What Is the Distinction Between a Theme Park and an Amusement Park
Is Disney World a theme park or an amusement park? What about Cedar Level? Is there actually a distinction or are these two phrases for a similar factor? Does it even matter? Nicely, it will not be as vital as some issues on the market, however park and amusement park fanatics will discover it attention-grabbing, if not vital. There’s plenty of confusion and mis-information on the market. So, I assumed I might take the chance of this text to clear up a number of the confusion.
Amusement Parks
Let’s begin by defining the time period “Amusement Park” first as a result of amusement parks had been the primary to look on the scene. By most definitions, the amusement park has been round for a whole lot of years, since concerning the sixteenth century. It may be outlined merely as a hard and fast location the place a number of rides and points of interest are assembled to entertain folks. Easy sufficient.
Through the years, nonetheless, the definition of an amusement park has been clouded by modifications in trip design, the invention of the auto and the mass media, and the necessity for leisure to match or exceed the expectations of its viewers. These modifications have prompted upgrades and improvements of some parks and bankruptcies and closures at many others. However, one factor remained constant, the parks, themselves, had been all the time simply collections of points of interest, irrespective of how disjointed or cheesy wanting the gathering appeared. Wonderful examples of those embody Coney Island in Brooklyn or the Riverview Park in Chicago…neither of which exist at the moment by the best way.
Theme Parks
Whereas it is debatable when the “theme park” was launched, most consultants imagine that Walt Disney was its inventor. Disney was, nonetheless, extremely influenced by Knott’s Berry Farm and the amusement parks of Europe. So, you possibly can make the declare that Knott’s Berry Farm was the primary theme park, however actually Walt Disney took the theme park to an entire new stage. So what makes a theme park totally different from an amusement park?
A real “theme” park consists of various themed lands or areas. Nice efforts are made to create the phantasm of one other world or tradition utilizing landscaping, structure, music, meals, staff, and points of interest. In a theme park the rides usually take second place to the atmosphere they’re positioned in. The extra a park is ready to take its visitors out of the “actual world” and right into a world of fantasy, the more true the label “theme” turns into. As a result of Walt Disney used movie administrators as a substitute of architects for the design of his park, he was capable of create a real escape from actuality, as if the theme park had been a film on a display.
Theme Resorts Take Theme Parks to a Complete New Degree
With the opening of Walt Disney World in Florida in 1971, the subsequent step within the evolution of the theme park occurred. Going past simply the Walt Disney World rides and points of interest, Disney mixed the theme park with resorts, golf programs, water recreation, and (ultimately) extra theme parks. We prefer to name this the “Themed Resort”.
The thought of the theme resort is to draw visitors after which hold them in your property for every thing they may ever need or think about. It’s fairly doable, with the appearance of Disney’s Broad World of Sports activities – the game fishing, water and subject sports activities and event capabilities – that virtually every thing one might do on a trip can now be present in one location. The themed resort has develop into a one-of-a-kind, one-stop store for the dream trip and the numbers are proving Disney’s concept to be the proper of considering. Disney shouldn’t be alone on this market. Common Studios in Orlando consists of two separate theme parks, resorts and eating to create the Common Orlando Resort. Disney realized within the 80’s that preserving folks shut was the important thing to earnings and that’s actually proving true.
Closing Ideas
It is easy to develop into pissed off by comparisons which can be generally made between amusement parks and theme parks, regardless that these comparisons by definition should not be made. When somebody says “I believe Cedar Level is a a lot better amusement park than Disney World”, they’re right in a way as a result of Walt Disney World shouldn’t be an amusement park, and can by no means fake to be a curler coaster fanatic’s heaven. On the similar time, nonetheless, they’re additionally improper as a result of they’re evaluating apples to oranges. To make issues much more complicated Cedar Level will generally name itself a theme park just because they offer labels to totally different areas of the park. Sorry Cedar Level. Theming is extra than simply labels.
So, the subsequent time somebody says they loved Dollywood or Six Flags way more than Disney World, do not hassle to argue. They could as effectively say they get pleasure from sushi greater than a bicycle.
