Silver Dollar City- Fireman's Landing Expansion for 2015

 'Fireman's Landing' is coming to Silver Dollar City, the 2015 Major Expansion.



 About an hour ago Silver Dollar City announced their big project for 2015, a major expansion to the park called 'Fireman's Landing'.

  It will encompass over two acres and will be themed towards an 'Old Time Volunteer Fireman Recruitment Fair'. While many of the attractions appear aimed towards kids, the themeing looking amazing and will add six new family rides as well as four interactive play zones. The park is billing this new area as "For Ages 3 to 93" and will be relocating their drop tower to this new area.

 Silver Dollar City expands more on their theme ideas by stating Fireman's Landing is "An ALL NEW area with rides and attractions for the whole family, Ages 3-93! Fireman's Landing harkens back to the days of bucket brigades and volunteer fireman with rides and attractions ready to train and entertain new recruits". 

The new attractions being added are the following-

1. Fire Spotter- Soaring Balloons for Spotting Fire Dangers
2. Fire Wagon Frenzy- A bumpy ride for Bucket Brigade Volunteers
3. FireFall- An 8 Story Fire Tower free-fall drop ride for the more daring recruits! (The parks current drop-tower is being relocated to this new area)

For the "Interactive" Areas, this is being called "Fire Station No. 3 Playplace" where guests can meet the park's newest Dalmatian 'recruit' and 'sign in' for three training activities!

4. Firefighter's Fire Drill- Featuring Buckets, Pumpers, Foam Ball Cannons and Targets for showering mock fires.
5. Firefighter's Fire Escape- An obstacle course of tubes, mazes, climbing structures and slides.
6. Firefighter's Junior Escape- A soft 'play area' for Toddlers

 In addition the next attractions are aimed at the smallest members of the family, completing the family experience of the area.

7. Fireman's Flyer- A low flying swing ride for little firefighters.
8. Up The Ladder- A smaller drop tower for your junior recruits.
9. The Roundaboat- A bouncing ride on Dalmatians racing around a fire hydrant.
10. Firehouse Splash Yard- Squirting Water Jets and Pump Hoses.

 The park goes on to close their big announcement with some history and how their tying in their whole 'Firefighter' theme into the park.

 Overall the new expansion looked to be well themed, well thought out and filling the need every theme parks has to entertain and provide enjoyment to the whole family. Including areas of family, kids and even toddlers who visit the park.  While there isn't an official opening date yet, the park states the area will be ready in 'Spring of 2015'.

 For more information, you can visit the website for Fireman's Landing- Just Click Here! 

Carowinds- New Area Announcement

Carowinds Park- New Area Announcement.

 On Friday, Carowinds Park finally told us what the huge open space around "Intimidator 305" will be used for- A New Area coming to the park.

  On Facebook, Carowinds announced that the new area and project are called "Harmony Hall Marketplace". The park is billing this area as a  both dining and entertainment use, including a new open-air food count with daily shows. Said to seat up to 500 people, this area will feature some of Cedar Fair's newest outside vendors such as: Chickie and Petes, Auntie Anne's and Chick-Fil-A. 

Seaworld Orlando- Mystery New Attaction?

 Seaworld Orlando- Mystery New Attraction?

 Rumor has it that Seaworld Orlando is up to something in the old Clydesdale viewing area beside the Hospitality House.

 Apparently the "Green Construction Walls" are up around the area which once housed the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale's. Many seem to believe this new construction could be part of the push to bring education back into the parks. With the rumor being this new area will be display area for the companies "Rescue and Rehabilitation" programs- showing what they do and their success stories.

 More information coming when it's announced.

Animal Kingdom- Avatarland Breaks Ground

Image from Disney Parks Blog

 Avatarland Breaks Ground at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

 With the official closing of Camp Minnie-Mickey attractions, Avatarland had it's first big day in the spotlight.

 On January 10th,  Disney Parks Blog posted up this image of their groundbreaking ceremony, with "Na'vi" themed shovels and some photoshop work on "Jake Sully" in his Avatar form to show a size reference. When in reality it was really Mickey Mouse who attended the groundbreaking ceremony. Disney didn't really leak much information about this new 'land' coming to the park.

Image from Orlando Sentential

The area, which is being designed by Walt Disney Imagineering in partnership with “AVATAR” creator James Cameron and Lightstorm Entertainment, will be unlike anything ever experienced at a Disney park. Guests will experience the wonders of Pandora when they fly with banshees and explore a rich natural environment with mountains that float and interactive plants that glow at night.

Currently no one is sure what attractions will be added into the "Avatarland" project.  However, with adding Avatarland to Animal Kingdom Disney is hoping that the park will become a full day experience and keep guests in the park longer. No word right now if this will expand the parks operating hours but between Avatarland and this addition of a new night-time show, it's very likely the park will finally buck it's standard 6pm closing time.

