Who needs virtual reality when we already have Orlando? From Disney and Universal down to Shamu’s Happy Harbor and Water Mania, central Florida’s theme parks and attractions sold an estimated 45 million tickets last year, enough to thrill all of New York and Los Angeles four times over. Forget the Grand Canyon or the Pyramids almost 25 years after a certain cheery rodent opened the turnstiles, Orlando, Fla., is the top tourist attraction in the universe.
And it just gets bigger. “You have to keep reinventing yourself,” says a Disney spokesman. “If people think, ‘Been there, done that,’ you’ve got a problem.” At Universal, a square mile of scrub is going under the bulldozer for a $5 billion, Steven Spielberg-directed Ride the Movies resort. No points for guessing which large, extinct creatures will feature prominently. That noted entertainment conglomerate, the People’s Republic of China, has unveiled a park of down-sized ancient wonders, Splendid China (“World’s Oldest Civilization-Orlando’s Newest Attraction”), with Tiananmen Square tastefully omitted (no rides either, kids). Probably wisely, a Moscow-based group has put Perestroika Park on ice. But magician Doug Henning is hard at work on Veda Land, 450 acres of spiritual rides and levitating buildings dedicated to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The Mouse still rules. Disney’s Imagineers, who design the parks, have enough secret plans stockpiled to keep construction going well into the 21st century. The Tower of Terror, created to wrest the heavyweight thrills title from Universal’s Jaws, should start dropping visitors down an elevator shaft next month. Future World’s high-tech exhibits looking retro? Say hello to Innoventions, a showcase for such wonders as a bathroom with self-flushing walls.
The amazing thing is that 80 percent of Disney World’s 43 square miles are just the way Walt found them 30 years ago. Just wait for Celebration, a Disney-designed city/suburb for 20,000 people who can’t bear just to visit Orlando. Disney planners are also quietly test-marketing a fourth park “themed,” as they say, around live animals and the environment. Poachers attack your Jeep on the African veld. Rapids caused by runoff from logged-out Borneo rain forests nearly overturn your raft. Whether to green-light this park is the kind of tough decision Disney chairman Michael Eisner is paid $203 million a year to make. A “cultural Chernobyl,” some Frenchman sneered. Yes, but where else on earth makes Hollywood look positively real?
