It seems like the first Six Flags 2011 project has been announced. Six Flags Over Georgia will be recieving a Eurofighter, named Dare Devil Dive, for the 2011 season next year. This marks the first Eurofighter for Six Flags parks, and should proove to be a popular addition.

“Dare Devil Dive’s mission begins as you’re pulled straight up to the sky on a special vertical chain lift,” say Six Flags representatives, “then slowly roll to the top of the tower nearly 100-feet in the air. After an agonizing pause at the crest of the summit, you plummet downward at an angle that is beyond straight down — it actually angles inward at a blistering 52 mph.”

The coaster claims the country’s first beyond vertical dive – which is a lofty thing to have, except for that fact that it isn’t the first coaster in the US to go beyond vertical on the drop. Several coasters, including Fahrenheit at Hershey Park and Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach already go beyond vertical.

One other thing that can be noted about this ride is that the name isn’t entirely unique – Dare Devil Dive is actually the name of the Skycoaster model at Six Flags Great Adventure as well, although most people aren’t likely to notice this. Interestingly enough, this is one of many links between names at these two parks, including Batman: The Ride, Superman: Ultimate Flight, and The Great American Scream Machine.

Despite this slightly misleading feat – this coaster should prove to be popular at one of Six Flags’s original parks. Except more Six Flags announcements coming soon!

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando is going all out.  For the past 19 years, one thing has been in control of all the screaming festivities each Halloween in Orlando, and this year, guests will get a chance to come face to face with it, Fear.  Fear uses his powers of chaos, mythos, death, vengance, and sacrifice.  This year Fear himself is coming to play games with his guests.  On 24 select nights, 8 all new haunted houses, new scare zones, and live shows will come alive and truly define FEAR.

Haunted Houses:

• Catacombs: Black Death Rising
• Hades: The Gates of Ruin
• Horror Nights: The Hallow’d Past
• Havoc: Dogs of War
• ZombieGeddon
• Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate
• Physco Scareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook
• The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes

Scare Zones:

• The Couen
• Zombie Gras
• Saws n’ Streams
• Esqueleto Muerte
• Fear Revealed
• HHN: 20 Years of Fears

Shows:

• Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure
• Brian Brushwood: Menace and Malice

More at the HHNXX website.

After lots of Teasing, Carowinds finally announced their addition for 2011: Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular.  Featuring more than half a million LED lights, this new nighttime festival will extend from Country Fair to Planet Snoopy.  The latest technology will be soon brought into the park for this sensory spectacular.  To allow as many people as possible to enjoy Snoopy’ Starlight Spectacular, the park plan’s on expanding hours to 10 pm from June 27th, to August 7th 2011.  Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular will illuminate on these nights.  The addition is reminiscient of what has been added the past two years at several Cedar Fair parks such as Cedar Point, Worlds of Fun, and Knott’s Berry Farm.  In fact, this particular Carowinds version will share the exact same name as Knott’s recently added version.  I got a chance to experience the show at Knott’s and the overall area was just plain fun.  The music was retro but with some funk, and the lighting was most certainly impressive with all sorts of lights, 3D objects, and characters that made it a real treat for guests of all ages.  You can check out a full review of Knott’s Berry Farm’s version of Snoopy’s Starlight Spectacular here.  Expect this to be a popular addition to Carowinds for the 2011 season.

Snoopy's Starlight Spectacular at Knott's Berry Farm

Port Orleans – Riverside

The Port Orleans - Riverside is set to grand southern mansions, giving it true class.

Have you ever wanted to stay in a mansion? Well, it’s not quite it, but it’s pretty close at the Port Orleans – Riverside. You’ll stay in a building crafted to be like a southern mansion. You get all the elegance and charm of a mansion at a moderate resort hotel price! You can also stay in the “backwoods” away from the fancy mansions.

Animal Kingdom Lodge

Wake up to the savannah at the Animal Kingdom Lodge

The Animal Kingdom Lodge has a perk no other resort has: you can wake up with the animals. They won’t be in your room, but they’ll be close. Some rooms at the Animal Kingdom Lodge look over a private savannah just for the resort. If you’re adventurous, and have got the cash, you can wake up and take a safari into the savannah in the morning. Of course, this resort is deemed “deluxe,” so it will cost a bit more than lower resorts.

