WFTV is reporting that there are discussions about building a new “thrill park” behind the Festival Bay mall on International Drive. It would not be a theme park, persay, as there will be very little theming to the park and will instead be focused strictly on thrill rides. Whereas the bigger parks focus heavily on theming that only have a few thrill rides, and the smaller regional parks in the area focus more on carnival style rides, the proposed park would fill a different niche not currently seen in Orlando that would appeal more to coaster enthusiast than to families with young children seeking memorable experiences.
The 70 acre park would also be a shot in the arm to the Festival Bay shopping center that has struggled to gain tenants sinced it opened several years ago. Festival Bay already has several activities including a Vans Skateboarding Park, a Monkey Joe’s children’s bounce area, Bungee jump, glow-in-the-dark miniature golf, and one of the nicer movie theaters in the area. The mall was to have had a Ron Jon’s Surf Park, but those plans eventually fell through.
Click Here to read the wftv story and watch the video.
Click Here to read the full coverage of the new park from the Orlando Business Journal, including images of the park layout, attractions planned, and entrance signage (in pdf document).
A video below shows what a thrill park might look like (there is no relation to the video and the proposal):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TeJxkefBRw
View Orlando Thrill Park in a larger map