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ORLANDO ATTRACTIONS
A News page for the Orlando’s areas other Minor Attractions and Resort properties
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(9/27/2026) New Coaster coming to Kennedy Space Center will be a first for North America
(9/26/2026) New Indoor Roller Coaster Appears To Be Coming to Kennedy Space Center
(9/7/2026) Popstroke To Open New Flagship Location in Orlando This December
(5/1/2026) Orlando Under Attack From Teen Takeover Events
Kennedy Space Center Review (2022)
You can find our review of the I-Drive 360 attractions (Orlando Eye, Madame Tussauds and SeaLife Aquarium here.
Central Florida News -
 December 2026 - Popstroke - (9/7/2026) Popstroke has released new details about their new flagship location coming to Orlando’s International Drive this December, featuring two 18-hole golf courses.
A river system winds throughout the property, flowing beneath pedestrian bridges, cascading over waterfalls reaching 13 feet tall, and surrounding guests across both custom-designed putting courses. One course rises in elevation over the course of play, with holes built directly on top of the property's largest waterfall. Mini waterfalls appear throughout both courses. At the center of the property, guests enter a cave and play directly past a tank housing six sharks and stingrays.
Every hole features misters, shade trees, and fans to keep guests comfortable, along with interactive digital scoreboards, hole-in-one cameras, and app-based scoring. Guests can also order food and drinks through the PopStroke app, with drink delivery available anywhere on the course.
The two-story venue also includes indoor and outdoor dining, a rooftop terrace overlooking the greens, a beer garden, and a children's playground. The venue's restaurant, BarTenders Eatery, anchors the food and beverage program with a chef-driven menu, an ice cream parlor, and five bars including an on-course walk-up bar.
2027 - Icon Park Expansion - (10/12/2025) Icon Park is planning to expand, according to a post by the Orlando Business Journal. Plans call for adding an additional 100,000 sqft of space along the Universal Blvd side of the property that is currently used as a rear parking lot. A third of this site is already planned for a new digital interactive “Arte Museum” attraction space set to open in 2027, along with other supporting food and retail locations when ready. The site at the backside of the parking structure, and based on the artwork, the plans may also include an expansion of the parking structure as well. The expansion location will also be right next to the future Blue Man Group theater space as well on the rear-side of the Wheel.
There are currently four “Arte Museum” locations in South Korea (Busan, Gangneung, Yeosu and Jeju) as well as locations in New York City, Las Vegas and Dubai.
 2027/2028 - New Attraction at Kennedy Space Center - (9/27/2026) Screamscape sources tell us that the new mystery indoor coaster project coming to Kennedy Space Center will actually be a Maurer Spike coaster project and not a spinning coaster. While I don’t believe the layout will be exactly the same, Maurer did post a concept video of a pair of indoor racing space themed Spike coaster tracks a year ago and called it the Spike Space Odyssey. I’m also fairly sure the theming will not be quite as Tron-esque as this either, but it still gives you a good idea as to what you can probably expect to find at Kennedy Space Center next year, both in terms of the ride experience and likely… capacity.
So far most of the existing Spike Coasters have been built on cruise ships, though they did open a neat looking one at Six Flags Quiddiya City called the Sea Stallion which I’ll put a video of it in action below as well so you can see what a real-world version of the Spike coaster is actually like. But if this rumor holds true, this will actually be the first Spike coaster in North America.
(9/26/2026) Something new is coming to the Kennedy Space Center, and some great footage of the construction can be found on YouTube. While we don’t see any track yet, you can see the building frame going up and an assortment of footers than have been placed on the ground inside, so track and support installation can’t be far behind.
According to the poster, employees are confirming that it will be a new indoor roller coaster, and quite possibly some kind of spinning coaster.
(1/26/2026) Is something new in the works for the Kennedy Space Center? According to a reader an area to the right of the Space Shuttle Atlantis building was seems to be walled off and full of debris, like something there previously may have been demolished to make way for something new. Previous news reports also confirmed that this would be the location of the next big attraction with work expected to begin in 2026, but nothing official has been announced about what it would be. The only hints given at the time mentioned it would be “a uniquely themed enhanced interactive environment of NASA’s past and future”.
It was also mentioned that they felt this addition could bring a 10% increase in visitors to the Kennedy Space Center, so clearly they felt this would be something major. Over the past few years we’ve seen major new additions to KSC include some themed ride style attractions, such as the motion simulators that were part of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and Gateway Pavilion additions, so it is very possible there could be a “ride” aspect to this latest addition as well.
Anyone know more?
