Disney‘s four billion dollar purchase of Marvel Entertainment has made the headlines. Because of this purchase Disney owns many of the iconic characters featured at Universal Orlando including Spider Man, the X Men and the Incredible Hulk, There’s just one catch Universal Orlando through an agreement with Marvel has exclusive rights to use these characters in its Orlando theme parks and all of the east coast. Should Universal Orlando lose licensing rights with Marvel it would be a disaster for Universal Orlando as they have invested heavily into Marvel Super Island at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park. Prior to the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Disney and Universal agreed upon a two year confidentiality agreement which allegedly will keep Universal Orlando trade secrets, royalties paid and other Universal operational issues secret from Disney’s Theme Parks Division. Disney also inherits numerous other royalty agreements with other companies from the Marvel Entertainment purchase.
The Disney Company will be privy to Universals books to confirm royalty agreement payments are accurate. Disney also gets a say in advertisements, merchandise and however Universal Orlando utilizes Marvel’s characters. I’d be nervous if I were Universal. Disney is free to use Marvel characters at its California and Paris France theme parks. Both companies operate parks in Japan where Universal also has the licensing rights.
One thing for sure it will be interesting when Disney’s movie and television arm gains access to all the Marvel Entertainment intellectual rights and starts producing entertainment projects with them. Will Universal Orlando and Disney team up in the future cross marketing Spider Man, X Men and the Incredible Hulk? Typically it would be a no brainer for both companies but because of their heated battle for Orlando tourism market share I wouldn’t count on it.
I have been working on this blog for about three months now and in that time I have to say I have made numerous correct predictions about breaking Orlando tourism news. I predicted that Legoland would keep the botanical gardens, water ski show and the water park. I was surprised when Merlin announced it would create a second gate with the water park. A water park as a second gate so far from the main Orlando tourism corridor is not a slam dunk in my oppinion. A big problem for Merlin to overcome is the proximity of hotel rooms to their new parks. With todays capital markets it will be years before a significant number of quality lodging options are within a closer proximity to the new Legoland in Polk County.South Orlando/Kissimmee offers some of the best lodging options if Legoland is in your plans. It’s still a good thirty to fourty five minute drive from South Orlando/Kissimmee depending on where you’re staying in the region. Vacation home and condominium rentals in the Four Corners area would be the ideal location to stay to be within thirty minutes of all the major Central Florida theme parks.
I started my career in the lodging industry at the ripe age of twelve in St. Cloud Florida in my families motel, restaurant and lounge. Together me and my father Paul Kucik built a collection of five hotels and six restaurants. By the time I was twenty five I was C.E.O. and then times started to change as Disney started to build so many new hotel and motel rooms. My father died in 1997 during the changing market. Luckily I have an independent streak and against all odds of success, I wanted to do something different, I opened Capone’s Dinner & Show on my own in 1992 against the advice of the man I respected most in the world my father. After my mothers death in 2000 the executors of the estate including me and two of my siblings decided to sell the family business.
Since I have been in this market for as long as I have I know an awful lot about the area. I have enjoyed starting this blog and look forward to the future of it. I will continue to strive to bring you Orlando’s latest tourism news, spotlight different Orlando attractions, give you my take on the news and by doing so provide a unique look at Orlando. I hope you come back again and again. My Dinner Show’s web site offers loads of great vacation planning tools visit www.alcapones.com to plan your next Orlando trip.
Wow Orlando is going to be geting so many new reasons to visit in the next two years. First up is The Wizarding World of Harry Poter set to open soon although Universal has not announced an official opening date. They have said spring 2010 as the only opening information for now. I drive by it on I-4 frequently and the towers are quite a site from I-4 really cool looking. Universal is in the hiring and training stage at the moment. The theme park within a theme park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be inside Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando and I’m pretty sure construction is done. That’s why I think it will be open prior to spring break, I can promise you Universal wants it open for the lucrative spring break period.
Next on the schedule is Co Co Key Water Resort and hotel scheduled for March 25th, 2010. This is not your ordinary hotel it’s also a half day water attraction. Their target market is kids 4-11 and they will offer much more than the water park for kids and parents. Day passes are just twelve dollars so it’s an inexpensive alternative to the Orlando areas other half day attractions.
