The 425-foot-tall observation wheel, a sibling of the London Eye, is scheduled to open with its surrounding development in a little over a year — on New Year's Eve 2014. In addition to the observation wheel, the development is slated to include a Madame Tussauds wax museum and a Sea Life aquarium (all Merlin Entertainments properties), as well as a Ben & Jerry's, an Outback, Buffalo Wild Wings and a Yard House, among other restaurants and shops.
The same developer, Unicorp, also is developing an I-Shops project on the site of the Wyndham Orlando Resort at the corner of I-Drive and Sand Lake Road.
Update: A current construction photo, of the wheel strut installation, from TH Creative:
The are rumored to add one more attraction
With of course Kings also adjacent with Ripley's
Making the area almost a full day event
Even the struts that connect the spokes are straight lines. The wheel at Navy Pier (Chicago) uses curved sections so it appears "round" and not a huge polyhedron.
It looks cheap and a bit garish, at least to me. I think I'll refer to it as the I-Sore.....
It is interesting that SeaLife Aquarium will be in Orlando instead of near Legoland. I've been to the one in Carlsbad CA where Legoland and SeaLife Aquarium are next to each other. The aquarium is rather sparse. Not ambitious. Barely entertaining.
Add the Trader Joes's going in about a mile down the road on Sand Lake and Apopka Vineland and you will have an even bigger crowd of wild eyed crazy drivers...*sigh*
That is where I-Shops is being built...Longhorn and BW3 will open soon and the massive Walgreens amongst others
Kings is where the long rumored Target was going to go
I Respond: Which is totally incongruous with the elegance and class of International Drive.
And I also agree with the other poster who commented about how much more of a cluster I-Drive is going to become than it already is. Ugh!
Down by Eye Drive in The Sky ... whatever the thing will be called ... new restaurants and taverns are thriving.
Don't write I-Drive off as inherently tacky ... It's got some history and a fair share of soul.
The I-Sore looks like it will be built using a K'NEX set as a blueprint.
This thing will dominate the Orlando "skyline" at 425 feet. It is their Eiffel tower, Burj Khalifa, etc....
When I think of taller structures that are beautifully designed in Orlando, the Tower of Terror ride building and IOA lighthouse come to mind. I read that the height of ToT was purposely built at 199 feet to avoid putting red lights on top which are required by the FAA for structures at 200 feet and above. Now that is attention to detail.
Ugh.......
Although even as a tourist we tend to avoid I-Drive...traffic!!!!!!!!! (We always tend to use Universal Blvd) That corner at Sand Lake will be somewhat rage inducing if those shops are going there!
I get to cross I Drive going to and from work and for a 9 mile drive, it can take at least 30 minutes in the mornings and close to an hour going home at night. Going west on Sand Lake Road in the evenings from Universal Blvd towards Restaurant Row is enough to make even the sanest among us reach for an extra large Valium. I suppose that's better than the paint ball gun I would rather use on some of the other drivers...LOL
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
