Theme Park News Update - 27th January 2015

Sad news to start off this weeks Theme Park News update. One of the most interesting Theme Park writers from the team at Theme Park Insider Daniel Etcheberry passed away last week. Daniel was an inspirational writer who wrote about his personal theme park experiences as a wheelchair user. I found his writing very informative. Here is one of his best articles. I'm sure I am not the only one in the Theme Park community that was touched by Daniel. I will always consider the accessibility of theme parks and theme park attractions because of him, and that is a wonderful legacy.


On to other news this week. Almost everything this week is about construction, so let's take a quick tour around the world for the theme park construction.




In Asia, The Theme Park Guy has a new construction update from Shanghai Disneyland, including an amazing photo of the central Storybook Castle. There is also a great post on his construction board ThemeParX about the new 20th Century Fox World in Malaysia.


From Europe, Screamscape tracked down some great construction photos from Efteling's Baron 1898 from Pretparken ParkPlanet. Airtimers posted a construction update from Europa Park, one of my favourite parks. Always interesting to see what they are up to.


In California, Construction has begun for Disneyland's 60th anniversary. This is a huge milestone for the park, and no doubt there will be a little bit of cash splashed to make the park look nice. I think that is one of the nice things about Disney, the thought that they'll get a little extra cash and they spend it cleaning up the park. There was also a height balloon allegedly spotted over Disneyland Resort.


There is a little bit of construction going on in Orlando too. There is some Orlando Eye Construction which got a little press this week. The big projects as always are Avatar and Kong, and this week we got a great Kongstruction update from Orlando Parks News. Over at WDW, Theme Park Tourist reports on the latest news out of Disney Springs (the new version of Downtown Disney at WDW) which is currently under construction. And on twitter Pluchiot had a number of Construction Photos of Animal Kingdom.


An interesting comparison was made on twitter by Carousel of Progress (@CarouslOProgrss).  I'll leave it for you to be the judge: 

The MK #HubTrees in 1990. They made the castle taller by making it appear farther away. Trees were removed in 2003. pic.twitter.com/F37lszuiPw
— Carousel of Progress (@CarouslOProgrss) January 24, 2015

The MK in 2014....a vast concrete jungle. #HubTrees pic.twitter.com/MN9AwcE8NM
— Carousel of Progress (@CarouslOProgrss) January 24, 2015

There has been a lot of discussion about the rumoured third gate at Universal Orlando in the last few weeks. Theme Park Tourist has given a summary of some of the rumoured aspects of "Volanco Bay" as it's rumoured to be called. Screamscape also reports on what is called Universal Project N

And to end on a bizarre/disturbing note, here is story from Texas Thrill Seekers: Woman abandons infant child to break into amusement park because God and aliens told her so. To be honest, I don't know what to say about this story.





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

Theme Park News Update - 20th January 2015

If you follow a lot of theme park blogs (like I do) you could be thinking that the only things happening this year are measles and selfie-sticks. But honestly, away from those issues there is stacks happening in the world of theme parks!


The big news that broke a week ago from WDW was that a huge new building is being added to the Norway pavilion in Epcot, to house a Frozen Meet and Greet. The sheer size of the building has started a lot of people talking. Is this going to be more than just a meet and greet? What is all that space for?

There was a couple of other interesting Disney related articles this week from ThemeParkInsider.com this week about what the delays in the release of the Avatar sequels means for WDW and also about the battle to replace Bob Iger. Not that makes any difference, but I'm a Staggs-man myself. Just putting that out there. Speaking of WDW's Avatarland, Screamscape posted a link to a Youtube video of someone flying a drone helicopter with a camera over the Pandora build site. It's kind of mesmerizing to watch.

Also check out Screamscape for some really interesting musing about Universal Orlando's potential new Water Park.


Staying in Florida, two pieces of news from Legoland Florida, as they announce a new land and the opening date for their new hotel. Got to be honest, I'm more excited about the hotel which is opening May 15th.

My least favourite story of the week, was about a particular New Zealand "haunted" amusement park, that used a photo of a guest wetting themselves to advertise their park, without the permission of the guest. At best this a crude publicity stunt, at worst it's cruel heartless humiliation. To be honest I don't really want to give this any more free press, but if anyone doesn't believe me see here. Personally, I think it's disgraceful, and I won't be ever visiting this park.

Moving a little bit closer to home, two little tidbits of information coming from the Parkz.com.au forums. Firstly the wacky worm coaster that has been installed, but is yet to open at Sunshine Coast park Aussie World is going to be called Bug Run! Cute enough for a kiddie coaster. Also, Dreamworld launched a new website this week, which caused people to question a few hilarious things. Firstly, Dreamworld doesn't know the difference between 12AM and 12PM, which resulted in two rides being listed as running for 12 hours longer than they should have. Secondly, it appears there were major factual errors in the Park History section of the new Dreamworld site.

