A new Gerstlauer Infinity coaster will be unveiled at next month’s IAAPA Expo — but its home is, for now, a mystery.
According to a press release from installer Ride Entertainment, Gerstlauer “has signed an agreement to manufacture a one-of-a-kind Infinity roller coaster for a soon-to-be-named customer in the United States.” The new coaster will open in late 2022.
“I am constantly amazed at how the team at Gerstlauer conquers unique challenges thrown their way,” Ed Hiller, CEO and founder of Ride Entertainment, said in a press release. “This new Infinity coaster will have guests racing to it in order to be the first to ride as it is being installed at a high-profile location.”
Gerstlauer already announced one new U.S. coaster for 2022: Defiance, a custom Eurofighter model coming to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Colorado. The mystery Infinity coaster will be the third of that Gerstlauer model built in the U.S., after HangTime at Knott’s Berry Farm and Monster at Adventureland in Iowa.
IAAPA Expo will be held Nov. 16-19 in Orlando, with Theme Park Tribune providing in-depth coverage.
Disneyland increases ticket, parking prices
After a pandemic-induced break from hiking ticket prices, Disneyland Resort raised prices Monday on most theme park tickets from between 3 percent to 8 percent.
The lowest-priced Tier 1 days, mostly made up of Tuesdays and Wednesdays in slower seasons, remain unchanged at $104 for a single park. Other tiers went up by between $5 and $10 for a single-day ticket, and $10 and $15 for a 1-day park hopper. Disney also added a new, sixth tier for the busiest days of the year, when a one-day, one-park ticket will cost $164.
By comparison, a single-day ticket to Disneyland in 2000 cost $41, which would be $62 today when adjusted for inflation.
Multi-day tickets saw prices jump by $20 for one-park per day tickets, and $25 for park hoppers. Disney also mark its highest-tier annual pass, the Magic Key, as “sold out.”
The largest price hike in terms of percentage affects parking rates. Daily parking rates for the theme parks will jump from $25 to $30, while self parking at the three on-site Disney hotels is being raised from $25 to $40, a 60 percent hike.
Disneyland to bring back parking lot trams in 2022
The good news is that after you pay more for parking at Disneyland, you won’t have to walk all the way to the park entrance.
The Orange County Register was the first to report that parking lot trams to the Mickey & Friends and Pixar Pals parking structures will return early next year.
Since Disneyland reopened early this year, guests have been forced to make the nearly mile-long walk to the park entrances along the tram route. Initially, this was justified as necessary for physical distancing, but has continued purely as a cost-cutting measure.
There have been no Disney World parking trams since the pandemic began, and no official word on when they may return.