travel

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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Review of the New Wisconsin Dells Mountain Coaster: A Fast Ride Through the Woods on Wisconsin’s First and Only Mountain Coaster

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New for 2025 is the Wisconsin Dells Mountain Coaster, which is Wisconsin’s first and currently only mountain coaster. This may be the first mountain coaster in Wisconsin, but if you’ve ridden a mountain coaster in a place like Pigeon Forge this Wiegand creation will feel very familiar to you. That’s not a bad thing though, this is a really fun coaster in a great location. You could summarize this coaster with two words, smooth and fast. Some mountain coasters take a bit to get going, but from the moment you’re released from the lift hill this coaster is flying and doesn’t slow down until the bottom while giving a glass smooth ride.

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Superman IP Likely to Pay Dividends for Six Flags with New Superman Movie #1 at the Box Office

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Superman: Ultimate Flight roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia

Intellectual property is a big deal for theme parks as guests come to immerse themselves in themed worlds of their favorite characters. The largest license at Six Flags is DC comics and with that comes characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. On July 11th the new Superman movie debuted and box office results of $122 million domestically had it #1 this week with the 3rd biggest opening of 2025! Having the IP of a #1 movie in your park is never a bad thing!

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Netflix Getting Into the Theme Park Business with Netflix House in Philadelphia, Dallas and Las Vegas

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Netflix House (courtesy of Netflix)
Netflix House Logo (courtesy of Netflix)

Have you ever wanted to participate in the Squid Games? Perhaps you’d like to visit Hawkins, Indiana from Stranger Things? Starting next month you may get that chance in Dallas and Philadelphia in a new concept called Netflix House. Netflix is bringing its internet entertainment to the real world in the form of “immersive, in-world experiences that let you step inside your favorite shows, dig into themed meals at our in-House restaurant NETFLIX BITES, or grab exclusive merch from our shop.” These aren’t “rides” in the classic theme park sense, but more immersive worlds with actors and other interactive elements. These new venues will be called Netflix House Dallas and Netflix House Philadelphia and will be permanent locations where you can interact with your favorite Netflix worlds.

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Summer Fun with the Splash Water Parade at Six Flags Over Georgia

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The Splash Water Parade at Six Flags Over Georgia
The Splash Water Parade at Six Flags Over Georgia

On July 4th we had a chance to catch the Splash Water Parade at Six Flags Over Georgia and it was simply stellar summer fun. The parade features several dozen performers who put on a water-themed show full of music, dancing and some audience participation. What was surprising is that the parade features live singing, original music and a huge cast of choreographed dancers. This parade has the look and feel of a Disney afternoon parade with catchy music and high performer energy. Part of me sat there a bit dumbfounded as I almost couldn’t believe this was happening at Six Flags Over Georgia. From the floats to the choreography to the Splash logo gear performers and the support staff, it was obvious Six Flags made a major investment here. It was a complete and seamless performance.

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

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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.

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No More Virtual Queues at Disney World!

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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+).

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

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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?

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