florida

Stanley Falls Flume Ride at Busch Gardens to Close Forever September 7, 2025

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
img_4190

Stanley Falls at Busch Gardens will close on September 7, 2025 to make room for a future attraction according to announcements from the park on its website and social media.

After more than 50 years of splashes, smiles, and summer memories, Stanley Falls Flume® is taking its final plunge on September 7, 2025. As one of the original rides from the park’s opening in 1973, this classic has been a fan favorite for generations. This is your last chance to ride before we say goodbye and make way for an exciting new future attraction! Come relive the fun and help us celebrate a true Busch Gardens legend.

https://buschgardens.com/tampa/rides/stanley-falls/
Continue reading →

Disney’s Spaceship Earth Mickey Balloon Popcorn Bucket from EPCOT Can Teach Us a Lot About Math

/ printingddd / 1 Comment
Spaceship Earth Popcorn Bucket in front of Spaceship Earth (Picture from Karol Brinkley)

Popcorn buckets at Disney are a big deal and a good deal. The themed buckets look great and are highly collectible, but are also useful as a refillable popcorn container in the parks at a reduced price. Some of the standard refillable buckets are simple cylinders with printed graphics, but the premium refillable buckets border on works of art with some containing electronics and lights. There have been some amazing ones recently, with the popcorn bucket featuring the Imagination Pavilion and Figment from the 2024 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts getting a ton of buzz. However, the one that caught my eye was Spaceship Earth Mickey Balloon popcorn bucket. It of course looks great, but I got to thinking, what if the actual Spaceship Earth was a popcorn bucket?

Continue reading →

Many Theme Parks Are Offering Scavenger Hunts to Increase Guest Engagement and Entertainment

/ printingddd / Leave a comment

Many theme parks seem to be incorporating a scavenger hunt into their potential experiences for guests with even Disney is in on the trend. Many parks have these now with some being permanent, others seasonal and some just for special days. Gamification can bring out the competitive nature of many people as they seek to complete tasks for a modest prize. While waiting in lines or walking around the park these games can provide extra engagement and enjoyment, often with a free souvenir at the end. They can be especially fun for regular guests, season passholders or guests visiting for several days who are looking to enjoy the atmosphere of the park more than rushing to try to ride every attraction.

Continue reading →

Get Your Engineering Cub Scout Adventure Loop at Fun Spot America Orlando with White Lightning!

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
Fun Spot America Logo
Scout in front of White Lightning sign at Fun Spot Orlando

Earning the Arrow of Light “Engineering” adventure loop can be one of the most fun and exciting activities in scouting and highly educational, especially increased focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Did you know that one of the recommended adventure activities in the cub scout handbook is to have scouts build their own roller coaster? A theme park is a great place for the scouts to explore and learn about engineering and Fun Spot America Orlando is a perfect real world laboratory for this adventure. Earning the “Engineering” Adventure Loop at Fun Spot Orlando is as simple as watching a few YouTube videos, discussing some questions, riding a roller coaster and participating in the park’s “build your own roller coaster” activity (or doing your own at your next den or pack meeting). This is essentially a prepackaged adventure that is sure to be memorable for scouts.

Continue reading →

Wild Oasis at Busch Gardens is Now Open!

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
Entrance to Wild Oasis at Busch Gardens
Entrance to Wild Oasis at Busch Gardens (Courtesty of @SaxOnTracks)

Wild Oasis opened to the public on July 15, 2025 after a couple of delays, but appears to be worth the wait. This isn’t just a ride, but a whole new area or realm of the park located in Jungala. This area contains a family drop tower ride, climbing area, splash pad, interactive elements and a new animal habitat including Capybaras! I want to give a HUGE shout-out to @SaxOnTracks for the images in this article from the grand opening festivities, he’s a great follow for the latest happenings at Busch Gardens.

Continue reading →

Review of Island H20: A Wonderful Water Park Day!

