Florida’s oldest tourist attraction is about to become its newest. Merlin Entertainment will be building a new Legoland theme park at Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, FL. Winter Haven is about a 45 minute drive from the Orlando attractions area, assuming light traffic. But that… Read More »Legoland Official, Memo Leaks Out
Merchants and business owners along Highway 192 in Osceola County have finally decided to get their act together. Prior to the latest economic meltdown, I wrote about signs of life in Central Florida’s most neglected tourist region. As you might guess, those improvements have been given back and the trend points even more down hill these days.
However the newly formed 192 Business Alliance has a plan to turn that around. The region will adopt a theme of…
“Orange Central” by painting the curbs or sidewalks orange. The theme would continue with a new public-transportation option consisting of two orange-colored shuttle buses. A new Web site would promote the area, and businesses would support the initiative with things like orange mints in their lobbies.
The 192 Business Alliance, the newly formed nonprofit group that drew up the plan, said something must be done, and quickly, to revive the sagging tourist strip west of Kissimmee. “We could have shuttle service here by spring break,” Brisson said. “We need something easy. We need something fast.”
It’s a good start, perhaps mints in the lobby is all that can be afforded in these times, but there are a few cracks in the plan.
Included in the strategy is a plan to build a sports complex focused on drawing amateur competition to the area. I’m a little skeptical of this idea. Have they not heard of ESPN’s Wide World of Sports? Disney is bound to take the lion share of the amateur sports business. That is ESPN WWOS’ whole focus and they can offer the ESPN brand and Disney magic, something Kissimmee can never match.
Perhaps the 192 Business Alliance is thinking that they would attract sports teams who would travel to central Florida and not compete on Disney property, but still package a vacation with their tournament by offering them a cheaper price for the same quality facilities, just without the ESPN experience. That could work, but I don’t see it as being a big driver, if it was, existing regional amateur sports facilities would be full already. Maybe they have a study that says differently.
Moving in on sports instead of convention business is an interesting angle, however think they need to be more ambitious. The name “Orange Central” is neither catchy, nor descriptive. Nobody is going to say, “let’s go down to Orange Central and see what’s going on.” But they’re on the right track, 192 does need better branding.
Follow me below the jump for a few more suggestions for the 192 Business Alliance and the Osceola County government to get moving on.
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?
Tables in Wonderland, formerly the Disney Dining Experience, is a program available to Florida residents and annual passholders that gives a 20% discount on dining locations around the resort. We used to belong, but quit because our favorite location was no longer included. Looks like they’ve just added that location back along with a number of others.
New as of January 2010!
Epcot®: Tokyo Dining Location Only (Not Teppan Edo)
Disney’s BoardWalk Resort: Kouzzina by Cat Cora (formerly Spoodles)
Disney’s Wide World of Sports: ESPN® Sports Cafe
DOWNTOWN DISNEY® Marketplace: Fulton’s Crab House
DOWNTOWN DISNEY® Pleasure Island: Portobello
DOWNTOWN DISNEY® West Side: House of Blues®, Wolfgang Puck® Cafe
Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort: Il Mulino New York Trattoria, Kimonos, Shula’s Steak House, Todd English’s bluezoo
If you plan on dining out at WDW sit down restaurants (keep in mind that DAK has three counter service locations on the plan, plus a buffet) and spending more than $550 over the course of the year on food and drinks at those locations, then the Tables in Wonderland card makes sense for you. For some locations (Jiko, California Grill) that’s just a couple of meals if you include a wine flight.
Tables in Wonderland List of ALL participating locations below the jump:
WFTV is reporting on a Walt Disney World resort bus that crashed near the gates to the Magic Kingdom last night. Injuries were reported, but no word on their severity. Video shows that the accident was nothing serious. This is yet another accident in a… Read More »Bus Crash at Magic Kingdom with reported injuries
Just watched the DVD of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” and the special preview of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The movie was great, the preview was a bit disappointing. Let’s just say that if you’ve been paying attention at all, you… Read More »Wizarding World of Harry Potter Update
Downtown Disney Orlando recently added a tethered balloon experience, Characters In Flight. It takes guests 400 ft into the air for a glorious panoramic view of the Lake Buena Vista area. When it opened the attraction was notorious for closing down for safety with even… Read More »Characters in Flight – an E-Ticket Ride
The Hollywood Reporter believes that Michael Jackson will return from the dead to visit Disneyland. Well the Captain EO attraction starring the gloved one will, at least. A few months ago Disneyland actually did set up the theater to show the Captain EO film with… Read More »Captain EO Returning to Disneyland