Merlin Entertainments has bought the London Aquarium from County Hall Entertainment. The move makes perfect sense for Merlin, as not only does the operator own the largest aquarium brand in the world – Sea Life – but also the London Aquarium is located next to the London Eye, the group’s iconic observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames.

Tripsdrill, the Germany family park near Stuttgart, this week ramped up the thrill factor when it unveiled Mammut – the first all-German wooden coaster to be built in living memory and the park’s largest investment to date.

Just as there are a handful of oceanside parks remaining in America, so there are only a handful of lakeside American amusement parks left. Where real estate values on any body of water drove out most of 1,500+ plus American amusement parks during the 1920s, Canobie Lake Park still sits by the lake, clean, beautiful, and thriving. Gary Kyriazi pays a visit.

Dennis Speigel, International Theme Park Services: The “roll up” of the industry began officially when Premier Parks bought Six Flags and the subsequent park properties. They severely over paid for many of the parks in their quest to become the largest regional theme park operator. Unfortunately their business plan was flawed and created the problem that the current management is living with today – incredible debt. As soon as Prermier took over Six Flags they began losing money on a company-wide basis and never showed a profit, placing one of the industry icons in a disastrous positions. They paid too much. Today companies such as Parque Reunidos, who have been very active in the acquisition of leisure attractions, are paying reasonable multiples of EBITDA for properties. This is a prudent approach to business and to the industry. Managing the debt is a problem that acquirers have to address. “Biting off too much debt” can be a problem no matter how polished an operator you may be.

Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, New Jersey, is preparing to introduce Glow in the Park, a new nighttime parade by Gary Goddard Entertainment. Transforming the park into a fantasyland of light and sound will be a cast of drummers, puppeteers, singers, dancers and kinetic stilt walkers.