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!