If getting getting scammed out of five euros for a photo with a faux gladiator outside Rome’s Coliseum is your cup of tea, hold onto your chariots: Roman officials have announced plans to build an ancient Rome-themed family amusement park. “You would relive scenes from the Colosseum, from ancient Rome, gladiators or maybe Julius Caesar or other things,” a city official told Reuters.

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Slate’s Daniel Gross is just full of bad news for American travelers this summer. Last month, he warned of the looming recession’s impact on the RV industry, and now he explains why the nation’s theme parks—and particularly the Six Flags chain—could be taking a hit, too. What’s next, the souvenir shot glass industry? Say it ain’t so.

Photo by j.reed via Flickr (Creative Commons)

We’ve already noted plans for Dubailand, Dubai’s massive amusement park complex that’s been staked out by Universal Studios and Six Flags. According to the Wall Street Journal, recent deals will to the mix add a Marvel superhero-themed park and a Ferrari-themed park called (you guessed it) Ferrari-Land. Ah, Dubai: The place where kids can be kids and dads can indulge their midlife crises. 

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*Theme Parks Bound for Mumbai and Dubai

The popular theme park will open on time, officials said, despite a fire yesterday that destroyed part of the King Kong attraction and various back-lot film sets.

It’s hard to believe it’s taken this long for the United States to get a rock ‘n’ roll theme park. After all, aren’t rock and roller coasters two of the things America does best?  (And I say this as a Canadian.) But at long last, Hard Rock Park has opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and according to Myrtle Beach Online, “awesome” was the word of the day at the park’s recent “soft” opening. Since then, rave reviews have continued to pour in. 

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Interesting bit of economic analysis from the AP: “The gaming business often brags that it’s recession-proof because gamblers will always like to gamble, but amusement destinations historically have seen their business get hard hit when consumers’ wallets are pinched. The upscaling of Las Vegas with its five-star hotels, restaurants and shops, and the down-pricing of Disney to more value-oriented park packages and hotels over the last decade has turned that concept on its head.” Now, if Disney would just open a Vegas casino everything would balance out nicely.

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* A Clash of Civilizations Over Disney’s ‘It’s a Small World’

Photo by gruntzooki via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Disneyland isn’t going anywhere, but Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom—an online world where players’ avatars explore digital recreations of Disneyland, among other things—will be shut down on May 21, gamesindustry.biz reports. In spite of a user petition with thousands of signatures, Disney is holding firm, saying: “All good promotions must come to an end, so we have decided the time is right to close VMK.” With the virtual Disneyland going offline, enthusiasts will have to visit one of the parks themselves for their fix. Score one for travel in the “real” world? Er, sort of.

Photo by denn via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Disneyland fans are abuzz—and many are up in arms—over news that changes are coming to the classic boat ride “It’s a Small World.” The attraction was inspired by a conference Walt Disney attended in 1956, at the invitation of President Eisenhower, aimed at promoting “world peace through international civilian travel,” according to Wikipedia. Slow-moving boats pass scenes depicting various countries and cultures, all set to music. (See this YouTube video.)

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It’s been nearly a year since we noted the coming Myrtle Beach Hard Rock amusement park, and particularly its centerpiece roller coaster honoring Led Zeppelin. If he were dead, I wrote back then, Jimmy Page would be rolling over in his grave. Well, Jimmy Page is still with us, and the truth is, he not only picked out the song that plays on the ride, “Whole Lotta Love,” but he’s billed as being instrumental in the ride’s creation. (All that while also apparently gathering quite a collection of Pre-Raphaelite art.)

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The “I’ in question here is Seth Stevenson, so I’m pretty sure it’s so he could mine the Mouse for laughs and cultural insight. And, typically, he does so in an entertaining Well-Traveled series this week at Slate. In his own words, though, he says he decided to spend five days entirely within the Disney universe basically “to figure out what the hell’s going on in this place. Because America has clearly decided it’s hallowed ground.”

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Baffling? I guess Cracked hasn’t been keeping up with Planet Theme Park, where baffling is the norm. 

A photographer caught children in Hong Kong making radish dim sum—well, at least one of them was working on it—in preparation for Chinese New Year celebrations. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, Disneyland officials are boldly re-branding the year of the rat, which begins next month. In an effort to appeal to local traditions, the Wall Street Journal reports, “Disney is suiting up Mickey and Minnie in special red Chinese New Year outfits, and declaring 2008 the Year of the Mouse.” The Main Street parade features a dragon dance and an appearance by none other than the god of wealth. (No, not Robert Iger.)