These days, none of us expect online “reporting” to be accurate (or at least, we shouldn’t). Sometimes the rumors do end up being true — such as reports last year that Palace Entertainment was preparing to sell off some of their parks.
Here is a quick recap of how rumors became facts:
March 18, 2025 – Herschend to aquire Palace Entertainment attractions
Here is the official announcement on the Herschend Family Entertainment website:
https://www.hfecorp.com/whats-new/herschend-to-acquire-palace-entertainments-us-attractions-from-parques-reunidos/
The wording specifically said they were going to “acquire all of Palace Entertainment’s U.S. entertainment properties from Parques Reunidos. ”
After that announcement, many sites reported that the Dollywood / Silver Dollar City company had bought (insert name of local Palace Entertainment park here). However, this was not true yet. I reached out to H.F.E. to get confirmation:
“We do not currently operate any Palace Entertainment properties. Until the sale is final, please direct any questions to the relevant property or a Palace HQ representative.”
Herschend Family Entertainment
May 27, 2025 – The deal is done
Next, there was quite a bit of news surrounding H.F.E. and their $1 billion dollar loan they were taking out to complete this acquisition:
https://www.cahill.com/news/firm-news/2025-05-27-cahill-represents-debt-financing-sources-in-herschend-1.21-billion-debt-financings-to-acquire-palace-entertainment-u.s.-attractions
Just a bit over two months later, the deal was done:
https://www.hfecorp.com/whats-new/herschend-completes-acquisition-of-palace-entertainments-us-attractions
I doubt there are many bloggers / coaster sites / etc. that really understand the details of such a business transaction, so naturally many assumptions were made that were incorrect. A common question was: “Now that Palace Entertainment has sold all their properties, what happens to Palace Entertainment?”
I wondered that too, actually. But, again, going to official sources reveals the answer: Palace Entertainment was purchased, not the properties directly. The official Palace Entertainment website explains:
https://www.palaceentertainment.com/about-us
“Based in Pittsburgh, Palace Entertainment provides world-class fun, entertainment, and learning experiences at more than 20 properties in 10 different states, including amusement and theme parks, water parks, entertainment centers, campgrounds, and hotels.
Palace Entertainment owns and operates several of the country’s most iconic and historic venues including, National Historic Landmark, Kennywood Park, America’s First Amusement Park, Lake Compounce, the world’s first ever Cartoon Network Hotel, Best Family Theme Park Dutch Wonderland and a variety of other family-friendly parks and campgrounds throughout the United States.
Palace Entertainment is owned by Herschend, the world’s largest family-owned themed attractions company, with 12,000+ passionate employees (hosts) collectively entertaining 15 million families each year.”
https://www.palaceentertainment.com/about-us
According to that site, it remains Palace Entertainment (at least as of that page being updated) that owns and operates their attractions, not Herschend Family Entertainment directly.
You can see Iowa’s Adventureland now listed as an HFE property on their map page:
https://www.hfecorp.com/experiences/?attractioncategory=ThemeParks#listing
However, the Palace Entertainment map page does not show the HFE properties such as Silver Dollar City and Dollywood:
https://www.palaceentertainment.com/our-parks
2026 and beyond…
With most acquisitions, there will be consolidation and downsizing. If three companies that all had their own H.R. group get merged together, often just one (maybe increased in size) H.R. group will survive to handle the new larger entity. It is reasonable to expect parks will still maintain their own local management, though higher up the org chart there may be consolidation.
And, with folks already being able to use their Adventureland passes to get discounts at Herschend parks, some merging of benefits has already happened, even if it is not yet reflected on all the property websites.
While none of this may be as big as the Six Flags / Cedar Fair merger, it is still interesting to watch.
To be continued…
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