Tuesday 17 November 2015

Theme Park Nut News Update - 17th November 2015

There are a couple of standout issues that have dominated theme park discussions over the last week in Australia. But before we get to that, it is impossible to ignore the terrorist attacks that were committed in Paris last weekend. They have been universally condemned, and I have to add my voice to that chorus. These are shocking events, and they are awful to witness. I can't imagine the hate that would drive any person to act in that manner, it's truly horrifying. I hope that as a world we can unite against lunatics, regardless of ethnicity or religion, because that is what these people were, lunatics, plain and simple.

I'm sure everyone has read plenty on these attacks, but Theme Park Insider did have an interesting article about the attacks which closed the Disneyland Paris Resort for 3 days this week.

Now, on to happier news! We were all a little taken by surprise early last week, when it was announced that the Wanda Group was in discussions with the Queensland Government about building a new Theme Park at Coomera on the Gold Coast. You can read our earlier post about it here, but in short this is a very exciting development! We will be watching it closely, and let you know if we here any news about it.

We also got an exciting sneak peak this week from Disney Parks, who previewed the new Star Wars themed Season of the Force Event at Disneyland Resort, including the Hyperspace Mountain overlay of Space Mountain. Even though this is just a temporary place holder until they can get their Star Wars lands built, I must say this event is pretty cool. However, I may be a little biased, I am a fan. I may or may not be watching Empire Strikes Back as we speak.

Moving from one George Lucas science fiction to another, sad but expected news announced this week with the Michael Jackson short film Captain EO set to close on December 6th. The film, which was brought back to Epcot at Walt Disney World after Michael Jackson's death, will be replace by a collection of Disney and Pixar short films.

Not all bad news for Epcot this week, with the opening of the Colortopia Exhibit in Innovations East. Sponsored by Glidden Paints, the Exhibit includes 3 venues that focus on the "emotional potential of color": "Power of Color", "The Color Lab" and "Color of our World".

Today, Universal Hollywood has announced there new Annual Plans for the coming year, which have not surprisingly included price increase. With the expected opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to occur early next year, some have theorised that the fact that the week of March 21st has been added to the blackout dates for the lower Annual passes might mean this will be the opening time for this particular attraction.

In international news, we have seen construction updates on the DreamWorks Moscow park and Universal Studios Beijing. GCI have just finished construction of China's tallest and longest roller coaster at Wanda's Nanchang Theme Park. And we have seen our fist real glimpse inside the new Pirates of the Carribean ride at Shanghai Disneyland courtesy of the ThemeParX.

It has also been rumoured that one of the world's best little parks Efteling in the Netherlands is almost ready to start work on a new trackless dark ride for 2017. Almost everything Efteling does is amazing, so they have high expectations to live up to with this new ride.

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

4 comments:

  1. I'm putting it out into the Universe *GIVE US A DISNEYLAND* :P :P

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  2. It would be so awesome! But I don't like our chances... happy to be surprised though.

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  3. I think they'd be fools not to make it a Disney. we need a park that is recognized worldwide to attract people here.....why put another 'unknown' park here as we already have them. When i say unknown i realize Australians know Movieworld and Dreamworld but they aren't widely known about outside of Australia so why bother with just another normal park? Plus i live a 5 minute drive from the proposed site in Coomera and i shall throw the biggest baby tantrum if it dosent end up being a Disney and nobody wants to see that. lol

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  4. I think they'd be fools not to make it a Disney. we need a park that is recognized worldwide to attract people here.....why put another 'unknown' park here as we already have them. When i say unknown i realize Australians know Movieworld and Dreamworld but they aren't widely known about outside of Australia so why bother with just another normal park? Plus i live a 5 minute drive from the proposed site in Coomera and i shall throw the biggest baby tantrum if it dosent end up being a Disney and nobody wants to see that. lol

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