Florida's four biggest theme parks
are opening major new attractions

"Zoom!" A plate-sized pair of starship-like Mini-Killers whirl toward the Terminator-turned-good-guy.

"Boom!" Schwarzenegger gives his short-barreled rifle a spin, then blasts the enemy Mini-Killers to smithereens.

The action in Universal Studios' new Terminator 2 3-D attraction is swift, shocking and surreal.

The new show, which mixes live action with a high-tech 3-D film, is one of four major additions at Florida's biggest theme parks this summer.

Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, Sea World and Walt Disney World each have created a new attraction that promises to make this summer a memorable one for theme-park visitors.

At Busch Gardens in Tampa, you'll descend into a replica of King Tut's tomb or ascend to new heights in a roller coaster that flips you upside down seven times. In Orlando, Sea World is giving dolphins, sea turtles and sting rays an expansive new home in a setting reminiscent of Old Key West. And Walt Disney World is completing a large lakeside lodging and entertainment complex that boasts an old-fashioned boardwalk, dance hall and ESPN sports bar.

All are ambitious additions to Central Florida's theme-park country. Busch's new Egypt sector is the most expensive single expansion in its history. Universal's Terminator 2 3-D attraction cost $60 million, with a record $23 million -- nearly $2 million per minute -- spent on the accompanying movie alone. Sea World's Key West-themed sector, covering more than five acres, is its biggest physical expansion ever.

Universal's Terminator 2 3-D opened two weeks ago. Busch's Egypt will open Thursday, Sea World's Key West on Memorial Day weekend and Disney's BoardWalk on July 1.

Based on a tour of the four attractions last weekend, here is what visitors can expect to see:

TERMINATOR 2 3-D
Universal Studios Florida
Orlando

This sequel to the Terminator epics has Schwarzenegger and the original cast of the series in a new adventure set in 1996 and in 2029. ``I always said I'd be back,'' Schwarzenegger remarks.

He returns here in a film that is a precedent-setter in many ways. It plays on the world's largest 3-D installation (165 feet across), it is the first to project interlocked 3-D images on three screens simultaneously, and it mixes live actors with the film action, along with a variety of in-theater special effects. Along with the evil morphing metal menace known as T-1000, Schwarzenegger and his sidekick John Connor face two new robotic foes -- a fleet of ``Mini-Hunters'' that resemble plate-sized star ships, and a malevolent T-1,000,000, a huge metallic spider created completely by computer. The Mini-Hunters buzz in and out of the audience and the T-Meg, as the spider-like robot is known, extends metallic appendages into the audience until it is finally frozen by liquid nitrogen and blown to very visible bits.

The plot has Schwarzeneggar and Connor traveling to the future to take on the evil terminators, and the action, as in the previous Terminator films, is hard-hitting. Sometimes astride a motorcycle, sometimes fleeing amid the ruins of a future city, Schwarzenegger and Connor are constantly under attack. T-1000 turns his arms into weapons in one chase scene and the Hunter-Killer mother ship flies after the pair in another. Schwarzenegger in turn is forever blasting some robot or other into a million fiery splinters.

Integrated into the action are live actors, including a cycle-riding double of Schwarzenegger whose comings and goings are precisely timed with the film sequences. At one point the two adventurers actually run through the audience.

What really blows the viewers' minds, though, are the in-theater special effects. It wouldn't be fair to reveal what they are, but they involve sight, scent, motion and touch. You'll love them.

At the spectacular conclusion of this technological tour de force, the audience breaks out in spontaneous cheers and applause. It's that good.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Terminator 2 3-D rivals the Back to the Future ride as the most popular at Universal Studios.
EGYPT
Busch Gardens
Tampa
Busch has been planning an Egypt themed area for at least 10 years. The Egypt that will open to the public Thursday is the company's biggest expansion in its history, but it consists essentially of only two parts.

