In Which Jenn Has Questions About Theme Park Grammar

Jack Skellington is confused

Here’s a question that’s been plaguing me for years: should you or should you not italicize the names of theme park rides? I’ve seen it go both ways and I just don’t know.

Wikipedia suggests no.
Ditto Yahoo Answers.

Annnnd that’s about it, as far as an admittedly shallow Google search went. But I’ve seen posts and articles italicizing ride names, so I know there are dissenters.

I thought if anything, an official Disney publication would be able to clear things up, but noooo. WDW sent me one of those “your vacation is coming up” booklets, and the style guide vacillates wildly. The theme parks are italicized. Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris are italicized but Festival of the Lion King is not. Okay, so yes to rides, no to shows, you’d think. But then later on Tower of Terror ISN’T italicized, but Fantasmic is. So… what???

As of right now I don’t italicize rides, on the principle that a ride is not a movie or a book title; but then again the rules are arbitrary to begin with, and if someone came along with an official style guide answer I’d be in no position to refute it.

Anyone who capitalizes it’s a small world, however, is DEAD TO ME.

Well? What do you think?

Well? Should theme park attractions be italicized or no?
Yes!
No!
I have a more nuanced opinion and I’ll tell you about it in the comments!

QuizMaker

Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.comSee ya real soon!

2 Comments

  1. I was just wondering about this.

    I'd say it depends on whether the ride is also a "film." For example, I'd italicize "Back to the Future: The Ride" because it contains a short film and acts as a mini-sequel. However, other attractions that don't have any media (such as The Mummy Returns: Chamber of Doom) wouldn't need italics. Just my two cents.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>