Theme Parks

I had a chance to motor west last week and made it over to Disneyland for a behind-the-construction-walls preview of Cars Land, one of the final -- and most anticipated -- pieces of the five-year, $1.1-billion expansion of Disney California Adventure. Until I ventured behind the wall, I had only seen the huge Ornament Valley mountain range during its early construction and in Disney-provided photos and videos. I have to admit that despite all of the hype, this sometimes-jaded journalist was nonetheless wowed by the sheer scale and majesty of the nearly done land. (It opens on June 15, along with the grand reopening of the entire refreshed park.) Read more in my Cars Land preview as well as my revised Disney California Adventure expansion overview.

Photo: Disney 2012. Used with permission.

It's the most wonderful time of the year -- for park fans anyhoo. Nearly every park is now open for the season (at least on weekends), new rides are debuting, and all is once again well with the world. In celebration of the exciting 2012 season, I joined Mike Collins and E.B. on their CoasterRadio.com podcast to deconstruct many of the latest, greatest coasters and attractions rolling out at parks, including Skyrush at Hersheypark, X-Flight at Six Flags Great America, and the reconfigured Spider-Man ride at Islands of Adventure.

Fresh off their appearance on "How I Met Your Mother," featuring their close, personal friend and CoasterRadio.com announcer Neil Patrick Harris, I guess my guest slot on Mike and E.B.'s podcast grants me one degree of separation with NPH. Wow! Listen to the 2012 season preview episode of CoasterRadio.com. If you want to delve into more details about the latest park goodies, click over to my Ride Guide 2012.

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Photo: Six Flags, 2011. Used with permission.

Roller coasters, which pretty much used to simply get pulled up lift hills and careen around tracks as gravity took over, continue to evolve. Newfangled elements, effects, and features are helping to create hybrid rides that defy categorization. Case in point: Verbolten, the new coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia. It will incorporate a magnetic launch system and some impressive-sounding technology to help tell a story -- actually multiple stories, a world's-first for a coaster -- as it delivers its thrills. Read more about Verbolten.

• Roller Coaster Ride Guide 2012

Photo: Busch Gardens. Used with permission.

Scheduled to open on May 31, Disney's Art of Animation Resort, the 25th (!) on-property hotel at Disney World, is delightful. During a recent visit to Mickey's Florida empire, I got to take a preview tour, and I was enchanted. The resort is brimming with color, whimsy, and charm, and its theme -- an ode to animation -- is engaging and something that Disney can rightfully claim as its legacy.

Like Disney World's other Value Resorts, the Art of Animation features oversized iconography throughout the courtyards of its three-story hotel buildings. Unlike its sister properties, such as the adjacent Pop Century, which offers discordant, vaguely scary statues of giant yo-yos, Rubik's cubes, and other remnants of bygone eras (and makes me feel like an extra on the set of The Incredible Shrinking Theme Park Guest), the larger-than-life figures of classic animated characters at the new hotel, such as Nemo and Doc Hudson from Cars, just feel right.

The sparse, but highly functional and impossibly cute suites, which sleep six, will surely be a big hit. In fact, I predict that Disney will change out some of its older hotels with the Art of Animation's suite configurations. Amenities such as RFID room cards, a food court with a highly eclectic and yummy-sounding menu, and Disney World's largest resort pool (with piped-in underwater dialogue from animated characters to boot) will make this one of Disney's most popular hotels. It easily outpaces all of Disney World's other Value Resorts and, in my estimation, even gives the Moderate Resorts a run for the money. See a photo tour and read more about Disney's Art of Animation Resort.

• Best Things to Do at Disney World

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Photo: © Arthur Levine, 2012. Licensed to About.com.

The park first known as Visionland and later Alabama Adventure has had a troubled history. Originally opened as a regional amusement and water park in 1998 near Birmingham, Alabama, it has struggled under several owners to generate the crowds and revenue necessary to sustain operation. Its most recent owners have closed the amusement park, renamed the property Splash Adventure, and will reopen it this season only as a water park.

Alabama-area park fans may be losing the Rampage wood coaster and other dry rides, but they will be able to try new attractions including the intriguing Aqua Course, for which participants will face water gotchas, cross zip lines, and brave other challenges as they attempt to finish an obstacle course. Read more about the rechristened Splash Adventure.

• Water Park Slide Guide 2012

Photo: Splash Adventure.

