The magic minds behind the Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s keystone attraction “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” have released a short clip of behind the scenes snippets from filming involved involved in creating the attraction. Watch it for yourself: This sneak peek has revealed… Read More »Harry Potter Sneak Peek reveals new details
Catching up with what you may have missed yesterday The LA Times questions Bob Iger’s focus on the franchise strategy. I think they may have something there. Progress City, USA returns to the story behind “project future”, what would eventually become Walt Disney World. There’s… Read More »Disney News – The Morning Report
The local Fox news station is reporting that Reedy Creek Fire was dispatched to a report of smoke on Spaceship Earth at EPCOT. All guests were evacuated without incident and repairs were even under way by the time the fire crew got there. The cause,… Read More »Smoke reported on Spaceship Earth at EPCOT
Universal Orlando has expanded the offerings on their preview website for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter land set to open its first stage this spring. It includes a new interactive map along with descriptions of all the rides and attractions. There’s also a first-person… Read More »Wizarding World of Harry Potter website expands
President Obama mentioned the high speed rail project that will run from Tampa to the Orlando International Airport in the State Of The Union tonight. The project will get about 50% of the funding it needs from the federal stimulus package, with the rest, it’s… Read More »Florida’s High Speed Rail to stop at Disney World
My Walt Disney World Annual Pass expires in February. Starting this August, I will be living minutes from WDW and will have plenty of free time on the weekends. So I decided to go annual pass comparison shopping this weekend and came up with these… Read More »Annual Pass Breakdown
A column in the Motley Fool insightfully points out that Walt Disney World has a problem. LEGOLAND Florida’s arrival will be a mixed blessing for Disney (NYSE: DIS). On the one hand, the new park should bring more tourists to central Florida. Travelers coming down… Read More »Does Disney World have a LEGOland problem?
Merlin Entertainment Group, a division of Blackstone Group (owner of SeaWorld and co-owner of Universal Orlando), was just uncovered by Screamscape as the purchases of Cypress Gardens. Merlin Entertainment owns the Legoland theme park brand and it has been rumored to be considering the Winter Haven historical park for some time, even before it closed last year.
I really hope that this works out. The park’s location has a lot of problems. But Legoland has made stand alone theme parks work before and Cypress Gardens does have a lot going for it that makes it a good prospect for a Legoland.
Read more about the deal at the Orlando Sentinel and the Motley Fool.
Below the jump I’ve placed a few ideas on what sort of change I think the property needs to work going forward, no matter what is built there.
Read More »Merlin buys Cypress Gardens. Can Legoland be far behind?