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    (5/2/12) According to the local news a private developer is talking about building a Mag-Lev transit system that would run from (MORE...)
    (4/19/12) A local news station has posted an on-site video report about the go-kart accident at Magical Midway. (MORE...)
    (4/18/12) Breaking News - Go-kart track at Magical Midway on International Drive collapsed.
    (4/10/12) The Orlando Sentinel has posted details on what is planned to be part of a redevelopment of a section of property at the corner of International Drive and Sand Lake Road. The “I-Shops” project will renovate (MORE...)

Central Florida News - (5/2/12) According to the local news a private developer is talking about building a Mag-Lev transit system that would run from the Orlando International Airport down to the Convention Center and then connect to Disney World as well. Certainly this would be a great way to transport all those tourists and guests coming to Orlando rather than clog up the roads with thousands of rental cars and sketchy drivers.  I’d love to see this happen.
    (4/19/12) A local news station has posted an on-site video report about the go-kart accident at Magical Midway. While they are still calling it a collapse, it looks more like two of the wooden track planks popped loose. To be honest, to my eyes this looks like the go-kart equivelent of hitting a speed-bump or maybe a small pot-hole, and does not appear to be anything close to what I was envisioning when the news reports last night referred to it as a “collapse”.
    (4/18/12) Breaking News - The Orlando Sentinel reports that a section of the go-kart track at Magical Midway on International Drive collapsed. Two go-karts were involved in the accident, which resulted in an 11-year old girl being taken to a hospital. Hopefully someone will be by that area during the daytime to snap a picture so we can see just what section of the elevated go-kart tracks collapsed.
    (4/10/12) The Orlando Sentinel has posted details on what is planned to be part of a redevelopment of a section of property at the corner of International Drive and Sand Lake Road. The “I-Shops” project will renovate the existing Wyndham hotel, upgrading sections and demolishing others, to make room for dining and retail additions to the 42-acre property. The first signed tenants so far will be a Chuy’s Tex Mex restaurant, a Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and a BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse.
    This is also the same group behind the planned I-Drive Live complex which will feature a Giant Wheel, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and Sea Life Aquarium on nearby property to the I-Shops complex. They also claimed to have signed a lease with Kings Bowling to anchor a new development at the “Gooding’s Plaza” section, which lies in between the two bigger developments. So from the sound of it, by 2013 or so, that entire section of International Drive may be completely redeveloped.
    (4/6/12) A video clip showing off some of the new Zip Lines at Florida EcoSafaris can be found at the Orlando Sentinel website. This includes in the middle footage of the crazy new coaster style zip line that includes turns and up and down hills.
    (3/30/12) A crazy looking new attraction is coming to the Central Florida area, just south-east of Orlando. According to an article at Orlando Attraction Magazine a number of new additions at Floirda EcoSafari (at Forever Florida) will open on April 2nd. A major new addition will be The Rattlesnake… a zipline roller coaster that will launch you out 65 ft in the air and into 1000 feet of diving and swooping track around the trees. Find out more at the official site.
    (3/28/12) The Gaylord Palms is finishing up a $50 million makeover of the resort that will include revamped guest rooms, an incredible new sports bar named Wreckers and the new Cypress Springs Family Fun Water Park. The waterpark has four slides, water basketball an outdoor movie screen and adult-only pool. As for Wreckers… the Orlando Sentinel posted a great writeup about this massive new two-level sports bar that features a massive two-level video wall.  They describe the video wall as a 33 foot wide screen, 10 feet tall, with a sport ticker above it and above that, another 33 ft x 10 ft screen.
    (3/23/12) In an interesting Florida travel industry development has come to light today with the announcement of a plan to build a privately owned and operated passenger rail service line that would run from Miami to Orlando called All Aboard Florida. The route take advantage of 200 miles of existing tracks that run from Miami to Cocoa Beach, and then built 40 miles of new tracks to run inland from there to Orlando. Long term planning also sees the line expanding to the North to connect to Jacksonville and to the West to connect to Tampa.  The $1 billion dollar plan will see thousands of jobs created and hopes to begin service as early as 2014, with the trip expected to take about 3 hours in each direction.
    While this will help people move around the area for both business and vacation travel, I’m curious where the end station in Orlando would be located. Will they construct their own depot off by itself or try to link up to someplace more convenient for area travelers, such as the Orlando International Airport? It’s something worth keeping an eye on for sure, especially as increasing gas prices show no sign of stopping.
    (3/19/12) Attractions Magazine reports that CSI: The Experience, a new interactive attraction, will be opening on I-Drive (7220 International Drive) which is essentially across I-Drive from the Chilli’s next to Magical Midway, a couple of doors down from the Titanic Exhibition. Looks like this could be a copy of the CSI: The Experience attraction that opened a couple of years ago in the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas. You can find out more details at the official site here.
    (3/14/12) While the Orlando area has no shortage of rides… it’s always interesting to see what pops up from time to time at the Central Florida Fair in Orlando. One of our readers went by and shot some nice after-dark video footage of the rides in action in slo-mo, and edited it all together. Check it out below.

