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World News:
---- THE LATEST GLOBAL NEWS ----
(1/20/2025) Squid Game The Experience To Open in Seoul Next Month
(1/20/2025) Malaysia Opens First Glass Waterslide
(1/13/2025) Canada - Section of Niagara Falls To Close This Week for Flying Theater Shoot
(1/12/2025) Malta Opens New Flying Theater Attraction
(1/11/2025) Japan To Host Expo 2025 from April To October 2025
(1/6/2025) Marineland (France) Closes Down For Good
(12/20/2024) India's Wonderla Parks Open Adventures of Chikku: Wild Ride
Australia - (5/19/2024) Blooloop reports that Wavegarden has now opened their new URBNSURF surf park in Sydney, Australia. This massive new surf park attraction has been created at Sydney Olympic Park, and based on the success of Wavegarden’s first park over in Melbourne. The Sydney locations features a “46-module Wavegarden Cove”, two restaurants, a skate park, a leisure pool to relax in, an official surf school program, a surf shop for your gear and more.
Wavegarden claims that the programmable wave technology is able to create over 20 distinctly different style waves. This new Sydney location is the 8th Wavegarden in the world, and the second in Australia. Currently Wavegarden has attractions in Spain where it was first created, one in the UK (Bristol), Switzerland, South Korea and two in Brazil. Four more are planned to open over the next couple years, including one in Scotland, Tel Aviv, and two in the USA (Virginia Beach, VA at “Atlantic Park” and in Palm Springs, CA at “DSRT SURF”.
Follow the link for more details about the creation of this latest attraction in Australia.
 Brazil - (12/2/2024) A new theme park is said to be in the works for Sao Paulo, Brazil called Cacau Park. The park would be from Cacau Show, a large chocolate maker in Brazil, with the hopes of having it ready to open by 2027. A highlight of the park would be laying claim to the largest roller coaster in Latin America, to be built by Vekoma, standing 55 meters tall and hitting a top speed of 120 km/h (74.5mph) via a launch system. The coaster is thought to be either a Vekoma Ghostrider layout, or a variant of the design.
A list of other major attractions include three more roller coasters, VW Beetle shaped bumper cars, Ferris Wheel, NebulaZ, Starflyer, a Flying Theater and more, spread out across five areas, plus a CityWalk style area outside of the park entrance. Follow the links to see more pictures and details about the proposed park, as well as a video preview.
(11/22/2024) A press release from WhiteWater about the current projects they are working on mentions a number of exciting developments coming to Brazil over the coming years. This includes the Thermas dos Laranjais park opening a new tower with two six-person raft slides that will feature a fusion of three iconic slide features for the 2025 season. Elsewhere in Brazil, Beach Park will also be opening “the tallest water coaster in the world”, a Master Blaster slide launching at 27.9 meters (91.5 ft) in height.
In 2026 the Brasil Surfe Clube is expected to open Endless Surf Angra, the largest surf pool in South America.
Canada - (1/13/2025) Footage for the new Flying Theater attraction coming to Canada’s side of Niagara Falls will be taking place on two days this week. The shoot will cause the Horseshoe Falls on those two days to be closed to all pedestrian traffic from 3 to 9pm.
China - (11/22/2024) According to a report at ChinaDaily, the theme park industry in China is not only alive and well, but based on soaring attendance figures, it is growing rapidly! The article mentions that attendance at China’s theme parks in 2023 was said to have served 130 million visitors, which is an 71.84% increase over the previous year’s numbers. Of course, 2022 was still a year very much affected by the COVID pandemic and restrictions, so keep in mind that an attendance increase from 2022 to 2023 was expected, but this combined with a 97.86% boost in revenue also being reported in 2023 from the previous year, it does seem clear that theme parks have not only arrived, but are a very welcome form of leisure entertainment in the nation.
