Weekly Rewind 4.3.10

Busch Gardens Tampa recently opened their new children's area - Sesame Street Forest of Fun. The area is larger than the first version at the Williamsburg park, but both are equally great for families. BGTNation has a nice photo report of the new area.

Kings Island sent out this photo with the following caption: "Diamondback slithered out of the storage shed for a series of test runs Wednesday at Kings Island and didn’t see its shadow, which means spring is here! The 230-foot tall steel roller coaster opened to rave reviews last year, giving more than 1.8 million venomous rides. Kings Island opens for weekend operation April 17. Daily operation begins May 21.

Six Flags Over Georgia is hosting the Virtual Army Experience this weekend at the park. The high-tech, team-based mission challenges participants, 13-years and older, to employ teamwork, rules of engagement, leadership and state-of-the-art military technology to successfully complete their mission. Visitors also are invited to play the popular America’s Army PC game against real Soldiers. The experience, which will be included with park admission, will be open at Six Flags Over Georgia during park hours from April 2-4.

Universal Orlando has released another photo from inside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. "An authentic replica from the Harry Potter films, guests will pass by Hagrid's hut on their way to the Flight of the Hippogriff family-friendly roller coaster." The detail, as expected, is amazing!

Things continue not to look good for Freestyle Music Park, formerly Hard Rock Park. They recently missed an important deadline for making a debt payment, and are now saying they have no plans to open in 2010. Read more here.

If you love looking at dirt being pushed around, then check out Six Flags New England's construction shots of Mr. Six's Splash Island! Just kidding - though they are just starting the building process so there's not yet much to see.

Wet 'n' Wild water park, located in Arizona, just opened to the public for the first time last summer. Not wanting to rest on their laurels, the park is already spending a bunch of cash to improve the park experience. How so? Try $400k for more parking and $300k worth of additional shade!

Check out this image that Luna Park posted that shows off how the park will look. Very nice! A wide variety of rides look to be offered - water rides, a coaster, flat rides, tall ones - rides of all shapes and sizes!

Here's an interesting piece on Cedar Point's mega legion of fans that have appeared via Facebook and Twitter. The park has done a great job to build up a massive online presence. Their recent April Fool's joke that their blog was finished practically had some folks ready to cry!

If the photos that Universal Orlando has been releasing hasn't cut it for your Wizarding needs, then check out this video from the Ellen Show. It's by far the most we've seen inside the new area, and they even got to ride Flight of the Hippogriff!

Check out La Ronde's new video that teases at... well something. You'll have to watch to understand, but I'm sure it has something to do with the theme of that "almost brand new" SLC coaster they are building who's name and theme has yet to be revealed.