???? - S&S Rides at Mango’s Tropical Cafe - (11/18/2025) Orlando fans… would you believe that some new thrill rides are coming to I-Drive? According to a surprise announcement from IAAPA from S&S Worldwide, it looks like a project that will feature a new launched coaster as well as a pair of classic S&S three-legged tower ride are coming to Orlando’s I-Drive outside Mango’s Tropical Cafe. Unfortunately no details or timeline were given…just an impressive set of visuals.
It is worth mentioning that while this is not a revival of the former PolarCoaster concept, this will essentially be targeting the same high traffic intersection of I-Drive and Sand Lake Road, just on opposite side of both roads from where the PolarCoaster was looking to appear. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Mango’s was also involved with the PolarCoaster vapor-ware project as well which was first announced back in 2014. Let us hope that this new project is able to move forward more quickly.
2030 - Brightline Expansion to Convention Center and Beyond -
(5/2/2025) Some good news for those hoping to find new and better transportation options from the Orlando airport to the city’s tourist corridor. It has been confirmed that $6 million needed to complete a required study on the proposed “Sunshine Corridor”, that would allow rail access to run from the airport to International Drive and eventually over to Disney Springs has been approved. The study will take up to 2 years to complete, but is required to get any government funding to create a link between Brightline at the airport and Orlando’s SunRail network.
(9/22/2023) Good news, the Brightline high speed rail serve from Orlando’s MCO airport to Miami finally went into service today! Follow this link to see a video story from MCO shows off the launch of the first train and the journey from Orlando to Miami on the new trains. The trains look great and with Orlando now connected by high speed rail to all of southern Florida, with stops close to all the other major airports along the way (PBI, FLL, and of course MIA) I can’t help but think that this will be a gamechanger for easy travel throughout the region.
(5/25/2023) For those wondering, Brightline is now selling tickets to ride the new high speed train service from Miami to the Orlando airport station starting on Sept. 1, 2023. Smart tickets are priced at $79 per passenger, and Premium seats for $149 each way. As I said, tickets are being sold for dates starting in September, but there is always a chance some earlier dates may become available as they get closer to starting-up their service schedule if the process between now and then goes smoothly. The full trip between the two end stations will only take about 3.5 hours.
(1/8/2023) In a follow up to Universal’s plans to join the rail expansion plans that will lead from the Brightline connection to the Orlando Airport to a new station at the Orange County Convention Center (that will also be able to service Universal’s Epic Universe expansion), we’ve got a couple of new images to share, as provided by Universal Orlando.
This includes a piece of artwork showing off what the proposed Convention Center station area could look like, which is expected to be ready by 2030. Of more interest is a map showing the route the rail would take, connecting to the new Brightline station that will soon open at the new Terminal C at MCO. I had been sort of thinking that it would simply go back up and follow along 528 to the West down to the convention center (as the Brightline heads to the East along 528) but instead the route shows the expansion moving south of MCO’s runways and then connecting up with an existing railroad right-of-way that exists down there, connecting around where the existing line crosses over Boggy Creek. It will follow the existing rail-path as it turns north just west of S. Orange Ave until it meets a new Sunrail Transfer Station. From there riders will move west along a new path that runs along W. Taft Vineland Rd until it intersects with 528 at the John Young exit area for a brief run before turning off at the Universal Blvd exit for the final run into the Convention Center Station.
Future expansion plans show that the line’s long term future plans will then move to I-4 and follow along the freeway down to a future South I-Drive station that sure looks like it could be placed somewhere very close to where the former Crossroads retail area was, right on Disney’s doorstep.
(1/7/2023) Universal Orlando is now involved with the plan to build a SunRail route from the Orlando Airport to the Orange County Convention Center. Universal has pledged to contribute 13 acres of land to be used to connect the route and build the Convention Center Station, as well as said they would support the operation and maintenance of this station. Of course this only makes sense, as the same station will also be able to service Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park now under construction right across the way from the convention center.
The plan will make it very easy for both residents and tourists alike to travel between the two areas, as well as being able to remove some unnecessary vehicle traffic from the congested highway between the airport and tourist corridor. For now they have named this new expansion as the “Sunshine Corridor”.
(9/24/22) Good news for the future of transit from the Orlando Airport to the main tourist corridor via rail. The OBJ has confirmed that SunRail has signed off on a plan to share the train corridor with Brightline that will take riders from the airport down to a stop near Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park (opening in 2025) and the Convention Center. In a huge win for this new rail transportation plans, the SunRail commission voted unanimously in favor to support the “Sunshine Corridor” project that will continue past the I-Drive area stops mentioned above and then on to another stop just outside the Walt Disney World resort. From here, long term plans are also in place from Brightline to eventually extend the line all the way to Tampa eventually that would complete the rail line’s run all the way from Miami. It was also mentioned that the united effort of support for the Sunshine Corridor, not just from the rail groups, but also all the local tourist attractions would only benefit the program’s efforts to secure Federal Funding for the expansion. So far the only group to turn their nose up at the plan was the Walt Disney Company who refused to allow a station to be built on their property if the line made stops anywhere other than the airports. On the other side of the coin, Universal Orlando has agreed to donate land for the proposed station that will be located near their Epic Universe theme park project.
