Maryland
Summer 2025: Cool amusement parks in Delaware, Maryland & New Jersey
Take a ride back in time on Rehoboth Beach’s ‘Wonder Horse’
The vintage kiddie coin-operated ride, Champion, the Wonder Horse, at Funland in Rehoboth Beach goes back to the 1950s. It only costs a quarter.
Patricia Talorico, Delaware News Journal
This fast-moving year has brought its share of highs and lows. And you know what that means, right?
Maybe it’s a sign you’re overdue for a roller coaster ride?
If you think it’s the latter, here’s a look at seven can’t-miss amusements parks in Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey you and your kids might want to hit up this summer. These parks offer go-karting, crazy roller coasters and water slides, and so much more.
Great Wolf Lodge: Perryville, Maryland
Your pack can soak up the fun at Great Wolf Lodge’s 126,000-square-feet indoor water park where the temperature stays a perfect 84 degrees all year long. Guests can enjoy slides like the monster Twister Slide, which stretches 275 feet and features 360 loops, plus families/groups can go rafting.
Additionally, folks can kick back and float in the Lazy River. The “Otter Springs” offers a play pool for younger children that has several kid-friendly slides with tiny dips.
Great Wolf Lodge has a lot of non-water attractions such as an arcade, mini golf, bowling and a mining-themed mirror maze where you must find the exit. There’s an obstacle course that looks like something inspired by “America Ninja Warrior,” but on a smaller scale, and other cool attractions. Bear in mind, each attraction listed above are paid add-ons.
Amenities: There are several restaurants and food shops like Hungry As A Wolf, Dunkin’, Campfire Kitchen (breakfast food like waffles), Wood’s End Creamery, Barnwood and Timbers. Folks can buy grab-and-go sandwiches and drinks at the Freshwoods Market. The Pretzelmaker dishes up fresh pretzels. Adults will find alcoholic drinks at The Watering Hole.
Hours: Times vary, but the water park is normally open daily during the summer.
Admission/Tickets: The price for full-day and half-day passes vary throughout June to September (before Labor Day), ranging from around $48 to $100 per person. Half-day passes are cheaper and are typically available for weekdays, allowing guests to hang out from 4 p.m. to close. Kids aged 2 or younger get in free.
Lodging: Folks who want to stay the night can do so in one of the lodge suites. When you lodge at Great Wolf Lodge, your water park passes are included for each registered guest, according to the website.
The standard family suite includes two queen beds, full bath a TV and mini fridge. While the prices vary, the amount for a one-night stay for two adult guests and two kids (each over age 2) might start at around $369. There also are options for themed family suites that accommodate up to six to seven people, plus a premium option that accommodates up to 13 people. Address: Great Wolf Lodge (1240 Chesapeake Overlook Parkway, Perryville, Maryland).
Visit greatwolf.com/maryland or call (888) 983-9653.
Six Flags Great Adventure: Jackson, New Jersey
For decades, Six Flags has been a summer staple for adrenaline junkies; and the party hasn’t stopped. The amusement park boasts dozens of rides, games and activities, including your favorite hero and villain rides like The Flash: Vertical Velocity, The Joker, Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth, The Dark Knight Coaster and Super Man: Ultimate Flight.
Other notable experiences include the Wild Safari where guests cruise around in an open-air vehicle and discover epic animals, while learning about conservation efforts. Amenities: There’s over a dozen restaurants, bars and food spots for patrons include the Ale House, Best of the West, Primo’s Pizzeria on Main Street, Boardwalk Steak and Fries, Totally Kickin’ Chicken Sports Bar, Sugar Shack and Rita’s Italian Ice.
Hours: The park is usually open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Sept. 1, though hours vary.
Tickets: $39, one-day pass starts as low as that price. $75, season pass starts as low as that price.
Address: Six Flags Great Adventures (Six Flags Blvd., Jackson, New Jersey).
Visit sixflags.com/greatadventure or call (732) 928-2000.
Funland, Rehoboth Beach
This is an emotional year for some longtime Funland fans because owner Allen “Al” Fasnacht passed away in March. Yet, his legacy lives on in every smile and fun memory at Funland.
The iconic amusement park in Rehoboth Beach offers 20 rides and 11 games. Funland has entertained multiple generations of families since 1962.
Amenities: Snack bar and gift shop.
Hours: Open daily in the summer:
From June 7 to Aug. 23: Games open at 10 a.m., and Rides open at 1 p.m. Ticket booth closes at 10:15 p.m.
Aug. 24 to 28: Games and rides open at 1p.m. Ticket booth Closes at 9:15 p.m.
