Nuts about Theme Parks

 This Week's Theme Park News:

- This week saw the start of the Season of the Force event at Disneyland resort, which also meant the debut of new Star Tours scenes featuring Din Djarin, Grogu, Andor and Ahsoka. The event also introduce Sabine Wren as a walk around character, and also the return of the adorable BD-X droids in Galaxy's edge.

- Bob Iger shared a new "creative inspiration" image of what a potential avatar experience at Disneyland Resort could look like, as he hyped up the DisneylandForward proposal at the annual Disney Shareholder meeting.

- At Epcot, it's been announced that Test Track will close June 17 for its extended refurbishment. This week we also saw concept art for the new facade for the attraction.

- Walt Disney Imagineering has re-announced two major projects for Walt Disney World this week, with reporters getting a glimpse at the Beyond Big Thunder Mountain expansion at Magic Kingdom, and the Tropical Americas rethemeing of Dinoland USA at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The only actually new information in these announcements was that Disney will be filing permits for construction in Magic Kingdom, west of Frontierland very soon, and new clearer concept art for the Tropical Americas land. Speculation around the new animal kingdom land, is that it will feature the Dinosaur ride themed to it's brother attraction Indiana Jones, as well as and Encanto area and potentially a Coco themed carousel.

- WDI also launched a new  YouTube Series, called We Call It Imagineering, which featured new animatronics from the Tiana's Bayou Adventure ride, including Louis the trumpet playing crocodile, and several of the human characters from the movie. This week they also gave us the next round of new creature characters featured in the ride, who are:

- Octavia the Bobcat – a fearless kitten who plays the vaksin, a single-note horn instrument

- Pawpaw the Bobcat – Octavia’s grandfather, who taught her to play the vaksin

- Claude the Louisiana Black Bear – a horn-playing bear who loves to create with things found in the forest

- Bernadette the Louisiana Black Bear – Claude's mate and another horn player

- Sebastián the Louisiana Black Bear – Bernadette's cub Sebastián is a drummer

- Phina the Gray Fox – also a drummer

- Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite returns to Disneyland June 18 and 20 this year, celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community and featuring themed entertainment and photo ops for event guests, as well as specialty food, drinks, and merchandise for sale. Tickets will be $159 per person and tickets will go on sale from April 9th.

- Finally, Universal Studios Hollywood has announced that they are being back the red and white striped "Glamour Trams" this summer as part of a celebration of the parks 60th Anniversary. The new version will also include a tram stop, for the first time in many years, where guests will be able to see an original tram, a King Kong backdrop, the original hanging Jaws shark, and a scale replica of the Hollywood sign.

This week's Theme Park News:

- Universal Orlando Resort has revealed the details for the next land at its upcoming Universal Epic Universe theme park - How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk. They have confirmed they are bringing the "Untrainable" show that premiered at Universal Studios Beijing, which will be called The Untrainable Dragon. Other attractions in the new land will include:

Hiccup's Wing Gliders, an Intamin multi-launch roller coaster with a top speed of 45 mph.

Fyre Drill, a Splash Battle-style interactive boat ride, where "Ruffnut and Tuffnut invite teams of Vikings to compete to outscore and out-soak each other on this wet-and-wild boat battle."

Dragon Racer’s Rally, a Gerstlauer Sky Fly with a maximum height of 67 feet.

Viking Training Camp, a play area.

Haddock Paddock, a character meet with Hiccup and Toothless.

- Tokyo Disneyland is adding Marvel Characters to their version of It's a Small World, for a limited time. The attraction will be renamed It's a Small World with Groot. In a Press release, disney stated: "Groot from the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' film trilogy and his friends from Marvel Studios films are visiting Earth for vacation. Groot encounters his friends in various locations on Earth and experiences their regional cultures and music with them as well as with children from all over the world."

- Disney has given us a a sneak peak at the animal characters that will feature on Tiana's Bayou Adventure, the replacement for Splash Mountain.

Tiana's musical critters will be:

Byhalia the Beaver: A percussionist who builds musical instruments from natural materials in the bayou.

Gritty the Rabbit: Gritty plays a found-license-plate washboard.

Beau the Opossum: Plays an upright bass made from a gourd, using her tail to play some of the notes.

Apollo the Raccoon: Plays a squeezebox made from found objects in the bayou.

Rufus the Turtle: Apollo's companion in adventures, Rufus plays the harmonica in this band.

Timoléon the Otter: This fiddle player is the oldest member of the band and likes to share stories about the past.

- Orlando's giant observation wheel on International Drive, is now called the Orlando Eye, again, after the attraction was acquired by Merlin Entertainments this week. It was originally named the Orlando Eye, then subsequently ICON Orlando in 2018, then it changed again to be The Wheel at ICON Park in 2019.

- California's Great America is open for the season this week, and made good on it's symbolic Super Bowl bet with its Cedar Fair sibling Worlds of Fun, from Kansas City, by temporarily renaming coaster Flight Deck to be the Soaring Chiefs.

- Gardaland in Italy have this week took delivery of and installed the ride's 82-foot-tall purple octagonal tower for their new 2024 Attraction, revealing that the new attraction will be a "Drop & Twist Tower." A name has not yet been released for this ride, although the park has state that is have a theme based on indigenous Americans .

- Walt Disney World has announced the that the final pieces of the Epcot's transformation - CommuniCore Hall and the CommuniCore Plaza stage - will open June 10. CommuniCore Hall will house the Mickey & Friends character greeting as well as being used as flex space for EPCOT's various festivals and celebrations. The CommuniCore Plaza stage will first feature ¡Celebración Encanto!, a new sing-along stage show featuring the characters from Disney Animation's "Encanto," including Mirabel and Bruno.

- Also at WDW, a new drone show Disney Dreams That Soar will run nightly from May 24 through September 2 in the skies above Disney Springs.

- Legoland California have opened their new Dino Valley land. Featuring very colourful Lego Dinosaur models that now feature in the two re-themed rides Explorer River Quest and Duplo Little Dino Trail.

- Europa Park have announced that Voltron Nevera powered by Rimac will open officially on April 26. The Mack Rides Stryker coaster features 7 inversions, 4 launches, and what the park is calling the steepest launch in the world, at 105 degrees. Themed to the experiments of Nikola Tesla, the coaster will anchor the park's new Croatia-themed land.

- Universal Orlando's new Epic Universe theme park has started testing it's Starfall Racers trains testing on the coaster's track this week, as shown on local Orlando television. Epic Universe opens in 2025.

- Disneyland have given more details about their "all-new experience" of fireworks from inside Galaxy's Edge as part of their Season of the Force event from April 5 through June 2. Disneyland will recast its fireworks experience as "Fire of the Rising Moons." Guests will hear the fireworks accompanied by music from John Williams' Star Wars film scores.

- The resort also announced that Critter Country will close at Disneyland on May 1, as the park prepares the land for the opening of Tiana's Bayou Adventure. This work will include re-themeing two of the retail locations to Princess and the Frog, and also widening and improving pathways in that section of the park.

- Mattel and its partners have announced a second Mattel Adventure Park, coming to the Kansas City area in 2026, even before the first park in Arizona has opened. The Kansas city park is due to break ground later this year. The Arizona park is set to open Late this year.

- The Mall of America is opening a new Avatar ride. Avatar: The Last Airbender that is. The new aerial carousel ride is called, Fly with Appa, where you ride on the Sky Bison from the Nickelodeon animated series. It is part of Mall of America's Nickelodeon Universe.

- Qiddiya Investment Company has signed a deal with Toei Animation to license the Dragon Ball franchise for a new theme park at the Qiddiya City development in Saudi Arabia.

- The DisneylandForward proposal has cleared it's first major hurdle this week, with The Anaheim Planning Commission voting 5-1 to recommend the proposal to the Anaheim City Council. The Council is expected to vote on this later this spring.

- Universal confirmed this week that Florean Fortescue soft-serve ice cream shop, originally found in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida, will be opening another location at Universal Hollywood later this month. Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream counter will open March 29 in former Zonko's joke shop space within Honeydukes. The counter will serve 10 flavors of ice cream in cups or waffle cones: Banana, Chocolate, Mint, Orange, Vanilla, Toffee Nut, Granny Smith Apple, Pistachio, Toffee Apple, as well as Butterbeer ice cream. To celebrate that iconic flavor, Universal is declaring March 15 through April 30 as "Butterbeer season" at its U.S. theme parks. The parks will feature new Butterbeer-flavored items during the event, including a Butterbeer popsicle as well as Butterbeer caramels, which will be available in Orlando only.

