We’ve written before about the exciting municipal water park coming to Bartow County and the flume slides have now arrived! Work continues at the Hamilton Crossing site with construction of the stairs and structure to support the flumes. The fumes themselves are staged at the perimeter of the park awaiting install and currently there is one enclosed and one open flume. Pictures here were taken on Sunday, February 22, 2026.
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It’s no secret that linear TV and cable subscriber numbers have been falling for years now, which is a drag on Comcast’s traditional cable TV business. What is perhaps newer for Comcast is a decline in broadband internet customers due to increased competition from fiber and home wireless 5G internet. Comcast revealed in its latest earnings report that it lost 104,000 internet customers and 257,000 cable TV customers during the third quarter of last year due to customer switching from increased competition. In the industry this is referred to as “churn” where customers switch from one service to another looking for better deals. One way to combat this is with loyalty programs (think airline miles or hotel points) where customers are rewarded for staying put. Comcast has ha such a program for some time, but has made some changes for the better and included some hefty theme park discounts the their Universal Orlando Resorts parks in Florida.
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Earlier in 2025 it was announced that Herschend was aquiring the US based assets of Palace Entertainment. This acquisition included famous properties such as Pittsburgh’s Kennywood, Iowa’s Adventureland, Noah’s Ark water park in Wisconsin Dells and Lake Compounce, the oldest continuously-operating amusement park in North America. It also included some smaller family entertainment centers including Malibu Norcross in Norcross, GA and Mountasia in Marietta, GA that we subsequently closed on September 28, 2025. Mountasia was specifically known for three mini golf courses, bumper boats and go-karts. I had a chance to drive by the now shuttered Mountasia and got some current pictures.
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It’s become a tradition for a representative of the winner of the Super Bowl to make a trip to Disney the following day and that continued with the Seattle Seahawks victory in Super Bowl 60. Quarterback Sam Darnold and Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III made the trip to Disneyland in Anaheim to celebrate their victory. There was a victory parade down Main Street, U.S.A and the pair also got to take in some rides including the famous tea cups! There’s also a really complex process that allows a TV commercial to be made about it on the fly as soon as the game ends.
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One of the highlights of the Super Bowl for many are the commercials. This year’s game was televised by NBC (owned by Comcast), so there were many nods to the Comcast group of businesses including Xfinity web service, the new Minions & Monsters movie and the Universal theme parks! The ad centers specifically around the Universal Orlando Resort and although every park was shown in some way, including Volcano Bay, the majority of the park shots were centered around Epic Universe and Stardust Racers.
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While wooden roller coasters generally cost less to build, they generally require more maintenance compared to steel coasters. A park generally wants to keep a wooden ride in good condition so to avoid customer complaints of the ride becoming uncomfortably rough and potentially even unsafe. A major wood coaster is going to be $5-$10 million while a major steel coaster is probably going to be between $10 – $25 million. However, with wooden roller coasters the maintenance is greater with reports of some requiring $500,000 annually and costly rebuilds of well over $1 million. So it’s the classic case of lower capital cost with higher operating cost with wooden coasters versus the inverse with steel coasters. For places like Dollywood, maintaining Lightning Rod and Thunderhead is just a part of doing business, but for places like Alabama’s Adventure, large annual maintenance costs on their wooden coaster Rampage are a tension they’re actively grappling with today.
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After years of rumors, Pokémon is finally coming to Universal theme parks. It was announced on January 22, 2026 that the Pokémon IP will debut in Japan, but is then “Universal Destinations & Experiences will deliver unique Pokémon experiences across the company’s global footprint”. There were no dates, rides or attractions announced and this is probably a couple years out in Japan and probably 2029 or later in the United States. The release was very simple and vague, but it got the point across that Pokémon is coming!
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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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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 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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BGT Safari 