rides

Hershey, Pennsylvania, Monday, 20 October 2025.
Hersheypark has extended its Halloween Dark Nights through Sunday, pairing unlit coaster runs with five haunted houses and expanded family offerings to concentrate demand in evening hours. For retail and F&B leaders this is a tactical, low‑capex overlay that intentionally compresses guest flow into limited-night windows to lift evening throughput, increase per‑capita spend, and boost souvenir and food attach rates. Operational priorities are clear: align park versus event hours, implement robust ride lighting and safety protocols for lights‑out coaster operations, optimize queue management for time‑limited activations, and deploy flexible staffing and scheduling for extended entertainment windows. Commercial teams should push Fast Track and bundled F&B offers while finance monitors attendance uplift, average check, and shoulder‑season hotel occupancy. Early signals from last Friday’s roll‑out show strong interest in the lights‑out coaster experience — a behaviour that can be monetised if safety and throughput remain tightly managed.

Anaheim, Monday, 20 October 2025.
Disney has announced Soarin’ Across America will replace current Soarin’ films at both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort in summer 2026 as part of a company‑wide ‘Disney Celebrates America’ program tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary. The most intriguing fact: this is a coordinated, cross‑park content deployment that leverages existing high‑capacity flying‑theater assets to deliver time‑bound, IP‑neutral programming across marquee parks—a clear lever to stimulate mid‑season demand. For retail and operations teams this signals concrete implications: synchronized rollouts and marketing across installations; planned downtime for film installation, testing and AV recalibration; and the need to model changed throughput and guest flow during peak celebration periods. Expect streamlined promotional campaigns and opportunities to align retail assortments and F&B offers with patriotic programming windows. The announcement offers a practical case study in using temporary content overlays on high‑capacity attractions to drive attendance, operational complexity and cross‑channel merchandising opportunities for the summer celebration.

Orlando, Monday, 20 October 2025.
Universal Studios Florida permanently retired Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit in August, and last Friday demolition work visibly cleared its iconic lift hill — freeing one of the park’s highest‑value footprints adjacent to the entertainment boulevard. For retail and operations leaders this is significant: the removal eliminates a mid‑park capacity anchor that handled express and standby throughput, while creating a redevelopment parcel optimised for higher‑yield uses. Expect options to include a higher‑capacity coaster, IP‑driven family experience, or revenue‑focused retail and F&B that leverages footfall and dwell time. The most intriguing fact: demolition moved from planning to visible progress within weeks of closure, signalling aggressive capital reallocation rather than long‑term mothballing. Retail teams should watch permitting filings, job ads for design/construction roles, and contractor activity as near‑term indicators of concept direction and timelines — critical signals for forecasting guest flow, merchandising strategy, and temporary concessions during construction.

Los Angeles, Friday, 17 October 2025.
Universal Studios Hollywood moved Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift into on-track testing last Thursday, signaling a shift from construction to systems commissioning and imminent operational planning. The outdoor coaster will run along roughly 1,250 m of track, reach about 116 km/h and use individually 360-degree‑rotating vehicles—features that will dictate braking profiles, cycle times and maintenance regimes. Initial tests (images and video surfaced this month) will focus on launches, vehicle alignment, throughput calibration and noise‑mitigation systems already built into the design. For retail and merchandising teams this confirms a near-term IP asset to drive post-opening demand; for operations it sets firm timelines for staff training, spare‑parts stocking and capacity modelling. Strategically, the project underscores Universal’s franchise-led investment approach and alters competitive positioning in Southern California. With a public opening set for 2026, planners should finalise merchandise assortments, reveal schedules for remaining cars and lock in timed-entry and cross-promotional playbooks during this testing window.

Pigeon Forge, Thursday, 16 October 2025.
Operators in tourist hubs should note a key tweak: Truth Traveler pairs Simworx’s trackless motion‑base VR theatre and turnkey ops with Mindscape’s IP‑led episodic content to deliver a high‑capacity, multi‑seat experience that opens in 2025. The most intriguing fact is the business case — modular, IP‑enabled VR theatres promise higher throughput, easier content refresh and lower maintenance than bespoke dark rides, enabling shorter capital payback and new recurring revenue through licensed episodic programming. For retail and F&B planners, the format’s smaller footprint and faster deployment create more flexible opportunities for themed retail, merchandise tie‑ins and seasonal promotions inside entertainment districts and mid‑scale parks. Technical and operational priorities will centre on motion‑base integration, synchronized multisensory effects, content lifecycle management and uptime protocols to hit peak‑season capacity targets. For merchandising and revenue managers, the attraction’s design signals a shift toward scalable, refreshable IP ecosystems that support repeat visitation and ongoing retail monetisation.

London, Tuesday, 14 October 2025.
London’s dark‑ride renaissance is swapping pure mechanical engineering for software, real‑time rendering and electronics—driving a shift in capital from steel and track to compute, licensed IP and show‑control middleware. Ingenia’s feature this year maps technical advances (synchronised multi‑axis motion, AGV vehicles with on‑board media, edge compute for low‑latency control) and the operational consequences: new throughput modelling, maintenance regimes, supplier dependencies and cyber‑physical safety validations. For ride and capital planners, the most striking takeaway is capacity and cost trade‑offs—trackless AGVs enable dynamic storytelling and per‑cycle yield optimisation but increase lifecycle spend on electronics and third‑party rendering engines. The piece flags procurement choices between integrated turnkey systems and best‑of‑breed components, and stresses redundant architectures, regulatory testing and data‑driven guest segmentation as immediate priorities. Operators can expect fresh creative freedom and revenue levers, paired with heightened supplier risk and complex maintenance planning that must be baked into feasibility studies and OPEX forecasts and timelines.

