October 29th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

• Tokyo Disney resort announced that Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea will open June 6, 2024.

• Disneyland Resort has announced the newly themed “Adventureland Treehouse inspired by Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson" will reopen officially on November 10. The treehouse had been Tarzan themed since 1999, and closed since shortly after the pandemic closures in 2021.

• Shanghai Disneyland has announced their Zootopia land will open December 20 of this year.

• WDW has given more details about it’s Christmas celebrations with Frozen Holiday Surprise castle projection show coming to Magic Kingdom, and lots of new entertainment coming to Hollywood Studios for the Jollywood Nights event. This includes a What’s this, nightmare before Christmas singalong show at the Frozen theatre.

• They also announced that EPCOT International Festival of the Arts will return on January 12, 2024 and run through February 19.

• Lots of Disney Cruise News this week but the most theme park related is that Disney Treasure vessel is going have a bar called the Haunted Mansion Parlor when it sets sail in December 2024.

• Japan’s new Ghibli Park is teasing the opening of the upcoming Princess Mononoke themed area that will premiere on November 1st. According to the update the land will feature a sculpture of a Tatarigami spiriti monster, a slide themed to the boar god Lord Okkoto and an area where guests can make their own “gohei-mochi rice cakes”.

• In the us, Several Cedar Fair theme parks Carowinds, Kings Dominion, and California's Great America are returning to their traditional calendars, closing for the winter and reopening for the 2024 season in the spring.

• Universal's theme parks took in more than $2.4 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2023, parent company Comcast reported this week. Above comparable 2019 data. Despite this Comcast’s stock 8% post the report

• the Bullet Coaster at Happy Valley Shenzhen suffered some kind of incident. It sounds as if the two trains may have collided, causing the rear car to de-rail from the look of things. The unofficial reports say 8 riders may have been potentially injured from the incident. The Bullet Coaster is a modern S&S Thrust Air style launch coaster that first opened back in 2012.

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October 22nd - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

This week's Theme Park News:

• the Disney company turned 100 this week, and to celebrate Hong Kong Disneyland unveiled a brand new Walt Disney statue. It featured Walt and Mickey sitting on a park bench looking at the park’s Carousel.

• Epcot celebrated the birthday as well with the official opening of Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana.

• At WDW it was announced that Blizzard Beach water park will reopen for guests on November 6. As they only open one water park at a time at the moment this means that Typhoon Lagoon will close November 5.

• More Christmas events have breen announced this week 2023 Holidays at Universal Orlando Resort events will start November 17 and continue through December 31. The usuals return including Mannheim Steamroller.

• Universal have announced the name for their new Las Vegas standalone horror attraction, it will be called Universal Horror Unleashed.

• Italy's Gardaland is teasing its new attraction for 2024, which will be based on legends of indigenous Americans.

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And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks 

October 15th Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

• Disney imagineers have this week play test 3 walk around BD-1 droids at Disneyland’s version of Galaxies edge. And they are beautiful.

• Disneyland resort released details of their upcoming enhancement of Downtown Disney, including a new park and stage. They also Ann 3 new restaurants : GG's Chicken Shop, Seoul Sister, and Sip & Sonder.

• Disneyland resort has also raised ticket prices across the board with single day tickets up 8.9%.

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• All-day Park Hopping returns to the Walt Disney World Resort starting January 9, the date when park reservations will no longer be required. And it also raised prices of its annual passes, but did not raise day ticket prices.

• Disneyland Paris will swap two scenes in Le Pays des Contes de Fées ("The Land of Fairy Tales") as part of a "complete refurbishment" of the Fantasyland ride over the next year. The new new scenes will feature Frozen and Winnie the Pooh. The resort also showed teaser images of Disney Symphony of Colors which will play on and above Sleeping Beauty Castle, starting January 8, 2024.

• Hong Kong Disneyland has revealed the menus it will be serving at its new World of Frozen when that land opens November 20. And there are lots of desserts.

• The Whos of Whoville will take the Universal Plaza stage for a new show during this year's Grinchmas celebrations at Universal Studios Hollywood. They are also bringing back their Harry Potter Magic of Christmas projection show.

• Six Flags Over Georgia are holding a fan vote to pick the name of their up coming Ultra Surf coaster. The three choices are: Aquaphobia, Georgia Surfer, and Iron Splash: The Surf Coaster.

• Over at Legoland California, The City of Carlsbad has posted notice of a planning application by the park. The application calls for the removal of two existing attractions, which the park has announced are Safari Trek and Fairy Tale Brook. In their place will be three new attractions:

- A single-story, 32,200-square-foot, 43-foot-tall building with an interior ride

- A 33-foot tall, 4,120-square-foot outdoor ride

- A new children's play area with a 30-foot tall structure

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And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.

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October 8th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 Here is this week's Theme Park News:

• Legoland California is closing yet another opening attraction with Safari trek’s neighbour Fairy Tale Brook to close at the end of October to make way for “future awesomeness!”

• Disney revealed the full roster of celebrity narrators for the Candlelight Processional at this year's EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays. New celebrities include Brendan Fraser, if he can get his cup of coffee.

• Both Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort have announced upcoming discounts for families visiting with children, ages 3-9, Starting October 24.

• Disney+ has announced that a second season of "Behind the Attraction" will drop on November 1. The six-episode second season will highlight Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure, EPCOT, Food, and Nighttime Spectaculars.

• In the uk Thorpe Park have announced their 2024 coaster will be named Hyperia, stand 236 feet tall and hit speeds of over 80mph

• In Denmark Djurs Sommerland has announced that the park will build their tallest attraction ever for the 2024 season, a 60 meter tall new drop tower to be located inside the park’s Mexicoland.

• Merlin Entertainments has announced the impending retirement of its Chief Financial Officer, Alistair Windybank. He joined Merlin in 2008 and have served as the company's CFO since 2020

• Iaapa have announced that”Universal Beijing Resort – The Untold Story of Triumph over Trying Times; COVID, Lockdowns, Quarantines, And More" will be the topic for this year's Legends panel at this years expo in November. It will be hosted by Bob Rogers, and feature: 

• Tom Mehrmann, President and Chief Operating Officer of Universal Destinations and Experiences, Pacific Rim. Former President and General Manager for Universal Beijing Resort

• Mike Hightower, retired President at Universal Creative.

• Sylvia Hase, President of Hasbas Entertainment who were responsible for the Untrainable show.

• SeaWorld San Antonio is the latest theme park to go solar in its parking lot, beginning construction of a solar canopy that will shade approximately 1,200 spots in the VIP section of its parking lot. The canopy's solar panels will have a capacity of 4.3 megawatts and generate 16% of the park's electricity consumption, according to SeaWorld.

• An American water park guest has filed a suit against Walt Disney World after a visit to Typhoon Lagoon caused an “injurious wedgie”  from the Humunga Kowabunga slide in 2019. the incident was serious enough for her to be hospitalised, and she’s asking for $50000 in damages.

You can watch our News in a Nutshell videos on YouTube or TikTok, and catch up with us on X, Instagram or Threads.

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And you can find our weekly podcast about theme park news called Nuts About Theme Parks, on all good Podcasting platforms.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nutsaboutthemeparks