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Central Florida News - (3/13/10) I’m told that a couple of new attractions have been added to Fun Spot Action Spot on I-Drive: a kiddie “swing” attraction and a carnival style Fun Slide.  Yeah… I know… nothing to thrilling or exciting there. They removed the “Panda Ride” to make room it seems.
    (2/20/10) Gatorland has launched the start of a new attraction at the park that they’re calling the Mile of Monsters. It will be a self-guided tour with stops to see 10 of the park’s most notorious Gators and Crocs.  The plan is to expand it over the next few months to include 24 animal stops, each one starting with a different letter of the Alphabet. Get all the letters and arrange them into a password and you’ll be rewarded with a prize from the gift shop on your way out. Read more about it at the Sun-Sentinel.
    (2/16/10) A new photo update for Old Towne and Fun Spot USA has been posted to Orlando Parks News.
    (2/8/10) The Tournament of Champions finals will be voted on this week, starting with the Red Bracket today which will feature a six-way final vote where only the top four will advance. Up today: SheiKra vs X2 vs Fahrenheit vs Lightning Racer vs Thunderhead vs Prowler. Yep... the top vertical drops up against the top woodies.
    (2/2/10) Calling all Central Florida locals from theme parks from years gone by… it seems the former Circus World theme park, which later became Boardwalk & Baseball, is holding an employee reunion. Find out more here.
    (2/1/10) The Tournament of Champions is back this week with some new polls. First off is a Sudden-Death one day only tiebreaker poll between Mr. Freeze and Powder Keg. After that head into this week’s big showdown between Big Thunder Mt, Roadrunner Express and Space Mountain from Disneyland and Florida’s Magic Kingdom. 
    (1/27/10) According to the Orlando Sentinel’s interview with Merlin Entertainment’s CEO the Orlando area could become home to a new Madame Tussauds wax museum in the future. Nothing firm mind you, only that it may be something they are looking into.
    (1/20/10) For anyone wondering the questionable Flea Market that opened briefly inside the old Dixie Stampede building has indeed closed down for good it seems. You can see a few pictures of the sad quiet building posted to Orlando United. No word on what may happen with the building next, other than that when Dixie Stampede moved out, they said they would not return to that building for some reason. It’s kind of a shame, as I actually felt that they had the best dinner theater show in Orlando while they were up and running. Both the regular and Christmas shows were spectacular and the food was actually good.
    (1/15/10) The latest Tournament of Champions poll starting today is another B&M showdown between Kraken, Kumba, Dominator and Wildfire. Vote now!
    (1/14/10) The latest poll at the Tournament of Attractions is a huge wooden coaster showdown between Gwazi, Lightning Racer, Thunderhead and Prowler. I think the Florida favorite is going to get stomped on by Lightning Racer and Thunderhead for sure, with Prowler lurking in the background.
    (1/11/10) This week we get to see a rare look inside Orlando’s infamous Holy Land Experience park. You can see the photo update posted this week to Amusement Insider as well as a bit of a trip report with even more photos here. I’ve got to admit, some of it is kind of creepy… like the 2D cutout people… and some of it just is plain weird.
    In other news a reader has sent in three pictures of new waterslide pieces sitting at the site of the future CoCo Key waterpark resort.
    (1/8/10) The latest Tournament of Champions poll starts today and an interesting one, putting Revenge of the Mummy (USF version) vs. Powder Keg vs. Expedition Everest vs. Mr. Freeze (SFOT version).
    (1/6/10) A new Tournament of Champions has launched today, putting up Incredible Hulk vs. Maverick vs. Rock ‘n Roller Coaster vs. Flight of Fear.
    (1/5/10) The latest battle is now live at the Tournament of Champions… and it is a doozy as FOUR coasters now battle for the top spot, pitting the top Vertical Drops against the top Vertical Drop coasters: SheiKra vs. X2 vs. Hollywood Rockit vs. Fahrenheit.
    (12/31/09) The latest Tournament of Champions battle is now live, this time with a battle of the dark coasters, pitting Space Mountain (WDW) against Space Mountain (Disneyland) VS The Dark Knight (Six Flags).  Oh… I pity Batman on this one.
    (12/30/09) The latest poll in the Tournament of Champions is a battle of the sit-down B&M megaloopers pitting B&M’s first ever, Kumba, up against Wildfire (Silver Dollar City) and The Time Machine… formerly known at Led Zeppelin at Freestyle Music Park.
