Theme Park Debrief: Tiana's opening date, DreamWorks Land peeks and nighttime drones
A recap of the week's theme park and attractions news.
Welcome to the first ever Theme Park Debrief newsletter, a recap of some of the big attractions and theme park stories from the week. In this week's edition, we finally get that opening date for that new(ish) attraction at Magic Kingdom, Universal shows off its newest land, and drones!
Going Down the Bayou
In case you missed it, Disney kicked off the week with a big announcement: Tiana's Bayou Adventure opens June 28. Yep, finally an opening date so you can mark your calendars and plan your trips to Magic Kingdom.
A few days later, Disney share more details about Tiana's Bayou Adventure, including that it will use a virtual queue when it first opens. Not surprising, but at least now we know.
Dreaming of DreamWorks Land
Just up the road, Universal has its own reimagined attraction it's planning to open in June too: DreamWorks Land. The land will actually have multiple attractions and gift shops and places to get snacks. It will also have Shrek, Donkey and a Trolls coaster.
If you can't wait to see what it looks like you don't have to wait long. In fact, Universal is already showing a peek behind the construction walls. Take a look.
Other Things to Know
Disney's new drone show debuts this month and there's footage of the test runs
Island H2O Water Park has a lineup of family-friendly summer events, plus a deal on an annual pass
One Last Thing
Last week, Lanny Smoot was officially inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. If you don't know who that is, you should.
Smoot is a living legend. He's a Disney Imagineer who has worked on many attractions for the theme parks in his 25 years with the company, including Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland and Kim Possible: World Showcase Adventure at EPCOT. And he also holds more than 100 patents.
Some of his inventions include the extendable lightsaber that was used at Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser and the Magic Playfloor on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy cruise ships.
Smoot is also the first Disney Imagineer to be inducted into the hall of fame. He is hard at work on some new tech called the HoloTile Floor, which Disney bills as the first and only "multi-person, omni-directional, modular, expandable treadmill floor." It's quite impressive.
That's it for this week's newsletter! Look for more fun and interesting theme park stories to hit your inbox next week. Thanks for reading Theme Park Debrief, and, of course, thanks for sharing it. Your support is greatly appreciated.