2011 Florida Highlights

One of the great things about Florida as a holiday destination is that things are always changing. Attractions come and go but there is always something new happening.

Preliminary statistics show that visitor numbers are up on 2010, as Florida slowly picks itself back up following the economic downtown.

New rides and attractions

2011 has been a great year for the theme parks with many new attractions and rides opening and many more in the pipeline.

One of the big highs for 2011 was the re-opening of the former Cypress Gardens under its new guise as Legoland Florida. Following years of uncertainty and neglect, one of Florida’s earliest theme parks now has a new lease of life under the Lego brand. Lego is already planning to re-open the adjoining water park and build at least one resort hotel over the next couple of years.

Disney Cruise Lines introduced their newest cruise liner, the Disney Dream and her sister ship, the Disney Fantasy will sail in 2012. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a new 3D version of Star Tours: The Adventures Continue opened featuring an “older” Starspeeder 1000. The major redevelopment of Fantasyland in Disney’s Magic Kingdom continues apace and in February Mickey’s Toontown Fair closed to make room for the new attractions.

2011 has been the year of the zip line. Several new zip lines opened including Zip Orlando close to the Green Meadows Petting Farm in Kissimmee, Old Town also in Kissimmee, Gatorland and Fantasy of Flight.

Over at Busch Gardens the new Cheetah Run roller coaster and associated themed areas opened for the Memorial weekend.

SeaWorld relaunched their killer whale show under the name “One Ocean” but following the tragic death of the trainer Dawn Brancheau, there is no longer any in-water interaction with the whales. Across at Discovery Cove they opened their new Grand Reef.

Following the amazing success of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal have continued their development plans. The Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast attraction was closed in preparation for Despicable Me and now Jaws is also to close to be replaced by an as yet unknown attraction.

Gaylord Resorts have brought DreamWorks Animation to Orlando in the form of Shrek and Madagascar and their annual ICE Christmas attraction was Shrek themed for 2011.

Fun Spot USA in Orlando has also improved their two parks during 2011 with a couple of new rides opening and more planned for the future.

NASA missions

On the down side, NASA launched the very last space shuttle mission to the International Space Station but on a positive note, work has already started on a new shuttle exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center and SpaceX are gearing up to launch commercial rockets to the International Space Station from the Cape during 2012.

Hurricanes and the Florida weather

Like last year, 2011 has again been a very busy hurricane season, well above average, tying for the third most active season on record. In total there were 18 named storms of which luckily only 7 became hurricanes and of those, 3 became major hurricanes.

Over the past century, in an average year there are around 11 storms of which 6 become hurricanes and 2 turn into major hurricanes. This makes 2011 average with regard to actual hurricanes but well above average in terms of the total number of storms.

Lows

Of course it is not all good news and city planners rejected an application to build the Orlando Thrill Park on International Drive and Disney have stalled plans to convert the closed Pleasure Island complex into their new Hyperion Wharf entertainment district.

Despite the amazing success of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal has been forced to “unsync” their Dragons Challenge roller coasters following a couple of incidents in which riders were hurt.

One of the biggest impacts of 2011 has been the dramatic increase in fuel prices. Last January we were reporting that fuel had topped $3 a gallon and it reached a record high of nearly $4 during 2011 though it has since fallen back to $3.31.

Inevitably all the theme parks raised their ticket prices, particularly the one day tickets and are pushing offers on the multi-day deals.

To read about Florida highlights for previous years, just follow the links to 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 or 2006.