ORLANDO, FL
As part of the 2019 International Festival of the Arts at Epcot, art of Disney characters have started popping up all over World Showcase. This addition was unannounced, and is not advertised in the festival booklet. However, if you take a stroll through the various pavilions and keep your eyes peeled, you might find your favorite character hiding just around the corner. There doesn’t appear to be art in every country so far. We scoured World Showcase, and found characters in every country except Mexico, Norway, Japan and Canada. Since this was unannounced, we don’t have an official list of characters. There’s the possibility they will add more. We’ll just have to keep our eyes open! FULL STORY
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ORLANDO, FL
Ahoy mateys! LEGOLAND Florida Resort is proud to announce its newest LEGO pirate-themed accommodation, Pirate Island Hotel, opening in spring 2020. Connected to the existing LEGOLAND Hotel and next to beautiful Lake Eloise, Pirate Island will be the third on-site accommodation at LEGOLAND Florida Resort. Located a mere 130 kid steps away from the main entrance to the theme park, the Hotel will feature 150 fun-filled rooms, an expansive pool and pool deck, hundreds of LEGO models and numerous character experiences. “We’re really excited to offer a brand new family-friendly experience and continue our park’s expansion with a third on-site hotel accommodation,” said LEGOLAND Florida Resort General Manager Rex Jackson. “LEGOLAND Florida Resort is committed to putting a smile on every child who walks through the door and Pirate Island Hotel will certainly help us achieve that goal. FULL STORY ORLANDO, FL
Universal Orlando appears to be making way for a new roller coaster in the "Jurassic Park" section of Islands of Adventure, according to documents reviewed by WFTV. Earlier this week, carnival games and vendor kiosks were removed, and construction walls went up around a portion of the old Triceratops Encounter area, which has been defunct for almost a decade. That matches work described on a demolition permit filed with the city of Orlando in May for Project 791 in that 1.36-acre area. Contractor documents indicate the project includes construction of “a new attraction” and estimates that demolition and construction will take 1 1/2 years. FULL STORY While the old adage, “What’s old is new again,” quite often refers to style and trends, there is something very encouraging when a park reinvests in an established — or even aging — attraction to keep it not only running but give it new life.
Europa-Park comes to mind. In 2018, its big investment was a major overhaul of its indoor EuroSat coaster, but management didn’t stop there. Two other attractions, a dated dark ride and a children’s outdoor electric car ride, got a wonderful refresh. Where once was a tired dark ride about the age of dinosaurs is now a delightfully rethemed adventure called Madame Freudenriech – Curiosités, about an elderly woman raising dinosaurs in her backyard. Elsewhere in the park, a children’s simple electric rail outdoor ride has had scenes and sets added along the way and now tells another children’s story, Jim Button – Journey Through Morrowland. Six Flags Fiesta Texas introduced a first-of-its-kind single-rail roller coaster, Wonder Woman Steel Lasso Coaster, but in so doing had to relocate the park’s carousel. The move prompted a total revamp of a sleepy area of the park and refurbishment of the carousel, along with added embellishments to the area that truly enhance its atmosphere. With the release of an older IP theme for its dark ride, instead of simply retiring the attraction, the park opted to exercise some creativity and keep it by adding an original storyline. The in-house team came up with the designs and built many sets themselves, reworking the ride into Pirates of the Deep Sea. FULL STORY Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, one of two premiere attractions anchoring the DisneylandResort’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park expansion, is rumored to be a 28-minute experience, according to the Theme Park Stop podcast.
The duration of the actual ride portion of Rise of the Resistance is reported to be four-and-a-half minutes in ride length. Those remaining 24 minutes of the reported runtime is the estimated allotted time it will take guests to fully experience the immersive attraction from entrance to exit. According to Alicia Stella of Theme Park Stop, that near half-hour experience includes the time it takes guests to be convincingly transported into space aboard a carrier shuttle. The shuttle escorts riders into the stars above the Black Spire Outpost on the tucked away planet of Batuu in the Outer Rim Territories, where Galaxy’s Edge is set, and it’s space where guests have their thrilling encounter with the villainous First Order. As prisoners of the First Order and its legion of Stormtroopers, the unwanted tourists will then make a dashing escape for their freedom on board a colossal Star Destroyer before riders receive a much-needed assist from the heroic Resistance. Rise of the Resistance features a reported five ride system types, 18 ride show areas, and many special effects — including laser beams fired by life-size AT-AT walkers and 305 state-of-the-art animatronic figures and droids, with upwards of 100 of those figures acting as pursuing Stormtroopers. FULL STORY This may seem to be the sleepy season for the operators of national theme parks and regional amusement parks, but that didn't stop Timothy Conder at Wells Fargo from upgrading shares of Six Flags Entertainment (NYSE:SIX) on Thursday morning. The analyst feels that improving cash flow trends support the chain's turnaround strategy, making the goal of hitting as much as $500 million in adjusted EBITDA by next year more than reasonable.
