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Thursday's Southern California theme park news update

By Robert Niles
Published: May 27, 2010 at 7:49 PM
I was offline for another gig today, so I'll handle today's theme park news in a round-up:

Universal Studios Hollywood backlot
Universal marked the latest milestone in its ongoing recovery from the 2008 fire that destroyed many sets on its backlot. The park today staged a press event to celebrate the completion of its new New York Street lot.

Steven Spielberg
Director Steven Spielberg at the opening. Photo courtesy Universal.

The final piece of the recovery effort is, of course, the new King Kong attraction, which will open later this summer. (I'm hearing around the Fourth of July.)

Disneyland Hotel
Disney has announced addition details about the ongoing renovations at the Disneyland Hotel The biggest news is the addition of a monorail-themed twin waterslide to the hotel's pool area, as shown in concept art below.

Concept art for Disneyland Hotel water slides

The slide will incorporate a version of the classic "Disneyland" sign, now long gone from Harbor Blvd. In addition to adding the waterslides, the hotel will replace the Hook's Pointe, Croc's Bits 'n' Bites, the Wine Cellar and Lost Bar food and beverage locations with a new restaurant, based on the original Tahitian Terrace restaurant from Disneyland. Finally, the hotel will rename its three towers for the three original lands of Disneyland park - The Dreams Tower will become the Adventure Tower; The Wonder Tower will become the Frontier Tower, and the Magic Tower will become the Fantasy Tower.

No new coaster this year at Magic Mountain
As the calendar bleeds from May into June, I've been wondering when Six Flags Magic Mountain would announce an opening date for its Mr. Six's Dance Coaster, a Vekoma Junior Coaster. Today, the park announced that the coaster won't open this year, but in 2011 instead.

Two attraction openings this weekend
On Friday, Legoland California will debut its new water park, and SeaWorld San Diego will hold the press debut for its version of the Blue Horizons show in its Dolphin stadium. I'll be in San Diego for the Blue Horizons premiere Friday night, and post a report here on Theme Park Insider late that evening.

Update (May 28): Huge Fail on my part. I didn't make it to San Diego for the Blue Horizons premiere, due to traffic. I left Pasadena with five hours to spare before the show started... and didn't even make it through Orange County in that time. Irony? I could have flown to SeaWorld Orlando in that amount of time. (FWIW, I usually make the trip from my place to SeaWorld in about two and a half hours.)

Readers' Opinions

From 208.54.4.51 on May 27, 2010 at 7:57 PM
Yay!! I'll be there Friday too! Although judging from employee reviews from todays employee preview...I'm not holding my hopes too high.
From mister johnson on May 28, 2010 at 4:45 AM
Nice idea on the retro pool area. The sign is welcome. As for the "monorails," hopefully the execution will surpass the questionable "sketch" that really wasn't ready for prime time. In its current form, it's either a disgrace to the original Monorail or a commentary on Monorail safety.

This thing needs to be studied in three dimensions and adjusted severely, otherwise, it will overtake that wretched clown at the Boardwalk for the most heinous Disney Resort Pool Feature.

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