    (12/29/09) The next Tournament of Champions poll for today is a battle of the wooden coasters… The Dania Beach Hurricane VS Thunderhead (Dollywood) VS Prowler (Worlds of Fun).
    (12/28/09) The news poll for the Tournament of Champions will go live today in a three way battle between B&M Compact Inverted coasters… pitting the original Batman: The Ride VS Flight Deck VS Ice Dragon. 
    (12/24/09) The latest Tournament of Champions poll is up with a three-way battle between Expedition Everest, Mr. Freeze (Texas) and Revenge of the Mummy (Hollywood).
    (12/21/09) The latest poll in the new Tournament of Champions is now up, pitting Rock ‘n Roller Coaster VS Flight of Fear VS Poltergeist.
    (12/18/09) Two quick poll updates for the Tournament of Champions. First off the Mine Train poll has gone into sudden death overtime between Adventure Express and Roadunner Express. Meanwhile a new poll is starting today for all those Vertical Lift Hill tower coasters: Hollywood Rip, Ride Rockit VS Mystery Mine VS Fahrenheit.
    (12/17/09) A new Poll has gone live as a battle of the biggest and best B&M Inverted coasters in the nation… pitting Montu VS Alpengeist VS After Burn. Vote now!
    (12/14/09) I’ve got a couple of new tournament updates in the Tournament of Champions.  Ending very soon is a Floorless coaster face off – Kraken VS Dominator VS Bizarro. Then starting later today is a Mine Train showdown between WDW’s Big Thunder Mountain, King’s Island’s Adventure Express and Six Flags Fiesta Texas’ Roadrunner Express.
    (12/11/09) CoCo Key has announced plans to open an indoor waterpark resort in Orlando by March 2010. The small indoor waterpark chain typically buys an underperforming hotel and improved it with the waterpark addition. In Orlando the have purchased the Legacy Orlando Grand Resort / Orlando Grand Plaza hotel for their needs, though it seems it wont have as big an indoor waterpark as some of the others, but will instead have a bigger outdoor waterpark section. You can read more at About.Themeparks.
    (12/8/09) It seems the ICE! displays have spread to other Gaylord resorts as well, as well as the concept of themeing them. The Gaylord National resort outside Washington DC has one themed to Christmas on the Potomac which featuring ice versions of many famous DC landmarks. The Gaylord Texan meanwhile has a How The Grinch Stole Christmas themed version.
    Meanwhile the Orlando version at the Gaylord Palms actually held their own version of a Polar Bear Club event and let people run around in the 9º attraction in their bathing suits as well as slide down the ice slides. In fact they shot a nice little video of the event for us all to enjoy below!

    (11/30/09) For the winter holiday season the Gaylord Palms resort has brought back “ICE” once again. Great pictures of this year’s ICE display has been posted to Orlando Rocks where it looks like they got very into colored ice displays this year.
    (11/18/09) Gatorland is revamping their Jumparoo show, where the Aligators leap into the air for tasty meaty objects. Seems the retired all the old jumpers in favor of bringing in a group of younger hungry gators.
    (11/5/09) Behind the Thrills takes the time to chat with Kyle and Stacy as they wrap up their amazing 67 Days of Smiles tour of the Orlando area attractions. The live interview will take place on Nov. 5th, from 8 to 8:45 EST.
    (10/20/09) Good news for Orlando… The Improv comedy club will be opening a new location in Pointe Orlando in Spring 2010. This is great news, as a good comedy club is what I always thought Orlando needed when I was living there. Disney had the Comedy Warehouse of course, but we’ve seen them stupidly ignore that facility and shut it down along with the rest of the old Pleasure Island clubs for no good reason. Honestly, Disney could have made a killing with a good comedy club on site, Pleasure Island or not…  but Disney’s loss is Pointe Orlando’s gain. More power to them!
    In the meantime, if your into warfare games but don’t care for the sting of paintball, Orlando now has a perfect place for you. It’s called Hard Knocks, and it features an arsenal of more realistic looking and sized laser tag weaponry used normally for military and SWAT team training sessions. Even better are the arenas… as this isn’t a UFO themed little room with black lights you’ll be fighting in. Hard Knocks features two different arenas… one themed like a realistic warehouse environment and the other looking more like your typical Office environment, complete with cubicles. Check out all the details at the official website.
    (9/17/09) Remember the old Dixie Stampede building? You know, the one they sold off to the mall and closed the show down for… only to have the deal to sell the building fall through several months later. Yeah… that mansion looking building just off I-4. You’ll never guess what it is going to be used for now… a Flea Market.  Yep… take a look at the picture here. How sad…