The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • A4

From Page One A4 Orlando Sentinel Thursday, October 14, 2010 The resort will say little about the closure other than that it is performing on the ride. But with Rockit now approaching a month offline and with nary a hint about when it will reopen to guests many Universal fans and industry followers think the resort is grappling with more significant problems than mere maintenance. yet another headache from a $45million attraction that has bedeviled Universal almost from its inception. a park that operates year- round like Universal Orlando, this is really an unprecedented downtime for a major attraction for regularly scheduled or typical said Chad Emerson, an author working on a book about theme- park industry. soon as we Universal declined this weekto discuss its work on Rockit in detail.

maintenance programs are intense and thorough, with guest safety always the most important Universal spokesman Tom Schroder said. share specifics about this kind of work, but I can tell you it is something we rush. attraction is different and requires its own he added. will reopen Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit as soon as we can do so, but only after we are satisfied all our work is When it opened in August 2009, Hollywood Rip Rockit broke new ground in highly competitive theme-park market. It combined innovative elements such as a 90-degree lift hill and lap-bar restraints rather than conventional, over-the-shoulder harnesses with a sophisticated audio-and-video system that letsguests choose personalized soundtracks and create digital music videos.

But it has also been beset with problems. Repeated construction de- lays crews at one point had to replace the mechanism that prevents the coaster from sliding backward during its initial climb caused Rockit to open more than two months behind schedule, robbing Universal of a valuable pre-summer publicity boost last year. When Rockit finally did open, a number of its features worked only sporadically or not at all. And it has continued to struggle with operational issues, such as slower-than- expected loading times that diminish capacity and lead to long lines. The coaster has prompted other complaints, as well.

Of the four ride injuries that Universal has reported during the past year, three occurred on Rockit: two guests who suffered back pains and another who experienced chest pains. been a problematic project, basically, since Day said Jim Hill, an industry blogger and editor of JimHillMedia.com. was never the trans-media sensation they wanted, where people would share video online. They never got the attendance bump they Universal said Rockit receives consistently high scores in the surveys of park guests. overwhelming majority of guests who ride Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit rate their experience as Schroder said.

For now, though, the ride has been shuttered indefinitely. Universal shut it down Sept.16 for what it characterized as relatively routine maintenance. Five days later, it announced that it had also decided to perform annual maintenance while the coaster was offline. The closing came just two weeks after the German company that built Rockit, Maurer issued an alert to customers warning them of a potential flaw with its ride vehicles. In its bulletin, Maurer warned that testing had revealed that the coupling bars used to link X-Cars each of trains consists of two X-Cars were not The company warned any clients using X-Cars in tandem trains to inspect the vehicles for cracks or other irregularities.

Any customer that found problems was instructed to immediately cease operations prevent serious accidents posing a danger to health and life of Maurer said it would redesign the coupling mechanism. But it said a replacement would not be available for as long as three months. But Universal said its own ride- safety teams and the issue even before Maurer sent out the bulletin. Universal also said the work it is now performing on the ride is unrelated to the guest injuries it reported to the state. Arepresentative for Maurer referred all questions to Universal.

In the absence of an official explanation for the shutdown, speculation has run rampant. Manta down for 5 days theme parks routinely shut down rides periodically for upkeep, downtime stands out because it happened so suddenly and is lasting so long. By contrast, when SeaWorld Orlando last month closed Manta, its own year-old roller coaster, for the first extended maintenance, the park announced the closing three weeks in advance and set a reopening date. total downtime: five days. Still, Scott Smith, a professor in the University of Central Rosen College of Hospitality Management, noted that now is as good a time as any for Universal to make repairs to a marquee attraction.

Early fall is historically one of the lightest attendance periods for big parks. And Universal is now in the midst of its popular Halloween Horror Nights, which are alikely to be a big draw for Universal Studios with or without Rockit. In fact, Universal said this week that Horror Nights is recording its highest-yet overall guest ratings this year. what happens when Halloween Horror Nights Smith added. really need to have that signature ride back RIDE Continuedfrom PageA1 He Googled the number and found it connected to a cleaning service.

Another quick search linked the cleaning service to a woman named Merline. (I am leaving her last name out, but it was not Joseph.) This Merline was a black woman in the same age range as Malenne. in the Benjamin. then knew who committed the says Paula Coffman, an attorney working with Benjamin. Using the Internet, Benjamin later tracked Merline to South Florida and discovered she had two relatives with the same first names as two workers who had been at the house helping with the painting.

Benjamin subpoenaed phone records and found several calls to the contractor and the owner of the house. She also found a call to an attorney that was placed after Detective Varela called Merline. And then the phone service was shut off. Using information provided by Benjamin, Sentinel reporter Anthony Colarossi contacted Merline, who denies she was the painter. What does all this tell you about how OPD conducts investigations? If Varela spent a few minutes checking out this phone number, Malenne Joseph would not have been arrested and imprisoned for three months for something she did not do.

