A connoisseur's view of theme parks
Archive for December, 2009
Carowinds newest coasters’ track is completed
Dec 25th
Carowinds Connection has posted pictures of the last piece of track for the new Intimidator roller coaster being put into place on Dec 22. This is a great Christmas present for everyone who frequents this park.
Roy Disney dies
Dec 18th
Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney, died Wednesday at the age of 79. He was the last member of the Disney family to work at Disney.
Cedar Fair being bought out
Dec 17th
Cedar Fair announced that it is being purchased by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management. The transaction is worth around 2.4 billion.
Cedar Fair has been struggling with some debt after the purchase of the former Paramount Parks, to the point of selling land near their canadian theme park, so this isn’t a total surprise. It looks like purchasing the Paramount parks just gave them too much debt for when the economy went south.
Demon Drop gets a new home
Dec 4th
Knott’s Berry Farm won’t be getting the Demon Drop ride from Cedar Point. Instead, the ride will find a new home at Dorney Park. They will keep the name and logo, but the colors may be updated when it gets to it’s new home.
Seaworld in Google Street View
Dec 3rd
You can now view SeaWorld from the comfort of your home via Google Street View. Busch Gardens is coming soon, but for now you’ll have to make do with a virtual tour of the Sea World parks in San Antonio, San Diego, and Orlando, as well as Aquatica and Discovery Cove in Orlando.
Carowinds – New for 2010
Dec 2nd
Carowindsconnection.com has posted new photos of Intimidator taken over the holiday weekend. Most of the track looks to be complete and it is visible from miles away on I-77.
Busch Gardens changes name
Dec 1st
Now that Blackstone has officially purchased the Anheiser Busch Theme parks, they have changed their name to “Seaworld Parks & Entertainment.“ They are saying that at the moment nothing else will change. I guess since Seaworld has the highest attendance figures and Busch Gardens is based on another company’s name it makes sense to go towards seaworld. It’s just odd if they end up renaming Busch Gardens since they don’t really have much in the way of marine animals at those parks.
Don’t mess with the mouse
Dec 1st
When will people ever learn? I doubt they will, but here’s another example of why they should. A German tourist was arrested on Sunday after telling a worker that he had two bombs in his bag. When the worker asked him what he said, he repeated that there were two bombs in his bag. Needless to say, he didn’t make it into Disney World that day.