theme-park

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

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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?

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Oklahoma Theme Park American Heartland Appears Cancelled After Investor Files Fraud Lawsuit Over “Text Messages From God”

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American Heartland theme park in Northeastern Oklahoma. A new lawsuit claims that the park’s founders defrauded a 91-year-old man, Gene Bicknell, out of over $60 million in investments toward the park using text messages pretending to be from God. According to reports, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants “executed a predatory conspiracy of psychological manipulation” and obtained the investment by “convincing Bicknell, through fraud and impersonation, that God himself was commanding him”. American Heartland was to be a $2 billion world-class theme park and resort off Route 66 in Vinita, Oklahoma scheduled to open in 2028. However, the park’s website has gone dark (along with that of parent company Mansion Entertainment Group) and combined with the lawsuit it almost certainly marks the end of the development.

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

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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.

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New Theming and Story in the Lickskillet Area of Six Flags Over Georgia with Georgia Gold Rusher

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LickSkillet Area of Six Flags Over Georgia
LickSkillet Area of Six Flags Over Georgia

There are amusement parks and theme parks with one merely being a collection of rides while the later uses decor, landscaping, attraction design and overall atmosphere to create a unifying theme throughout an area of a park or an entire park. Six Flags Over Georgia is not an amusement park, but a full fledged theme park. I would argue the park has at least two themed sections and the argument can be made for a couple more. The most obvious of these is the Gotham area of the park with all the rides pulled together by the Batman universe. However, potentially the most themed area of the park is LickSkillet area where food, rides, buildings and entertainment all come together to tell a cohesive story about the Gold rush times in Georgia.

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Dining at Promenade Primo’s Pizzeria at Six Flags Over Georgia with Italian Street Food Inspired Pizza

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Promenade Primo's Pizzeria at Six Flags Over Georgia
Promenade Primo’s Pizzeria (courtesy of Six Flags Over Georgia)

Primo’s is one of three restaurants at Six Flags Over Georgia to see major upgrades this year with the others being DeeJay’s Diner and Firehouse BBQ (formerly Daddy O’s BBQ). In a press release about the Primo’s upgrade, Six Flags Over Georgia mentions, “Primo’s Pizzeria now has a new pizza recipe featuring a thicker crust, along with new menu items inspired by Italian street food.” In addition to a new pizza recipe Primo’s also features new chicken pesto sandwiches on focaccia and sausage piadina flatbreads inspired by Italian street food.

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Six Flags Launches $55 Season Pass with Access All 40+ Theme and Water Parks with “MVP” Sale!

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My local park, Six Flags Over Georgia (SFOG), has launched its latest season pass sale with the Most Valuable Pass (MVP) sale which will get you into 40+ parks until the end of 2026 for just $55! You can also do it as a membership at just $5.99/month with these prices good through September 2, 2025. This is such a good deal it almost seems like a mistake as last year you’d pay that just for SFOG and $100+ more for the All Parks Passport to get into all the other the legacy Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks. To top if you’ll also get a bonus free “bring-a-friend” ticket. If you get this pass the map below is your potential list of parks to visit immediately.

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Holiday in the Park 2025 at Six Flags Over Georgia Cancelled: Season Now Ends November 30, 2025

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Front entrance at Six Flags Over Georgia Holiday in the Park

Six Flags Over Georgia announced this week that its Holiday in the Park will not be happening in 2025 and November 30, 2025 will be the last operating day for the season. In its release simply called “Fall and Winter Update”, Six Flags mentions focusing resources “during the time when the majority of our guests visit the Six Flags Over Georgia” and “weather conditions can more consistently support our goal”. The business translation of that is, “It’s not expected to be busy enough with enough predictable revenue to justify us opening the park in December.” Although this is obviously disappointing, if it furthers the goals of keeping the park economically healthy it could be understandable.

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Wild Oasis at Busch Gardens is Now Open!

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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.

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Use LogRide to Track Your Roller Coaster Credits, Theme Park Trips and Tons of Other Stats

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LogRide theme park app logo
LogrRde Logo (courtesy of LogRide)

How do you track roller coaster credits, rides and parks visited? I’m a huge fan of the LogRide App. LogRide can track your rides and parks visited and currently catalogs 4,600+ parks, 5,600+ roller coasters and 74,800+ attractions worldwide. It’s super easy to use and comes in both a free version as well as a “pro” version for $0.99/month which gives you enhanced statistics. The app is easy to use while at the park and even has an Apple Watch version. The amount of data here is intense including trip reports, miles traveled on coaster track, total inversions and even steps walked inside of parks. You’ll also find ride information pictures and reviews from other users along with current wait times and show times for many parks. LogRide will quickly become your go-to app inside parks, sometimes more than the theme park’s own app!

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Review of Island H20: A Wonderful Water Park Day!

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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.

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