Saturday 16 March 2024

March 17th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

- The DisneylandForward proposal has cleared it's first major hurdle this week, with The Anaheim Planning Commission voting 5-1 to recommend the  proposal to the Anaheim City Council. The Council is expected to vote on this later this spring.


- Universal confirmed this week that Florean Fortescue soft-serve ice cream shop, originally found in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida, will be opening another location at Universal Hollywood later this month. Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream counter will open March 29 in former Zonko's joke shop space within Honeydukes. The counter will serve 10 flavors of ice cream in cups or waffle cones: Banana, Chocolate, Mint, Orange, Vanilla, Toffee Nut, Granny Smith Apple, Pistachio, Toffee Apple, as well as Butterbeer ice cream. To celebrate that iconic flavor, Universal is declaring March 15 through April 30 as "Butterbeer season" at its U.S. theme parks. The parks will feature new Butterbeer-flavored items during the event, including a Butterbeer popsicle as well as Butterbeer caramels, which will be available in Orlando only.


- Shanghai Disneyland this week states that it had "began initial preparation work for construction of a separately themed attraction to be located within Shanghai Disneyland, adjacent to Zootopia." They also announced that they had completed piling work on its as-yet unamed third hotel.


- The Disneyland Resort is previewing new entry gates that will be installed at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, starting later this year. They have opened a test gate this week, which will bel used for a limited time and will assist with traning staff. The project is going to be finished in 2025.


- Disneyland resort dropped a whole bunch of details on Pixar fest, which returns to the resort April 26 and continues through August 4. This year it will feature a food festival, a part called Pixar Pals Playtime Party, and new parade at DCA called Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!

- In the U.S. SC Holdings has acquired Santa Monica Amusements LLC, the operator of Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier.  


- Fuji-Q Highland has announced that its iconic roller coaster, Do-Dodonpa, has closed permanently. The S&S Thrust Air Coaster has been closed since August 2021, after a number of injuries.


- Aquatica Orlando officially opens its newest water slide, Tassie's Underwater Twist. This 129-foot long enclosed Super Bowl water slide from WhiteWater West features an orchestral score and synchronized video display that recreates the underwater world of Australia's Shark Bay for guests to explore as they slide through on two-person innertubes.


- Kennywood has announced the winner in its contest to name the park's bumper cars ride. In a fan vote, Potato Smash beat candidates Deep Fried Derby and Speedy Spuds to become the name for the ride, which has been getting a rebuild as Kennywood themes the cars to its Potato Patch fries.

You can watch our News in a Nutshell videos on YouTube or TikTok, and catch up with us on Instagram or Threads.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThemeParkNut
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themeparknut
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themeparknutinsta
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@themeparknutinsta

And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks

Saturday 9 March 2024

March 10th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

- Disneyland Resort has it's clearest yet communication on the construction of an Avatar based experience, with Bob Iger saying  "We have one Avatar-based land, Pandora, in Florida. We're going to put a second one in California."

- Disneyland also had another attempt this week at opening up sales for their Magic Key annual pass program, which seemingly went better than last time.

- Disney Parks announced the opening date for the latest version of Star Tours, featuring Ahsoka Tano, Cassian Andor, Din Djarin (aka The Mandalorian) and Grogu, will debut April 5 at Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort.


- SeaWorld San Antonio has opened Catapult Falls, which it calls the "world's first launched flume coaster."


- Thorpe Park in the UK has completed track work on Hyperia, its new Mack Rides Hypercoaster for 2024.

- Legoland California has announced that Dino Valley will open officially to Legoland guests on March 22.

- Kentucky Kingdom will extend its 2024 season by staying open for the Christmas holiday season, the park announced this week.

- Gardaland in Italy has been teasing it's upcoming new thrill ride with claims this week of the arrival of a very large WOLF in the park.


You can watch our News in a Nutshell videos on YouTube or TikTok, and catch up with us on Instagram or Threads.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThemeParkNut

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themeparknut

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themeparknutinsta

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@themeparknutinsta


And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks

Saturday 2 March 2024

March 3rd - Theme Park News In A Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

- Universal Studios Florida will open its new DreamWorks Land this summer, and this week they also confirmed details of their attractions including that the former Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster is being transformed into Trolls Trollercoaster.

- Still at Universal Orlando, Islands of Adventure has removed the 3D projection on Skull Island: Reign of Kong, as part of a trial of 2D projection for the ride.

- Reporting season for theme park chains in the US this week told us that Six Flags has had higher attendance for lower income, and that United Parks (formerly SeaWorld Parks) had a decline on attenance.

- Hersheypark announced today that it has replaced the seats and restraints on its Intamin wing coaster, Skyrush

- Knott's Berry Farm has announced that work is "re-zooming" on the rebuild of its former Montezooma's Revenge roller coaster, renamed MonteZOOMa: The Forbidden Fortress.

- Carowinds and Kings Dominion have changed the name of their former Intimidator and Intimidator 305 roller coasters, they will now be known as Thunder Striker and Project 305 respectively.

- March 30th  will be the opening date of Silver Dollar City's new version of Fire in the Hole, a complete rebuild of one of their classic attractions, by Rocky Mountain Construction.