(5/27/2024) Melco Resorts & Entertainment has confirmed that as part of their plan to bring back the famous “House of Dancing Water” show to the Macao area in late 2024, they have now entruested Our Legacy Creations (OLC) to perform the task of ‘remounting’ the complex and iconic spectacle. According to the press release, OLC was founded by the desire to “extend Franco Dragone’s artistic legacy” and will not only return the cultural landmark performance to market, but also “a commitment to enhancing the theater with modern updates to captivate future audiences.”
Franco Dragone was the creative force behind a number of large scale spectacular shows over his lifetime, including a number of Cirque du Soleil’s early mega-hits within Las Vegas, including Mystere and “O”, before venturing off to start his own production company where he worked on even more Vegas spectaculars like Celine Dion’s A New Day at Caesar’s and La Reve at the Wynn.
As I understand it, Dragone’s “House of Dancing Water” was created as a way of taking what he had done with “O” in Las Vegas to the next level, and it performed from 2010 until June 2020 when the show was shut down due to the pandemic. Dragone himself passed away in late 2022, thus the reason for bringing in a group such as OLC who are dedicated to returning The House of Dancing Water to the stage.
Just before the pandemic shut down the original show, Dragone posted an excellent video all about the famous production on their YouTube channel which you can see below.
(4/28/2024) Another Peppa Pig Theme Park project is moving forward, this time in China. Unlike the small parks in the US, this will be a full scale park taking up 48 acres and located on Changzing Island, about 91 Km north of Shanghai.
(10/28/2023) Crayola LLC has confirmed that a Crayola Experience attraction will be coming to Beijing, China as one of several attractions to be built in the “Top Park” attraction complex that will feature a number of well known international IP attractions. Look for Top Park to open sometime in 2026 with at least five major-IP based attractions, a themed hotel and retail area located not far from the Universal Beijing Resort area. The project is being overseen by Max-Matching Entertainments who operated a large number of FEC attractions across China in partnerships with brands like Hasbro, mattel, Aardman and now Crayola.
France - (1/6/2025) As previously mentioned, Marineland in France has now officially closed up the theme park for good. The fate of about 4000 animals within the park is still a little unclear, though the plan was to transfer the park’s two killer whales to a new home somewhere in Japan. For now, a number of workers are remaining on site to care for the animals as park owner, Parque Reunidos, works to complete the closure and find new homes for them all. They say currently the park has until the end of 2026 to remove the Orcas from the park.
(12/6/2024) Blooloop reports that Marineland in Antibes, France is closing down on January 5th 2025 following the passing of a law in France that bans live shows featuring Dolphins and Whales within the country. The marine life park’s 4000 animals will be relcoated to ther parks and zoos across europe it is currently assumed that the park’s two Orcas / Killer Whales may be relocated to Loro Parque in Tenerife.
Germany - (9/17/2024) Sad news from Germany’s Oktoberfest this week, as it was reported that a 20-year old worker was struck and killed by the Olympia Looping roller coaster during testing ahead of the opening on Saturday.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this has happened with Olympia Looping as a similar incident took place when the traveling coaster was in Vienna in 2022 when another employee was struck and killed. Currently the accident is still under investigation and it isn’t known if the coaster would be cleared to open with the festival on Saturday.
Hong Kong - (8/20/2024) The Sega Joypolis indoor parks are known throughout Japan, but now the first flagship location outside of Japan has just opened in Hong Kong as the Joypolis Sports Indoor Sportainment Park. The new Hong Kong attraction is five-stories tall and features over 20 attractions as well as a Hungry Tiger Hidden Dragon restaurant and bar.
India - (12/20/2024) Blooloop reports that a new media film attraction called Adventures of Chikku - Wild Ride has opened at the Wonderla parks in Bangalore and Hyderabad, India. Chikku is said to be the mascot character of the Wonderla parks, so the new attraction is a great way to bring the park’s mascot character to life. Follow the link to find a preview of the new GCI action film.
