A thought leader I follow named Gavin Adams recently wrote about what he calls “The Law of Diminishing Astonishment” which is a derivative of the “Law of Diminishing Returns”. The first line below, basically encapsulates the theory and, although Gavin’s target audience wasn’t theme parks (although he’d probably be a great speaker for them), he used one as an example:

No matter how great something is, over time, we stop seeing it as excellent. 

I’ve taken our family to Universal Studios in Orlando nearly every fall for a decade. I don’t know that our first trip was our best trip, but it was undoubtedly the most exhilarating. We just got back a few weeks ago from our annual trek, and we all felt the same way. It was fun, but I’m not sure we should return next year. 

Unless they have a new ride!

Why did we feel that? 

It’s the law of diminishing astonishment. 

Gavin Adams

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Camping was a big part of my childhood. In retrospect a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that my parents liked to vacation, but we didn’t have a lot of extra money for hotels and restaurants. It was always a bonus when the campground had an arcade, mini golf course or swimming area, but I couldn’t fathom my excitement if we had ever camped by a theme park. In Fall of this year people will have just that opportunity with the opening of Safari Campground at Wild Adventures!

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Update April 2025: The “all parks” benefit is here! By buying anything as low as the Gold Pass and then adding the All Park Passport (which could be $75 to $150 more depending on your park) you can visit all the parks of both legacy chains. It is more expensive than the old Diamond pass from Six Flags which included all their parks, but it’s also a lot more parks now with the addition of all the legacy Cedar Fair Parks.

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Busch Gardens Tampa is somewhat unique in that rather than being off of an interstate in an industrial or isolated area it’s basically in a neighborhood. There are hotels and businesses nearby, but you don’t have to go but a block from the park and there are whole neighborhoods and some houses are adjacent to the back of the tram parking lot. These houses are relatively affordable too (in today’s market) and a scan of Zillow near the park will show you a number of houses and commercial lots for sale nearby.

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In a recent investor call, SeaWorld CEO Marc Swanson brought up their plans to add a resort hotel in 2025 and another in 2026, but details were sparse. This has been rumored for some time, but it appears to be getting more serious. Here are some of his comments from the call:

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