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Central Florida News - (5/7/08) The new Gator Falls Flume ride at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo is set to open on June 7th according to Screamscape sources. The new log ride will finish with a 30 foot plunge that will appear to be part of the albino alligator habitat. Meanwhile we’ve been sent a link to a city document that seems to list what the Zoo’s next project is as well. Scroll down to page 11 and you’ll see that money was allocated to both the “Log Flume Ride” project and to an “African Lodge” project described as “Lodge construction activities and related new animal exhibits for “Safari Africa”. From what our source tell us, the original plans for the “Lodge” was to be a mixture of a restaurant facility with built in animal exhibits.
  (4/25/08) A huge photo trip report dropping into many of Florida’s smaller attractions provides us with a look at things a little off the beaten path for most. First stop (drop?) is the Dania Beach Hurricane… which is still the name of the ride even if the Boomers website doesn’t list it as such. They also drove past the Hopkins HQ as well as walked up next to the old closed-down Haunted Mansion in Orlando on 192, Magical Midway and then down to the Miami-Dade Fair to get a last ride in on Doppel Looping before they retired it.
  (4/24/08) Coaster Community has posted a quick review and a couple of photo galleries of Aquaventure at Atlantis in the Bahamas (Nassau), a common stop for many Cruise Ship guests taking a cruise along with their Orlando vacations.
  (4/17/08) Earlier this month the the Westin Imagine Orlando celebrated their grand opening right across from the Orange County Convention Center. The new 12 story hotel has 315 rooms, a lagoon-style pool, fitness center, Fiorella’s Cucina Toscana restaurant and more.
  In other news, Starwood announced that they would build one of their new eco friendly Element hotels near Universal Orlando. The first Element hotel will actually open in Boston later this spring while the 137 room Orlando hotel will open in August 2009.
  (4/15/08) An incident took place the other day in or near the parking lot of Wet ‘n Wild where a group of teenagers began arguing and fighting with everything from sticks and rocks before is escalated to the point someone pulled a gun and fired three times hitting one 18 year old in the leg. Apparently everyone involved were part of an “organaized” trip of over 1,000 students from the Broward and Palm Beach counties set up by Xtreme Trips as the “Spring Bling” trip. The staff were trying to break up the fight but it seems they didn’t have enough chaperones to handle the extreme number of students involved. It’s unknown who exactly shot the weapon, but Orlando police did find a handgun in the bathroom on one of the group’s buses and is testing it to see if it was the weapon used in the attack.
  (3/24/08) Cruise Ship fanatics who also love to take vacations to Orlando are in for a bit of a treat as Royal Caribbean Cruises signed a 5 year deal with Port Canaveral to bring the Freedom of the Seas to Canaveral starting in May 2009. As one of three “Freedom” class ships, they are currently the largest passenger ships running, holding over 4,300 passengers and 1,300 crew members on it’s 15 decks. As far as cruise ships go, this one is almost a floating theme park featuring an interactive waterpark, rock climbing wall, a FlowRider stationary surf wave, ice skating rink, mini-golf course and more.
  (3/13/08) Though it sounds odd to me, Screamscape sources tell us that Dixie Stampede may be talking with Disney about building their replacement Orlando location in Disney’s Flamingo Crossings development. (WHERE?) Yeah, Flamingo Crossings… the name Disney put on that large new retail / hotel development project they are trying to sell to people that will go up where Western Way ends at the Western Beltway. Kind of makes me wonder about how soon we may see Dixie Landings return since I didn’t think we would see much go up out there for several years.
  (2/27/08) Lone Star Thrills has updated their site this week with tons of new photos from parks all across Central Florida.
  (2/18/08) The popular Orlando FlexTicket that offers a sweet deal on discounted admission to the Universal and Busch theme parks will be getting even sweeter this year. Starting in March the old 4 and 5 park FlexTickets will be phased out with a new Orlando FlexTicket and Orlando FlexTicket PLUS that will include admission to Aquatica, SeaWorld’s new waterpark.
