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The article reports on the decision by Disney officials Robert A. Iger and Josh D'Amaro to cancel the proposed construction of an office complex in Orlando, Florida after the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis tightened its oversight of the company's theme park resort. The project is expected to create over 2,000 jobs in the state.

The article reports on the move by the Florida House of Representatives to revoke Disney's special tax district designation after 55 years that would allow the company to self-govern its theme park complex. Also cited are the decision by the state's Senate to eliminate the Reedy Creek Improvement District as a special zone. The moves are allegedly in retaliation to Disney's opposition to a new education law and its decision to pause political donations as of April 2022.

The article reports on the expansion plan of Universal Orlando Resort for its Wizarding World of Harry Potter with new rides, stores and a restaurant in Florida in 2014.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Pull down your lap bars: Universal Studios, the theme park chain now controlled by Comcast, is rolling out new weapons in its battle against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts -- and Disney is fortifying its defenses. Universal's parks have always languished in the shadow of mouse ears, and that will not change anytime soon. Disney has eight parks in California and Florida that attract over 73 million visitors each year, with summer the busiest season. Universal operates three parks, with annual attendance totaling about 18 million. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Maryland teachers were instructed to engage children by crouching and speaking to them at eye level. Chevrolet dealers were taught to think in theater metaphors: onstage, where smiles greet potential buyers, and offstage, where sales representatives can take out-of-sight cigarette breaks. A Florida children's hospital was advised to welcome patients in an entertaining way, prompting it to employ a ukulele-playing greeter dressed in safari gear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LOS ANGELES - Vacationers are opening their wallets more freely than they have in years at Disney's theme parks, adding to signs of growing consumer confidence and contributing to a climbing quarterly profit at the entertainment conglomerate. The Walt Disney Company said Tuesday that operating income in its parks division, watched as a barometer of the broader economy, increased 18 percent in the most recent quarter, to $553 million. Revenue increased 10 percent, to $3.2 billion. Higher ticket prices contributed, but so did increased food and beverage spending at Walt Disney World in Florida and the Disneyland Resort in California. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Chainsaws? Yawn. Bathtub electrocutions? Done them. Demented, blood-thirsty clowns? So 2001. For Universal Orlando, the big theme park here that counts on Halloween as a crucial profit center, the art of the scare sure isn't as easy as it used to be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- The Merlin Entertainments Group is one of the world's largest operators of amusement parks and tourist attractions, entertaining more than 40 million visitors annually. But the company operates almost entirely overseas, and it has no presence in central Florida, the sweaty epicenter of the theme park universe. With the opening of a new Lego-themed park here last Saturday -- built on the roller-coaster-strewn carcass of the late and not-so-great Cypress Gardens -- Merlin has a message for North America: We are coming after you. ''Our ambitions for this marketplace are tremendous,'' said Nick Varney, Merlin's chief. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Deep in the bowels of Walt Disney World, inside an underground bunker called the Disney Operational Command Center, technicians know that you are standing in line and that you are most likely annoyed about it. Their clandestine mission: to get you to the fun faster. To handle over 30 million annual visitors -- many of them during this busiest time of year for the megaresort -- Disney World long ago turned the art of crowd control into a science. But the putative Happiest Place on Earth has decided it must figure out how to quicken the pace even more. A cultural shift toward impatience -- fed by video games and smartphones -- is demanding it, park managers say. To stay relevant to the entertain-me-right-this-second generation, Disney must evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the keenly anticipated Florida theme park, will open in the spring and allow visitors to tour Hogwarts, buy quidditch gear and drink butterbeer. Universal Orlando unveiled some details about the park, a 20-acre addition to its Islands of Adventure property, on Tuesday in a Web presentation. The resort, co-owned by NBC Universal and the Blackstone Group, secured the theme park rights to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books in May 2007, but has been silent about specific plans until now. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Moving to reinvigorate some aging corners of its domestic theme parks, the Walt Disney Company announced plans over the weekend to modernize its Star Tours rides and greatly expand Fantasyland at Walt Disney World in Florida. Disney's theme parks, an $11.5 billion annual business that is closely scrutinized as a consumer confidence bellwether, have struggled in the recession. Wall Street has praised the company, however, for quickly moving to limit the damage through aggressive discounting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reviews several water parks in the U.S. Presence of crowds and long lines; Safety records; Amenities such as changing rooms; Evaluation of Lake Lanier Islands in Atlanta, Georgia; Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; Blizzard Beach in Orlando, Florida; Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, Texas; Knott's Soak City in Buena Park, California. INSET: Swim Test.