Brrrrr: Orlando gets hotter
It sounds like a contradiction but it all makes sense: Orlando’s hot tourist market which drew a record 53.4 million visitors this year despite the weak economy is expected to heat up more than ever with a new theme park that will make visitors feel they’re in the frozen north of Antarctica.
Backers of the 40-year-old Sea World in an area that has become the world capitol of theme parks say it is a move to further solidity Orlando’s position as the No. 1 tourist destination in the world.
Details of Sea World’s “Empire of the Penguin” set to open in 2013 were revealed this week.
The unveiling outlined three additions “designed specifically for this park and the market. You can’t see them or experience them anywhere else on the planet,” said Brian Morrow, creative director.
The new park will feature an entire section of shops and restaurants with an interactive ride at its center. Tourism observers compare it to the wildly successful Harry Potter attraction at Universal Orlando, says the AP.
Parts of the experience will also include a radical (but unspecified) temperature change that chief designer Morrow says will create "the coldest attraction ever constructed."
Dennis Speigel, a Cincinnati-based theme park consultant, told AP that SeaWorld's expansion is "a big move on their part. It follows suit with what Universal did with Harry Potter and what Disney is doing with some of their properties. I think it was needed, and I think it's very timely for SeaWorld Orlando."
A manatee and sea turtle exhibit in a domed 3-D theater, the chance to wade and swim next to Asian otters and marmosets, and a penguin experience that promises to immerse tourists in the middle of Antarctica will be on hand at SeaWorld Orlando over the next two years.
SeaWorld's "TurtleTrek" exhibit, with tanks of live sea turtles and manatees and a domed theater featuring computer-generated 3-D images, will open next spring. Also launching next spring: a "Freshwater Oasis" at SeaWorld's adjacent swim-with-the-dolphins boutique park, Discovery Cove. That attraction will put visitors in a clear spring under a rainforest-type canopy of trees to wade and swim next to Asian otters and marmosets.
The move was seen as the biggest expansion in the history of the 40-year-old theme park.
By David Wilkening
David
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