The Slides Have It!
It is re-write time down in darkest Brit’sGuide-ville (2007 looms already, sadly), and we have been out and about on research up-dates throughout Orlando (and other parts of Central Florida). The research is the fun part; the not-so-fun part is having little more than three weeks to review and add to the 150,000-plus words that go into each edition.
But that’s not what I want to mention this time. No, the most eye-opening factor of our recent research was working out what most interests two 13-year-old boys in Orlando’s water parks (if you can count spending two days going up and down all the rides and slides ‘research’!).
Previously we have always felt that Disney’s two water parks had the edge over the competition (namely Wet ‘n Wild and Water Mania in Orlando and Adventure Island down at Tampa). Not any more. OK, Water Mania closed last year, to limit the Orlando opposition to just Wet ‘n Wild; good news for Disney, you would think. But it seems that we have overlooked what 13-year-olds most look for in a water park - slides, slides and more slides.
For, while Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon are mini-masterpieces of the design art of Imagineering, they come in only second for young teenage ambitions. While TL can boast Crush ‘n Gusher, Humunga Kowabunga and the largest Wave Pool in the known themeparkiverse, and BB has the wonders of Teamboat Springs, the Double Dipper and the sheer fear of Summit Plummet, all those paled into insignificance for our two ‘research assistants.’
Wet ‘n Wild may lack the theming (in all but the new Disco H2O), but the sheer volume of attractions there was the bigger hit. And, when they can boast 15 out-and-out rides, that kind of makes the 6 at TL and 7 at BB seem pretty poor by comparison.
That’s not to say our eager duo didn’t enjoy the Disney water parks; they LOVED the ‘largest Wave Pool in the known themeparkiverse’ and were thrilled by the Storm Slides. 
But nothing else in particular really grabbed them slide-wise, while, at Wet ‘n Wild they were still happy to zip from one slide to the next, right up until closing time (6pm). At TL, they were ready to call it quits at 2pm, having been in the park from 9.30.
I guess all this goes to show two things - 1) That guidebook writers don’t really know anywhere near as much as they think until they have put things to the test in a multitude of different ways. And 2) That spending millions of $$$s on all the clever theming probably isn’t really necessary to keep a typical teenager’s attention.
Of course, number 2) was a great theory until we went to Animal Kingdom. If anything is an exercise in elaborate theming it is the new Expedition Everest coaster. At a cost of around $100million, it is possibly the most expensive single ride in Disney history. So, would our teenage duo pooh-pooh all the theming and proclaim it too tame? Not for a moment. In fact, from a full week’s ‘researching’ in and around Orlando, it was voted the second-best attraction of them all.
Only the second-best, I hear you ask? Yes, we were pretty surprised, too. The No 1 attraction in the opinion of two 13-year-old boys, given a (fairly) full run at Orlando for a week, was…………..Sky Venture. However, at $40 a time for an hour’s ‘flight’ experience (and only two minutes in the main wind tunnel), I don’t think this will put too much of a dent in Disney’s attendance………….!
May 9th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Glad to hear there’s another Brit’s Guide on the way, Simon. Easily the best Orlando and Disney Paris guidebooks out there.
Don’t let anyone at Imagineering hear your second theory about what appeals to teenagers! (or if they do, make sure they read on to realise how a big a hit Everest was.)
As a man in his early thirties I found Wet n Wild to be just ok. Sure, some of the rides were pretty good (and wilder than most of Disney’s ones), but the lack of themeing and general upkeep of the place marked it out as somewhere I wasn’t in a hurry to return to. (Certainly not in favour of TL!) It was the only place in my whole Orlando trip where I felt it was geared too much to teens - my parents didn’t get a lot of WnW but the teens couldn’t get enough.
Maybe it’s that when we are young we believe in the magic of the parks because of the theming, then you crave thrills above anything else in your teens before finally appreciating the skill and effort that goes into some of Disney best attractions as you mature…
May 13th, 2006 at 4:11 am
Hi there PeaJay and thanks for your kind comments about the books. I don’t think Disney have anything to worry about from WnW, but it was certainly interesting to see things from a 13-year-old perspective.