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Park president's strategy is variation on a theme
By MARK ALBRIGHT, Times Staff Writer Shrek is replacing Alfred Hitchcock and SpongeBob SquarePants is ousting Yogi Bear as Universal Orlando freshens a number of its longrunning attractions to appeal to young theme park visitors. In an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Bob Gault, the new president and chief operating officer of the theme park, talked of those coming attractions and other topics, ranging from tightened security since Sept. 11 to boss Barry Diller's sure shot on the Men in Black ride. Gault, 58, is an old hand at the theme park business. After a 29-year career with the Sea World parks and Busch Entertainment Corp., he took over Universal Hollywood, then became point man on the construction and opening of Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. He recently took charge of Florida's second-biggest theme park/resort as it struggled with growing pains, a recession and the chill the terrorist attacks cast over the travel industry. Universal and Loews Hotels this week opened their new $200-million Royal Pacific Resort, capping a decadelong $4-billion building binge at the park. Here are excerpts from the interview: Q: What's changed about the theme park corridor in Orlando in the past few years? A: It's grown far more competitive. We've grown from a single park into a total resort th two theme parks, the CityWalk entertainment complex and 2,400 hotel rooms within an easy walk of all them. That's made us the first resort built along the lines of Walt Disney World. Now instead of attracting guests for one day, we actively package and market a two- or three-day experience where people never need to leave our property. Q: Your creative people are considering whether to change the theme of the Konfrontation ride, and you plan to open new attractions next spring to replace the Fantastic World of Hanna-Barbera and Alfred Hitchcock attractions. What's going on? A: Universal Studios Florida is 12 years old so we're relaunching the park with enhancements we think are more relevant to today's audiences. Hitchcock was a strong product. But (the movie) Shrek was huge. So we struck a deal with SKG Dreamworks to make a 3-D film for us that continues the story. Our Shrek will be like our Terminator 2 3-D ride on steroids. It'll be shot in what we call "Ogrevision" and will have live special effects such as mists and smoke and seats that move and do other tricks to the audience. Q: How about Jimmy Neutron, the Nickelodeon film, which will take over the theater occupied by Hanna-Barbera? A: It will be a high-energy ride we use as a vehicle to showcase the Nickelodeon characters that are the rage among today's young kids such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys. We've already got SpongeBob as a costumed character, and he is the most popular one at our Nickelodeon studio attraction. We'll re-theme the theater and use the existing motion-based simulator seats for a new computer-animated film. It will be based on a rocket ride when one of Jimmy Neutron's inventions goes awry. Q: You're planning a third new attraction for 2004, but even your top creative experts have zipped lips about it. Do you? A: We think we'll get a green light within a month for a new blockbuster attraction. It will be on the state-of-the-art level of our Spiderman ride. It'll be a thrill ride based on new technology and a completely different type of experience than Spider-Man. It'll be based on a movie you've seen before. There may be a sequel to that film franchise come out the year we open the ride. Q: What was the biggest surprise in developing Universal Japan? A: We spent a year and half researching Japanese tastes for food, but I didn't realize how different their palate is. They love pizza, but they'll put squid, corn or tuna on it. They like spaghetti and meatballs, but we had to sweeten it with sugar. I was worried about our staging a Waterworld stunt show that features lots of fire, explosions and weapons. After all, Japan is a country that has no guns. It turns out they loved the show, just ate it up. Q: How did you get in this business? A: When I was a kid I couldn't get enough of the diver in the old hard hat who fed the sharks at Marineland in California. So I worked my way through college sweeping up cigarette butts and taking tickets at Sea World in San Diego. I planned to be a dentist, but realized I liked the outdoors and theme parks a lot better than standing all day looking down somebody's throat. I switched my major to business and never left theme parks. Q: How has the war on terrorism changed your park security? A: We heavied up our security a lot. We check every guest's bag at the gate. It slows things down, but people tell us they really appreciate the extra security. We also started searching every service vehicle that enters the parks. We already had a lot of surveillance cameras to monitor everything. We work a lot closer now with agencies such as the FBI. They gave us the theme park terrorist alert a day or so before it was in the media. Q: How has the tourism slump affected how people who work in the parks treat guests? A: The tourist slowdown after Sept. 11 was really a wakeup call for the hospitality industry. It heightened awareness that people won't necessarily just keep coming here. So we have to show them in every little way that we appreciate their business. Q: Is that why you issued the 10-foot rule to park employees? A: Exactly. We expect them to make eye contact with every approaching guest at 10 feet, then say "Hi" or some other appropriate greeting at 5 feet. Q: Barry Diller, the chairman of USA Interactive Inc., has been chief executive for a couple months of the U.S. entertainment wing of Vivendi Universal, the French company that owns a managing interest in Universal Orlando. Your employees spotted Diller riding the Incredible Hulk roller coaster during a midnight management conference. Has he been hands-on here? A: Yes, I even took him for a ride on the Men in Black ride where we both shot at attacking aliens. Q: Who hit the most? A: He did. Hey, I'm not stupid. -- Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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