Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of RCPro: Blogged. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend, and didn’t get injured in the mad shopping rush on Friday morning that wound up being fatal at one Wal-Mart. I’m sure most of our readers, though, are level-headed enough to not break the doors of the local park’s season pass center. During the last two weeks IAAPA occurred down in Orlando, and Dan gave us a wonderful update. Most of the news for this edition did not come from IAAPA, except for one announcement from the Gravity Group. With that said, let’s dive into some of the noteworthy news of the past few weeks.

First up on the rundown is an announcement from Disney that, quite frankly, was a long time in coming from my perspective. In what I am sure many see as a long overdue move, Disney will be building its first stand-alone hotel/vacation club resort property in Oahu’s Ko Olina Resort and Marina area. News about the resort first started coming out in late 2007, when the purchase of the land was announced. Back then there were no real worries being shown of the economic problems we are now facing, and any move likely seemed like a good decision. Disney will be betting on Hawaii to remain strong with tourists, a gamble that may not be as hopeful as they want in the current market. Though I am sure that the construction and opening of the resort will not be affected too much, I do wonder if the smiles of resort personnel could turn to frowns once it opens. The plans right now are for marketing to families that normally take luxury vacations, though I am willing to bet that these luxury vacations stay on the continental U.S. before too much longer. This is also my thought on Dubai properties (along with wondering exactly how many rich people it would take to support the place), but that is a topic for another day. Given that Hawaii is not exactly abundant in the kind of vacationers that come there from across the globe, a local population would not be enough to drive the resort. Hopefully Disney’s dream with this resort will come true, if only because it seems like there are fewer and fewer stars for Pinocchio to wish upon these days.

Moving back to the continental states, our next bit of news comes to us from Florida, where rumors abound about the Busch parks. With the recent buyout/merger of Anheuser-Busch and InBev, the German brewer is looking to get rid of the parks in an attempt to get some additional financing for the over $9 billion deal. Not many have voiced an interest in the Busch Entertainment division; in fact, Merlin is the only one really making waves, with Parque Reunidos also looking in on the possibility. Both of these firms, however, are small in comparison to the capital-intensive Busch deal they are eyeing. If they would manage to land this whale of a transaction, it would cost anywhere between $3-5 billion for the Seaworld and Busch Gardens properties. There is also the possibility that current Busch Entertainment execs could come riding in on their Clydesdales to sweep up the parks and save the day…though that sounds more like a scene for DarKastle than a possible takeover of the Busch parks. In the end, what really matters is that the parks remain, and maintain their current level of attention to detail and everything else that has made the Busch parks some of the best in the world.

We should all be enjoying the lower price of gas at the moment, so why not enjoy it with a trip out to the Gravity Group in southern Ohio for our next story. This is our only announcement from the IAAPA convention, and it was an announcement that created quite a bit of discussion for a short while afterwards. The Gravity Group introduced their own unique wooden coaster rolling stock in the new Timberliners. It was not the announcement of the trains that sparked discussion; rather it was part of the description that included the words “launch capable.” In case you were wondering, yes, you read that right. This rolling stock is evidently going to be launch capable without the need for modification of your ride’s current trains(not that anyone has tried launching a wooden coaster yet). I really wonder if the launched wooden coaster will turn out the same as the looping wooden coaster, a novel idea that seemed to work at first, but after a while is proven undesirable. Even with the concept of launching wooden roller coasters, this announcement of Gravity Group’s own rolling stock could translate into an increase in roller coasters from the group, as they come closer to offering a complete product experience similar to GCI. No matter what happens, it is certainly an exciting development that surely means new things for the firm.

With the current state of affairs in the economy and the recent failure of Hard Rock Park, one would imagine that brand new parks will not be popping up anywhere in the US anytime soon. That mindset is obviously not the case in Arizona, where the Decades development is still moving along as planned, even if it is moving a little slower now. The developers and the town remain optimistic about the project despite the economy, and the lack of funds -$850 million to be exact – to be had. One can only hope that if the park ever does get off the ground that it does not come to the same fate as Hard Rock Park.

The last two weeks saw some interesting ideas and announcements at IAAPA, rumors about the Busch parks, Disney developments, and much more. We all enjoyed the food and family on Thanksgiving, and hopefully avoided the rabid shoppers on Black Friday. We made it through another two weeks of more bad news on the economy all while enjoying some very low prices on gas. Hopefully the gas prices stay, the economy gets better, and you keep reading this blog! Disney liked to remind us that it all started with a dream and a mouse; likewise I started with a blank document and lots of news. Hope you enjoyed it, and come back in two weeks!