Universal Studios Florida released details on “Project Rumble” this past Wednesday, and it’s a coaster! Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit is the official name of the attraction, a new 167 ft tall coaster which is planned to become a new icon for the park.

Located between Jimmy Neutron and the Blue Man Group theater, the ride will be an outdoor thrill ride flying above the park and parts of CityWalk, unlike the park’s other rides which are mostly indoors. The ride is reported to allow riders to select music to listen to on the ride and create a music video of their ride. Rockit is designed by Maurer Söhne and appears to be using their X-Car system.

Rockit looks like a great addition to the park. Although I was hoping for a B&M hyper like Hollywood Dream: The Ride at Universal Studios Japan, I am looking forward to riding this and experiencing Maurer Söhne’s X-Cars.

Read more from the Orlando Sentinel.

Yes, you read that headline correctly, Kennywood and all of the other parks the family owns has been sold to a spanish firm. “The Kennywood experience — as visitors have come to love and expect — will continue. Nothing will seem different, even to the folks working at the parks. Existing management and staff will remain in place,” Harry Henninger, chairman of Kennywood Entertainment, said in the news release. You can read the whole thing here.

I hope that quote stays true. This is sad news because there are not many family owned parks left, and from what I have heard, Kennywood is just perfect. The spanish company that bought the parks already owns parks in Europe and is now moving into the U.S. I can only hope that they keep Kennywood as a classic.

If you don’t want to watch, they announced at carousel for the 4th of July section, a frog hopper style ride for the christmas section, and a new bathroom and Pepsi Oasis for the water park. They are also doing a lot of general upkeep additions including; a tram for the parking lot across the street and clocks placed all around the park for that confusing time shift thing they have. O yeah, they already announced the addition to the water park also.

It’s a nice set of additions that should help round out the park. They are all family friendly additions and they should help ease the strain put on some of the other rides. The upkeep additions are great as well.

Dorney has put together a nice new “website” for Voodoo. You can see the site here. It’s a nice little site that has some good stuff. They will be adding a webcam soon and they already have a blog and construction pictures up and running.

It really reminds me of the Hydra website when they announced it. I’m guessing the same person designed both sites, which isn’t a bad thing. The only thing Voodoo is missing is a sweet video to go along with the announcement. It seems like the ride video market really dried up this year with the exception of Behemoth. I’m a big fan of those videos and I really think they are worthwhile for a park to invest in. I know this is a relocated ride, which is probably why they didn’t put the money up for a video, but it would of been nice. At least Voodoo received a website unlike the former Paramount park’s bastard announcements.

Breaking news, you heard it here first… Along with a renaming of the park to California’s Great America, a Top Spin named Firefall in 2008, and a GCI in 2009, it sure looks like they won’t be letting the 49ers buy the park. The GCI will stand at 104ft, travel 52mph, at a 2 minute length, and feature a station-fly-by. You can read the full press release here: click me