I believe Disney will be the next attraction operator to make a new splash in the Orlando area with it’s next generation technology and it’s rebirth of Fantasy Land at the Magic Kingdom. Disney has some major new competition hitting the market and since their theme parks are what started Orlando tourism so they are vulnerable because they have some of the oldest theme parks in Orlando. But don’t count Disney out with the remake of Fantasy Land on the agenda it will entice families back to the Magic Kingdom and the new technology they will be debuting will have a dramatic impact on all their theme parks I believe. Disney has been very hush hush about the new technology and are spending enough on it to add a new theme park so my belief is that it will be cutting edge. It better be for Epcot Center and Disney Studios with all the new options coming my belief is these are the most vulnerable of Disney’s Orlando Resort.
Finnaly Legoland’s acquisition of Cypress Gardens is scheduled to open in 2011 and be converted to a Legoland theme park, which brings the worlds second largest attraction operator to Orlando. It will have fourty to fifty main attractions, the water ski show, botanical gardens and the plan is to keep one of the wooden roller coasters because there are so few of them left. All this and the Lego experience too, I mean how many kids love their legos? Kids will be able to build bigger than they could ever build at home.
So with all the new options coming to Orlando I suggest booking your Orlando vacation soon as possible. You can get incredible deals on hotels as average rates have been tumbling for two years now. What goes down will come back up and with all that’s hiting Orlando, room rates will soon begin to rise. I hope while in Orlando you will consider visiting my one of a kind dinner show/theatre Capone’s Dinner & Show visit us at www.alcapones.com to discover our blast from the past!
Legoland has purchased one of Florida’s original attractions Cypress Gardens and some tourism analysts think it won’t work in the Orlando metropolitan area. To those who don’t believe here’s some of what Merlin, the parent company of Legoland, have to say about it’s choice of location. Merlin has a successful track record of taking historic gardens and making them a hit currently they have in their portfolio three garden attractions two in Great Britain and one in Italy. Besides the gardens forty to fifty main attractions are planned plus the Lego themed attractions for Orlando’s Legoland.
Other information disclosed is Merlin’s plan to keep Splash Water Park open as a separate ticket from Legoland. In the park they plan on keeping at least one of the wooden roller coasters. At this point they also plan to continue another Cypress Gardens tradition it’s water ski show.
Because of it’s out of the way location (about forty minutes to Disney) tourism insiders have openly wondered why Merlin chose the Cypress Gardens park to open it’s second Legoland in the United States. The answers started with the historic gardens plus the cost of developing a completely new park as opposed to renovating an existing park. Because so much of the infrastructure is in place the time frame to open the park shaves many years off the opening date.
So you decide do you think Legoland Orlando will be a hit or a miss?
Disney Next Generation Technology nicknamed Next Gen by Disney fans in the blogosphere has been the rage lately with wild rumors that may not be true. I do not have the time to read other blogs and I try to make sure what I write isn’t just rumors but rather information you can count on, I try to be as accurate as possible. Yesterday the Orlando Sentinel took it beyond just rumors. An outstanding article in the Orlando Sentinel gave us small peeks into what’s pretty much is known for sure. A part of the strategy will save Disney money by having resort guests room lock card be there ticket for everything they bought from Disney. It’s also very enviormentaly friendly. They better have some GREAT new entertainment tricks up their sleeve too with the longterm chalenge to it’s Orlando dominant market share.
Disney is threatened because the Blackstone Group now has or is in the midst of acquiring controling or equal interest in Sea World, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure Wet & Wild, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, City Walk and now the new player in the game LegoLand announced it’s purchase of Cypress Garden’s. Let’s not forget about that all new theme park within a theme park the Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be opening this spring at Islands of Adventure.
So it seems there will be clash of the titans for Orlando tourism market share. Blackstone has positioned it’s self well to compete with Disney. The cheapest tickets per day you can buy are the multi park tickets originated by Disney. So what do you do hit the same Disney Parks or buy a Blackstone multi day ticket? I guess you can pay exhorbitant one park options or hopefully Disney will be forced to offer better deals on tickets for less days.
Disney’s large number of hotel and value priced lodging units it has at it’s Walt Disney’s Orlando Resort will be forced into offering lodging deals for a very long time because they have invested so much product into hotels and motels.