I should say, if you are an Aussie you have to check out Parkz and the Parkz forums. It is the place for Australian Theme Park nerds.

This week was the Star Wars Half Marathon at the Disneyland Resort, and my very favourite story this week is extremely tenuously related to this. It is the story of an Australian man walking around Australia to raise money for Monash Children's Hospital, who was bitten by a potentially deadly snake. He was completely unharmed because the snake was unable to bite through the Stormtrooper armour that he has been wearing for the entire trip! How good is that!! What a champion this guy is! Best of luck to him!






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

Theme Park News Update - 13th January 2015

Here is a quick round up of the last week in theme parks!

I told you in last weeks update to follow TDR Explorer, and those that followed my instructions would have seen why when they posted the best photos of 2014 at Tokyo Disney last week. They also delivered us a year in review for 2014. The Tokyo Disney resort is truly a beautiful resort, and some of those pictures are just magical. I must admit that seeing one of my family members visiting DisneySea this week, made me incredibly jealous. One day I'll get there!!

Something that I will never probably even attempt, let alone achieve is riding every WDW attraction in 24 hours. Sounds impossible? Well, followers of Parkeology know that it isn't, and now they have released a video of their extraordinary WDW46 challenge victory. Well worth checking out!!

Staying in the States, there were two very different articles that peaked my interest this week. One from our good friends at Theme Park Insider, where they are viewing the legal changes to make Gay Marriage Legal in Florida, through the prism of how it will be good for the Florida Theme Parks (particularly WDW). On the other end of the spectrum we have an Theme Park Review post with a Twisted Colossus Construction Update. The Twisted Colossus conversion is one of the more interesting roller coaster changes in progress at the moment, and I'm intrigued to see how the final product turns out.

I thought I would put in here my favorite tweet that I saw last week. Check out this WDW tech treat from Ian Brennan (@nannerb):

Disney make use of table layouts in their emails, shows a representation of a character with images disabled. pic.twitter.com/atMlCjUD9U
— Ian Brennan (@nannerb) January 5, 2015

The major Disney construction news of the week was the closing of Condor Flats at Disney California Adventure. While Soarin' (the only attraction in this land) gets an upgrade, it sounds like a subtle re-themeing of the land into Grizzly Peak Airfield will take place. I wouldn't hold your breathe for anything amazing, but worth keeping an eye on it.

In Europe, Gardaland have named their up coming B&M Dive Coaster - Oblivion - The Black Hole. You've got to give them points for style at least.

In Australian Park News, the Gold Coast Bulletin has reported what seems to be a very honest account of how our Sea World protects its animals in the face of criticism that it is an "aquaprison". It's a very revealing article, and there is a clear push for Sea World to distance itself from the troubled US SeaWorld chain. I highly recommend giving it a read.

Sister park Movie World announced on it's facebook page today that it is running a film festival called the Stage One Film Festival hosted in the Roxy Theatre. Tickets are available here.


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

Theme Park News Update - 6th Jan 2014

It's time to round up the Theme Park News from the first week of 2014!

There is never a quiet week in Theme Parks, there is always something happening around the world. Today we kick-off in Denmark, where Legoland Billund has announce that the 20-tonne X-Wing Starfighter (which was previously stationed in New York's Time Square) will be added to the park this year! Staying in Europe (sort of), Screamscape is reporting that the first pieces of Efeling's new dive coaster Baron 1898 have been fabricated in the US. This is an exciting development and Baron 1898 promises to be one of the best themed attractions being built this year, so it always exciting to get news about it.

In Orlando, things have passed the Christmas/New Year peak, and starting to quiet down again (thankfully). There is a great post on the Orlando Theme Park News site about the up coming Skull Island at Islands of Adventure. Well, it's not official that Kong is returning, but let's face it the whole theme park world would be shocked if this turned about to be anything other than Kong.

If you thought the New Years period was busy in US parks, check out this shot from Tokyo Disneyland! By the way, everyone should be following TDR Explorer which does amazing coverage of the best theme parks in the world (there, I said it, the best! Come at me WDW).

Staying with Asian Disney Theme Parks, reports come through yesterday that Hong Kong Disneyland has broken ground on it's third onsite hotel Disney Explorers’ Lodge.

But the big international new this week, is that the Hat is coming down. Reportedly today is the last day that the Sorcerer's Hat at WDW's Hollywood Studios is clear to be seen without demolishing crews (and some Disney fans) taking a hammer to it. At the same time as the Christmas decorations come down, so does the Hat. Personally I'm excited to see the next stage of Hollywood Studios, so I'm not going to miss the Hat. But I'm sure some people will.

