Comfortable shoes and good weather won’t matter so much for theme park visits in the future. With a major push from virtual reality, attractions are heading indoors. and parks are going vertical.
In July, Lionsgate Entertainment World, Asia’s first indoor movie theme park, opens in China and is spread across several different floors of a large kidney-shaped structure.

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ANAHEIM, CA

Brace yourselves, superhero-lovers. A full-fledged Marvel land is officially in the works at Disneyland. Set to open in 2020, the park expansion is going to center on anything and everything Marvel-related. According to the LA Times, the city of Anaheim, CA, has already approved a few building permits for the new attraction, including one for a 2,071-square-foot merchandise outlet complete with three canopies.
Although Disney has yet to comment on the new construction, it's been reported that the expansion will include an interactive Spider-Man ride that lets visitors take on evil villains. And Disneyland isn't the only park getting a giant Marvel installment. Marvel attractions are expected to open at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris in 2020, Epcot in Florida in 2021, and Hong Kong Disneyland in 2023.



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MASON, OH

An international party is coming to Kings Island every night for the next few weeks.
“Grand Carnivale is Kings Island like you’ve never seen it before,” said Chad Showalter, director of communications for Kings Island. “This year we redid International Street and what better way to celebrate that than with an international-themed festival?”

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CHARLOTTE, NC

The park with fun for the whole family also has food for the whole family! Along with the high-flying, side-winding, death-defying rides at Carowinds is the tasty, savory, flavory food.
“Anywhere you go now, people are foodies. They’re taking pictures of it, they’re writing about it, they’re eating it,” Carowinds executive chef Krzysztof Siuta said. “Food is a huge attraction to come to a park.”
Try new, on-the-go menu items like the Shrimp Po Boy, or sit down to eat in the new addition to Blue Ridge Country Kitchen. Just be sure to let your food settle before riding Carowinds newest roller coaster, Copperhead Strike

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ORLANDO, FL

Within an hour of opening on Thursday, Universal's newest Harry Potter ride in Orlando, Florida, has a 10-hour wait.
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike ride at Islands of Adventure is a $300 million investment from Universal that takes park goers on a mile-long journey through the infamous Forbidden Forest on Hagrid's iconic motorbike.
It replaced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter's Dragon Challenge roller coasters, which was originally called Dueling Dragons. The immersive ride had been under construction for nearly two years.
Fans who wanted to be the first to ride the new coaster arrived before the sun came up Thursday and could be in line until the sun goes down. The Universal Orlando mobile app estimates the wait for the ride to be between eight and 10 hours.

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SANDUSKY, OH

Guests at Cedar Point say a huge gust of wind out of seemingly nowhere is what caused one of the park's biggest attractions to malfunction. The GateKeeper was operating normally with a train full of guests just before 9:30 p.m. Wednesday evening when a substantial wind gust likely caused the ride to get stuck between two inversions.
According to weather observations near Cedar Point when the accident occurred, wind gusts could have easily have reached 40-50 mph for a brief moment. Wind gusts of that magnitude can have impacts on the physics of theme park attractions, including roller coasters. In fact, many rides worldwide cannot operate if certain wind speed and direction thresholds are reached.
A video was taken by Shannon Drown-Ebeling. It shows the ride rolling back-and-forth numerous times between two hills, sometimes called "valleying." During that part of the ride, the train would normally be traveling at a pretty fast speed, maneuvering through the inversions easily. Riders were likely removed from the ride via cherry picker or fire truck due to the nature of the ride and its trains (passengers sit extended away from the track with their legs dangling freely).

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Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, a leader in regional amusement parks, water parks and immersive entertainment, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire two iconic water parks and one resort in Texas – Schlitterbahn Waterpark and Resort New Braunfels and Schlitterbahn Waterpark Galveston for a cash purchase price of $261 million, subject to certain working capital adjustments related to the timing of the closing. Additionally, Cedar Fair has the right to acquire a property located in Kansas City, Kansas, for a cash purchase price of $6 million.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to bring these two award-winning Texas water parks into the Cedar Fair family,” said Richard Zimmerman, Cedar Fair’s president and CEO. “These properties represent new markets for us with attractive demographics in the growing Central Texas region, and they align with our strategy to identify compelling opportunities to accelerate our growth and profitability. The investments we have made over the past five years to strengthen our back-of-house and customer-facing systems will support a smooth integration of these properties by ensuring a premium guest experience, strong team collaboration and superior execution.”
Zimmerman continued, “Schlitterbahn employees are known throughout the industry for their innovation and dedication to the quality of the guest experience. Because of their work, the water park located in New Braunfels has been recognized as the ‘Best Water Park in the World’ for 21 straight years, and Galveston has received recognition as the ‘Best Indoor Water Park in the World’ for a decade. We look forward to adding these parks to Cedar Fair’s industry-leading portfolio of regional entertainment resorts.”

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JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ

As thousands of thrill-seekers sit at the top of the Nitro roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure, they'll be able to make out a new sight in the distance: Hundreds of solar panels, nestled between thousands of acres of trees and installed on canopies over thousands of parking spaces.
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WILLIAMSBURG, VA

James City County leaders gave waived height restrictions to allow Busch Gardens to continue planning for its tallest attraction ever.The Board of Supervisors unanimously supported a request by SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, LLC, the park owners, to waive the 60-foot height limitation for the area, in order for the installation of a new attraction in the area which was formerly home to the site of the Drachenfire attraction, according to county documents.
The attraction is proposed to reach a height of approximately 355 feet, well over 100 feet taller than ride that currently holds the title for the park’s tallest, Mach Tower.
Little details are known about the attraction other than it will be an “open, lattice-type structure.”
Neighbors around the project voiced concerns about noise and how the height would change the landscape of the area.

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