You can watch our News in a Nutshell videos on YouTube or TikTok, and catch up with us on Instagram or Threads.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThemeParkNut

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themeparknut

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themeparknutinsta

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@themeparknutinsta


And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks

Saturday 24 February 2024

February 25th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

- In Germany, The owners of Europa-Park have taken their first test ride on the park's new Voltron Nevera roller coaster

- In WDW, Soarin' Over California will end its limited-time run at Walt Disney World's EPCOT on February 27, with its replacement, Soarin' Around the World, returning the next day.

- At Disney Springs, a new permit for general construction/demo" has been filed for the closed NBA Experience building. 

- Swedish theme park Liseberg has announced they have found the remains of a person who is believed to be the missing person from the incident. 

- SeaWorld Orlando has added several artists to its Seven Seas Food Festival concert series line-up, including Hanson and The Goo Goo Dolls.

- An interesting photo taken of the new Dreamworks Animation area at Universal Studios Florida shows off what appears to possibly be a new kiddie sized flat ride. Its hard to tell for sure, but it does look sort of like a kid sized Family Swing ride.

- SpongeBob's Crazy Carnival Ride will open officially on March 1 at Circus Circus Las Vegas, the resort announced this week.


You can watch our News in a Nutshell videos on YouTube or TikTok, and catch up with us on Instagram or Threads.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThemeParkNut

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themeparknut

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themeparknutinsta

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@themeparknutinsta


And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks

Saturday 17 February 2024

February 18th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:


- Universal Destinations & Experiences has announced that Everbloom Games has created a Universal Studios Experience DLC for Minecraft.

- Tiana's Bayou Adventure will open this summer at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Disney Parks also shared a sneak peak at one of the new Tiana animatronics that will be featured on the ride.

- Movie world here in Australia gave us more detail on their upcoming Land of Oz which, releasing more concept art and also the official names for the rides: Flight of the Wicked Witch and Kansas Twister.

- Legoland New York this summer will introduce Legoland's first gondola ride, with The Minifigure Skyflyer

- Theme park chain Cedar Fair reported a slight dip in revenue and attendance for financial year 2023 compared to 2022, it reported this week.

- SeaWorld San Antonio that is new ride, the world's launched flume coaster, Catapult Falls will open officially to guests on Saturday, March 2

- In Spain a freak accident has seen strong winds cause a tree to fall onto the family wooden coaster Tomahawk at PortAventura, with 5 people hospitialized, and 2 of those having serious injuries.

- At Sweden's Liseberg theme park a major fire has broken out in an indoor water park that was under construction. One person is reported missing, and 16 people were treated for minor injuries then released.



You can watch our News in a Nutshell videos on YouTube or TikTok, and catch up with us on X, Instagram or Threads.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThemeParkNut

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themeparknut

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themeparknutinsta

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@themeparknutinsta

X: https://twitter.com/ThemeParkNut


And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks

Saturday 10 February 2024

February 11th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

- Tokyo Disneyland has announced a "Donald's Quacky Duck City" festival, to run at April 9 through June 30 at the park.

- Legoland Florida has set March 8 as the official opening date for its newest attraction - Lego Ferrari Build & Race.

- Jurassic World VelociCoaster had a couple of periods of Unexpected downtime this week. It has re-opened, but it's still unclear what caused this normally reliable coaster to be down.

- Disney has reported last quater 2023 earnings, with a 7% increase in revenue across it's theme park and resort segment of the company.   

- Dreamworld has released more concept art for it's up coming family coaster, Jungle Rush.

- Legoland California will attempt to host “the largest dinosaur costume party” in the world  on March 3rd, as they prepare to open the park’s new Dino Valley this Spring. Participants in full head-to-toe dino attire will receive complimentary Park admission for the day!

You can watch our News in a Nutshell videos on YouTube or TikTok, and catch up with us on X, Instagram or Threads.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThemeParkNut
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themeparknut
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themeparknutinsta
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@themeparknutinsta
X: https://twitter.com/ThemeParkNut

And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks

Saturday 3 February 2024

February 4th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

This week's Theme Park News:

 - Massive annoucements for Universal Orlando's upcoming theme park Epic Universe this week. We had confirmation of the lands, with Celestial Park, Dark Universe, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - The Ministry of Magic, and How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk joining the already announced Super Nintendo World.

- The Pixar Place Hotel has official opened at Disneyland resort, this week. It is the re-theming of the former Paradise Pier Hotel.

- Universal Studios Hollywood has opened the Power Up Cafe which serves Mushroom Kingdom-themed calzones and drinks. The restaurant is located on the Upper Lot, across from Universal Plaza tower.

-  SeaWorld Entertainment has announced that it is changing its corporate name to United Parks & Resorts.

- Tokyo Disneyland have announced that a new Castle Projection show on Cinderella Castle, which will debut on September 20th, will be the first use of characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


You can watch our News in a Nutshell videos on YouTube or TikTok, and catch up with us on X, Instagram or Threads.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThemeParkNut

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themeparknut

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themeparknutinsta

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@themeparknutinsta

X: https://twitter.com/ThemeParkNut


And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks