On Friday, October 16, 2026 Hershey Park announced the reopening of their B&M Hyper Candymonium. It had been shutdown since the tragic incident with the similarly designed Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia like other B&M Hyper and Giga roller coasters nationwide with the “clamshell” restraint. However, what was most telling and newsworthy was the press release. It stated, “We also consulted with the ride’s manufacturer. Based on the information presently available, the manufacturer has not identified an engineering basis to recommend shutting down similarly designed coasters solely because of the incident in Georgia.” Here’s the complete release.

Incredibly sad news out of Six Flags Over Georgia as it’s being reported one man was killed after being ejected from Goliath, the B&M hyper coaster. Many news outlets have posted pictures of people being evacuated from the lift hill, but insiders I know said the incident was actually on the bunny hills on the return. The next train was stopped on the lift and they thus needed evacuate people there. The details I heard sound horrific though and appear to have been captured by the ride camera, but I’ll spare all the details. We have zero idea the cause of the incident at this point, but generally it’s between mechanical failure, control system failure, poor maintenance, ride operations error (either overriding a safety system or allowing someone to ride who shouldn’t) or rider behavior. Early reports are often wrong (see the Stardust Racers incident earlier this year). Initial attention has been placed on the restraint since there was an ejection. B&M has a patent on their clamshell restraint and I wanted to provide some technical information about it here.

Fast and Furious Hollywood Drift at Universal Studios Florida has a car on the track and has been conducting “pull-through” and “envelope” testing. The train started Saturday morning October 10, 2026 at the base of the spike and ended the day suspended high on the spike. You can see clearly the “envelope” testing apparatus which is meant to mimic the distance rider extremities could possibly reach to test for safety and clearance around the vehicle. The “pull-through” test is a way to winch a train through the course to ensure smooth travel across the tracks. With the train left where it was it appears either the team just quit right there for the day or thought it would be a fun place to leave it for guests to see.

On Friday, October 9th, 2026 Universal Orlando made a quiet change to its “park hours” page where it also displays current and scheduled ride closures. The reopening of Jurassic Park River Adventure was delay out a month until December 17, 2026. The ride has been down since January 5, 2026 and was originally slated to reopen November 20, 2026. The ride is a “people eater” with a massive capacity of 3,000 riders/hour, so when another major attraction at Universal’s Islands of Adventures goes down (like Hagrid’s or Velocicoaster), there’s not many places to put the overflow. No doubt the park certainly wants this ride back as soon as possible and the renovations must be taking slightly longer than originally anticipated. Maybe it may even open sooner as the ride was actually seen testing on October 14, 2026.

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.

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: