Theme Park

If you're thinking of visiting a Disney park in Anaheim this summer, be warned that the price is about to jump by between $7 and $150 depending on the ticket deal. The annual summer price hike for tickets to Disneyland and the Disney California Adventure Park were announced Friday and take effect Sunday. For example, a ticket for one day at either Disneyland or California Adventure had cost $80 for parkgoers who are 10 or older. The new price, starting Sunday, will be $87, up nearly 9%. The biggest increase will hit people who buy the premium annual pass that includes parking.

I've visited many theme parks in the United States over the last few years as the theme park blogger for The Times' Travel website, but this summer's crop of rides already has me updating my bucket list. Here's a look at some of the biggest new roller coasters, dark rides, live shows, water slides and themed lands planned for this summer at theme parks across the country. Outlaw Run Silver Dollar City, Mo. If I could visit only one theme park this summer, I'd head to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo., to climb aboard the triple-inversion Outlaw Run hybrid (wood and steel)

By now, everybody knows what to expect from your standard-issue ho-hum water park: body and tube slide complexes with funnels and bowls, deluge-inducing water play towers for the little ones, undulating wave pools and relaxing lazy rivers. Photos: 20 best water parks in the world Pretty much everything you typically find at a Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, a Great Wolf Lodge resort or any Wet 'n Wild. The best water parks in the world, however, have been busy adding the latest cutting-edge attractions, such as magnetically propelled water coasters, inverted looping slides, stationary wave machines and interactive water games.

Kings Island, an Ohio amusement park, doesn't get the headlines and attention of Disneyland and Disney World, but for a shining moment in 1973 it was the center of the pop culture universe. Why? Because those lovable Brady kids from "The Brady Bunch" traveled to Ohio in an episode of the show for a romp through the park, attempting to find misplaced plans for a park addition. This weekend, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the episode, three of the Brady kids, actors Christopher Knight, Susan Olsen and Barry Williams, reunited at the park, located in Mason, Ohio.

SeaWorld's Aquatica will introduce an innovative hybrid concept to San Diego on June 1 that combines a marine park with a water park, allowing visitors to interact with animals like dolphins, stingrays and flamingos as they zip down water slides. > Photos: SeaWorld San Diego's Aquatica water park SeaWorld San Diego purchased Knott's Soak City in Chula Vista from the parent company of Knott's Berry Farm for $15 million and plans an extensive renovation of the separate-admission water park about 20 miles south of the marine park.

When the last Jungle Cruise boat docks for the night and lights fade to black on Sleeping Beauty's Castle, the real work begins. At lush Pixie Hollow, gardeners don miner's headlamps as they begin uprooting stubborn weeds. On Main Street, custodians scrape chewing gum off the sidewalk. And over at Mickey's Toontown, painters sand and recoat chipped handrails. Few see it happen, except perhaps for the dozens of feral cats that emerge from their hiding places to prowl the park after hours, stalking rodents.

The theme park industry will take a deep breath in 2013 after the launch of several landmark attractions and with more groundbreaking projects on the horizon. The last few years have seen several theme park additions that have altered the industry landscape and set attendance records -- from Cars Land at Disney California Adventure to Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure. The future promises even more theme park innovation in the form of Shanghai Disneyland in China and Avatar Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida.

PIGEON FORGE, TENN. - Set against the Great Smoky Mountains, Dollywood is surrounded by a green canopy of hardwood trees and colorful blankets of flowers that envelop every ride and attraction in the Tennessee wilderness. Photos: Top 10 Dollywood rides and attractions The 150-acre theme park in Pigeon Forge traces its origins to the 1961 debut of the Rebel Railroad, a five-mile steam train ride into the foothills of the Smokies, complete with Indian attacks and train robberies.

Billed as the world's tallest water ride, the $26-million Divertical at  Italy's Mirabilandia theme park will combine a shoot-the-chutes flume and a roller coaster track with an offshore powerboat racing theme. PHOTOS: Divertical water coaster at Mirabilandia Debuting June 16, the Divertical water coaster will feature an innovative elevator lift system that carries the 10-person boats to the top of the 197-foot-tall ride. From there, riders will descend a 45-degree water flume at speeds topping 65 mph. After a tidal wave-like splash, the train will continue along a coaster track over air-time hills and hairpin turns before dropping into a second splashdown pool.

Goodbye Hogwarts, hello Universal Studios. After a bumpy 17-year process that once proposed developing thousands of homes on its famous Hollywood back lot, NBCUniversal won unanimous approval Tuesday from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for a plan that lets it expand its Universal Studios theme park. And a Harry Potter attraction is coming with it. Company executives said the "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," which will feature a re-creation of the Hogwarts Castle and other locations from the books and movies, will bring droves of visitors to the park.

