Word: disneyisms
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...happy-ending salvation in a giant spiderweb, this out-of-body, out-of-mind experience reduces cynical theme parkers to burbling kids. "Gee," they say as they stagger out, "that was the best ride--ever!" And the Universal bosses raise their fists in an unspoken "Gotcha, Disney...
...children at a northern airport where they're heading, and they don't say Orlando; they say, with an almost desperate glow, "Disney." Walt and his successors turned Central Florida swampland into the country's top resort destination and, for decades, have virtually monopolized it. Now Edgar Bronfman's besieged company has spent five years and $2.5 billion (on top of a previous billion or so for its Universal Studios Florida, or U.S.F., park, which opened in 1990) to get Orlando-bound kids to think "Universal." Though visitors have been filtering in since March, this week marks the official opening...
...dough to invest in rides and restaurants. For that money, you could finance 12 whole Titanics or 14 Waterworlds. What it gets Universal, in addition to I.O.A. and City Walk, is three lavish hotels, the first of which, Portofino Bay, opens in September. The plan is to challenge Walt Disney World as a full-service resort--a place where people can spend all their time and money...
...Disney wants to hook the whole family with its homey, homogenized grandeur; U.S.F. and I.O.A. are aimed at the 9- to 15-year-olds, too hip for the Magic Kingdom but still young enough to tolerate a week's vacation with their parents. As consumers, these kids are warier. So the coasters are scarier, the flume rides hairier. Even I.O.A.'s Cat in the Hat ride, tailored for kids, may upset some young stomachs with its gyrations. Disney soothes, like a kindly grandma taking the toddlers for an afternoon stroll. Universal rattles and rocks; it is Bart Simpson baby-sitting...
...Disney they say, "The park is the ride"; it's a gestalt experience, artfully designed. At Universal they say, "It's the rides, stupid," and U.S.F. has some attractions, like the spectacular Terminator 2 3-D show, that almost make visitors forget the drabness of the decor--the rows of gray, blocky buildings, meant to evoke movie soundstages, which have given the place the look of a Stalinist workers' paradise...