Disney’s main players get animated at WTM

Theme parks by Alan Moore

Disney’s main players get animated at WTM

Attractions to publicise new additions

The new thrill-ride attractions will take centre stage at this year’s World Travel Market, alongside themed hotels, night clubs and restaurants, as well as designer shopping, sports events and outdoor adventure pursuits – all to be found within many of the theme parks.

The main players, including Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens and SeaWorld, will be represented at WTM in areas from Florida to California, to the midwest and the Eastern Seaboard.

Other attractions on show are the Kennedy Space Centre, Knott’s Berry Farm in Anaheim, California, the new Jazzland theme park near New Orleans and Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia. Travel Weekly looks at some of the latest key developments on show at WTM.

SeaWorld

The biggest development on show from SeaWorld is its Discovery Cove marine life adventure park, which opened in the summer, adjacent to SeaWorld Florida in Orlando.

It is the largest investment from the company and is part of a recent multi-million-dollar expansion across the four SeaWorld locations. Others are sited in San Antonio, Texas; San Diego, California; and Cleveland, Ohio – the latest SeaWorld to open.

Discovery Cove will get special attention at World Travel Market as it breaks from the general mould of the theme park concept. Limited to around 1,000 people a day, visitors get the rare chance to swim with dolphins and explore other features such as a reef teeming with many species of exotic, colourful fish, as well as a beach to relax on.

SeaWorld: dolphin friendly

Disneyland

All eyes will be on the latest attractions from the main US theme park operators.

Receiving special focus will be the new Disney theme park opening in California next year.

Walt Disney World Attractions has shipped some of its most innovative ideas from its Orlando theme park to the west coast to breathe new life into the 45-year-old Disney-land theme park in southern California.

The result sees the opening on February 8 of Disney’s California Adventure – a 55-acre theme park costing $1.4 billion that will extend and revitalise the Anaheim complex.

Making its debut a month earlier, on January 12, is the resort’s Downtown Disney retail, dining and entertainment centre – similar to the one that has proved so successful at Walt Disney World in Florida.

The latest Downtown version will be the central feature of Disneyland and it willconnect both the new California Adventure park and the original Disneyland complex.

Three themed lands make up Disney’s California Adventure. They include Paradise Pier, a California boardwalk amusement zone featuring beachfront attractions; Hollywood Pictures Backlot, a behind-the-scenes look at the movie business; and six districts depicting various parts of the Golden State.

Magical: theme parks offer a host of activities for all the family

Walt Disney World

Recent additions at Orlando’s most popular theme park include a Test Track speed ride at Epcot, an Asia section in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and a Rock ‘n’ Roller-coaster at Disney MGM Studios.

Tarzan Rocks is a new 30-minute production described as a theatrical thrill show featuring singers and dancers based on the Tarzan movie.

The resort’s Millennium Extravaganza Celebrations are extended until January 1 and include a nightly firework display and Tapestry of Nations theatrical festival, both operated around Epcot’s World Showcase Lagoon.

Two new resorts will open at Disney next year – the Animal Kingdom lodge and Disney’s value priced resort Pop century.

Fun house:new attractions set to open

Busch Gardens

A one-hour drive from Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has extended its African savanna-themed wildlife area, called Serengeti Plain. A new section features landscapes, native and African vegetation and rock formations through which visitors can take a monorail safari.

More excitement comes in the form of a Land Rover Rhino Rally being added next spring, which features a vehicle crashing into a river for a hair-raising water ride. Back on land, the park’s latest white-knuckle ride is the double wooden roller-coaster called the Gwazi, which races through 7,000ft of track and completes six ‘fly-by’ manoeuvres where two trains pass within feet of each other at a speed of 100mph.

Universal Orlando Resort

Universal Orlando Resort is the new umbrella name for the original Universal Studios Florida, the new Islands of Adventure theme park and the 30-acre entertainment and dining complex, CityWalk.

A major new ride at the Studios is called Men in Black Alien Attack, described as the first truly interactive theme- park ride where participants compete against each other as they try to zap more than 120 animatronic aliens.

Two rides now in operation at Islands of Adventure are The Flying Unicorn, a gentle aerial ride on The Lost Continent, and Storm Force on Marvel Super Hero Island. The latter attraction is an indoor spinning ride for those who can’t face the G-force of the park’s Incredible Hulk Coaster.

Sister California park, Universal Studios Hollywood, has doubled the size of its CityWalk area of nightclubs, restaurants, and movie theatres and shops, and now includes an IMAX 3D theatre.