  (2/14/08) Downtown Orlando’s Cheyenne Saloon will reopen today at Church Street Station, a recreation of the original that first opened back in 1982. The ribbon cutting will take place sometime around 5pm to be followed by a concert performance by Lonestar tonight, Collin Raye on Friday and Lee Greenwood on Saturday. Cheyenne Saloon will open daily at 4pm but will actually have an admission cost of $10 that will include admission and the “regular entertainment”, concerts will cost extra.
  (2/4/08) Orlando fans take note that a new social community site is opening up just for you called The OUNCE… which stands for Orlando United Networking Community Experience. The site has just opened up and is testing out all the various features so if your interested, take a peek.
  (2/1/08) If your in Orlando over the next several weeks keep an eye out for the new Feb/March 2008 issue of Orlando Attractions Magazine featuring The Simpsons on the cover. The new publication can be found at Orlando area stores, hotels and gift shops and is also available by subscription at AttractionsMagazine.com. You can also see a free preview of the newest issue online.
  (1/17/08) MouseSteps takes a visit to Gatorland to see their latest construction progress to rebuild after the fire wiped out their old main gate area.
  (1/11/08) The new owners of the Holy Land Experience theme park are planning a large renovation project to spruce up the attraction and claims that attendance is on the rise.
  (1/10/08) According to the Orlando Sentinel, a 14 mile stretch of I-4 between Orlando and Tampa is now closed following a 70 pile-up that left four people dead. The crash took place due to poor visibility caused by foggy conditions made worse by a nearby wildfire. No word on when they will be ready to reopen the road as they are collecting evidence, so if your there now or going this week, please check for updates and alternate roads you can take if you were planning on heading down to Tampa or Busch Gardens.
  Meanwhile the latest update about the sale of the Dixie Stampede confirms the sale of the attraction site to a division of the Simon Property Group who owns the Orlando Premium Outlet mall across the street. Dixie Stampede officials claim that the purchase offer was just too good to refuse and that they are looking for a new location in Orlando where they could build an all new Dixie Stampede.
  (1/9/08) According to Screamscape sources, Dixie Stampede was bought out by the Prime Outlet Mall right across the street for a rumored price of approximately $23 million. Apparently they were quite eager to obtain the Dixie Stampede location to allow for some future expansion room for the mall which is always quite busy.
  (1/8/08) I’m sad to report that Dixie Stampede in Orlando suddenly announced that they would be closing down last night. Apparently the dinner theater attraction (it was the best in Orlando in my opinion!) closed for rehab at the end of it’s Christmas show run after the Saturday night performance to convert everything back to the normal version of the show and was supposed to reopen on Wednesday. The owners have confirmed that they have sold the attraction to an unknown buyer and were letting their entire 300 person staff go. Insiders tell us that other than a few rumors going around, the first news that most employees heard was when it was announced on the news yesterday. Employees have so far only been informed that they will receive some kind of two month severance package, but no details were given yet.
  (12/6/07) Orlando Rocks has posted a new construction update showing off the huge new Hilton Grand Vacations resort buildings going up between kind of between SeaWorld and Disney World, just south of Central Florida along Turkey Lake Road.
  (12/3/07) For all your tech-heads heading to Orlando for a little bit of fun, a new Hyatt Place is opening up near Universal Orlando, converted from an old AmeriSuites. Why should you care? Well the Hyatt Place concept is to care to the tech-savvy next-gen travelers where every square-inch of the place has free WiFi, 42 inch HDTVs, and check-in kiosks to speed things up, touch-screen menu’s and more. A second Hyatt Place has already opened on I-Drive north of the Convention Center (South of Sand Lake) and several more are on deck for the Orlando area in the near future.
  (11/27/07) The central Florida area is about to get another flume ride it seems, this time in the Tampa area at the Lowry Park Zoo. The attraction has yet to be named, but according to the news release, “Coming in 2008, more great events, new animals and an all new water flume ride (Spring '08), where zoo guests will float above the Florida Boardwalk and come to a splashing conclusion into a white alligator exhibit!” The only mention of the project I could find on the Zoo’s website was the future location marked on the map in the top-center.
