Could a Jurassic World Makeover be coming to Islands of Adventure?

Could a 'Jurassic World' makeover being coming to Universal Orlando?

Rumors have been flying lately about Universal Orlando finally getting a much needed update to their Jurassic Park area. Lately, these have been heating up and Comcast may have even let it slip! So we're here to poke deeper into these rumors and see what we can dig up.. pun intended!



Ever since the first Jurassic World movie hit theaters, fans have been wondering and speculating if Universal Orlando will finally update the Jurassic Park area located in Islands of Adventure. While excellently themed, it's been needing an update for several years now.  On January 24th during a conference call, Comcast made the 'accidental' comment about 'Jurassic World ATTRACTIONS' we're coming to the US Parks.

ATTRACTIONS. Plural. More than one!

D23 and Epcot- Oh my!

 "Oh my.." Because honestly folks, I don't have a clue what to say about this much less react. 

Epcot is finally getting some love and a much needed influx of money for Disney. Mostly to bring the park 'up to snuff' for the 50th anniversary happening in 2021, which leaves me feeling very conflicted.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Announces Park's First Wooden Coaster for 2017

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has announced that in 2017, a brand new coaster will be coming to the park. This time, the park's first ever wooden coaster! Yep, that's right...at long last there will be a woodie within the confines of BGW.

There's not a ton of details out about this one just yet, as 2017 is a bit far off, but we do know that the coaster, built by Great Coasters International, will feature a few different elements and we know it's top speed. After a 74ft drop, riders will hit speeds of 48mph and will have 9 air time hills as trains cover over 2100ft of track. Sounds tame, but remember, some of the best coasters in the world aren't the fastest either.

Outside of that, the coaster will be going in the New France section of the park and will be themed around the idea of a Viking invasion where the settlers of New France will have to defend themselves against the invading hordes. Definitely going to be interesting to see just how that plays out with theming and other ride elements. 

Speaking of that, one of the more interesting things about this is that Busch Gardens Williamsburg is involving park goers and coaster fanatics alike to help with the decision making process. Yep, you heard that right. Not only is the name of the new coaster up for a vote right now, you can vote once a day here, but they're also going to be letting everyone vote on certain elements of the ride and theming as well!

And that's about all there is at the moment. Be sure to stick around as we'll definitely be covering the developments of this all throughout the progress, and check out the full trailer for the ride below!

Disney Announces Toy Story Land for Disney Hollywood Studios at Disney World

This is another one of those things that's been long since rumored to be coming to Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Well, today, those rumors can be put to rest as during the Parks & Resorts Panel at the annual D23 Expo, Disney finally unveiled their plans for Toy Story Land. This, along with the earlier announcement of the all new Star Wars Land also coming to Hollywood Studios means that a lot of the park will be changing over the next few years.

As you can, from the concept art, there's a ton of things going on in there. Some rides are going to get improved, such as a third track being added to Toy Story Mania to improve capacity and also a few new rides and experiences as well.

One of those being, The Little Green Men Flying Saucers. It's a spinner ride, but with a little extra twist as "The Claw" will decide who stays and who goes. Sounds pretty interesting there, but without seeing anything specific, can't be sure what that means.

Slinky Dog Coaster Concept Art

The larger, and dominating feature of the concept art is what will be the Slinky Dog Coaster. Yep, that's right, you get to take a ride on on Slink. Not really sure just what exactly they have planned for this one but it appears that riders will be inside Slinky Dog as they twist and turn through various sections of the park.

Again, we're going to have to wait for more details on this one, but adding a slightly more kid friendly coaster to Hollywood Studios isn't entirely a bad idea at first glance.

So far, that's all that was told about new Toy Story Land expansion project at Disney Hollywood Studios, but you can be sure there's going to be a ton of info coming as we get closer to an opening date. Speaking of that, no clue when that is either. So, stay tuned as more details come out from Disney at this year's D23 Expo and beyond!

Universal Orlando Announces New Water Park, Volcano Bay Opening in 2017!

Tons of news out of Central Florida this week and Universal isn't going to sit back and let everyone else have all the fun. It's been rumored and speculated for a very long time, and finally, Universal Orlando Resort has officially revealed the plans for their first ever water park, Volcano Bay!

This new addition will be located just south of Cabana Bay, and while we're a little light on details, the folks at Universal are promising to redefine the water experience for their guests.

No clue what that means, but the concept art definitely makes a statement, no way around that one! From the looks of it, we have a high speed slide that comes out from somewhere inside the central volcano, a wave pool, a kids area, a few tube slides around the backside of the volcano itself and, if you look closely enough, there's another side inside volcano as well!

According to the announcement, Volcano Bay will feature a little something for everyone throughout it's sprawling tropical theme.

The park will feel as if it is set in picture-perfect tropical islands, formed by a massive volcano – and it will have something for every member of the family. It will feature radically-innovative attractions, peaceful moments of relaxation and an experience that we hope will change the way guests think about water theme parks.

I'm sure that more details will emerge as they've already broken ground on the park and we've got a long way to go until that 2017 opening date.

So, stay tuned right here for more info out of Universal Orlando and their newest addition, Volcano Bay. Also, don't forget to follow along with us on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr and Facebook for all the latest as well!

Nintendo and Universal Announce Partnership for Theme Park Attractions!

