October 1st - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

This week's Theme Park News:

• SeaWorld Orlando announced a new ride for 2024 - Penguin Trek. It will be the park's eighth roller coaster, a "snowmobile styled ride car” built by Bolliger & Mabillard.

• Sea World San Diego is getting a new jellyfish exhibit Jewels of the Sea: The Jellyfish Experience which will feature three galleries in which visitors can see various species, including Moon Jellyfish, Pacific Sea Nettles, Upside-Down Jellyfish, and Comb Jellies.

• SeaWorld San Antonio has confirmed its new Catapult Falls ride will not open this year as originally planned. The park yesterday announced that the launched flume coaster will open next spring.

• SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment this week filed a U.S. Trademark application for "Phoenix Rising” for “Entertainment in the nature of an amusement park ride.” Busch Gardens in Tampa used to have a Starship looper called Phoenix.

• Utah's Lagoon them park has opened a new interactive dark ride roller coaster hybrid called Primordial this week.

• In Japan government officials have announced plans for a new theme park on a former U.S. military base in Yokohama. Yokohama city government has selected Mitsubishi Estate to develop the project, with a goal to open in 2031. City planning documents project that the 127-acre theme park, tentatively called Kamiseya Park, will attract 12 million visitors a year when it debuts.

• IAAPA Expo Europe started this week in Vienna. At the expo, Zamperla revealed two new products. Magic Bikes XL and GoGo Bounze 8.4.

• Walt Disney world has announced hotel discounts for the first few months of 2024 up to 30%

• Disney also filed a number patent applications this week including one titled Systems and Methods for Transferring a Passenger Compartment Between Ride Systems Using Robotic Tool Changers and another one for a Procedural Animation Engine and Editor for Sample-Based Design of Stylized Walking Gaits for Bipedal Robots. 

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September 24th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News!

• The Walt Disney Company announced that it would nearly double its capital expenditures in its Disney Parks, Experiences and Products segment over the next 10 years compared with the previous 10. This would be 60 billion dollars based on their current 30 billion spend.

• Disney parks president Josh D’Amaro theorised that Frozen could have a presence at Disneyland resort when referencing all the ips the have to spare.

• Magic Kingdom cast members discovered a black bear next to the Rivers of America one morning this week, prompting Disney to keep the west side of the park closed past its scheduled opening time that day.

• At Disneyland the recently opened CenTOONial Park remains closed through October 22, after which Goofy's How-to-Play Yard will go down, with an expected return in early November. Apparently the soft artificial turf has not lived up to guest use and is being replaced.

• Legoland California is closing The Safari Trek ride one of its opening day attractions at the end of the month

• The owners of Spain's PortAventura World are looking to sell reportedly at an estimated price of 1 billion euros

• Universal has filed a patent application for an ambitious crowd control system that would give Universal the ability to direct individual visitors around their theme parks through the use of wireless devices through direct instructions.

• Georgia's Wild Adventures theme park has announced a new holiday event - Wild Adventures Christmas Wild & Bright. The event starts November 18 and continues on select dates through December 31 

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September 17th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

This week's Theme Park News:

• At Destination D23, EPCOT's new nighttime spectacular will be called "Luminous: The Symphony of Us" and will debut December 5. 

• Journey of Water Inspired by Moana got an official opening date of October 16

• The Hatbox Ghost got an ETA of late November at the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion.

• Star Tours will add Ahsoka in California, Florida, and France next year, 

• Also next year, a new Country Bears show - County Bear Musical Jamboree - will open at the Magic Kingdom.

• Soarin' Over California will return to EPCOT later this month for a limited run

• They released a concept image of the ride vehicle for the new Avengers Campus ride at Disney California Adventure, but no details

• Disney also discussed there are plans in the works to replace Dinoland USA in Animal Kingdom. They proposed it could be possible that maybe they might be considering A land devoted to Central and South America, which could house IP properties like Indiana Jones and Encanto. They also showed a Bluesky image about how that may possibly work.

• 2024 D23 Expo will run August 9 to 11 at the Anaheim Convention Center, following a kick-off event on August 8 at the Disneyland Resort. The event will also expand to the Honda Center for special shows during the event.

• This week Disneyland Resort has started alcohol sales inside Disneyland this week at 3 table service restaurants: River Belle Terrace, Carnation Cafe and Cafe Orleans.

• City of Anaheim released a Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report on the proposed DisneylandForward proposal, with the short of it being that less than significant effects on the local environment once constructed. Also called out existing restrictions for above ground outdoor roller coasters on the property. It now goes into a 45 day public consultation before being finalised.

• The refurbished Disneyland Hotel at the Disneyland Paris Resort will reopen January 25, 2024, with some pretty fancy themed suites. The royal suite themed to frozen is particularly impressive.

• Dollywood announced that Lightning Rod, will close for the season October 30. Over the winter, the park will replace the coaster's troubled launch with a high-speed chain lift.

• Merlin Entertainments has announced a long-term partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent. It has 3 parks in development in China.

• Disney has settled a lawsuit with former Magic Key holders over the use bill f the phrase “no block out dates” on their annual passes. Disneyland will pay a total of $9.5 million to plaintiffs and their attorneys. That will work out to a payment of $67.41 to each of the estimated 103,000-plus former Dream Key passholders represented in the case. 

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September 10th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

Here is this week's Theme Park News in a Nutshell:

• At Disneyland resort Tiana's Palace is now open for business in New Orleans Square.

• They have also kicked off their Halloween event Oogie Boogie Bash this week. Their Halloween celebrations includes several rude overlays including Haunted Mansion Holiday.

• Tokyo Disney Resort has this week announced it’s Christmas celebrations for this year, with an event called Disney Christmas running from the 8th of November up until the 25th of December this year. This includes special Christmas merchandise , decorations and their own ride overlays including their version of Haunted Mansion Holiday.

• Shanghai Disneyland has revealed details about its upcoming Zootopia land which will feature an all-new trackless dark ride called Zootopia: Hot Pursuit. This land will open at some point later this year.

• At Hong Kong Disneyland, we do have an official opening date for Arendelle: The world of Frozen. This new land will open on November 20th.

• The City of San Diego today filed a lawsuit against SeaWorld, seeking more than $12 million in what the city claims is rent owed by the Mission Bay theme park.

• At WDW, Give Kids the World Village, which hosts critically ill children and their families on Orlando vacations, is raffling off a Walt Disney World Magical Celebration Vacation Package for four, including a stay in the Cinderella Castle Suite inside Magic Kingdom. Tickets are available on their website. 

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.

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September 3rd - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 

 This week's Theme Park News

• Universal Orlando's 32nd Halloween Horror Nights, which opened Friday night, as the start of September marks the start of 2 months of Halloween celebrations around the US.
• On Thursday San Fransokyo Square opened at Disney California Adventure featuring an adorable Baymax meet and greet.
• Universal Orlando has reduced the number of musical choices that riders have on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster at Universal Studios Florida. The ride now features one song for each of 5 music Genres, which includes Abba for pop and My chemical romance for rock.
• Shanghai Disney Resort has broken ground on construction for its third on-site hotel.
• Several Florida park chains have been affected as Hurricane Idalia hit the Florida Coast.
• Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion will be getting a queue enhancement and a new exit gift shop in 2024.
• At WDW, Cast member previews for the new Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana walk-through at EPCOT have started are slated to continue through at least the first week of September. Look for a soft opening at some point this month.
• Two new coasters, two pendulum rides, and a rebuild of an historic flume ride lead Six Flags' 2024 attraction debuts