Theme Park Insider

Rope Drop: It's almost time for Bluey

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 19:41:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: As the "rope drop" starts a day at theme parks, the Sunday "Rope Drop" post kicks off the week here at Theme Park Insider. Here is what lies ahead for fans at the parks this week.

Kings Dominion reopens for the season on Saturday, March 21. The Virginia park is planning a new Splash! Water Parade for the 2026 summer season, as well as the new Pandemonium: A Cirque Extravaganza show at the Kings Dominion Theater.

On the same day, Busch Gardens Williamsburg is hosting the return of its Busch Gardens Kids' Weekends, which runs Saturdays and Sundays through April 19. Peppa Pig & George will be meeting guests on March 28 and 29, with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers appearing April 18 and 19. The park also is introducing a new family-friendly Globe Theater show, "When the Pages Turn."

Keeping with the family entertainment theme this week, one week from today, on Sunday, March 22, Bluey's Best Day Ever opens at Disneyland. Bluey, Bingo and friends will appear on the park's Fantasyland Theatre stage for two unique rotating shows at set times throughout the day. Seating is available but not required, as guests are encouraged to move around, dance and explore during this interactive experience set in Bluey's school.

The theater's Troubadour Tavern will introduce a new Bluey-themed menu, including a $5.99 Mini All-Beef Hot Dog kids meal, served with a mandarin orange, applesauce, and a choice of small water or lowfat milk. Other items will include the Pizza Girls Baked Potato, with pepperoni, sausage, bacon bits, marinara, mozzarella, Alfredo sauce, and parmesan herb topper; Mini Dutch pancakes topped with buttered condensed milk and powdered sugar; a Pavlova Parfait with meringue bites, vanilla yogurt mousse, berry compote, vanilla cake, fresh berries, and candied kiwi; a "Magic 'Asparagus' Pretzel rod coated in green colored white chocolate to look like the vegetable, and a Mud Cake Cold Brew, with Joffrey�s Coffee French Roast Cold Brew and a malted milk topper, fudge brownie bits, and sprinkles, to power Mom and Dad through all of this.

On Monday, Walt Disney Imagineering is presenting at Nvidia GTC in San Jose. Follow us tomorrow for an in-depth, in-person visit with the character that WDI will be discussing at the conference. That's all I can say right now.

Refurbishment schedule

January 5: Grizzly River Run closed at Disney California Adventure. No reopening date yet.
January 5 - November 19: Jurassic Park River Adventure closed at Islands of Adventure.
February 17: Jungle Cruise closed at Disneyland. No reopening date yet.
February 19 - April 5: Stardust Racers closed at Universal Epic Universe.
February 22: Impressions de France closed at EPCOT. No reopening date yet.
February 23: Conservation Station and the Wildlife Express Train closed at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Reopens as Bluey�s Wild World at Conservation Station on May 26.
February 27 - May 14: Pteranodon Flyers closed at Universal Islands of Adventure.
March 9 - 17: Golden Zephyr closes at Disney California Adventure.
March 30: Disneyland Monorail and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin close at Disneyland. No reopening dates yet.
April 6: Toy Story Midway Mania! closes at Disney California Adventure. No reopening date yet.
April 13: Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters closes at Disneyland. No reopening date yet.

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First look inside Kings Island's new Phantom Theater

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 03:26:00 GMT

By Jeff Elliott and James Koehl: In 1972, Kings Island opened as the first true theme park in Ohio and, at the time, the largest in the Midwest. One of its premier attractions - and the most expensive ride in the park, at $2 million ($15.5 million in 2026) - was �The Enchanted Voyage.� The dark ride featured boats that carried visitors through a huge television screen and into the world of Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including The Flintstones, Banana Splits, Winnie Witch, The Wacky Races, Gulliver, and dozens more. Twelve years later (and due to changes in ownership of the park), the ride was reskinned and rethemed as �The Smurfs Enchanted Voyage,� with the same boats and ride layout but new animatronics and new theme music... and don�t blame me if the Smurf song is now lodged in your head!

In 1992, Kings Island removed the boats and water and �Phantom Theater� opened, with a new people-mover ride system, new layout, and new animatronics. The entrance was moved to a different location in the building, and a new indoor queue was installed. The next change came in 2003, when �Scooby Doo! and the Haunted Castle� replaced the Phantom Theater, with mostly flat scenery, lots of black light effects, and was now a shooting ride-through experience. Finally, in 2009, �Boo Blasters on Boo Hill� premiered. It used the same ride system, with the removal of all Scooby-Doo theming.

