Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Introduction:
In 1971 Orlando was put on the map as the theme park destination capital of the world with
the opening of Walt Disney World and Magic Kingdom Park - it was a place where families
could visit and dreams came true every day, and it was dozens of times bigger than its Ana-
heim counterpart. Much like Disney, in 1990, Universal thought it would get in on the thrill
game too by opening its own East-coast theme park, similar to that which it had opened in
1965 in Hollywood but on a bigger scale. Universal made the announcement it would be
bringing its own theme park to Orlando much to the delight of locals.
Disneysoonsawthat thisnewtheme parkcouldbegrandcompetition anddecided that ittoo
wouldbuild atheme parkbased aroundstudios -then dubbedDisney'sMGMStudios. Mira-
culously, Disney's MGM Studios managed to open its doors in 1989 just before the grand
opening of Universal Studios Florida one year later. MGM was a rushed project and when
Universal opened it blew the Disney's MGM Studios out of the water in terms of the quality
and standard of attractions.
In 1995, the expansion of Universal truly began as the company invested billions of dollars
to create a second theme park -
Islands of Adventure
, three on-site resort hotels and an en-
tertainment and dining district,
CityWalk
. It even expanded its original theme park with new
areas - the aim was to create a multi-day destination.
On May 28 1999,
Islands of Adventure
opened to rave reviews with innovative attractions
such as
The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman
and
The Incredible Hulk Coaster
winning
awards year after year, even to this day. (Side note: In our opinion
The Hulk
still is the best
coaster in all of Florida)