  (10/17/07) According to the Orlando Biz Journal Levy Restaurants and Schussler Creative are teaming up to create as many as 10 new themed restaurant attractions. Schussler is the creative force behind Yak & Yeti at Animal Kingdom and the new T-Rex Café, as well as the Rainforest Café concept which they sold to Landry’s in 2000. The various restaurant concepts include ideas like the Hot Dog Hall of Fame, America’s Roadhouse, the odd Aeroblue concept (not sure how to describe it), Musical Gardens (fine dining in outdoor garden atmosphere), Dynasty (Asian food in a highly themed Chinese palace). A couple of more highly themed ideas that stood out to me were the Winter Wonderland idea of an eatery in a year-round winter environment serving cold-weather comfort food and The Sorcerer’s Kitchen, a magic school themed restaurant. No locations were given, but based on the fact that they already run several restaurants in Orlando, it seems a sure thing that several of these concepts will likely touch down in Florida.

The Blue Rose - Announced - (2/21/08) The latest word is that construction should have finally started on this project and if so, it could open by the end of 2009. Can anyone confirm this?
  (7/9/07) The Orlando rumor mill reports that some changes are being made to the planned Blue Rose condo hotel project not far from Wet ‘n Wild that has delayed the start of construction. Of course one of the wilder rumors right now claims that an indoor ski run may be added to the project. Of course big projects like this are announced, change and even drop dead all the time (such as the the grand Aqua project downsizing into The Square) so it’s hard to trust anything until the construction crews start work.
  (2/22/06) The Blue Rose is a massive $650 million condo hotel project slated for the I-Drive area near Sand Lake Road. The website promises that it will be Orlando’s tallest (438 feet / 39 stories) and most magnificent hotel, featuring two Broadway style shows: Cantare (a latin musical review) and That’s Music (American music from the 20’s to present day). The first phase (515 units) is expected to open in early 2009. You can count on it having a ton of high end restaurants as well, but it’s too early to lock down the exact lineup at this point. You can read more at the OBJ.

Bonnet Creek Resort - (3/30/07) The resort formerly known as Fairfield Orlando at the Bonnet Creek Resort has been renamed Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort.
  (6/14/06) I missed a couple of big announcements for the Orlando area over the last week, both of which involve the Bonnet Creek Resort, a non Disney owner property who’s only access road is right through the middle of Walt Disney World near the Caribbean Beach Resort on Buena Vista Drive. Currently it is only a small but growing timeshare resort, but it seems the owners have made deals with some major players. So far Hilton has announced that they will build a 1,000 room Hilton hotel as well as a 500 room Waldorf Astoria at Bonnet Creek, followed a few days later by an announcement from Wyndham who plans to build their own 400 room hotel and huge spa at Bonnet Creek as well called the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista Hotel & Spa at Bonnet Creek. Boy, that’s a mouthful to spit out for what is essentially going to be the Wyndham Walt Disney World. Both the Hilton and Wyndham resorts will start construction before the end of the year and open by 2009. This is all in addition to the existing Fairfield timeshare complex that is still growing and when complete will total 1,594 rooms itself and a golf course.

Fun Spot - (4/24/08) Okay… one final correction about the S&S Screamin’ Swing at Fun Spot. It seems I had a massive brain cramp over this whole issue, as I forgot that when Gauntlet was at Wild Adventures, they actually bought two identical 8-seat ride units and not just one. Unfortunately, the ride was at the park so briefly I’ve yet to find a good picture of the two units standing side-by-side anywhere. So there you have it… and it does seem that Fun Spot pretty much just combined the two used units to make the one functioning one now in place at Fun Spot USA.
