Attractions Magazine

Theme park and attraction news, rumors and videos.

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New Quick Queue and mobile phone site for Busch Gardens

There are a couple of new options at Busch Gardens in Tampa. Both may be a time savings.

Quick Queue
Quick Queue allows access through the express entrances the major rides for $24.95 per person. There are limited quantities available daily. SeaWorld Orlando also has this new option.

BGTmobile.com
Now you can check the latest offers and events, get directions to the park and view park hours and show times on your cell phone’s Web browser. It also has photos and descriptions of the park’s biggest thrills.
Link

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Halloween Horror Nights Billboards Coming Soon

Universal Orlando’s in-your-face Halloween Horror Nights billboards stay with you long after you drive past them. And they make for great, “I can’t believe they did that this year!” conversation.

This Thursday, Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights billboards will use a combination of creativity and sheer scare-factor to introduce a new face behind the horror; a new presence at the event. That presence will take Halloween Horror Nights – and its billboards – to entirely new levels.

The new billboards will be creative. They will be provocative. They will be larger-than-life. They will push the art form – and reaction to that art – to places other theme park billboards will not go.

So motorists be prepared: you’ll have some company on your morning commute.

There will be more than 80 billboards in the Orlando area, with some especially striking versions along the I-4 corridor. And as the below list of high-profile locations shows, the boards will be like a good scare during Halloween Horror Nights: they will seem to be everywhere.

Highly-Visible Orlando Billboard Locations:
• I-4 Westbound at Fairbanks Ave
• I-4 Eastbound at Michigan Ave
• SR 528 Westbound before 441 Toll Plaza
• I-4 Eastbound at SR 528
• I-4 Westbound at Universal Orlando Resort Exit (74B)
• SR 528 near Daetwyler
• SR 436 Eastbound near SR 434
• SR 436 near US 17-92
• I-4 110 feet east of Fairbanks Ave.
• I-4 .27 miles east of Fairbanks Ave.

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Miss Cypress Gardens crowned

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Two lovely ladies were crowned as Miss Winter Haven USA and Miss Cypress Gardens USA on Saturday. The pageant took place at Cypress Gardens’ Royal Palm Theater, where 12 ladies competed for the titles.

Twenty-year-old Megan Morin of Tampa won the title of Miss Winter Haven USA. Megan is currently a junior at USF, studying communication and political science. One of her goals is to continue on to Stetson Law School and practice work place discrimination at a private Tampa firm. Megan was the winner of ‘Miss Athena,’ a fraternity pageant based on volunteering and money raised.

The Miss Cypress Gardens title was awarded to Lynsey Coburn, a recent graduate of the University of Central Florida with a degree in Interpersonal/Organizational Communications. Lynsey is the vice president of Make-up & More and co-owner of Merle Norman Cosmetics & Gift Boutique in Orlando. One of her career goals is to open a second successful business.

The reigning Miss Florida USA, Anastagia Pierre hosted the event along with David Lang, co-owner of Regalia Magnificent Apparel in Orlando. The ladies were judged on the areas of interview, swimsuit and evening gown.
The judges were:
Angela Harwell, the reigning Mrs. Florida USA;
Michael Nutter, a Knowledge Management Architect at Florida Hospital;
Diane Walker-Saunders, owner/operator of Friends Fine Things in Branford, Fla.;
Deric Charles Feacher, assistant to the city manager/director of support services in Winter Haven;
and Dina Orr, Mrs. All American 2008.

(Photo by Tom Mack)

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Planned Ron Jon surf park not happening

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We’ve had readers ask us what’s happening with the long-planned, never progressing Ron Jon Surf Park at the Festival Bay Mall. By this summer, they were supposed to have a huge surf area with a full-size wave pool, two smaller ones and a lazy river that brings you back to the start after you’ve surfed to “shore”. The picture above is from a model of the park that used to sit outside of the Ron Jon store, which remains open in the mall.
Well an Orlando Sentinel story today answers our reader’s questions about the park:

From orlandosentinel.com:

Festival Bay Mall has given up on the original deal for the Ron Jon Surfpark, a partially built International Drive attraction slowed by repeated delays in the four years since it was announced. Also, Cocoa-based Ron Jon Surf Shop has pulled its name from the project, and the attraction’s developers say they need more cash before they can continue.

“We had some flaws in the technology and invested quite a bit of money in fixing that,” said Jamie Meiselman, founder and chief executive officer of the company behind the project, which calls itself Surfparks LLC. “The good news is we were able to solve the problems; the bad news is it came at a cost.”

Read the full story here.

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