Theme Park Insider

Walk Time: Cotaland celebrates its official debut

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 05:02:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: It's time for Theme Park Insider's week in review.

Cotaland is celebrating its Grand Opening weekend, starting today. The Austin, Texas theme park is located on the grounds of the Circuit of the Americas F1 track, thus the name. The park's top coasters are the Circuit Breaker, a Vekoma Tilt Coaster, and Palindrome, a Gerstlauer Infinity. But the top ride might be the $175 upcharge Hot Lap experience on the F1 track.

On the flip side, the now-defunct Fun Spot America Atlanta is selling its equipment and assets in an online auction. You can check the bidding here, which continues through Wednesday, October 14 at 2pm ET.

In industry personnel news, Kyle Miller is the new President at United Parks. He will report to CEO Marc Swanson, after United separated those positions. Scott Maupin replaces Miller as United's Chief Parks Operating Officer.

Switching to former corporate leaders, Bob Chapek has published his memoir about his run - and removal - as Disney CEO. We're talking about that over on the Discussion Forum: Bob Chapek's pathetic revenge tour.

But the biggest theme park news in mainstream media this week was the latest round of injury lawsuits overt Six Flags Magic Mountain's X2 roller coaster. See SF Magic Mountain X2 Lawsuit on the Discussion Forum and this week's Theme Park Insider Podcast.

Finally, Universal Studios Hollywood riled some fans with its announcement that it would offer an upcharge ticket to ride Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift during Halloween Horror Nights. An upcharge to an upcharge? That is scary.

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Disney celebrates Dolly Parton Day

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 17:15:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Happy Dolly Parton Day!

If you are wondering why today, September 25, of all days should be the day to honor the late singer, entrepreneur, and humanitarian, just look at that date in U.S. format - 9/25. Then say the individual digits out loud.

Nine. Two. Five.

That, of course, is the name of the 1980 comedy film that brought Dolly to the big screen for the first time. The film's theme song also became one of Dolly's biggest pop hits. In honor of that, The Walt Disney Company announced today that it will bring "9 to 5" back to theaters next month, starting October 9. The film will run for one week, and Disney is donating all of its proceeds from that theatrical run to The Dollywood Foundation, in support of Dolly Parton�s Imagination Library.

Disney now owns the rights to the movie through its purchase of 20th Century Fox.

To celebrate Dolly's life and legacy, today is the inaugural "Give Like Dolly Day," urging people to "Dream More, Learn More, Care More, and Be More" in support of the communities around them, especially children in need.

If you would like to participate now, rather than just waiting to buy a "9 to 5" movie ticket, you can visit The Dollywood Foundation website and contribute.

And wherever you live, I can guarantee that your local public school music program could use whatever assistance and support you might be able to provide, as well.

Let's not overlook the unusual occurrence of the world's largest theme park company making a donation to a foundation named for another theme park. But that was - and is - Dolly Parton's power to bring people and institutions together.

Disney reveals plans for using AI to watch its Animal Kingdom

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 21:02:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Disney's plans for using more AI in its theme parks continues with a new patent application this week.

In "Techniques for Automatically Monitoring Animal Behaviors and Generating Notifications," Disney describes plans for using cameras and machine learning to keep track of animals in a designated area, such as a zoo display.

Disney employs a zoological team that looks after the animals housed at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World in Florida. But even with the assistance of security cameras, human eyes can see only so much. That is why theme parks have used automated monitoring systems for years.

When I worked on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we had an automated block zone control system - just like any other modern roller coaster - that would stop the ride if its sensors were flagged improperly. But we also had security cameras that allowed us to see every lift and on the ride, too - in case we needed to manually stop the ride because we saw something improper that the automated system would not or did not catch.

Disney's proposed animal monitoring system extends the capabilities of automated monitoring. It proposes using an AI-driven machine learning for its monitoring system, to identify where animals should be and how they should be moving and behaving. If the system then notices something wrong, it would send a warning to whomever would be in charge of addressing that.

Such a system could do more than issue warnings, too. It could be implemented to send notices to guests when animals are active and present in viewing areas. That way, there's no more guesswork before walking over to try to see if some animals are out and about. And it could do that additional, pro-active customer service work without taking away from its safety and health monitoring responsibilities.