Instead, this is what happened. Shortly after the crime, the homeowner saw a black man in a pickup driving slowly through her neighborhood. For whatever reason, that made her suspicious. So she got the tag number and gave it to Varela. It belonged to a man with the last name Joseph.

So the detective had the first name Marlene, the last name Joseph and the color black. A search through drivers-license records produced Malenne Joseph. Close enough. In court, Varela said, only numbers I had were the phone numbers and also a tag number, which is not listed on the report but a tag number that was seen by one of the victims. It came back to a truck, which was a relative.

Through basic police work, I was able to put 2 2 There was an unverified phone number and an undocumented tag number. But it was good enough for the State Office, Judge Walter Komanski and the jurors. Unfortunately, during the trial she was represented by the Public Nicole Benjamin was hired by longtime boyfriend after the trial. Komanski sent Malenne to jail for the two months a pre-sentence investigation would take. The State Office opposed efforts to let her out even though she had no criminal record and this was a nonviolent property crime.

According to a letter that attorneys sent Komanski, the judge told them at the Aug.6 hearing that Malenne had the choice of to sentencing and being released to the supervision of probation or seeking a new trial They complained that Malenne was being kept in jail simply because she wanted a new trial. On Aug.23, Benjamin and Coffman, a former prosecutor, filed the motion for a new trial. They included the phone records and other evidence proving her innocence. In an e-mail to the prosecutor, Mexcye Roberts, Coffman wrote: will tell you that I would not be doing any of this if I were not absolutely convinced that an innocent person got convicted. If you are going to require two pro bono lawyers to catch the real perpetrator and bring her to court with us, going to have to see that with my own eyes.

I am simply trying to fix this as expeditiously as possible with the least amount of embarrassment to everyone involved. simply trying to free an innocent person. Komanski granted a hearing on the request for a new trial. But the State Office said it get around to a hearing until Oct.14, meaning six more weeks in jail for Malenne because Roberts still would not agree to her release. supervisors finally overruled her and had Ma- lenne released Sept.15.

This was almost 40days after Nicole Benjamin and a deputy sitting on a courtroom bench proved her innocence. Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas THOMAS Continuedfrom PageA1 Care Act, or any other existing federal law, allows us to require insurance companies to offer a particular type of policy at this Federal officials and insurance executives have been at odds on the child- only policies for months. In March, in a series of letters between federal officials and insurance officials, Sebelius contended that insurers promised make preexisting condition exclusion a thing of the But this summer, when HHS began issuing rules and regulations, insurers balked at the details. Some states act Now federal officials are hoping states will apply pressure, too. In California, Gov.

Arnold Schwarzeneg- ger recently signed legislation that will bar insurance companies from selling any individual policies in the state for five years if they refuse to sell child-only policies. Some states, including Colorado, Oregon and Washington, have established uniform open-enrollment periods setting aside certain times of the year when the child-only policies can be sold. The idea, they say, is to prevent families from signing up for coverage only when their children get very ill and their costs suddenly skyrocket. By creating uniform enrollment periods, federal officials say that no insurance company receives a disproportionate share of children with pre-existing conditions, because all insurers must accept the children during the same period. But insurance-industry officials say that work.

Florida, we have a real, live example of what happens when you do said Randy Kammer, a vice president for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. People who are self-employed can buy what are known as person group only sold during August each year, shesaid. happens is: The ill people who really need coverage wait until August to buy the policy. And the healthy people Kammer said. To make up the money they lose on the one-group policies, insurers spread the cost over everyone else who has small-group insurance.

of a loss in that segment, everybody gets and the high cost of coverage discourages healthy people from buying policies, she said. What insurers want, says Kammer, is to open up enrollment to all children during a limited time frame and then include healthy kids (based on medical exams and questionnaires) for the rest of the year. say the government wanted to have open enrollment twice a year. If, for the other 10months of the year, we could bring in healthy kids, we could do Kammer said. But in her letter to insurance commissioners, Sebelius said excluding sick kids for 10months of the year while offering coverage to healthy kids year-round is with the language and intent of the Affordable Care Options still exist Parents of sick children can still buy insurance through public, government-run programs.

KidCare program the health-insurance program for children sells individual insurance policies for children with pre-existing conditions. And the new federal Pre- Existing Condition Insurance Plans (PCIP) areavail- able to children with preexisting conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months. For now, the insurance industry remains reluctant to jump back into the child- only market. A spokesman for the major health insurers, Robert Zirkelbach, maintains that HHS officials are misinterpreting the law. He says that, until 2014, insurers can still refuse new coverage to children because of a preexisting condition.

