Mouse Extra

Last week, Al Lutz from MiceAge.com had a column that included one very interesting rumor that has not received as much attention as I would have expected.  It has to do with the possibility of Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, expanding his empire by buying up certain other theme parks…

…But what Rasulo has been good at is the strategic planning and future growth of the theme parks and resorts. Rasulo may have no desire to go on the rides, but he does have a knack for putting together a plan to get people to his properties. His latest rumored project involves exploratory interest in the Anheuser-Busch parks, specifically the two SeaWorld parks in Orlando and San Diego. And believe it or not, the San Diego park is the one that is of most interest.

Why isn’t Orlando’s SeaWorld the main focus? Because the big Disney cruise ships on order and headed to the West Coast in a few years can dock in San Diego, and all those Disney Cruise Line passengers could burn up an additional day of their itinerary visiting Disney’s SeaWorld…

Let me first say that I waited on this story a bit because I was hoping to find some sort of confirmation that this idea is being discussed.  I did not find any, but I decided in the end to go with it based solely on this specific reporter.  For all of Al Lutz’s faults with some readers, he tends to be a bit negative for some fans, he is usually right on when it comes to these rumors.  So it is worth discussing the idea of Disney taking over SeaWorld, which is not completely out of the realm possibility now that Anheuser-Busch has recently changed hands.

I do think Mr. Lutz has a somewhat California-centric view on this, however.  Yes, the park in San Diego, after being given the full Disneyfication, would be a terrific stop for cruise line passengers and that relationship between the two entities would be mutually beneficial.  I know I, for one, would love to take a Disney Cruise that begins and ends at Disneyland and also brings you to another completely different Disney park.  Throw in a west coast version of Castaway Cay and you have a Disney fan’s dream trip.

But the Orlando SeaWorld is also of much interest to Disney, if not more.  Mouse officials have done a very poor job at hiding their complete and utter jealousy of SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove and have in fact been trying to figure out how to create one of these types of parks themselves.  Would buying Discovery Cove be less expensive?  The Florida parks are much closer and symbiosis between them much more easily achieved then at California.  But can Disney bridge the gap between these two parks with enough buses to and from the SeaWorld front gate to satisfy Disney guests and get them out of the “bubble” of Walt Disney World? 

There is little doubt that being under the Walt Disney World umbrella would immediately inject a flood of new guests through SeaWorld turnstiles, but that is not the question that needs to be answered here.  Is SeaWorld’s financial potential on both coasts great enough to justify such a large investment?  With the economy the way it is, would Disney really make such a large purchase?  I think the answer to both of these questions is a “definite maybe”.