This is the 35th year that Universal Orlando has invited guests to descend into the darkness and marvel at the macabre (and about the 25th year that I’ve attended). While virtually all major theme parks (and many minor ones) now get in on the seasonal hijinks, the Florida resort’s Halloween Horror Nights (presented most evenings through November 1) has evolved into parkdom’s foremost haunted happening (along with HHN at sister property, Universal Studios Hollywood). With its incredible production value, incorporation of renowned intellectual properties, and massive crowds, the Florida event is the granddaddy of gore.

“We bring the biggest names in horror pop culture, combined with creations and designs of our own making, and create a park that becomes a living horror film,” says Mike Aiello, senior director for entertainment creative development at Universal Orlando and longtime HHN honcho.

For the 35th anniversary, Aiello and his team have crafted an impressive collection of ten haunted houses filled with elaborate sets, wild special effects, and “scareactors” dying to shock the snot out of you. The overarching theme is the “Infernal Carnival of Nightmares,” presided over by the event’s flagship icon, Jack the Clown, and his rival, Dr. Oddfellow. They greet guests at the front of the park, are featured in their own house, and figure prominently in many of the scare zones.

But the real draws of HHN are the brand-name films, series, and celebrities it presents. For me, the most anticipated house was the one dedicated to the late heavy metal pioneer, Ozzy Osbourne. And it didn’t dissapoint.

The rocker’s son, Jack Osbourne, approached Universal about creating a posthumous Ozzy house and worked alongside his mother, Sharon Osbourne, with the HHN team to develop Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness. (Actually, to develop two of them; Hollywood’s HHN tribute is different.) With the rocker’s anthem, “Straight to Hell,” blasting at the entrance, the premise of the house is established. Assorted disciples of the satanic superstar, including Gothic gargoyles that come to life, threaten to attack guests. They are not especially frightening, however. This is a house that is designed more as a stylish, adoring ode to Ozzy than a white-knuckle experience.

“Sure, the Ozzy house has scares,” Aiello says, “but it’s beautiful. We’re real proud of it.”

Of course, the Prince of Darkness’ music plays throughout the house. For his most famous solo hit, “Crazy Train,” guests enter a car that seems to be careening off the rails and witness passengers who have met a gruesome fate. In the final scene, a top-hatted Ozzy keeled over from a high perch and almost fell on me as he uttered his famous line, “I love you all.” Despite the chaos, it nearly brought me to tears.

In terms of scares and overall design production, the Evil Dead Burn house is my pick for this year’s HHN winner (although Aiello is right, the Ozzy house is stunning). It is based on the recently released film, which takes a more serious tone than its campy, Bruce Campbell-starring predecessors. The scares are abundant in the claustrophobic setting, and the tone is quite creepy. There are some notable effects, including projections and some rabid dogs that might be animatronics or might be puppets; regardless, they are convincing. One particularly gory scene makes, er, creative use of a huge pneumatic drill.

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A close runner-up for best house this year is Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control, which reveals the origin story of HHN’s iconic clown. It turns out that Jack Schmidt joined Dr. Oddfellow’s circus and proved to be a lousy clown and an even worse murderer. The doctor tried to dispose of his errant employee in an horrific, if amusing way, but Jack somehow survived and became immortal as a conniving clown. The archenemies eventually formed a tentative truce when they realized, as Universal puts it, “fear divided is fear diluted.” United, they unleash their assault on visitors to their carnival (which, unfortunately, includes hapless HHN guests). There are two spinning vortex tunnels in the house, one of which incorporates a tilted floor to make it even more disorienting. This is another house that is more fun to look at than be freaked out by. There are big, colorful sets, some of which feature black light paint that are quite well done.

Rounding out my picks for the top houses at Florida’s 2026 HHN is Hellraiser, based on the classic horror series. Adorned with his trademark nails and perpetual smirk, the disturbing Pinhead makes multiple appearances as do his demonic acolytes, the Cenobites. Like the movies, the house pours on the gore. The evocative sets, including a candlelit one with victims on gurneys, are immersive and richly detailed. The scares are abundant in the especially long house. A victim who appeared to be dead but suddenly sprang to life really got me.

Stranger Things 5 recaps the final season of the Netflix series. The actors dressed as Demogorgons, the monsters with the flowering faces, look less like menacing marauders and more like dudes dressed in silly suits. Still, the scenes, which includes one set in a hospital, are well crafted. The final intellectual property house is Sinners, which retells the story depicted in the Academy Award-winning film. Guests enter the Prohibition-era Club Juke to the sounds of blues musicians. This is yet another HHN house which leans more into its impressive look and feel than its yen to scare the crap out of you.

Likewise, H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular! goes more for the funny bone than the jugular. Universal typically has at least one house that embraces comedy, and this one, which brings back a character from a previous HHN, serves that purpose. Set in the 1980s, H.R. Bloodengutz (whose name is a horror-ific take on Sid and Marty Krofft’s classic character) is a Dracula-esque host of a midnight horror show that presents B movies. The maze offers a series of scenes from the show’s fictitious films, which are increasingly absurd–and some of which are laugh-out-loud hilarious. The titles include “Skoolhouse Resurrection,” “Monsters Night Out” (which H.R. informs us via a vintage CRT TV is a “tale of tiki terror,” “Conjure the Funk,” and–wait for it–“The Madness of Dr. Pumpkinspyce." (Indeed, this time of year the world does seem to have come under the spell of the mad doctor of caffeinated beverages.)

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HHN’s other original houses didn’t quite do it for me. In Cybergoria, humans who have been cryogenically preserved awaken some 1,500 years later to discover that the AI overlords have taken matters into their own hands (no surprise there) and are harvesting their flesh. It’s fairly intense, given its sci-fi premise. INVASION: Alien Abduction shows little gray ETs and their taller, more gangly counterparts that have landed on a farm and are snatching the humans as well as the livestock. There are some amusing (in an HHN kind of way) scenes of animals in mid-abduction. The weirdest house, MADLANDS: Caged Cannibals, takes place at an abandoned, post-apocalyptic zoo, where folks dressed as various animals are…well, you know what they’re doing.

Inspired by Jack the Clown, one of the scare zones is Downtown Clowntown (great name!). It is filled with a variety of ill-tempered clowns, including the Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and, returning from last year, Art the Clown. Dressed as Santa, the silent, perverted, and depraved Art delights in tormenting volunteers from the crowd. The rousing Stranger Things: Return to Hawkins lagoon show, which uses fountains, water screens, a killer sound system, lasers, projections, and lights, does a much better job of capturing the essence of the popular series than this year’s Stranger Things house.

Everyone can comment. Are you planning to visit HHN on either coast? How about other theme park Halloween events?

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The themed entertainment industry that Disney pioneered is well established now. Nevertheless, Adeleh Basiri faced a daunting challenge. Charged with leading the design team for the Kish Theme Park Resort–the first of its kind in Basiri’s native Iran–she had to embark on the project with no attraction design experience, no Iranian parks to help guide her, and no infrastructure or expertise in the country on which to draw. With an advanced degree in architectural studies, Basiri used the same kind of in-depth research that helped sustain her successful career developing large-scale urban projects. She also employed a can-do attitude and a spirit of adventure (that no doubt would have impressed Disney) to forge ahead.

The result is a wholly unique–and distinctly Iranian–take on a theme park. The experience has led Basiri to consider the role that culture should play in the design process for themed entertainment in new and emerging markets such as Iran.

Located on Kish Island, a popular vacation spot in the Persian Gulf, the Kish Theme Park Resort is being developed by the Iranian company, Parsis Zarmehr Kish. The resort, which will include a 300-room, five-star hotel, a concert hall, and sports and entertainment facilities, spans 63,000 square meters. The outdoor theme park will occupy a 36,000-square-meter (equivalent to about 9 acres) footprint along with a 10,000 square meter indoor family entertainment center. That’s considerably smaller than most major theme parks, which typically range in size from 80 to 120 acres. 12 rides are planned for the park.

The project, which was well under construction, has largely been on hold since the start of the Iran War. Absent the conflict, the park and resort likely would have been open by now.

Unlike most modern theme parks, Kish does not reference any established intellectual properties. Instead, Basiri and her team collaborated with a project writer to develop original themes and characters that draw on Iranian and Middle Eastern culture. Approaching the project with a fresh perspective, Basiri has subsequently created an emerging framework, which she dubs “Designing Utopian Experiences.” It conceptualizes how the idealized environments presented in theme parks relate to culture and how and when culture should be considered when crafting a park.

Basiri’s model breaks down the design process into three layers that flow from one to the next: core, mantle, and shell. Core refers to the universal, fundamental yearning for a utopian experience. She describes the innate desires that we all share for things such as happiness, wonder, adventure, escape, meaning, and freedom. To Basiri’s list, I would add optimism, reassurance, hope, connection, and joy. Walt Disney seemed to instinctively understand these underlying longings when he envisioned Disneyland. The Imagineers with whom he worked, such as John Hench, specifically articulated attributes such as reassurance as guiding design principles for the company’s parks and attractions.

Mantle, as envisioned by Basiri, is the cultural interpretation of the core utopian experience. “Happiness” at Disneyland takes on a decidedly American tone that embraces traits such as rugged individualism, patriotism, and a belief that technology will lead to a brighter tomorrow. These ideals wouldn’t resonate as much with an Iranian audience since its worldview skews more to the culture’s interpretations of things such as family, love, heroism, and humor. The shell is the physical, practical environment at the park–how designers deliver the experience to guests via attractions, architecture, soundscapes, color palettes, and the like to realize the cultural meaning.

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The problem, as Basiri sees it, is that as themed entertainment has expanded globally, the industry has relied on a largely Western template and localized it with things such as regional music, food, and costumes that often amount to little more than window dressing. The process, she believes, is backwards.

“My proposition is that cultural research should function as a form of design strategy: a system at the early stages of a project which, before visual design begins, influences the brief, narrative logic, emotional structure, and guest experience of a themed destination,” Basiri says. In other words, culture should be considered at the mantle level, not at the shell level. Designers, she contends, need to carefully consider projects’ locales and audiences so they can tailor them from the get-go to create meaningful utopian experiences. It is “the difference between using culture as a visual or decorative layer and using cultural research as part of the initial design logic,” adds Basiri.

So, what does her design process look like in practice? Let’s examine one of Kish Theme Park’s featured attractions, Wheel of Spirits, to get a sense of the ways that cultural research has influenced its development. Located in The Gypsy Quarter, the bustling land will include food stalls, strolling musicians, fortune tellers, and street performers. Basiri says that Wheel of Spirits is predicated on the importance of connecting with ancestors and shamanic beliefs of respecting and communicating with the spirit world. The attraction is designed to serve as a portal from the living world to the realm of the dead.