(4/26/2024) It appears that a Batman: The Ride clone may have been purchased for the new Wonderla Amusement Park under construction in Chennai, India as early as 2025. While currently the group if working to finish another new amusement park Bhubaneswar later this year, it seems the company has purchased the former Lightning coaster from Kuwait Entertainment City which was a Batman clone that operated from 2004 to 2016, and then finally removed from the site in 2020.
(1/1/2024) Two new “Wonderla Amusement Park” locations are under construction in India right now, that will join the three pre-existing Wonderla parks in Kochi (2000, Bangalore (2005) and Hyderabad (2016).
“Wonderla Amusement Park Bhubaneswar” is expected to open sometime in 2024 and will feature two roller coasters, a family caterpillar style coaster that will likely use the same “Termite” name used at other Wonderla parks, and the second will be a Maurer Rides spinning coaster. This coaster was formerly located in Habtoorland (Lebanon) under the name “Twister” but was sold when the park shut down. Photos of this coaster now in place in India were posted to Twitter, which you can see below.
Wonderla also picked up another former coaster from this park, the Colossus (Vekoma Boomerang) and moved it to their Kochi park in 2017.
“Wonderla Amusement Park Chennai” will be the next park to open in India, possibly as early as 2025. A list of attractions or coasters has not yet been posted for this park.
Japan - (1/11/2025) 2025 is here and that means it is time for the next World Expo event, which are typically held at five year internals, with the last being Expo 2020 in Dubai, though due to the Pandemic the opening was delayed until 2021. This year’s event will open on April 13th at the Expo 2025 site in Osaka, Japan and is slated to run for 184 days, through to October 13, 2025.
Blooloop has posted a great preview of what we can expect to see at Expo 2025 with a look at some of the most anticipated pavilions being prepared right now, with a focus on the top 20 nation pavilions you will be able to see and what each will have to offer.
(12/7/2024) Would you believe that Harry Potter themed merchandise sold at the new Warner Bros. Studio Tour in Japan is now being recalled? According to the news reports, the problematic items are a collection of Harry Potter themed replica SWORDS being sold by the attraction that are now under scrutiny by the local authorities for a possible violation of the nation’s anti-weapon law because they’re a bit too realistic.
The key weapon the police are now interested in is the replica of the sword of Godric Gryffindor, that is a 34 inch long metal sword attached to a wooden display stand, sold at a cost of around $200 US. While not sharped like an actual weapon, the authorities believe that the blade is still sharp enough to possibly be in violation of Japan’s laws that control the sale of blades and firearms.
From the sound of things, those who have already purchased the replica sword from the Making of Harry Potter studio tour attraction are possibly being asked to turn the item into the police.
(6/22/2024) Blooloop reports that a new video game themed museum experience is now planned for Yokohama’s Nishi-ku ward, located about 30 minutes south of downtown Tokyo. Video game developer, Koei Tecmo, is working with a real estate developer to create the new “Game Art Museum” experience, with construction having started in February with the goal of being complete in Summer 2027.
The article also mentions that Nintendo is putting the finishing touches on their own museum project in Kyoto that is expected to open sometime this Fall.
Malaysia - (1/20/2025) A new glass waterslide attraction has now opened in Malaysia at SkyCity Tower, located in Shah Alam, Selangor. Check it out in action in the video clip below.
Malta - (1/12/2025) A new Flying Theater attraction called Odyssey Malta is now open in Malta’s Mercury Tower development. The project was put together by a number of teams, including Simtec Systems (motion simulation) and Mookraker VFK (ride media) and Endurescreens (projection screen solutions).
The new flying theater is said to offer guests a view into Malta’s history and heritage that starts off the experience with a multimedia experience and dark walk-through attraction before coming to the flying theater experience, which uses Simtec’s HEXaFLITE Mini attraction system.
Mexico - (9/24/2024) Fire and Rescue crews arrived at the “Nucleo de Feria” festival in Jalisco, Mexico to rescue five riders trapped upside down on the “Super Loops” ride. It was estimated that the riders may have been trapped upside-down for about half an hour before the rescue crews were able to start bringing them down.