Now, for 2026, the old Enchanted Voyage building gets its newest tenant - and it is a callback to a previous one. Welcome to Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare.

What Is Changing

When it comes to major renovations, it�s important to know what stays the same before discussing what changes. For Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare, the building and location are the same, the ride track, layout, and the three-seater rotating clamshell vehicles from Boo Blasters are the same. For the most part, the show scenes are the same, but Sally Rides says they have reconfigured some of them.

The ride vehicles and new decorations inside Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare

What is gone, in particular, are all of the electronics in the vehicles from Boo Blasters and all of the scenery. Sally Rides did a complete teardown of the previous ride and is auctioning what they could salvage from it.

Fundamentally, Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare is going to seem very familiar from a thousand-foot view. It is still a dark ride with electric vehicles that can turn to have riders face certain directions while shooting at targets. On top of that, it is using a what�s-old-is-new approach and recycling some characters from the original Phantom Theater ride.

At this point, you might be asking yourself: based on what we just reported, why should I rearrange my holiday schedule to include Kings Island?

Innovations / Things to Look Forward To

The flat cutouts used in Boo Blaster have all been retired and replaced with 37 new animatronics, including two in the pre-ride area. Sally Rides wanted to emphasize that the new ride will be family-friendly and whimsical, not scary. All of the electronics in the building and on the vehicles have been removed and replaced with a brand-new Sally shooter system that is making its world debut at Kings Island.

Much like on Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek at Tokyo Disneyland, your "shooter" will be a flashlight on Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare

The new shooter-targeting system will be 100% projected, allowing Kings Island and Sally Rides to adjust the number of targets and making it easy to apply holiday overlays. In the debut version, the targets will be musical notes, but they said it would be easy for them to change them to Pumpkin Heads or Christmas Trees. The new projector system allows the ride to have hundreds of targets instead of just a few.

The vehicles will now go through the ride in pairs instead of one at a time.

Story

The new story for the ride is a different take on the old legend. Instead of merely experiencing the ride, riders are now participants in it. The setup is that the theater's organ is struck by lightning, unleashing musical ghost notes that fly everywhere. The guests are recruited as ushers to help capture the musical notes with specialized flashlights.

In addition to meeting The Maestro, No-Legs Larry, and Archie from the preshow, guests will find the six characters listed on the poster below during the ride.

The characters of Phantom Theater: Opening Nightmare

What We Don�t Know

Kings Island only let us see the pre-show area, the loading area, and the first scene, so we haven�t seen the whole ride, and thus the overall story remains a mystery. One of the few things they told us about scenes later in the ride is that there will be a scoreboard at the end of the ride, so you know how well you performed.

When Does It Open?

Phantom Theater is currently on schedule to open with the park�s season opening on April 18.

Thank you to James Koehl for assisting in the reporting and writing of this post!

Walk Time: Putting the pieces in place

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 04:18:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: In theme parks and entertainment, "walk time" is the name for the final paid minutes of your shift, when you gather your stuff and start heading home. At Theme Park Insider, "Walk Time" is our weekend look back at the past seven days in theme park news.

To the surprise of no one, IAAPA has canceled its planned IAAPA Expo Middle East, which was scheduled this month in Abu Dhabi. Officially, the trade association is postponing the inaugural Expo until next year, when it will happen in the same place: IAAPA cancels 2026 Middle East Expo.

Disney this week announced Josh D'Amaro's replacement as Chairman of the Disney Experiences segment. Disneyland Resort President Thomas Mazloum will be the new person in charge of Disney's theme parks worldwide: Mazloum takes over for D'Amaro to lead Disney's theme parks.

But perhaps the biggest long-term story that developed this week came with the latest move in the ongoing legal battle between United Parks and its biggest IP partner. Sesame Workshop filed suit in U.S. federal court in New York this week, asking to be let out of its licensing deal with United Parks for the Sesame Street characters. Sesame Workshop alleged that United Parks has failed to pay its owed royalty payments for the characters, again: Sesame Street looks to get out of its SeaWorld deal.

If SeaWorld and Busch Gardens are no longer to be the U.S. home to the Sesame Street characters, where might they end up? We are talking about the possibilities, on the Discussion Forum: Which theme parks could get the U.S. license for Sesame Street?