The idea is that an AI monitoring system could watch a wider area of animal activity more acutely than a human team could do alone. The question is - as it always is with AI implementations - is a company doing this to assist and extend its human resources, or to replace them? The former is just the latest step in the long journey of automation in the workplace. The latter is a shortcut that usually ends up costing a company money... and more.

Here is the full patent application, if you want to dive into the weeds.

In another patent application this week, Disney has updated its "Display System for Producing Wide-Angle, Retroreflective Real Images." Think of this as a next-generation Pepper's Ghost effect - one that does not seem to be limited to displaying its "hologram" behind glass or some other clear surface. Disney's proposed system uses multiple reflectors and display stations to seemingly project a real image into space in front of viewers. Check out the details here.

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Podcast: Troubles at Six Flags

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:58:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: In this week's episode of the Theme Park Insider Podcast, Jake and I talk about how being a hard-ticket event (or not) affects the quality of a Halloween haunt. We also get into the latest existential threats to Six Flags - the ongoing debt burden and now the prospect of having to pay big legal settlements over the X2 roller coaster.

The Theme Park Insider Podcast drops new episodes every Thursday morning. You can subscribe to the podcast via Apple or Spotify. If you would like to get the podcast in your email inbox instead, please sign up for our free email newsletter, which also allows you to upgrade to a paid subscription for additional monthly content.

Or, you can get the video version of the podcast (above), by subscribing to Theme Park Insider's YouTube channel and opting into notifications.

Thanks for listening... and for spreading the word about Theme Park Insider.

Investors again call for sell-off at Six Flags

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:47:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Theme park fans have learned what to expect from Six Flags. You're getting roller coasters, cheap annual passes, and high prices inside the parks to make up for those cheap annual passes.

And if you look at the company outside the parks, you will come to expect shaky financials and regular calls from big investors for sell-offs.

So longtime Six Flags fans will express exactly zero surprise at this week's Wall Street Journal report that activist investor Jana Partners is demanding that Six Flags explore a sale.

Jana is the firm that last year brought in Travis Kelce as a celebrity spokesperson for the chain, after Jana bought a reported 9% stake in the company. That's your pump, and the proposed sale would be the dump.

Except Six Flags' stock price is down 43% in the past year, so Jana's call feels more like cutting a loss than cashing in. Perhaps by calling for a sale, Jana can gin up a little merger & acquisition speculation to drive the FUN stock price? That might be working. It's up 2% today.

Here's the problem with Six Flags - debt. Interest charges on the company's nearly $5 billion debt are wiping out its profits. Pandemic debt pushed the old Cedar Fair and Six Flags companies to merge, in the hopes that operational efficiency would help the new company better manage that debt.

Six Flags has closed or sold parks in an effort to get profitable, and while its individual remaining parks are making money, that's not enough to pay off its massive debt. Other investors have urged the company to sell its real estate to cover the debt, but that would leave the company saddled with ever-increasing rent payments. Basically, a real estate sale would be swapping one crippling financial burden for another one. (Real estate sell-offs are one of the main ways that private equity companies devour and kill the businesses that they purchase.)

Jana lacks enough shares to force Six Flags to do anything, but even if Jana finds a way to cash out, another activist investor will take its place so long as Six Flags remains a publicly traded company with a valuable real estate portfolio and a heavy debt load.

So what's the path forward for Six Flags? Unless the company wants to consider yet another go through bankruptcy court, it's likely a sale of more parks. But a sale does not happen if a seller cannot find a buyer.

That's the concern for theme park fans. If Six Flags cannot find a park operator willing and able to buy what the company is looking to sell, that leaves Six Flags to explore sales to commercial property developers who would tear down and redevelop park sites. Sorry, Six Flags America fans.

The longer that your home park has gone without major new attraction construction, the more worried that I would be as a fan of that park. Ultimately, Six Flags has the assets to become a financially successful company that serves well millions of amusement fans. But Six Flags has to find a way to escape the financial liabilities that are preventing it from getting there.

Universal opens Hollywood Drift as pay-to-ride for Horror Nights

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 18:32:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Universal Studios Hollywood is opening its new Fast & Furious Hollywood Drift roller coaster during Halloween Horror Nights.

But you will have to pay extra to ride it.