- Shanghai Disneyland this week states that it had "began initial preparation work for construction of a separately themed attraction to be located within Shanghai Disneyland, adjacent to Zootopia." They also announced that they had completed piling work on its as-yet unamed third hotel.

- The Disneyland Resort is previewing new entry gates that will be installed at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, starting later this year. They have opened a test gate this week, which will bel used for a limited time and will assist with traning staff. The project is going to be finished in 2025.

- Disneyland resort dropped a whole bunch of details on Pixar fest, which returns to the resort April 26 and continues through August 4. This year it will feature a food festival, a part called Pixar Pals Playtime Party, and new parade at DCA called Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!

- In the U.S. SC Holdings has acquired Santa Monica Amusements LLC, the operator of Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier.

- Fuji-Q Highland has announced that its iconic roller coaster, Do-Dodonpa, has closed permanently. The S&S Thrust Air Coaster has been closed since August 2021, after a number of injuries.

- Aquatica Orlando officially opens its newest water slide, Tassie's Underwater Twist. This 129-foot long enclosed Super Bowl water slide from WhiteWater West features an orchestral score and synchronized video display that recreates the underwater world of Australia's Shark Bay for guests to explore as they slide through on two-person innertubes.

- Kennywood has announced the winner in its contest to name the park's bumper cars ride. In a fan vote, Potato Smash beat candidates Deep Fried Derby and Speedy Spuds to become the name for the ride, which has been getting a rebuild as Kennywood themes the cars to its Potato Patch fries.

This week's Theme Park News:

- Disneyland Resort has it's clearest yet communication on the construction of an Avatar based experience, with Bob Iger saying "We have one Avatar-based land, Pandora, in Florida. We're going to put a second one in California."

- Disneyland also had another attempt this week at opening up sales for their Magic Key annual pass program, which seemingly went better than last time.

- Disney Parks announced the opening date for the latest version of Star Tours, featuring Ahsoka Tano, Cassian Andor, Din Djarin (aka The Mandalorian) and Grogu, will debut April 5 at Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort.

- SeaWorld San Antonio has opened Catapult Falls, which it calls the "world's first launched flume coaster."

- Thorpe Park in the UK has completed track work on Hyperia, its new Mack Rides Hypercoaster for 2024.

- Legoland California has announced that Dino Valley will open officially to Legoland guests on March 22.

- Kentucky Kingdom will extend its 2024 season by staying open for the Christmas holiday season, the park announced this week.

- Gardaland in Italy has been teasing it's upcoming new thrill ride with claims this week of the arrival of a very large WOLF in the park.

- Universal Studios Florida will open its new DreamWorks Land this summer, and this week they also confirmed details of their attractions including that the former Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster is being transformed into Trolls Trollercoaster.

- Still at Universal Orlando, Islands of Adventure has removed the 3D projection on Skull Island: Reign of Kong, as part of a trial of 2D projection for the ride.

- Reporting season for theme park chains in the US this week told us that Six Flags has had higher attendance for lower income, and that United Parks (formerly SeaWorld Parks) had a decline on attenance.

- Hersheypark announced today that it has replaced the seats and restraints on its Intamin wing coaster, Skyrush

- Knott's Berry Farm has announced that work is "re-zooming" on the rebuild of its former Montezooma's Revenge roller coaster, renamed MonteZOOMa: The Forbidden Fortress.

- Carowinds and Kings Dominion have changed the name of their former Intimidator and Intimidator 305 roller coasters, they will now be known as Thunder Striker and Project 305 respectively.

- March 30th will be the opening date of Silver Dollar City's new version of Fire in the Hole, a complete rebuild of one of their classic attractions, by Rocky Mountain Construction.

- In Germany, The owners of Europa-Park have taken their first test ride on the park's new Voltron Nevera roller coaster

- In WDW, Soarin' Over California will end its limited-time run at Walt Disney World's EPCOT on February 27, with its replacement, Soarin' Around the World, returning the next day.

- At Disney Springs, a new permit for general construction/demo" has been filed for the closed NBA Experience building.

- Swedish theme park Liseberg has announced they have found the remains of a person who is believed to be the missing person from the incident.

- SeaWorld Orlando has added several artists to its Seven Seas Food Festival concert series line-up, including Hanson and The Goo Goo Dolls.

- An interesting photo taken of the new Dreamworks Animation area at Universal Studios Florida shows off what appears to possibly be a new kiddie sized flat ride. Its hard to tell for sure, but it does look sort of like a kid sized Family Swing ride.

- SpongeBob's Crazy Carnival Ride will open officially on March 1 at Circus Circus Las Vegas, the resort announced this week.

- Universal Destinations & Experiences has announced that Everbloom Games has created a Universal Studios Experience DLC for Minecraft.

- Tiana's Bayou Adventure will open this summer at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Disney Parks also shared a sneak peak at one of the new Tiana animatronics that will be featured on the ride.

- Movie world here in Australia gave us more detail on their upcoming Land of Oz which, releasing more concept art and also the official names for the rides: Flight of the Wicked Witch and Kansas Twister.

- Legoland New York this summer will introduce Legoland's first gondola ride, with The Minifigure Skyflyer

- Theme park chain Cedar Fair reported a slight dip in revenue and attendance for financial year 2023 compared to 2022, it reported this week.

- SeaWorld San Antonio that is new ride, the world's launched flume coaster, Catapult Falls will open officially to guests on Saturday, March 2

- In Spain a freak accident has seen strong winds cause a tree to fall onto the family wooden coaster Tomahawk at PortAventura, with 5 people hospitialized, and 2 of those having serious injuries.

- At Sweden's Liseberg theme park a major fire has broken out in an indoor water park that was under construction. One person is reported missing, and 16 people were treated for minor injuries then released.

This week's Theme Park News:

- Tokyo Disneyland has announced a "Donald's Quacky Duck City" festival, to run at April 9 through June 30 at the park.

- Legoland Florida has set March 8 as the official opening date for its newest attraction - Lego Ferrari Build & Race.

- Jurassic World VelociCoaster had a couple of periods of Unexpected downtime this week. It has re-opened, but it's still unclear what caused this normally reliable coaster to be down.

- Disney has reported last quater 2023 earnings, with a 7% increase in revenue across it's theme park and resort segment of the company.

- Dreamworld has released more concept art for it's up coming family coaster, Jungle Rush.

- Legoland California will attempt to host “the largest dinosaur costume party” in the world on March 3rd, as they prepare to open the park’s new Dino Valley this Spring. Participants in full head-to-toe dino attire will receive complimentary Park admission for the day!

This week's Theme Park News:

- Massive announcements for Universal Orlando's upcoming theme park Epic Universe this week. We had confirmation of the lands, with Celestial Park, Dark Universe, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - The Ministry of Magic, and How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk joining the already announced Super Nintendo World.

- The Pixar Place Hotel has official opened at Disneyland resort, this week. It is the re-theming of the former Paradise Pier Hotel.

- Universal Studios Hollywood has opened the Power Up Cafe which serves Mushroom Kingdom-themed calzones and drinks. The restaurant is located on the Upper Lot, across from Universal Plaza tower.

- SeaWorld Entertainment has announced that it is changing its corporate name to United Parks & Resorts.

- Tokyo Disneyland have announced that a new Castle Projection show on Cinderella Castle, which will debut on September 20th, will be the first use of characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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This week's Theme Park News:

- Disneyland Paris reopens its Disneyland Hotel following a three-year refurbishment. The hotel features a new lobby (with it's centerpiece is a new Bohemian crystal chandelier, representing the park's Sleeping Beauty Castle) and refurbished rooms and new suites.

- Snow has blanketed continental Europe this week which resulted in some beautiful images from Disneyland Paris, Efteling and Germany's Phantasialand, which capture amazing footage of one of the coasters TARON clearing the snow with it's morning test runs.

- Lunar New Year celebrations returned to Disney California this week, with the opening of several food booths, as well as the debuts of meet and greet characters Meilin Lee and her mother Ming Lee from Disney/Pixar's "Turning Red" .

- The Disneyland Resort will commit to spending more than $2 billion in Anaheim over the next decade, under a new development agreement proposed today with the City of Anaheim as part of its DisneylandForward plan. Disney would spend a minimum of $1.9 billion on new attractions, entertainment, and lodging within the first 10 years after approval, and Disney would commit $45 million for street improvements in Anaheim and $40 million to acquire Magic Way, Hotel Way, and part of Clementine Street that runs through the Toy Story Parking Area.

- NBCUniversal's Theme Parks segment reported $2.371 billion in revenue for the final three months of 2023, up 12.2% over the same period in 2022. Comcast reported revenue gains at both its domestic and international parks, though the domestic increases were driven by Universal Studios Hollywood, which continues to enjoy an attendance and guest spending boosts from the early 2023 opening of Super Nintendo World. That increase was partially offset by lower revenue at Universal Orlando in the quarter.