Wilderness Lodge

Feel like you're at Yellowstone at the Wilderness Lodge

So, your trip to Disney World doesn’t mean you can go to Yellowstone, right? Wrong! Get the experience of staying in a National Park Lodge at the Wilderness Lodge. It’s a grand hotel with amazing wood work and architecture. This is also the place for the outdoor adventurer to stay. Hike the many trails or take a boat out on the water. Fort Wilderness campground is also nearby, which also provides lots of fun activities. The Wilderness Lodge is a Deluxe resort.

Caribbean Beach

One of the Caribbean Beach Resort's 'Villages'

The Caribbean Beach Resort is a moderate resort, but it is beautiful. Despite being one of the largest resorts at Disney World, it still feels very quaint. There are different “villages” around the 45 acre lake. Each village has its own pool, and there is a large pool with a slide and such next to the resort’s food court. The park is also right by Epcot and the Hollywood Studios, so the trip over to them is less than 10 minutes. If you don’t plan to spend much time at your hotel, but still want a nice resort to come back to in the night, I recommend the Caribbean Beach. It is still my favorite Disney World Resort.

Reward yourself!

Enough with the talk, here’s your reward! You can save at least 25% at select Disney World hotels most nights October 3, 2010 - February 16, 2011! Book by November 21, 2010! Visit here to start booking your trip today.

What are your favorite Disney World Resorts? Leave your thoughts below!

We asked for your thoughts on water parks!  What did you think of them?  Great place to spend a hot day?  Hate them?  Maybe you love the idea but just isn’t your thing.  We asked Park Thoughts readers and an overwelming majority chose the 1st answer: “Love them, great way to cool off in the summer.”  Coming in 2nd with the votes was “Don’t care, great business idea, just not for me.”  And with nearly no votes was the final option: “They’re Horrible, tear them down!“

It appears that the water park is in fact a very popular place to cool down.  It doesn’t help that water slides like Bakuli (pictured in the poll header for this poll) are bridging the gap between roller coasters in water slides.  Thanks to technology, slide designers are able to do more with a rubber intertube and plexiglass slide than ever before.  Whether your favorite slide goes up hill, around a toilet bowl, or through a funnel, it seems like water slides are a real winner with parks these days.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

New poll!

For the next two weeks Park Thoughts readers are participating in a battle of the characters!  Of course Universal and Disney focus heavily on movie/character tie-ins as a big draw for their parks, but recently more and more parks have been bringing in characters to help their attendance.  Cedar Fair has been adding Planet Snoopy areas to their parks in the past few years and plans on adding three more in 2011.

But Cedar Fair isn’t the only ones!  We want you to decide on which characters you think best fit in the theme park world?  Is it Six Flags and the classic Looney Toons?  A wide variety of characters ranging from Tasmanian Devil to Bugs Bunny.  Perhaps it is Cedar Fair with the Peanuts gang?  Charlie Brown, Sally, Lucy, Linus, and who can forget everyone’s favorite beagle, Snoopy!  None of the above?  Well then, how about Sesame Street friends?  These whimsical creatures of a street called Sesame are perhaps best adjusted to fit in their enviornments.  So which class of characters do you feel is best implemented into the parks?  Choose in by picking your favorite option in the poll below ↓ or on the sidebar →.

Leave a comment with your park thoughts below!

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Cedar Point’s Facebook page has just announced their new 2011 attraction, Windseeker! It will be located on the beach right next to Wicked Twister, the park’s Intamin Impulse coaster. It will be an exact clone of its counterparts in Knott’s Berry Farm and Canada’s Wonderland. For more information on these rides, you can read Ethan’s post located directly below this one.

The same ride will also be flying into Kings Island in Mason, Ohio for the 2011 season. It will be located in the Coney Mall section of the park.

Windseeker at Cedar Point

Windseeker at Kings Island

What do you think about these two Windseekers? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts below!

The first 2 Cedar Fair parks out of the gate with their announcements today, Knott’s Berry Farm and Canada’s Wonderland have both announced “Windseeker”. The two $5 million rides are pretty much exactly the same, both 301 feet tall, spinning its 32, 2-seat swing arms at 8 rotations per minute. They even share the same blue/gray/yellow pain scheme.

Windseeker will be the 68th ride at Canada’s Wonderland, it will be located next to the Vortex roller coaster near the park’s entrance.

Windseeker at Canada's Wonderland

At Knott’s Berry Farm, Windseeker will be located next to Xcellerator in the Boardwalk area of the park, it will be replacing their Sky Cabin ride which originally opened in 1976. Another note, this Windseeker will also sport the Knott’s “K” at its top, similar to the current Sky Cabin ride.

Windseeker at Knott's Berry Farm

So what do you think about the two Windseeker additions? Leave your comments and Park Thoughts below!