In Australian theme park news, it has been hot as anything at our theme parks over the last week. Dreamworld has started a new version of it's night time event "Screamworld" which includes Rides and Slides. Prices start around $20 for this hard ticket event.

The most interesting story in local theme park news this week was this hilarious article  in the Sydney Morning Herald about the complaints over Luna Park Sydney's Hair Raiser ride.  My favorite part is 'One neighbour claimed the "hoony" ride led to increased "violence on the street and drunken behaviour" '. Those hoony children and their ugly 37m drop towers. As I said, hilarious!

Our thoughts and prayers are with the southern states of Australia who are suffering through horrible Bushfires this week also. Stay safe and look after yourselves!

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

2014 Year in Review - Australian Parks

It was another quiet year in Australian Theme Parks, with sadly little happening across our major parks.


Movie World was the Gold Coast park to see the most change this year, although compared to recent years like 2012 it was still a quiet year. Early in the year (February, I believe) they opened a new version of the Stunt Driver show called, Hollywood Stunt Driver 2. I haven't seen the show, but from all reports it has minimal set changes, a new (but thin) story and some new stunts. In September, Movie world opened a new kids ride (in the show building that was the Looney Tunes River Ride) called the Movie World Junior Driving School. This attraction is designed for kids taller than 90cm, as they drive around a miniature version of Movie World. This attraction was due to open much earlier than it's September opening, but progress on this stalled with the arrival of the Henry the Polar Bear Cub at Sea World in 2013. This arrival changed a lot of planning within the VRTP company, however it is good to see that this attraction made it largely unchanged. Movie World offered it's traditional Fright Nights and White Christmas events with moderate success, as well as adding a new event Carnivale to their arsenal. This new event ran in June and July, with a theme of the New Orleans/Rio Carnivale. There was a distinct focus on food, with a large number of pop-up food stalls filling Main Street. Movie World has confirmed that Carnivale will return in April 2015.


Over at the big competitor Dreamworld, there was probably the largest ride opening of the year, when it opened Tail Spin (a Sky Fly from Gerstlauer) on Ocean Parade in September. This was a replacement for the very aged and unpopular Reef Diver. Dreamworld has counted this as the ninth of it's Big 9 Thrill Rides. Readers of my earlier posts would know that I wasn't exactly thrilled with the addition of another flat ride to Dreamworld, however I can't criticise the ride itself as I am yet to ride it. In December 2013 Dreamworld opened the Dreamworld Corroboree re-theming of the Australian Wildlife experience, which continued to get good press for the park into the new year.


It was a complicated year for Sea World. Riding high on the back of (finally) replacing the Bermuda Triangle with the Storm Coaster in 2013, there was mostly bad news from Sea World. The biggest news for the year was the closure and demolition of the Sea Viper roller coaster, one of the oldest steel roller coasters in the country. The ride itself had been reportedly having structural problems for some time, and eventually the cost of maintenance and repairs must have gotten to high. Once this closure was made a official, Sea World wasted no time in ripping down the ride. It was gone within a matter of weeks. Another slightly quieter change at Sea World, was the removal of advertising for the "Wild" attraction that was originally slated for 2014. It had been suggested that the land which as being reclaimed behind the lighthouse was to be used for this attraction, whatever it was going to be. It is likely that the arrival of Henry the polar bear cub, and the rapid construction of the Polar Bear Pre School habitat changed at the very least the timeline for Wild. It is possible that they likely (and now completed) removal of the Sea Viper on land adjacent to the reclaimed land may also have altered plans. It is hard to predict what will happen with the Wild at this stage, as we have had no further news on this project. This year also marked the end of the Dinosaur Island attraction, which was always known to only be a temporary addition while the Storm Coaster was completed. In some good news, the end of the year (literally boxing day) has seen the opening of a new version of the Dolphin Show (called Affinity) and the addition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the park, as part of the Nickelodeon licencing deal.


In other parks around Australia, Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast continued to grow opening a wave swinger called Ballroom Blitz. They have also closed down the Town Hall and are working on a new attraction called the Illusionarium, which will open in 2015. Aussie World have also run Halloween and Christmas events (for the first time that I know of), which a great thing for this little park. Adventure World in Perth had a quiet year, after opening the Abyss last year. They added new theming to two existing rides (Rampage and The Black Widow), and a new kids show stage. Adventure World are also adding a temporary Dinosaur Island exhibit, which is a walkthrough of animatronic Dinosaurs. Hmm.. that sounds vaguely familiar. Let's hope that this little park keeps on improving. We've heard rumours that another big Abyss style addition is on it's way in 2015 or 2016, so let's keep our fingers crossed.