- Europa-Park is showing off a completed train for its upcoming 2024 roller coaster - Voltron Nevera.

- Disneyland Resorts Downtown Disney has given us more details on their upcoming restaurants, including adding a new quick service to the bill. Tiendita ("little shop") will offer Mexican street food staples to complement the full-service dining at Paseo and the bar service at Céntrico. There was also concept art of the new Earl of Sandwich, the Din Tai Fung restaurant as well as the Parkside market, which will house Seoul Sister, GG's Chicken Shop, and the coffee shop Sip & Sonder.

- The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man has closed at Universal Studios Japan, after a two-decade run at the Osaka theme park. The termination of Universal's Marvel license in Japan now clears the way for Disney to introduce Spider-Man and other Marvel characters at Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea.

- World of Frozen is opening to the public on Monday at Hong Kong Disneyland, after soft openings last week.

- Universal Studios Florida have installed a new sign for their upcoming DreamWorks land, that will debut sometime in 2024.

- High winds in Southern California appear to have contributed to an incident where a light post collapsed in Town Square on Main Street USA at Disneyland that left three people injured. One woman with an apparent head injury was taken to a local hospital, while two others were treated at the scene.

- Universal Orlando brought back its annual holiday celebrations on Friday, including Grinchmas, Christmas in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and its Macy's holiday parade balloons.

- Dinosaurs are taking over at Legoland California. The Carlsbad theme park announced that Dino Valley will be taking over the current Explorer Island land next year. This will replace the two recently closed rides Safari Trek and Fairy Tale Brook. They will be replaced by two newly Dino themed rides in Duplo Little Dino Trail and Explorer River Quest. The land also will include the current Coastersaurus roller coaster as well as the Dino Dig.

- The annual TEA Thea award winners were announced this week, with SeaWorld Yas Island, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind at Epcot and experimental restaurant Eatrenalin at Europa-Park being among the honourees.

This week's Theme Park News:

- Hong Kong Disneyland hosted a media preview for its world of Frozen land. It also open the land for soft opening on Friday

- Iaapa expo kicked off in Orlando this week an as rumoured Intamin and Six Flags Qiddiya unveiled the new themed coaster train for the record breaking Falcons Flight roller coaster.

- Also Zamperla and Cedar Point revealed the Top Thrill 2 train

- Chance rides showed of its trains for the Hot Wheels Twin Mill Racer coaster coming to the Mattel Adventure park currently under construction in Arizona

- Intamin also showed off some new ride concepts including a hub less observation wheel and a dome theatre ride which has motion based vehicles under a 360 dome theatre

- They also had a hype video showing 12 seater rotating coaster trains called “MDC 12 Seater” which is rumoured to be being used for Universal Studios Hollywood’s upcoming Fast and the Furious coaster.

- They also so showed a sneak peak of them working with Sally Corp on some dark ride coaster hybrids

- Sally dark rides also showed off animatronics for SpongeBob’s Crazy Carnival Ride a new dark they are building for CircusCircus Adventuredome in Las Vegas

-In a quarterly earnings report from Genting the company they mention that the new Minion Land coming to Universal Studios Singapore, as well as the new Singapore Oceanarium just outside the park won’t be ready to soft open until early 2025.

There’s also been some alleged leaked plans about how A Super Nintendo World could be added to the park, but take that with a grain of salt

This week's Theme Park News:

• Universal Orlando's hotel partner - Loews Hotels - accidentally posted the website for the one of resort's new South Campus hotels. The Stella Nova and Terra Luna Resorts will stand alongside the entrance to Universal Orlando's new Epic Universe theme park. Universal Stella Nova Resort, opening January 21, 2025.

• SeaWorld San Diego has announced the name for its new emperor penguin chick, Pearl.

• Disneyland has put in a ban on large pin boards inside the parks in an effort to stop professional pin traders from working in the parks.

• Disneyland has also announced that Fantasmic will return to the Rivers of America at on May 24, 2024.

• Legoland owner Merlin Entertainments is showing off the first new attraction in its upcoming Legoland Shanghai theme park, which is a 36,000-brick miniland model of the town where the park is being built.

• Legoland Florida has announced an installation of Lego Ferrari Build and Race in spring 2024. And next fall, Legoland Florida will open a Sea Life aquarium attraction at the resort.

This Week's Theme Park News:

• Two of America's biggest amusement park companies are coming together, Cedar Fair and Six Flags announced this week. The combined company, worth more than $3.5 billion, will boast 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Cedar Fair CEO Richard Zimmerman will be president and CEO of the combined company with Selim Bassoul, the current president and CEO of Six Flags, will become executive chairman. A merger of equals, they have self dubbed this.

• Six Flags Magic Mountain announced the official ground breaking for its new solar carport. When complete, the 12.37-megawatt solar array and energy storage system will offset 100% of the park's energy usage

• Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Six Flags Over Georgia each are opening Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster - the first installations of the "P'Sghetti Bowl" single-rail racing coaster from Skyline Attractions.

• SeaWorld San Diego will be breaking ground for its new 2024 attraction, Jewels of the Sea: A Jellyfish Experience

• WDW shared a promo video this week of Epcot’s upcoming nighttime show luminous the symphony of us which feature a new original song called Heartbeat Symphony.

• According to a Disney Executive in charge of Disney’s live entertainment, parades and nighttime spectaculars, “Drones are the next thing” we should expect to see coming to the Disney park’s after dark shows. During a panel discussion about the new season of “Behind the Attractions” coming to Disney+ next week, Steven Davidson mentioned Drones, saying “They’re kind of a new thing. We’re doing a lot of work in that. So all I’m going to say is, ‘There’s more to come.’”

• The Tokyo Disney Resort has reported increased attendance at their properties thus far for the first six months of the Oriental Land Company’s fiscal year. This represents a nearly 40% increase over the same term from the previous year for a total of 12.5 million visitors, with 1.63 million of them being international guests visiting from countries outside of Japan

• New pictures taken on site at the future Six Flags Qiddiya construction site can be found over at ThemeparX this week. This includes current shots of the massive Falcon’s Flight roller coaster. And we might be about to see roller coaster trains for this coaster at the upcoming Iaapa expo, if rumours are to be revealed

This week's Theme Park News:

• Tokyo Disney resort announced that Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea will open June 6, 2024. Peter Pan, tangled and frozen.

• Disneyland Resort has announced the newly themed “Adventureland Treehouse inspired by Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson" will reopen officially on November 10. The treehouse had been Tarzan themed since 1999, and closed since shortly after the pandemic closures in 2021.

• Shanghai Disneyland has announced their Zootopia land will open December 20 of this year.

• WDW has given more details about it’s Christmas celebrations with Frozen Holiday Surprise castle projection show coming to Magic Kingdom, and lots of new entertainment coming to Hollywood Studios for the Jollywood Nights event. This includes a What’s this, nightmare before Christmas singalong show at the Frozen theatre.

• They also announced that EPCOT International Festival of the Arts will return on January 12, 2024 and run through February 19.

• Lots of Disney Cruise News this week but the most theme park related is that Disney Treasure vessel is going have a bar called the Haunted Mansion Parlor when it sets sail in December 2024.

• Japan’s new Ghibli Park is teasing the opening of the upcoming Princess Mononoke themed area that will premiere on November 1st. According to the update the land will feature a sculpture of a Tatarigami spiriti monster, a slide themed to the boar god Lord Okkoto and an area where guests can make their own “gohei-mochi rice cakes”.

• In the us, Several Cedar Fair theme parks Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and California's Great America are returning to their traditional calendars, closing for the winter and reopening for the 2024 season in the spring.

• Universal's theme parks took in more than $2.4 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2023, parent company Comcast reported this week. Above comparable 2019 data. Despite this Comcast’s stock 8% post the report

• the Bullet Coaster at Happy Valley Shenzhen suffered some kind of incident. It sounds as if the two trains may have collided, causing the rear car to de-rail from the look of things. The unofficial reports say 8 riders may have been potentially injured from the incident. The Bullet Coaster is a modern S&S Thrust Air style launch coaster that first opened back in 2012.

This week's theme park news:

• the Disney company turned 100 this week, and to celebrate Hong Kong Disneyland unveiled a brand new Walt Disney statue. It featured Walt and Mickey sitting on a park bench looking at the park’s Carousel.

• Epcot celebrated the birthday as well with the official opening of Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana.

• At WDW it was announced that Blizzard Beach water park will reopen for guests on November 6. As they only open one water park at a time at the moment this means that Typhoon Lagoon will close November 5.