Oppenheimer's Ian Zaffino is also reiterating his bullish outperform call on the stock, adjusting his price target lower given the recent correction in the shares. He feels the purveyor of scream machines will come through with a solid fourth quarter when it reports next month, given the increased operating days at its few year-round parks and expanded holiday offerings elsewhere. A pair of Wall Street pros putting out encouraging notes on the same day when the regional amusement park giant has most of its gated attractions closed may seem strange, but there's a method to the analyst gladness. Let's go over the reasons why it could be smart to buy shares of Six Flags, Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN), and even some of the larger theme park operators like Disney (NYSE:DIS) during the seasonal lull. FULL STORY Universal's Harry Potter ride and Disney's Star Wars will open in 2019. Price hikes may come, too.1/17/2019 ORLANDO, FL
As the arms race between the theme parks intensifies in 2019, tourism experts say they expect huge crowds — and rising ticket prices — to continue in Orlando. “All the major theme park operators have put a lot of money in 2019, Disney in particular,” said Rick Munarriz, a senior analyst for Motley Fool. The biggest new expansion will be Star Wars land built on 14 acres with two signature rides. It’s scheduled to open in late fall in Orlando. “Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge has the potential to be as big, if not bigger, than Hogsmeade’s addition to Universal’s Islands of Adventure,” said University of Central Florida hospitality associate professor Duncan Dickson, referring to the Harry Potter expansion that opened in 2010. “It’s going to be an exciting year.” Universal also is building a new roller coaster based off the Harry Potter franchise that’s set to open sometime in 2019 at Islands of Adventure. The theme park operator has kept quiet on the details of the ride and not announced which month it will open. A Universal spokesman did not return a message for comment for this story, although a company public relations employee teased recently news is coming on social media. 2019 could also be time for Universal Orlando to start making major announcements, Munarriz predicted, with the company sharing more about what will be coming to get people to thinking about travel plans early. FULL STORY FARMINGTON, UT
Jayson Harris visited Lagoon amusement park in October 2018. His last ride of the night was on Rocket Re-Entry, a ride that drops riders from the top of a tower and bounces them up and down. The ride is equipped with an over-the-shoulder safety harness. Harris said before the ride started, operators singled him out to check his harness. Harris said the ride started, and as it dropped from the tower, he said it felt like the harness partially disengaged. As Get Gephardt has reported before, Utah is one of six states that has no state agency with jurisdiction over amusement park rides. Utah state Rep. Val Potter is trying to change that. Potter spent 14 years working in the amusement ride industry and last year sponsored a bill to make sure amusements are safe for Utahns. The bill would have called for mandatory inspections, created a commission for reporting and shutdown certain injuries, and would give the public a place to report dangerous situations. FULL STORY
CHARLOTTE, NC
Copperheads aren't much fun to come across suddenly in the wild or in your garden. But the folks at Carowinds are hoping the snake will scare up thrills and smiles for roller coaster enthusiasts. Engineers at the Charlotte-area theme park have laid the steel track for the new Copperhead Strike coaster, and are now building the loading barn. Said to be the Carolina's first double-launch coaster, Copperhead Strike will launch riders from zero to 42 miles per hour in just 2.5 seconds. FULL STORY ORLANDO, FL
More construction walls have begun going up near the lagoon in Islands of Adventure's Jurassic Park land, fueling rumors that Universal Orlando is about to begin construction on a new thrill ride. Just as soon as Universal's sister park in California last year announced that it would close its Jurassic Park flume ride to retheme it to Jurassic World, fans began asking when Orlando would make its own move to upgrade IOA's Jurassic Park land. Fans have been talking for years about changes and additions to the area — some ideas actually spitballed by Universal Creative and others purely the result of fans' imaginations. Universal last year filed permits for work in the land, with the name "Project 791," following Universal's naming convention of using numbers to describe its projects in development. Those permits were to clear space around the old Triceratops Encounter, which is widely considered to become the heart of the new thrill ride. FULL STORY |
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