As we watch the roller coaster ride of parks being bought and sold, drama with owners and management, and wild swings in the economy, actually seeing how that impacts the parks has its own series of ups and downs.
Jon and I spent a few days last summer at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Kings Dominion, and Hersheypark. These are three great theme parks, but recent trends
First off…rumor has it I may—or may not—have been working on a special project that will knock your socks off. But I got that from a source working on the inside with the Dippin’ Dots dude, so you know how that is. (Surely this whole Dippin’ Dots thing originated from some marketing genius at the company. Any of you run to the stand every time you hear park rumors?) I also was told on the sly that the corporate lawyers got busy figuring out what to do with it…but they waved their magic wand, blessed it, and
Well, they finally made it. After several weeks of wondering if they’d be able to open at all, Hershey unveiled the brand new expansion we’ve been anticipating for so long. And who was worried? It was only the largest expansion project in park history, adding twenty-three acres and clocking in at $150 million. It’s a shame the virus situation poured a bit
One major chapter of my regional park history book deals with how these parks lost their original design intent along the way. Decades of ownership turnover, corporate management, current trends for IP overlays, and so on rendered most of these parks nearly unrecognizable from when they first opened. Carowinds opened as a tribute to the North & South Carolina region. Most everything was historical based
The world suffers no shortage of theme parks, but few really live up to the name. Simply staging a few old tools in the queue and carving a clever name on the sign doesn’t cut it. A truly thematic experience is designed to immerse guests in a story or place so they believe they are actually there, such as Universal’s Diagon Alley or Disney’s Frontierland. But surely one of the most completely immersive parks with a coherent, all-encompassing theme has to be
Perhaps it’s largely personal bias. I’ve loved the mountains my whole life, and I’d give pretty much anything to move back someday. But Dollywood absolutely has to be one of the most authentically situated parks anywhere. Whereas many parks try to cater to a variety of interests, featuring wide-ranging themed lands and attractions, Dollywood is pretty much Eastern Tennessee mountains. That’s where it came from, and it’s
