ORLANDO, Fla. (Columbus Dispatch) – I was waiting in line for the gates to open at Universal Studios Florida when I had my first exposure to Disney envy. The gate attendants, a couple of raspy-voiced retir-ees, started chatting up the crowd. They teased kids and asked grown-ups where they were from — the sort of things that keep people from getting restless and crabby. One of them approached the guy behind me and said, "Whater ya doin’ wearin’ that Mickey Mouse hat?" The guy, who was wearing an Australian-style safari hat, was understandably baffled. The gatekeeper made a quick recovery: "Oh, it’s not from Disney," and, with a nod toward the gates, "You’re good to go in." It was all said tongue-in-cheek and drew a few chuckles, but it left me with a bad feeling. A similar incident happened not four hours later at the "Universal Horror Make-Up Show." There, one member of the stand-up comedy duo, dripping fake blood, was looking for volunteers to come onstage. He singled out a little boy in the front row who looked to be 5 or 6 years old. The child didn’t want to participate and was peeping through his fingers at the gore, shaking his head no. After several taunts, the actor gave up — but not without a parting shot: "We’re not at Disney, so I don’t have to be nice to you." With two theme parks (Universal Studios Florida and Univer-sal’s Islands of Adventure), a club/restaurant-concert complex (CityWalk) and three upscale hotels (Porto-fino Bay, Hard Rock and Royal Pacific Resort) on the property, Universal Orlando Resort has a lot of en-tertainment to offer, including some of central Florida’s hottest rides. Although the place is spoiling for comparisons — a chart on its Web site pits Universal’s attractions against Disney’s — I am not taking the bait. Florida is plenty big enough for both empires, and an Orlando vacation needn’t be an either-or proposition.
That's what I'm talking about! That go get 'em and go keep 'em attitude.
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