Since they first started hurtling passengers along their rickety rails, roller coasters have been the kings of the amusement parks. In the spirit of giving customers what they want, parks have been building multiple coasters. Some continued building -- and building and building -- including Ohio's Cedar Point and California's Six Flags Magic Mountain, which escalated the coaster craze to ridiculous levels. The two have been engaged in a seesaw battle to lay claim to bragging rights as the park with the most number of coasters in the world. Recently locked in a tie, Cedar Point ceded the title to its rival with the announcement that it would be dismantling one of its thrill machines, Wildcat, before it opens for the 2012 season.

That brings Cedar Point's total number of coasters down to (a still insane) 16, which ties it for second place with coaster-crazy Canada's Wonderland, and leaves Magic Mountain sitting pretty with 17 rides. Magic Mountain has begun construction on coaster number 18, which is expected to open in 2013.

• Maverick- Review of one of Cedar Point's best coasters.

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Photo: Maverick at Cedar Point.

I recently returned from Walt Disney World and was fortunate to be part of a tour behind the construction walls at the massive Fantasyland expansion now underway. The size and scope of the project, which includes a considerable amount of rockwork, fanciful castles (yes, that's plural castles), a newfangled coaster, a trip under the sea, a 550-seat restaurant, and more, was impressive.

I've got a batch of new photos and new information to share with you including a confirmation from Disney that the dueling Dumbos and the rest of the new Storybook Circus will open in July, while much of the Fantasyland Forest part of the project will open some time before the holidays (likely in early December of this year). Read more in my updated Fantasyland expansion overview.

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Photo: © Arthur Levine, 2012. Licensed to About.com.

As we head into the prime summer season, the major destination parks are still offering deals. That's great news if you are planning a visit, but you have to know where to find the special offers. Lucky for you, I updated my handy-dandy California and Florida theme park deals pages. Among the latest offers:

• 3-Day Special Park Hopper Tickets for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are still only $199 through May 28.
• Special discounted Front of Line Pass at Universal Studios Hollywood for visits through May 24.
• Knott's Berry Farm Hotel guests can purchase park tickets for $26. Also, kids eat free at hotel.
• Pay just $69 per person, per day for 6-night, 7-day Disney World ticket and All-Star Sports Resort package.
• Discounted SeaWorld, Aquatica, and Busch Gardens tickets are available.

In anticipation of the summer season, the folks at Walt Disney World have been showing off the resort to members of the media this week, and I've been fortunate enough to attend. It's been a whirlwind of tours, presentations by Imagineers, and previews of the latest goodies. Here are a few of the interesting tidbits I've discovered about Mickey's Florida home:

• The new Storybook Circus area, which is the first phase of the Fantaysland expansion at the Magic Kingdom to have opened, includes faux peanut shells embedded in the ground near the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride. Now that is a commitment to the story -- and a charming example of Disney whimsy.
• Going behind the construction wall, it was exciting to see the progress being made on the rest of the expanded Fantasyland area. It was also plain to see how utterly different the façade of the Little Mermaid ride being built in Disney World will be from the original attraction that opened last year at Disney California Adventure -- although the ride itself will be identical.
• The new Art of Animation Resort, the first phase of which is scheduled to open May 31, is stunning. It seems much more visually appealing than the hyperactive design found at Disney World's other Value resorts, and its suites have a spacious and clever layout that larger families and groups will embrace. One of the suites' more intriguing features is the Murphy table/beds. A simple pull or push on the furniture easily converts it to either a table or a bed. In either position, the Imagineers have decorated the hybrid space-saver with incredibly cute renderings of Disney and Pixar animation.

Photos: Top: Now you see it: A table in one of the Art of Animation Resort suites. Bottom: Now you don't: The table easily converts into a bed. © Arthur Levine, 2012. Licensed to About.com.

There are lots -- and lots! -- of new slides, rides, and all kinds of other attractions debuting at water parks this season. But parks really seem fond of AquaLoops, the diabolical slides that start with a launch capsule and release riders from a trap door into an enclosed tube with a seriously overbanked curve. Its designers describe the loops as "near-vertical." They may not send riders upside down, but they do, um, throw them for a loop. Find out which U.S. parks have AquaLoops as well as all of the other major new water park attractions on their way in About.com's annual Slide Guide.

Photo: AquaLoop water slides. WhiteWater.