The Kish team began with a short narrative premise developed by the project writer: The people of the fictional world of Parais have created a device that allows them to remember and make contact with their ancestors. Basiri says that the Persian expression, “I was so scared, I saw my ancestors before my eyes," was the spark that led to the thematic concept for the thrill ride. This inspired the design team to study beliefs and rituals related to connecting with the spirit world, including preparation, transition, contact, and return, and use them to help design the attraction’s queue, pre-show, ride experience, and other elements.

“The research began to organize the guest journey itself, rather than simply informing the visual environment,” says Basiri. “I have recently begun referring to this broader process as ‘cultural alchemy’–absorbing, reinterpreting, transforming and re-expressing cultural material as a new, context-specific experience.”

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In the queue, gusts will find decorative representations of spirits and immortality set to death march music composed for the attraction. They will be able to see themselves depicted alongside spectral representations of deceased ancestors (evoking, perhaps, the hitchhiking ghosts from Disney’s Haunted Mansion?). Guests will be introduced to Saman Dombeh, the grand shaman of the gypsies. A walkaround character, he will encounter folks in the queue and whisper aphorisms to them as well as hand them small objects such as wishing stones, colorful feathers, and animal masks. The impish, charismatic Saman will inject humor, which is highly valued in Iranian culture, into the attraction. The funny character will enable the otherwise serious story about death and the spirit world to be accessible and entertaining. The use of humor also illustrates how the Kish designers considered and incorporated culture at the mantle level.

As they continue through the queue, guests will be invited to write their wishes on ribbons and display them. They will also enter The Painting Tent, a pre-show of sorts during which park members will apply henna designs to guests’ faces and hands. Finally, they will make their way into a tunnel filled with colorful plumes of fog, pleasant scents, and holographic imagery, which represent spiritual cleansing rituals of smoke and fragrance. The sensory and experiential elements are based on research about ritual practices and are fashioned to weave a story, help guests transition into the spiritual world, and set the stage for the ride that follows.

With its lavish attention to detail, evocative and compelling theme, and stunning design, the ambitious Wheel of Spirits would seem to be a fully immersive and enchanting experience. Clearly, cultural research has been thoughtfully considered at every step of the design process. However, I have to wonder whether some of its conceptual elements would be practical in operational application.

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For example, would the walkaround character be able to interact on such a personal level with many guests in the queue? And how would he distribute a large number and variety of items as envisioned by Basiri and her team? Would enough visitors take the time to jot down their wishes on ribbons? Might the ribbon activity impede the flow of guests in the queue? How long would it take to apply henna designs, and how many guests could be accommodated at a time in The Painting Tent? Could all of these elements be delivered at scale? Would a critical mass of people be able to experience the Wheel of Spirits as intended?

The attraction uses a high-thrill pendulum ride, similar to a Loop Fighter, that swings passengers high into the air. With 16 seats, it probably will have a theoretical hourly ride capacity of about 300 passengers. So, as with my observations about the number of people that could likely be handled in the queue, the ride at the heart of Wheel of Spirits is not designed for huge crowds. Save an outdoor dark ride that uses a train, the attractions planned for Kish Theme Park are mostly flat rides, such as a Pirate Ship, a Flying Carousel, and a Booster, that also have fairly low passenger capacities. Like Wheel of Spirits, they are all highly stylized and have rich accompanying stories.

Some major roller coasters (there are no coasters in the works for the Iranian park) and attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean can accommodate upwards of 3,000 guests per hour. Perhaps Kish doesn’t aspire to Disney crowd levels, however, and the comparatively small park is going for a more intimate, boutique experience.

Regardless, for a country that has never had such a place, Kish Theme Park seems poised to be embraced, inspire wonder, and transport guests to a utopia keenly attuned to and explicitly designed for the people of Iran.

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Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant, which sits at its front gate, is an integral part of the park and its fascinating and compelling history. The eatery remains hugely popular despite (or perhaps, in part, because of) its longevity and adherence to tradition. It is a tasty throwback to another era.

As the story–the real story–goes, Walter and Cordelia Knott moved to Buena Park in 1920 to establish their farm and raise their family. Among the crops they grew and sold were boysenberries, a hybrid fruit that Walter helped to develop and perfect. Cordelia began selling jams and jellies made from their berries at their farm stand.

She added her homemade hot biscuits and pies to the wares. Irony alert: Even though she didn’t much care to cook and had no intention of getting in the restaurant business, Cordelia nonetheless invited guests into her tearoom on a whim and served them fried chicken dinners using her wedding china. It was 1934, and people tried all kinds of things to help generate extra cash during the Great Depression.

The dinners were a big hit, and suddenly the farmers were, by default, restaurateurs. The Knotts kept expanding their restaurant to accommodate the enormous crowds–as many as 4,000 a day–that lined up for their down-home cooking. To help entertain the patrons waiting for a seat, the enterprising couple developed an Old West attraction using actual buildings from abandoned ghost towns. Over time, the attraction morphed into a major theme park that eventually overshadowed the restaurant. (Figuratively and literally; the park’s wonderful Ghost Rider wooden coaster towers over and runs alongside the eatery’s dining room.) Gradually, the farmers/restaurateurs found themselves primarily in the themed entertainment industry–an industry that they helped to define and nurture. (Fellow Californian Walt Disney took inspiration from Knott’s Berry Farm as he was developing Disneyland in nearby Anaheim.)

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But the crowds never stopped lining up for Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant. It eventually grew to handle more than 900 diners at a seating, making it the largest restaurant of its kind in the world. With 1.5 million hungry guests chowing down on its chicken and other delicacies each year, the dining establishment remains a beloved Southern California landmark.

The secret to its success? 84 years after it opened, the food has remained more or less intact. Times change. Tastes Change. But Mrs. Knott’s remains true to its origins.

There have been some concessions to modernity, including the addition of menu items such as chipotle chicken salad and garlic fries topped with Parmesan cheese. But the vast majority of guests order what generations of diners have been ordering at Mrs. Knott’s: the fried chicken dinner complete with cherry rhubarb, a salad (slathered in boysenberry dressing of course), cabbage seasoned with ham, mashed potatoes with a puddle of gravy, buttermilk biscuits served hot with Knott’s yummy Berry Market boysenberry preserves, all topped off with a slice of boysenberry pie. American Heart Association guidelines be damned; this is gut-busting, old-school, comfort food at its finest.

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Everything is made from scratch using the Knotts’ original recipes. But in the intervening 84 years, the kitchen has added some conveniences to automate some of the processes. Instead of an army of potato peelers, for example, a nifty machine rinses and skins the spuds.

Even more intriguing is the fryer machine that Knott’s had custom built. It is about 20 feet long and holds 2,000 pounds of oil. Cooks dredge chicken parts in flour and place them on a slow-moving conveyor belt at one end of the contraption. 33 minutes later, they emerge at the other end fried to perfection. The machine is designed to get chicken golden brown and crispy without losing its juicy tenderness. (Indeed, the breast I had was crispy and tasty on the outside, but very moist on the inside.)

When the kitchen is really cranking, it may cook up to 20,000 pounds of chicken in a day. To meet demand, the staff might start at 3 in the morning and feed the fryer machine nonstop until 11 at night.

Anyone hoping to discover Cordelia’s secret recipe wouldn’t be able to uncover anything by snooping around the restaurant’s kitchen. That’s because the chicken arrives pre-marinated to the restaurant from the processing plant according to Knott’s specifications.

Today, Mrs. Knott’s original tearoom remains, although it is airy and sports muted earth tones. Visitors might notice intentionally mismatched chairs, which evoke the spirit of the restaurant’s Depression-era beginnings. The pantry room includes a lovely pressed tin ceiling along with original as well as reproduced items from Cordelia’s 1934 kitchen.

Everyone can chime in with a comment. Please do! Have you dined at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant? Did you order the classic fried chicken dinner?

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National Roller Coaster Day, which will be celebrated on Sunday, August 16, puts the long-reigning king of the midway in the spotlight. Sure, there are plenty of cutting-edge thrill machines out there (such as the extremely wacky Bakunawa–an inverted launch at 80 mph? Yikes!–coming to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey next year). But, there are also a surprising number of vintage coasters. In honor of National Roller Coaster Day, consider reveling in nostalgia and rekindling (or creating) some fond memories of your own by riding the rails of the country’s oldest, still-operating coasters. All of them date back to the 1920s and are wooden. (The first tubular steel coaster didn’t debut until 1959.) Ready to roll?

Before we jump into the oldest coasters that are running, let’s take a moment to mourn two rides that are standing but not operating–and are likely to be demolished. Leap the Dips opened in 1902 at Lakemont Park in Pennsylvania. Prior to its closure in 2023, it had been the world’s oldest surviving coaster. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places as an Historic Landmark, it may yet be revived. But the park’s financial challenges and legal snafus make that doubtful. Wild One at Six Flags America in Maryland was transplanted from Paragon Park in Massachusetts where it opened as Giant Coaster in 1917. When Six Flags shuttered the DC-area park in 2025, it probably sealed the fate of the historic ride.

Jack Rabbit – Opened in 1920 at Kennywood in Pennsylvania.
Boasting three beloved "woodies" on the list, Kennywood is an amusement park shrine (that also has some great, newer rides among its arsenal). Older parks typically remove most of their early rides, but Kennywood takes great care keeping its esteemed trio coasting along. The oldest of the bunch, Jack Rabbit is a terrain coaster that uses the natural topography of a ravine. Although it climbs 40 feet, it features a surprising 70-foot double-dip drop into the ravine.

Jack Rabbit - Opened in 1920 at Seabreeze in New York
It opened the same year and has the same name as the Kennywood ride (actually a couple of weeks before its Pennsylvania namesake), but the similarities end there. This Jack Rabbit rises and falls 75 feet and sends passengers soaring along a series of airtime-filled hills known, appropriately enough, as “bunny hops.” The ride also careens through a tunnel for its lights-out finale. There are only two operating coasters elsewhere in the world that predate the two Jack Rabbit rides in the U.S.

Roller Coaster - Opened in 1921 at Lagoon in Utah
It may not have an especially original name, but Lagoon’s Roller Coaster offers a satisfying double out-and-back layout, which is, essentially, two side-by-side ovals. The ride delivers a not-too-shabby 45-mph top speed.

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Thunderbolt - Opened in 1924 at Kennywood in Pennsylvania
Another ride that takes advantage of Kennywood’s hilly terrain, Thunderbolt delivers a big drop right out of the station. Its lift hill is in the middle of the circuit, and passengers get to experience the biggest drop, a 90-foot doozy, for the finale. Originally known as The Pippin, Kennywood redesigned some of the ride’s track and renamed it in 1968.

