Theme Park Central Your Source For Theme Park News

Alton Towers is to open what it claims is the world’s first rollercoaster that combines a physical ride with virtual reality, giving passengers a “customised journey into space” via headsets that use groundbreaking technology. The ride, called Galactica, will launch in April and is the first major new ride at the Staffordshire theme park since 16 people were injured, including …

Construction is well underway way at SeaWorld Orlando as Mako, the new hypercoaster opening this summer, begins to take shape along the Orlando skyline. The coaster was “topped off” yesterday as cranes put the tallest point of the structure – the tracks of its signature 200-foot tall hill – into place. Source: coaster-net.com

Beech Bend Park has announced the largest water park expansion in the park’s history. The multi-million dollar expansion includes Cyclone Saucers, the first-ever North American installation of ProSlide’s Flyingsaucer ride. Riders will fly around the edge of three “flying saucers” at high speeds. Source: coaster-net.com

SeaWorld filed a lawsuit challenging the California Coastal Commission’s stipulation that bans the San Diego theme park from breeding captive orcas last Tuesday. The commission endorsed a $100 million expansion of SeaWorld’s killer whale tanks last October but included a ban on breeding and transferring the animals. The park’s attorneys argued that the California Coastal Commission cannot incorporate a clause …

Since the 2013 release of a documentary that accuses the company of neglecting and abusing its orcas, animal rights activists have demanded that the San Diego theme park free its 11 killer whales. But marine biologists — including SeaWorld critics — agree that the whales probably will never be released to the open seas. Source: coaster-net.com