(8/31/2024) According to a video posted on Facebook, a man has been thrown from a Trabant flat ride operating at a carnival in Mexico. Just a word of warning, some viewers may find the video too extreme to watch, so follow the link at your own discretion.
(7/21/2024) DOF Robotics has announced that they’ve opened a new Flying Theater attraction in Guadalajara, Mexico. The new attraction is able to hold 40 riders at a time and a video of the ride in action can be found below, which I believe is located at the Jalisco Interactive Museum (JAPI) inside the Werika Theater building. DOF Robotics calls this the first 40-seat 6DOF Flying Theater in Latin America, which also features 4D style effects such as wind, water spray and scents to enhance the ride experience.
The Netherlands - (9/29/2024) A new indoor theme park is coming to The Netherlands in 2025 called Bommelwereld, themed to the world and characters of Dutch comic creator, Olivier B. Bommel. Jora Vision hosted a press conference to tell more about the project at the IAAPA Expo Europe event last week, revealing that the themed indoor attraction themed as Castle Bommelstein is still on track to open in 2025 and will feature a themed family coaster from Vekoma called Bulder Baan. Other attractions included will be a double-decker carousel, an interactive climbing tower from Sunkid, a Zamperla Rockinn’ Tug, and an ABC Rides mini flume ride. Follow the link to learn more about this new theme park experience.
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Saudi Arabia - (9/20/2024) TopGolf is going to Saudi Arabia it seems. According to Blooloop, as part of an agreement with Saudi Golf, three TopGolf locations will be up and running within the Saudi kingdom by 2028, with an option to open two more locations in the future. The TopGolf centers were purchased by mega golf equipment supplier., Callaway, during the pandemic in 2021. So another interesting note within the deal is that Golf Saudi will also become the exclusive distributor of Callaway Golf, Odyssey, and Ogio products in Saudi Arabia going forward.
(2/16/2024) Congratulations to Thinkwell and WWE for the grand opening of the new WWE Experience attraction in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A number of clips showing off the new attraction can be found around social media, so I’m including a few below. From what I’ve been hearing, this attraction was created from scratch in just 4 to 5 months.
(2/14/2024) WWE’s social media teams have posted an great looking preview of the ‘Undertaker’s Graveyard Escape” that will be part of the WWE Experience attraction when it opens in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Feb. 16th. A second video below that shows off more of a preview of the entire WWE Experience.
While nothing has been confirmed yet, we have heard a rumor that provided that this version performs well, a version of the WWE Experience is said to be in the planning stages for a domestic location within the USA.
(1/27/2024) The new project announcements from Saudi Arabia just keep coming, this time NEOM has announced a new and crazy looking Eco-Tourism resort concept named Zardun. Zardun is described as having a series of three different themed boutique hotels that will feature only 100-rooms in total. The resort experience is focused on the beauty of nature surrounding the resort, outdoor activities like hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing, as well as inner-focus experiences such as Yoga, Stargazing and Meditation.
Zardun itself will focus on stimulating natural habitats throughout the resort area, including the creation of a series of “oases” offering “life giving water sources” to support the re-introduction of native animals and plant species, and along the Gulf of Aqaba, “Zardun will support a vibrant ecosystem, including the conservation of coral reefs and other marine life“.
Zardun is the latest in a series of really wild and unique new resort projects NEOM has announced as they imagine and create the future of tourism and lifestyle communities in Saudi Arabia. The list includes the amazing looking Leyja (built into a winding rocky canyon), Aquellum (a hidden community accessed by water through a hidden underground tunnel), Utamo (a destination for arts and entertainment experiences), and Oxagon (a floating industrial city) just to name a few. Of course none of these are quite as mind-blowing as NEOM’s $500 billion city of the future project, known as “THE LINE”. The vision for THE LINE is to replace the urban sprawl concept of yesterday with an almost sci-fi style planned vertically stacked city concept that would stretch to be 170km in length, 500 meters tall, and just 200 meters wide. Designed so all you basic needs should be within a 5-minute walk, and built with automated underground rail transportation systems known as “The Spine” able to move you from one end of The Line to the other in just 20 minutes. So in other words… no cars, no roads, no traffic or emissions in the air. The amazing thing is that excavation work to clear some of the site for the start of the foundations for THE LINE has already begun, along with the creation of mini support cities for the construction work.