Thunderhawk - Opened in 1924 at Dorney Park in Pennsylvania
Located at one of the country’s few remaining trolley parks, Thunderhawk features a figure-eight layout, climbs 80 feet, and reaches a top speed of 45 mph. Until 1988, it was known by the more generic name, “Coaster.”

Giant Dipper - Opened in 1924 at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in California
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk lovingly preserves its National Historic Landmark. With a 65-foot drop and a 55-mph top speed, Giant Dipper really gets the party started and delivers some potent doses of out-of-your-seat airtime. Before it hits the lift hill, the coaster’s train travels through a dark tunnel.

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Giant Dipper - Opened in 1925 at Belmont Park in California
This Giant Dipper is similar to the same-named coaster in San Diego and was designed and built by the same team. It also whizzes along at a top speed of 55 mph while offering arresting views of the shoreline.

Cyclone - Opened in 1927 at Coney Island in New York
Yet another ride recognized as a National Historical Landmark, Cyclone is one of the most famous coasters in the country (and the world, for that matter). Along with the Wonder Wheel and other living pieces of Americana, it stands as a testament to Coney Island’s resilience. Cyclone climbs 85 feet, drops at a steep 59-degree angle, reaches a spry 60 mph, and delivers a satisfying, if herky-jerky ride. Interestingly, the hybrid ride features a traditional wooden coaster track atop a steel lattice structure.

Racer - Opened in 1927 at Kennywood in Pennsylvania
Adding some suspense to the ride experience, two trains leave Racer’s station at the same time and compete against one another. Using a “Möbius” layout, Racer actually has one continuous track instead of separate, twin tracks.

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Wildcat - Opened in 1927 at Lake Compounce in Connecticut
The lovely Lake Compounce, which opened in 1846, has the distinction of being the country’s oldest continuously operating amusement park. Its Wildcat makes a stunning statement at the park’s main entrance. The coaster climbs 85 feet and hits a top speed of 48 mph. The park recently gave the venerable ride some TLC to keep it rolling well into the future.

Kiddy Coaster- Opened in 1928 at Playland Park in New York
The last two coasters on the list are located at Playland Park, a municipal park operated by Westchester County. Its Kiddy Coaster, which opened with the park, is so small, adults are not allowed to ride on it.

Dragon Coaster- Opened in 1929 at Playland Park in New York
After plunging into a 128-foot drop, Dragon’s train enters a coiled tunnel designed to look like its namesake creature for a few disorienting moments. Upon getting spit out by the beast, passengers finish the route by twisting and turning in and out of the ride’s wooden structure.

Everyone can leave a comment. Let’s hear from you. How many of these classic coasters have you experienced? What’s your favorite old coaster?

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My fascination with thrill machines began at a very young age. Among my earliest memories–and we’re talking perhaps two years old or younger–I vividly recall sitting on the sand and being mesmerized for hours by screaming trainloads of passengers as they navigated the rickety white lattice structure of the Cyclone at Revere Beach in Massachusetts. As I got a bit older, I determined that I wanted to send people off on screamtastic coaster journeys.

Alas, as with many seaside amusement areas, the Cyclone and all the rides at Revere Beach are long gone. And sadly, I never pursued my dream job.

I didn’t lose my passion for coasters and amusements, however, and ended up (as ATP subscribers well know) writing about them as a theme park journalist. That’s how I got to know Deno “D.J.” Vourderis, an all-around wonderful guy and a third-generation member of the family that owns and operates Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park at New York’s Coney Island. (Fun fact: Revere Beach was the Boston area’s answer to Coney Island.) When I let Vourderis know about my longstanding wish, he graciously extended an open invitation.

So a few years ago I made the trek to Brooklyn’s famed amusement mecca, got into the operator’s booth and behind the control panel of Phoenix, and fulfilled a childhood dream. I ran the coaster.

Before I share any more of my experience, I want to make it clear that at no time during my brief stint as a ride operator were passengers placed in any danger. My work was done under the direct, eagle-eyed supervision of Vourderis and one of his trained employees and followed safety protocols.

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I manned the main control panel, which is filled with buttons, knobs, lights, a display screen, and assorted other doodads. While it looked intimidating, modern coasters like Phoenix, which is manufactured by Vekoma, are almost totally automated and include numerous safeguards. For example, they incorporate sensors that detect whether passenger restraints are fully engaged. There are manual overrides, and (actual) operators need to be trained to use them when necessary. They are rarely required, however.

I only had two tasks: I opened and closed the gates to allow passengers into the loading station; and–this was the dream-come-true part–I released the train to start the ride.

A coaster crew typically includes a few positions. After passengers board the train, ride operators check each seat to make sure the restraints are properly and securely fastened. When the safety check is complete, the operators give the universal thumbs-up sign to indicate the train is ready for dispatch. I’d been waiting for that sign my whole life.

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For redundancy and as an extra precaution, coasters such as Phoenix have two control panels and require two operators to begin the ride. After acknowledging the thumbs-up signs, an operator on the other side of the station pressed a button on his control panel. That enabled me to push the button on the main control panel to release the train.

With a satisfying “whoosh,” the brakes eased as the 10-car, 20-seat train lumbered out of the station and rounded a bend to climb the 68-foot lift hill. I watched as the giddy passengers, some nervously shifting in their seats, filed past the booth. In a few moments their screams reverberated throughout the seaside park.

Known as a suspended family coaster, Phoenix’s train hangs beneath the track, and passengers’ legs dangle from the ride‘s ski lift-like seats. Wedged into an odd-shaped parcel of land next to the iconic Wonder Wheel, the custom-built layout includes some abrupt twists and turns. Instead of dropping straight down after cresting the lift hill, the train swings passengers to one side as it turns back on itself and descends. From the perspective of the passengers, it appears that they are going to careen into one of the structure’s bright yellow support columns (which, of course, is just an illusion). Riders instinctively tuck in their dangling legs. There are additional “foot chopper” near calls as the train continues to turn, twist, and swing to and fro.

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Phoenix does not include any inversions and only hits a top speed of 34 mph. But the smooth ride doesn’t skimp on the G-forces and is deceptively intense. (I should know. After my ride operator shift was over, I gave the coaster a few whirls.)

Check out this wonderful video of my experience operating Phoenix that was shot and edited by the award-winning filmmaker, Jeremy Levine (who just so happens to be my son).

“When you’re on the street looking at the coaster, it doesn’t look like much,” says Vourderis. “And then people ride it. It really whips you. Passengers get off and say, ‘What was that? I want more!’”

Sporting broad smiles and giving each other high-fives, the passengers, many of them young children, returned to the station after their ride. I responded with a broad smile of my own. It was quite a feeling of power and responsibility to operate the coaster and deliver an adrenaline-filled, joyous experience.

“The best thing about the Coney Island Phoenix is that every day parents tell me this is their child’s first roller coaster. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it,” Vourderis says. “We’re creating coaster enthusiasts one kid at a time.”

Who knows? Maybe some of those new fans will want to work at an amusement park when they grow up. If they are lucky, they may even get to run the roller coaster.

Everyone can leave a comment. So please do! Would you want to operate a roller coaster? Have you visited Coney Island? (Every park fan needs to make the trek.)

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Bumper cars, however, are housed inside buildings away from the tumult of the midway and typically get lost in the shuffle. The ride may not have the panache of other classics, but bumper cars have been essential attractions from the earliest days of amusement parks to the present. Getting behind the wheel of one is a rite of passage. No visit to a park is complete without landing a good ka-thunk or two.

One of the first bumper cars may have been the Witching Waves at Coney Island’s Luna Park, according to Charles Denson of the Coney Island History Project. The attraction debuted at the Brooklyn, New York amusement mecca in 1907 in a large outdoor oval along the Bowery. The cars were not powered by electricity, but relied on an undulating floor to propel the low-slung vehicles, which passengers steered using levers.

There were other attempts at one-off attractions, but the bumper cars that we know today can be traced about 100 years ago to the Dodgem Corp. in Lawrence, Massachusetts. They included long contact poles that scraped along an electrified grid ceiling and transferred power to the cars. The distinctive poles remain to this day on many bumper car attractions, and the occasional arcing sparks they generate and the smell of ozone they produce are among the ride’s idiosyncrasies. Some bumper cars forego the poles and draw power from floor pickups.

Unlike the precision rack-and-pinion steering found on modern automobiles, the wheels on the original Dodgems were more aspirational in nature. “The early cars were kinda clunky,” says Jim Futrell, historian for the National Amusement Park Historical Association. “If you turned the wheel to the left, it might go right and vice-versa.” (Futrell should know a thing or two about the ride, since he has a vintage bumper car in his basement.) The balky steering probably made the experience, where the goal has always been to bump other cars and, as the name implies, dodge the cars trying to bump you, simultaneously frustrating and giddy.

As the rides evolved, the steering improved. But one of the attraction’s peculiarities has been the cars’ ability to go backward. It’s often a requirement to get out of a multi-car pile-up or to free a car gets pinned into a corner. The cars don’t have gearshifts, but drivers can go in reverse by turning the steering wheel 180 degrees, which faces the front wheels backwards.

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The Dodgem Corp. installed its first bumper cars attraction a few miles away from its shop at Salisbury Beach in Massachusetts in the early 1920s. (As with most seaside amusement areas, the Dodgem as well as nearly all of the other rides and attractions at the beach are gone.) In the late 1920s, the Lusse Brothers, a shop in Philadelphia, developed its own version of bumper cars, which it called Auto Skooters. Throughout the 1920s, the two competing companies sold hundreds of bumper cars. The ride quickly became a staple at the many parks that used to dot the country, such as Euclid Beach in Cleveland, Ohio, which closed in 1969.

More than 100 years after they were introduced, the rides are still going strong. What accounts for their enduring popularity? “Bumper cars epitomize the fundamental appeal of amusement parks: a sense of escape,” theorizes Futrell. “You can do things you can’t get away with in real life.” For example, rather than fantasizing about road rage, the whole purpose of the ride is to smash into other vehicles. (The only caveat is to avoid head-on collisions, as many bumper car attractions warn riders with large signs.)

Another huge selling point: Kids can drive them. For many children, their first experience behind a wheel is plowing into other kids in bumper cars. Even when they can’t reach the pedals, kids love hopping into a car alongside a parent or older sibling and commandeering the wheel.

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The amusements used to sprawl across a much larger swath of Coney Island than they do today. Denson, who grew up in the shadows of the area’s many roller coasters, recalls that there used to be at least six bumper car rides. He remembers the skill it sometimes took to operate them.

“The best job in Coney was the one where you broke apart tangled bumper cars while the ride was in motion,” Denson says. Attendants would stand on the bumper that surround a car, hold on to the contact pole with one hand and the steering wheel of the occupied vehicle with the other, and try to get the car in motion while other cars were slamming into it. “One false step and you could lose your foot,” he adds.

