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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ORLANDO, FL

Months after internal documents leaked out with details of SeaWorld Orlando’s 2020 plans, the park has now officially confirmed that a new coaster is in the lineup for next year. 

A 24-second-long video was recently uploaded to the SeaWorld YouTube account unannounced; the description for the video uses the hashtag #BreakTheIce. It begins with a sweeping drone-like shot of what looks to be Arctic landscape. The camera teeters on the edge of a cliff, then tilts over it before the screen goes black and the words “plunging thrills” appears. The camera then seems to fall off the cliff, there's what sounds like a hawk screeching, and again the screen goes black and “predatory heights” appears on the screen. The video closes with the SeaWorld Orlando logo, the words “New coaster takes flight” and the year 2020. 

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JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ

​Some people go to amusement parks thinking they could never survive the roller coasters , but when you survive cancer, the biggest thrill rides become a piece of cake. Sunday morning I was lucky enough to host "Coasters For Cancer" at Great Adventure, where a new hand painted car celebrating the survivors would be unveiled.
This was a thrill for me on a few levels. Walking in I was having flashbacks to when I was a teenager picking up garbage in the same area of the park where I would now be emceeing from. We even stored the pans and brooms under the "Runaway Train" where the survivor car would be running.
Secondly, my wife Deneen is a 13 year breast cancer survivor. We found out when she went for a postpartum checkup, so to be standing in front of over 200 survivors and hear their stories was truly mind blowing. It's the day you dream of when you first find out you're going to be dealing with this horrible disease.

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Dave Plier and Dave Schwan talk about the first roller coaster in the US and stories of ‘The Little Dipper’ rollercoaster originally built for Kiddieland in 1950 and was rebuilt for Six Flags in 2010, the debut of Pepsi, FDR’s ‘New Deal’, the first box of Cheerios, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis end their partnership and the legacy of the movie Blues Brothers filmed in Chicago.
Do you remember the Kiddieland’s Little Dipper Rollercoaster (now at Great America in Gurnee)?


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ORLANDO, FL

The next major Central Florida theme-park magnet officially opens on Thursday at Comcast's Universal Orlando. Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, a one-of-a-kind richly themed family coaster, is the latest addition in the resort's transformative Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion that has roughly doubled attendance over the past decade.
The new thrill ride has several unique storytelling elements, but perhaps the most relevant thing is that it will be the first marquee attraction to incorporate Universal Orlando's virtual line technology. Disney has been a market leader when it comes to queue management, but this time it could learn a thing or two by watching its smaller rival.

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LOUISVILLE, KY

​A nice gesture to help low-income families beat the heat this summer was met with high tension.
A construction company called TMG, or The Mardrian Group, bought hundreds of season passes to make sure all kids have something fun to do this summer after it was announced that pools in Louisville wouldn't open.
The company gave away the tickets starting at 1 p.m. The line at at 2028 W. Broadway started forming very early Monday morning.
By 12:30 p.m., there were already hundreds of people in line, and many got aggressive. Our team heard people making death threats over alleged line hopping.

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