Let's look ahead to new attractions. This week, Silver Dollar City opened its new Showboat experience, Walt Disney World set several new attraction debut dates, and Universal Studios Hollywood added Sailor Moon for its 2026 Fan Fest Nights. Also we got a first look at a new ride system patent application from Disney: Disney patent application details new off-road ride system.

Finally, Six Flags Over Texas completed the track for its new, record-setting dive coaster, with an assist from Arrow McLaren IndyCar driver Christian Lundgaard.

IndyCar is racing next door to the park this weekend, for the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington. It's a double this week for open-wheel racing and theme park fans (am I the only one?), with Formula 1 racing in Shanghai, with Shanghai Disneyland helping promote the race.

Sesame Street looks to get out of its SeaWorld deal

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:30:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: The owner of Sesame Street wants out of its license agreement with United Parks & Resorts.

Sesame Workshop filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court yesterday asking for a judge to terminate its 2017 license deal with SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, which is now operating as United Parks. The case is Sesame Workshop v. Seaworld Parks & Entertainment, Inc. - Case No. 1:26-cv-02047 in the Southern District of New York.

A federal judge in Florida in 2024 ordered United Parks to pay Sesame Workshop $11.4 million in a dispute over unpaid license fees. [See Sesame Street wins legal battle against SeaWorld.] Sesame Workshop said in yesterday's filing that United Parks made that payment late last year, but now again has stopped paying royalties for licensing the Sesame Street characters in its theme parks.

This is not the first party to accuse United Parks of stiffing its partners. The City of San Diego has been in court with SeaWorld San Diego, as well, over unpaid lease fees. [See San Diego, SeaWorld settle rent dispute.]

Sesame Workshop also cited United Parks' decision to close its Sesame Place San Diego park with little notice last September, converting it from year-round to seasonal operation. [Sesame Place San Diego drops holiday events for early closure] That park is set to reopen March 27.

Sesame Workshop is asking the court to terminate its license agreement with United Parks and for unspecified damages and legal fees.

A United Parks spokesperson issued a statement to the press: "We are aware of the lawsuit filed by Sesame Workshop and look forward to setting the record straight in court."

Update: Click over to the Discussion Forum, where we are talking about what the next step for Sesame Workshop might be: Which theme parks could get the U.S. license for Sesame Street?.

Disney patent application details new off-road ride system

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:41:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: A new Disney patent application might provide clues about the new Cars ride coming to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

In "Ride System Featuring a Free-Range Vehicle Platform," Disney proposes an attraction featuring "a track including uneven terrain, a plurality of ride vehicles positioned on the track, and a fleet controller."

In this ride system, the fleet controller would set a default position and speed for each of the ride vehicles. But each vehicle could include user controls that would allow users to adjust the vehicle's path and speed, within limits set by the fleet controller.

Think of an off-road version of Disneyland's Autopia, but with a computer providing remote control to keep you on the course rather than a guide rail holding you there.

And also unlike Autopia, this new system would support multiple potential ride paths for guests to choose, with differing terrain and show elements on each.

Cars ride path? Images from Disney's patent application

Cars ride elements?

"While traversing either the first path or the second path, the guests can adjust the speed, direction, and/or acceleration of the ride vehicle, such as to avoid obstacles (e.g., to steer around rocks, trees, etc.), engage obstacles (e.g., to ride over bumps or along berms), navigate the terrain, or otherwise provide a desired experience," the patent application said. "In this manner, the guests can control (at least to some degree) their experience on the attraction."

The fleet controller would enforce track boundaries as well as vehicle boundaries to prevent collisions. It also would adjust vehicles' speed to ensure a consistent flow of vehicles through the attraction.

Walt Disney World is building a new Cars-themed "Piston Peak National Park" area on the site of the old Rivers of America in the Magic Kingdom. One of the two rides in development for this area will be an off-road rally racing ride that Disney introduced at 2024's D23 event in Anaheim. Today's patent application tracks (pun very much intended) with the features of that ride.

Concept art courtesy Disney

Disney has not announced names nor an opening date for its Magic Kingdom Cars attractions.

For our weekly update of Disney and theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekend newsletter.

Universal adds Sailor Moon for 2026 Fan Fest Nights

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:31:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Sailor Moon is coming to Universal Studios Hollywood for 2026's Universal Fan Fest Nights.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Moon Palace Chapter Deluxe will play at the park's DreamWorks Theatre during the after-hours event, which starts April 23 and continues on 12 select nights through Saturday, May 16.