Today, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park at Coney Island features bumper cars that were relocated from nearby Astroland, a park that closed in 2008. One of the oddest bumper car attractions is Eldorado Auto Skooter on Surf Avenue in Coney Island, which dates back to 1973. The marquee above the entrance beckons customers with the Brooklyn-esque slogan, “Bump Your Ass Off.” Inside visitors might be surprised to discover a Studio 54 vibe with glitter balls, pulsing lights, and bass-thumping music. The Eldorado gives a whole new meaning to the disco classic, “Do the Bump.”

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The Dodgem Corp. sold its business in 1961, and subsequent owners stopped making the rides in 1970. Lusse continued manufacturing its Skooters until it closed in 1994. Today, overseas shops produce bumper cars, and the rides continue to delight visitors at parks as well as at fairs and carnivals. Knott’s Berry Farm in California, for example, calls its attraction, Wheeler Dealer Bumper Cars.

Idlewild, a charming park in Ligonier, Pennsylvania that dates back to 1878 and is geared to families with younger children, has offered bumper cars since 1931. The attraction used to feature Lusse Auto Skooters, but now offers cars produced by a French company.

Some older bumper cars remain, however. The tiny Interstate Amusement in Seaside, Oregon, for instance, maintains a fleet of sharp-looking Lusse cars.

One of the best collections of vintage bumper cars is at Knoebels in Elysburg, Pennsylvania. The free-admission amusement park, which dates back to 1926, began offering Dodgem bumper cars in 1947. It switched to Lusse Auto Skooters and has stuck with them ever since.

Since Lusse ceased operations a while ago, that presents some challenges, according to John Fetterman, a member of the maintenance team at Knoebels. “Out of necessity, we have to source spare parts for the ride largely on our own,” he says. In fact, Knoebels bought Idlewild’s Lusse Auto Skooters when that park no longer needed them.

It takes a lot of tender loving care to keep the cars running, especially since their raison d’etre is to crash on a routine basis. In the off-season, Knoebels repaints and repairs the vehicles. It might seem to make more sense to purchase new ones, but Fetterman says the maxim, “newer is not always better,” holds true. The park prefers the mid-Century steel-bodied Lusse cars over the company’s later fiberglass models.

In part, it has to do with aesthetics. The sleek, evocative cars that Knoebels has represent “the pinnacle of Lusse designs,” says Fetterman. “They somewhat resemble the popular, Harley-Earl designed Chevrolet line of automobiles of that period.”

Do you make it a point to experience bumper cars when you visit an amusement park? Do you find it cathartic to crash a bumper car?

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It was a surreal moment in a day filled with surreal moments. Rounding a corner in the room containing Walt Disney Imagineering’s art history archives, there it was: the famous 1950s concept drawing of Disneyland that designer Herb Ryman completed in one weekend with Walt Disney standing over his shoulder.

This wasn’t a reproduction; it was the actual legendary piece. Casually propped up on a pallet (it was either arriving from or en route to an exhibit), Ryman’s drawing sat among some of the other 80,000 pieces of artwork stored at Imagineering headquarters that Disney’s creative gurus had created through the years. “It was all started by a mouse,” Walt Disney once famously said. With deference to Mickey, Disneyland, and the very idea of a “theme park” for that matter, really all began with that drawing.

So how was it that I came to be ogling Ryman's historical artwork and roaming Imagineering’s hallowed halls in Glendale, California? Among the industry professionals who read my articles was Jon Georges, who then served as director of Blue Sky Development at Walt Disney Imagineering. In 2007, he invited me to speak to the revered group as part of the organization’s Insight Out speaker series. After my presentation, I was treated to an exclusive tour of the sprawling campus.

By the way, when Ms. About Theme Parks learned that I was going to be making a presentation to the Imagineers, she said, incredulously, “So let me get this straight. You are going to talk to them about the theme park industry?” Admittedly, the notion seemed a bit nuts, but the Imagineers were a wonderful audience, and we had a lively exchange about parks and themed entertainment. That might be a topic for another article.

While I did get to peer behind the scenes, I wasn’t granted unfettered access. There were plenty of hush-hush projects and Imagineers secreted away in their workshop lairs. This article isn’t meant to be a comprehensive overview of Imagineering; rather, it’s a recap of some of my observations that day–a geek’s ramblings, if you will.

It was surprising to discover that the folks who design iconic castles and grandiose geodesic domes conduct their work in distinctly bland and nondescript buildings. There wasn’t even a sign, modest or otherwise, to indicate Imagineering’s home base. Driving down Flower Street in Glendale, it would have been impossible to locate the campus without knowing its address. Inside, however, there were characteristic traces of Imagineering whimsy everywhere.

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In the courtyard outside the commissary, for example, gondolas from Disneyland’s defunct Skyway served as makeshift picnic tables. The Environmental Design and Engineering building, which houses architects, engineers, and interior designers, was once a bowling center that was open to the public. Remnants of its kitsch past remained, including a conference room with a maple table fashioned out of the lanes’ floorboards and a podium that looked like a score table.

One hallway in the main building is known as the John Hench Graffiti Gallery. An influential and beloved artist and designer, Hench worked at the Disney company for over 60 years and was senior vice president for Imagineering. The hallway was lined with lively portraits, sketches, montages, and other displays contributed by Imagineers in homage to Hench, who died in 2004. (For more on John Hench and Imagineering, consider reading his wonderful book, “Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show.” )

Perhaps the oddest (and geekiest?) experience I had at Imagineering came about midway through my tour. My guide escorted me into the sculpture studio and left me by myself for a few moments to wander the hushed room and gaze at plaster busts of highly expressive pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean, Hollywood celebrities from The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and lots of other Disney statuary. In one corner of the room, the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs figures that once delighted guests at Disneyland laid in state, looking a bit bedraggled. (Fiberglas replicas now stand sentry at the park.) It was both eerie to be alone with all of the silent figures and a tad overwhelming to see so much theme park history.

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History is important at Imagineering. The art history archives are part of a wing devoted to preserving the parks’ past. There is also a slide library with over 2 million actual and digitized images of attractions as well as the research that went into developing them. For example, the woman who oversaw the slide library said that there were many photos of Africa chronicling the trips that Joe Rohde and other Imagineers took as they were designing Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

A separate show documentation library included a dossier of information for each Disney attraction with items like color samples, design references, and unusual artifacts such as Tiki Bird feathers and fur patterns from the Yeti who resides inside the Expedition Everest coaster (and all these years later is still stuck in “Disco Yeti” mode). There were even undergarments worn by the animatronic characters (who knew?) stored there.

Georges pointed out some color swatches of bright paints and said that they were for one of the dark rides that incorporated black light effects. “We include samples of what the paint looks like in natural light and how it appears under black lights,” he noted. “Black light painting is becoming a lost art.”

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Georges said that the libraries, particularly the show documentation library, help Imagineering and the Disney parks maintain the attractions. It’s known as “show quality standards,” or SQS in Disney-speak. I guess when it’s time to trade out Richard Nixon’s undergarments in the Hall of Presidents, it helps to have a record of what size and brand he wears.

Of course, the libraries aren’t used to exclusively focus on the past. Imagineers frequent them to explore new concepts and do research for attractions under development as well. Georges used another hallway display to take me through Imagineering’s development process. The walls were filled with photos, illustrations, and text depicting the stages, including: blue sky (the department that Georges oversaw), which provides the seeds that evolve into attractions; concept development and feasibility, where ideas take shape in the form of two- and three-dimensional renderings as well as computer-generated models; design and production, during which capital is approved, play-testing is conducted, and systems are developed; construction and installation, where all of the Imagineering disciplines work collaboratively to build the actual attraction; test and adjust, to tweak the attraction; grand opening; and patio party, when the team members celebrate the completion of the project (and doubtless hang out in the old Skyway vehicles).

Since my original visit, I've had the opportunity to return to Walt Disney Imagineering a few times. (It's one of the wonderful perks of being a theme park journalist.) And guess what? You too could visit Walt Disney Imagineering. Adventures by Disney, the company’s guided tour division, includes a stop at the Glendale headquarters on its Disneyland Resort and Southern California Escape itinerary. It also includes a tour of the Walt Disney Studios (another legendary place I got to visit and write about).

“Disneyland will never be completed...as long as there is imagination left in the world,” is another famous Walt-ism. Thankfully, there appears to be plenty of imagination to go around among today’s merry band of Imagineers.

Would you want to visit Walt Disney Imagineering? What would you hope to see if you toured the Glendale headquarters?

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4.75 (out of 5)

An E-Ticket tour de force, Disneyland’s Indiana Jones Adventure immerses guests into the world of the popular movie series through the use of Disney’s innovative “Enhanced Motion Vehicles,” highly elaborate sets, and a stunning array of effects. Rather than retell one of the movie franchise’s stories, it creates a new plot and casts riders in leading roles. It is one of Imagineering’s crowning achievements.

Getting to the attraction is an adventure in itself. There are reasons why Indiana Jones’ queue is incredibly long. For one, the ride attracts huge crowds and requires a long line to accommodate the masses. More significantly, however, the meandering passageways are necessary to move guests to the ride building that is located outside the park’s original boundaries. With virtually no space to expand within Disneyland, the park built the attraction in a former parking lot beyond the Jungle River Cruise.

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To acclimate to the story, in which guests are cast as 1930s-era tourists visiting an ancient temple unearthed by archaeologist/action stud/snake-phobe Indiana Jones, they move through foreboding caverns adorned with flickering lights, mysterious wall etchings, ominous spikes, even-more ominous skeletons, and other time-killing diversions. The passageway ends in a pre-show room that features vintage newsreel footage to set up the ride. It seems that Indy’s excavation site has become a famous vacation spot. Tourists are flocking to see the shrine with its purported treasures and mystical powers. But, the newsreel warns (with an all-too-obvious dose of theme park ride calamity foreshadowing), visitors MUST NOT look into the eyes of the temple’s idol, Mara, or an ancient curse will befall them. Hence the name of the shrine (and the subtitle of the attraction): the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

Riders board the vehicles from one of two loading platforms. The first scene takes guests into the Chamber of Destiny for a face-to-giant-face meeting with Mara. The vehicles move toward a blinding light that is–you got it–the forbidden eye. Having triggered the curse, all hell breaks loose. Lighting crackles, snakes slither (why does it always have to be snakes, indeed), and other horrors ensue.

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The actual course of events differs slightly for each ride. According to Disney, its Enhanced Motion Vehicles, which have onboard computers that independently control them through the attraction, are capable of delivering 160,000 different variations of motions and actions. The sophisticated, 12-passenger, Jeep-like vehicles are unlike anything that preceded them and seem to adopt personalities of their own. When they encounter the snakes, for example, they shudder and recoil in much the same way as their passengers.