    (2/29/12) According to the CoasterCrew Facebook page, Fun Spot USA (on 192) has removed their old Kiddie Coaster (which looked somewhat questionable) and replaced it with a snake themed Kiddie Coaster from Miler. According to an employee, the old coaster was donated to the Roller Coaster Museum.
    (2/27/12) HorrorNightFrights.com has posted coverage from the Entertainment Designer Forum event that took place on Friday night. This is an annual event that features designers from Universal, Disney and Busch Gardens and features an auction for Horror related items that serves as a fundraiser for cancer research.
    (2/22/12) The new Funtime Vomatron ride is now up at Old Town, sitting out front in about the same spot up near the front where they used to have a Zamperla Turbo Force years ago. Unlike the old Turbo Force which could hold 8 riders at a time, the Vomatron can only hold 4.
    (2/9/12) I’ve been told that a new Funtime Vomatron ride (a Skyscraper style upcharge ride) is currently going into Old Town in Kissimmee behind the Sling Shot. If anyone goes nearby, send in a picture.
    (2/7/12) This story has been making the rounds on the various media sites about how a teen born with no hands was barred from riding Kraken at SeaWorld Orlando and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal Orlando. In both cases, the safety guides for the attractions state that riders need to have at least one functioning hand in order to hold onto the restraint system if needed.
    While it’s clear that the family was upset, and while it does seem a bit odd as many guests ride each of these ride with the hands up high in the air the whole time, never grasping the restraint, this is what today’s lawsuit happy society has wrought. Countless lawsuits have taught the parks to protect themselves and make the tough decisions about who they are willing to allow to ride each attraction. Height Limits, Weight Limits and even Limb Requirements, which are nothing new I’m afraid. There are many lengthy documents that the parks have about how many functioning upper and lower limbs a rider much have to ride each specific attraction. After all, it’s only been about six months since a former solder who was missing both his legs was thrown to his death from the Ride of Steel coaster at Darien Lake last summer. You can’t have it both ways and the parks are right to protect themselves, as sad or as unfair as it may seem at the time.
    (1/19/12) Coaster Crew has posted a great little all-in-one video showcasing the various construction projects taking place at the Magic Kingdom, SeaWorld Orlando and Universal Studios Florida. Check it out below.

    (12/19/11) Orlando is now home to the largest hot air balloon ride in the US, which will open to the public on Dec. 17th. The Balloon itself stands 112 feet tall, 90 feet wide and has a massive basket slung under it than can hold 24 passengers. For more information check out Orlando Balloon Rides.
    (11/28/11) While not entirely theme park related, Orlando is home to a good number of major conventions, trade and enthusiast shows throughout the year. This week Orlando Rocks has posted 120 photos from one of the later, the Central Florida International Car Show.
    (11/22/11) A nice collection of pictures from this year’s ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Palms (Shrek the Halls) has been posted to MouseSteps this week.
    (11/7/11) The Orlando Thrill Park project may not be back after all. According to a Screamscape source, the land owner is actually seeking to rezone 7 acres of the property to be used for office space. According to a quote sent in from the application, “the southwest portion of the subject property is being rezoned from AC-3/SP to O-1/SP so that the site's zoning will be consistent with the recently adopted Office Low Intensity future land use designation.”  So… looks like the Orlando Thrill Park is still dead in the water.
    (11/2/11) Surprise… according to the latest local news report the Orlando Thrill Park proposal is back and will be put in front of the city council on Monday. While it was initially voted down back in April, it seems that the city had reached a new zoning agreement for the property earlier this month that would allow the compact amusement park project to proceed once again.
    (10/27/11) For a limited period of time the Kennedy Space Center is offering a new experience upgrade option, a special “KSC UP Close” tour that will, for the first time ever, allow guests to take a tour inside the massive 525 foot tall Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) as well as get up close and personal with other assorted items and locations that were never previously made available.
    (10/10/11) Orlando’s Old Town will be hosting it’s own Halloween Event the last three weekends in October called An Old Town Halloween. They will have haunted streets, strange characters, trick or treating, costume contests and more… all with free admission. Click here for all the details.
    (8/31/11) Congrats to our friends over at Orlando Attractions Magazine, as their online video attractions show (called simply enough, “The Show”) is making the jump from the computer screen to your On-Demand TV if you’re a Bright House Network cable customer in Central Florida (ch. 300) or Tampa regions (ch. 340). Everyone else will just have to keep watching online for the time being.
    (8/9/11) Special thanks to Ride Entertainment for sending in some nice pictures (see sidebar) of the new Ropes Course and Rock Wall installed at Old Town.
    (7/29/11) The Dreamworks Animation characters will be creating the new Dreamworks Experience this holiday season at the Gaylord Palms. You can see the press release here, including special holiday package deals. Oh… and this year’s ICE attraction will feature Shrek the Halls.
    (7/25/11) RCPro dropped by Old Town to check on the status of the AMPVenture 4-story tall ropes course attraction going up, along with a rock wall climb and zipline.

