IAAPA 2025: Huge News

Sea World Orlando Unveils Dark Ride Vehicle

Sea World Orlando showed off their newest ride vehicle at the Vekoma booth this year at IAAPA. This will be a dark ride that will be completely indoors. The ride will be called SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep.

As you can see from the vehicle design, it kind of feels like the Peter Pan ride vehicle at Disney World. It will have a track above it so guests can look down below at all the theming. The ride will most likely open sometime late in 2026. Construction has just begun on the ride.

My take, this will be an incredible addition to the park that just recently opened a flying theater. It shows the park is putting more of an emphasis on family friendly attractions instead of the most thrilling rollercoaster. I also like it’s another dark ride because if you’ve visited the park, you know that basically everything shuts down when lightning is in the area.

Dollywood Unveils New Coaster Vehicle

The ride vehicle for NightFlight Expedition has been revealed and it looks pretty good!

This will be a dark ride rollercoaster that features some unique elements. It will allow guests to soar on a nighttime flight over the smokies as well as go rafting down a river. This will be the second MACK installation of this ride type, the first of which being Mission Bermudes at Futuroscope, see the ride here.

It will be a 5 and a half minute ride which is unbelievable and will cost roughly $50 million. Having a ride height minimum of 39 inches means it will be another family ride.

It will also be completely indoors which means when there is bad weather, it can remain open. The region is prone to lightning which will cause all rides to go down, making this a huge win for the park. Also, the fact it will be the park’s newest dark ride in yearssss.

Nateland, A New Theme Park Announced themed to Nate Bargatze

Nate Bargatze has announced he’s teaming up with Storyland Studios to build a theme park in Nashville. This was kind of a random announcement and they didn’t have much prepared for the press. They did answer some questions though in the video above.

It won’t necessarily have a huge amount of theming to Nate Bargatze but instead will be more of a Dollywood style park. Where he takes inspiration from his youth to make attractions everyone will like.

The developers are still narrowing down the plot of land they want to build on but have said they want to make it be a substantial theme park as the area can handle it. Its one of the last few metropolitan area’s without a major theme park.

No news on when it will open but it will most likely be years away.

I would love to see some funny rides in the park, like a love boat style ride but Nate Bargatze is poorly explaining how the Birds and the Bees work. Or maybe even a flying theater attraction but its just showing the back of Nate’s head as he walks around Nashville.

Theme Park Stock Watch

From the last 5 days of stock changing as of Wednesday Night

From The Editor

It’s been awhile since I last sent out an email, having 2 kids is just sooo much work! I think I’m in a good place now where I can dedicate more time to this newsletter. I have a few magnet’s I’ll be giving away to the first 10 people that respond to this email with their address and the phrase ‘Where have you been?”.

I recently went to Abu Dhabi again to visit Yas Island and loved it once again! It’s an amazing destination to go to. I’ll be posting more about my trip in upcoming newsletters, but I am hoping that was the trip that will kickstart myself into being more of a ‘content creator’ as I’ve kind of put it in the backseat for the last few years.

Sally Dark Rides Shows Off Phantom Theater for Kings Island

Sally Dark Rides has shown off some of the animatronics they have built for the newly imagined dark ride at Kings Island, Phantom Theater. This will replace the current dark ride at the park, Boo Blasters on Boo Hill which closed permanently on September 1st.

This ride originally existed at the park from 1984-1991, until it was replaced by the Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Castle ride. That was then replaced by Boo Blasters on Boo Hill. It seems like we’ve gone full circle.

Apart from having a Scooby Doo dark ride which would be freaking amazing but really hard and expensive due to IP licensing, this new ride should be a huge positive. If you had ridden Boo Blasters, you would know that it wasn’t great. Maybe for small kids it was fun, but for everyone else, it wasn’t.

According to wikipedia here is the synopsis of the ride:

The storyline centers on Maestro preparing for a performance when a lightning strike scatters enchanted "ghost notes" from his organ. Guests ride in opera box–themed vehicles and use "spellbound flashlights" to recapture the notes so the show can begin. According to park materials, the attraction will feature 26 interactive scenes with multi-sensory effects and Easter eggs referencing the original ride.

Galacticoaster Unveiled at IAAPA

This will be the first indoor coaster built at Legoland Florida and I believe Legoland California. At the press conference, it was revealed riders would build their own spaceship which would get scanned and you’ll get to ride your very own creation. Watch the build process here.

Once again, having a fully indoor ride will be a great addition to a park as the area is frequent to rain and lightning. I’m kind of sensing a theme here where parks want reliable rides to operate all day!

The ride is being built in a 30,000 sq ft building that is over 50 feet high! It will include 1500 feet of track and reach speeds of up to 40 mph.

News At A Glance

• Tormenta Rampaging Run Vehicle revealed and it looks pretty basic

• S&S reveals new rollercoaster and drop tower for Orlando. We’ll cover this in the next email.

• Zamperla debuts a new drop tower ride that would allow wheelchair users to ride.

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