• More Christmas events have breen announced this week 2023 Holidays at Universal Orlando Resort events will start November 17 and continue through December 31. The usuals return including Mannheim Steamroller.

• Universal have announced the name for their new Las Vegas standalone horror attraction, it will be called Universal Horror Unleashed.

• Italy's Gardaland is teasing its new attraction for 2024, which will be based on legends of indigenous Americans.

This week's Theme Park News:

• Disney imagineers have this week play test 3 walk around BD-1 droids at Disneyland’s version of Galaxies edge. And they are beautiful.

• Disneyland resort released details of their upcoming enhancement of Downtown Disney, including a new park and stage. They also Ann 3 new restaurants : GG's Chicken Shop, Seoul Sister, and Sip & Sonder.

• Disneyland resort has also raised ticket prices across the board with single day tickets up 8.9%.

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• All-day Park Hopping returns to the Walt Disney World Resort starting January 9, the date when park reservations will no longer be required. And it also raised prices of its annual passes, but did not raise day ticket prices.

• Disneyland Paris will swap two scenes in Le Pays des Contes de Fées ("The Land of Fairy Tales") as part of a "complete refurbishment" of the Fantasyland ride over the next year. The new new scenes will feature Frozen and Winnie the Pooh. The resort also showed teaser images of Disney Symphony of Colors which will play on and above Sleeping Beauty Castle, starting January 8, 2024.

• Hong Kong Disneyland has revealed the menus it will be serving at its new World of Frozen when that land opens November 20. And there are lots of desserts.

• The Whos of Whoville will take the Universal Plaza stage for a new show during this year's Grinchmas celebrations at Universal Studios Hollywood. They are also bringing back their Harry Potter Magic of Christmas projection show.

• Six Flags Over Georgia are holding a fan vote to pick the name of their up coming Ultra Surf coaster. The three choices are: Aquaphobia, Georgia Surfer, and Iron Splash: The Surf Coaster.

• Over at Legoland California, The City of Carlsbad has posted notice of a planning application by the park. The application calls for the removal of two existing attractions, which the park has announced are Safari Trek and Fairy Tale Brook. In their place will be three new attractions:

- A single-story, 32,200-square-foot, 43-foot-tall building with an interior ride

- A 33-foot tall, 4,120-square-foot outdoor ride

- A new children's play area with a 30-foot tall structure

This week's Theme Park News:

• Legoland California is closing yet another opening attraction with Safari trek’s neighbour Fairy Tale Brook to close at the end of October to make way for “future awesomeness!”

• Disney revealed the full roster of celebrity narrators for the Candlelight Processional at this year's EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays. New celebrities include Brendan Fraser, if he can get his cup of coffee.

• Both Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort have announced upcoming discounts for families visiting with children, ages 3-9, Starting October 24.

• Disney+ has announced that a second season of "Behind the Attraction" will drop on November 1. The six-episode second season will highlight Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure, EPCOT, Food, and Nighttime Spectaculars.

• In the uk Thorpe Park have announced their 2024 coaster will be named Hyperia, stand 236 feet tall and hit speeds of over 80mph

• In Denmark Djurs Sommerland has announced that the park will build their tallest attraction ever for the 2024 season, a 60 meter tall new drop tower to be located inside the park’s Mexicoland.

• Merlin Entertainments has announced the impending retirement of its Chief Financial Officer, Alistair Windybank. He joined Merlin in 2008 and have served as the company's CFO since 2020

• Iaapa have announced that”Universal Beijing Resort – The Untold Story of Triumph over Trying Times; COVID, Lockdowns, Quarantines, And More" will be the topic for this year's Legends panel at this years expo in November. It will be hosted by Bob Rogers, and feature:

• Tom Mehrmann, President and Chief Operating Officer of Universal Destinations and Experiences, Pacific Rim. Former President and General Manager for Universal Beijing Resort

• Mike Hightower, retired President at Universal Creative.

• Sylvia Hase, President of Hasbas Entertainment who were responsible for the Untrainable show.

• SeaWorld San Antonio is the latest theme park to go solar in its parking lot, beginning construction of a solar canopy that will shade approximately 1,200 spots in the VIP section of its parking lot. The canopy's solar panels will have a capacity of 4.3 megawatts and generate 16% of the park's electricity consumption, according to SeaWorld.

• An American water park guest has filed a suit against Walt Disney World after a visit to Typhoon Lagoon caused an “injurious wedgie” from the Humunga Kowabunga slide in 2019. the incident was serious enough for her to be hospitalised, and she’s asking for $50000 in damages.

This week's Theme Park News:

• SeaWorld Orlando announced a new ride for 2024 - Penguin Trek. It will be the park's eighth roller coaster, a "snowmobile styled ride car” built by Bolliger & Mabillard.

• Sea World San Diego is getting a new jellyfish exhibit Jewels of the Sea: The Jellyfish Experience which will feature three galleries in which visitors can see various species, including Moon Jellyfish, Pacific Sea Nettles, Upside-Down Jellyfish, and Comb Jellies.

• SeaWorld San Antonio has confirmed its new Catapult Falls ride will not open this year as originally planned. The park yesterday announced that the launched flume coaster will open next spring.

• SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment this week filed a U.S. Trademark application for "Phoenix Rising” for “Entertainment in the nature of an amusement park ride.” Busch Gardens in Tampa used to have a Starship looper called Phoenix.

• Utah's Lagoon them park has opened a new interactive dark ride roller coaster hybrid called Primordial this week.

• In Japan government officials have announced plans for a new theme park on a former U.S. military base in Yokohama. Yokohama city government has selected Mitsubishi Estate to develop the project, with a goal to open in 2031. City planning documents project that the 127-acre theme park, tentatively called Kamiseya Park, will attract 12 million visitors a year when it debuts.

• IAAPA Expo Europe started this week in Vienna. At the expo, Zamperla revealed two new products. Magic Bikes XL and GoGo Bounze 8.4.

• Walt Disney world has announced hotel discounts for the first few months of 2024 up to 30%

• Disney also filed a number patent applications this week including one titled Systems and Methods for Transferring a Passenger Compartment Between Ride Systems Using Robotic Tool Changers and another one for a Procedural Animation Engine and Editor for Sample-Based Design of Stylized Walking Gaits for Bipedal Robots.

This week's Theme Park News!

• The Walt Disney Company announced that it would nearly double its capital expenditures in its Disney Parks, Experiences and Products segment over the next 10 years compared with the previous 10. This would be 60 billion dollars based on their current 30 billion spend.

• Disney parks president Josh D’Amaro theorised that Frozen could have a presence at Disneyland resort when referencing all the ips the have to spare.

• Magic Kingdom cast members discovered a black bear next to the Rivers of America one morning this week, prompting Disney to keep the west side of the park closed past its scheduled opening time that day.

• At Disneyland the recently opened CenTOONial Park remains closed through October 22, after which Goofy's How-to-Play Yard will go down, with an expected return in early November. Apparently the soft artificial turf has not lived up to guest use and is being replaced.

• Legoland California is closing The Safari Trek ride one of its opening day attractions at the end of the month

• The owners of Spain's PortAventura World are looking to sell reportedly at an estimated price of 1 billion euros

• Universal has filed a patent application for an ambitious crowd control system that would give Universal the ability to direct individual visitors around their theme parks through the use of wireless devices through direct instructions.

• Georgia's Wild Adventures theme park has announced a new holiday event - Wild Adventures Christmas Wild & Bright. The event starts November 18 and continues on select dates through December 31

This week's Theme Park News:

• At Destination D23: EPCOT's new nighttime spectacular will be called "Luminous: The Symphony of Us" and will debut December 5.

• Journey of Water Inspired by Moana got an official opening date of October 16

• the Hatbox Ghost got an ETA of late November at the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion.

• Star Tours will add Ahsoka in California, Florida, and France next year,

• also next year, a new Country Bears show - County Bear Musical Jamboree - will open at the Magic Kingdom.

•

• Soarin' Over California will return to EPCOT later this month for a limited run

• They released a concept image of the ride vehicle for the new Avengers Campus ride at Disney California Adventure, but no details

• Disney also discussed there are plans in the works to replace Dinoland USA in Animal Kingdom. They proposed it could be possible that maybe they might be considering A land devoted to Central and South America, which could house IP properties like Indiana Jones and Encanto. They also showed a Bluesky image about how that may possibly work.

• 2024 D23 Expo will run August 9 to 11 at the Anaheim Convention Center, following a kick-off event on August 8 at the Disneyland Resort. The event will also expand to the Honda Center for special shows during the event.

