Ep: 35 - Jun 30th - Lightning Lane Changes and Halloween Monsters

Nuts about Theme Parks

This week's News:

- Disney World is rebranding and changing it's Genie+ service, moving to Lightning Lane Multi Pass from July 24th. Individual Lightning Lane will also become Lightning Lane Single Pass with this change. The change will also allow the prebooking of these lightning lane passes up to a week before visiting for the entirety of the stay up to 14 days. It will be 7 days for Disney Resort guests, and 3 days for all other theme park visitors, which is a major perk for staying onsite.

- Disney World has also opened Tiana's Bayou Adventure this weekend, after a few weeks of previews. Disney also released the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure soundtrack across all major streaming platforms. Just search for "Music From Tiana's Bayou Adventure."

- The movie Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is coming to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights this year in both Orlando and Hollywood. In their press release Universal said that visitors "will find themselves in the sinister world of the supernatural, from Ray’s Occult Books shop to the Ghostbuster’s new high-tech lab and containment facility to the dank New York City sewer system."

- Hollywood has also announced another original IP house Monstruos 2: The Nightmares of Latin America.

- Knott's Berry Farm reopened its Camp Snoopy land following the latest refurbishment of this 41-year-old children's land.

- The Blue Man Group is coming back to Orlando, to perform as a new theatre at ICON Park on I-Drive. The act had been performing at Universal Orlando Resort up until the pandemic.

- Universal have given details of a third party report into the economic impact of the Universal Great Britain theme Park development, stating that "a new Universal theme park resort on the site could generate £35.1 billion in net economic contribution for the UK during the construction period and first 20 years of operation. The project could generate £14.1 billion in net additional tax returns during that period"

- Dutch theme park Efteling will add a 31st scene to its Fairytale Forest attraction - The Princess and the Pea. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and inspired by a sketch created by park founder Anton Pieck, this installation will be placed between the Troll King and Mother Holle's well, on the forest's edge and behind the new Efteling Grand Hotel.

- Six Flags Magic Mountain and Great Adventure have announced a series of IPs for their Halloween event Fright Fest Extreme, with The Conjuring Universe (The Conjuring, Annabelle and The Nun), Saw, Trick ‘r Treat, Stranger Things and Army of the Dead. Magic Mountain are also getting Texas Chainsaw Massacre exclusively.

- Finally, The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the merger of Cedar Fair and Six Flags ahead of the planned start of joint operations on July 1st.