2013 - Kennedy Space Center / Space Shuttle Display - (1/19/12) Concept art of the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at KSC can be found at the Orlando Sentinel.
    (4/16/11) I’ve heard a few more details about what Kennedy Space Center has planned for their new Orbiter display which is planned to open in July 2013. The Atlantis itself would be placed in a 70,000 sq. ft. building that will stand about 100 feet tall. Standing over 200 feet tall in front (serving as the front door) will be the stacked External Tank / Solid Rocket Booster assembly. There will be an extensive pre-show experience to go through before you come to the Atlantis itself which will be put on display, to be viewed as if it was floating in space, tilted as an extreme angle with the bay doors open.
    Look for all this to begun construction within the year near the current 4-D Shuttle Launch Experience attraction.  More as we get it.
    (4/13/11) The new homes for the soon to be retired space shuttle fleet have been selected, and as expected, Kennedy Space Center was selected as a home to Atlantis, the very last shuttle scheduled to make a final launch on June 28th.
    According to the report on CNN, the other shuttles will go to: California Science Center in Los Angeles will get Endeavour, the Smithsonian will get Discovery and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York will get the Enterprise prototype shuttle.
    (4/7/11) The Kennedy Space Center has pulled back the curtain a little more, talking a bit more about what they have planned for the proposed display they want to build around one of the retired NASA Space Shuttles.  If they get one of the final shuttles that is… Discovery is pretty much a lock for the Smithsonian, which leaves a lot of site bidding on Atlantis and Endeavor. The official announcement about the sites where the remaining two will retire will take place on April 12th, the 30th anniversary of the first Shuttle flight. And honestly… what site is better to become home to one of the shuttles than KSC?
    (12/17/10) Kennedy Space Center is promising to add a $100 million exhibit to the site if NASA were to award one of the retired space shuttle orbiters to the attraction. The shuttle would be put on display in a 64,000 sqft interactive exhibit space, telling the story of the Space Shuttles like no other site really can.

2013 - Fun Spot America - (3/6/12) Some new concept artwork showing off the expanded vision for Fun Spot America can be found over at the Orlando Biz Journal this week. They also report that the Vekoma Inverted Family coaster going in will be a copy of Kvasten from Grona Lund (Sweden). An animated video also has been posted to YouTube showing off the new GCI wooden coaster in great detail.

