Happy 80th Birthday Dolly Parton, Namesake of Dollywood and New IAAPA Hall of Fame Member

Dolly museum at Dollywood giant butterfly

On January 19th Dolly Parton celebrated her 80th birthday. Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, TN takes its name from Dolly and the theme park is jointly owned by Herschend Family Entertainment and Dolly Parton. The park was known by several other names previously, but this arrangement came about in 1986, marking 40 years of the park being known as Dollywood. Although she is famous for not riding the rides, Dolly’s fingerprints are all over the park and it even features museum areas about her music, career and wardrobe.

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There’s a Theme Park Right Next to the 2026 Super Bowl LX Stadium

Levi's Stadium in February 2016 prior to Super Bowl 50
Levi’s Stadium in February 2016 prior to Super Bowl 50

Super Bowl LX is scheduled for February 8, 2026 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the home of the San Francisco 49ers. This stadium is literally right next door to California’s Great America, a Six Flags park. When you’re watching the game on Super Bowl Sunday and you see some of the aerial shots of the stadium you might just catch a glimpse of a roller coaster, but the park will unfortunately be closed. Is this a lost opportunity for Six Flags? Perhaps, but even if the theme park gates are closed that weekend they’ll still make some money because of their parking lot. The park is also probably somewhat responsible for the buzz related to the neighboring electrical substation potentially contributing to player injuries due to its large power draw, but we’ll leave that one alone.

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Wild Adventures and Six Flags Over Georgia Are Great Examples of Theme Parks Doing Good for Their Local Community

Wild Adventures Wild & Bright

Wild Adventures in Valdosta, Georgia always seems to be doing things to help their local community. This continued last month with Wild Adventures collecting more than $12,000 worth of children’s toys for Toys for Tots. The toys were donated during Wild Adventures Christmas Wild & Bright in Nov. and Dec., when guests who brought a new, unwrapped toy valued at $10 or more could purchase a single-day admission ticket for $19.99. The park has also done food drives and teaching water safety. If we look at just the toy donation, if the average gift was $12 that means 1,000 kids in south Georgia had a better Christmas because of the actions of the park.

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When Will We See a Minecraft in a Merlin Theme Park?

Back in November of 2024 there was a lot of excitement about the announcement that Melin Entertainment (the company behind Legoland and Alton Towers) was going to be building Minecraft attractions. These immersive areas will be built in collaboration with Minecraft developer Mojang and be built in existing Merlin locations in 2026 or 2027 in a collaboraton named, “Adventures Made Real”. It’s now 2026 and the promo video says 2026, but there’s still no further news related to Minecraft. Also, the Merlin parks have mostly announced other new attractions for 2026 such as Legoland Florida/California getting the Galacticoaster, Alton Towers getting the Bluey Coaster and Lego Billund getting the Minifigure Speedway Coaster. Therefore it looks like 2027 will be the year of Minecraft.

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Georgia Theme Park Opening Days for 2026

Wild Adventures entrance plaza sign

Happy New Year! It’s now 2026 and parks in Georgia have begun announcing their opening date for the new year. Most parks (with the exception of Fun Spot Atlanta) close for a few months in the winter before reopening in spring. Six Flags Over Georgia actually just moved its opening date two weeks earlier than previously announced the March 14th! Here are the announced dates so far:

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Will SeaWorld and Busch Gardens End Ticket Fees?

If you’ve bought tickets or passes for SeaWorld or Busch Gardens online you may have noticed a service fee on top of the price and taxes. The fee is about 10% the website says it “covers costs such as credit card processing and fraud prevention”. This fee is part of a new lawsuit against United Parks & Resorts, Inc., parent company of SeaWorld Parks and Busch Gardens. The lawsuit accuses SeaWorld of using ‘bait-and-switch’ tactics by hiding extra fees until the final checkout stage of online ticket purchases, leading consumers to pay more than expected. 

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Splashville Water Park Coming to Bartow County in Cartersville, Georgia in May of 2026

Bartow County is getting a new water park in 2026 called Splashville. This apparent name was announced through it being featured on the Bartow County Parks & Recreation float during the Cartersville, Georgia Christmas parade. The water park construction has been underway for some time adjacent to the new indoor gym facility, but the name and May 2026 opening date were new. The name is a play on Cartersville where it is located in the Hamilton Crossing area of town. The water park is adjacent to the new Bartow County Gymnasium and Recreation center which opened January 16, 2026.

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Will Six Flags Keep the Exclusive DC Characters License or Will it Move to Universal?

DC Universe at Six Flags Fiesta Texas
DC Universe at Six Flags Fiesta Texas

It has been reported that Warner Bros. Discovery is considering licensing its DC characters to Universal. Six Flags currently holds exclusive theme park rights to DC Comics characters in theme parks, so the question is if the characters would potentially be found in both chain’s parks going forward or move exclusively to Universal. Warner Bros. currently license Harry Potter to Universal, so the two companies already have a track record of working together on theme park attractions. A DC license could also be seen as a replacement for the Marvel IP Universal still has in its park Disney now owning the rights to Marvel. Given the media merger landscape, we could see a major reshuffling of theme park IP in the coming years.

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Rides from Six Flags America Briefly Appear for sale on Used Ride Website

Screenshot fromAmusement-Rides.com showing rides from Six Flags America for sale
Screenshot fromAmusement-Rides.com

Three rides from the former Six Flags America park briefly appeared on the prominent used ride website Amusement-Rides.com. The rides included the park’s Zamperal NebulaZ SteamWhirler, its Zampera spinning coaster Ragin’ Cajun and its Zamperla Discovery Harley Quinn Spinsanity. The NebulaZ and Giant Discovery were especially surprising given they were nearly new and seemed likely to be relocated to another Six Flags park. The spinning coaster was a tad older, having originally come itself in a relocation from Six Flags Great America, but also was seen as likely to find a new home.

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Travis Kelce’s Investment in Six Flags Could be a Game Changer

Travis Kelce Mr. Six Flags Kansas City Chiefs Jersey
Travis Kelce Mr. Six Flags Kansas City Chiefs Jersey

Kasas City Chiefs tight end and Taylor Swift fiancé Travis Kelce is now a major investor in Six Flags. He has partnered with activist investor Jana Partners to take a 9% stake in the company. They plan to engage with the company’s board and management regarding opportunities to enhance shareholder value and improve the guest experience and the company seems willing to accept the help. Kelce was a fan of Cedar point as a child and wants future generations to have the same experience he did growing up.

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