One things for sure the future it is bright for Orlando tourism I hope you will consider spending an evening with us at Capone’s Dinner & Show visit www.alcapones.com to discover more.
The Orlando area will soon have a new attraction located at the former Cypress Gardens theme park. What really makes this interesting is the Blackstone Group has a hand in the purchase. Blackstone has been making moves in Orlando that will eventually give it control of numerous Orlando area attractions including Universal Orlando, Sea Worlds parks, four water parks and now another entry into the Orlando theme park market. I think Disney is going to have a real challenge for Orlando theme park dollars.
Rumors have been circulating that Merlin (worlds second largest amusement operator) has been wanting to enter the Orlando market for some time now. There is only one other Legoland in the United States and it’s in Calfornia so geographicaly Orlando is a good fit to open another Legoland in the United States with it’s high concentrarion of tourism.
The possibilities of this planned theme park acquisition are to be disclosed this coming Thursday at a news conference. There are numerous ways the company can make this location work better than it has ever before. With their numerous other entertainment options my guess is they will combine the Legoland theme park with other properties it owns perhaps combining it with a Madame Tusasauds Wax Museums. They also bought the Splash Island Water Park and botanical gardens as part of the acquisition. It will be interesting to see how they utilize the current infrastructure of Cypress Gardens, Splash Island, the botanical gardens and will they keep the water ski shows. We shall soon find out but one thing is for sure it will be good for Orlando tourism.
Hopefully you will have the time whenever in Orlando to visit Capone’s Dinner & Show visit www.alcapones.com
Orlando is second only to Las Vegas in number of rooms in their respective markets. Unfortunatly during this terribly tough economy bigger is definitly not better. Both markets have seen a double whamy of decreased occupancy and average rate. Orlando and Vegas also have added many luxury hotel rooms in the last year so everyone is a bit hungry right now in the tourism industry.
Rates are much lower now then they were in 2006, thus we are in the worst tourism market since the attacks of September 11th, 2001. The recent bombing attempt on a Northwest/Delta flight on a flight originating from Amsterdam is probably not going to be helpful. The good thing is the attack was sophisticatly planed, the attacker traveled through multiple airports before he attempted to attack America yet he still thankfully failed. It’s a good thing, that they went to extreme measures not to board a flight in the United States, Don’t let the Terrorists win continue to travel, America’s domestic airline network is much safer then prior to September the 11th attacks..
There are many good reasons to plan a trip to Orlando or Las Vegas during these difficult times because you will be able to save a fortune on a trip to either Orlando or Las Vegas. Get a 5 star hotel for the price of a 2 or 3 star hotel or motel. The average three star hotel/motel now has to discount enough to make it worth while to not stay at a five star resort. Oh and the worst hit is the budget/economy motels you can get those for $20.00 or even less.
When Inbev purchased Anheuseur-Busch it was well known that eventually it would sell the theme park division. It has been announced that Blackstone would be the purchaser and the sale is now complete. No time was waisted in changing the corporate name for the formerly branded Busch Entertainment Corp it is now Sea World Parks and Entertainment. Blackstone also owns 51% of Universal Studios Theme Parks. A real competitor to Disney’s top spot in the business of theme parks because Busch was already the second largest theme park operator behind only Disney.
Particularly in Orlando you are now talking about one operator for Universal Studios, Sea World, Islands of Adventure, Wet-n-Wild, Aquatica, Discovery Cove and Busch Gardens in Tampa (a deal is in place for long term licensing of the Busch name for the Busch Gardens theme parks) that can now all be packaged together in ticket deals.
In my opinion this is great news for Orlando Tourism providing more options and the financial stability of the huge private equity company Blackstone. This sale should strengthen Orlando’s position as the worlds number one theme park destination.
Seperatly General Electric and Comcast announced the sale of General Electric’s NBC/Universal assets to Comcast. It should make for an interesting situation. My prediction is that Blackstone will end up buying the remaining 49% of Universal Theme parks from Comcast and Comcast will retain the NBC broadcast network and the working studios part of Universal. Just a hunch because Comcast is very familiar with broadcasting and not so much with theme parks.