However, if a child already has coverage or has been accepted for coverage, the insurer cannot exclude payment for treating a particular illness or pre-existing condition. Yet Maryland officials managed to work out a deal with two insurers Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic and CareFirst Blue- Cross BlueShield that have agreed to continue selling child-only insurance policies in that state. Still, some major insurers remain on the sidelines say stay there until HHS changes its position. will no longer offer new child-only policies to help keep costs affordable for those covered by our individual and family plans not offered by an said Cigna spokeswoman Gwyn Dilday. child-only policies remain in effect.

continue to evaluate this policy and could reconsider changing this position as market dynamics Linda Shrieves can be reached at 407-420-5433 or lshrieves INSURE Continuedfrom PageA1 Where can parents buy insurance for sick children now that no insurers in Florida are selling policies for children only? interim insurance consumer advocate, R. Terry Butler, tackles that issue. What are the coverage options for Florida children with pre-existing conditions? In Florida, most of the options are public-insurance programs. Medicaid: Newborns up to age 1. Eligibility is income-based.

Florida KidCare programs: Basic eligibility is that family income is 200percentor less ofthe poverty level. In KidCare, chronically ill children up to age 18 are eligible for Medical Health Network through the Department of Health. Also, under the KidCare umbrella, Medi-Kids covers children from age 1to 5 and is run through the Agency for Health Care Administration. Premiums are based on income. Florida Healthy Kids: Covers children from age 1to 18, and no one can be turned down due to health or medical reason.

Premiums are based on income. Enrollment is available all the time. (Premium is generally three times higher than inthe individual market, but there is no individual market for these children.) Is there a mandatory open-enrollment provision for individual coverage in Florida so that insurers would be forced to take kids with pre-existing conditions? There is no mandatory open-enrollment provision in the Florida Statutes. Whether or notcarriers offerchild-only policies year-round or at open enrollment, they must offer coverage to all persons younger than19, without regard to health. They may charge higher rates based on medical condition.

However, no insurer is currently writing individual policies for persons younger than19. Does Florida have any way of forcing insurers to write individual policies for children? No, and neither does the federal government. Can parents get child-only coverage? tickets, food and souvenirs every day, Discovery Cove caps its daily attendance at about 1,000 people, which allows it to offer resort-style pampering and personalized encounters with animals and to command much higher ticket prices than those for a typical theme park. SeaWorld says Discovery Cove has cultivated a loyal following since opening in 2000, and the expansion is designed to ensure that return visits continue. we get so many repeat visitors, this will give them something said Stewart Clark, the SeaWorld vice president in charge of Discovery Cove.

With Grand Reef, Sea- World also hopes to solve a problem that has vexed it for years: underground leaks. Discovery existing tropical reef has been leaking salt water into the underground aquifer since the park opened, and SeaWorld, which has been chided by state environmental regulators, has been unable to completely stanch it. of calling it a problem, we called it an Clark said. just said, go ahead and build something The 2.5-acre Grand Reef, to open next June, will be a lush tropical environment with a white-sand beach, underwater grottoes and a palm-tree-lined island. It will be built around an aquarium filled with more than 1 million gallons of water and 125 species of fish, rays and sharks.

Guests will be able to wade and snorkel with tropical fish, cross a rope bridge over ashark-filled lagoon, and relax in island hammocks. But the most interesting addition will be an underwater walking tour dubbed in which guests will don dive helmets and follow a submerged path, about10feet below the surface, that will take them through schools of tropical fish and past venomous lion fish and sharks that can be viewed through panoramic windows. That limited-capacity experience, which will cost an additional $59 on top of Discovery base admis- sion price, will last about an hour and accommodate as many as six people at a time. Clark said some details are still being worked out, such as age limits and when the park will begin accepting reservations. Clark said Grand Reef will feature improvements over Discovery existing reef.

For example, the layout will allow people who are only able to wade in shallow water to see many of the same sights witnessed by guests snorkeling in deeper water. There will be less underwater sand, to reduce instances where silt is kicked up and impedes visibility. And Grand Reef will incorporate several new species, including moray eels and reef sharks. The existing reef will close once Grand Reef opens. Clark said Discovery Cove will build a new feature in its place, to debut in 2012, though he would not discuss specifics.

Meanwhile, Cheetah Hunt will be Busch first coaster, designed to immediately propel riders from 0 to 60mph. Three separate launch points will be spread throughout the which will include a 130-foot drop and will pass across a faux Seren- geti plain and through an artificial canyon. The layout will also include a midride parabola that will give riders the sensation of weightlessness for three seconds. are actually going to feel the full speed, power and agility of a sprinting Jim Dean, president of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, said in a video unveiling the attraction. The coaster will be paired with a new habitat dubbed that will permit guests to view cheetahs up close through oversized windows and learn more about the animals on touch- screen computer terminals.

more, trainers will conduct daily sprints with the cheetahs, which are the fastest land animals and can reach speeds of more than 70mph. Busch Gardens officials say the Cheetah Hunt will have the largest of any attraction yet built in the Tampa theme park. It will open next spring. Jason Garcia can be reached at 407-420-5414 or jrgarcia REEF Continuedfrom PageA1 Product: OS44Broadsheet PubDate: 10-14-2010 Zone: FLA Edition: ROP Page: User: estith Time: Color:.