Hard Rock Park comes to the Grand Strand -- to the tune of $400 million. Here's what to expect

MYRTLE BEACH --

That point will be made -- with a loud ka-raaaang -- April 15 with the opening of Hard Rock Park. The Southeast's first new amusement park in nine years is rising just west of the Intracoastal Waterway, partly on the long-dormant Fantasy Harbor entertainment complex and partly on the rubble of the failed Waccamaw Factory Shoppes.

Hard Rock Park opens with 55 acres of rides, eateries and shops on a 140-acre site south of U.S. 501. It will be about half the size of Charlotte's Carowinds, eastern Tennessee's Dollywood, or Islands of Adventure, which opened in Orlando, Fla., in 1999.

Anticipated price tag: $400 million.

Closed only in January-February, it will be the northernmost four-seasons amusement park in eastern North America, and the first anywhere associated with the incredibly successful Hard Rock Cafe brand (about 125 bar/grill locations from Amsterdam to Yokohama). And it is the first theme park in the world hard-wired to the enduring appeal of rock 'n' roll.

In late February, some attractions looked ready for run-throughs; in other parts of the tract, land was still being worked over with Caterpillars.

Land of 1,000 dances

The entry plaza, largely complete, harks back to the eclectic jumble of storefronts at the entrance to Islands of Adventure. It will have shops, food areas and a bar where cover bands will play. The small, air-conditioned Origins theater will show 12-minute films on aspects of pop entertainment.Beyond that, arranged around a lagoon, are the park's five themed sections.

• Born in the USA includes a midway-style, pay-to-play games area; climbing structures for kids; an all-ages Shake Rattle & Roller coaster (cars have a double lap-bar, so Junior can't wriggle free or fly out); plus the Slippery When Wet suspended coaster that's an easy target for folks on the ground, who can blast riders with water cannons.

An amphitheater can seat 2,000 visitors -- plus 10,000 standing and 8,000 on the lawn -- for local and regional bands that will play throughout the day, plus occasional major groups (six to eight such shows the first year).

Regular performances will be included in park admission. One name act has been announced: Volunteer Jam, with Charlie Daniels and .38 Special, during Myrtle Beach's mid-May Bike Week.

• British Invasion is the largest themed area. Its thriller is the Maximum RPM coaster: Board your "sports car" and a ride-in Ferris wheel rotates you to the track above.

Nights in White Satin: The Trip -- also pegged as a major draw -- is an indoor "dark" ride synchronized to a tweaked version of the 1967 Moody Blues standard; cars glide over 720 feet of track in 4.5 minutes (speed: 1.82 mph), passing 14 scenes.

The Roadies Stunt Show will have live-action stunts and comedy. Punk Pit is a musical cousin to the Moonwalk, with separate areas for small fry and for large-size moshers.

• Lost in the '70s is an indoor amusement arcade that mixes new games with classics such as Pong, Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. (You pay to play.)

• Rock & Roll Heaven has Led Zeppelin -- the Ride. It's the park's signature coaster, and is synchronized to the band's 1969 hit "Whole Lotta Love." The track is close to three-fourths of a mile in length, has six inversions and a 120-foot loop. Maximum speed: 65 mph. The ride entrance resembles an actual zeppelin and is about the size of a mobile home.

Malibu Beach Party is a live show with acrobatics, diving and motorcycles. Reggae Falls is a kids' play area with water elements.

• Cool Country attractions include Midnight Rider, a coaster where you hear Southern rock; there's also a giant swing ride; and Muddin' Monster Race, a round-ride. Country on the Rocks is an 860-seat indoor venue with -- rather improbably -- a souped-up ice-skating show.

Ch-ch-changes

The exterior of Country on the Rocks resembles a rusty old factory but was originally a Fantasy Harbor attraction called Magic on Ice, then Snoopy's Magic on Ice. It was retooled as The Savoy, a big-band music venue, then Florida businessman Jon Binkowski bought it in 1999.

Binkowski turned it back to a skating show, but his Ice Castle closed the following year just as the outlet-plus-attraction site slid into financial troubles. While Medieval Times survived -- it's still in business, m'lord -- the other theaters hit hard times.

