Superman: Escape From Krypton Closing, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin Upgrade, Herschend Acquires Palace Entertainment

Superman: Escape from Krypton Closing at Six Flags Magic Mountain

After nearly 30 years of operation, the long rumored demise of Superman has finally come. The record-holding attraction had been out of service since approximately September of 2024 for routine refurbishment, with much speculation of whether or not it would reopen for 2025.

Park President Jeff Harris has stated that the parts for the ride are becoming obsolete and much harder to obtain. At the end of the day, the coaster had reached the end of its service life, and it would be much more fiscally responsible for the park to put the money into other attractions.

This is a bit of an interesting case, as Intamin does actually still offer the "Reverse Free Fall" model on its website, and features Superman as one of its installations. However, Superman was very different from the only other currently operating Reverse Free Fall coaster, Turbo Track at Ferrari World in UAE. It is quite possible that Intamin has simply modernized the design with a new generation track and vehicle, only giving Magic Mountain the option to upgrade their attraction or not be able to receive certain parts.

As someone who has worked with Intamin in the past as far as orders went, I cannot say that they ever came back and said "we do not supply this component anymore, sorry." This includes parts that I know for a fact had been updated or changed on newer rides than ours. However, working with Intamin was not a very good experience for the customer. Getting quotes from them was like pulling teeth. Oftentimes, they did not have a part number listed for a certain piece, and you had to play phone tag with them, sending in pictures trying to identify the component. Fabrication and lead times took forever to complete, often having to wait several months to get parts. This is all hoping that you received the component, and it ended up being exactly what you were looking for.

It's quite possible that this was the case for Magic Mountain with Superman. Maybe they could continue to get most components they required from Intamin. However, with the painstaking process required to receive certain "one-off" or components that have been upgraded, they just couldn't get what they had needed quick enough to keep the attraction operating at an acceptable percentage of the time. It's quite clear that the technology on Superman (while revolutionary at the time of its opening) is very dated, unreliable, and was due for a major upgrade. It had not made sense to offer the attraction any longer, as the expense to keep running it with these dated components did not make sense in its condition.

For the time being, the Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom drop tower will continue to operate on Superman's support structure. The ride had once again become the world's tallest drop attraction after the closure and implosion of Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom at Six Flags Great Adventure. This is nice to see, as if there's no current plans for demolition of Superman, why lose an additional attraction in the process?

We will likely do a piece on the history of Superman in the upcoming weeks given its historical significance in the industry. It's quite hard to say what will replace the attraction, given its slim footprint not allowing for many options as far as a new coaster goes. The upcoming years should be interesting.

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin to Undergo Refurbishment (Magic Kingdom)

Walt Disney World has announced plans to close Space Ranger Spin this upcoming August for a major refurbishment, and to reopen the refreshed attraction in 2026. This is a much needed project that fans have asked for years to receive. Since its original opening 26 years ago, the attraction has remained virtually untouched, and not updated outside of its typical refurbishments.

Some of the updates coming include refreshed ride vehicles, handheld blasters, new LED score panels, reactive targets, and a new robot character named "Buddy." Buzz Lightyear has made such an impact on fans that a version of it has debuted at each castle park of the company.

In my opinion, this is great news. Granted it was 6 years ago, but during my last visit to Disney, Buzz Lightyear was in the poorest condition of any attraction I had went on. It didn't seem like a Disney ride, but something I would expect at a regional park. The queue was in rough shape, with duct tape and other quick fixes used to patch over issues. The ride itself did not work all that well, with my blaster working only maybe 25% of the ride. Now, I do have to give Disney credit, as this must be one of the most challenging attractions to upkeep. It's popular with kids and families, always busy, and the interactive nature of it receives a lot of abuse. However, the update was much overdue. In fact I was surprised to hear that the attraction had never undergone such a refurbishment until now.

Hershend Family Entertainment Acquires Palace Entertainment Parks

In a surprise announcement, Herschend has acquired Palace Entertainment's entire US park catalog, which includes parks such as Kennywood, Lake Compounce, Idlewild, and Adventureland in Iowa. With the included waterparks and other entertainment venues, Herschend has acquired approximately 20 more properties. Palace had been under a bit of fire for a while as a result of their "treatment" of the US parks, with many longtime visitors of those properties claiming that the operational and investment aspects of the parks had not been up to par under Palace.

This move is likely a result of the Six Flags/Cedar Fair merger that has shaken the industry this past year. The regional park market is much more competitive now, with smaller chains in danger since the mega Six Flags corporation now has such a pull regionally. Global giants aside (Disney and Universal), I think that this move puts Herschend right up there with SeaWorld as one of the largest regional chains based in the US. Herschend likely saw a need to expand their portfolio, as the overall season pass or membership enrollment for Six Flags will make it much easier for the average person to be within driving distance of a Six Flags property moving forwards. If somebody

Altogether, I think that this will have a good result on the product offered by Kennywood, Adventureland, etc. Herschend is much more committed to investment and guest experience at their properties. An example of this is the acquisition of the rights to operate Kentucky Kingdom in 2021. It has taken a few years, but Herschend has put MASSIVE investment into the upcoming Discovery Meadow overhaul. I think that it's quite possible we see some focus into adding themed areas or entertainment to the Palace parks before major attraction investments. 2025 is also likely a feeler year for Herschend, and they will see how the parks operate and exactly what changes are necessary for the overall product.

In addition, as someone familiar with the inner workings of Herschend from a maintenance perspective, hopefully this means higher uptime for rides, as well as possibly a solution for Steel Curtain at Kennywood. Herschend had a full-scale maintenance/engineering team with many more resources than Palace formerly utilized. With a much deeper budget available as well, hopefully some pressure is put onto S&S to finally come up with a working solution so that the coaster can operate without long periods of inactivity.