News Update - 26th January 2017

Time for another week's News Update.

First of the Main Street Electrical Parade is back at Disneyland. The parade returned from WDW back to it's original route that it ran from 1972 to 1996. The stay is only temporary though, while it's successor, the Paint the Night parade undergoes a rehabilitation.

Last week we reported on the Lunar New Year celebrations in California, this week we saw an amazing video of rope drop on the first day of celebrations in the new Shanghai Disneyland. The scenes were almost at stampede level when the park opened and the line for Soarin' FastPasses looks massive.

Staying in Asia, Universal Studios Singapore welcomed it's 25 millionth visitor this week. The park, which opened in 2010, is the smallest of the 5 Universal parks had a slow start attendance wise, but has grown in the last few years.

It's been a quiet theme park news week in the US but Universal Orlando did give us a video with 5 tips for rookies on the Men in Black Alien Attack ride. More importantly they announced the opening date for the Volcano Bay water park as May 25th. I still refuse to call this the third theme park at the resort.

The Legoland parks, and their owners Merlin, are continuing to add theming outside their parks, with two themed hotels in the spotlight for 2018 this week. Legoland California is adding a Castle themed hotel, which broke ground this week, while Legoland Germany is adding a Pirate themed hotel.

At home, Dreamworld is turning 35 this month, and has a sale on to celebrate. They've added a 35 day pass (up until March 5th) for $35. They've also discounted the season pass which is up until December 24th by $35, which puts adults at $64. Just to contrast a single day pass is $65, so you are saving a dollar but getting 11 months more of visits. Plus this week the park has reopened Shockwave and The Giant Drop. And don't forget their brand new Lego shop opens this coming Saturday.

So, apart from the heat it's a great time to go back to Dreamworld. Hurry up though as the ticket sale only runs until the 29th of January.

At Movie World this week they are celebrating Chinese New Year, as they have the last few years. The construction of their new hyper continues slowly. You can check coaster out the post on Parkz.com.au to see progress towards this September opening.

At Sea World last week we saw the final night of their first Carnivale event, which moved from sister park Movie World this year. Parkz.com.au did a review of this final night and sadly found it a little lacking this year. The obvious comparison to the last 3 years at Movie World, and in short the event was less about food and rides, and more about the musical guests. All in all the street entertainment was good, but the lack of parade was noticeable. There is potential in the new venue, so let's see if next years event is enhanced.

Village Roadshow Theme Parks (owners of Movie World, Sea World and Wet'n'Wild) announced this week that attendance at their parks of locals has dropped 12% since the tragedy at rival park Dreamworld in October last year. The financial impact of this drop in attendance has not been reported on yet, VRTP shares fell almost 10% in expectation. Financial results for the second half of 2016 will be announced on February 23.

That's it for this week's News Update . For more Theme Park coverage, follow me on Twitter @themeparknut. Until next time, Cheers!