• This week Disneyland Resort has started alcohol sales inside Disneyland this week at 3 table service restaurants: River Belle Terrace, Carnation Cafe and Cafe Orleans.

• City of Anaheim released a Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report on the proposed DisneylandForward proposal, with the short of it being that less than significant effects on the local environment once constructed. Also called out existing restrictions for above ground outdoor roller coasters on the property. It now goes into a 45 day public consultation before being finalised.

• The refurbished Disneyland Hotel at the Disneyland Paris Resort will reopen January 25, 2024, with some pretty fancy themed suites. The royal suite themed to frozen is particularly impressive.

• Dollywood announced that Lightning Rod, will close for the season October 30. Over the winter, the park will replace the coaster's troubled launch with a high-speed chain lift.

• Merlin Entertainments has announced a long-term partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent. It has 3 parks in development in China.

• Disney has settled a lawsuit with former Magic Key holders over the use bill f the phrase “no block out dates” on their annual passes. Disneyland will pay a total of $9.5 million to plaintiffs and their attorneys. That will work out to a payment of $67.41 to each of the estimated 103,000-plus former Dream Key passholders represented in the case.

• At Disneyland resort Tiana's Palace is now open for business in New Orleans Square.

• They have also kicked off their Halloween event Oogie Boogie Bash this week. Their Halloween celebrations includes several rude overlays including Haunted Mansion Holiday.

• Tokyo Disney Resort has this week announced it’s Christmas celebrations for this year, with an event called Disney Christmas running from the 8th of November up until the 25th of December this year. This includes special Christmas merchandise , decorations and their own ride overlays including their version of Haunted Mansion Holiday.

• Shanghai Disneyland has revealed details about its upcoming Zootopia land which will feature an all-new trackless dark ride called Zootopia: Hot Pursuit. This land will open at some point later this year.

• At Hong Kong Disneyland, we do have an official opening date for Arendelle: The world of Frozen. This new land will open on November 20th.

• The City of San Diego today filed a lawsuit against SeaWorld, seeking more than $12 million in what the city claims is rent owed by the Mission Bay theme park.

• At WDW, Give Kids the World Village, which hosts critically ill children and their families on Orlando vacations, is raffling off a Walt Disney World Magical Celebration Vacation Package for four, including a stay in the Cinderella Castle Suite inside Magic Kingdom. Tickets are available on their website.

We talk about all the Theme Park News for the last week.

Mentions this Month  

Lauren's Travels 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuqMmzPv1z08RY8KTb5MbfQ 

Velocicoaster Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLNr05kdN30 

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This Month's news: 

• The big news this month was California theme parks reopening first Six flags Magic Mountain, then Legoland California, then universal studios Hollywood and finally Disneyland on April 30th. • With these openings we’ve seen a couple of new ride revamps launched, including Jurassic World the ride with its new indominous Rex animatronics day Disneyland’s Snow Whites Encuanted Wish. • Disneyland have also announced that their new land in California Adventure Avengers Campus will open on Friday, June 4. • Disney have officially announced their fifth key in theme park operations of Inclusion. As part of this change they have updated the cast member guideline called the DisneyLook to include gender-inclusive hairstyles, beards, jewelry, nail styles, and costume choices; and allowing appropriate visible tattoos. • Universal Orlando has extended their Mardi Gras celebrations again, now into May. • Universal Orlando announced an official opening date for their new coaster. The Jurassic World VelociCoaster will open officially on June 10. But team member previews have already started. Check out Lauren’s Travels on Twitter and Instagram for her reaction. Links in the section below. • Walt Disney World has recalled the company for Festival of the Lion King and the popular musical show at Disney's Animal Kingdom is now in rehearsals for a mid-May return. • Epcot have announced a new shop called Creations, and have love excitingly announced the return of club cool. • Cedar Point have appointed a new General Manager in Carrie Boldman a 16 year Disney Parks veteran. • Tokyo Disney announced detail for their toy story hotel which will open in the next 12 months and be called the Tokyo Disney Resort Toy Story Hotel. • Universal Orlando is reopening another of its on-site hotels. The Loews Sapphire Falls Resort will begin welcoming guests again starting May 18

Mentions this Month  

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March 2021 Theme Park News:  

• Super Nintendo World at universal studios japan officially opened on March 18th. • universal Orlando officially resumed work in their up coming Epic Universe theme park • They also have extended their current Mardi Gras festival by two weeks through April 11. • They also announced that Halloween Horror Nights will return this year for 42 nights, and announced the return of Beetlejuice as their first house. • WDW have allowed for mobile phones to be used in the same way as magic bands with their new MagicMobile system. It essentially streamlines the use of phones by allowing them to be tapped rather than requiring a code be scanned. • Epcot started the flower and garden festival and also announced they are opens Remy's Ratatouille Adventure ride in the expanded France pavilion on October 1st. • Walt Disney Imagineering have shared more details of the upcoming retheming of the Jungle Cruise, with news being that we it will be tied to the Society of Explorers and Adventures through Alberta Falls, the current owner of the Jungle navigation Co. which was founded by her grandfather. It also has been rumoured that a Disney+ show is in the works based on SEA. • Disneyland's 'A Touch of Disney' Event Sold out within hours at the start of the month, and then kicked off on March 18th. • Universal Hollywood opened for its own food festival Taste of Universal  • Disneyland Resort also started a campaign to remove its current zoning restrictions with its press release about the Disneyland Forward plan. The plan had hypothetical concept art with it that showed ways it may be able to expand if the rules changed. • Tokyo Disney is bringing back live theatre, which means it can also finally open its pandemic-delayed Fantasyland Forest Theatre with the premiere of Mickey’s Magical Music World. The theatre is the last part of their recent Tokyo Disneyland Expansion. • The theme parks of the Disneyland Paris Resort will not reopen on April 2 as planned having moved their reopening date for the 3rd time. • Alton Towers in the UK have announced a new attraction, Gangsta Granny: The Ride. The dark ride will bring to life the children's book by David Walliams and is planned to open May 17th depending on Covid Restrictions. • Merlin Entertainments has announced they are going to be building their 4th Park in Europe, with a site selected in Belgium.

• The Walt Disney World Resort's 50th anniversary will kick off October 1 as "The World’s Most Magical Celebration." The celebration will feature a physical overlay on the castle, and new projection shows on each of the park icons, and will run for 18 months.

• The rivers of America are back at magic kingdom after being drained last October. The Liberty Belle riverboat has also returned. And there was a great article by Dewayne Bevil in the Orlando sentinel about the liberty belle was removed in the first place. Quite amazing!

• Epcot opened its exhibit The Soul of Jazz in the American pavilion and also its new home for the Leave a Legacy photos.

• Universal Orlando has had two permanent closures this month with the closure of the Blue Man Group and A Day in the Park with Barney.

• But they did reopen their water theme park volcano bay on February 27. They also kicked off their Taste of Mardi Gras food festival. And Islands of adventure’s Velocicoaster is getting closer to opening with construction walls coming down in the last week.

• In California, Disney California Adventure is opening for a hard ticket event next month. A Touch of Disney will run Thursdays through Mondays from noon to 8 pm, starting March 18. Tickets will be $75 per person and go on sale March 4th.

• Legoland Florida will add another gate in 2022 with the opening of the world's first standalone Peppa Pig theme park, which will take over 5acres of what is currently the resorts car park.

• Hong Kong Disneyland has reopened for the third time during this pandemic, having been shut since November last year.

• Motiongate Dubai opened a new live theatre show based on original ip in its Hollywood theatre called Into the Deadlands: Ice Storm

• Theme parks in England may be able to open as soon as April 12, under orders issued by the British government earlier in the month.

• The former Fox World theme park planned for Resorts World Genting in Malaysia is now called "Genting SkyWorlds," and is likely to open at some point this year.

Disney

- Walt Disney Imagineering announced this month that it will be rewriting the Jungle Cruise attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom. The changes will see the addition of an animatronic Jungle skipper to the popular Adventureland attractions but will not include the stars of the upcoming "Jungle Cruise" feature film.

Disneyland

- The Annual Pass Program at Disneyland Resort has been ended, with all passes cancelled immediately with refund offered for all.

Disney World

- Park Hopping returned at Walt Disney World, as the resort also is introducing a new ticket discount offer for Florida residents.

- Disney announced that it will end its complementary Disney's Magical Express bus service to and from the Orlando International Airport for its Disney hotel guests at the end of 2021.

- They also annouced that starting later in the year, Disney's hotel guests will get 30 minutes of Early Theme Park Entry to all four theme parks, every day, in a replacement of the Extra Magic Hours Program.