A unique new haunted attraction opening this summer at a small United Kingdom theme park will combine a walk-through horror maze featuring live actors with a dark ride journey inside an abandoned mine shaft. The Hobs Pit maze and ride is set to open June 2 at Pleasurewood Hills theme park in Lowestoft, England, located about 100 miles northeast of London on the North Sea coast. Theme Parks: What may come to Wizarding World of Harry Potter 2.0 at Universal Orlando The 30-year-old amusement park has been promoting the new attraction with a clever viral marketing campaign that hints at the ride's paranormal back story.

By now, everybody knows what to expect from your standard-issue ho-hum water park: body and tube slide complexes with funnels and bowls, deluge-inducing water play towers for the little ones, undulating wave pools and relaxing lazy rivers. Photos: 20 best water parks in the world Pretty much everything you typically find at a Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, a Great Wolf Lodge resort or any Wet 'n Wild. The best water parks in the world, however, have been busy adding the latest cutting-edge attractions, such as magnetically propelled water coasters, inverted looping slides, stationary wave machines and interactive water games.

CARLSBAD, Calif. - The Legoland Hotel, which opened April 5, got plenty of little things wrong in its first weeks. But its designers got one thing enormously right, and that will make this place a screaming success: kid-centricity. "The dragon is made out of Legos!" my daughter, Grace, who is about to turn 9, said as we approached the hotel entrance a week after the opening. Inside the lobby, Grace; my wife, Mary Frances; and I found a faux fountain, a play pit full of little plastic bricks and dozens of deeply absorbed children who were collaborating on a rainbow-hued monolith, constructing pretend weapons, hollering, whispering, running, jumping and dragging their parents from one discovery to the next.

Disneyland's Space Mountain remains closed for safety repair work, two weeks after state regulators cited the park for hazards to maintenance workers on the outside of the attraction. Disneyland officials, who said they have no estimate on when the ride will reopen, closed Space Mountain and two other rides April 13, after receiving the state citations . The state inspected several Disneyland rides after a maintenance worker was injured in November when he fell while cleaning the outside of the building.

During a honeymoon trip to Los Angeles, Chris Hansen and his new wife, Shoni, decided not to skimp on their visit to Universal Studios Hollywood. They booked a pricey tour for the theme park that included a buffet lunch, an escort to the front of the line of every ride and a behind-the-scene visit to the property and wardrobe departments on the studio's television and movie lot. The experience set the couple back $299 each, compared with the regular $80 admission price. But they didn't complain.

First they put a lid on it, and now they're pulling the plug. Universal City's Gibson Amphitheatre, a fixture on the Southern California live music scene for more than 40 years, will close in September and be demolished to make room for the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios theme park, officials announced Wednesday. The announcement came a day after Universal Studios Hollywood won approval from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to begin construction on its planned $1.6-billion expansion of the theme park.

During a honeymoon trip to Los Angeles, Chris Hansen and his new wife, Shoni, decided not to skimp on their visit to Universal Studios Hollywood. They booked a pricey tour for the theme park that included a buffet lunch, an escort to the front of the line of every ride and a behind-the-scene visit to the property and wardrobe departments on the studio's television and movie lot. The experience set the couple back $299 each, compared with the regular $80 admission price. But they didn't complain.

Workers at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park took photos of visitors entering the parks Tuesday as part of a new effort to crack down on abuse of multi-day tickets. The process of photographing guests--including children--delayed visitors getting into the park by about 45 minutes, according to park-goers. "They delayed literally thousands of people in line to do this process," said Bob Shoberg, a San Jose resident who visited Disneyland with his wife, daughters, in-laws and grandchildren.

As a guy who started his own company before he graduated from high school, Garner Holt is just a big kid who owns a giant toy factory. "I feel like I've never worked a day in my life," said the founder and president of Garner Holt Productions, the world's largest animatronics maker. Located across from a string of high-voltage power lines near San Bernardino International Airport, Garner Holt Productions is tucked into an industrial park that remains hidden from most theme park fans.

Goodbye Hogwarts, hello Universal Studios. After a bumpy 17-year process that once proposed developing thousands of homes on its famous Hollywood back lot, NBCUniversal won unanimous approval Tuesday from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for a plan that lets it expand its Universal Studios theme park. And a Harry Potter attraction is coming with it. Company executives said the "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," which will feature a re-creation of the Hogwarts Castle and other locations from the books and movies, will bring droves of visitors to the park.