Near Walt Disney World...It's Marco Polo Park!

Marco Polo Park was a theme park located just off Interstate 95 between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach, at Exit 278 in Flagler County, Florida. The park's theme was based on Marco Polo's legendary travels through Europe and the Far East. The brochure provided at the park's entrance described it as such, "Like Marco Polo himself, you will be wonderstruck at the authentic Oriental splendor as you journey into the exotic four worlds of the Far East; Turkey, India, China, Japan...and beautiful Venice, your port of embarkation." The park featured rides, puppet shows, multimedia shows, and other attractions.

This postcard shows Marco Polo himself, greeting guests at the entrance plaza.

The ticket booths and entrance were located under these Venetian-style arches.

Park transportation included a steam train (The "Oriental Express") with two passenger cars that ran around the perimeter of the park. An overhead suspended gondola system also linked various parts of the park.

The section of the park representing Turkey included twin bumper car rides, one for adults and one for kids. There was also a "flying chairs" ride which I'm assuming is the swing attraction seen in the background below.

The India section of the park included a Log Flume Ride and a Flying Elephant Ride.

Hmmmm, I wonder where they got the idea for "flying elephants"?

The China section had a spinning Tea Cup Ride which can be seen below. Spinning Tea Cups.....really?  And one of the "sky ride" stations can be seen behind the Tea Cup Ride, with at least one gondola visible inside.  That giant Ferris Wheel in the background was located in the Japan section of the park.

 

From Wikipedia: "The Japanese section included gardens that covered about 500 of the park's 5,000 acres. It included a replica of a Japanese fishing village, a Japanese botanical garden and a mile long waterway spanned by oriental bridges. Eighteen sampans, made of teakwood imported from Japan, carried visitors along the waterway. Two restaurants served tempura-style dishes. There were also a number of souvenir shops which sold a variety of Japanese-themed items."

 

 

 

A replica Model "T" ride was listed among the park attractions, but I'm not sure which "land" it belonged to. The area surrounding it doesn't really look like the Far East. Wikipedia actually lists it in the Venice section, but it doesn't look like Venice either. Those rocks kind of remind me of Nature's Wonderland at Disneyland. And what was that little girl on the far right doing standing there so close to the track? Maybe she was Audio-Animatronic.

 

Here are a couple more shots, but I'm not sure which areas of the park these were taken in.

 

Having never been to this park, I had to do a little research for this post. The following info is also from Wikipedia:

"The first phase of Marco Polo park park was completed and opened in early 1971. The park opened to considerable fanfare but it was never profitable. In 1975 the park closed after two fires ravaged the property just eight days apart. The park briefly reopened that year renamed Passport to Fun World, keeping the world travel theme. It closed for good in 1976. The remaining equipment was sold at auction on March 14, 1978. No structures from the former park remain. The road crossing I-95 leading to the park entrance, once renamed Marco Polo Park Boulevard, reverted back to Old Dixie Highway. The community of Plantation Bay now occupies the site of the former park. The park undoubtedly suffered from the opening of Walt Disney World in Orlando in October 1971. It was a difficult sell getting people to stop at a lesser attraction along the way to the Disney park."

The slides in this post were included in a batch of Walt Disney World Slides that I acquired a while back. You may even recognize the lady in today's pictures from the Tom Sawyer Island post I did back in February of this year. I gladly welcome any additional information from anyone out there that actually had the opportunity to visit this extinct Florida amusement park!