For most of us, traveling to Orlando is a special treat; maybe even a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But whether you’ve visited Central Florida’s theme parks once or a thousand times, there’s one icon of the area that you can’t help but love: billboards. Yep, for decades the “theme park wars” have waged not just in the arenas of E-Tickets, in-universe drinks, and “Living Lands,” but along the routes of US-528 and I-4 – the highways that connect Orlando International Airport to Universal, SeaWorld, and Walt Disney World.
Today, we’re highlighting just a few of our favorite theme park billboards… but be sure to share your favorites and photos!
1. Universal Classics
When the lone Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990, the park joined an increasingly bustling Orlando… and worse, competed directly with Disney’s own pre-emptive strike, the Disney-MGM Studios. Billboards did the heavy lifting of letting Orlando visitors know the kind of thrills, chills, and excitement that awaited at the Universal park, and why it was worth a daytrip.
These billboards’ 3-D, light-up advertisements for the Lost Legends: Kongfrontation, Earthquake, Ghostbusters Spooktacular, and the surviving E.T. Adventure show just how big Universal was willing to go…
2. Farting Bugs
Released in November 1998, A Bug’s Life was the second film by the brand new Pixar. It hasn’t had the same kind of franchisability as its predecessor, Toy Story… but it did serve as an opening day IP for Disney’s Animal Kingdom. In fact, the 3-D show “It’s Tough to be a Bug” opened with the park in April 1998 – seven months before the film was released! (Talk about a sneak preview…)
Most kids today probably don’t know Flik the ant by name, but for years, a billboard still offered guests the chance to “Catch a 3-D Flik” at Animal Kingdom. Notably, the billboard includes a rather demure looking stink bug whose… um… backside released occasional bursts of fog. Now that‘s an advertisement.
3. Kylo Ren’s Rise
Though this billboard advertises the West Coast version of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, it’s a doozy. Making use of two perpendicular billboards, this one features Kylo Ren stabbing his glowing lightsaber through the face of the billboard, and the other end poking through on the reverse side! It’s a very clever use of the space, and a rare modern 3D billboard (when Disney has otherwise restricted itself to flat, easily-swappable, digital-friendly advertising).
4. DVC Road Trip
Located on East Buena Vista Drive on Disney World property, the “DVC Van” is something of a Disney World legend. It spent most of its life bright red. In 2022, scaffolding surrounded the advertisement, with online commentators insisting that it was being demolished or removed. But nope – just a fresh coat of blue paint.
Fans aren’t always happy about the Disney Vacation Club, the timeshare program whose sales kiosks litter the parks, whose lounges overtake beloved corners of the parks, and whose high rise towers increasingly spread throughout otherwise well-themed resorts… but largely, the billboard of Goofy at the wheel is a comforting, beloved icon on its own right.
5. The Billboard of Terror
Nearly as much a fan favorite as the ride it’s meant to advertise, the iconic and beloved Twilight Zone Tower of Terror billboard visible on World Drive en route to Disney’s Hollywood Studios was, for many, a landmark. Using absurd, cartoonish forced perspective, the billboard included a 3D elevator plummeting down the tower’s face. Really a last remnant of Disney’s now-bypassed era of elaborate, ornate, three-dimensional billboard-style ads, the Tower was demolished in July 2022 to be replaced with landscaping.
These are just a few of the iconic billboards you might have seen in Orlando… but which are your favorites? Let us know in the comments below!