Aug. 29: Games and rides open at 1p.m. Ticket booth closes at 10:15 p.m.
Aug. 30 to 31: Games open at 10 a.m. Rides open at 1 p.m. Ticket booth closes at 10:15 p.m.
Sept. 1: Games open at 10 a.m. Rides open at 1 p.m. Ticket booth closes at 8:15 p.m.
Sept. 2 to 4: Park closed.
Sept. 5: Games and rides open at 6 p.m. Ticket booth closes at 9:15 p.m.
Sept. 6: Games and rides open at 1 p.m. Ticket booth closes at 10:15 p.m.
Sept. 7, last day of 2025 season: Games and rides open at 1 p.m. Ticket booth closes at 8:15 p.m.
Tickets: Single ticket is $0.75; 25 ticket book is $18.75; $50 ticket book is $33 and $100 ticket book is $55. The Unlimited Ride Wristband (1-4:30 p.m.) is $26.00. Unless you have the Unlimited Ride Wristband, the price of rides vary. Some are 1 ticket, others reach up to 6 tickets per ride. Address: Funland (6 Delaware Ave., Rehoboth Beach).
Visit funlandrehoboth.com or call (302) 227-1921
Jungle Jim’s, Rehoboth Beach
Delaware’s largest water park is where kids and parents will find a bunch of activities including giant water slides, a wave pool, kiddie pool, lazy river, activity pool, kid’s spray ground, and more.
But there’s more than just water here. There’s also a state-of-the-art batting cage system and two mini-golf courses with 18 holes each.
Amenities: River Safari Café and gift shop
Hours: Water park opens daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with twilight from 3 to 6 p.m.
Tickets: $50, all-day water park pass for people over 3½ feet; $35, all-day water park pass for people under 3½ feet; $250, water park season pass for people over 3½ feet; $175, water park season pass for people under 3½ feet.
Address: Jungle Jim’s (36944 Country Club Road, Rehoboth Beach)
Visit funatjunglejims.com or call (302) 227-8444.
Killens Pond State Park, Felton
For decades, kids have loved getting their feet wet at Killens Pond Water Park, a place that offers fun for all ages. The park features two speed slides and two spiral slides, a tot lot for little ones, and more.
Hours: The park is open through Labor Day, weekends only through mid-June, and weekends only mid-August through Labor Day. The park is open two sessions per day: 9 a.m. To 1:30 p.m., and 2 to 6 p.m.
Tickets: $8, people under 4 feet; $10 for people 4 feet and over. Weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and holiday rates are $10 for those under 4 feet tall; and $12 for people 4 feet or taller.
Address: Killens Pond (5025 Killens Pond Road, Felton).
Visit destateparks.com/waterpark or call (302) 284-4526.
Midway Speedway Park, Rehoboth Beach
Midway Speedway Park is a Rehoboth gem that offers four tracks across eight styles of go-kart racing. There’s also the White Water Mountain Water Park and Fire Mountain miniature golf. Not to mention, cool attractions on tap include Zip Zone Bumper Boats, or you can go on the water and play Splashing Bumper Boat Action.
Hours: Open daily, Go-karts and mini golf from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Water park is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tickets: $59.99, includes one all-day water park and one round of mini golf, and four choice tickets to be used on any attraction; $200 for a water park season pass. A Single Ride ticket is $12. 1 game of mini golf is $15. For more prices, see website below.
Address: Midway Speed Waterpark (8645 Coastal Highway. Rehoboth Beach).
Visit midwayspeedwaypark.com or call (302) 644-2042.
Six Flags America: Bowie, Maryland
Folks have to make the most of their time at Six Flags America in Bowie this year, since the park is set to close permanently in November. The park boasts dozens of rides and games.
This year marks the return of SteamTown, the new steampunk-themed section of the park that launched in 2024, offering cool attractions like the QuantumCanyon Rapids, Professor Screamore’s SkyWinder roller coaster, Fillament’s SteamPub and more fun. There’s also the Hurricane Harbor waterpark, which is an additional fee.
Other notable rides and experiences include Harley Quinn Spinsanity roller coaster, the Halfpipe and Batwing Coaster.
Amenities: Over two dozen amenities are on tap like the Gotham City Funnel Cakes, Macho Nacho, Hurricane Hotdog, Heritage House Food Court, Calypso’s Bar and much more.
Hours: Daily hours are usually 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., though hours vary.
Tickets: One-day ticket starts at $29. Silver Pass is $59; Gold Pass is $69.
Address: Six Flags America (13710 Central Ave, Bowie, Maryland).