    (2/1/12) ParkRumors has posted new details about Fun Spot’s expansion plans. The details plans released show off the layout of the GCI coaster, the locations of the attractions, a new parking structure which will have a new giant wheel on top, a suspended steel coaster, Skycoaster and even a 220 ft Windseeker ride, as well as the previously mentioned waterpark. Check it out!
    (12/7/11) The head of marketing for Fun Spot Orlando came onto the latest episode of In The Loop and confirmed that they have purchased an L-shaped wooden coaster from the great team at GCI that will run along the road on their new section of property, and be highly visible from the local roads and freeways. The new coaster will open around February 2013, along with a small steel coaster (design and make not yet finalized) and will be one of about a dozen new rides, and four waterslides, transforming the park into it’s new name… Fun Spot America. One of the park’s existing go-kart tracks (a two level one) will be modified and expanded into a new five level track as part of this project as well. They are also looking into the possibility of adding a smaller (150ft or so) Skycoaster to the site as well.
    (11/29/11) According to this article, the Fun Spot Waterpark isn’t the only new attraction coming to the location soon. They report that a wood and steel coaster are also on the way as part of the site’s expansion plans, as well as a few other rides when the expansion is complete in 2013.
    (8/16/11) According to the Orlando Sentinel, Fun Spot has been in talks with three different coaster companies this week to talk about future plans. Starting in 2012, Fun Spot is planning on breaking ground on a huge expansion that will include at least one new roller coaster. The expansion will roll out in phases over the next four years and include other extreme rides, another go-kart track and water attractions.
    (5/23/11) The Orlando Biz. Journal reports that Fun Spot is looking into water attraction concepts to help fill out their newly purchased 10-acre site expansion. They say they’ve been looking at flume rides, water war attractions, bumper boats and more.
    (4/28/11) An interesting post was spotted on the official Fun Spot Blog this week. Seems they have been taking surveys asking guests what kind of new rides they want… and in addition to water rides, people want… COASTERS. Steel coasters took favor over wood, but I’m curious just how big of a steel coaster they are willing to buy. Stay tuned!
    (1/3/11) Fun Spot’s original location on the north end of International Drive has announced plans to triple the attractions size. The current 5 acre site will be expanded with the purchase of a new 10 acre empty site directly behind it where they will add moe rides, more go-karts and “other attractions.” It’s worth mentioning that long before Fun Spot purchased the Skycoaster site for their second location, they were long rumored to be planning a land purchase just like this one to make room for a large wooden coaster. I’ve got to wonder if they’ve kept those old plans close all these years and have now decided to act upon them. The timing is interesting as well with the threat of the Orlando Thrill Park project set to drop in just down the street from Fun Spot.

???? - Orlando Eye / Madame Tussauds / I-Drive Live - (8/23/11) BlooLoop reports that the Orlando Eye project has come to terms with Universal and will change the entire overall project name from the objectionable “I-Walk Orlando” to “I-Drive Live”. The article also confirms that Merlin will run the Orlando Eye giant wheel as well as a Madame Tussauds and SeaLife Aquarium attraction. Other projects, restaurants, stores and even other attractions may also come to I-Drive Orlando, but not from Merlin. (Personally, I think Merlin may want to rethink the SeaLife Aquarium project in favor of perfecting some kind teleporter to get guests all the way out to the Legoland Florida site.
    (8/11/11) The local news has a brief update on the giant Orlando Eye giant wheel project that is slated to replace the Mercado on I-Drive. The plans shown also show off a Madame Tussauds was museum as well as a SeaLife Aquarium as rumored. The scope of the wheel itself has gotten bigger however, as the wheel is said to now be a bigger version of the London Eye, standing 450 feet tall, which they claim will make it the tallest wheel in the world. This isn’t quite right however, as there are currently two other giant wheels out there that are already bigger: Star of Nanchang in China (525 ft) and the Singapore Flyer (541 ft).
    (7/25/11) Many have been wondering just what the mystery third Merlin attraction planned for Orlando’s I-Walk attraction area. Previously I had heard that a Dungeon attraction may have been in the works, as I think a good classic haunted attraction like this would be great in Orlando, as there currently is really no competition for it. However the latest rumor suggests that instead of a Dungeon, Merlin may opt to make the more perplexing choice of adding a SeaLife Aquarium… within very close proximity to SeaWorld Orlando.
    Not the brightest idea in the barrel… especially when one of Merlin’s primary shareholders also owns the entire SeaWorld chain as well. Now adding a SeaLife on to Legoland Florida may be a better idea, given the more isolated environement, but on I-Drive, I think I’d rather see a Dungeon myself. (Though honestly, I know they would have their work cut out for them to build a Dungeon in Orlando, as I believe all of the Dungeon attractions in Europe really do design themselves around fantastic local history and legends from the past, which would be hard to do in Orlando.
    (3/4/11) Merlin Entertainment confirmed that they are in talks to build a slightly smaller copy of the London Eye giant wheel in Orlando. They are eyeballing the former Mercado location on I-Drive for the Orlando Eye, a 425 foot wheel, just shy of the London Eye’s 440 ft height. According to Theme Park Insider, Merlin is being courted by the site’s redeveloper to not only bring in the giant wheel, but also add a Madame Tussaud’s and another possible indoor attraction into the new retail development plans they have for the property.