  (4/24/08) I’ve got to make a correction today about that set of pieces from an unknown second S&S Screamin Swing on site at Fun Spot. After looking over the pieces carefully, I’ve determined that these are pieces from an identical 8-seat model and could not possibly be the old 4 seat (single swing) model that used to sit in front of Skull Kingdom. The giveaway is the ride arms with cross-ties as seen here as the old Skull Kingdom ride’s single arm had no cross-ties.
  (4/22/08) JohnnyUpsidedown took a visit to the main Fun Spot attraction on the north end of I-Drive (near Universal) and spotted pieces of another S&S Screamin’ Swing attraction. From the rumors we’ve heard, Fun Spot may have actually purchased the parts from a second unknown dysfunctional S&S Screamin’ Swing in addition to the one they purchased from Wild Adventures and set up at the Fun Spot USA site. If the rumor is true, the ride up and running at Fun Spot USA is a sort of mix and match version of parts from the two rides to get one version up and running. It’s unknown where the parts for this second ride may have come from, but I’ve got to wonder if they ended up being the remains of the old Skull Kingdom model.

Fun Spot USA - (4/24/08) For anyone interested in old flat rides, we’ve been sent some interesting information about that Sky Wheel put up at Fun Spot USA. This information comes to us from a Thomas Wolf who reports being the ride’s 6th owner and apparently it comes with a little bit of history. While the Sky Wheel was sold as an Allen Herschell it was actually built by Farnum Manufacturing, which was owned by the same parent company as AH.
  The first owner was an E.D. McCrary of 20th Century Shows in Houston who got the ride on October 10th, 1960. He later sold it to an Irvin Deggeller in 1963 who later sold it to Forest Walz & Rod Link (3rd owners). From here it went to a Jack Thompson until he passed away and it went to Mike Fetherstone of Gold Star Amusements before they traded it in to Chance and it ended up with Mr. Wolf who apparently traveled with the ride for a good number of years until age and health issues caught up with me and he couldn’t do it any more, though apparently he did come in to set it up at Fun Spot USA. He refers to the ride as “Old Number One” and tell us that he was the one who gave it a model and serial number because it never had one. It’s model number is B-4-1 (the one built before number one) with a serial number of 10-10-60, the date it left the factory.
  One final note about Hot Seat… apparently they’ve canned the idea of adding a flame projector to the top. According to this article in the Orlando Sentinel the, “cost was more than the park anticipated, so the blaze is on indefinite hold.”
  (3/27/08) New pictures from Fun Spot USA showing off the operational Hot Seat as well as the SkyWheel have been posted to JohnnyUpsidedown, just scroll down to the bottom. Before they add the flames projectors to the ride they want to repaint it first and get the new logo up on the ride. Meanwhile pieces of yet another ride have shown up on site that appear to be for an Allan Herschell Flying Bobs ride with a Juke Box theme.
  (3/25/08) Accoring to the Orlando Sentinel, Fun Spot USA opened their new S&S Screaming Swing on Friday and named it Hot Seat. They are working on adding a new special effect to the ride as well which will allow for flames the shoot up into the air from the top of the ride’s structure, which they hope to get working by the end of the week. This… I’ve got to see.
  (3/5/08) Johnny Upsidedown has posted several new construction photos from Fun Spot USA today. Looks like they’re making progress on the S&S Screamin Swing and have poured the footers for it. Meanwhile the Sky Wheel is now standing tall, but still hasn’t had all of the benches added to it yet.
  (2/19/08) From what I’ve been told the February print issue of Amusement Today had an article about the Fun Spot parks. They mention that currently many of those new rides that have been popping up at Fun Spot USA are part of a rental deal with a carnival operator from Pennsylvania along with a bunch of new concessions and games stands. The big news however is that they mentioned that they’ve bought a Vekoma Boomerang at a cost of $4-5 million. It’s worth mentioning that this will actually be Florida’s first Boomerang, despite the fact that the Vekoma Boomerang has got to be the world’s most cloned coaster. RCDB is currently tracking 57 of them right now, so this could easily be a new or a used coaster. Anyone know more?
  (2/8/08) A reader went by Fun Spot USA and snapped a ton of