The first is a replica of King Tut's tomb as it appeared upon its discovery by Howard Carter in the 1920s, surrounded by shopping bazaars under Bedouin tents. The second is the world's largest inverted roller coaster. Two very dissimilar concepts, but what the heck, it's a theme park.

As visitors enter the themed area, they will see stone icons of the period, covered with hieroglyphs. Indeed, every outside wall seems to be covered with hieroglyphs.

In Tut's tomb, old newsreels will tell the story of Carter's discovery -- and of the supposed curse that haunted members of his expedition. Visitors will visit the tomb's antechamber, in which Busch has duplicated objects found there, such as a chariot, throne, statues, foods and beds. To make the experience more meaningful, soft fragrances of the sort left in the tomb will pervade the area.

In the burial chamber, a block and tackle, as used by Carter, will suspend the boy king's sarcophagus, where a replica of Tut's mummy will be visible.

In the last chamber, the Treasury, dozens of replicated precious artifacts will be displayed, including jewelry and a number of boats that the Egyptians believed would take the boy king to his afterlife. Through a special effect technique know as Pepper's Ghost, you'll even see King Tut's face.

The inevitable gift shop holds some surprises along with inexpensive Egyptian-themed trinkets. Real glass blowers from Egypt will make perfume bottles you can buy for as little as $10 or as much as $100 (the most popular size will cost around $20). Real antiques -- Roman soda ash glass, coins and the like -- will be on sale. The Roman glass will run from $200 to $800, the coins (from Alexander the Great's era) from $100 to $3,000.

Under a tent outside, you will be able to have a cartouche painted on real papyrus.

Beyond Tut's Tomb and an archaeological sand dig for children, visitors will approach the 55-foot-high hieroglyphic-covered Pylon building, the entry to the sector's other main feature, Montu.

The pharaohs never had roller coasters, but Montu, named for an Egyptian warrior god, is a coaster like you've never seen or experienced before.

Not only is it the world's largest inverted roller coaster (riders hang from the rails rather than sitting in car atop them), but it has more twists and turns than an Egyptian pit viper.

Riders will zoom through the world's largest inverted vertical loop (104 feet), swoop underground as far as 36 feet with their dangling feet dipping as close as 18 inches to the ground, pull almost 4 Gs of gravity at some points and zero G at others.

``Montu exposes riders to a feeling of vulnerability,'' said Mark Rose, Busch's vice president of design and engineering. ``There's no floor and no sides, and their feet dangle.''

Egypt is the ninth land in African-themed Busch Gardens, and Montu is the fourth coaster.

KEY WEST AT SEA WORLD
Sea World
Orlando

Re-creating the funky world of Key West may be an impossible task, but Sea World is giving it a whirl.

On a five-acre plot -- the largest physical expansion in the park's 22-year life -- Sea World is completing a Key West-themed sector to showcase three marine life exhibits. All three subjects -- dolphins, sea turtles and sting rays -- are found in Key West waters.

While marine life will be the center of attraction, the Key West theme will carry into the architecture of the buildings, the landscaping and entertainment. It will even have a daily sunset celebration, playing on the famous event at Mallory Dock in the real Key West.

Wire walkers, jugglers, mimes and other street entertainers will roam the walkways, and such foods as conch fritters and Key lime pie will be served.

Centerpiece attraction will be Dolphin Cove, a 700,000-gallon pool covering 2.1 acres that will be home to a community of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Here, in a facility that slopes from a sandy beach to 12 feet in depth, the dolphins will swim and play as visitors watch from several vantage points, including an underwater observatory beneath a rocky promontory. Hydrophones situated at several points around the pool let visitors listen to the underwater sounds of dolphins ``talking.''

A wave machine will keep the waters circulating and send wavelets lapping onto the sandy beach.

``We'll constantly change the wave patterns, so the dolphins will not get used to them,'' said Frank Murru, Sea World vice president and general curator. ``And on the bottom there are play jets and bubbles for them.'' On the bottom, too, are simulated coral reefs.

