Tuesday 27 October 2015

Halloween Events in South East Queensland 2015

This weekend is Halloween, and for the first time in a while we have the 31st on a Saturday which has given our parks the perfect opportunity to expand their Halloween celebrations. Here is a quick rundown of what is happening at 4 South East Queensland parks this weekend.

Sea World
Sea World will be holding a day time Trick or Treasure event for families on Saturday and Sunday. There will be treats and costume prizes all included with park entry for these two days.

Dreamworld
Dreamworld are hosting a very special version of their Screamworld out of hours event, with a family Halloween theme. Tickets from $30 online, although they have sent out discounts by email for annual passholders. Sounds like it will be a cool little party with laser shows and trick or treating.

Aussie World
This little Sunshine Coast park is bringing back it's Halloween Fest-Evil over 3 nights this week. Tickets to this hard ticket event are limited and cost $30 online. For the first time this year, they are running an Adults Only night on Thursday, which should be interesting. The event promises mazes and rides, as well as a dance club on the Adults-Only night. One of my best friends will be visiting this Thursday, so I'll pass on any feedback she has on the event.

Movie World
The big show in terms of Halloween events in Australia is Movie World's Fright Nights. The event has been running every Friday and Saturday night in October and has it's finale on Halloween night this Saturday. This is the big one, and it is definitely not a family friendly event. If you want to have a truly scary experience this Halloween, this is my pick. Tickets start at $50. With mazes themed to Friday the 13th, Wyrmwood and Wolf Creek, as well a shows and scare zones, this is not one for the faint hearted.

Theme Park Nut News Update - 27th October 2015

It's been really quiet week in theme parks, but still a couple of surprises worth noting in this week's News update.

Starting at home, Dreamworld has officially announce he name of the re-theme of the Cyclone rollercoaster, the Hot Wheels Hot Lap. This revamp is going to form part of a Motorsport precinct at the end of Ocean Parade. In other news, the also added some benches, next to the SBNO Eureka Mountain Mine Ride which has had swirling rumours all around it this year. Touché Dreamworld!

On Theme Park Insider this week they have an interesting article about Sexual and Verbal Harassment of staff at Halloween events in the US. By the sound of it this is becoming a real issue and there aren't any easy answers. I totally agree with Robert on TPI about this, people have no rights to touch park staff, regardless of the nature of the event.

Over at WDW it ha been announced that they adding another Character dining option at DHS, Minnie's Holiday Dine at Hollywood & Vine. I think this one sounds pretty cool, I will have Minnie and the gang in Holiday outfits celebrating the most wonderful time of the year.

Other things happening in the theme park world this week, a 93 year old riding the world's first VR Coaster.  Also Thorpe Park's new attraction for 2016 will feature Derren Brown, the English mentalist and illusionist. And finally Epcot has replaced the Spirited Beasts exhibit with a cool new exhibit called Kawai: Japan's Cute Culture. That looks totally awesome to me, but I kind of love that aspect of Japan.

For more Theme Park coverage, follow me on Twitter @themeparknut. Until next time, Cheers!

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Theme Park Nut News Update - 20th October 2015

Welcome to another week's Theme Park Nut News Update.

The big news this week is Star Wars. The latest trailer for Episode VII The Force Awakens dropped today. What does that have to do with Theme Parks? Well, Walt Disney World announced this week that they will be hosting a hard ticket Premiere Party. So that means I'm not corrupting my blog talking about the new Trailer! I thought it was great, but I'm now going to have to stop reading or watching anything about this movie, it's overhyped already and it's still 2 months away!

Theme Park Insider has a good take on today's release with an article in the OC register about why fictional properties like Star Wars have taken over from non-fiction in theme parks.

Over at Universal Hollywood, their own superstar fiction franchise is taking shape a Harry Potter closes in on it's December opening. There was even  a sighting of the Flight of the Hippogriff coaster testing.

The main news out of central Florida this week was that the county board has recommended against approving the World's tallest coaster on International Drive, a part of the Skyplex development. The coaster would have been a unique Polercoaster standing 570 feet tall called The Skyscraper. With strong opposition to this from Universal Orlando, it seems like it this project might never get off the ground.

It's a bit of a quiet tome in Australia's parks. Cyclone at Dreamworld is closed for it's V8 make over. Over at Adventure World, they have opened a new record breaking tornado slide called Kracken. To keep this story cycling, Disney and More blogged about the recent article on Disneyland Australia and how close we came.

For more Theme Park coverage, follow me on Twitter @themeparknut. Until next time, Cheers!

Tuesday 13 October 2015

Theme Park Nut News Update - 13th October 2015


It's the middle of October, which means two things Halloween and price rises. A lot has been written about the Annual pass price rises at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World, and the small parking changes at Universal Orlando, but for me it's par for the course. Disney and Universal want to control profit and demand and price is their only real lever. Deal with it folks, this stuff costs big money.

But that's not the only thing that has happened in the Theme Park world in the last two weeks.

In Japan, Universal have given us further details on their upcoming Jurassic World themed coaster, The Flying Dinosaur. I think this sounds seriously cool, and if it works well, it is a lock to com to Universal Orlando in the next 5 years. The ride will open at the Osaka park next year,and will be the world's longest flying coaster.

We saw some great shots of the construction at Shanghai Disneyland courtesy of Stefan Zwanzger of ThemeParX. This centre castle does look beautiful, but I still wish it was themed to a specific princess, rather than just a generic Storybook castle.

At WDW, Downtown Disney has officially been reborn into Disney Springs. And just as excitedly, they've opened a new exit from the I4, straight into it's parking garages. Well maybe that undersells Disney Springs. I do think it will be great when it is complete, however for now it is a bit of an upmarket hodge-podge.

Disney has announced a new attraction coming to the attraction desert of Disney's Hollywood Studios: Club Disney. Well it really is only a dance party in the new Sunset Showcase flex-theatre, but at last it's something. And it's opening in 6 weeks!

Staying briefly in Orlando, there are reports of a 400 acre plot going up for sale east of Universal Boulevard by the end of the year. Keep your eyes on that, could be very valuable real estate.

In the UK, on of the writers fortieth site Ars Technica wore his Apple Watch to Thorpe Park's Fright Nights, and tracked his hear rate to see just how scary it was. The verdict was that the rides were more exhilarating than the mazes. While interesting, I suspect a huge amount of variance would occur between individuals at an event like this.

In Denmark, Tivoli Gardens is adding two small rides for 2016. I'm actually surprised they have room to fit in any more rides. It's a beautiful little park, but so space poor that it isn't funny. Still good on them for squeezing a few more rides in!

In Australia, The Cyclone coaster has been closed as part of V8 Supercars retheme coming to Dreamworld this year. Meanwhile at Movie World the Green Lantern Coaster has started going through more rigorous testing in the last week. Speculation is that both coasters are likely to be open for the Summer holidays as long as no further issues occur.

Don't forget that Movie World is running Fright Nights in the lead up to Halloween!

For more Theme Park coverage, follow me on Twitter @themeparknut. Until next time, Cheers!