Nintendo and Universal have announced, what on the surface, appears to be a monster partnership today. Talk about completely out of left field with this one, but the possibilities are endless!

In the deal, Universal Studios theme parks around the world will be working with Nintendo to bring some of the most iconic and loved video game characters and worlds to life in the form of new attractions. Just what they'll be is anyone's guess, but you can get they're going to be extremely interesting given Universal's recent history with new rides.

“Nintendo has created remarkable and imaginative worlds filled with captivating stories and beloved characters. Now, for the first time, those stories and characters will be brought to life in entirely new ways – only at Universal theme parks.” a press release said.

There's not really much else to go on with this one, other than that and we don't know if this deal is only for Universal's parks in Singapore and Japan, but seems unlikely they'd limit it to just those two given the scope of Nintendo's popularity in the US as well. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, is slated to talk with investors in a conference call later today so perhaps a bit more information will be given on this then. If not, we'll just have to wait for the official release from Universal and Nintendo about just what all this is about.

That said, what properties would you like to see Nintendo and Universal bring to life? Legend of Zelda? Mario? Metroid? There's literally too many to list here so definitely let us know what you'd love to see in the comments!

For now, stay tuned as we'll be updating this one as soon as new info comes out and of course, follow along with us on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr and Facebook for all the latest!

via +Fangirl Review 

Kentucky Kingdom- 2015 Expansion/Reopening List.

Kentucky Kingdom Announces the 2015 Expansion/Re-Opening Rides list.

 It's well known that Kentucky Kingdom has struggled to re-build a park left in neglect and nearly ruin from when Six Flags abandoned it.  While they did re-open in 2014, it wasn't with a full amusement park at their disposal. The clean-up and re-building has taken some time but each season more is getting done!

 For 2015, Kentucky Kingdom has announced that they will re-open 'Raging Rapids Ride', the roller coaster 'T2' which will now be renamed 'T3' as well as the 5,000 seat Amphitheater. While to some this may not seem like much, it's a big step in the right direction for this park. 

Expansion Plans Revealed as Waldameer's 2015 Wave Pool Project Gets One Step Closer

In article from GoErie.com, the details behind the anticipated 2015 expansion of Waldameer Water World's water park are finally out there.

We knew that they were working on the wave pool for next year, but now we have the location and other information surrounding this massive project as well!

The $10 million expansion will include a new food concession building, a new restroom facility (including family restrooms), more ticket booths, new lockers for the water park and even the purchase of 1,000+ lounge chairs for the wave pool and eating areas.

So, where's this all going and what else is planned? Well, as you can see by the image on the left, there's quite a bit of change that's coming. For starters, the parking lot will be expanded to include a former cottage area and mobile home park to the Southeast. This is necessary due to the placement of the wave pool, restrooms and new restaurant.

Also pictured where 8 of the 16 new ticket booths will be located. Part of the plan is for a brand new entrance to the park to be constructed as well. The other 8 will go at the West parking lot entrance.

Additionally, further expansion will be made possible by the laying of new water lines and there's the hint a kids play structure in the park's future as well. Interestingly enough, they also announced that the park will be open 7 days a week in 2015, instead of it's current Tuesday-Sunday operation schedule.

So, while construction hasn't started yet, the process is sure to be approved by the Millcreek supervisors as the Millcreek Planning Commission has recommended the approval for the expansion.

"It's the first step in the process of getting approval to begin our water park expansion, so we're very excited," said Steve Gorman, the park's president, referring to the planning commission recommendation. "We're excited and pleased that they agree with our plan," he said.

Here's to hoping that things go smoothly in the next phase for Waldameer and that construction goes off without a hitch as well! We recently visited Waldameer as part of our Pennsylvania Small Parks Tour in July, if you're curious of what we thought, check out our review of the park here!

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! 

Legoland Florida- Re-Opening Parts of Cypress Gardens

Image from Attractions Magazine

Legoland Florida Re-Opens Parts of Cypress Gardens.

 Confirmed today by Attractions Magazine's Twitter Feed, Legoland Florida indeed held a ceremony to re-open parks of the old "Cypress Gardens" park.

 For this one day only, the famous "Southern Belles" returned to the park to mark the revival of Florida's first amusement park. With this the "Florida Shaped Pool" has re-opened as well as older parts of the gardens and the Oriental Gardens. It's wonderful to see that Legoland remembers the historical value of this previous attraction and more so that they're preserving part of it for future generations to remember and enjoy!

Six Flags America- 2014 Plans Leaked?

Whoops!

Not sure if this was suppose to have a big announcement for Six Flags or not but the cat is out of the bag when it comes to Six Flag's America's 2014 additions.

If the spy network over at Screamscape is to be believed, today new signs went up at Six Flags America, located in Upper Malboro, Maryland today.  These new signs proclaim that the new area will be themed "Mardi Gras" which to my odd mind, doesn't send the best idea considering the state they left their park "Six Flags New Orleans" in after Hurricane Katrina (it left a lot of bad feelings for SF to many people).

The new area is going to play host to 2 new rides, including the moved 'Ragin' Cajun' which I believe, will be coming from it's sister park Six Flags Great America. The second of the two rides is rather a surprise, a new Flyer called "French Quarter Flyers" will be placed in the park.

This is the second new flyer announced in as many days. I'm very pleased to see these classic attractions returning to parks rather then being removed!




More Sign Images Below!