(7/3/22) Walt Disney World repeats history playing the “train game” with Florida once again. How so? Earlier this week a Disney spokesperson came out to say that Walt Disney World is no longer supporting the proposed Brightline train project, and the once proposed station for the line at Disney Springs has been canceled. At the time that Disney agreed to work with Brightline on the project, the layout of the expansion line that would run from the Orlando Airport to Tampa was looking to run down the SR-417 tollway from the airport directly to Disney property before heading off towards Tampa.
So what changed? Well Brightline was always looking into various property options to move the line through Orlando to Tampa, and of course as Brightline will travel from the coast down SR-528 to get to the airport, it only makes sense to continue that alignment to try and continue the run down SR-528 to Orlando, which would also allow for an additional stop by the Orange County Convention Center in the heart of the tourist district.
On June 1st it was reported that a new Federal Grant was being given to Brightlight for exactly this purpose to help secure the funding needed to proceed with this alternate route the line would take before turning towards Disney. Not only would the new alignment allow for easier flow to and from the airport for more visitors to Orlando, but provide easy access from the Convention Center area, which is also just down the street from SeaWorld Orlando and virtually right next door to where Universal is building their newest theme park, Universal’s Epic Universe. And there-in lies the problem… because Disney is once again taking their ball and going home because they can’t play nice.
This new alignment not only better serves the needs of the area, but serves the community because the plan was also to have Sun Rail expand their service to make runs down this same track from the Convention Center to the Airport every 15 minutes, removing the need for thousands of vehicles per day to travel down SR-518 to the airport. With stops at the Convention Center and Disney Springs and then moving on to Tampa (which would remove more cars from I-4 coming from the Tampa area) the project seems like it should be a win-win for everyone.
As I’ve alluded to, Disney has done all this before. Lets jump back about 20 years and local residents will recall a little something called the Florida High Speed Rail project. In November of 2000 the resident of Florida voted to approve an amendment to the states constitution that asked for the government to proceed with the design and installation of a High Speed Rail system, with the initial leg designed to connect the Tampa and Orlando airports, running mostly down the I-4 corridor. To help ensure there were enough passengers along the line, the state asked Disney to get involved and allow a station to be built on Disney Property which would deliver countless tourists right from the airports onto Disney’s doorstep. Around 2002 everything fell apart because Disney refused to allow a station at Walt Disney World if the line stopped anywhere else between Disney and the Orlando Airport. Even then the government knew they needed to have an additional stop at the Convention Center, and Disney refused to play ball if that requirement stayed. As this essentially meant that the taxpayers of Florida (especially in the Orlando area) would be building a transportation system that would only benefit Disney and not the people, that was never going to stick, so in 2004 the Florida voters then removed the High Speed Rail amendment from the state constitution. The project was essentially dead.
There is still a “Brightline” to this story… because the new alignment now being established as the “Sunshine Corridor” still plans to move ahead. The plan will expand the run from the Orlando Airport to the Convention Center and then on to a second station “near Disney Springs, although not on Disney property.” for the next phase before proceeds on towards Tampa. The location of this new station near Disney has not been revealed, but I’ve got a hunch it may involve a new large piece of property that the state took control of right next to Disney that is currently being cleared out. I’m talking about the Crossroads retail property right at the end of Disney’s Hotel Plaza Blvd entrance. The site is being cleared out to allow for better off-ramp access from the I-4 freeway directly into this very road, and will leave a lot of empty undeveloped property in the aftermath that could easily accommodate a new rail station right just outside Disney’s doorstep. (Again, just speculation on my part, as I have no insight as to the actual alignment of how they plan to provide rail service down I-4 from the Convention Center to Tampa, but the purchase of this property by the State was not something that had been done the last time rail service through here was being considered.
???? - The Boring Company / Tunnel Network -
(2/15/2026) It was confirmed that The Boring Company has been selected to design a new underground transit system that will apparently connect CityWalk at Universal Orlando and run down to the new Epic Universe theme park site. The company apparently won the vote over two other competitor projects, which is likely due to the fact that The Boring Company has been very actively drilling and opening tunnel projects beneath Las Vegas over the past few years.
The only oddity of their system however is that the tunnels opened thus far were designed to be traveled by Tesla vehicles, complete with a driver, and have not come up with an automated transit system just yet to run within. Of course, Tesla is also currently testing their own robo-taxi system vehicles, so by the time any tunnel may be ready at Universal, the Tesla robot-taxi vehicles may also be ready to roll at that time, including a larger robo-taxi vehicle that is expected to be able to hold up to 20 riders at a time.