Binkowski saw the writing on the asphalt -- and led a move by parcel owners to pool their holdings and get a theme park built on the site. His new development group got the Hard Rock people involved through a licensing agreement. That helped attract financial heavy hitters -- and eventually Lev Leviev, an Israeli tycoon with international holdings. Leviev became the majority owner in Hard Rock Park.

Binkowski's final Ice Castle show was in late 2002; the Hard Rock Park project was formally launched four years -- and one close call -- later. The deal was sealed just two days before foreclosure was to begin on the Ice Castle site.

Binkowski is now chief creative officer at the park. His story is put to use in an employee orientation seminar that details the project's evolution. Title: "Welcome to the Jungle."

He believes the unsung hero of all this is the late George Bishop, who developed the Waccamaw-Fantasy area in the 1980s and '90s and who actually envisioned more theaters than were ever constructed. What he did build plays a role in cutting construction costs at the new park.

Like The Ice Castle, Mall 3 of Waccamaw Factory Shoppes has been repurposed. It holds Hard Rock Park's headquarters (in the onetime Belk outlet); the Nights in White Satin indoor ride; and the Lost in the '70s game arcade.

Fantasy Harbor included a large artificial lagoon that at one point was a Jet-Ski concession. Hard Rock Park was seamlessly designed around it. The new Gibson guitar mega-statue on its shore is fitted with lasers that will throw beams across the water after dusk; nightly fireworks will explode over the lagoon.

The two swans that have lived there for the past eight years are now named Rock and Roll, and they're quite used to noise: The entire park is directly under a major Myrtle Beach International flight path. Any laser show will have lower-power beams and they won't shoot straight up. The top of the Led Zeppelin coaster is just 13 inches shy of the FAA's maximum-height limit.

Crosstown traffic

Aside from Led Zeppelin's 15-story superstructure, Hard Rock Park isn't easy to see from U.S. 501, the main road to downtown Myrtle Beach.The frontage road still holds a derelict chunk of the Waccamaw Factory Shoppes. Investors hope to raze and redevelop the site as a retail-residential complex to be called Paradise City. The theme park is behind it.

And the orientation has been turned around. The back of the park is what's closest to the highway; the main parking area and entrance plaza are on the south end of the grounds, next to Medieval Times.

This anticipates a bridge and ramp from U.S. 17 Bypass, the main highway from Charleston and Wilmington. This exit over the waterway will pour parkgoers into the site without them having to navigate the dreaded U.S. 501, a highway where warm-weekend traffic snarls are a downside part of the Grand Strand experience. The Bypass bridge is a couple years down the pike. For now, two exits from 501, a half-mile apart, already have signs pointing the way to Hard Rock Park.

The dozen miles between Conway and the theme park bloom with land-for-sale signs; when developed, 501 will probably be an even slower crawl.

You'll just have to deal with it.

Try turning on the radio: You might find Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon's "Palisades Park" -- the 1962 ode to rockin' fun in amusement parks. Then again, you could hit the Beach Boys' version from 15 years later, or the Ramones' punked-up single from a dozen years after that.

It recycles just fine.

The fine print

GETTING THERE

Hard Rock Park is three miles west of the ocean, just south of U.S. 501, at 211 George Bishop Parkway. Before you reach the Intracoastal Waterway bridge, take one of these exits: Forestbrook Road (first up) or George Bishop Parkway (second up). Both lead to Hard Rock Parkway, the frontage road.

DAYS/HOURS

The "soft" opening for Hard Rock Park is Tuesday, April 15; the park will be open daily through May 8, though hours may vary. Hours for the regular season -- May 9-Aug. 31, are 10 a.m.-1 a.m. (early closing May 19-22 and May 26-June 6). Closed most Mondays-Tuesdays from Sept. 7 through late December.

ADMISSION

Admission: $50; 3 and younger, free. Annual pass (good for one year following first visit): $150. $10 parking.

RESOURCES

843-236-7625; www.hardrockpark.com.