Amid the chaos, an old pal comes to the rescue. A startlingly lifelike animatronic Indiana Jones intercedes and attempts to direct visitors to safety. More catastrophes unfold, however, as the vehicles traverse a rickety bridge above the lava-spewing Cavern of Bubbling Death (why does it always have to be bubbling death?), and move into a room filled with bugs–ewww!–and a cave where poisonous darts whiz within inches of riders–eeahhh! The ride is great at using darkness and momentary bursts of light to heighten the tension and add to disorienting misdirection. The onboard audio, which includes the familiar Indiana Jones score interspersed with other original music and sound effects, also adds to the drama.

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Indy concludes with an incredible scene featuring the iconic, giant rolling boulder from the first movie. Even though guests rationally understand that it’s a ride and that they aren’t in any real danger, the effect is so well constructed, they can’t help but react by ducking lest the ensuing boulder flattens them. Spared from becoming pancakes, guests round a bend for a final sendoff from Indy. If the unload area is backed up (especially if only one side of the ride is operating), the vehicles linger in the last scene with the Indiana Jones character. After he says his line, it’s odd to watch the animatronic Jones move repetitively and a bit awkwardly waiting for the next vehicle.

Note that while there are no coaster drops or inversions, the vehicles are fast, and the ride is action-packed with quick starts and stops and plenty of jostling. Also, many of the scenes are dark, and there are all kinds of dark ride gotchas, such as the aforementioined snakes and “poisonous” darts. On my 10-point thrill scale (where 10 is yikes!), I give Indiana Jones Adventure a 3.75.

There is a similar Indiana Jones attraction at Tokyo Disney Sea, the second park at the Tokyo Disney resort. That ride is called Temple of the Crystal Skull. Enhanced Motion Vehicle technology was also used in the Dinosaur attraction (formerly known as Countdown to Extinction) at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. After years of mixed reviews, it closed earlier this year and will be re-themed as another Indiana Jones ride. It is scheduled to open in 2027 as part of the park’s new Tropical Americas land.

Does Indiana Jones Adventure hold up against more recent E-Ticket attractions? Are you looking forward to the new Indy ride at Disney World?

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The new attraction will incorporate 8-passenger, single-car vehicles that will ascend a 90-foot chain lift hill, drop 75 feet, and hit a top speed of 45 mph. So what will make Cannonball! a “water coaster?” It will also feature a splashdown finale that will send a plume of water cascading skyward, surely drenching riders. With a comparatively short 1,700 feet of track, the whole shebang will probably clock in at about one minute of ride time.

In typical Holiday World fashion, Cannonball! will tell a compelling story that will lean heavily into silliness. (See the park’s 2024 entry, Good Gravy!, for evidence of its trademark humor.) It seems the town of Boulder Canyon will be holding its annual Fourth of July Cannonball contest at the community pool, and the rules now allow entrants to join together and jump into the water as a group. So, each car’s passengers will represent a group of contestants, and the vehicle will splash down into what appears will be a faithful facsimile of a pool, complete with diving boards, lane dividers, and deck lounge chairs. According to the park, riders are supposed to yell “Cannonball!” before they take the plunge.

Boulder Canyon was the fictional town in which Raging Rapids, a raft ride, plied churning waters until its retirement in 2023. Like Carowinds, which will be replacing its defunct raft ride with Rip Roarin’ Falls next year, Holiday World is sticking with a water ride to fill the void left by Raging Rapids. Speaking of the Fourth of July, Cannonball! will anchor the land named after the Independence Day celebration. Each ride vehicle will be outfitted with a unique design, such as the Stars and Stripes, watermelon, and a patriotic Popsicle, to pay homage to the holiday.

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Cannonball! will be built by Mack Rides, which refers to its hybrid roller coaster/splashdown model as a “Water Coaster.” There are two other Mack Water Coasters in the U.S. from the manufacturer, Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld Orlando and Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld San Diego. (The German ride company also built the same-named Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld San Antonio, but that attraction is a Mack “SuperSplash.” It too is a water coaster, but its vehicles are much bigger and, as the model name implies, it is designed to deliver a huge finale splash like a shoot-the-chutes ride.) Unlike the SeaWorld rides, which include two lifts and deliver a splashdown drop in the middle of the ride, Cannonball! will include a single lift and save its more modest splashdown as the final element. Also, the SeaWorld attractions include dark ride scenes–Orlando’s Journey to Atlantis has more extensive indoor sequences–whereas the Holiday World ride will be set entirely outdoors.

There are other rides that are considered water coasters. Typically found in water parks, bathing suit-clad passengers load into rafts that are propelled uphill by jets of water or magnetic motors (a few even use a conveyor belt system) for a water coaster experience. Instead of being tethered to a track, the vehicles soar along a water-filled flume. Splashin’ Safari, the water park that is included with admission to Holiday World, features three of the industry’s best flume-like water coasters: Mammoth, Wildebeest, and Cheetah Chase. It could be argued that more traditional coasters with prominent water elements, such as Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland and Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, are water coasters of sorts.

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Reaffirming Holiday World’s devotion to silly puns, passengers will pass two huge swan floaties on the pool deck after they plunge into the pool. One will be known as “Ron the Swan,” while the other will be named “Ron Swan’s Son.” If you don’t get the reference, you don’t know “Parks and Recreation.”

“One of our company values is, ‘We have fun,’” says Lauren Crosby, the park’s fourth-generation owner and director of entertainment and events. “We’re daring enough to be a little absurd with our ride concepts.”

Riders as short as 42 inches will be able to board Cannonball!, which will make it accessible to kids who want to try something a bit more daring than Good Gravy!, but don’t yet make the cut for coasters such as The Raven or The Voyage.

Are you as much of a fan of Holiday World’s infectious humor and sense of fun as I am? What’s your take on the park’s new ride?

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With summers getting hotter, more humid, and just plain stickier, visitors have been making a beeline to water parks at places like Carowinds. Jammed with water slides and other refreshingly cool attractions, its Carolina Harbor is a happening place. But guests could also seek relief from the heat among the coasters on the midway by hopping aboard the whitewater raft ride, Rip Roarin' Rapids–until its closure in 2019, that is. Carowinds, which is located on the border between North and South Carolina, recently announced that its replacement, Rip Roarin’ Falls, will bring wet fun back to the dry side of the park.

Instead of a rapids ride, the new attraction will be a flume ride. Or, more specifically, a “Super Flume,” as its manufacturer, WhiteWater, calls it. Befitting the model’s superlative, Rip Roarin’ Falls will include a “mega drop” of 100 feet, which Carowinds says will be a world record for a flume drop. The finale element will accelerate the eight-passenger vehicles to a robust 50 mph and make what will surely be a figurative and literal big splash. The ride will also include a 42-foot reverse drop as well as a 32-foot reverse camelback, both of which Six Flags claims will be records for a flume ride.

Despite the eyebrow-raising stats, Rip Roarin’ Falls will have a 35-inch height requirement for kiddos accompanied by parents. That could potentially include taller-than-average two-year-olds, which surprises me a bit–especially considering flume rides typically do not have any restraints.

The attraction will include some modest themeing to place guests in an abandoned, haunted lumber mill. There will even be some animatronic beavers and practical effects along for the ride. Navigating the 2,240-foot course will take a generous 6.5 minutes.

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Passengers will dead-end in the mill’s power station shed where a high-speed turntable will send the vehicles backwards into the reverse camelback. I don’t know whether they will feel any pop of airtime during the drop, but it appears that might be the case. After heading in reverse for a bit, a second turntable will turn the vehicles so that they face forward. Climbing Rip Roarin’ Falls’ final lift, the boats will hit another dead end at the 100-foot summit. A third turntable will send the vehicles down the big drop for the finale.

About that record-breaking drop: The claim would seem to hold up well to the About Theme Parks sniff test. Pilgrim’s Plunge, later known as Giraffica, at Holiday World in Indiana included a 131-foot drop. But that ride closed in 2013. There are (or have been) taller water rides. Both Divertical at Mirabilandia in Italy and Speed, located at Energylandia in Poland, drop 164 feet, but they are water coasters.

As for shoot-the-chute rides, which typically feature larger 16- to 20-passenger boats, Perilous Plunge at Knott’s Berry Farm took the height record with a 115-foot drop at a hairy 75-degree angle until its closure in 2012. The 100-foot-tall Tidal Force at Hersheypark will close at the end of this season. Rip Roarin’ Falls will feature vehicles make to look like hollowed-out logs, but with four benches each accommodating two passengers for a total of eight riders, they will be bigger than a traditional log flume boat.

For more watery fun, Carowinds also offers Charlie Brown’s River Raft Blast, an interactive, splash battle-type attraction from Mack Rides. Interestingly, the Camp Snoopy ride, which is slow-moving and doesn’t ascend any hills, has a height requirement of 48 inches. Younger kids who want to cool down will have to wait and brave Rip Roarin’ Falls when it debuts in 2027.

Have you been on any of the larger shoot-the-chute rides such as Perilous Plunge at Knott’s Berry Farm? What do you make of the reverse drop on Rip Roarin’ Falls?

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5 (out of 5)

An incredibly sophisticated attraction, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure blurs the line between virtual and reality so well that you'll emerge slack-jawed and awe-struck. (At least that was my reaction the first time I experienced it.) Already one of the best theme park rides in the world since its introduction in 1999, a 2012 makeover added all-new HD film animation, new 3-D glasses, and other enhancements that produce remarkably crisp and bright images and make the attraction even more immersive and awe-inspiring.

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Like Werewolf Gorge, the Waldameer coaster is being designed and manufactured by Vekoma and will incorporate magnetic LIM launches. Compared to the Fiesta Texas ride, which will span 4,120 feet, the more modest Eagle’s Pursuit will have a length of 1,885 feet. Still, it will hit a fairly robust 46 mph and drop an attention-grabbing 60 feet. Racing through the park’s wooded, hilly terrain, passengers will experience an 80-foot change in elevation throughout the course of the ride.

The first launch will catapult the train right out of the station. It will send passengers on a meandering route through and above a wooded section of the park and towards the banks of Lake Erie. About halfway through the course, Eagle’s Pursuit will hit a second launch that will boost the speed and send the train racing through a fog-filled tunnel. Befitting a family coaster, the ride will not include any inversions.

While the park is boasting that Eagle’s Pursuit will feature ten floater airtime moments, I suspect they will be quite mild to non-existent. Based on the video rendering of the ride, there doesn’t appear to be enough oomph in the fairly tame velocity of the train and the sizes of the hills to generate much negative-G forces.

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Interestingly, Eagle’s Pursuit will have a height requirement of 38 inches. That’s one inch less than Werewolf Gorge’s announced 39-inch cutoff. I don’t know how ride manufacturers determine height requirements when developing safety protocols, but it seems peculiar that they would issue them in one-inch increments. Regardless, kids as young as three years old could make the cut for both rides. That’s a tender age to be braving magnetic launches and pops of airtime, even if the thrills are toned down.