One of Sea World's most popular exhibits has always been the sting ray pool, where visitors can reach into the water and touch the creatures. This exhibit has been rebuilt and nearly doubled in size. Up to 175 southern, cownose and bluntnose rays, along with some guitarfish, will inhabit the new Stingray Lagoon, which now contains four mangrove islets. Some of the rays may reach five feet in diameter.

Injured loggerhead, hawksbill and green turtles will be nursed back to health in the sector's new Turtle Point, a winding watery habitat with a contoured beach, sand dunes and cluster of rocks. A dilapidated wooden dock adds to the atmosphere.

Two existing adjoining areas will become part of the new Key West sector when it opens on Memorial Day weekend: The Whale and Dolphin Stadium, which has the animals performing tricks and interacting with trainers amid funky Key West-themed sets, and the Manatees: The Last Generation attraction. This exhibit, which permits above- and below-water viewing of the gentle, endangered sea cows, was named the best new zoological exhibit in the country by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association in 1994.

BOARDWALK
Walt Disney World
Orlando

Nostalgia is the byword in this new Disney development, which strives to re-create the heyday of America's seaside resorts from 1920 to 1940.

``It's a romanticized re-creation of classic American boardwalk cities like Atlantic City or Rockaway Park and Coney Island,'' said Todd Lenahan, assistant developmental manager of the 43-acre project, Disney's first mixed-use development. ``After all, this is where the hot dog and salt water taffy were invented, the home of the Miss America contests and roller coasters.''

There's no coaster here, but a broad wooden boardwalk patterned after Atlantic City's curves around the lakeside project, situated across from Disney's Yacht Club and Beach Club hotels in the Epcot resorts area. All of BoardWalk's buildings reflect the architecture of the period, and in the Atlantic Dance Hall you can listen to live music from many eras. Theme nights will bring special flavors to the hall such as Brandy and Cigars, Vodka and Caviar, Sake and Sushi. A few yards down the boardwalk will be the Dueling Pianos bar, where Bruce Williams will produce a nightly show.

BoardWalk also will be the site of Disney's first brew pub, the Big River Grille and Brewing Works. It will offer four beers, and visitors will be able to see the entire brewing process.

Sports fans can double their pleasure at the ESPN Club, where they can watch their favorite game on dozens of video monitors or view live radio and television ESPN broadcasts from a special studio room. The place even has TV sets facing the toilets and above the urinals, so fans don't have to miss a single minute of action.

Also fronting on the boardwalk will be restaurants, a Disney merchandise store, bakery, sweets shop and a photo shop decorated with photos and paraphernalia of past Miss Americas.

As in the 1920s and 1930s, rolling chairs and foot-pedal vehicles will be available to carry visitors down the boardwalk, for a price, of course. Disney purchased and restored two original chairs for such use.

Two kinds of lodging will be offered at BoardWalk.

One is a small (by Disney standards) luxury hotel, the 378-room BoardWalk Inn, which will offer a limited number of two-story garden suites with their own patio and private garden, complete with white picket fence and bird house. Rocking chairs will line the hotel's Belleview Terrace, and on display will be the miniature working carousel designed by master carouselier Marcus Illions. The exquisite four-foot carousel will go into action every 30 minutes. Rates at the Inn will begin around $220.

Many of the buildings lining the boardwalk appear to be separate, but are actually interconnected inside to form the other lodging option, BoardWalk Villas. This 532-unit complex will be part of Disney's time-share Vacation Club; members can rent the apartments by purchasing Vacation Club points. Most are two-bedroom units; they will be rented at prices comparable with the Inn.

One of the most interesting bits of memorabilia at BoardWalk is a display of old post cards and letters sent by tourists visiting yesteryear's New Jersey and Connecticut seaside resorts. One woman, writing to her sister after strolling on the boardwalk, remarked upon ``the curious little street made of boards.''

Curious, indeed. But even more curious may be how, three quarters of a century later, time and style have come around full circle at a place called Disney World, 90 miles from the nearest beach.