Water’s Edge Expansion Coming to Wild Adventures in 2025 with 3 New Rides!

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Water's Edge rendering from Wild Adventures
Water’s Edge (picture courtesy of Wild Adventures)

On September 9, 2024 Wild Adventures announced its new for 2025 expansion on the Water’s Edge area of the park. This picturesque area of the park will be reimagined to include 3 new rides, a new stage, new food options and a new animal habitats including a reptile house! It will also feature the park’s first Quiet Room for those with sensory sensitivities. The 3 new rides will include the relocation and refurbishment of the park’s Ferris wheel, a new kids bouncing boat parade flat ride and a new swing ride.

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Confirmation that Wild Surge at Busch Gardens Was Destroyed by Fire Back in 2022

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Fire damaged Wild Surge
Fire damaged Wild Surge (courtesy of r/iwilliam_2023)
Wild Surge ride at Busch Gardens
Undamaged Wild Surge

So back in 2023 I wrote about an encounter I had with a Busch Gardens ride operators at another theme park discussing the unexpected closure of the mini drop tower ride, Wild Surge, located in the Jungala area of the park. He told me Wild Surge was actually damaged by a fire in December 2022 and showed me pics on his phone of the damage to the ride. I finally tracked him down and got permission to share them here.

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Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia Closed Indefinitely While Skyline Works to Increase Reliability

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Kid Flash Roller Closed Sign at Six Flags Over Georgia
Kid Flash Roller Closed Sign at Six Flags Over Georgia
Kid Flash Roller Coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia
Kid Flash Roller Coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia

March 19, 2025 Update: The park has opened for the season and the ride is still standing, but not operating (SBNO). This is the same for Fiesta Texas. Although we haven’t yet seen a definitive public statement from the park, comments from employees, emails to guests and responses influencers all point to the imminent removal of these rides. It was surprising to still see it on the in park maps last week (which you could tell were updated as they included Georgia Gold Rusher). Ironically, also got an email from Skyline today still advertising the P’Sghetti Bowl coaster model for sale and listing SFOG as an install on its website along with a new similar looking, but potentially larger “TrailRunner” design.

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Labor Day Marks the End of the Season for Many Water Parks and Small Theme Parks

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Typical Theme Park Calendar Closed After Labor Day

The Tuesday after Labor Day is always a bit of a sad day as it marks the day many water parks and small Theme parks (especially in the north) are closed for the season. Although the end of summer is officially September 21st, Labor Day has traditionally marked the end of summer from a vacation perspective. More and more parks are holding Halloween and Christmas events and operating more days than ever, but for some this is the end of operations until sometime in 2025, especially water parks.

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Twizzlers Twisted Gravity at Hershey Park to Exceed Height of Serengeti Flyer at Busch Gardens

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Twizzlers Twisted Gravity
Twizzlers Twisted Gravity (https://www.hersheypark.com/)

In 2025 Hershey Park will be home to The World’s Largest Screamin’ Swing, taking the title from Busch Gardens. Twizzlers Twisted Gravity will be 137 feet tall, exceeding Serengeti Flyer‘s 135 foot height by 2 feet and at 68 mph its speed by 3 mph. This is probably a great example of the deals companies like S&S do with parks in giving them a “record breaking” attraction, but for a finite period of time before it is exceeded by something else. No doubt in 2026 or 2027 S&S will put a 139 foot Screamin’ Swing somewhere else. B&M has been similar with progressively steeper drops on their dive coasters. This is good business for everyone as having a record breaker is easy marketing for a park.

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How Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Resort Drew Inspiration From The Hyatt Regency Atlanta Hotel

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Disney Contemporary Resort
(Brian Kendig, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons (cropped))

As a kid I remember the Contemporary Resort near Magic Kingdom being iconic. It was the hotel you literally passed through as you took the monorail from the parking area to the Magic Kingdom. The Contemporary had a huge open atrium and the train literally drove through the building with a station inside. However, did you know that this large open atrium that is key to the amazing monorail views was actually inspired by The Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Atlanta?

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Review of the New Penguin Trek Roller Coaster at SeaWorld Orlando

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I found myself in Orlando for a quick business trip which gave me an evening to check out the New Penguin Trek at SeaWorld Orlando. Penguin Trek is a sit down launched family coaster by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M). It opened July 7, 2024 and is essentially a prototype, being the first B&M sit down family launch coaster. The ride is located in the Antarctica area of the park and replaces the Antarctica: Empire of the Penguins dark ride.

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Scorpion Roller Coaster at Busch Gardens to Close September 2, 2024

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Instagram post from Busch Gardens

In a surprising development Busch Gardens announced the impending closure of Scorpion on September 2, 2024. This cam out of nowhere and gives fans only about 10 days to enjoy “the sting of the Scorpion” one more time before closing forever. Thankfully though the announcement came with a promise that “new attractions “future thrills” would be announced shortly to take its place (get ready for the Giga rumors). Here is what the park wrote:

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The USPS Releases Carnival Nights Amusement Park Stamps

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Ferris wheel, roller coaster and fireworks on postage stamp

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has released an awesome series of amusement park stamps entitled Carnival Nights. These are first class forever postage stamps with 8 unique designs that were released on June 6, 2024. They feature swings, flat rides, a Ferris wheel, fireworks, a carousel and even a roller coaster in the corner of one. These would look great on Christmas cards, wedding invitations or birthday cards, so order online or head to your post office to get a sheet today.

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Korey Kiepert of The Gravity Group Does “Roller Coaster Support” for the WIRED Tech Support YouTube Video Series

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Korey Kiepert WIRED YouTube video

I’m a big fan of the WIRED “Tech Support” video series. The essence of the series is that they get an expert in a particular field to answer viewer questions about their area of expertise. I’ve seen everything including a mortician, an FBI agent, Penn Jillette talking magic, John Cena talking wrestling and now Korey Kiepert of The Gravity Group talking roller coasters!

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