/ printingddd / 2 Comments
Island H2O Sign

Island H2O is the Orlando areas newest water park located just south and adjacent to Walt Disney World in Kissimmee, Florida.  It combines family fun with technology using an internet and social media theme with attractions like Follow Me Falls, Reply Racers, Chat Creek and Live! Lagoon. Island H2O isn’t the largest water park, but it essentially has one of everything you could want in a water park in a great layout and manageable size. Each of the slides and attractions it has are well done and sincerely great versions of that type of slide or flume. Island H2O is very much a quality over quantity approach to a water park with excellence at every point from the food to the staff.

Continue reading →

Rivers of America at Disney’s Magic Kingdom Closes Forever to Make Room for Piston Peak National Park

/ printingddd / 1 Comment
Steamboat riverboat on Rivers of America at Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom
Rivers of America (Photo by Matt Brinkley)

On on July 6 2025 Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom closed Forever to make room for “Cars Land” and specifically what is being called Piston Peak National Park. Rivers of America have been part of Frontierland and Liberty Square since 1971 when the park opened, but the Liberty Belle steamboat and Tom Sawyer Island were actually added in 1973. This has long been known as a scenic and relaxing area of the park. This area is now being reimagined into a Cars themed land with a ride similar to the Radiator Springs Racers, a high-speed ride at Disney’s California Adventure. However, this is not a carbon copy of the California attraction located in the desert town of the first movie, but instead it will be an off-road adventure in a mountain and water-filled National Park.

Continue reading →

No More Virtual Queues at Disney World!

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
Standby at Haunted Mansion at Disney Magic Kingdom
Lightning Lane at Haunted Mansion at Disney Magic Kingdom

It was announced earlier this year that Disney World’s Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind would cease using the virtual queue system on February 25, 2025. This followed a similar previous announcement in September 2024 for Tron Lightcycle Run. This means there are currently no rides at Disney World using virtual queue for the first time in years and every attraction will have standby lines available. It also ends the stress for many of waking up at before 7am on the morning of a Disney vacation and feverishly hitting the refresh button to try to get a boarding group to ride the lastest Walt Disney World rides sometime that day without paying extra. Virtual Queue was the only “free” way to ride without paying for a Lightning Lane Single Pass, which could cost $100 or more for a family on top of a regular Lightning Lane Multi Pass (formerly Genie+).

Continue reading →

Was This Mountain at Tokyo DisneySea Originally Destined for California? How Disney “Blue Sky” Concepts are Never Truly Dead.

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
Tokyo DisneySea volcano

Disney loves its mountains, see Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and the former Splash Mountain as examples. One of the lesser known “mountains” is the volcano known as Mount Prometheus at Tokyo DisneySea in Japan. For those not familiar, according to the DisneySea website it is, “The only Disney park themed to the myths and legends of the sea. Each of the eight themed ports features attractions, restaurants, shops, and more, inviting guests to a world “Where Adventure and Imagination Set Sail!” This is the 7th most attended theme park in the world and many consider it the best and most beautiful of all the Disney parks. However, did you know many of the concepts of Tokyo DisneySea came from a park called DisneySea California that was cancelled in 1991?

Continue reading →

Get Your Engineering Cub Scout Adventure Loop at Fun Spot America Kissimmee with Mine Blower!

/ printingddd / Leave a comment
Fun Spot America Logo
Scout leader and scout in front of the Mine Blower roller coaster at Fun Spot Kissimmee

Earning the Arrow of Light “Engineering” adventure loop has the potential to be one of the most fun and exciting activities in scouting, especially with the increased interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). What’s even more exciting is that one of the recommended adventure activities in the cub scout handbook is to have scouts build their own roller coaster! A theme park is a great place for the scouts to explore and learn about engineering and Fun Spot America Kissimmee is perfectly suited for this adventure. Earning the “Engineering” Adventure Loop at Fun Spot Kissimmee can be as simple as watching a few YouTube videos, having a discussion, riding a roller coaster and participating in the park’s “build your own roller coaster” activity or doing your own at your next den or pack meeting.

Continue reading →