The computer-animated anime short film first played at Universal Studios Japan as part of its Cool Japan event. It replaces another Cool Japan export, Jujutsu Kaisen: Hunger of the Cursed, which played at DreamWorks Theatre during last year's Universal Fan Fest Nights event.

The subtitled film will feature "heroine Super Sailor Moon as she battles an unforeseen enemy with sinister motives to acquire the Legendary Silver Crystal from Moon Palace�s enchanting ball," according to Universal. "With her unwavering spirit, accompanied by audience support, Super Sailor Moon will prove good indeed prevails over evil as she outwits her rival and restores tranquility to the Moon Palace."

Tickets are on sale now, starting at $71.10, for Universal Fan Fest Nights, which will include several other announced special attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood. Last year's Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep walkthrough returns to the Lower Lot, with Japan's One Piece: Grand Pirate Show taking over the Waterworld theater on the Upper Lot.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter�Forbidden Forest: A Search for the Hippogriff will be a new walk-through experience in Forbidden Journey's outdoor queue, while a Colorful Yoshi Celebration will take over Super Nintendo World for the event.

On the backlot, this year's Fan Fest Nights will feature the all-new Scooby-Doo Meets The Universal Monsters: Mystery on the Backlot. This experience will invite guests to join Scooby and the gang to solve a mystery involving Frankenstein, Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein and Wolf Man. It all takes place on the park's historic backlot, including the cobblestone streets of Little Europe and the Court of Miracles, the original filming locations for 1931's Frankenstein and 1941's The Wolf Man.

Universal Fan Fest Nights runs after park close on April 23-25 and May 1-3, 7-9, 14-16. Again, for tickets, please shop our partner's Universal Studios Hollywood tickets page.

Walt Disney World sets new attraction debut dates

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:50:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Get ready to save the galaxy and soar across America at the Walt Disney World Resort this summer.

Disney today announced the opening dates for several new and refreshed attractions across the resort. The openings are led by the return of the refurbished Buzz Lightyear�s Space Ranger Spin on April 8.

Imagineers have added new handheld blasters, scoring screens and target effects to the Magic Kingdom's interactive dark ride. Disney also is introducing a new robot character, Buddy, to help instruct riders how to play and defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg.

May will bring four other new and refreshed attractions across the resort, as Walt Disney World brings back its Cool Kid Summer promotion. On May 26, Disney will open:

The Walt Disney Studios courtyard at Disney�s Hollywood Studios
Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! at Disney�s Hollywood Studios
Soarin� Across America at EPCOT
Bluey�s Wild World at Conservation Station at Disney�s Animal Kingdom

On that date, Disney also will offer new limited-time character experiences at the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, with Jessie�s Roundup: A Rip-Roarin� Review in the Diamond Horseshoe and GoofyCore at CommuniCore Hall.

Disney previously announced the debut of a new mission starring The Mandalorian and Grogu on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disney's Hollywood Studios, starting May 22.

To help more fans join in the summer celebration, Walt Disney World is offering several deals for fans (especially those worried about rising gas prices). Disney is offering up to 30% off select hotel rooms or free family dining plans on non-discounted four-night, four-day stays. There's also a special 4-day, 4-Park Magic ticket for theme park admission that starts at at $109 per day, plus tax.

For more information or to book these and other deals, please contact our travel agent for a free, no-obligation vacation quote.

Universal Orlando extends Stardust Racers closure

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 21:44:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Stardust Racers will not reopen this weekend, after all.

Universal Orlando Resort has extended the refurbishment for Epic Universe's Mack Rides racing coaster. Stardust Racers closed February 19 with plans to reopen March 15. However, the resort now has extended the closure through April 5.

Stardust Racers opened with Universal Epic Universe last spring. The Mack Rides coaster won immediate praise from fans, capturing the number-six spot worldwide in Theme Park Insider's annual coaster poll last year.

Yet tragedy happened on Stardust Racers in September, when a rider died on the coaster. Multiple investigations cleared the ride and its operators of any flaws or wrongdoing, and the coaster reopened the next month.

Unusual weather contributed to a valleying incident in January, prompting another extended closure to reposition the coaster's trains. And now, a planned three-week refurb has extended to six weeks.

When it runs, Stardust Racers has been a throughput workhorse in a park that needs more capacity. The ride's closure has put even more pressure on other attractions at Epic Universe, which offers just 11 rides. With spring break season now underway, expect even longer wait times at Universal Orlando's new theme park.

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For our weekly update of travel and theme park news, including a schedule of current and upcoming refurbishments at major U.S. parks, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekend newsletter.