 ORLANDO, FL
A unusually chilly day in Orlando provided the perfect theme for a first look at SeaWorld Orlando's next roller coaster — Ice Breaker. The park invited several guests to go behind the walls for a construction tour of the new Premier Rides coaster today. Obviously, there remains much work to be done around the coaster, including pouring concrete for some of the paths around the station. But the 1,900 feet of track are nearly complete. FULL STORY
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 WILLIAMSBURG, VA
Enthusiasts are buzzing as Busch Gardens Williamsburg gets closer to opening Pantheon, a record-breaking roller coaster. With four launches sending riders forward and backward at speeds up to 73 mph, it’s “the fastest multi-launch coaster in the world,” said Cindy Sarko, a spokeswoman for the theme park. The ride’s yellow track arrived last October and now is visible over the park towering at up to 180-feet. FULL STORY  BRANSON, MO
With 2020 capping off their $100-million-dollar-decade, Silver Dollar City is preparing for their 2020 season and the 60th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee. The 1880s-style theme park in Branson, Mo. is celebrating six decades of entertaining guests with an extensive list of offerings for 2020. This year’s slate includes a new area of a town to explore, a new BBQ restaurant, and a water adventure ride designed to honor the park’s on-site Marvel Cave. In addition, Silver Dollar City is adding big names in entertainment, new food offerings, and more. FULL STORY  RYE, NY
Westchester County accused the would-be operator of Rye Playland of undermining the county government and trying to “sabotage" Playland’s success in court papers filed recently. The county is trying to dissolve a 30-year contract it gave to the company Standard Amusements to run the county-owned park, but the two sides are locked in a federal bankruptcy court battle as the company aims to preserve the deal. FULL STORY  ORLANDO, FL
Universal’s Epic Universe is a new theme park being built in Orlando, located a couple miles south of the current Universal Orlando Resort. It’s expected to be made up of four themed lands, as well as a large central hub which will contain attractions of its own. One of the new park’s themed lands will be based on the DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon film series. Thanks to some recently filed permits we’re learning more about the World of Dragons land at Epic Universe, including some of the layouts for the new land’s proposed attractions. FULL STORY  ORLANDO, FL
Late last year, SeaWorld Orlando announced that they would be debuting a brand new roller coaster in 2020. Named Icebreaker, this brand new launch coaster for the Wild Arctic area of the park will blast guests through four different launches, both backwards and forwards, culminating in a reverse launch into the steepest beyond vertical drop in Florida — a 93-foot tall spike with 100-degree angle. However, though we're definitely excited for this new attraction, it looks like something else may be in development for 2021 at this park... FULL STORY  Disneyland is using what it is calling a virtual queue system to manage the crowd for Rise of the Resistance. Park guests must use the official Disneyland app to enter the queue, where they will be assigned a "boarding group" number that will be called via an app notification later in the day.
Guests must be inside the park to join the virtual queue, which opens at the park's published opening time. But guests are slamming the app as soon as the queue opens, resulting in all of the day's boarding groups being claimed within minutes. And it's getting worse each day. This morning, all the groups were gone for the day within just two minutes. In practice, this isn't a virtual queue if all the day's boarding spots are going that quickly. What Disneyland has for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is really a lottery, instead. Disneyland is using the same system as its sister park, Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort, adopted soon after Rise of the Resistance opened there last month. Initially, Hollywood Studios was using a more traditional virtual queue, which guests were allowed to join as soon as they entered the park. But that was leading to people crowding the park's entry plaza in the middle of the night, as they tried to get first dibs to enter the park as soon as Disney began admitting guests. FULL STORY  MASON, OH
The newest addition to Kings Island’s lineup of roller coasters is set to open this spring. On Friday, it was announced that opening day for the 364-acre amusement park as well as its newest roller coaster, is set for April 11. That’s when park goers can take the first rides on Orion, the tallest, fastest, longest steel coaster at Kings Island. FULL STORY  ORLANDO, FL
It's an open secret that Universal Orlando is working on a new attraction at Islands of Adventure. Construction is currently underway on a roller coaster in the park's Jurassic Park area. And although Universal hasn't officially announced the new attraction, it has now, at least, publicly acknowledged it. FULL STORY  There are two dominant structures in the Disney theme parks, whether you’re in Florida, Tokyo, or Paris: castles and mountains. Each castle has its own story, and the same is true of each mountain. The Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland is smaller than that of the Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World — depending on how much size matters to you, that might make the original castle more or less impressive than the one in Orlando. But the castles at the Disney parks are largely visual icons. You can enjoy the novelty of, in Florida, eating inside a castle, but there’s no ride experience. The castles exist primarily as impressive landmarks.
The mountains are different. Just as actual mountains are challenges to climb up or down, the Disney mountains are exhilarating experiences intended as thrill rides. Though it wasn’t the first, Space Mountain is one of the most foundational and important to the overall modern experience at the Disney theme parks. FULL STORY |
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