“Eagle’s Pursuit captures everything guests love about Waldameer: family thrills, beautiful natural scenery, and unforgettable experiences,” says Steve Gorman, the park’s CEO. “From the moment riders launch out of the station and soar over the hillside, this coaster delivers the feeling of flying like a powerful eagle in pursuit.”

The coaster will mark the fifth family launch coaster from Vekoma since the debut of Big Bear Mountain at Dollywood in 2023. That ride has garnered stellar reviews, including from me. It occupies a sweet spot that satisfies the most hardened coaster warrior while remaining not overly intimidating to aspiring thrill-seekers. In terms of length, themeing, and general scale, Eagle’s Pursuit won’t match the Dollywood ride, but it should capture its general essence.

The new addition will be the sixth coaster at Waldameer. A trolley park that dates back to 1896, the family-owned facility has a charming vibe. It is one of a handful of amusement parks that offers free general admission. Among its highlights are Ravine Flyer II, a Gravity Group wooden coaster that is widely admired. Waldameer has added a number of new rides and attractions over the past few years including the spinning family coaster, Whirlwind, in 2020; the hydromagnetic water coaster, Rocket Blast, in 2023; the Zamperla Nebulaz flat ride, Time Twister, in 2025; and new slides and an updated lazy river at its water park, Water World, this year.

Do you think your three-year-old could handle a family launch coaster like Eagle’s Pursuit? Have you visited Waldameer?

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The company recently revealed additional details about another makeover: Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress. The classic Magic Kingdom attraction is set to close on July 6 to begin work. Fans of the show (I count myself part of that group) will be pleased to know that, with a projected 2027 reopening, tomorrow’s just a dream away.

Before we get around (see what I did there?) to what’s on the way, let’s take a look back at the Tomorrowland staple. The show debuted as part of General Electric’s Progressland pavilion at the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair. It was one of four breakthrough attractions that Walt Disney introduced at the expo, which also included “it’s a small world,” the Ford pavilion’s Magic Skyway (which sent passengers in sleek Mustangs and other convertibles back to prehistoric times and the dawn of mankind), and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Whereas the Lincoln presentation introduced one, albeit remarkably fluid and advanced, audio animatronic figure for its time, the Carousel of Progress had an entire family of human characters–and one dog. They were part of a presentation that showcased the importance of electricity through different eras (with–product placement alert–a heavy emphasis on GE appliances).

The attraction was presented in a unique revolving theater. Guests entered one of six 240-seat auditoriums. Arranged in a circle on an enormous turntable, the theaters rotated around a central stage. The scenes included the pre-electricity era of the Gay 90s, the dawn of electricity in the 1920s, the post-World War II 1940s, and the then-near-future of the late 1960s. The characters, with “dad” taking the lead, talked about the role electricity played in their lives from each period. The catchy tune, “There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” served as a bridge between each act. It was penned by the prolific Sherman brothers, whose credits also include the timeless songs from “Mary Poppins” as well as what may be the all-time musical earworm, “it’s a small world.”

After the fair ended, The Carousel of Progress moved to Tomorrowland at Disneyland Park in California where it opened in 1967. It closed in 1973 and relocated to the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World where it premiered in 1975. Or more specifically, Disney built a new rotating theater in Florida and moved the set pieces and characters there. A different show, America Sings, took up residence at Disneyland’s carousel theater in 1974. That show shuttered in 1988, and many of its animatronic animal characters migrated to Splash Mountain. The theater remained vacant until 1998 when Disney repurposed it into the West Coast version of Inventions. Guests viewed and interacted with the pavilion’s technology exhibits while the floor (which had previously been the show’s multiple stages) slowly rotated. From 2015 to 2020, the building was converted into Tomorrowland Expo Center and Star Wars Launch Bay, which served as a promotional space for the arrival of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. During this period, the floor no longer turned. Starting in 2023, Disney opened the building to Disney Vacation Club as a members-only lounge.

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So, what’s in store for the new Carousel of Progress at the Magic Kingdom? The rotating theater mechanism and the essential concept of the attraction will remain the same. Surely many, if not all, of the animatronics will be repurposed, perhaps with the latest technological advancements. The four-act show will become a five-act presentation with the addition of an introduction featuring an animatronic Walt Disney (giving new meaning to the attraction’s name, “Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress). The character will be similar to the one that debuted last year at Disneyland’s Main Street Opera House. Some critics have pointed out flaws in the animatronic Walt that cast an uncanny valley pall on the California presentation. Here’s hoping the Imagineers will make some improvements to the East Coast Walt.

As has been the case since it opened at the World’s Fair, the Carousel of Progress’ first position is now used for guests to shuffle into the theater and find their seats (after the previous audience departs). The stage’s curtain remains closed while a voice-over announcer briefly talks about the history of the attraction and introduces the show. The narration barely lasts one minute. This, I believe, is where Walt will now preside. Perhaps the Imagineers will extend the length of each act (they all have to be precisely the same length to accommodate the rotating bank of audiences that revolve from one scene to the next) so that the founder will have a little more time to address the crowd. According to the company, the opening sequence will have echoes of the 1964 TV special, “Disneyland Goes to the World’s Fair,” in which Walt talked about the expo’s attractions, including Carousel of Progress.

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In 1964, the original attraction began its journey about six decades earlier at the turn of the century; similarly, the revamped presentation will send audiences back 60 years from the present to the 1960s for its first scene (where, it should be noted, the original show ended its look at the then-future). Disney says it will depict the CoP family watching the Apollo moon landing on television. If General Electric still sponsored the attraction, the TV set would undoubtedly be a GE model. (Interestingly, GE purchased NBC, later combined it with Universal Studios to form NBCUniversal, and then sold the whole shebang to Comcast, which now operates the rival Universal theme parks.)

The next scene will advance to the 1980s on Halloween where the family will alternate between doling out candy to trick-or-treaters and extolling the virtues of their era’s appliances. The setting for Scene 3 is New Year’s Eve 1999 and the wonders of the then-new Internet. The final scene flashes forward to a future in which folks routinely take off for distant planets and robots cheerfully help people (as opposed to the AI-fueled dystopian future we not-so-secretly dread–if our AI overlords even allow us to survive; ooh, sorry that this otherwise cheerful piece just took a harrowing turn).

I’m thrilled that the company is investing in the historic attraction and breathing new life into it. While I can be something of a Disney attraction purist, the creaky old show needed an update. Inexplicably, the Carousel of Progress is my son’s favorite Disney attraction, Rise of the Resistance be damned. He’s looking forward to the overhaul even more than I am. How about you? Here’s my guess: And when it becomes a reality, it (will be) a dream come true for you and me.

So, how about you? Are you looking forward to the new and improved Carousel of Progress? Have you seen the Walt Disney animatronic at Disneyland? Is there a great, big, beautiful tomorrow, or will AI put the kibosh on our optimistic future?

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Yes, there is plenty of laughter in the air at parks. Some of it is the byproduct of anecdotes and banter exchanged among families and friends. Some of it is nervous laughter shared on coasters and other rides. Many shows and story-based dark rides incorporate some token humorous moments. But I believe parks could use more laugh-out-loud attractions, where comedy is as much a focus, if not the primary focus, as the thrills and other elements.

Fortunately, as The Muppets migrated across the Studios park to their new digs, the troupe’s trademark postmodern, vaudevillian shenanigans followed them. From all reports (I have not experienced RnRC 2.0), the queue, pre-show, loading station, and unload area are packed with videos (that include celebrity cameos), gags, props, and more that keep Muppets silliness front and center. The Imagineers even shoehorned the curmudgeonly animatronic hecklers, Statler and Waldorf, into the ride so that they could hurl some barbs as passengers whiz past them.

The Muppets have perfected the art, but as it has been said, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” Maybe that’s why there aren’t a heckuva lot of other examples where guffaws are the raison d’être at parks and attractions. Let’s explore a few.

RnRC isn’t the only thrill ride to elicit laughs. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! at Disney California Adventure feature’s the franchise’s offbeat mayhem and hilarity. Like RnRC, the Guardians ride repurposed an existing attraction, the West Coast version of Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and replaced the mostly serious proceedings with a much lighter, and frequently funny, tone. To a lesser extent, the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind coaster at Epcot, also injects some interplanetary humor into the ride.

The Minions are just as super silly in their pre-show presentations as they are during the main event for Minion Mayhem, the motion simulator attraction at Universal’s parks in Hollywood and Orlando. As is the characters’ wont, there are plenty of slapstick and wacky scenes to get guests giggling, but there are also some surprisingly tender moments. Considering the whole experience spans a few minutes, it’s incredible that Mayhem can elicit such a broad range of emotions. That’s part of the challenge at theme parks and attractions; unlike movies, TV shows, and other longer forms of entertainment, it can be hard to generate real belly laughs given the constraints.

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Ardent and more casual fans of ”The Simpsons” can find hilarious examples of the long-running series’ comedic chops in Universal’s namesake attractions as well as throughout the Springfield lands. Like RnRC, the queue and pre-show for The Simpsons Ride is absolutely jammed with nonstop nods to the show’s inanity.

Depending on how well the performer can improvise and interact with the audience, the laughter can be uproarious at Disney’s freewheeling Turtle Talk With Crush. Similarly, depending on the skipper’s improv skills and delivery of one-liners, the Jungle Cruise can be a riotous affair. While it’s based on a similar premise as Turtle Talk and also features a beloved franchise, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor at the Magic Kingdom doesn’t rise to the same level of lunacy–at least not when I’ve experienced the show.

One of the challenges of bringing a comedy-based show to a park is making it accessible and appealing to a broad audience. The Legoland parks solved that challenge with The Lego Movie 4D. Like the hip and wildly funny theatrical films on which it is based, the show cleverly operates on two levels. Children and adults simultaneously find it hilarious for different reasons. (There is a similar dynamic at Turtle Talk.) The Lego Movie 4D may be the park attraction that generates the most laughs for me. There are so many stupid (in a good, funny way), throwaway lines, I am in stitches.

Might Nate Bargatze lean into the funny at Nateland, the theme park he is developing in Tennessee? I’d have to assume that the popular comedian would want to showcase the craft that made him famous. But, as I’ve outlined, comedy at parks can be a tricky proposition. Maybe he can take some lessons from The Muppets.

Maybe the entire industry can look to The Muppets for inspiration. We could all use a whole lot more laughter and silliness at parks–and really everywhere else too for that matter.

What theme park attractions and shows get you laughing out loud? Do you agree there should be more comedy at parks?

