From Screamscape:
2012 - Despicable Me & Kong 360 - Rumor - (3/11/11) I’m hearing rumors that either Universal will not lose the rights to use Jimmy Neutron until the end of the year, or that they may have struck an extension deal to allow the ride to continue to operate a little longer. Either way, the rumors about a 2012 replacement attraction, still thought to be themed to Despicable Me, is going strong.
(2/18/11) In case anyone was wondering how much Universal may really want to have a Despicable Me attraction in their theme parks, consider this little tidbit. Sales of the Despicable Me DVD’s allowed Universal’s to show a 38% increase in their Q4 report.
(2/17/11) While I still don’t have any more solid info on the opening of a Despicable Me attraction for 2012, I did uncover that Despicable Me 2 was in production for a 2013 release. Adding a theme park attraction for 2012 would make perfect sense to see the characters alive and in the public focus for the year ahead of the new film’s premier. After all, Universal did the same thing with Shrek 4D, by opening it a year in advance of Shrek 2 hitting the theaters, and hyping it as the official story to bridge the gap between the two films.
I've come to the conclusion that I will just wait and see what Universal does. I trust them, and I'm ready for something new.
Don't get me wrong viewers, JNNB is a great ride at USF, but if it goes for a better attraction (Despicable Me), you got a deal! But if the rumor gets cheapened (Disaster), horrible (Fear Factor), or something bad (Miss Congeniality comes to mind), then just forget it: SAVE JIMMY NEUTRON!!!
So I will just wait and see what Universal does.
Cheetah Hunt:
Well, recently there was a fuss about the Skyride cable clearance and the airtime hill over the Skyride. It seems that the solution is to lower the towers around the coaster area:
(3/3/11) After yesterday’s big fuss over a possible miscalculation on Cheetah Hunt, I’m happy to report that I was able to get in touch with the park for a statement on the issue, which they report to be false. False as in there was no miscalculation… they have known all along that the they were going to lower the Skyride towers in that area to allow for Cheetah Hunt to jump over it. Here is the statement from the park below…
“…part of what makes Cheetah Hunt such an amazing addition is its use of an interaction with existing park elements. To make that happen, of course it has been necessary to make major changes to several park landmarks like Rhino Rally, the Clydesdale Hamlet, the Crown Colony and the Monorail Station.
Some of the more subtle changes include raising the floor in the Monorail Station, cutting back the waterfall outcropping in Rhino Rally canyon and moving some of the Serengeti Express’ train tracks. Some of the more major changes – many of which are immediately noticeable to guests in the area – that are taking place include building new guest bridges and pathways between Nairobi and Edge of Africa, building a seating terrace in front of the Crown Colony, replacing the Clydesdale Hamlet’s wooden stalls with secure “bedrooms” for the cheetahs, and, indeed, lowering certain Skyride towers near the area where the track “jumps” the cable.”
While we’re on the subject of Cheetah Hunt, check out the latest construction update over at BGT Nation and RCPro this week.
(3/2/11) The big rumor coming in from several contacts and sources over the past 24 hours is that a couple of big issues have come up with Cheetah Hunt. First of all, several people are saying that the work in “Trench 2” has hit a snag as the digging down there may be having a problem with water seeping into the trench that has to be addressed. (It’s hard to dig too deep in Florida before you hit the water table you know…)
The second and larger issue of note has to do with that “leap” over the Skyride. The big rumor going around this week is that a serious miscalculation was made here and that there is going to be clearance issues between Cheetah Hunt and the SkyRide. I attempted to get a statement about this rumor from Busch Gardens Tampa today, but as of this writing, they have not gotten back in touch with me with a comment.
Having said that, one has to wonder where the error was made. Did the surveyors make the mistake long before the construction started, or did an error come from Stengle’s layout calculations, the track fabricators or even Intamin itself? We can’t just point the finger at Intamin here and say, “Look, another Maverick” as there really are simply too many piece of the puzzle right now to know where the fault came from.
In the end, it sounds like either the coaster is going to have to be altered or the SkyRide itself. Don’t think that it would be simply to try and “shorten” the SkyRide towers however, as there is a lot more involved than that. They would have to get a new shorter cable for the ride, and then likely have to adjust the whole counter-weight system that maintains the tension on the cable at all times. If they used the same old counter-weight, it would likely put too much tension on the cable and could damage or even snap it.
Of course manufacturing new track for a higher jump over the SkyRide may not be a viable solution either if the coaster’s layout does not allow for the train to have enough velocity to achieve the higher jump at that point in the ride. In this case, they could be forced to return to the original idea, as seen in the animation, where the track simply goes under the SkyRide once again.
