Remember, one year ago today, when we all kind of collectively decided not to do April Fool's? With the pandemic closing everything around the world, the news seemed just too unreal as it was. This year, the pandemic continues, but people - and some theme parks - are bringing back April Fool's anyway.
Universal Orlando kicks off our round-up of theme parks' April Fool's gags with its announcement about the opening of its much-anticipated Jurassic World VelociCoaster.
We spared no expense on this April Fools' Day joke. ??
— Universal Orlando Resort (@UniversalORL) April 1, 2021
It's been a tough year for theme parks, obviously, and I have been interviewed by a lot of news organizations around the world to comment on that. One thing I've said several times is that this pandemic has been especially tough on independent parks as well as companies such as Six Flags and Cedar Fair that are not part of big entertainment companies. They don't have a Disney Plus streaming service to bring in the big bucks while the parks are closed.
Holiday World ran with that concept in its April Fool's announcement, "Introducing Holiday World Plus: The World's First Live Screaming Service!"
Elsewhere, Kings Island reported meteors over its new Orion roller coaster last night.
And Chessington World of Adventures showed off its newly laid sea lion eggs.
Adventurers,
— Chessington World of Adventures Resort (@CWOA) April 1, 2021
Our Zoo Team have some very egg-citing news for you… ???? pic.twitter.com/t5i5CApwFC
But, as usual, Efteling wins the day with another outstanding April Fool's production. Like Holiday World, Efteling plays off the news by introducing a plan to address a big health concern affecting theme park visitors. No, not Covid. Efteling is addressing the problem of... hurling on roller coasters. Check out the park's new "VOMIT protocol."
This one is brilliant - upping the laughs from bit to bit. The kid in the gyroscope was funny; the stomach content scanner had me laughing, but the post-vomit privacy policy just did me in. This was clearly my favorite uh, "gag" of the day. And that's no joke.
Update: Here's one more entry, from Swedish park Liseberg. This one starts out feeling legit... and then we get to the honey on the brake.
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oh, those creative folks at Efteling...so great!
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Props to Universal’s Twitter team, both in Hollywood and Orlando. They consistently provide funny/sassy tweets and whoever runs it needs a raise.