Blackpool Pleasure Beach to Close Valhalla for 2020 Season for Major Refurbishment

© Blackpool Pleasure Beach

England's Blackpool Pleasure Beach has announced that they will be closing their iconic water flume ride, Valhalla, for the 2020 season in order to complete a total refurbishment.  Details as to exactly what they have planned are slim, with the park only saying it will be given a "reimagining during the 2020 season."

Valhalla is planned to reopen in 2021 in time for the park's grand 125th anniversary year.

Fans of the ride should be please as Valhalla has been known to have many of its fantastic effects not working in recent years, having opened in 2000.  One has to wonder if these exact effects will return in 2021 or if the "reimagining" will include brand new replacement effects.  Either way it is nice to see the park decide to double down on the ride, which is massive and I'd assume expense to operate, instead of retiring it.

If you haven't had the pleasure of checking out Valhalla, here is an unofficial on ride movie of the experience from a few years ago when more of the effects were working.  The fire at the end is super intense and I hope that's not changed during the renovations!

West Edmonton Mall Changing Galaxyland to New Hasbro Theme

© Galaxyland

Galaxyland amusement park, located within the West Edmonton Mall in Canada, has announced that it will embark on a year long process of retheming to Hasbro licensed intellectual properties.  The park opened in 1983 as an amenity to the largest mall in North America, and carries an outer space theme... hence the name Galaxyland.

The partnership with Hasbro will see all their properties spread out in the park through attraction renames along with food and beverage, retail and other incorporations.  Hasbro will be bringing licenses such as My Little Pony, Nerf, G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head, Play-Doh and a ton of board games like Monopoly, Operation and Battleship.

© Galaxyland

This is the park's current map, which shows that things are pretty heavily themed to outer space throughout the park.  It's not totally clear if the outer space theme will be totally removed, or if Hasbro properties will be incorporated into the existing theme.  So My Little Ponies in outer space, Mr. Potato Head in outer space, G.I. Joe in outer space... well you get the drift.  The completion of the retheming is scheduled for winter 2020 when the park will officially named Galaxyland Powered by Hasbro.

Galaxyland is well known for Mindbender, a classic 3 loop Schwarzkopf coaster and in more recent years has built Galaxy Orbiter, a spinning coaster from Gerstlauer.

Dorney Park Holding Monster Jam Silent Auction to Benefit Dream Come True

© Dorney Park

Dorney Park has cooked up a special online silent auction to end the year, featuring a ton of unique Monster Jam themed items and benefiting Dream Come True.

The park explains their efforts in a recent blog post, available here, to set up an auction of special memorabilia they collected this past fall when Monster Jam: Thunder Alley was taking place at the park.  While the event will not return to the park in 2020 (it will be moving on to other Cedar Fair parks next year), they still wanted to find a unique way to help out a great charity by unloading some one-of-a-kind items.

© Dorney Park

Fans of Monster Jam can browse the online silent auction page to view all the unique items.  The park mentions that the variety of items include "Megalodon’s TAIL from a competition truck, autographed replica racing helmets, autographed fitted baseball caps, to autographed photo cards and more."  Many of the items are signed by well known Monster Jam drivers making them even more unique.  There are items that are starting off with smaller bids, with other items, like the pieces of famous Monster Jam trucks, are starting at a higher price point.

The auction will benefit Dream Come True, a charity local to the park that "fulfills the dreams of children who are seriously, chronically or terminally ill and reside in the Greater Lehigh Valley, PA area."  The auction will run through 12 pm on December 24th, so head over and check out the listings now!

SeaWorld San Diego to Build Another Roller Coaster for 2021?

© SeaWorld San Diego

SeaWorld San Diego may currently be working on a brand new dive coaster, Emperor, for their 2020 season, but plans have emerged that show yet another major roller coaster will be headed to the park in 2021.

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment is on quite a roller coaster building spree it seems, with nearly all their major parks receiving one in 2020 and now hints of more coasters planned for the following season.

Up top is one of the park's images of their simulator attraction, Wild Arctic, which appears to be biting the dust in order to build the ride for 2021.  These simulator rides were a staple of the SeaWorld parks in the 1990s, but are really showing their age in 2019... making it not all that surprising that the San Diego park would want to replace theirs.  Especially with an exiting and highly marketable roller coaster!

© Google Maps

The news of the new ride comes from Behind The Thrills, which published a large article on the plans of the attraction.  You can read the entire story via this link, but to cut to the chase the ride will be a low to the ground launched ride similar to Wave Breaker at SeaWorld San Antonio.

The ride will start in the space that the simulators occupy now, in the blue roof building in the above aerial image.  It will launch out into what is currently some of the parking lot, featuring a ton of twists and turns and a maximum height of 30 feet.  The ride's layout looks to feature not just a couple launch sections, but a total of four!  Aimed at families the ride would not be super-high thrill, but definitely an exciting addition nonetheless.

Make sure to check out Behind The Thrills' article for a ton more information and a look at the proposed ride layout!

With Busch Gardens Williamsburg also highly rumored to be adding another coaster in 2021, could we see the trend continue and see even more SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment properties go for thrills in back to back years?  Perhaps!

SeaWorld San Diego Tops Off New B&M Dive Coaster - Emperor

© SeaWorld San Diego

SeaWorld San Diego is hard at work building another new roller coaster for 2020, this time around a custom layout B&M Dive Coaster named Emperor.  Site clearing took place earlier in the fall, and recently track and supports started to go up.

The park has now topped off the ride, which stands 153 feet tall:

© SeaWorld San Diego

As with the park's other roller coasters, Emperor utilizes a color scheme that helps it to blend into the park's surroundings, a combination of teal and blue.  The new coaster will taken riders down a vertical 143 foot drop to hit a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour.

The ride's layout includes three inversions, an Immelmann, barrel roll and corkscrew.  In total the coaster will have around 2,500 feet of track when completed.  The ride's theming is linked to the "Emperor penguins’ journey from chilly, frosted cliffs to their deep dive into the depths of the ocean."

Here is some additional footage of the ride being topped off from the park via Theme Park Insider:

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Opens to Rave Reviews at Disney's Hollywood Studios

© Disney

Disney's Hollywood Studios, a part of Disney World in Florida, has officially opened their blockbuster new dark ride, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.  The trackless attraction is already heading to the top of many park fans favorite ride list, and after watching many spoiler videos of it we can understand why.

The last major component (for now) of the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge themed area at Disney's Hollywood Studios, it goes without saving that Disney has saved the best for last.  The rest of the area opened a couple months ago and while the immersive land is heaven on Earth for fans of Star Wars, the latest ride is the cherry on top.

Rise of the Resistance is an amazing trackless dark ride, like we've seen Disney do in the past (mostly overseas), but there's a whole lot more to it than just that.  I don't want to force spoilers onto anyone, so we'll leave it at that, but between tons of special effects, elevation changes, animatronics, projections, simulations and more, the ride checks all the boxes as one of the best around.

And it is drawing the crowds to prove it.  Disney is using a virtual queue via phone app that allows guests to check in as soon as the park opens, then know when they can ride later in the day.  And the ride reservations are 'selling out' within an hour of the park opening on a daily basis.

The attraction's opening in Florida will be joined in California at Disneyland on January 17th, 2020.

If you can't make it to either park, below is one of the best on-ride videos I've seen as it gives nice perspective of the inside of the ride.  Check it out only if you do not want to be surprised the first time you ride!