There are a bunch of memes about accidentally stepping on LEGOS, but there is one woman who did quite intentionally to set a world record. Gabrielle Wall of New Zealand broke a world record for fastest 100 meter run barefoot on LEGO bricks in a time of 24.75 seconds. Gabrielle is a mom of two and may have accidentally stepped on a brick or two, but the track was made using over 600 pounds of LEGO bricks.
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The Platinum Season Pass at SeaWorld San Antonio has long been one of the best values in the theme park industry. The 2027 version still is a tremendous value, but a major change in the guest ticket redemption windows may have a big impact on some guests. Typically platinum season passholders receive 8 free guest tickets per season and that is still the case for 2027, but the change is in the redemption periods. Previously guests would essentially get two tickets every 4 months and both guest tickets could be used on the same day. However, for 2027 passholders will get one ticket every 2 months, eliminating the ability for passholders to bring multiple guests on the same day. This change appears to be uniform across the United Parks chain to include SeaWorld Orlando Platinum Pass, Busch Gardens Tampa Platinum Pass and others.
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Zamperla took home the Golden Ticket for Best Innovation of 2026 for its WingZ ride. The Golden Tickets are annual theme park awards presented by Amusement Today and widely considered the most prestigious awards in the the industry. WingZ is a 39-foot interactive swing-tower ride that Zamperla debuted at IAAPA 2025. WingZ offers passengers the ability to “Fly Like a Bird” by flapping their arms to make the gondola rise and fall as the central tower slowly rotates. In addition to the unique interactive feature, it’s designed to be fully accessible and has a specialized gondola that allows wheelchairs or scooters and is part of Zamperla’s ALL ACCESS and inclusive lineup of attractions. The ride was renamed of WingZ of Wonder and installed at Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio, Texas for the 2026 season. Morgan’s Wonderland is the world’s first ultra-accessible theme park, built to provide a fully inclusive environment where people of all ages and abilities can play together. WingZ is a perfect fit for the park.
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Earlier this year Six Flags sold several parks which are now under the management of Enchanted Parks. 2026 is a year of transition with many of them still using Six Flags names and branding while also honoring Six Flags season passes. However, this is expected to change as soon as the 2027 season as the parks will likely lose the ability to continue to use the 3rd party IP which Six Flags has licensed. This means Enchanted Parks will need to retheme their DC, Looney Toons and Peanuts rides and areas. For this article we’ll concentrate specifically on the children’s area where the legacy Six Flags parks have Looney Toons and the legacy Cedar Fair parks have Peanuts (Snoopy). This type of transition is actually somewhat common, for example SeaWorld San Antonio recently converted their Sesame Street area over to a SeaWorld Rescue Jr. theme. So it’s really not a question of if/how they’ll make the change, but more a question of what will they change to and when?
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Disney has increased the peak single day ticket price for Magic Kingdom $10 to $219 for the 2027 season. EPCOT has also crossed the $200 barrier going form $199 to $214 while Disney Studios and Animal Kingdom increased to $209 and $184 respectively. The $10 increase is unlikely to have many Disney fans canceling their vacations, but the $200 per person per day price had me thinking of the relative value of a single day at Magic Kingdom versus a whole season at another park or chain of parks. This isn’t to demean Disney World in any way, it’s awesome, we’re merely looking at what ~$200 gets you at different theme park options in the Southeast today:
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Fall is one of the best times of the year to visit a theme park with its cooler weather, great decorations and fantastic food. This year’s Great Pumpkin LumiNights at Wild Adventures is a perfect way to spend a fall day and it has something for everyone. Whether you like thrilling rides, great shows, animals, spectacular food or just amazing fall ambiance, Wild Adventures has it for you. We had a chance to visit Wild Adventures on Saturday, September 26th for the debut of the 2026 Great Pumpkin LumiNights event and our review couldn’t be more positive. Great weather was coupled with great flavors and good times for an excellent fall day with family.
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Busch Gardens Tampa is currently constructing the new water ride slated to replace Stanley Falls Flume and we may have some clues about its name and theme from a trademark application. In September 2026, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (the former company name its parent company United Parks often uses) filed a trademark application for “SIMBI RUSH“ specifically for amusement park rides and themed areas. The ride system has also been thought to be everything from a Mack rocking boat to a Mack water coaster to an Intamin launched flume, so there are a bunch of unknowns. We don’t even know for certain that the Simbi Rush trademark is tied to the project at Busch Gardens Tampa, but it sure does seem to fit. The park has teased that all will be revealed soon though! A lot of the conjecture has been on the ride system, but here are some possibilities with the theme based on the “Simbi Rush” filing:
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Dollywood has announced that NightFlight will be closed through October 2, 2026 for the park to continue to optimize their newest attraction. The closure was originally slated to start on Monday, September 28th, but instead started sooner than expected on Friday, September 25th per the park’s social media. This park is is a technological marvel, combining several types of ride technologies together. A past closure was related to the “table” which runs the flight simulator portion of the ride, but there’s no information as to what this closure is related to.
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Six Flags Over Georgia is home to a historic carousel and when they say historic they mean it as it was actually added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1995 (NRHP reference number 94001639). The carousel is named the Riverview Carousel and takes its name from Riverview Park in Chicago, Illinois where it operated from 1908 to 1967. That makes the carousel over 100 years old! The carousel was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC) and is one of only four 5-row carousels built by the company. The Riverview Carousel is one of only two surviving carousels still operating in that “5-wide” original configuration with the other one being the Prince Charming Regal Carousel at Magic Kingdom. The carousel opened at Six Flags Over Georgia for the 1972 season and has been a park staple for over 50 years. It now sits on “Carousel Hill” which is visible from many areas of the park.
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The DreamSong Theater is one of Dollywood’s premier live entertainment venues. However, it wasn’t always a music venue, but actually housed several iterations of a motion simulator ride. The attraction opened in 1996 and used seat movement synced to the films to create an immersive experience. The two films that were primarily played were first Thunder Road followed by Smoky Mountain Wilderness Adventure Ride with Polar Express interspersed during the holidays. The attraction closed in 2008 and the facility was then converted to a live performance theater that today is called the DreamSong Theater. Today the Dreamsong Theater is primarily home to the Heidi Parton’s Kin & Friends show. Heidi Parton is Dolly’s niece and the show largely serves as a tribute to Dolly. It features Heidi Parton along with her family and friends performing hit songs across a variety of genres and celebrating the Parton family gift of music. The recent addition of NightFlight has been applauded for giving Dollywood a much needed “all-weather” attraction, but years ago it actually had an indoor simulator ride.
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