So now Sea World’s getting a big new coaster too.

It will be part thrill ride and part animal attraction, a theme that visitors will experience from the time they take their place in line until the time they leave the post-ride area, said Joseph Couceiro, vice president of sales and marketing for SeaWorld’s parent company, Busch Entertainment Corp.

“It’s going to have animal components, marine-life components. It will have a very unique, state-of-the-art ride, a roller coaster if you will, that will provide a sensation of gliding,” Couceiro said. “The combination of the animals and the ride is what makes it special.”

As I’ve said, I’m relatively new to Orlando, so I don’t know if these periods of escalation between our theme park overlords are just cyclical. But it certainly seems as though Universal’s acquisition of Harry Potter is putting the other local players on notice…

…although I get the sense we’re still waiting for another shoe to drop over at the Mouse House–they’ve got that Toy Story Mania ride coming to Hollywood Studios but that’s hardly an E-ticket tentpole attraction. Night Kingdom, anyone?

As always, Disney reporter and blogger Jim Hill has a tasty morsel of theme park gossip to gnosh upon. This Friday morning, it’s a piece detailing the possible fifth theme park at Walt Disney World, an experience-driven high-end environment known as Disney’s Night Kingdom.

Disney World’s next theme park will NOT be Villains themed and/or loaded with lots of coasters. But — rather — it will be an intimate, natural environment that then offers you the chance to have lots of personalized, hands-on, once-in-a-lifetime adventures.

Jim suggests prices as high as $250-300 per person for an evening at this park, open tenatively from 4 p.m. to midnight. Of course, those buying a Disney vacation package would be offered lower pricing. Tickets would include a high-end gourmet meal at a themed restaurant and such experiences as riding a zipline over a pool of crocodiles a la Indiana Jones and spelunking in a cave filled with bats.

(Hell, if Disney’s gonna charge that much for intimate encounters with scary animals, come on over to my place sometime–I’ll let you feed our toddler when she’s had no nap for free.)

So…whaddaya think? Would you pay $250 for a Disney-style high-end encounter experience?

I have to construct a giant wire mesh sculpture that resembles a desert in my backyard, maybe I should even try to add some railroad tracks…