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The meandering ride, which will be the park’s twelfth coaster, will span a generous 4,120 feet and include four magnetic LIM launches to keep passengers on the move and hopefully away from pesky werewolves. Werewolf Gorge will also incorporate a mid-course rollback, which will add to its edginess and potentially challenge kids who are close to the ride’s low 39-inch height requirement (which could include brave passengers as young as three years old).

The stunning quarry walls that encircle Six Flags Fiesta Texas provide a picturesque setting for its coasters and other rides. The park says that it will enhance the ambiance for Werewolf Gorge by sending its trains through the quarry walls and above a forested canopy of trees. It will also augment the storytelling with werewolf figures, effects, and other thematic elements.

Werewolf Gorge will hit a top speed of 45 mph and include a 40-foot drop. Because of the park’s hilly terrain, the coaster’s layout will include an 85-foot elevation change. Six Flags says that the ride will feature 32 airtime moments, which will be the “highest number of floater airtime elements ever incorporated into a family roller coaster.”

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If all of this sounds like it could traumatize your 39-inch-tall, budding coaster warrior, let’s put the stats and hype in perspective. 45 mph, especially when it is a zippy magnetic launch, will certainly elicit ah-hoos from riders. But it’s only five miles per hour faster than the fairly gentle Slinky Dog Dash at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. And it’s three miles per hour slower than Big Bear Mountain at Dollywood, which is also a family launch coaster manufactured by Vekoma and closely resembles the ride coming to the Texas park. The Dollywood ride is plenty perky–thrilling even–but it’s still within the bounds of a family ride. Werewolf Gorge will be considerably tamer than coasters that really pour on the speed such as Fiesta Texas’ glorious 70-mph Iron Rattler. (With coasters themed to snakes, werewolves, ghosts [Poltergeist], and bats [Batman the Ride], the park has quite the scary menagerie of rides on its midway.)

As for the touted 32 airtime moments, that claim could be full of hot air. Looking at the animated rendering of the ride (which is below), it doesn’t appear that there will be any significant airtime hills. The coaster’s fairly low speed wouldn’t seem to generate much airtime either, especially not 32 distinct moments. As I wrote in my recent review of Quantum Accelerator, Six Flags New England bragged that its new coaster delivers 11 airtime moments. I counted maybe one, and that barely registered. Likewise, Big Bear Mountain didn’t lift my tushy appreciably out of my seat.

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As for Six Flags’ claim that Werewolf Gorge will be “the world’s longest family launch coaster,” well, let’s also deconstruct that one. What constitutes a “family launch coaster?” That’s the model name–“Family Launch Coaster”–that Vekoma uses for the line that will include the new Fiesta Texas ride. And Werewolf Gorge will be the longest one the manufacturer has built to date (besting Big Bear Mountain, which spans 3,990 feet). But Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Coaster at Universal Orlando, which is also considered a family launch coaster, is 5,053 feet (and was built by a competing company, Intamin). Heck, what is a “family” coaster, anyways? Most coasters gurus would put Incredicoaster at Disney California Adventure in that category even though it hits a hefty 55 mph, drops 108 feet, and includes an inversion. And while we’re looking at stats, Disney’s launched, Pixar-themed ride travels a 6,072-foot course. As is the case with lots of park hype, Six Flags may be a bit loosey-goosey (loosey-wolfy?) in its claims.

Regardless, Werewolf Gorge looks like it will be a heckuva ride. I’m a fan of the similar Big Bear Mountain, which has received near-unanimous acclaim. Like the Dollywood ride, it appears that Six Flags will be incorporating a potent, original backstory complete with characters such as showman and werewolf archivist Jasper Bunyan, an immersive queue that will help set the stage by taking guests through the Museum of Cryptids, and a mysterious werewolf that will lurk throughout the coaster experience.

“This is a defining addition to Six Flags Fiesta Texas,” says Robert Bustle, park manager at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. “Werewolf Gorge brings together storytelling, innovation, and a bold combination of ride elements that truly sets it apart. It delivers an experience that is approachable for families, yet unmatched anywhere in the world.”

What’s your take on Werewolf Gorge? What do you think about dubious claims from parks and manufacturers about new rides?

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It is the highlight of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at both Disneyland in California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, one of the four theme parks at Walt Disney World in Florida. And it just may be the best park attraction in the world. But here’s the thing: As with most rides, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance includes some thrills. Would you be able to handle them? Would you want to?

Unlike a roller coaster or any amusement park ride that is outdoors and easily viewed from the midway, visitors at the Disney parks have no visual cues to observe Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in action and gauge its intensity. That’s because the attraction takes place inside an enormous show building nestled in a wooded area. So, I will do my best to explain what occurs during Rise. That way, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about whether you (or the people who might be among your theme park posse) would be up to giving it a whirl.

What kind of ride is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance?

First of all, it’s important to note that Rise is not a single ride experience. Unlike, say, Mission: Space at Epcot, which uses centrifuge technology to simulate space travel, or the Soarin’ rides at Disney California Adventure and Epcot, which uses (and pioneered) the concept of a flying theater to take guests on an “airborne” hang gliding journey to famous locales, the Star Wars attraction uses multiple ride systems and unfolds across a series of acts to engage guests in its narrative. It therefore takes some unpacking to describe what happens.

The entire experience lasts about 17 minutes. The sheer length of Rise, which is considerably longer than the more typical four-minute-or-so theme park attraction, only begins to hint at its epic scale and sheer wow factor. It is a triumph of park and attraction design, technology, and immersive storytelling. That’s why it is worthy of your careful consideration. If ever there was a must-ride Disney attraction, Rise is it.

But if you fall somewhere along the upper end of the theme park ride wimp spectrum (and you know who you are), you might be nervous about trying the Star Wars attraction. By demystifying Rise and divulging what happens during the experience, I run the risk of ruining the element of surprise for you. Ideally, it would be great if you could try the Star Wars attraction cold, without any prior knowledge. But, if you really want to know what to expect, consider this a big honkin’ spoiler warning–though the focus will be on the thrill-inducing aspects of the attraction, not the plot.

The Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge lands depict Batuu, a planet created for the parks. Batuu is a trading port that attracts eccentric characters from around the galaxy. At its center is Black Spire Outpost, which includes merchants selling wares in bazaar stalls, a cantina, and some eateries. Oh, and the Millennium Falcon just happens to be docked there. The Resistance (the good guys) have set up a secret encampment in a forested area on the outskirts of the village. This is where Rise is located.

According to the backstory of Galaxy’s Edge, the First Order arrived on Batuu a few weeks ago. A showdown is brewing between the sworn enemies, and you are about to be plopped into the middle of it.

The first act: Blast off

As you make your way through the encampment, you’ll see equipment cabinets and medical supplies stored by the Resistance. For the pre-show that sets the story in motion, you will be led into a briefing room where you will meet a holographic Rey. She will entrust you with some vital information that you cannot divulge to the First Order, or the fate of the galaxy may be doomed. (That, kids, is what is known as foreshadowing.)

For the first act of the attraction, you will board an Intersystem Transport Ship. It is supposed to whisk you away for a short journey to rendezvous on a safe planet. In usual theme park fashion, however, things will go horribly wrong.

This part of the attraction uses motion simulator ride technology, like Despicable Me Minion Mayhem at the Universal Parks, or one of the earliest attractions to use the concept, Star Tours at the Disney parks. Unlike those attractions, however, you stand aboard Rise’s transport vehicle. To give you a sense of the ride intensity, no safety restraints are used. You will experience a sense of space travel as the motion of the vehicle syncs with the action you can see through the viewing windows in the front and rear of the cabin, but it is quite mild.

Throughout this overview, I will use a thrill scale of 0 to 10 to rate the physical intensity of the experience, where 0 means no thrills and 10 means extreme thrills. Note that there are also psychological thrills; I have not factored those in. But if you are okay with the PG-13 hijinks of the Star Wars films, you’ll be fine with the drama you’ll encounter during Rise.

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I give the first act on the Intersystem Transport Ship a thrill rating of 2.25. For comparison, Minion Mayhem and Star Tours rate 3.25 on the thrill-o-meter. Nearly everybody should be fine with the thrills delivered here. They are equivalent to the sensations you might experience aboard a fast subway car that navigates some small hills and turns.

The second act: Oh oh!

For the second act of Rise, you’ll be walking through the Star Destroyer. The size and scope of the massive carrier is impressive. When the door of the ship opens, you will be greeted by a phalanx of armed stormtroopers. You won’t experience any physical thrills here, but you will experience some deeply immersive and highly impressive storytelling.

The third act: Dodge the blaster bolts

For the third act, which is the heart of the attraction, you will be whisked onto Star Destroyer Fleet Transports. The eight-passenger vehicles are highly sophisticated and use trackless ride technology. Instead of guide tracks, onboard computers determine the path, speed, and motion of the vehicles.

The action is frenetic, but not overly wild. The vehicles speed up, come to sudden halts, spin a bit, and execute other evasive maneuvers as they try to avoid detection, dodge fire, or otherwise get out of harm’s way. At one point, your vehicle will board an elevator and rise perhaps 25 feet into the air to the upper levels of the Star Destroyer. I give the third act a thrill rating of 2.75. It is not as wild as Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, which uses Disney’s Enhanced Motion Vehicles. Like Rise’s first act on the Transport Ship, virtually everybody should be able to handle this part of the attraction.

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The finale: Let’s get the heck outta here

For the fourth and final act of Rise of the Resistance, Disney combines three ride systems. This is where things get a bit hairy. But only a bit.

Major spoiler alert: You and your mates aboard the Fleet Transport will, in fact, make it out alive from the Star Destroyer and to safety. But you knew that, right?

Your Fleet Transport will lock down onto an escape pod. The pod is actually a motion base, that, like the Intersystem Transport Ship in the first act, will move in sync with projected action to simulate space travel. Remember how I wrote that you will rise about 25 feet in the air earlier in the attraction? Well, what goes up must come down. To get away from the Star Destroyer, your escape pod will suddenly plummet in space before your droid can regain control and pilot you back to Batuu.

Here is how Disney accomplishes the effect: As I indicated, the trackless ride vehicle is locked down onto a motion base. The motion base is then coupled with a drop tower-like mechanism to deliver a freefall. Think Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, but instead of a 199-foot drop, Rise drops perhaps 25 or 30 feet. It is startling, but not nearly as thrilling as the Tower of Terror. I give that terrorizing attraction a 7 on the thrill scale.

For the final act in the escape pod, I assign a thrill rating of 3.25. That is the same as the rating for Star Tours. The motion simulator thrills are similar (although the duration of the experience is much shorter), and, although it includes a drop, the freefall sensation is not all that intense. If you are okay with Star Tours and similar motion simulator rides, you should be okay with Rise of the Resistance.

Who can (and should) go on Rise of the Resistance?

