Review of the brand new Freestyle Music Park

On June 30th, my family and I visited the newly redone Freestyle Music Park (formerly the Hard Rock Park) in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was to celebrate my 10 year old brother's birthday, and ironically, the only other time I have ever been was for his birthday the previous year, when it was still the Hard Rock Park; needless to say I was curious to see the improvements they had made to the new park.

The first (and rather substantial) difference is that of the admission price. You still have to pay to park, which I feel is somewhat unnecessary, but apparently most parks do this and it was only 6 dollars, so I'll let that slide. The admission price however, is vastly different. When it was still the Hard Rock Park, the biggest complaint was the admission price of $50 dollars for adults, $30 for children, which most people felt was entirely too high for what the park offered, and I agree. Paramount and Six Flag theme parks usually only charge around $25 for admission, and frankly, they offer much more than Hard Rock ever did, so the previous price was just too much, and is part of the reason the park failed. However, the group in charge of the Freestyle Music Park have wised up and are now offering adult admission for $25. They are also running specials at the end of the summer, where admission is only $17.99, which is great.

A soon as we got into the park, we headed to the left, which is a portion of the park called "Myrtle's Beach" formerly known as "Rock N Roll Heaven." The improvement alone to the archway you walk under announcing the name of the portion of the park is substantial. Rock N Roll Heaven featured a Grateful Dead theme of roses and skeletons staring down at you, whereas now it simply reads Myrtle's Beach in innocuous, bright colors. I always thought the Rock N Roll Heaven was neat, but I can see where it would not appeal to all, especially not young children.

Myrtle's Beach features a small water park, which kids will love, as well as a show about skateboarding tricks and acrobatics, a large improvement over the tired Malibu Beach Party that was there when it was Hard Rock Park. But of course, the main attraction of that area (and of the whole park) is the former Led Zeppelin roller coaster, now called "The Time Machine." The improvements to this attraction are definitely for the better. Instead of having to watch the same 10 minute introduction, featuring a montage of Led Zeppelin clips, there are music videos playing from the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's. And most enjoyably, you don't know which decade of music you will be listening to on the actual coaster until you are on it. This element of surprise, combined with the montage of music clips that blare forth the best hits of each decade as you ride the thundering coaster is great- we rode it 4 times and got a different decade each time. I mean, I love Led Zeppelin as much as the next person, but listening to "Whole Lotta Love" (which is the only song the coaster played previously) over and over again definitely took away from the experience. This is much better.

It's clear that the new Park has tried to focus much more on rides the whole family can enjoy. They have added a whole new section devoted entirely to childrens rides, called "Kids in America", a great improvement over the very minimal kid rides the park had before. There is a cute acrobatic show called "Flip 5 Live" that younger kids are sure to enjoy, as well as a small roller coaster, ropes course, swings and much more.

There are 2 attractions that definitely need some work. The Roundabout, a hybrid ferris wheel and roller coaster had a history of technical problems when it was Hard Rock Park and would lock down without being able to restart. Clearly the kinks haven't been worked out, because the ride locked up while we were about to get on it and they had to wait about 7 minutes for a technician to show up. The actual coaster was fun, but the technical issues made me hesitant to get back on it.

By far, the worst attraction is the "Monstars of Rock." Housed where the former "Nights in White Satin" was, this ride is truly awful, and a complete waste of time. "Nights in White Satin," based on the song by the Moody Blues, was actually a really interesting ride, with 3D psychidelic effects and cool visuals, although it was more adult than child oriented. The "Monstars of Rock" is a misguided failure. Basically, you ride through the dark and look at cardboard cutouts of "moster rock stars" on the wall. That's it. I've seen traveling 3rd rate carnivals put together better attractions. One can only hope this is temporary and that a better attraction is in the works, as the space has potential.

Overall, the park is enjoyable, and clearly steps have been taken to make it more accessible to all ages and all types of music and fun lovers. However, there's definitely that feeling of "well, we've done everthing in about 30 minutes, guess we need to start riding the same things over again." The park could do with at least one more large roller coaster like "The Time Machine" and probably at least 6 or 7 big rides to fill in the gaps. But kids will definitely like it, and it with the great specials they're offering, the Freestyle Music Park offers a nice addition to your Myrtle Beach family vacation.