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Last week at your amusement park...April 25, 2011

Last week at your amusement park… A digest of amusement park news and rumors

From Jeff Elliott
Posted April 25, 2011 at 9:08 PM
Freestyle Music Park, while still closed, may be attempting to rise from the ashes. Visitors have been spotted walking through the park.

Universal Studios Orlando is dropping hints about their next attraction. Rumors have it on relatively good authority that it is either going to be King Kong or Despicable Me. My thoughts are that it is both……the new Kong attraction in Universal Studios Hollywood is a hit and needs some new port to Orlando, but at the same time, Jimmy Neutron needs a replacement attraction as well.

Quassy Amusement Park just opened Gravity Groups latest wooden roller coaster entry, Wooden Warrior. While not as big (only 35 feet tall) or out of control as most Gravity Group Coasters (Voyage, Hades, Ravine Flyer II, and Boardwalk Bullet) it seems that it is getting pretty good buzz.

Busch Gardens Tampa over the weekend has started doing full circuit testing of their latest roller coaster, Cheetah Hunt.

Coney Island just opened up its first new rollercoasters in several eons. Has anyone been down there to check it out?

Ghost Town in the Sky is on its last legs. There is now discussion about liquidating the park since it has not been able to get itself out of bankruptcy after 2 years.

Universal Studios Hollywood is still hard at work on their new Transformers ride

Disney's California Adventure is putting final touches on their new Little Mermaid ride while it looks like the final bits of concrete are going up on the tall rock work for their new Carsland area.

Orlando Thrill Park has been shot down by the planning board. It will probably be a couple of months before we hear them surfaced again with a new proposal.

Disneyland has started the rumor mill with thoughts of Marvel Superheroes at the park.

Cedar Fair is still doing battle with Q Funding, this time over a rumor that Cedar Fair is looking in hiring Mark Shapiro (former CEO of Six Flags until they filed for bankruptcy). You would think that Q Funding would get much more out of their investment if they weren’t forcing Cedar Fair to pay for extra meeting and extra lawyers to fight them. At what point do you just sell your interest in the company and move on?

Six Flags Over Texas, as already mentioned by Robert, the Texas Giant, recently rebuilt with a steel track, is now open. Word on the street is that this is the roller coaster to ride this year. One has to hope that the Kings Island managers are standing in line to get Son of Beast rebuilt with this new ride system.

Hersheypark is also starting the hype mill going by rolling out their fake Ride Institute of Technology in order to promote their 2012 roller coaster. There is a “study” due out today from RIT on Propulsion Dynamics, but I have not seen it available yet.

Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios have the clock ticking down quickly on the opening of the new Star Tours. Apparently there are “passports” that you can download so that you can mark off every location that you have been to. According to Anthony Daniels (the actor and voice of C3PO, your new pilot for Star Tours) not only will the new ride have randomize beginnings and middles and ends, but will also inset various pieces for foreshadowing and resolution. Ok, I didn’t make that very clear, let me try again…During the ride while you are watching the beginning section, pieces of the story for the middle and the end that have been chosen for you will start showing up. An example of this would be that if you are going to do a chase with Darth Vador in the end section, bits of it will start showing up at various moments while you are experiencing the beginning and the middle sections.

Let me know if you find value to this type of article...if people seem to like it, I can do it more often, with more content or whatever.

If I have missed anything (and I have, so no worries there) please post below. If you have some inside information, more news, more rumors, first rides, please share with the rest of us.


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Anthony O'Neal
Posted April 26, 2011 at 6:48 PM
Managed to get to Texas Giant this past weekend (I have posted a review). We were fortunate. I heard rumors of 3 to 4 hour waits. I won't go into the details, but I started out at work, and ended up making the trek from Houston to Arlington that afternoon/evening. We got into the park around 8 pm. It was the first ride we went to, and only had about a 45-50 minute wait, and it was worth it. I managed to get a second ride in on Saturday morning with a similar wait time.

My personal opinion is that it was the best ride in the park.

From Terri Pierce
Posted April 26, 2011 at 7:45 PM
I like it. I enjoy knowing whats going on in the parks. What I think would be helpful is linking the topics where you got some of the info, such as a title like "Harry Potter is still seeing capacity crowds..." to a topic about it. Or something like the "Universal Announces topic to the thing about Kong/Despicable Me.

From Anthony Murphy
Posted April 26, 2011 at 9:21 PM
Six Flags Great America is building a surf machine and expanding Hurricane Harbor. It should open on Memorial Day Weekend!

From Brandon Mendoza
Posted April 27, 2011 at 12:16 AM
A quick note about the Passports for Star Tours. They currently only have "Disney Hollywood Studios" as the port of departure. I'm hoping that the West Coast gets "Tomorrowland" or "Disneyland" as the port of departure.

From Jeff Elliott
Posted April 27, 2011 at 6:45 AM
@Terri

I have no problems putting links to where I am getting my information from, but I would want Robert's approval before linking away from his site.

Kind of a code of ethics thing...

From Terri Pierce
Posted April 27, 2011 at 9:50 AM
Jeff- Right, I had that thought in my head and never put it down on paper. I meant to say you wouldn't necessarily have to link to OUTSIDE sources, just to the topics on the site.

From Tony Duda
Posted April 27, 2011 at 11:12 AM
The Star Tours passport is kind of fun. I did it. You need a photo of yourself, face forward like a real passport photo, to add to the passport. They ask you for info to add to it as well. Name, hometown, age. These are put in a two page pdf file, I did not get the impression it is a sneaky way to get info. Also, you could say anything and it will be put in. Think of a good name, doesn't have to be really yours. You can choose 4 styles, I picked fighter pilot and put my "callsign" name on it and said I am from Naboo.

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