In the end, I’m really hoping the rumors are wrong here and that we’ll see Cheetah Hunt open as promised for Memorial Day Weekend. More as I find out…
Vertical construction has restarted today with the 130 ft. drop into the second trench going up.
http://www.bgtnation.net/2011/03/cheetah-hunt-tower-drop-started.html
And it seems that the trains are on site (they have been painted recently):
http://www.bgtnation.net/2011/03/cheetah-hunt-train-on-track-station.html
They look very cool... perfect for hunting with cheetahs! =D
Invertigo On the Move:
Looks like Dragon Coaster, one of the rides by the old Laser site getting removed, is going up at Valleyfair for Planet Snoopy (it has been reported on February 18). Meanwhile, more evidence of Invertigo going up at Dorney Park is appearing in the form of deliveries (this also includes recent Invertigo deconstruction updates):
February 14, 2011 - A crane has appeared by Invertigo.
February 18, 2011 - Some track from the spike is gone.
February 22, 2011 - Invertigo's cars arrive at Dorney Park.
February 25, 2011 - The spike supports/track are gone
March 8, 2011 - Invertigo track pieces have been discovered in the Dorney Park parking lot.
And from Screamscape:
2012 - Invertigo - Semi-Confirmed - (3/7/11) A local area reader snapped a great picture of a piece of Invertgo track leaving CGA on it's way to Dorney Park this week. This has been followed by two more pictures sent in showing off two entirely different trucks carrying different Invertigo track pieces crossing the country, which is kind of amazing coverage to have all in one short weekend. Way to go to the Screamscape readers for keeping their eyes open and camera phones at the ready!
This information pretty much confirms Invertigo's final destination.
Kings Island 2012:
From Screamscape:
2012 - New Attraction - Rumor - (2/22/11) Kings Island has been teasing their facebook fans for a couple of weeks now with strange drawings of a twisted red-line. At first I was thinking it was some kind of walk-around path, created by a GPS style tracking system, but now others also believe it may be a topography map that could show off a possible expansion to the X-Base area of the park. In any case, this seems to be the start of hints for what’s to come in 2012 to Kings Island. You can catch the latest image and some comments posted over at KICentral.
Recently there has been crazy rumors spreading that Kings Island will get something big for 2012 (their 40th season). I remember posting a rumor that Flight Deck (Arrow Suspended) was getting removed in 2011. The rumor then was the 2012 ride. As of November, however, the ride is getting repainted, so it seems it could be staying for a few more years.
Now the 2012 rumor (as seen on Screamscape) seems to involve a forest behind Racer (as seen on the "Planning" from February 14, 2011):
Other teases from the park include:
January 28, 2011 - A picture of a dinosaur footprint in the snow.
February 4, 2011 - A strange picture of a red outline is posted on KI's Facebook page.
March 7, 2011 - A picture of Don Helbig (president of Kings Island) doing some work on the 2011 park map and covering the Son of Beast area and the stated area (I'm not sure if this is a teaser or not).
March 9, 2011 - Something weird appears on Kings Island's main page, showing the words "Something big is coming. You're history. 3-18-11" (hinting an announcement six days from now). It returns to normal later.
March 11, 2011 - The weird tagline appears again as: "Turn Back The Clock On Thrill. SOMETHING BIG IS COMING TO KINGS ISLAND." "3.18.11"
http://www.visitkingsisland.com/public/park/mud/index.cfm
And today, a little more of the page is revealed, showing a hilarious teaser video of the "announcement" (which is censored):
XD And other goodies include some pics:
^A marked out tree.
^Some really muddy water.
^Some dirt with tracks on it (probably from construction equipment).
What could this be? Rumors seem to be out of control from a new section of the park (probably themed to prehistory), a new section of the park with a new coaster, or a new coaster. I doubt this has anything to do with Son of Beast, so we can rule that out for now, though some rumors state that the coaster will be getting a Texas Giant-type makeover (all depends on if the new Texas Giant is successful or not, which it seems so).
Anyways, I think the 2nd choice seems the most logical. As for the type of coaster, I think we could be dealing with one of the following options:
- B&M Inverted Coaster
- Intamin Blitz
- Intamin Giga
- B&M Dive Machine
- B&M Wing Coaster
Either way, this looks like an interesting project to look, though this can be for anything (I still have a wild guess this is a B&M Wing Coaster). Why would I say something like that... well...
Because I'm CRAAAZY!!!!! Haha, just had to put it there somehow (I'm not just a coaster fanatic... Plants Vs. Zombies = HEAVEN TOO!!)...
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