Sea World continues to make changes to protect trainers from killer whales after the death of a trainer in Sea World’s popular Believe! The show that features these beautiful animals and trainers in an awesome display of pageantry struggles to make changes acceptable to OSHA after record fines and scrutiny. Sea World has added new shields on the ledges trainer’s use around the giant pool to protect the trainers working with the whales. Sea World is also now equipping its trainers with portable oxygen. The critics, including many former trainers, say that Sea World is not taking the situation seriously enough and OSHA has not yet allowed Sea World trainers back in the pool with the Killer Whales. Sea World’s Believe show may never be able to return to its former glorious interaction between the Killer Whales and their trainers.
Over at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter changes are being made to accommodate people that are too large for the current seats at the most popular ride Harry Potters Forbidden Journey. Universal Orlando has caved to public pressure which had originally taken a tougher line on large people noting that Dwight Howard fit on the attraction just fine. They are in the process of changing the last row of each train from three seats to just two, so even the most obese will be able to ride on Harry Potters Forbidden Journey. More changes are in the pipeline to increase the number of riders that the ride can handle because of the enormous number of complaints this summer about the line to this most popular of Universal Orlando’s attractions.
Legoland is progressing rapidly with renovations to meet its planned 2011 opening of the former Cypress Gardens Theme park. Rumors have it that Legoland is planning hotels and other attractions to make it a destination unto itself. Because it is located so far from all of the theme parks Central Florida has to offer, there is concern that, like Cypress gardens before, it would not be able to attract enough day trippers from the Orlando area to support its theme park and water park. Look for new hotels and secondary attractions to create a one-stop vacation.
Over at Walt Disney World the revamp of Fantasy Land Imaginers are making changes on the fly to not only focus on the many princesses in its portfolio. Rumor again has it that Disney will combine Fantasy Land with a new Toon Town section as part of Fantasy Land utilizing some of the characters from its recently acquired Marvel entertainment.