Visit sixflags.com/america or call (301) 249-1500.
If you have an interesting story idea, email lifestyle reporter Andre Lamar at alamar@gannett.com. Consider signing up for his weekly newsletter, DO Delaware, at delawareonline.com/newsletters.
BALTIMORE (WBFF) — As Baltimore leaders celebrated a new law limiting city cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday, they also shared new accounts alleging federal agents have gone too far.
At a news conference the same day the mayor signed legislation restricting the city’s cooperation with ICE, City Councilman Zeke Cohen described what he said was a troubling incident outside his children’s school.
“ICE was behaving in ways that were unsafe, that caused stress, and trauma, and harm to our communities, so as a result we asked for increase school police presence,” Cohen said.
He added, “I think it’s incredibly ironic we need our own local school police to protect our kids and our families from the federal government.”
ALSO READ | Baltimore police: Man told guard “I’m an addict” during Orioles Team Store armed robbery
From the floor of the council chambers last month, Councilwoman Odette Ramos described what she said was fear in the community and accused ICE of targeting people based on race.
“Let us call it what it is it’s racism and white supremacy,” Ramos said.
She added, “They wait in parking lots for anyone who is brown. They do not care if you’re a citizen or not, so I’m waiting for my turn obviously.”
Critics have questioned the stories from politicians.
Dr. Richard Vatz, a retired professor of rhetoric, called the city’s approach “utterly irresponsible leadership,” saying, “They ought to think, ‘Who am I helping, who am I hurting?’”
When FOX45 News pressed council members last month on whether they’d witnessed ICE breaking the law in Baltimore, Ramos said, “I have not personally, however, I know that we are now seeing an escalation.”
After Cohen’s account about what happened outside his children’s school, an email was sent to the council president seeking clarification, including: “Did you see the ICE activity yourself and, if so, what was taking place?”
Clarification had not yet been provided.
Sgt. Betsy Branford-Smith, with the National Police Association, said stories of fear put officers at risk too.
“These agents have now been additionally endangered. It’s already dangerous enough,” Smith said.
An online learning management system is back online after a cyberattack created chaos for local school districts and colleges in Maryland.
Canvas, an online portal used by students and teachers, and parent company Infrastructure were attacked by hacking group ShinyHunters. The group is tied to several other notable attacks, including the Live Nation hack.
In a statement to CBS News on Friday, Instructure said the company took Canvas offline after learning that hackers had “made changes to the pages that appeared when some students and teachers were logged in.”
The hackers exploited an issue linked to its Free-For-Teacher accounts, the company said.
“As a result, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily shut down our Free-For-Teacher accounts,” the company said. “This gives us the confidence to restore access to Canvas, which is now fully back online and available for use. We regret the inconvenience and concern this may have caused.”
Canvas was also removed from a dark web leak site created by the ransomware group to publish stolen data.
Several school districts in Maryland avoided using Canvas altogether on Friday, including Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Harford County Public Schools, and Howard County Public School System. Baltimore City Public Schools uses the site, but said it had minimal impacts and does not believe the district’s data was stolen.
Baltimore County Public Schools does not use Canvas, and it was not impacted.
Local colleges and universities halted to a standstill in the middle of finals because of the breach. The University of Maryland urged faculty and students not to access the site on Friday morning. By midday, Canvas was fully restored.
Student reaction
Students at Johns Hopkins University say the website was down for about four hours Thursday night. This breach occurred during the middle of finals at the university, and students say that without the site, they didn’t have access to study materials.
“I don’t think I can manage without Canvas,” Aseel Adam, a first-year student at Hopkins, said. “I had a final today, so I was like, ‘Oh no’. I had to email my teacher about the slides final practice. It was bad.”
Students called it a major inconvenience and said they had a late-night studying after Canvas came back online.
“5 pm hits, Canvas is shut down,” Alveena Nasir, a first-year student at Hopkins, said. “I am screwed. I have a final tomorrow. I have no access to any my files. I have no downloads…For that to shut down, I feel like the whole school shuts down.”
Canvas is used by students to review materials, submit assignments, and view their grades. Teachers are also able to communicate with students on the platform.
Students say they also don’t know what data may have been leaked and if it’s their personal information.
“They can get a lot of my information, fake it for someone else, or some bad, heinous crime. It did kind of worry me,” Adam explained.
Preventing future attacks
The Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute has been testing websites and platforms like Canvas, trying to find vulnerabilities to help prevent these types of attacks. Now, AI is making it easier than ever to take down this kind of system.
