Herschend and Parques Reunidos have signed a definitive agreement for Herschend to acquire all of Palace Entertainment’s U.S. entertainment properties from Parques Reunidos (official press release). This includes famous properties such as Pittsburgh’s Kennywood, Iowa’s Adventureland, the massive Noah’s Ark water park in Wisconsin and Lake Compounce, the oldest continuously-operating amusement park in North America. This transaction came a bit out of left field, but the Palace Entertainment parks do seem to be a perfect fit with the culture and personality of Herschend.

In addition to the theme parks and water parks there are family entertainment centers, campgrounds, and hotels for a total of 20 entertainment venues across 10 states. This will be coupled with notable Herschend venues such as Dollywood, Silver Dollar City, Wild Adventures and Kentucky Kingdom. It also allows Parques Reunidos to exit the American market and focus on their European parks.

As a fan of Herschend parks probably the most exciting thing for me are the additional benefits that could come with my current Wild Adventures membership. Although Herschend doesn’t have an “all parks” passport like you find with Six Flags or a Platinum pass with United Parks (SeaWorld/Busch Gardens), they do very generously give passholders a 50% discount to essentially all the sister properties. For me as a Wild Adventures PassHolder that’s gotten me into Dollywood and Kentucky Kingdom at half price this year. If that carries over to places like Kennywood it would be amazing or perhaps Herschend may use this to develop a national pass as well. It’s also worth noting that the 50% “sister property discount” is part of any standard Herschend pass where it’s often hundred of dollars additional to get multi-park access included with the other companies.

This is spectacular news and a sign of the continued growth and vitality of Herschend. They’ve also invested a ton in their existing parks recently with the promise of more in the future. I just visited the new Water’s Edge expansion at Wild Adventures this past weekend and it was amazing as it really pute the “theme” in theme park. Like most transactions of this size it will take some time for it to be completed, so probably not much will change with things like pass benefits, seasonal events or operations until 2026 or even 2027. Herschend is celebrating its 75 year anniversary with a bang and things are looking bright as these new properties should blend seamlessly with the current portfolio of Herschend properties for the start of the next 75 years.