A normally three-minute ride on Busch Gardens Tampa’s SheiKra roller coaster turned into an hour-long wait yesterday after the coaster shut down in the middle of operation.

Around 1:30 p.m. the coaster’s automatic safety systems detected that an oil pump was not working and shut the ride down. 24 passengers waited an hour before they were evacuated. SheiKra resumed operation another hour after all the guests had gotten off.

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AstroWorld closed it’s gates for the final time yesterday at 6:00pm. After 37 years of operation, Texans who grew up spending their summers at the park talked about their fondest memories.

Many saw AstroWorld as a way to escape from reality, their parents or work for an afternoon. 18,645 attended AstroWorld’s final day on Sunday. Many don’t want to think about summers in Houston without a theme park.

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Wild Adventures will celebrate their 10th anniversary in 2006 with numerous events. New to the park will be a river adventure ride, new events, an upgraded version of the season pass, and more concerts.

To see a video report of the 10th Anniversary plans, see WALB-TV.

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Lake Compounce, America’s oldest amusement park and Connecticut’s largest water park has announced today that it has had a record-breaking season for 2005, with attendance numbers up 12 percent from last year.

The increase in visitors can in part be attributed to the $3.3 million dollars of improvements that were made to the park this past year, including the addition of ‘Anchor Bay’, an 800 – foot lazy river which was added to the water park.

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For the last few years, Joyland Amusement Park’s future has been very bleak. The park has been sold once, but the previous owners had to take back the park just to save it. The park has finally found an owner, who currently is anonymous.

The Nelsons, who have owned the park since 1973, announced the sale will be complete on December 15th. The purchaser is not local, but plans on renovating the park and opening it this spring. The price was not disclosed, but it was marketed at $1.7 million.

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The Planning Commission all agreed on approval of Dollywood’s new ride. The new $6.5 million Timber Tower ride is set to open in 2006. Designed by Huss Manufacturing of Germany, the ride will lift guests up a tower on a circular gondola, and then the entire tower will topple over while the gondola rotates. The tower will then come back up and topple over in a different direction. This will happen multiple times during the cycle of the ride. Special effects will also enhance the ride. (more…)

Six Flags AstroWorld is experiencing its last days. Citing low attendance and high land value, Six Flags made the decision to shut down the park at the end of the season on Sept. 12. Earlier this week, the company decided to close the park today, leaving Saturday and Sunday as the final days. (more…)

Mt. Olympus Theme Park has announced that they will build a year-round indoor amusement park that will open in 2006. The park will be added on to the current indoor waterpark and include a spinning coaster.

Admission to the indoor amusement park will be included with the outdoor rides when that portion of the park is open. The indoor park, approprietly named "The Parthenon", will be home to Opa, a brand-new spinning roller coaster. The 43,000 square-foot theme park was approved by local government on Tuesday and construction between Mt. Olympus and Treaure Island indoor waterpark has begun.

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