Rumor Alert- The Hunger Games.. In a Theme Park!?

The Hunger Games.. In a Theme Park?

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. 

Seriously?! This is a thing now?

 Apparently it did happen or so LionsGate has said. The CEO of LionsGates, John Feltheimer stated that the company is in talks about creating a theme park based on the successful franchise.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Feltheimer also said this little bit- "We have been approached in two different territories about potential theme park opportunities, which gives you a sense of the cultural impact of this franchise". 

 No word on what parks think this is a good idea or even what areas of the world they could pop up in. I'd be surprised if anything really comes from this. 

 Apparently Teens killing Teens for food makes for good theme park material now? I don't know, I have standards and won't see the movies so.. yeah, I got nothing here.

This little tidbit from: RTE 

Disney Hollywood Studios- Yup, Star Wars is Coming..

 Well outside of a massive press release, this is about as much conformation as we can get.

 On Sunday- November 10th Bob Iger, the talking-head in charge of the Walt Disney Company stated this bit to  Bloomberg.  "There is a fair amount of development going on at Disney Imagineering right now to expand the Star Wars Presence in Disneyland and Walt Disney World and eventually other Disney theme parks around the world".

 So what does this mean?

 Simply that Disney Hollywood Studios will change massively. In the past we've speculated about the topic of both Star Wars Land and a Cars Land coming to Hollywood Studios and we suspect we know where this will take place. However, without a full press release we can't tell you if we're right or not.  We also now believe this massive change will effect Disneyland also, although where they plan to stuff this in.. I can't tell you till March!

 Never Fear, I'll either find out or make my own guesses!

 It's an educated guessing game.  If you'd like to take a look into the past when we've talked about this topic, check this post from June: Rumor Alert- Star Wars Land coming to DHS?  Inside you'll find maps and various speculation about where I personally suspect the changes will happen.. but again, that's just my guess.

 My Early Guess- This will happen sometime near after the opening of the train wreck new movie in 2015. So likely Disneyland in 2016 and Disney World in 2017.

 Information from the cool folks over at Disney and More!

SeaWorld Orlando- Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin

 Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin is the newest attraction at Seaworld Orlando. It opened just this year on May 24th, 2013 to record crowds.

 The Penguins at the park had always been a fan favorite and many awaited anxiously to find out what would replace them. While other zoos across this country may boast about having a few penguins- No one really had the habitat size, breeding success or number of species that Seaworld Parks boast. So when the Orlando park decided to change their penguins, people got a little worried.

(Keep reading for the full story and report)

Universal Studios Orlando- Hogwarts Express Arrives

 This afternoon, Universal Orlando shared theme images to the world. The Lifting and Placement of the Hogwarts Express.

 Progress on the expansion of 'Wizarding World of Harry Potter' has made big progress today with the engine and cars of the 'Hogwart's Express' locomotive being placed onto it's raised track.

 The 'Hogwarts Express' will travel on a raise track between Universal Studios and Diagon Alley to the Islands of Adventure and Hogsmeade area.  Still no one is sure exactly how the ticketing for this will work as the 'Harry Potter' areas will now be split between the two parks.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter- Diagon Alley is scheduled to open in Spring 2014.




-All images from Universal Orlando's Facebook Page

BREAKING NEWS: Busch Gardens Williamsburg Expansion and New Attraction? UPDATE!

Busch Gardens Williamsburg will Expand and build a New Attraction in 2015.

Image from BGWFans

Today BGWFans found permit proof that Busch Gardens Williamsburg will be expanding the Festa Italia area and adding in a new attraction.

 The permit states the attraction will have a height of 156 feet with an approximate total elevation height of 242 feet.

Image from BGWFans

 They report this began almost two months ago when a "line of sight" test happened and lately lots of "ground marks" have been seen in the Festa Italia area. One member of BGWFans has even reported that soil tests have been taken from the area around Teatro di San Marco. However, this dosn't exactly explain what the park has in the work for the area.

 Most of the 'ground marks' are found surrounding where the teacups currently are plus ranging back to the entrance area of Apollo's Chariot and upwards towards Roman Rapids.  They believe this will put the highest area of the ride smack in the middle of the Clydesdale and Sheep paddocks which surround the area just outside of the Festa Italia train station.

While no one is currently sure what this may mean. Could Festa Italia be getting a complete re-theme to their area? Are we seeing the ground work for a new roller coaster coming to Busch Gardens Williamsburg?

We'll have to watch and see!
Please visit BGWFans for a more detailed explanation about this breaking news from Busch Gardens Williamsburg!  Because if something is going on, these are the people I look to for information!

UPDATE 10/10/13

BGWFans has located the full permit submitted to James County for the Busch Gardens Expansion! Please visit their website to read the full letters and view the images attached with it, it's way to much for me to try and break down or explain here! Once they've gone through it and broken it down completely, we'll post of the findings!
-Because really, I'm not good at translating these types of permits.