The new coaster is now open to all day guests at the California theme park. [Here is our review, including on-ride POV: Universal crosses the finish line with a new world-class coaster.] But the park has been opening the coaster only to select guests during the after-hours Halloween Horror Nights event.

Now, Universal is opening the coaster to more HHN visitors. But only to those who buy a "Halloween Horror Nights Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift Access Add-On" ticket. Those one-time access tickets for the coaster range in price from $19.95 to $24.95, depending upon the night you visit. And that is on top of the price to get in the door for Halloween Horror Nights, of course.

The coaster will be open only from 7-10pm on HHN nights, so you will need to ride early in the evening if you buy this upcharge extra.

For our coverage of this year's HHN in Hollywood, including house walk-through videos, please read Sinners, original IP lead the way at Horror Nights Hollywood.

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Mack Group previews its new dark ride restaurant

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 18:20:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Every theme park fan faces this dilemma when noon rolls around. Do you look for a restaurant to have lunch, or keep riding rides while others go eat?

Now the team at Mack Group has a solution - do both. Go on a dark ride and enjoy a sit-down meal, at the same time. It's "eatX," a new concept that the company unveiled today at the IAAPA Expo Europe in London.

"With eatX and our patented FlowDiner vehicle, we bring together decades of expertise in world-class engineering, gastronomy and storytelling," Thomas Mack said. "By merging these disciplines together, we've created an entirely new genre of dining attraction."

The FlowDiner vehicle is an autonomously moving table, powered by a battery and electric motor that can move a 0.5 meters per second.

FlowDiner at IAAPA Expo Europe 2026. Photo courtesy Mack Group

Mack Group oversees Mack Rides, which developed the ride vehicle, as well as Europa-Park and its Michelin-starred Eatrenalin immersive fine dining restaurant.

The first installation of eatX will be Strawberry Dining Journey at Karls Erlebnis-Dorf - Elstal, near Berlin. The experience will combine a three-course menu with a journey through five themed worlds, inspired by the discovery of the garden strawberry in 1714. The ride will include lighting and sound design along practical sets and projections.

"The ambition was never to create a restaurant with an experience attached, or an attraction
with a meal attached," Karls founder Robert Dahl said. "We wanted to make both inseparable - each equally essential. For that hour, the outside world should disappear and you should even forget that you are in Elstal."

Strawberry Dining Journey is set to open in 2027.

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So you want to visit Disney, but which one?

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 22:07:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Are you thinking about a Disney vacation for your family?

Today I am writing for parents who are just starting the process of figuring out what all this means. Disney has multiple locations around the world, so the first question you're going to need to address is... which Disney is the right one for you?

The "Disney" that most people think about is the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, located just outside of Orlando. Walt Disney World is the world's most popular theme park resort, with four theme parks and more than 30 different hotels. That might sound intimidating, but that's not the only option that Disney has for families.

On the west coast, just south of Los Angeles, is the original Disneyland theme park. Located in Anaheim, Disneyland also now has a second gate right next door called Disney California Adventure. Disneyland can be a better option for many families on the west coast of the United States who are looking for something a little closer to home. The Disneyland Resort also is much smaller physically than the Walt Disney World Resort. It's a very walkable destination, which makes it a good option for families with older kids.

Disney also has theme parks located around the world - in Tokyo, in Shanghai, in Hong Kong, and in Paris. Those can be great options for adventurous families who would like to visit Disney but don't want to make Disney their entire vacation. I'll write more about those options below.

All of these are theme park destinations. That means a long day on your feet, walking to and waiting for various theme park attractions, from thrill rides to more gentle rides to shows and decorated playgrounds. If you're looking more just for a Disney vibe and not necessarily for a lot of rides, you might consider another option that Disney offers - the Disney Cruise Line.

Disney's cruise line is not like other cruise lines. There's no casino. There are no cocktail drink packages. Therefore, you won't find the same environment that you will on most other cruise lines. Disney's cruise ships are more like theater companies at sea, with Broadway-style shows based on Disney movies, abundant character experiences, dinner theaters, and the best interactive kids clubs in the business.