Orlando, Monday, 13 October 2025.
IAAPA Expo in Orlando showcased coordinated unveilings that signal where procurement and operations should focus for 2025. Manufacturers pushed modular attraction systems to shorten installation timelines, while media-driven integrations—most visibly drone spectacles (including a 1,571‑drone aerial image record with Disneyland Paris)—are increasingly stitched into dark rides and night shows. Suppliers highlighted incremental safety upgrades (new restraint designs and flume platforms), waterpark products aimed at throughput and OPEX gains, and platform-level guest-commerce enhancements such as ticketing and access interoperability. Strategic partnerships and confirmed 2025 delivery pipelines were prominent, but so were implied supply‑chain timing risks that could affect scheduled openings. For retail and operator buyers, the Expo frames near-term choices: prioritize modular, interoperable tech to reduce capex/time-to-market; evaluate media/drone IP tie‑ins for guest appeal and OPEX impact; and factor vendor lead times into procurement windows to avoid launch delays.

Orlando, Friday, 10 October 2025.
This Friday morning a now‑closed roller coaster at Universal Studios Orlando was photographed burning while the attraction was off‑limits to guests — the most striking detail: the blaze affected external track elements during demolition activity, with no reported injuries. For retail and park operators, the incident sharpens focus on asset lifecycle risk, contractor oversight and continuity planning: potential ignition sources range from electrical and vehicle systems to demolition‑related work, each carrying different inspection, liability and insurance pathways. Expect immediate regulatory inspections, targeted root‑cause analyses and directed shifts to preventive‑maintenance and fire‑suppression protocols on similarly designed attractions. Communicators should prepare succinct stakeholder updates; operations teams must model downtime, remediation costs and supply‑chain impacts for replacement parts and contractors. Monitor official incident reports and technical findings closely — early responses will shape liability exposure, contractual remedies and whether maintenance schedules or demolition practices are revised across portfolios.

Kaatsheuvel, Tuesday, 7 October 2025.
Last Monday at the IAAPA Expo in Barcelona, Efteling and Vekoma unveiled a certified “seat-on-wheels” concept that allows guests to remain in their own wheelchairs while boarding tracked attractions—potentially the single biggest change to on‑ride accessibility in recent years. Developed with social sustainability partners and representatives from de Zonnebloem, the concept covers vehicle adaptation, restraint integration, evacuation procedures and safety compliance, while flagging operational trade‑offs such as throughput, retrofitting complexity, lifecycle maintenance and staff training. For park operators and manufacturers, the immediate takeaway is practical: inclusive engineering will require changes across design, operations and regulatory engagement, and could affect queue management, staffing models and capex planning for existing dark rides and family attractions. The presentation is a call to industry collaboration rather than a finished product; suppliers and parks are invited to co‑develop standards that balance guest experience, safety and operational efficiency.

Kaatsheuvel, Monday, 6 October 2025.
This past Sunday Efteling reopened its vintage Python coaster after a targeted track replacement that riders and social channels immediately flagged as noticeably smoother. For park operators and planners, the intriguing takeaway is practical: selective track renewal—rather than full rebuild—can deliver immediate guest-perception gains, shorter downtime and extended service life for heritage attractions. Early observations suggest improved ride comfort stems from reprofiling and tighter modern wheel-to-track tolerances, not dramatic layout changes, preserving the coaster’s identity while improving reliability. The case raises clear tradeoffs for capital planning: when to invest in segmented renewals, how to choose suppliers for reproduction versus reprofiling, and how modest visible upgrades support brand value and queue demand. Retail and F&B managers should note potential shifts in throughput and guest flow tied to renewed popularity. The Python example offers a replicable model for preserving legacy assets with limited capital outlay while boosting guest satisfaction and operational resilience.

Orlando, Sunday, 5 October 2025.
Universal Studios Florida will retire Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit on a Monday in August, removing a 51 m steel coaster known for its onboard music choice and 1,200 m layout that reached about 105 km/h. For operations and planning teams, the immediate challenge is capacity: a high-throughput thrill offer exits the roster during peak windows, requiring redistributed guest flow, revised queue strategies and potential F&B/retail demand shifts in the New York land. Strategically, the clearance opens a prime parcel for a replacement—options span dark rides, hybrid coasters or IP-integrated experiences—each with different capital profiles, permitting timelines and revenue mixes. Technical and logistics tasks include dismantling large steel structures, evaluating reusable control systems and integrating utilities and crowd circulation changes. With Epic Universe recently opening nearby, competitive positioning and capital allocation questions intensify. Retail and operations leaders should prioritise contingency capacity plans, stakeholder communications for passholders and a redevelopment brief that ties attraction type to projected per-capita spend and peak-hour throughput.

Jacksonville, Friday, 3 October 2025.
Sally Dark Rides this year unveiled Attack of the Robots, a license-free mixed‑media dark ride designed for flexible footprints and phased roll‑outs. The most intriguing fact: operators can buy a turnkey, IP‑free package that reduces licensing costs while scaling capacity through modular layouts. The product mixes interactive elements, holographics and pyrotechnic-style effects to deliver family-friendly intensity, and is engineered to retrofit into existing buildings or populate new family zones. Parallel to the product launch, Sally is promoting on‑site factory group tours that expose production capability, demonstrate ride assets and shorten procurement cycles by lowering perceived vendor risk. For regional parks, zoos and cultural attractions, the offering promises faster lead times, clearer total‑cost‑of‑ownership comparisons and simpler integration compared with large bespoke suppliers. Operators should evaluate throughput configurations, maintenance profiles and theming budgets, but for mid-market buyers seeking predictable cost and schedule, this represents a pragmatic option in the dark‑ride supply set.