MARINELAND Niagara Falls, Canada
Park News - (3/11/2023) According to various news reports, the last remaining Killer Whale in captivity in Canada has died. Kiska who lived at Marineland passed away on Thursday after living in captivity for over 40-years. Last week we also reported that the park had also just sent Smooshi the Walrus and her calf to live at the new SeaWorld Abu Dhabi park opening later this year. Back in January it was also reported that the family that owns Marineland was open to look into the idea of finding a new owner willing to take over the theme park. For many theme park chains, the idea of owning a park with Killer Whales is something of a poison-pill they aren’t willing to swallow at this time. With the passing of Kiska, I would have to think that the idea of purchasing Marineland may now be a much more attractive prospect to many of the world’s theme park chains, as the park’s property is quite large (reportedly 1000 acres) and features ample space for future development of just about any kind, even if someone wanted to transform it into a non-animal based theme park. (3/5/2023) It has been confirmed that Smooshi the Walrus and her calf, Koyuk, have left Marineland in Canada. The two departed the Candian park on Tuesday and arrived at their new home at the brand new SeaWorld Abu Dhabi theme park on Wednesday. According to the article, the two will be joined by some others sent to Abu Dhabi from the Quebec Aquarium. Marineland has been involved in a legal case with a former park trainer of Smooshi which was settled last year, when the park announced that the animals would be transferred to another accredited facility somewhere in North America. While Abu Dhabi obviously isn’t on that list of potential homes, the former trainer isn’t too upside about this deviation of the terms of the settlement, as the Abu Dhabi SeaWorld park will be a brand new and cutting edge technology home for the animals. (1/27/2023) We first heard the rumor that the family that owned Marineland may have been thinking about selling it during the early days of the pandemic, but nothing ever came of it. Back in June 2018 John Holer had just passed away it is sounds like ownership of the park was passed on to his wife, Marie Holer, which led to a lot of speculation about the future of Marineland over the following years, though the park has basically stayed the course through it all. Now, the local news is reporting that Marineland is finally ready to look into the the idea of finding a new owner to take over the theme park. While Marie Holer, who is 84-years-old, is now looking to sell the property, this does not mean that Marineland is preparing to close down. Far from it actually, as the park has started that they will open this May and and plan to open each year going forward, so there is no plan to shut the park down. Instead, Marie Holer is looking to find a new individual or a group who are willing to buy Marineland and develop and invest in the park long-term, to grow it to be an even bigger attraction. (6/12/22) One of our readers visited MarineLand shortly after it opened for the season and send back a report that at the time all of the park’s rides were open except the Lady Bug Coaster (waiting on parts) and the Viking Adventure ride. Not only did they report that the park was looking “the best it’s ever looked”, but Dragon Mountain is finally open again with 3 trains visible, appearing to have new or refurbishment restraints. The trains all appear to have been recently repainted and are now looking quite sharp and impressive. All of the various flat rides appear to have been cleaned, refurbished and “running fantastically”, including the rare Magic Experience ride (a HUSS Magic, said to be one of only three in the world) that was running a nearly 5-minute long high action program. The park’s Star Voyage (Zierer Star Shape) was also reported to be running a very intense program and was said to be the only such ride in North America. Some great pictures and a video link of the Star Voyage in action were also sent over, so enjoy!
2023 - Nothing is known at this time...
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