Shanghai Disneyland – There are rumors that a new ride film is being worked on for Soarin' Shanghai Disneyland that would feature an international set of famous landmarks. The rumor continues to say that right after Shanghai opens, the other Soarin's might receive the new ride film as well, sometime around mid-2016. The real question here is whether or not there are going to be other improvements to the attraction. I would think that the new film would be a good excuse to install a new state of the art projection system. There have also been rumors about some kind of tie-in with the Disney's Planes movie, but as I would consider that more of a short-term upgrade than a long-term integration, I doubt they would adjust the ride film at all. And since the best part of the ride was Kronk's preshow, I would be extremely irritated if they did away with that.
Hong Kong Disneyland – For those of you who are interested in track layouts and how ride systems work, the following video plots out where the vehicles are in the ride house of Mystic Manor with a split screen for two different cars. It is purely geekdom, but I have to admit that I already watched it twice.
If that wasn't geek enough for you, Ride Sims already has a Ride Op Simulator for Mystic Manor...feel free to check it out and be completely frustrated by it here: ridesims.com/simulations/mystic-manor
Marvel Universe – There were some rumors that Disney was trying to get Spiderman back from Sony to include him in one of the future Avengers movies. The co-chair of Sony Pictures emphatically denied that they would ever let go of Spiderman. There is also the regular rumor that IOA is going to give up the Marvel characters…sure…wake me up when Disney pulls out the fat wad of cash. But there are thousands of Marvel characters! So Disney can't use the big ones that everyone already knows about. Big deal. Isn't Disney the single largest promotion vehicle in the world, or not? Get some other characters and make people like them. Iron Man was nobody until they started the current run of movies. Do that, but with other characters. Disney has only about 8,983 more Marvel characters to use.
Alton Towers – The Smiler hit a snag on its media day and stranded journalists on the lift hill for about a half-hour. All I can say is: it's too bad Robert wasn't one of them.
Europa Park – We just got word the this park is working on a new land called Kingdom of the Invisibles with a unique dark ride made by Mack rides (go figure, Mack owns the park). After following up on this news tip we found that Kingdom of the Invisibles has been open for several months already, but no one has been able to find it.
Six Flags Great America – Backwards ride = new ride! At least that is what Six Flags management thinks. Therefore, in addition to Batman and American Eagle running backwards, they say to expect Viper to run backwards sometime in the future. If this gets anymore out of control, you are going to have to drive into the parking lot going backwards and instead of getting a meal at a counter, you'll have to fill a plate yourself, and then turn it in at the counter, which is what most theme park food makes me feel like doing anyway.
Nurburgring – It looks like we weren't wrong when we said that Ring Racer would open this year. It looks to have a scheduled opening date of July 7th.
Dorney Park – The locals (who had absolutely no idea how close their were living to a major amusement park) are now all in a tizzy about fireworks displays every night during the summer. Come on… It's not like theme park visitors are launching garbage in the neighbor's yards…although if they keep making a fuss, I think I just came up with a new attraction for Dorney Park.
American Dream at the Meadowlands – Halle-freakin'-luiah, this park finally made over the biggest hurdle in order to get it back on track despite the objections of the New York Giants and New York Jets football teams. First things first. WHY oh WHY are they both called NEW YORK teams when they both share a stadium in NEW JERSEY? I think I have the answer for this: It is because these two teams are such [obscenity deleted] that they [obscenity deleted] with their [obscenity deleted] that New York kicked them out and told them to never come back. Here is the part that everyone wants to hear: The American Dream complex will have an amusement park and an indoor water park at the very least, not to mention a large theater complex, although I don't know the status on the once proposed indoor skiing facility. The building has been sitting and rotting since the first developer abandoned the project after it was about 75% completed, but the new developer has bigger plans.
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