Projects like these just don’t get built and come online in a short period of time, and obviously some epic projects like THE LINE would take a lifetime of work to see fully realized, so with that in mind, it seems inevitable that some of these visions will fail to become a reality.
South Korea - (1/20/2025) An interactive Squid Game themed experience will open in Seoul on Feb. 28th, 2025. The “Squid Game The Experience” attraction will let up to 30 players “engage in an interactive journey, playing six iconic games from Squid Game over 90 minutes,” including Young-hee’s Playground and more.
You can see the official attraction website here.
(10/12/2024) According to a new report from Blooloop, Paramount Global is working with South Korea’s mainly retail focused Shinsegae Group to build a new theme park in Hwaseong. Shinsegae will oversee the project that will include a 4.2 million square-meter entertainment complex that will feature the nearly 1.2 million square-meter theme park called Star Bay City, as well as on-site hotels, a retail/entertainment complex and a water park.
Paramount is supposed to be involved in the creation of the theme park attractions that will involve tapping into their library of popular IP such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.
Interesting Note: Paramount’s control or ownership of the various IPs associated with them is, in a word, complicated, as they don’t always have final say or control over all of those IPs, as many often fall to other companies who also have a say in the matter. For example, I believe all things Star Trek actually fall under the control of CBS Corporation. And the rights to the IPs involved in many popular movies Paramount is known for actually below elsewhere, such as Transformers is owned by Hasbro, Indiana Jones is now owned by Disney through the purchase of LucasFilm, and so on. Back when the a Paramount Park was proposed for London, a number of these issues did complicate matters to the point that eventually that park’s development stopped being focused exclusive to Paramount IP and was looking to make deals with other IP owners as well.
The budget for the South Korea project is said to be 1.4 trillion won ($1.3 billion) and once they get approval from the local government, the goal is to have it open by 2029.
(12/13/2023) While previously we reported that MSG Entertainment was struggling to find a way to bring a second Sphere venue to life in London, it seems another international location is stepping forward to possibly host the next Sphere. According to Blooloop, MSG Entertainment is in talks to possibly build a second Sphere venue in South Korea where it would serve as a home to numerous K-Pop concert events. The reports believe that a Sphere could become back of a planned K-Star World project coming to Hanam.
Spain - (10/14/2024) Michael Mack has confirmed that their Mack One and VRCoaster divisions have created their largest Yullbe Go VR experience to date as part of The Legend of the Titanic exhibit in Madrid, allowing up to 45 at a time to take a VR journey in to explore the Titanic as it was before the disaster.
The exhibit places the visitors on the dock to be greeted by the Captain before coming aboard, passing by passenger cabins before coming to the VR experience, along with various other spaces, both real, projected and immersive, to show off the events that led to the disastrous sinking, including a space where the guests find themselves standing on the floor of the ocean, viewing the Titanic as it rests today in the dark depths.
(9/3/2024) Harry Potter: The Exhibition will be returning to Spain on October 4th, this time in Madrid. The touring exhibit opened in Barcelona last November before moving north to reopen in Munich, Germany. However the Munch run is coming to a close as of September 5th, to allow it to return to Spain once again.
Elsewhere in the world, other version of Harry Potter: The Exhibition will open in Boston on Sept. 13th, another version is in Sao Paulo, Brazil until October 27th, and yet another version has been running in Macao since December 2023 and appears to be staying until at least the end of October 2024. New destinations for the Brazil and China versions have yet to be revealed.