- Epcot will get a new exhibit in February, as the new "The Soul of Jazz: An American Adventure." was announced. It will be based on the Disney-Pixar movie Soul.

- Also at Epcot, after the breakdown and removal of the Donald Duck animatronic in the Gran Fiesta Tour starring the 3 Caballeros late last year, fans have noticed that all 3 of the animatronics were removed this week and replaced with Cardboard cutouts. I would expect this to be only temporary for maintenance of these animatronics, who predate this attraction by more than 40 years.

- Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle shared two of the first live photos from inside the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel, now under construction at the resort.

- Disney announced that Festival of the Lion King will return to Disney's Animal Kingdom this summer. 

- Plans are moving ahead for Evermore Orlando Resort on the 1,100-acre site which was former the Villas at Grand Cypress, near Walt Disney world. The completed resort is estimated to have 10,000 rooms.

US

- Legoland Florida has announced it's building a roof over it's Miniland walk-through attraction.

-  SeaWorld San Diego has debuted "Sesame Street Parade of Lights Drive-Thru" on Friday through Sunday evenings in mid January. And from February 6th it will re-open to day guests as a zoo, with select animal exhibits and shows but no rides in operation.

- ICON Park, on International Drive in Orlando, hosted a groundbreaking ceremony earlier in the month for the ICON Park Slingshot and the 430 feet tall ICON Park Drop Tower.

Japan

- Universal Studios Japan has postponed the grand opening of its Super Nintendo World land indefinitely, due to the proliferation of Covid cases around Osaka. It was due to open on the 4th of February, and continues to be in soft opening.

International

- Specifcations for Falcon's Flight, the flagship attraction for the new Six Flags Qiddiya park that is now scheduled to open in 2023. The Falcon’s Flight "will travel across approximately 4km, feature a vertical cliff dive maneuver into a 160m-deep valley using magnetic motor acceleration (LSM technology), and achieve unprecedented speeds of 250+ km/h,"

-Universal Studios Beijing has announced it's major construction is complete, and is on track to open this year.

- Disneyland Paris has postponed its planned reopening due to the persistence of new Covid cases in Europe. It's now targetting an April 2 reopening.

- Bollywood Parks Dubai will reopen to guests on January 21 and the park has  added nine new rides, led by the world's tallest swing ride.

This month's news:

• In American theme parks it’s really been a story of two coasts. California has accepted the worsening Covid situation over the last month while Florida has continued to ignore the fact that anything is happening.

• In southern California, a new Regional Stay Home came into effect, as ICU capacity in the 11-county region has dropped below the prescribed 15 percent. This spelled the end of numerous planned Christmas events including the Taste of Knotts Merry Farm and the Holidays at Legoland event at Legoland California.

• Disney has respond to the stay at home order by moving one of its famous food offerings. The iconic Disneyland hand-dipped corn dog is now on the menu at the Magic Kingdom's Sleepy Hollow.

• Disneyland did share a preview of its newly redesigned Snow White ride in Fantasyland, which will be renamed Snow White’s Enchanted Wish.

• In Florida, all the resorts have increased capacity again, with universal Orlando having 4 days over the Christmas break where they reached full capacity. 

• They also did a vehicle reveal for their up coming Velocicoaster. 

• They also opened Universal's Endless Summer Resort - Dockside Inn and Suites, adding 2,050 budget-priced guest rooms for visitors to the resort.

• At Epcot they’ve opened the new fountain and entrance plaza. 

• They installed the massive new platforms that will help stage the upcoming Harmonious nighttime show on World Showcase Lagoon. 

• The woman who started the Ratatouille musical on TikTok was flown from New York to get a sneak peek at the new Ratatouille ride.

• And they announced the "Taste of Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival" will run from March 3, 2021 through July 5.

• In general WDW news, Disney's Blizzard Beach water park will reopen to guests for the 2021 season on March 7.

• Outside the US is also a mixed bag, with Europe largely closed as the second wave hits hard over there. Efteling was the biggest park to close in December as most of the others had already closed.

• In Japan, Tokyo Disney has announced its pricing will increase on weekends and holidays from March 20th.

• Probably the most exciting theme park news for this month was from Universal Studios Japan, where we got our first official glimpse inside Super Nintendo World with a video hosted by the creator of Mario Shigeru Miyamoto. The video was packed with insane details of this much anticipated land, and is very much worth watching.

• The land is also in a soft opening phase, where annual pass holders can preview the land, with strict rules around the distribution of media from the land. The official opening date of the land is February 4th, 2021.

• Early in the month, theme parks in the UK joined their European neighbours in closing down as another wave of Coronavirus hit. Some have simply closed early for their winter off season, while others hope to reopen for modified Christmas events. In Europe, Disneyland Paris resort has officially closed until after Christmas.

• In California, 8 mayors including the mayor of Anaheim have joined forces to push Governor Neeson to reopen theme parks. Unfortunately during the month Conditions in the state have gotten worse, with several counties moving back a tier in the states threat system. In a rare bit of good news, Buena Vista street has reopened as a shopping and dining district. Although Disney did reintroduce parking fees at Disneyland resort to coincide with the opening. 

• Knowing that their parks won’t reopen this year both Disney and Universal have beefed up their out of park offerings. Disneyland has started selling Spiderbots from the New Avengers Campus ride that they have been unable to open. They are also bringing out their famous Corndog to Downtown Disney, while Universal Studios Hollywood has wheeled out their biggest and most profitable gun, Butterbeer.

• D23 Fantastic Worlds Celebration online event was this month and along with that we got more of a look at some future projects for WDW. We saw more details on Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and saw yet mor footage of the ride vehicles for the up coming Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind coaster.

• WDW has also announced that park hoping is coming back in January. But not as we know it. Guests will still have to make a reservation at their first park, and will only be able to hop after 2 pm.

• WDW also announced an agreement with train company Brightline to have a train line connect Orlando International Airport with Disney Springs. There are many steps before this plan is put into action, so it will be years away but still a positive step.

• The Walt Disney Company has also announced that it will be laying off another 4000 workers.

• In Hong Kong, the new revamped central castle has opened this month for its 15th anniversary. The new castle has been dubbed the Castle of magical dreams.

• Several Holiday events have started this month, with Sea World Orlando bring out the Rudolph characters, and Knotts Berry Farm starting their taste of Merry Farm food festival. The most innovative is definitely Six Flags Magic Mountain who reopened their doors for the first time since March with a Holiday in the Park Drive-thru Experience. Guest drive through the park witness various lights and projection mapping displays.

• We saw POV videos for Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa, and a virtual POV for Seaworlds up coming Ice Breaker.

• Possibly the most surprising news for the month was the announcement from Joe Rohde that he is retiring. Rohde is one of the most prominent of the modern batch of Imagineers having been lead designer on Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Pandora the world of avatar during his 40 years with Imagineering. He stated that he didn’t want to stay to retire in the middle of another huge project, and if he took on completing another by the end he would be truely old.

• Walt Disney World is making it easier to get into the virtual queue. From Next week the virtual queue will open at 7am, and you won’t have to be in the park for this initial release. However you’ll still need to physically inside the park for the second release at 2pm. They also increased the rides capacity by adding a plexiglass divider On the ride vehicles.

• The majority of large theme parks across Europe have been ordered to close in the next week. Parks in Belgium, Italy, France and Germany. This includes Disneyland Paris resort and Europa Park.

• The Disneyland Resort announced that it will reopen the Buena Vista Street land in Disney California Adventure, starting next month, as a shopping and dining district.

• Knott’s Berry Farm will continue their partial operations with Knott's Taste of Merry Farm, running select dates from November 20 through January 3rd.

• Universal Orlando has run its lagoon show Universal's Cinematic Celebration for the first time since the pandemic closed the parks last March.

• They have also announced their first maze for Halloween Horror Nights 2021, Puppet Theater: Captive Audience, which was due to appear in this years cancelled event.

• Walt Disney World Resort has announced it is refreshing its entrance archways around the resort.

• Comcast have announced that they expect Universal parks to return to profit next year, regardless of an 80% drop in quarterly profits year on year. This is an improvement from the 94% drop in the previous quarter.

• Disney World’s Disney Springs is adding a new donut shop called Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew

• Efteling’s Director Coen Bertens has announced he will step down from his role on February 1, 2021.

• Tokyo Disney announced it had also had an 83% drop in profits, but had seen a 14% increase in spending per guest.

Theme Park News goes here, normally.

• Hong Kong Disneyland has reopened today, but news from the resort is a little mixed. Apparently the company who runs the resort had an option to buy the land which is adjacent to the park, which expired yesterday and the Hong Kong government has declined to extend the option. So at this stage now second park for Hong Kong.