With a relatively low height restriction of 40 inches (102 centimeters), children as young as 4 might be tall enough to ride. That doesn’t necessarily mean they should. The same goes for tweens, teens, and adults. Sure, thrill rides are supposed to be thrilling but regardless of height or age, the thrills that Rise delivers may not be appealing to some people. That should be a personal decision.

Still, Rise is relatively mild when compared to many other park rides and attractions. Some roller coasters, of course, are incredibly extreme. While Disney World and Disneyland do not have any Six Flags-level coasters, they do offer some thrills that are considerably more intense than Rise.

How would you rate the thrills on Rise of the Resistance? Do you think most young children could handle the attraction?

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The new Ithaka Resort will be located within the park. The 744-unit, Greek-inspired property, which will include rooms, villas, and suites, will be adjacent to Toverland’s Greek-themed land, Ithaka. Scheduled to open in summer 2027, it will feature restaurants, a pool complex, and a wellness facility among its amenities. Some hotel guests will be able to see Troy, the park’s 105-foot wooden coaster built by Great Coasters International, from their windows.

In addition to encouraging multi-day stays, on-property accommodations allow guests to leave the everyday world and more fully immerse themselves in the park experience. The larger Efteling offers four hotels at a variety of price points and with different themes.

The first land that guests enter at Toverland is Port Laguna. According to the park, the tropical harbor village is slated to get a big-budget, new dark ride along with other attractions. The rides are slated to debut in 2027 as well, although they may not open until late in the year. Toverland has not released any details about the dark ride, but it will likely feature the homegrown characters featured in the land, which include a parrot named Ivy and other members of the Magistralis family.

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Other smaller attractions planned for Port Laguna are a demolition derby-themed car ride and a pint-sized log flume for younger guests. Elsewhere in Toverland, Maximus’ Blitz Bahn, which is a bobsled ride in a metal tough or chute that is sort of a cross between a roller coaster and an alpine mountain coaster, has been retired. It will be replaced later this year with what the park promises will be an even faster, more aggressive bobsled ride that will include swinging cars. It appears that passengers will have some control over the speed of their individual vehicles.

Among Toverland’s other highlights is Fenix, a B&M wing coaster that climbs 131 feet, hits 59 mph, and includes three inversions. Themed to the mythical firebird, it includes a brief confrontation with the creature just before the train leaves the station. The boat-based attraction, Merlin’s Quest, includes a dark ride sequence in which guests encounter the Arthurian wizard. There is also Djengu River, a themed river rapids ride with tunnels and fog effects. It features the Dwervels, playful characters that live along the riverbanks of Magic Valley and enjoy splashing passengers.

Do you enjoy staying on property at theme park resorts? Have you visited (or heard of) Toverland?

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4.25 (out of 5)

When it debuted at Disneyland in 1987, the original Star Tours was the first major motion simulator attraction at a theme park, and the newfangled virtual reality concept ushered in a new era for park attractions. If theme parks are about escaping from the everyday world, motion simulators offer an ideal means of escape. Using seats that move in sync with filmed action projected onto a screen, the destinations are only limited by the imagination of the attraction’s designers. Star Tours was also a departure for Disney which, up until that point, had exclusively used its own content as the basis for its attractions. Partnering with George Lucas to bring in a third-party intellectual property to Disneyland was a bold (and highly successful) move. Subsequently, Disney bought Lucasfilm and now has the Star Wars franchise under its corporate umbrella.

Since the ride film made its debut, attraction designers have added Omnimax screens (such as The Simpsons Ride at Universal), roving motion base vehicles (such as Transformers: The Ride 3D, also at Universal), and other features to enhance the you-are-there experience. The movie ride space cowboys at Walt Disney Imagineering upped their own ante with a retooled version of the attraction that launched in 2011.

Now, half the fun aboard Star Tours is you never know where in hyperspace the ride will whisk you.

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That doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything exciting happening at some parks. For example, Canada’s Wonderland, located outside of Toronto, is lavishing attention on two of its coasters. One is getting a significant themeing makeover along with some new(ish) trains, while another is getting some much-needed love for its track.

Opened in 1995, Top Gun was Canada’s first inverted coaster. The park was then known as Paramount Canada’s Wonderland, and the ride was themed to the hit 1986 Paramount Picture’s movie featuring Tom Cruise. Cedar Fair took over the park in 2007, dropped the Paramount theme, and changed the name of the coaster to the more generic Flight Deck. Some 31 years after it debuted, Canada’s Wonderland (which is now under the Six Flags umbrella) is changing the name of the coaster once again, this time to The Daredeviler. That’s a lot of transformations for both the coaster and the park.

The retro theme reimagines the ride as an ode to early aviation and the stunt pilots who popularized the then-novel mode of transportation. The coaster will anchor a reenergized Grande World Expo area, which recalls the late 19th century and is one of the theme park’s original lands. The change is more than just cosmetic, however. Canada’s Wonderland says that the coaster will feature new track sections, new trains, and vest-style restraints, all of which should yield a more smooth ride experience.

The “new” trains are actually imports taken from the shuttered Six Flags America. They were introduced in 2024 on Professor Screamore’s SkyWinder, which had previously been known as Mind Eraser and, like Top Gun at Canada’s Wonderland, first opened in 1995. (Are you following me with all of these ride and park permutations?) Both coasters are off-the-shelf Vekoma SLC (an acronym for “suspended looping coaster”) models, sometimes derisively referred to in the enthusiast community as “Hang and Bangs.” With their notoriously rough rides, passengers would often be subjected to pinball-like head banging on the coasters’ original over-the-shoulder restraints. The Daredeviler’s less intrusive vest-style restraints (combined with the likely smoother ride) will eliminate the head banging.

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The Mighty Canadian Minebuster, one of three wooden coasters at Canada’s Wonderland (out of a total of 18, which ties it with Ohio’s Cedar Point for having the second highest number of coasters at any park in the world; Poland’s Energylandia take the top spot with 19 coasters), is getting some much-needed replacement track. The Gravity Group is supplying its engineered precut track, and the park is installing it. With a total of 3,828 feet of track, Minebuster got 1,000 feet of track replaced last year and will be getting another 980 feet this year, which should make the ride much smoother (or at least the half of it outfitted with new track). Last year, Canada’s Wonderland debuted the multi-launch coaster, AlpenFury.

When I first wrote about The Gravity Group’s innovative replacement track, it featured vertical stacks of wood for straight-path sections. The company now also offers “3D combo track” for curving or twisting paths, which incorporates both horizontal and vertical boards. The Gravity Group provided its wooden replacement track for The Beast at Cedar Point and is currently working on Timber Wolf at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri. The company has other replacement track projects underway, but the parks at which the work is being done have yet to announce them.

Have you been to Canada’s Wonderland? Are you surprised that the park has a near record-breaking 18 coasters?

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Sure, there are more thrilling rides at Six Flags New England. But the new family launch coaster, Quantum Accelerator, has just enough oomph to keep adrenaline junkies engaged while remaining accessible to a wide swath of guests. It’s also incredibly smooth, wholly satisfying, and a great addition to the park’s lineup.

The new ride is located in the park’s Old West-themed land, Crackaxle Canyon. According to Six Flags’ backstory, crackpot inventor Professor Screamore has purchased the town to showcase his creations, including his time travel machine, Quantum Accelerator. The themeing isn’t extensive (and the story isn’t entirely obvious to guests), but it’s more generous than most Six Flags rides. Walking through the queue, guests see some of the professor’s works-in-progress, many of which are embedded with cogs, gears, and other steampunk-styled ephemera. The copper roof of the Victorian-era loading station has a nicely aged green patina. During the ride, passengers pass a smokestack belching steam and curious looking vats containing green-tinged goo–apparently another one of the professor’s experiments.

Each seat in the two-passenger cars has a single hydraulic lap bar that’s comfortable and a breeze to pull down and release. With its simple, intuitive, restraint system, two-train operation, and energetic, capable ride-ops crew, the line for Quantum Accelerator was booking right along on the day that I visited.

Six Flags and Intamin, which designed the coaster, tout Quantum Accelerator’s “straddle seating” and call the cars “hover bikes.” Unlike rides such as TRON Lightcycle/Run at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Coaster at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure, which feature vehicles that truly feel like motorbikes, the straddle designation here seems more like a gimmick. Riders sit on bench seats, but their legs are positioned astride small humps on the car’s floor. They can sit back or lean forward and grab small handlebars at the front of the vehicle. If the cars had no fronts or sides, perhaps they might seem more like motorbikes.

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The train rolls out of the station and is immediately propelled from 0 to 30 mph via a tire-launch system on a straightaway. The launch is enough to grab riders’ attention, but fairly tame. The first half of the course, which takes place to the left of the loading station, sends passengers on a gentle excursion through banked turns and twists.

Heading back towards the station for the coaster’s second act, business picks up when another tire-launch revs the train to 45 mph. That’s still well within family coaster parameters, but–parents take note–perky enough to give pause to younger or more timid guests. (The minimum height for unaccompanied riders is 52 inches and 48 inches for accompanied ones.) The launch sends the cars around a bend and up a 59-foot hill, which is Quantum Accelerator’s highest point. More twists and turns follow on the right side of the station before the train returns to unload.

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Six Flags claims Quantum Accelerator delivers 11 airtime moments. I rode in both the front and rear cars and aside from a barely-there rise out of my seat as the train crested the hill after the second launch, I couldn’t discern any more airtime. That doesn’t mean that the coaster isn’t a load of fun. Everyone from veteran ride warriors to more casual fans will enjoy Quantum Accelerator. The crowd pleaser could be a great choice for courageous kids that are ready to graduate from kiddie coasters and try their first truly thrilling ride.

With 12 coasters, it’s interesting to note that Quantum Accelerator is Six Flags New England’s first launched coaster. The park describes the new ride as “New England’s first dual-launch straddle coaster.” That’s a lot of qualifiers. In fact, Quantum Accelerator is only the second launched coaster of any kind in the region after Phobia Fear Coaster, the Premier Rides Sky Rocket ride at Lake Compounce in Connecticut.

Of Six Flags New England’s 12 coasters, I’d rank Quantum Accelerator as tied for my third-favorite thrill machine alongside the floorless Batman – The Dark Knight. It’s considerably better than the clanking, woefully painful Vekoma Inverted Boomerang, Goliath, that used to occupy the spot on which Quantum Accelerator now sits. By the way, the RMC makeover, Wicked Cyclone, nabs the second spot, and the glorious hypercoaster, Superman The Ride, soars high at number one on my Six Flags New England list (and is one of my all-time faves anywhere). I will now add Quantum Accelerator to my must-ride list when I visit the park.

Have you been to Six Flags New England? What’s your favorite coaster at the park? Will you return to experience Quantum Accelerator?

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