Merry Christmas! Let's Celebrate with the Best of Theme Park Insider in 2015

December 25, 2015, 12:11 AM · Merry Christmas from your friends at Theme Park Insider! To celebrate, we would like to offer you a gift... of our best coverage from the past year. Maybe you are looking to try out that new tablet, smartphone or laptop you Santa brought you? If so, here are some great stories to get you started.

Merry Christmas

Let's begin with our current series, taking another look at Disney's plans for Star Wars Land in the context of what Disney has done so successfully with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Will the Force Awaken in Disney's Star Wars Land?

And let's keep the year in review going with some of our best coverage from theme parks around the world in 2015.

The Year in New Attraction Reviews

And Other Top Stories of the Year:

Be a Theme Park Insider This Holiday Season:

Replies (7)

December 25, 2015 at 6:24 AM · Merry Christmas everyone! Wishing each of the TPI regs and all-stars the very best in 2016.
December 25, 2015 at 6:25 AM · Marry Christmas everyone! Don't look at this site. Spend time with your family! I obviously am not doing that.
December 25, 2015 at 9:27 AM · Merry Christmas guys! I hope all of you are enjoying yourselves!

And sorry, Robert, but this is a day where I'm supposed to be happy, and looking back at all the hateful cements toward Disney and the debates I got into would kinda ruin that. :/

But despite all those...Er...moments....it's still been awesome discovering this website and getting to know all of you! Let's make 2016 another great year!

December 25, 2015 at 1:19 PM · Disney says it's ok to embrace the dark side now, you know. :-)
December 25, 2015 at 3:01 PM · Merry Christmas! It's been a great year and look forward to what's to come in 2016!
December 25, 2015 at 7:31 PM · Merry Christmas! It was indeed a great year for new roller coasters - the two standouts I was fortunate enough to ride were Cannibal and Fury 325. The offerings for 2016 for the most part do not look particularly interesting, with a few exceptions. Lightning Rod, The Joker and Valravn are the top picks. Six Flags Great Adventure's inaugural Holiday In the Park was a treat, not only for the glittering lights throughout the park but for the opportunity to ride roller coasters after the regular season.
December 28, 2015 at 9:01 AM · @ Bobbie:

I think the best part of Holiday in the Park was the lack of lines for the coasters that were open. We went the Saturday before Christmas, and expected long lines once the sun went down. However, all of the rides remained virtual walk-ons. Hopefully the park still ended up with enough guests to make the event profitable, because I would certainly come back just to not have to deal with the typical weekend 1+ hour lines for all of the big coasters. However, what I think is great about the event is probably what is preventing more people from coming. Holiday in the Park should be about the lights, shows, and food, not the rides. Busch Gardens Williamsburg's ChristmasTown is so popular, they've been closing the park for capacity. 20,000+ people are not showing up there to ride the handful of rides, they're going to see the lights and shows. SFGAdv needs to see that the rides are not going to make a holiday event, and while I thought their Jack Frost show was decent, they need to do a much better job in that area to improve upon their inaugural effort.

I too am a little underwhelmed in the attractions slated for next year. I'm definitely going to head down to Dollywood for Lightning Rod (actually haven't been to that park in over 6 years), and will head up to Cedar Point for Valravn, even though it's not significantly different from SheiKra and Griffon, and with ZERO theme. We're trying to decide if it's worth heading down to Florida this year for Mako, Cobra's Curse, and Skull Island, but like I've said before, 2016 will be the first even-numbered year we won't be going to WDW, because they're not adding anything significant (along with not doing anything of significance in 2015).

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