Four days ago, I wrote a post about Theme Park Insider’s Best Roller Coaster In America bracket of their larger Best Ride/Show In America tournament. Today, the 16 seeds for the best Themed Ride in America were posted on Theme Park Insider, and as promised I will open another poll so that you can select your top three nominees. There was a great turn out for the last poll, and I hope to continue the trend with this one. So, without any further delay…

Thanks to ThemeParkInsider.com for the picture!
1. The Amazing …

The Sandusky Register is reporting that Apollo Management is looking to acquire the bankrupt, Six Flags. Yes, the Apollo Management that is looking to snatch up Cedar Fair. While nobody cared to comment (what else is new?) this could be a very interesting development.
Seeing that the management styles of the two parks are slightly different, would they merge management styles? Keep them separate? Choose one over the other? The odds are that nothing substantial would change, except that the Six Flags Magic Mountain vs. Cedar Point debate would get all …

New games are-a-coming to Toy Story’s Midway Mania according to a post on Blue Sky Disney, the popular insider Disney blog. With the release of Toy Story 3 coming this Summer, Toy Story Mania is to go down for a couple of weeks and pop back up with brand new games. Apparently, it IS that easy. According to the article, Disney had Don Rickles (the voice of Mr. Potato Head) record several bits for holiday overlays, like Christmas. So you can see the Nightmare Before Christmas at Disneyland and then hear …

While this comes as little surprise to most of us, Ghost Town In The Sky is likely to pass on to the other side once again according to Screamscape.
“Park News – (3/6/10) I’ve been told that BB&T has now given Ghost Town in the Sky a May 31st deadline to come up with $300,000 or else they will begin the foreclosure process on the park. It looks like Ghost Town may very well become… well… a ghost town again.”
I hate to be the buzz kill, but I think that it …

The popular Rock Band game is going to be landing at several Cedar Fair parks for this upcoming season. Clearly competing with the Guitar Hero using Six Flags, Cedar Fair plans to operate it in the same way – a competition of sorts between guests. You can find all the pertinent details here, but I want to talk about the idea of video games in amusement parks in general.

Ever since I was a pretty young kid, maybe around eight or nine, I was puzzled by the other kids that would …

The Texas Giant is currently undergoing an extensive refurbishment, and until today I thought it was just that. A refurbishment. Not so. According to a story by Amusement Today, the Texas Giant will become a one of a kind hybrid. They don’t call it a hybrid exactly, but I don’t know what else you could call it. The track style is difficult to describe through words, so check out this picture.

So here is what we are looking at: steel cross track (you know, the horizontal slats) and a red steel …

The Kentucky State Fair Board has sued Six Flags, claiming that the amusement park operator is planning to take rides off of the park land that do not belong to the company. Specific rides were not mentioned, but the suit will be viewed in bankruptcy court because Six Flags filed Chapter 11 last year.
We’ll see what happens, but it would appear that all this huffing and puffing will come to an unclimatic end. I believe that Six Flags will get to keep all of the rides that it installed since …

A trainer at the “Believe” show at Sea World Orlando has been killed by one of the whales, named “Tilly”. This whale was allegedly involved in another trainer death before it was sold to Sea World in 1992. Sea World has yet to confirm this death, but I would expect them to make a statement before the day is over. Officials say that the trainer fell into the tank, while witnesses say the whale attacked and dragged the trainer into the water. By the time emergency crews arrived, the trainer …

Captain EO debuts at Disneyland today, according to the Disneyland Twitter account. A line began forming at 12 this morning and the ride is now open to all those eager (crazy) Michael Jackson fans. There is still no word on the possibility of the ride coming to Walt Disney World but the rumors say that it all depends on the success of Captain EO at Disneyland.
Do I think it will be a success? Of course.
Does this mean that I am excited to see it? Not at all.
If it was up …

Iowa’s largest amusement park, Adventureland, caught fire yesterday afternoon at around 4:30. A ceiling collapse in the park’s toy store caused an electrical fire, according to the Des Moines Register.
The building was built when the park first opened in the mid seventies, and as such was not equipped with smoke detectors or a sprinkler system. Because these are obviously new inventions. Hmm. The row of buildings (pictured below) are likely permanently lost, but due to the layout of the park, the fire did not spread further.
(Picture provided by the Des …