According to the article the Shingle creek Transit and Utility Community Development District would be the owner of the underground transit system, and not Universal if it gets built. At this time, The Boring Company only has to come up with a solution as to how they can safely build a tunnel system in Florida that is able to handle the high water table and heavy rain issues without flooding, and then provide “a maximum construction price and guaranteed completion date” before anything gets approved to move into the construction phase.
The other two companies who submitted initial proposals are said to be Glydways and “V2R”, with Glydways actually having just broken ground on their first functional public test system in Atlanta that will connect to the ATL Airport’s SkyTrain to the Georgia International Convention Center and Gateway Center Arena, with the system set to go online by the end of 2026.
(7/12/2025) I’m not quite sure what to make of this, but the mainstream media began reporting that Elon Musk’s “The Boring Company” may be in talks to build an underground transit tunnel system, not unlike The Vegas Loop system that was first built to move people between the various sections of the massive Las Vegas Convention Center.
In particular there area mentions of possibly looking into building tunnels to run through the busy I-Drive corridor area, and in particular was a claim that The Boring Company may be in talks with Universal about creating a direct connection between their Epic Universal expansion campus and the original Universal Orlando campus area that is currently services by busses.
While the idea sounds interesting… building anything “underground” in Orlando has some serious challenges due to the high water table. Obviously the ground conditions in Orlando are going to be far different than the building conditions below the surface in Las Vegas, especially when you add in the exceptionally high amount of rainfall that falls on the area from near daily storms in the warmer half of the year. Dealing with this water and preventing it from seeping down into the tunnel system is likely going to result in some major design changes from how The Boring Company’s tunnels are installed in Las Vegas.
To my knowledge the only significant underground project in Florida that I ever heard of before was the Disney Utilidor corridors under The Magic Kingdom. Due to the water table issue, this was built with a bit of trickery as well… as the Utilidors were really built at what should have been the surface level of the park as it was under construction. As the crews were working to dig up and create the “Seven Seas Lagoon” in front of the park (yes, this is an artificial lake) that would eventually be connected to the nearby natural “Bay Lake”, all that dirt needed to go somewhere. To the dirt from the creation of the Seven Seas Lagoon was then deposited over the top of the Disney Utilidors network, and used to create the new level foundation of the Magic Kingdom theme park itself above it all.
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Kennedy Space Center Review (2022) -
(10/23/22) Back in June I was able to take a special visit to the Kennedy Space Center to take a preview peek inside their newest addition: Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex. I meant to post some information on this a little sooner, but then tried to time it out with the launch of the new Artemis rocket. If you’ve followed the progress of Artemis, you know it has suffered more than a few delays, but with a new launch window on the horizon, the timing is more than right to take a serious look inside the Kennedy Space Center once again in my latest article posted over at Blooloop, so please follow the link for that.
In additional to all the official media and release information the the Gateway attraction posted in the Blooloop piece, I’ve added a big assortment of personal photos I’ve taken myself showing off what I saw inside Gateway as well as a good look at other major attractions at the Kennedy Space Center. In all honestly, visiting the KSC was a fantastic experience, as I think my last visit there was about 30 years ago in the early ‘90s, and things have changed so much since then.
The old experience was highlighted by a bus tour out past the massive VAB building and if you were lucky, you might be allowed to get close to one of the launch pads and crawlers if they were not in use at the time. There wasn’t much to the main complex back in the day other than an assorted display of old rockets, but the experience now is more akin to the feeling you might have enjoyed when visiting Epcoit’s Future World back in the 90s. You know, back when the message was about a bright future ahead through technology advancements, and when everyone’s favorite ride there was Horizons.
The Kennedy Space Center of today now has that look at feel, with an assortment of large attraction buildings that combine displays of the actual hardware that went into space with interactive areas, theatrical re-creations of historical moments, an IMAX theater and even a couple of motion simulator rides. Plus you can see the acutal Space Shuttle Atlantis now on display… and I have to admit, it made me tear up a bit when I saw it.
Coming off a cruise, my family and I stopped in and really enjoyed the our experience there, from the larger than life attractions to the lunch we ate in the afternoon where even the food was quite tasty. (We also noted that it wasn’t as crazy overpriced as the food is at the nearby Orlando theme parks as well, which was nice.)
My family has a small bit of a connection here as well, as my wife’s grandfather was in the Air Force and was assigned the duty of flying the Apollo 13 astronauts to various locations around the world on a press tour upon their return to Earth. Meanwhile my oldest son is in college studying aerospace engineering and my other son just started college to become a professional pilot. So we left the Kennedy Space Center more than a little inspired, and definitely will make plan to return again on a future trip to try out the four different flight rides inside the new Gateway attraction.
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