
One of my first Summer jobs in 1980s was working concessions at Miracle Strip. WPFM, the arcades, walking to the pier after work and hanging out on the beach. Good times. Marty, Bobby, David, Kelly, Chuck, Nina, Rick, Terry and Tommy. Where the hell are you? I want a time machine.
I loved going there. Lots of good memories at that park.
I had annual passes to Cypress my entire childhood until it closed. I loved Starliner during the short time it was running. It was such a great coaster and really fit in with the rest of the rides there!
Glad you got to go on it!
It was a great park and a great roller coaster many great memories from my youth
Love to hear about Florida attractions. Thank you.
Thanks for watching
The oldest roller coaster I’ve been on is the Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz California. Built in 1924. Great video Sam.
A classic! Thank you
It's a Damn shame that Miracle Strip was torn down to begin with. I will always CHERISH Miracle Strip Amusement park and Petticoat Junction Amusement park. 1979 I was 17 about to turn 18, One of the Best weeks of my Life. Me and my friend Debbie went to Miracle Strip in our Bikinis, No shoes either Just Bare feet ha ha ha, It was June, 1979 It had more of a Carnival like feel. The Guys operating the Rides Looked Rough, Like they were out on Parole or something.there were 5 of us Another friend offered to take us all down to Panama City Beach We all went on the spur of the moment. It was AMAZING!! Thank you Bill wherever you are. ❤❤
My mom went to this park when she was on vacation one time in the early 2000s. She rode the Starliner. She also went to Ghost Town In The Sky when she was very little.
Your voice is so comforting.
Thanks!
Damn your videos bring back some good memories of my first roller coaster rides
Thank you so much fascinating that would be wonderful to have star liner back and home 👍❤🙏🏼
Thanks Mary!
My husband is a fisherman (has a channel) and photographer. We live in Pensacola. His dad took him there as a kid and fell in love with the place. So we are gonna have to take a drive and see what we can find, if there is anything left.
Very interesting video
Thank you
I had to click because of the thumbnail. I have a pic from 1987 from my honeymoon trip to Florida of my new husband and me posing on the tongue of the devil head seen at 3:27. That thing was a work of freaking art! The detail and technique were excellent. Even seen as wreckage, the devil head is captivating.
its really suprising that Lego, the company that was formed here, where i live, did not keep the starliner, because we have 2 of the oldest wooden rollercoaters here and still running to this day, both has been procted as history landmarks here and due to strict rules here, i was about 16, when the first coaster here, had a loop in it, thats 20years ago. the 1 of the 2, coasters has an operator in the middle of the cars, handling the breaking.
Yep rode this one at Miracle Strip back in the 90s on vacation at Panama City.
So I came to this after I googled the park(2nd❤) I was 5 when it closed and I loved it and remeber crying about it bc I lived like 2 hrs away plus we had a beach house in pcb so we went all the time
One thing that wasn't mentioned was that the 2nd Miracle Strip in Pier Park has already been occupied by another park, Swampy Jack's Wongo Adventure. Independently operated by Del Lee, this park takes a much safer approach than Miracle Strip 2.0, as it only contains 6 rides as of 2021, with multiple expansions planned for future development. As a former worker of this newer park, I highly recommend taking a look at it, especially for its indoor scrambler, the Swamp Ape.
Thank you for the info
I remember going to Miracle Strip, back in the early 80s when me and my parents went to visit my aunt in PCB. I loved the park and rode the Starliner. To this day, I still ride only wooden coasters and not all these crazy ones they have now at other parks.
One day hopefully my footage will be featured in your videos lol. I visited a lot of these places you've done videos on and I love learning the history about it from here. Great video!
I will check it out!
Hey Centreville Amusement Park in Toronto: you could use a classic woodie to go along with the classic flat rides. If the Starliner still exists in storage, get it.
So happy to have been able to ride this in Cypress Gardens. Lots of fun, but like other wooden coasters, sort of rickety and a little painful due to the hard seat surfaces.
I spent many summers there. Greatly missed.
My parents were on their honey moon in March 1978 when Jim (King) Barnett broke the Guinness book of records for riding a roller coaster the most consecutive times. He rode the Starliner for an entire week. They sat behind him at some point when he was doing this. They told me he had a pillow and a blanket with him and slept on it lol. He later returned in 1980 and rode it 15 consecutive days.
I’m from Panama!!!!
I used to love venturing to miracle strip as a kid😊😊😊
The Old House was my favorite. It had an a/c and was cold. Also the yeti ride cause of the a/c
I remember riding The Starliner in Cypress Gardens, one Sunday back in 2007. The elderly female operator gave us three concurrent cycles, telling us “The third time is a charm!”
We also rode the ‘Storm Surge’ that day, which was relocated to Thorpe Park.
WHAT NO WAY THIS IS WHERE I LIVE!!!! never would've imagined this video on your page. i miss miracle strip soooo much :-(
Thanks for watching!
That’s my hometown!! Very hotel California as a place to live.
😔😔Thats sad it closed.
Same happened to the RKO Movie Palace in Rochester, NY. One of the most beautiful theatres in the nation was destroyed to make room for condos that never came. Its space sat empty for years until a new bus terminal was built within the last 10 years. And over this whole time since it was destroyed, our area has been fighting over needing a new performing arts center that's larger than our current one because the stage is too small for some touring shows. They had exactly what they want now. They destroyed it for nothing. Now they've been fighting for years over what to do now. So stupid.
Happens to alot of places and not just theme parks as you said
Absolutely criminal that developers in the States can get away with demolishing established heritage buildings & spaces that still have a use, only to do nothing.
While having noteable differences (namely the double up and down), I honestly feel like Fun Spot was in the buying zone to grab Starliner at some point. The GCI remodel/redo 2.0-while simply being a smaller GCI in it's own design-is a lot more similiar to White Lightning then I remembered. Honestly I wonder if they lost out on bidding, or thought the expense wasn't worth it and simply asked GCI to design something similiar for the footprint they wanted. If any of this is true, one can almost say the starliner does live on, and this absolutely makes it the best wooden roller coaster in FL. Either that, or they wondered about the plans and got there biggest single coaster investment (at the time, not sure if Mine Blower was more, I imagine the RMC is definitely more) with a discount because of it.
Yeah it really gave me white lightning vibes too