This is a bit late but Sid over at the Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog posted some awesome new photos of the final few days of construction going on over in Draper.  The park is really coming together and the splash bucket looks insane!  Can’t wait to see this thing in action before I leave for my new home in Texas.

Six Flags Over Texas will begin to offer 6 visits for $49.99 beginning Friday to help families suffering from the economy.  According to Mark Shapiro, the parks are doing amazingly well so far this summer.  Listen to an interview from him over at KRLD – CEO Spotlight.

Also notable, Six Flags will be blowing up whole sections of the Texas Giant.  Shapiro also stated the ride would be getting new trains and new controls.  Sounds like all good things to me!

Check out the full article at the Star Telegram.

Progress on Cowabunga Bay has been going like mad.  We have 2 big updates from this weekend, and yes some of the pictures might overlap.

Check out both updates below:

• Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog
• Theme Park Review

VALLEJO, Calif., April 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Northern California’s only combination wildlife, oceanarium and theme park, announced today that its two-week daily Spring Break period saw its largest attendance since 2003. The great value and close-to-home entertainment escape proved to be a hit with families and thrill seekers alike.

“Our guests recognize that Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is the ideal place to spend quality time with family, enjoy a full-day of entertainment and really get value for their hard-earned dollars,” said Eric Gilbert, park president. “Our goal is to provide families with a much-needed respite from the current economic climate.”

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom extended its hours for the Friday and weekend crowds to accommodate guests and enhance the overall entertainment experience. Attendance was driven by the popular online “Everyone Pays Kid’s Price” offer and the sale of Season Passes at the limited time value price of $49.99 per person.

For additional information on operating hours, rides, shows, special events and to purchase tickets, please visit www.sixflags.com/discoverykingdom.

About Six Flags Inc.:

Six Flags, Inc. is the world’s largest regional theme park company with 20 parks across the United States, Mexico and Canada, and soon will be expanding beyond North America with destinations in Dubai and Qatar. Since 1961, hundreds of millions of families have trusted Six Flags to combine friendly-clean-fast-safe service with affordable, value-packed thrills, record-shattering roller coasters and special events like the Summer Concert Series, Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park. Six Flags’ wide array of entertainment options reaches all demographics — families, teens, tweens and thrill seekers alike — featuring themed attractions based on skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, the ultimate daredevil Evel Knievel, movie franchises The Dark Knight and The Mummy; as well as world-renowned, kid-friendly brands including Looney Tunes, the Justice League of America, The Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine.

Six Flags continues to develop new avenues for growth, acquiring ownership and management of Dick Clark Productions, producer of such perennial television hits as the American Music Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and So You Think You Can Dance. Six Flags, Inc. is a publicly-traded corporation headquartered in New York City.

Website: http://www.sixflags.com/discoverykingdom/

The Themed Entertainment Association has released its 2008 attendance report.  It doesn’t contain too many surprises, with Disney’s many parks taking the lead worldwide.

Notably, Six Flags Great America and Six Flags Great Adventure made the list for top 20 North American parks while Six Flags Magic Mountain didn’t.

It was nice to see a hometown favorite (Noah’s Ark) make the list for top waterparks given that it is located in a less than hospitable climate 6 months out of the year.

It did show that the economy is affecting destination parks more harshly than regional theme parks and I expect that trend to continue.

Check out the full report here.

The SchlitterBlog has posted some new photos of the Congo River Expedition ride they are installing for this year.  It’s looking good!

The Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog has posted some great information and photos from a recent construction tour they took.  I drove by today (yeah I forgot my camera) and the park was looking awesome.  The giant bucket has been mounted at the top of the play structure and more supports have gone up since their photos.

The SchlitterBlog has some new photos of the Congo River Expedition ride going in at Schlitterbahn New Braunsfels.  The models are starting to look great!

Cedar Point will be getting a new “attraction” for 2009 after all.  Their new Starlight Experience will be a light show on the Frontier Trail featuring over 1 million LED lights (similar to Christmas lights).  They are also  replacing the concrete and adding a new sign to the main entrance area.  Check out the updates to their blog here.

A few new photos of Cowabunga Bay construction have been uploaded to the Cowabunga Bay Construction Blog.  Most notable is that one of the body slides, MONDO, has taken to the sky.  It’s looking good, I plan to take some of my own pictures in the next week or so.

Check out the pictures here.