News in a Minute - 27th July 2018

This week's news:
-  The world's largest indoor theme park has opened, this week, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi. This park has several top of the line attractions created by the ThinkWell group. Check out YouTube for POVs.
- Hong Kong Disnyeland has released the name for their new Marvel ride, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano battle. It's opening has been pushed back to 2019.
- In the states, both Knoebels and Herseypark closed on monday due to severe flooding.
- Guy Fieri is opening a fried chicken restaurant at Disney Springs.
- Bobcat Goldthwait leaked a planned halloween version of World of Colour, to be called World of Colour: Villainous, during the blow back from the sacking of James Gunn.
- Universal has put in a trademark for "Universal's Epic Universe" and many variations of it. Could this be connected to the potential third park in Orlando?
- Universal Orlando announced another original IP house for Halloween Horror Nights this week, the Carnival Graveyard.
-  The Escape from Pompeii attraction at Busch Gardens Williamsburg is now closed until further notice after the ride apparently actually caught fire on Saturday night

News in a Minute - BLOOPERS 2

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News in a Minute - 20th July 2018

This week's news:




- Disney has announced the closing date for A Bug's Land at Disney's California Adventure to be September 4th. This is to make way for a Super Hero themed land, that contractually can't be called Marvel land.
- At Universal Orlando, the Cinematic Celebration is now officially open, after being soft opened for the last few weeks.
- At Tokyo Disney, the original Out of Shadow Land musical March next year to make was for a new show called Song of Mirage, featuring Mickey Mouse and his friends.
- Universal Hollywood has started work on their next project, with demolition starting on the Globe Theater structure. It hasn't been announced what this will actually be yet.
- There is a rumour that Disneyland Paris will be testing out a paid FastPass option called AccessOne. It would give one-off front of line access to several attractions.
-  It appears that Disney is increasingly likely to buy Fox, after Comcast, the owners of Universal, removed it's competing bid. This would give Disney controller over IPs such as X-Men, Avatar and the Simpsons.
- Pizzafari at Disney's Animal Kingdown will have a new Family Style dining option from the end of July.
- Busch Gardens Tamp have suddenly closed Falcon's Fury drop ride. It's list on their rehab page as "closed until further notice".

News in a Minute - 14th July 2018

This week's theme park news:
- Disneyland sweated through the hottest day on record this week, with the temperatures in Anahiem reaching 113 degress fahrenheit (45 degress Celsius). Sadly on the same day, all of Disney Park's websites and apps went down.
- Six Flags Magic Mountain has opened CraZanity, the world's tallest Pendulum ride at 170-feet tall.
- A fire in the central cooling plant at the Disney's Hollywood Studios, closed down almost all of the attractions in the park on Thursday afternoon, including all of the newly opened Toy Story Land. It appears that only the Star Wars Launch Bay and MuppetVision shows were able to stay open.
- Islands of adventure have added some Jurassic World themed treats to a couple of restaurants. But only for July.
- The Purge is returning to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. This time as a maze based on the current Prequel, The First Purge.
-  Disney has created a new WDW Annual Pass for Florida residents with Park-specific block out days, just as they did earlier in the year for Disneyland Resort.
- Disney and More this week reported on apparent leaked plans to Disneyland Paris Resort's expansion to Walt Disney Studios. It looks like the new Frozen land and Star Wars land will be in place, and there are hints that future expansions may include Carsland and even Pandora.
- Six Flags over Texas has been testing their new Harley Quinn Spinsanity ride, ahead of this weekend's media day.
- Coney Island in New York have opened the Coney Clipper, a new swinging pirate ship flat ride.
- New dive coaster Valkyria at Liseberg in Sweden has also been testing this week, with the park releasing test footage this week.
- King's Island in ohio had to close a half hour early on Tuesday due a a suspicious package outside the park. The package was later found to be non-threatening.

News in a Minute - BLOOPERS

News in a Minute - 6th July 2018

This week's news:

-  Legoland California opened its Lego City Deep Sea Adventure this week, a submarine ride where you journey through a real aquarium with 2000 sea creatures, and search for lost Lego Treasure.
- Tokyo Disneyland has given us a peak at their new Castle show Celebrate!, which starts July 10th, with a making of video released this week.
- Universal Orlando celebrated the 4th of July by having a technical rehearsal for their new lagoon show, the Cinematic Celebration. The park is yet to announce an opening date for this show.
- Theme Park Insider announced their annual awards as well this week, with the big winner being Efteling from the Netherlands, as overall most popular park and for best new Dark Ride for Symbolica.
- Australian Theme Park chain VRTP has sold it's Wet'n'Wild Sydney property to spanish theme park giant Parques Reunidos.
- Theme park site Blooloop announced their Blooloop 50 for 2018 this week, which lists the Top 50 Theme Park Influencers across the world, headlined by a Power 10 which include Thierry Coup head of Universal Creative, and Bob Iger CEO of Disney.
- WDW's Toy Story Land officially opened last weekend, and the opening few days were marked by early openings and very long queues. The wait times have started to lessen over the week, including times where the Tower of Terror queue was longer than Slinky Dog Dash. Expect this to be busy for some time.
- Construction has really ramped up on the new Forbidden Forrest ride, at Island's of Adventure in Orlando, with a number of people posting construction updates this week.
- A Florida man was hit by a stray bullet, during 4th of July Celebrations at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.