On the flip side, if your kids really want to go on roller coasters and thrill rides, you might not want a "Disney" visit at all. You might be better served by another brand of amusement park, whether it be Universal, Busch Gardens, or one of several other highly rated themed amusement parks in the United States or abroad. If you have a specific question about your family's situation, feel free to ask it in the comments, and I'd be happy to respond. Or email me at themeparkinsider@gmail.com.

Comparing Disney's lands

If you are set on a Disney theme park vacation, let's look at some of the differences between the differences between the various Disney destinations around the world.

As I mentioned, Florida's Walt Disney World, located near Orlando, is by far the largest theme park resort in the world. It has four parks:

The Magic Kingdom, which most people think of when they think of Disney World. That's the park with Cinderella Castle in the middle of it.
EPCOT, which stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and it's kind of like a permanent world's fair with pavilions themed to different countries.
Disney's Hollywood Studios, which opened as Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in 1989, was once a working movie studio, but now is a traditional park themed to some of Disney's non-fairy tale franchises, including Star Wars and Toy Story.
Disney's Animal Kingdom, which includes live animal exhibits, shows, and rides themed to animals, real and imagined, including Pandora: The World of Avatar and, coming next year, Encanto.

Anaheim, California, is home to the original Disneyland, the only theme park Walt himself visited. It is Theme Park Insider readers' number one-rated theme park in the world. It's physically much smaller than its sibling, the Magic Kingdom in Florida, but is packed with many more attractions. Its younger sibling, Disney California Adventure, is located just steps away. Those two parks have as many rides and shows as all four of the Walt Disney World parks, but you don't have to spend time driving or taking buses to travel between them. There are also plenty of non-Disney hotels located within walking distance of the two parks, which can make it a more affordable option for some families.

Around the world, Disneyland Paris is the most popular theme park in Europe. It's another of Disney's castle parks, though its particular castle is considered the most beautiful of all of Disney's castles. The second park at the Disneyland Paris Resort is called Disney Adventure World and includes a new World of Frozen land.

Tokyo is also home to two Disney theme parks: Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. The latter has won our Theme Park Insider Award as the world's best theme park eight times. It is perhaps the most beautiful Disney theme park in the world and recently opened our readers' pick as the world's best Frozen-themed ride.

You can find single Disney theme parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Shanghai Disneyland is Disney's newest theme park. It's huge, so there'll be a lot of walking involved, and it includes a new Zootopia-themed land, making it a top choice for fans of that franchise. Hong Kong Disneyland is much smaller, but very easy to access. Located just minutes from Hong Kong's airport, and conveniently located on the MTR rail line.

You can get detailed lineups of what is available at each Disney theme park by following the links above or visiting our themeparkinsider.com/reviews page. You can see how the individual attractions at these parks rate against other attractions around the world on our readers' top theme park attractions page.

The price for visiting international, the daily ticket price for theme parks, Disney theme parks outside the United States is often much lower than it is for Disney's U.S. theme parks. On-site hotel rates also can be lower at some of the international parks as well, so you're really looking at the cost of travel perhaps being the deciding factor there. But if your family has the means to consider international travel, a Disney trip can be a great way to entice your kids to buy into the Paris or the Tokyo or the China vacation that Mom or Dad have dreamed about.

As I mentioned above, if you're really looking more for roller coasters and thrill rides, a Disney theme park might not be your best bet. Think about what characters and franchises your kids really love to watch. If they're into things like Minions and Harry Potter and dinosaurs, the Universal theme parks, particularly Universal Orlando, might be a better choice for you.

If they really are just all about the thrills and not so much about spending time with particular characters, allow me to recommend some great regional amusement parks, such as Dollywood, near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and its sister park, Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Holiday World, in the southern Indiana town of Santa Claus, is also another excellent option, as are Cedar Point in Ohio, Hersheypark in Pennsylvania and Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia. All of these parks have rated highly among Three Park Insider readers over the years.

If you live in Europe or are considering European vacation, think about Efteling, Europa Park, or Phantasialand, all of which have great thrill rides as well as wonderful, story-driven themed attractions, and rate highly among Theme Park Insider readers.

Again, picking the right destination is the first step to ensuring that you get the vacation that your family really wants to experience. We have plenty of resources here on Theme Park Insider for you to explore different parks around the world, and we're always happy to answer questions either here in the comments on this post or over on our discussion forum.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the adventure of planning your family's next great vacation.