The strangest Australian theme park news from this year has to be from Luna Park Sydney, which in December 2013 opened Hair Raiser, it's first new permanent ride in a decade (that is from my recollection). The ride is a Larson International Super Shot drop tower with beautiful views of Sydney Harbour. The only bad news about that is that they might have to tear it down. The ride is still operating at the Sydney park, and hopefully this mess has all been cleared up, but I haven't heard any official word about it yet.

So, that is a full round up of happenings in Australian theme parks in 2014. To be honest, I'd hoped for a little more investment in the Gold Coast parks.  My expectation would be for a quiet start to 2015 but hopefully we'll start to see a bit more action towards then end of the year. I'm looking at you Sea World. Hopefully, Adventure World and Aussie World will both continue to grow and reinvest in their parks.

Tail Spin @ Dreamworld

In late September Dreamworld opened their brand new thrill ride, Tail Spin. The ride, a Gerstlauer Sky Fly replaced the aged Reef Diver flat at the end of the Ocean Parade. The ride itself stands 22 metres tall, and has a throughput of 240-360 riders per hour.


Overall, the ride is a step up from the unpopular Reef Diver, without question. However it does show a disturbing trend in Australia's largest theme park. That is the tendency to favour "cheap" flats over any other type of ride. While I am a fan of flats in general, I think Dreamworld has now reached the maximum number of flats that a park can sustain without starting to be criticized for it.


But why wait, when I can rant about it now!


Don't get me wrong, Dreamworld has some great flats. I am a huge fan of The Claw, I think it is one of the best rides in the park. However, when your last 4 additions are flats (well, Buzzsaw is a coaster, but it's a very flat-like coaster) some questions have to be asked. As a consumer, it is hard to see why they have added two flying flats (Pandamonium and Tail Spin) in a row. I'm sure there will be some that haven't even realised they are different rides.


Enthusiasts tend to champion coasters over flats. Dreamworld has 5 coaster. However, Buzzsaw, is a single loop coaster. Tower of Terror (as good as it is) is just a straight up and back. Mick Doohan's Motocoaster is wildly unpopular, mainly because it is to big for kids, and a bit lame for the tweens. That just leaves a very good kiddy coaster, and Cyclone as the only true full circuit coasters.


What about dark rides? Realistically Dreamworld has one, the Big Red Car Ride in Wiggles World. I don't know a grown person who's ridden it without a toddler.


Dreamworld had one amazing Drop tower in the Giant Drop, so it doesn't need to go there again.


They have a raft ride, and an aged flume ride. They lack any kind of interactive ride (although they do have a walk through). They do have a drive yourself Model-T Ford ride, but I'd be surprised if many people even knew that was still there.


In terms of flats, they have 5 majors, and a number (rough count of 6 or 7) kids flats. What will Dreamworld put in next? If it's a flat, I'm going to scream.

Rick's Cafe - Movie World

In the last couple of years, Movie World has revamped it's major sit-down restaurant Rick's Café. It has turned it from a mixed buffet, into an all you can eat Pizza-Pasta-Salad and Dessert meal. Earlier in the year we had a look at this revamp. We aren't big on sit down meals in Theme Parks, so it took us a while to check it out. Having been to both the old and the new, I can say it is definitely an improvement.


At the old Rick's your choices where somewhat limited to a handful of particular meals. They were okay food wise, from memory, but not outstanding. The actual buffet space was very small, and was easily crowded. The deserts were below par in the old Rick's. And drinks had to be purchased individually, which was always a little difficult.


The new Rick's has opened up the space nicely, and focuses on a large selection of Pizza, with a few additional options for the younger crowd. The pizza was nice, it wasn't amazing, but it was a good as you'll find at an all you can eat pizza joint. The serving seemed to keep speed with the crowd, so there was always options to choose from. The dessert selection was massively improved, simply by adding a soft serve machine. I'm not fancy, I don't want much more than that.


You could add on an all you can drink soft drink for 5 dollars, which is cheaper than you can buy soft drink anywhere in the park.


The only negative was the salad. There was so little salad on the day we went, with such little variety that it really doesn't belong on the sign in my opinion. You couldn't eat just a salad lunch here, you would have to have something else.


At $25 for all you can eat and drink, Rick's Café is surprisingly good value in a park that charges way way to much for food and beverage ($4 for a churro?). Think of it like this, you can get a soft drink and a soft serve ice cream for just under $20. If you are going to eat in park, it's a good deal, even if you don't plan to stuff yourself silly.


My problem is that I find it hard to go to buffet and not stuff myself silly. A big danger in a theme park is being unable to ride because of to much food. That is the only other major problem with the new Rick's Café, and that is only an issue if you lack self control.


If you've been there before, it's definitely worth checking out the new(ish) Rick's Café.