• The Tokyo Disney Resort announced it will open its new Tokyo Disneyland attractions on September 28th. The expansion — which includes the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast trackless dark ride, The Happy Ride with Baymax spinner ride, and the Minnie's Style Studio meet and greet location is the largest on Tokyo Disneyland history.

• Legoland in California has announced another new hard ticket event called Halloween in Miniland, which will run Friday’s through Sundays for October.

• Busch Gardens Williamsburg is hosting its own Halloween event, Busch Gardens Halloween Harvest in October.

• Universal Orlando is expanding its Halloween offering, continuing to offer day guests the ability to tour the two HHN houses they were testing last week, and adding Trick or Treating for younger guests at Islands of Adventure.

• Toothsome Chocolate Emporium at Universal Orlando has added a new Robot Dog called Latte to their family of characters.

• A maintenance worker has fallen to his death from about half way up the Orlando Star Flyer. The giant swing ride has closed pending an investigation by the Sheriff’s Office and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

•

• Walt Disney World’s Water parks will not reopen this year. Disney World posted to its website that it plans to open either Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon on March 7, 2021.

•

• Idaho's Silverwood Theme Park announced its new-for-2021 coaster, Stunt Pilot, RMC Raptor single rail coaster.

• Disney has released concept art of the new entrance for the Polynesian Village resort which will reopen next summer

Links To Courtney's Amazing Channels:  

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Follow Courtney on all the things because she is literally the best! Thank you so much for guest hosting this week's Theme Park News in a Minute!  

This week's Theme Park News: 

• Walt Disney World Resort confirmed the cancellation of this year's Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom and the Candlelight Processional at Epcot, this week. The resort will still be celebrating the holidays with Santa Claus and Christmas character cavalcades appearing in all 4 parks from November 6th. 

• Walt Disney World has announced that the Build your own lightsaber experience at Savi's Workshop will return September 20 inside Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios 

• America’s largest Amusement industry Expo, IAAPA Expo, was officially cancelled this week. It was scheduled to be in Orlando this November. 

• Universal Orlando had both theme parks and Volcano Bay hit capacity over the labour day weekend for the first time since reopening. • Tokyo Disney Resort has announced that it will start charging ¥20 (about 20 cents US) for plastic bags at its parks.  

• Cedar Point kicked off a new family friendly Halloween event Tricks and Treats Fall Fest this week, which runs weekends through to November 1st. 

• The State of California lowered Orange County’s pandemic restrictions, which allows for the likes of Downtown Disney and Knotts Berry Farm to reopen indoor dining at 25% capacity. 

• At Wuxi Sunac Land in China last weekend, the Mack Rides “Blue Fire” coaster Steam Racers had a misfired launch which exactly matched the force required to reach the top of the initial hill, without going over or rolling back. It was reported that riders were stuck on the banked turn at the top of the hill for approximately an hour before the coaster train was brought back down and the riders were able to disembark.

• Walt Disney World has delayed the return of Disney's Polynesian Village Resort Until 2021. Disney said that it will renovate guest rooms with Moana as an inspiration.

• More table service restaurants are opening again at Walt Disney World, with Cinderella’s Royal Table at the Magic Kingdom, which returns on September 24.

• Construction has gone vertical on Disney's second installation of the Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, which will go into Disneyland's Toontown, scheduled to open in 2023.

• Walt Disney World is offering new 3 new hotel-stay deals for their fall season.

• Movie Park in Germany have teased new details of their upcoming 2021 Indoor coaster, stating it will be “Europe’s first double launch indoor coaster” and “Germany’s first multi-directional roller coaster”.

• Busch Gardens Tampa and Sea World San Antonio is going to host an Oktoberfest style Bier festival this month.

• Busch Gardens Williamsburg launched a new limited-capacity special event called the 'Taste's of Busch Gardens' on Thursday this week.

All the Theme Park News that I can fit in a minute.   • Universal Orlando has had Velociraptor statue arrive for it’s still-unannounced Jurassic World roller coaster this week. • Disney has announced that it will allow all guests to wear costumes to the Magic Kingdom during regular operating hours from September 15 through Halloween, October 31. • Disneyland has removed Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah from their music loop. • The Florida government is trying to increase public confidence in its theme parks by suggesting the might soon be increasing capacity limits for the major parks. • Imagineers this week installed the Quinjet that will be part of the Avengers campus at Disney California Adventure. • Sea World San Diego is partly re opening with hard ticket event Zoo Days: Bayside BBQ & Brews which will run Fridays through Sundays, plus Labor Day, from 11am to 7pm. • Legoland New York shared a first look at animated on-ride video and images from its centerpiece attraction, Lego Factory Adventure.  • SeaWorld San Antonio announced that it will switch to year-round operation for 2021, doing away with the short off season that it has had in January and February for the past decade. • Six Flags Discovery Kingdom President Don McCoy is moving south to become the new park president at Six Flags Magic Mountain

This week's news:

• An accidental leak from a web designer has given further details on Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World. It included photos of the Mario Kart ride vehicle, and involvement from Toad who is the owner of the restaurant and the leader of the Yoshi ride, as Captain Toad

• Splash Mountain in Magic Kingdom sufferer a log sinking this week, which guests shared on Twitter.

• The Walt Disney Company today reported that it took an approximately $3.5 billion hit on operating income in its theme park segment from Covid-19 in the three months ending June 30

• Cedar Fair posted their financials for the last quarter this week, with revenue down 98% compared to the same quarter last year. They also announced that Carowinds, Kings Dominion, California's Great America and Valleyfair will not reopen for the 2020 season

• Knott's Berry Farm has canceled its Knott's Scary Farm after-hours Halloween event for the 2020

• At Walt Disney World, Disney has replaced the Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage production with The Disney Society Orchestra and Friends, a musical show with some character dancing

• Universal Orlando is aggressively targeting the local market by introducing a buy a day get a year promotion for Florida residents.

• The Nickelodeon Universe theme park which is inside the mall of America will reopen to guests starting next week.

This week's news:

• Universal Orlando has cancelled this year’s Halloween Horror nights. They have opened a tribute store to the event in the park this week, but it’s just a tribute.

• Disneyland have cancelled their Halloween party , the oggie boogie bash, as well.

• Other California theme parks are getting creative with their inability to open, with Legoland California opening part of their mini land and knotts berry farm extending their food festivals.

• Germany's Europa Park today opened its new Pirates in Batavia ride, replacing the former version that was destroyed in a 2018 fire

• In financial reporting this week both Six Flags and Universal reported dismal numbers for the second quarter of 2020, with the chains down 96% and 94% compared to the same quarter last year.

• Universal has stated that due to this the Development of Universal Orlando’s new Epic Universe theme park remains paused

• The Walt Disney World Resort is delaying the reopening of a few of its on-site hotels. Including Art of Animation, beach club and the boardwalk.

• Busch Gardens Williamsburg is returning August 5th with a Hard-Ticket Event called Coasters and Craft Brews

• The 2019 Theme Park attendance was announced this week, with most parks staying stable, except for Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China and Islands of Adventure who had solid increases.

• universal studios Beijing is on track with construction, which means a likely opening in the first half of 2021, according to China Daily.

• Rumour has it that a Disney cast memo has stated that at Stitch's Great Escape at Magic Kingdom, Primeval Whirl and Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom are permanently closed.

• Cedar point has introduced a new ride reservation system this week. Cedar Point is now using an "Access Pass" system for Millennium Force, Maverick, Steel Vengeance, and - when it reopens - Top Thrill Dragster

• Legoland florida is now requiring the use of masks inside any indoor facility.

• Hong Kong Disneyland has reclosed this week, although it’s expected to be a short closer due to specific outbreak detected.

• Fuji-Q highlands in Japan has asked for guests to refrain from screaming with the super cute Japanese slogan “scream inside your heart”.

• Water coaster Cheetah Chase has opened at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari

• Another wAter ride, Mystic River Falls has Soft-Opened at Silver Dollar City

• Knotts berry farm are opening without rides and shows for the Knott's Taste of Calico food festival for the next two weekends

• Dollywood has stopped requiring guests have advanced reservations for the park.

• Tokyo Disney has reopened this week, with one noticeable difference. The Haunted Mansion has lost it’s pre-show. That means no stretching room.

• Japanese newspaper Nikkei is reporting that Universal Studios Japan has decided to postpone the opening of Super Nintendo World indefinitely. 

• Disney has suspended the Disney college program for the remainder of the year.

• The Bourne Stuntacular Debuted at Universal Studios Florida this week, and universal shared a sneak peek video of the attraction.

• Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, is delaying the opening of their Single rail coaster Jersey Devil until 2021.