“In the old days, usually [it would] take an expert maybe a month to really come up with those complicated attacks. Recently, with the help of AI, [it takes] sometimes maybe one or two days, they can really come up with those complicated attacks,” Yinzhi Cao, technical director of the institute and associate professor of computer science, tells WJZ.
Cao says everyone needs to be more cyber-aware. To protect yourself, don’t give out deeply personal information to online platforms, use two-factor authentication, and even watch out for phishing emails.
Now, students are questioning the school’s reliance on Canvas and how they can be more prepared if there’s an attack in the future.
“The idea that we depend so much on Canvas for a lot of things is also an issue. I think there should be a balance,” Adam said.
“For having a website so fundamental to our education and not being able to protect it, I think there should be some considerations on improving it,” Nasir concluded.
See street artists make their creations at Ocean City’s Springfest
Springfest’s 35th anniversary featured street artists along with live music and more. See the artists in action in this video.
As paleontologist Stephen Godfrey walked into the Calvert Marine Museum one morning in April, staff members congratulated him. In a way, he brought an extinct species back to life.
Two days earlier, in the final hours of Maryland’s legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that made megalodon — the largest shark that ever lived — the state shark.
Godfrey, the marine museum’s curator of paleontology, helped come up with the idea and testified at the State House in support of it. Now, Maryland is the first to have a state shark, he said.
“As long as people have been here in Maryland, they have been noticing and collecting megalodon teeth,” he said.
Fossils of the prehistoric shark can be found throughout the Chesapeake Bay region.
“It was a prime place for early paleontologists in American history to come to collect fossils, to document the succession of life,” said Godfrey, who grew up in Quebec, Canada. He has been interested in natural history since he was young and turned his childhood bedroom into a museum.
“Hey, why don’t we try to make it the state shark?” Godfrey recalled asking.
Students join in effort to honor the mighty megalodon
He checked whether any other state had beat them to the idea. He found that North Carolina designated the megalodon tooth as its state fossil — but not its state shark.
“It was like, ‘Wow, this is like a golden opportunity,’ ” he said. “I’m surprised that nobody has thought of this.”
So he reached out to Marianne Harms, a former member of the marine museum’s board who had helped get it recognized as the state’s paleontology center. She connected him with Sen. Jack Bailey, R-Calvert and St. Mary’s.
“We just started working on it last summer when I took Stephen in to meet Sen. Bailey, and it is a difficult process to have something named as a state entity,” Harms said.
Bailey introduced the bill in the Senate, and Del. Todd Morgan, R-Calvert and St. Mary’s, introduced it in the House.
Godfrey testified in support of the bill twice, bringing along his daughter, Zoey, who is in third grade.
Calvert County officials and members of the public also wrote letters of support. Representatives of the Natural History Society of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation sent in written testimony favoring the bill.
Fourth-grade teacher Anna Shay also shared letters and pictures from her students.
“The megalodon shark is strong and brave so people will think we are also strong and brave,” one student wrote.
Megalodon encounters resistence in Maryland legislature
It faced some pushback from AMndy Ellis, a Green Party candidate for governor, who wanted to designate megalodon as the state historic shark to leave room for a living one to have that designation.
At one point, the bill stalled in the General Assembly. But on the last day of the session, it was tacked on as an amendment to a bill recognizing a state natural sciences museum and Oct. 1 as a day to honor victims and survivors of domestic violence. It passed through both chambers and is on its way to the governor’s desk.
“I can’t believe this actually happened,” said Godfrey, adding that he thought the bill had died.
“To me, it’s like, just one of the super fun things that I’ve been a part of.”
-
New Mexico54 seconds agoPhoebe Bridgers Debuts New Music at First Show in Three Years
-
North Carolina7 minutes agoNorth Carolina man found dead after falling overboard in East TN lake: TWRA
-
North Dakota12 minutes agoFederal judge agrees to toss $28M judgment related to Dakota Access Pipeline protests
-
Ohio19 minutes ago8th Annual Trumbull County Special Olympics Invitational held in Girard
-
Oklahoma25 minutes agoKendall Wells Falls Behind in Home Run Race as Oklahoma Waits for Selection Sunday
-
Oregon31 minutes ago4.9 magnitude earthquake strikes off Northern California coast near Oregon border
-
Pennsylvania37 minutes agoPennsylvania Medical Marijuana And Hemp Regulation Bill Sets The State Up For Broader Recreational Legalization, GOP Senator Says – Marijuana Moment
-
Rhode Island43 minutes agoProposed tax hike would hurt small businesses and our communities | Opinion