Theme Park Rangers Radar looks up to the sky and down into its grammar handbook this week with an exploration of Walt Disney World attraction names thanks to Epcot’s Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana and a natural phenomenon, which means party time at Orlando Science Center.
Radar is a weekly roundup of things to see, do and punctuate at Central Florida’s theme parks and attractions. It is published weekly at OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.
Pause for punctuation
Attraction names have featured all manner of punctuation. We went through a colon phase (Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge) and a pinch of dashes (Pandora – the World of Avatar). And let’s not get started on exclamation points (!).
Now, coming to Epcot, the comma, as in Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, which officially opens Oct. 16.
I could only find one other comma-infested name in Walt Disney World history: “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!,” a 4-D film attraction at Epcot. (Update: I overlooked Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor at Magic Kingdom. Pesky commas!)
Back in the day, names were less complicated. Jungle Cruise, Mission to Mars, Haunted Mansion, Swiss Family Treehouse, Tom Sawyer Island are early, pretty straightforward Magic Kingdom attractions. But there also was “it’s a small world,” with its quotation marks and teacher-taunting lower-case styling. There was no Flight, Inspired by Peter Pan.
Things started getting more exciting in the ‘80s with Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! at Disney-MGM Studios. We still have Donald’s Dino-Bash! and It’s Tough to be a Bug! at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, as well as Toy Story Mania! and Fantasmic! at Hollywood Studios.
Some former WDW attractions wear the exclamation point well: Tarzan Rocks! (an Animal Kingdom show), Stitch’s Great Escape! (Magic Kingdom) plus Who Wants to be a Millionaire? – Play It!, Sounds Dangerous! and Lights, Motors, Action!: Extreme Stunt Show at Hollywood Studios. Danger merits exclamation.
And there was the overachieving and demanding Magic Kingdom parade/street party: Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It!
Among the current colon crowd: Finding Nemo: The Big Blue … and Beyond! (Animal Kingdom); Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Mission: Space (Epcot); For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Hollywood Studios).
And there are strays, like the slash in Tron: Lightcycle / Run and the tilde in A Pirate’s Adventure ~ Treasures of the Seven Seas (Magic Kingdom) and the stylized asterisk in Muppet*Vision 3D at Hollywood Studios.
Some attractions have had signs with subheadings to explain, but Disney didn’t bother to give it the long official bulky title. Otherwise we might have seen Maelstrom: A High Seas Norwegian Adventure!
Orlando’s other parks are less excitable with their nomenclature.
Universal Studios has “iVamos! – Bailalo,” a street show, plus Animal Actors On Location! You might expect Universal to use exclamation points – or even commas — with Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, but it doesn’t.
Islands of Adventure doubles-up with Oh! The Stories You’ll Hear! and its Seuss Landing neighbor The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride! IOA also features the rare comma-tose attraction: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
And SeaWorld Orlando this year introduced a colon contender with Pipeline: The Surf Coaster. The park’s single exclamation point attraction is in Sesame Street Land: Cookie Drop!
That does sound like an emergency.
Sun salutations
Don’t look now, but Orlando Science Center is throwing a solar eclipse viewing party on Oct. 14.
Actually, don’t look directly at the sun that day, the museum warns. (It’s a retina damage thing.) It will be making eye protection available for the occasion as well as special programming.
The science center is anticipating a lot of ticket demand for that day and is only selling advance tickets. They will not be sold on-site.
The eclipse will travel between Oregon and Texas, so about a 60% eclipse will be observed in Orlando. Here the eclipse will start at 11:52 a.m., be at its peak at 1:26 p.m. and conclude at 3:02 p.m.
Visitors that day will have access to all science center exhibits, including the traveling exhibition “Backyard Adventures,” which opens Oct. 1.
For tickets and more information, go to OSC.org.
Three two-sentence updates
Disney World says Imagineers are refreshing the Fab 50 statues in all four theme parks and they are staying in place. They were installed as part of the 50th anniversary celebration that wrapped up early this year … Island H2O Water Park in Kissimmee is throwing an adults-only Monster Mash party on Oct. 13. There will be glow foam, a DJ with Halloween classic songs and some costume restrictions. … Orlando-based International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions reports that the indoor exhibit space for the upcoming IAAPA Expo is sold out for the first time since 2019, the last year before the pandemic era. There will be more than 1,100 exhibitors at the event, which runs at Orange County Convention Center Nov. 13-17.
Weekend outlook
• Epcot International Food & Wine Festival continues with four new marketplaces tied to the Disney100 celebration opening Friday. Eat to the Beat concert lineup includes Los Amigos Invisibles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, followed by 98 Degrees on Monday and Tuesday.
• On the milder side of Halloween, SeaWorld’s Spooktacular (trick-or-treating during the day) is set for Saturday and Sunday. At Magic Kingdom, Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, an after-hours event, is sold out for Friday, Sunday and Tuesday. Next available date: Oct. 3. Legoland Florida’s Brick-or-Treat is included with Saturday’s park festivities.
• SeaWorld’s Howl-O-Scream, an after-hours fright fest, is underway Friday and Saturday. (The park is running a “slash sale” with $44.99 tickets available through Sunday, as is Busch Gardens Tampa Bay for its Howl. )
• Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, an extra-ticket event, is in nightly mode through Sunday. (Attention, Rush of Fear passholders: Saturday is the last valid day with your ticket.)
• Orange County Regional History Center hosts a Celebration of Latin American Arts & Culture on Saturday with music and dance performances at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and art displays through 3 p.m. UCF professor Fernando I. Rivera will speak on “Beyond Rice: The Cultural, Social and Economic Practices of Latin American Food” at 2 p.m. Admission to the museum is free on Saturday.
What’s on your radar? Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com.