• Kings island released a POV video of their upcoming giga coaster Orion.

• Hersheypark gave opened their new coaster Candymonium yesterday after media previews this week.

• Annual passholders at Walt Disney World snapped up all available spots for the resort's preview days on June 9th and 10th within minutes of them becoming available this week.

• Splash Mountain is officially being rethemed to Princess and the Frog at both Disneyland and WDW. Disney announced the change, which has been in development for a year, early due to Controversy around the incredibly racist movie Song of the South which the original ride is based upon. As it’s still with Imagineering, there is no date for when work will start on this re-imagining.

• Disneyland has indefinitely postponed their reopening plans. The Californian government has said that it won’t decide on any theme park in openings until July 4th. Disney said this didn’t leave sufficient time for their planned July 17 opening.

• Tokyo Disney has announced July 1st as its opening date. Disneyland Paris has announced they will reopen July 15th

• The UK government has stated that their parks are allowed to reopen from July 4th.

• Australia’s first theme park to reopen, Sea World reopened today!

• WDWs new Park Pass Reservation system opened this week, with heavy access and technical glitches.

• Disney has also stated they have "paused” the planned rewrite and refurbishment of Epcot's iconic Spaceship Earth attraction.

• In the Netherlands, Efteling Opens Its New Family Coaster, Max & Moritz.

• The US state of Virginia has cleared the way for it’s theme parks, Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg to reopen, but have capped parks to 1000 people.

• The Bourne Stuntacular Has started technical rehearsals at Universal Orlando.

• Walt Disney World have cancelled the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in its entirety. They have confirmed a modified version of Epcot’s Food and wine festival will still run.

• Hong Kong Disneyland Reopened yesterday

• Australia’s big theme parks are reopening. First Sea World on June 26, Movie World on July 15th and Dreamworld sometime before September. The parks will be opening at half capacity.

• Hersheypark is going to reOpen with their brand new B &M hyper coaster Candymonium on July 3.

• California has had a state wide mandatory mask order, which trumps the local Orange County weakening of restrictions that were effecting Disneyland and it’s surrounding areas.

• The original Wizarding World of Harry Potter land in Universal Orlando is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary this week.

• Tivoli in Denmark reopened this week.

• Power Park in Finland has started testing their new Gerstlauer coaster.

• Se World SAN Antonio appears to be planning at least 2 new rides, with one likely to be a Mack Power Splash.

• Disneyland theme park is reopening on it’s 65th anniversary, July 17th. The resort is using a staged approach to reopening with the Downtown Disney opening on July 9th and two of the 3 reiterated hotels opening July 23rd

• Universal Hollywood and Knotts Berry farm both opened their external shopping districts this week

• Lotte World in South Korea closed for a day of disinfecting after a visitor tested positive for Coronavirus 

• Universal Studios Japan re opened this week, which has given us some great new images of the upcoming Super Nintendo World.

• Shanghai Disneyland has started vertical construction of its upcoming Zootopia-themed land this week 

• The two owning companies for Australia’s biggest theme parks have teamed up to submit Reopening plans to the Queensland government. Current restrictions allow them to reopen, but limit them to only 100 in the park which would not be financially viable.

• Cedar Fair have announced opening dates for some of their parks: Kansas City’s Worlds of Fun will reopen to its pass holders on June 22. Kings Island will reopen on July 2, followed by Cedar Point one week later - on July 9.

• Movie land park in Italy is set to reopen today.

• Sea world Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay have reopened yesterday.

• Holiday World in the US has added a new policy where guests can get a pass to return on an additional day if weather causes the closer of an attraction for more than 2 hours.

• Black Lives Matter.

• Universal Studios Orlando's theme parks have re-opened this week.

• Other Reopenings this week include Europa Park and Efteling

• Efteling have also announced their new Max & Moritz will debut on June 20.

• Parks that have announce their opening this week include Universal Studios Japan Busch Gardens Tampa, Hersheypark, Kentucky Kingdom, Silver Dollar City, Sea World San Diego and Legoland California.

• The NBA is going to implement a long speculated plan to finish it's season at the Walt Disney World resort.

• Univesal Studios Beijing has revealed the lineup for their CityWalk Shopping and entertainment district.

• Sea World and Busch Gardens have announced details of their advanced reservation system

• King's Island is suing the state of ohio for the right to re-open

This week's news:

• Walt Disney World is reopening it’s theme parks. Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom will reopen on Saturday, July 11, while Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios will reopen on Wednesday July 15, with soft opening events for select audiences before theN.

• Sea World Orlando has put forward its reopening plan as well, with a plan to reopen on June 11th.

• There was an amazing photo taken this week of the state of Super Nintendo World Japan! Looks amazing!!

• Six Flags today announced that the first of its parks Frontier City park in Oklahoma City will reopen on June 5. It’ll be first to utilise the new chain wide safety protocols including IR Temperature checks and contactless bag searches.

• Cedar Fair announced an update of its parks' mobile apps to support new admission procedures. This includes the ability to reserve entry times and complete the health survey required to enter the parks.

• Former Fox World Park At resorts world Genting in Malaysia has been Delayed to Late 2021.

• The Themed Entertainment Association today canceled its rescheduled 26th annual Thea Awards ceremony and TEA Summit for 2020 and announced that its Thea Case Studies sessions from the summit would move online.

• Legoland Florida has gotten approval from the state of Florida for its reopening plan, so the resort will resume welcoming guests on June 1

This week's news:

- Disney Springs has partially re-opened in Florida, with mixed success. A lot of talk this week about how signage for queue has been done, as Disney appear to be using a "Don't Stand Here" approach, as opposed to universal using a "Stand here" approach.

- Universal Orlando has put forward a plan to their county, to re-open their theme parks to the public on June 5th. The Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force has requested plans from all major theme park chains in the region. They uniamously approved the plan, which includes a testing periods on June 1st for cast members, and June 3rd and 4th for invited guests and annual pass holders.

- In Europe, Efteling has re-opened, with firm rules around distancing, but no requirement for wearing masks.

- This years IAAPA Expo Asia has been announced as a virtual event , which will run on July 28th to the 30th.

- Current WDW President Josh D'Amaro has been named as Bob Chapek's replacement as the hea d of the park, experiences and products division of the Walt Disney company.

- Village Roadshow, who owns and operates Movie World and Sea World in Australia, has entered into exclusive takeover talks with a private Equity company BGH Capital. Interestingly though, there specific terms in the offer relating to raising the price if the theme parks run by the chain are able to re-open before the deal is finalized.

- Europa Park gave a video of the making of their new Piraten in Batavia ride.

• Shanghai Disneyland successfully opened this week to many face masks and much social distancing.

• Universal Orlando’s Citywalk also opened selected restaurant and shops yesterday.

• Holiday World have announced that they will have all rides with virtual queues when the park reopens on June 14

• Knott's Berry Farm and Cedar Point have Postponed their Anniversary Celebrations until next year.

• Some of Europe’s biggest theme parks have announced their reopening with Europa Park opening on May 29th and Efteling opening in May 20th

• It’s rumoured the wdw might open reservations for their hotels in the coming weeks, with July 1st being the suggested date.

• Six Flags has introduced its new system for visitors to make reservations to visit the company's amusement parks. They said that pass holders will get first option to book and that people will able to add themselves to a wait list for booked out days. No announcement yet on when parks will reopen 

• Shanghai Disneyland is set to re-open on Monday May 11th! The first Disney park to survive the Coronavirus. The park closed in January along side Hong Kong Disneyland. They've been requested to allow no more than 30% of their normal capacity, but Disney has stated the initial days will be even lower. All guests and cast members will be required to wear masks, excluding Face characters, however they will only be accessible "from a distance".

• Disney Springs at Walt Disney World is going to start a phased re-opening starting May 20th. Select retail and dining locations will be opened, and there will be new safety measures in place for capacity as well as the use of face coverings.

• Universal Orlando's CityWalk may also be in the process of re-opening with reports of staff being told there are potential re-openings as early as next week.

• Hersheypark has had it's first test run of it's new coaster Candymonium this week. The new B&M Hypercoster is the anchor for their new entrance plaza, planned to open this year.

• The Cedar Fair park reported their first quarter earnings, which showed that Knott's Berry Farm had a 19 percent increase in attendance, prior to the coronovirus closures.

• It's been stated that when Six Flags theme parks re-open from this current shutdown, they will require guests to make advanced reservations to visit the park, so that they can limit visitation numbers.

• A rumoured new 100 million dollar theme park in Iowa  called Lost Island theme park has continued construction during this pandemic, with site owners day it wouldn't be wise to stop things now for the planned 2022 project.

This week's Theme Park News is very very different