Not to talk smack to my Orlando-area and East Coast friends.... Nope. Wait a minute. I'm totally talking smack to my Orlando and East Coasts friends. It's February. What else is there for theme park fans to do? :-)
The Orlando Sentinel reports the inevitable Chapter 11 filing by the owner of Orlando's Church Steert Station. Back in the days before Downtown Disney and CityWalk, Church Street Station was the "grown-up" place to go in Orlando. But Downtown Disney brought the nightclub district concpet to the tourist resorts and not enough locals were left to support the Church Street Complex, located far north of the tourist zone, in downtown Orlando.
The complex nearly died earlier this decade, but was bought out by Backstreet Boys/'N Sync creator Lou Pearlman, who promised a resurgance.
Too bad that Pearlman turned out to be a (okay, alleged) con man, now facing a slew of investigations for various financial schemes. His company that owned Church Street filed for bankruptcy last night and investigators are serving search warrants all over the place.
If that's the bad news from Orlando, the good news from California is that Disneyland's two new E-ticket rides are gonna rock. Al Lutz provides the details about the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and Toy Story Midway Mania in a new article on MiceAge, which reads like a mash note to Disney and Pixar's John Lasseter. We've come a long way from the dark days of the Paul Pressler regime, haven't we?
On a similar note. Disney is to be thanked once again for ruining a portion of the town that gave them it's keys.
As for Church Street ... I live in Austin and we have 6th Street; I've been to Memphis' Beal Street and New Orleans' Bourbon Street. Is there really a need for something like this in Orlando??
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