Word: riding
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...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 Maggie...
...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...
...Marvel superhero pals inhabit a comic-book-bright boulevard. Toon Lagoon is haunted by old favorites from the rotogravure, like Beetle Bailey and Dagwood. Jurassic Park's primeval foliage conceals a labyrinthine playground, a Discovery Center where you can see a raptor egg hatch, a Pteranodon Flyers ride that lets you soar above the park and a mechanical triceratops that pees and farts on cue. The beast, nicknamed Cera, allows a child to pet her--"unless the kid is wearing a Disney T shirt," jokes Mark Woodbury, who oversees the park's design. "Then she rips it to shreds...
...hear that kind of bantering trash talk from the Universal and Disney camps. A Walt Disney World executive, alluding to the high-speed roller coasters at the center of I.O.A.'s promotion, calls them "theme rides without the theme." True enough for some rides. The Incredible Hulk Coaster is similar to slinky steel screamers in nearby Busch Gardens, though it has some jet-propulsive refinements. Another thrill ride, Dr. Doom's Fear Fall, is supposed to extract "raw human fear" from the brains of its strapped-in victims, but it's just a fresh version of the Big Shot...
...compete with local water parks like Wet 'n Wild and Disney's Typhoon Lagoon, the Universal designers built a virtual water park into I.O.A.; half the rides take you to the edge of wetness and over. The Jurassic Park River Adventure plummets your boat past a snarly T rex and down a steep sluice to land with a cascading plop 80 ft. below. Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges take visitors on a whirling whitewater ride where you will get soaked. (The ride guides will tell you it's practically illegal to remove your footwear. Do it anyway and save...