Theme park news

Experience theme parks in real time! Stay up to date on the latest news, events and highlights at the park with our breaking news. Find out about current trends and events that could affect your visit.

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Europa-Park plans 3 new family rides for 2027, including a giant swing

Thursday, 08. October 2026, 14:18

Europa-Park has pulled back the curtain on its first new additions for 2027, and families have plenty to look forward to. Germany's largest theme park is building three new family attractions: a giant swing over the lake in Portugal, a tower with sweeping views in Iceland and, in Italy, the return of a classic that has been a fixture for the park's youngest guests for more than 40 years. That fits what Europa-Park says it stands for: shared experiences that bring generations together and get...

Wartezeiten.APP: We almost quit — now we’re going full throttle

Tuesday, 29. September 2026, 12:50

For almost 10 years, Wartezeiten.APP has shown you how long you’ll have to wait in line at theme parks across Europe. This year, though, we had to ask ourselves an uncomfortable question: Does this project even have a future? Here’s how we got there and what we decided — and why this goes far beyond our own site and matters to every theme park fan. When we launched Wartezeiten.APP, we had one clear, simple goal: All the important data on your favorite parks should be quick and easy to...

TRAUMATICA Creator Edition: Knossi, MontanaBlack Take On the Horror

Monday, 28. September 2026, 14:54

Knossi, MontanaBlack, Zarbex and Max Schradin up against horror attractions and scares, with their communities watching live on Twitch: On Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, TRAUMATICA became the meeting point of the content creator scene. About 400 invited guests attended the exclusive “TRAUMATICA – Creator Edition,” an evening of horror, challenges and live entertainment you don’t get every day. More than 100 of them were creators from Germany, France and Switzerland. For one night, horror and...

Wartezeiten.APP 1.4.1 adds sharing, Watch upgrades and mini-games

Friday, 04. September 2026, 12:19

Two months after launch, Wartezeiten.APP is on version 1.4.1. 16 store updates sit in between. For the next park day that mostly means this: you can share wait times, the Apple Watch keeps up, live numbers stay put when the signal dies, and 13 offline mini-games wait in the queue with you. The app did not switch jobs. Less guesswork before the gates, less guesswork once you are inside. It arrived in the App Store at the end of June 2026 as a native iOS app with Apple Watch, built for iOS 26....

Fright Nights 2026: Thorpe Park opens Tenement scare maze

Friday, 04. September 2026, 11:16

The lights go out at Thorpe Park in Chertsey this Halloween. Fright Nights is back in October for the 25th year, and to mark it the Surrey park is sending guests into Tenement. The new scare maze is pitch-black. You get one shared flashlight, and that flashlight is failing. Summer is over. Evenings are cooler. Halloween is next, and thousands will head back to Surrey when Fright Nights runs on selected days from Oct. 2 to Nov. 1 at Thorpe Park in Chertsey. Step into Tenement and you have to...

Goldies Festival at Bobbejaanland opens Saturday, Sept. 5

Friday, 04. September 2026, 10:17

Bobbejaanland turns into a music festival on Saturday, Sept. 5. Goldies Festival opens its first edition, and some visitors go straight to the awkward question. Is this the 100% Retro festival that was canceled in 2022? The organization stresses that Goldies is an entirely new event from the team behind Legacy Festival. Anyone who shows up will find three stages. The iconic cowboy village El Paso, the Arena and the outdoor piste become a lively festival site. In the Saloon, the golden 1950s...

Epic Universe Adds 3 Universal Nights Dates After Sellout

Friday, 04. September 2026, 09:02

Universal Orlando Resort is adding three more nights of Universal Nights at Epic Universe after Oct. 17 sold out. Tickets still start at $179.99. Crews are also clearing ground behind Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment in Dark Universe for a project Universal still has not named. This is the park's first after-hours event with its own ticket since Epic Universe opened in May 2025. Universal Orlando added three more dates because of strong demand, and the fall debut season now runs...

Animal Actors On Location to Close Nov. 2, 2026 at Universal

Thursday, 03. September 2026, 15:21

Animal Actors On Location! at Universal Studios Florida will give its final performance on Nov. 2, 2026, then close permanently after 36 years. Universal Orlando has confirmed the decision. The live show with trained animals, sketches and audience interaction is making way for a new experience Universal has not yet said anything about. For families and longtime park fans, that means the end of one of the last attractions from the park's opening day. Universal Orlando has officially confirmed...

Toverland Halloween: Entwined, Europe's Biggest Experience

Thursday, 03. September 2026, 13:05

Toverland opens its Halloween season Saturday, Oct. 3, with 17 family-friendly Halloween Days and 13 Halloween Nights. The big new addition is Entwined: The Maze, which the park calls Europe's largest Halloween Experience. It sits in seven hectares of corn at the edge of Toverland, hiding Twine End, a forgotten village that was once full of life. Ticket sales have begun. Preparations are running at full speed. The corn already grows meters high into the sky. Nature has won. Time has stood...

Universal Florida Moves Discount Store Into Fast & Furious Shop

Thursday, 03. September 2026, 10:46

The UOAP x UOTM discount store is leaving the Brown Derby on Thursday, September 3, and setting up in the former Custom Gear Store in the San Francisco area of Universal Studios Florida. Guests still don't know what will replace Fast & Furious: Supercharged or when a big successor might arrive. The attraction permanently closed in August, and Universal has not named one. Something new is moving into part of the building anyway. At least a piece of the space Fast & Furious: Supercharged left...

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