Author: printingddd

Stanley Falls Flume Ride at Busch Gardens to Close Forever September 7, 2025

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
img_4190

Stanley Falls at Busch Gardens will close on September 7, 2025 to make room for a future attraction according to announcements from the park on its website and social media.

After more than 50 years of splashes, smiles, and summer memories, Stanley Falls Flume® is taking its final plunge on September 7, 2025. As one of the original rides from the park’s opening in 1973, this classic has been a fan favorite for generations. This is your last chance to ride before we say goodbye and make way for an exciting new future attraction! Come relive the fun and help us celebrate a true Busch Gardens legend.

https://buschgardens.com/tampa/rides/stanley-falls/
Continue reading →

Spending National Roller Coaster Day 2025 at Lake Winnie Riding the Historic Cannon Ball Coaster

/ printingddd / Leave a comment

The Lake Winnepesaukah amusement park in Rossville, GA (affectionately known locally as “Lake Winnie“) is a beautiful park located on a 9 acre lake. The park is family owned celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and is filled with history, nostalgia and character. The park’s best known attraction is the Cannon Ball wooden roller coaster built in 1967. On National Roller Coaster Day 2025 on August 16th we felt like getting some rides on the park’s historic Cannon Ball coaster was a great way to celebrate.

Continue reading →

Norwegian Cruise Line Adding New Great Tides Water Park to its Private Island in 2026

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
Great Tides Waterpark rendering
Great Tides Waterpark (courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line)

If you’ve cruised the Caribbean with Norwegian Cruise Lines you’ve probably spent a day at Great Stirrup Cay, their private Island. These islands are a way for cruise lines to offer a port of call while keeping passengers nearly 100% in their ecosystem. It’s not all bad for guests though as things like meal plans and drink packages can often be used in facilities on land. These islands have some great amenities from beaches to zip lines, but in the summer of 2026 Norwegian will make a massive addition to their Island with the new Great Tides Waterpark.

Continue reading →

Disney’s Spaceship Earth Mickey Balloon Popcorn Bucket from EPCOT Can Teach Us a Lot About Math

/ printingddd / 1 Comment
Spaceship Earth Popcorn Bucket in front of Spaceship Earth (Picture from Karol Brinkley)

Popcorn buckets at Disney are a big deal and a good deal. The themed buckets look great and are highly collectible, but are also useful as a refillable popcorn container in the parks at a reduced price. Some of the standard refillable buckets are simple cylinders with printed graphics, but the premium refillable buckets border on works of art with some containing electronics and lights. There have been some amazing ones recently, with the popcorn bucket featuring the Imagination Pavilion and Figment from the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts getting a ton of buzz. However, the one that caught my eye was Spaceship Earth Mickey Balloon popcorn bucket. It of course looks great, but I got to thinking, what if the actual Spaceship Earth was a popcorn bucket?

Continue reading →

Radio DJ Breaks Record on Steel Curtain at Kennywood with 297 Inversions in 5 Hours!

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
Steel Curtain by Roller Coaster Philosophy, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Radio personality Bubba from 100.7 Star is the new record holder for most consecutive rides on Steel Curtain at Kennywood. Bubba rode 33 consecutive times over 5 hours which had him experience 297 inversions. Steel Curtain has 9 inversions across its course including the world’s tallest inversion, a 197 foot tall corkscrew. I remember riding Shockwave and its 7 inversions at Six Flags Great America several consecutive times years ago and I still felt like I was spinning in my bed that evening, so I can only imagine what Bubba experienced. Congrats to Bubba and to the park for a great promotional event.

Oklahoma Theme Park American Heartland Appears Cancelled After Investor Files Fraud Lawsuit Over “Text Messages From God”

/ printingddd / Leave a comment

American Heartland theme park in Northeastern Oklahoma. A new lawsuit claims that the park’s founders defrauded a 91-year-old man, Gene Bicknell, out of over $60 million in investments toward the park using text messages pretending to be from God. According to reports, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants “executed a predatory conspiracy of psychological manipulation” and obtained the investment by “convincing Bicknell, through fraud and impersonation, that God himself was commanding him”. American Heartland was to be a $2 billion world-class theme park and resort off Route 66 in Vinita, Oklahoma scheduled to open in 2028. However, the park’s website has gone dark (along with that of parent company Mansion Entertainment Group) and combined with the lawsuit it almost certainly marks the end of the development.

Continue reading →

Many Theme Parks Are Offering Scavenger Hunts to Increase Guest Engagement and Entertainment

/ printingddd / Leave a comment

Many theme parks seem to be incorporating a scavenger hunt into their potential experiences for guests with even Disney is in on the trend. Many parks have these now with some being permanent, others seasonal and some just for special days. Gamification can bring out the competitive nature of many people as they seek to complete tasks for a modest prize. While waiting in lines or walking around the park these games can provide extra engagement and enjoyment, often with a free souvenir at the end. They can be especially fun for regular guests, season passholders or guests visiting for several days who are looking to enjoy the atmosphere of the park more than rushing to try to ride every attraction.

Continue reading →

Get Your Engineering Cub Scout Adventure Loop at Fun Spot America Orlando with White Lightning!

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
Fun Spot America Logo
Scout in front of White Lightning sign at Fun Spot Orlando

Earning the Arrow of Light “Engineering” adventure loop can be one of the most fun and exciting activities in scouting and highly educational, especially increased focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Did you know that one of the recommended adventure activities in the cub scout handbook is to have scouts build their own roller coaster? A theme park is a great place for the scouts to explore and learn about engineering and Fun Spot America Orlando is a perfect real world laboratory for this adventure. Earning the “Engineering” Adventure Loop at Fun Spot Orlando is as simple as watching a few YouTube videos, discussing some questions, riding a roller coaster and participating in the park’s “build your own roller coaster” activity (or doing your own at your next den or pack meeting). This is essentially a prepackaged adventure that is sure to be memorable for scouts.

Continue reading →

New Theming and Story in the Lickskillet Area of Six Flags Over Georgia with Georgia Gold Rusher

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
LickSkillet Area of Six Flags Over Georgia
LickSkillet Area of Six Flags Over Georgia

There are amusement parks and theme parks with one merely being a collection of rides while the later uses decor, landscaping, attraction design and overall atmosphere to create a unifying theme throughout an area of a park or an entire park. Six Flags Over Georgia is not an amusement park, but a full fledged theme park. I would argue the park has at least two themed sections and the argument can be made for a couple more. The most obvious of these is the Gotham area of the park with all the rides pulled together by the Batman universe. However, potentially the most themed area of the park is LickSkillet area where food, rides, buildings and entertainment all come together to tell a cohesive story about the Gold rush times in Georgia.

Continue reading →

Top Gun Experience Coming to The STRAT in Las Vegas in 2028

/ printingddd / 1 Comment

The STRAT Hotel, Casino and Tower (formerly known as the Stratosphew), will be opening a Top Gun Las Vegas immersive entertainment experience in the summer of 2028. Not a lot of details are known yet, but there are several details out there that are very exciting. I mean I’m sure there are people who know more, but in the words of the movie, “It’s classified. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” We’ll litter several more Top Gun phrases throughout this article for fun too. Top Gun Las Vegas is to include rides, immersive storytelling and a sing-along bar all in tribute to the beloved films.

Continue reading →