UAE - (10/21/2024) Planning is now underway to build a copy of the famous Las Vegas Sphere performance venue, but this one will be in Abu Dhabi! Sphere Entertainment has signed a deal with Abu Dhabi’s culture and tourism department to build the world’s second Sphere.
This comes on the heels of the collapse of a potential deal to build a second Sphere in London after the city’s mayor rejected the proposal nearly one year ago. The final budget for the Abu Dhabi Sphere has not been revealed, but the original Sphere in Vegas was reported as having cost $2.3 billion by the time it opened last year with a series of performances by U2.
UK - (11/30/2024) According to a report on Blooloop the Brighton i360 observation tower (initially built as the British Airways i360), has filed to enter administration with a crushing £51 million debt owed to the local city council. According to the report the council agreed to take out a government loan in 2016 to help fund the project and the developers were to make the payments back to the council. Unfortunately the last payment they were able to make was back in June 2023. The attraction failed to draw in the numbers that they had hoped when it was designed and then was hit even harder during the pandemic years.
The future of the observation tower attraction isn’t clear at this time, as the city council will weigh their options once Brighton i360 officially enters administration. They may try to keep it open for a time and will most likely attempt to find someone to buy the attraction and take it over the 162 meter tall (531 foot) coastal observation tower attraction.
(11/5/2024) A small amusement park in the extreme South-Western corner tip of England shocked the fans and local community with the unexpected announcement on their website that the park was now closed permanently. According to the statement on the site, “Despite significant and ongoing investment since its rescue from closure in 2012 by the current owners, rising costs and a steady decline in visitor numbers have made the park’s operation and further investment unsustainable.” The park had already suffered this season with the closure of a number of their popular older thrill rides due to rising costs and difficulty in souring needed spare parts. The location will not close entirely however, as the indoor play area, Ferdi’s Funland, will reopen as a stand-alone attraction starting Nov. 17th.
(11/3/2024) While it isn’t officially Star Trek themed… a very Star Trek inspired experience has arrived in London as an interactive experience called Bridge Command. This isn’t just a video game, players are outfitted into themed jumpsuits, given proper job roles to fill, each with their new challengers, as you interact with each other as well as an army of cast / crew members in place to keep the whole experience running.
Apparently your experience record is kept on file, allowing you to return, try new jobs, and build up a sort of career of experience and growing rank for your character over time. You can check out a bunch of photos and a video review over at Eurogamer and find out how you can experience Bridge Command yourself in London at the official website.
(9/15/2024) Good news for Scotland, as the nation’s first Alpine Coaster opened this weekend at the Midlothian Snowsports Center in Hillend. They say it is the longest Alpine Coaster in the UK with an overall length of 980 meters, with guests able to hit a top speed of 28mph. Take a virtual ride on it by watching the POV video below.
UZBEKISTAN - (5/30/2024) Plans are being developed to build the largest amusement park in Central Asia somewhere in Uzbekistan. The park will be named Grand Serai and is expected to include a seasonal water park, an amusement park, an on-site hotel, and a large area to be used for retail stopping, entertainment and dining locations. Legacy Entertainment has been working on the design of the property, which will also include some kind of “nightly acrobatic show” involving projection mapping.
Currently the developer is still looking for the right site to build the project on, with the hopes of opening the first phase by 2027. The goal is for the complex to find a 28 hectares site, though they have already confirmed that 20 of those hectares will be taken up by the water park, which confirms that it will be the true focus of the project, and that the much smaller amusement park will be more of a secondary attraction.
VIETNAM - (7/6/2024) ProSlide is celebrating the opening of the new Sam Son Water Park in Vietnam. The brand new attraction features a number of ProSlide attractions, including several notable record holders and regional firsts. The list includes Asia-Pacific’s Tallest Double TornadoWAVE 60 and BehemothBOWL 60, the world’s first PowerRiver Generation 2, KIDZ TornadoWAVE and KIDZ Adventure Tower. All together, the new Sam Son Water Park features over 30 new thrilling water experiences!
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