What a massive week of Theme Park news!!
Firstly, at Universal Orlando, there was some good news, some odd news and some bad news. The good news is that the world's worst secret, that King Kong was being added to Islands of Adventure, has been (accidentally) officially confirmed! The odd news is that the Harry Potter and the escape from Gringotts closed suddenly this week for 3 days, and we aren't sure why. The bad news is that ticket prices are going up to US$102 for both of the Universal Orlando parks. This was widely expected, and yet again puts UOR in the middle of the WDW day ticket prices (cheaper than Magic Kingdom, but more expensive that Epcot, Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom).
Speaking of their cross-town rivals, there were some great photos this week of where the hat has been removed from Disney's Hollywood Studios. We also got a peak at the new improvements to the hub at Magic Kingdom, and a video of some of the work going into Pandora at Animal Kingdom.
Disney had a little more grief on the West Coast this week, where a fire broke out very close to iconic attraction It's a Small World. Thankfully no damage was done, and no one was injured in the incident.
In the UK, the proposed Paramount London park has added the I.P. of Aardman Animation to the there stocks after signing a memorandum of understanding this week. This along with the BBC rights deal earlier announced, should give this park a good collection of properties to use, especially for the younger generation.
In Italy, a video has been posted on Youtube showing test ride of the new coaster Oblivion: The Black Hole. Worth a look!
In Australian park news, something interesting has been happening at Aussie World over the last few weeks. Late last year the operators of the park gave up the rights to use the Ettamogah Pub as theming for the oversized pub at the front of the park. It's a sad thing, as the Pub itself was the icon that started the roadside attraction in the first place. The interesting this is that Aussie World have had to go extreme lengths to remove theming from the building. Initially they just removed the car from the roof, and painted over the sign, but after a further challenge from the holder's of the I.P. rights they have been forced to paint over large parts of the exterior of the building. Just this week I saw them painting over the poem on the side of the pub. Soon there will just be a large generic building at the front of the park. As I said, strange!
Staying on the Sunshine Coast, but only JUST related to theme parks, Jeff the largest dinosaur of the Palmersaurus attration at Coolum caught fire last night. Tragic for all dinosaur lovers, but funny because it happened to Clive Palmer. If you don't know who Clive Palmer is, look him up because you wouldn't believe me if I told you about him.
Anyway, here is Jeff:
RIP JEFF: Clive Palmer's 20m dinosaur 'Jeff' was destroyed by fire. Police are investigating. @WINNews_SCoast pic.twitter.com/ohJJ3eOUKq
— Corinne May (@CorinneEMay) March 2, 2015
Nothing major is going on at the Australian major parks at the moment. We've been teased a little by Dreamworld about the Mine Ride, but nothing official appears to be happening.
For more Theme Park coverage, follow me on Twitter @themeparknut. Until next week, Cheers!
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