August 18th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

- Australia’s first and last tourist monorail has now been closed at SeaWorld on the Gold Coast. The monorail has been standing but not operating 2019. It opened in 1986, and closes after 330, 000 laps of the park.

- Disney Parks confirmed that the new Cars attractions announced at D23, will be located in Magic Kingdom will be replacing Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America.

 - At Walt Disney World the Peter Pan's Flight ride has re-opened early from it's maintenance, and it has replaced the scene featuring the Never Land Tribe to use less racist stereotypes.

- At Disney California Adventure,  a new show called "The Storytellers of Plaza de la Familia Celebrate The Musical World of Coco!" will debut August 30.

- The 2023 Theme Index Report was released with the top 3 parks being Magic Kingdom, Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan.

- Six Flags announced two new coasters for the 2025 season. Six Flags Great America, north of Chicago, will introduce Wrath of Rakshasa, a Bolliger & Mabillard Custom Narrow Dive Coaster. At Six Flags New England, the Massachusetts park will welcome Quantum Accelerator, an Intamin family launch coaster will feature two launches, sending riders to a top speed of 45 mph on its 2,604 feet of track. 

- They also delayed The Flash: Vertical Velocity at Six Flags Great Adventure and Georgia Surfer at Six Flags Over Georgia.

- Six flags has released concept art of their Halloween Fright Fest event for the Conjuring Universe house. It will feature a tour of the Warren's family Occult Museum.

-The menus have been released for the 2024 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, which starts August 29 and continues through November 23.  You can see the line-up of returning menu items as well on Disney's website. 

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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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August 11th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

- The D23 Parks Panel, named Horizons, has just been completed. Here are there "Non-blue sky" announcements:

- Avatar experience based on the sequel films to DCA.

- Coco ride coming to Disney California Adventure.

- Disney Starlight nighttime Spectacular for Magic Kingdom in 2025

- Frozen land to open in Paris 2026

- Lion King land also coming to Disney Adventure World

- Walt Disney A magic life coming to Main Street Opera House

- All new Indiana Jones and Encanto Rides coming to Tropical Americas.

- Tiana's Bayou Adventure to open November 15th at Disneyland.

- New lounges for Epcot and Magic Kingdom

- Monster's Inc land for Hollywood Studios including Door coaster.

- Cars replacing part of frontier land at Magic Kingdom with two new rides.

- Two new attractions for Avengers Campus at DCA.

- Villains land with two major attractions coming to Magic Kingdom.

- Disney also did some financial reporting ahead of D23 this week, with reporting that it's theme parks division brought in $5.82 billion at its U.S. theme parks during the period, plus another $1.6 billion from its international parks. Due to Higher coast though, the US parks had a decline in operating income, which was down 6%, to $1.347 billion for the quarter.

- Universal Studios Hollywood have finished their house line-up for this year's Halloween Horror Night, with a featuring musician The Weeknd, called The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy. They also confirmed this week that the Terror Tram will return this year with the theme Enter the Blumhouse, featuring characters from M3GAN, The Black Phone, Freaky, The Purge, and Happy Death Day. They will also be bring back The Purge: Dangerous Waters show in the WaterWorld theater.

- Universal Studios Hollywood also announced this week that it has added Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge to the list of attractions eligible for its Universal Express pass

- Canada's Wonderland will open the longest, tallest, and fastest launch coaster in Canada next year, called AlpenFury. The Premier Rides coaster will feature 9 inversions, the most of any launch coaster in North America, and will be 115 km/h  along 1 KM of track, with a 50 metres tall.

- Carowinds is planning a Camp Snoopy Expansion in 2025. They plan to add an ART Engineering family launch coaster call Snoopy's Racing Railway, similar to the one that opened at Canada's Wonderland last year. They will also b adding a Splash Battle ride call Charlie Brown's River Raft Blast.

-  Reuters reports that a private equity firm behind Parques Reunidos, EQT, has enlisted JP Morgan to conduct a review of the Spanish theme park operator that could result in a sale of its US assets. Parques Reunidos's US assets are held by Palace Entertainment and include Kennywood, Lake Compounce, Iowa's Adventureland, Southern California's Castle Park and Raging Waters and the Noah's Ark Water Park in the Wisconsin Dells. Reuters cited a source that the Palace Entertainment properties could be valued at 1 billion Euro.

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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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August 4th - Theme Park News in a Nutshell

 This week's Theme Park News:

- Universal Hollywood have announced they will open a new Hello Kitty and Friends Cafe and Sanrio Smile Shop at Universal CityWalk.

- Hollywood also announced another house for this year's Halloween Horror Nights, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface, and one more scare zone called Luchadores Monstruosos.

- Universal Orlando this week confirmed details about the last land at its Epic Universe theme park: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. The main attraction in the land will be Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. Epic Universe's land will be set in 1920s Paris from the "Fantastic Beasts" films, while it's major attraction will be in the British Ministry in London in the modern day, for the trial of Dolores Umbridge. The land will also host Epic Universe's largest live show, the Le Cirque Arcanus, which is inspired by the Fantastic Beasts movies. The land will host a couple of French eating spots, and American Bar as well as a Butterbeer cart.

- Universal Singapore have reported the first details of it's upcoming Minion Land which will debut in 2025. It will include a minion's theme Super Silly Fun Land, as well as Gru's Neighborhood, which will feature another installation of the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem attraction. This land is replacing the Madagascar themed land and dark ride.

- Disneyland's union workers have ratified the contract that had tentative agreement last week.

- Britain's Drayton Manor has opened its new Intamin family coaster, Gold Rush.

- The newly merged Six Flags parks, are reporting that from next year you will be able to by an All Park Passport add-on to their annual pass, which will over all parks from the former Cedar Fair and Six Flags theme park chains.

- Cedar Point announced it will close its Snake River Falls log flume on September 3rd. The Arrow Dynamics shoot-the-chutes ride opened as the world's tallest, steepest, and fastest water flume ride in 1993. It takes riders 82 feet in the air for a 50-degree plunge at 40 mph.

- Kings Dominion announced its new roller coaster for 2025 - Rapterra, a 145 feet tall and 3,086 feet long wing coaster.

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