Orlando Eye awaits Wallenda

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Nik Wallenda holds a news conference Monday  morning about his planned walk Wednesday on the Orlando Eye. (Staff photo / Thomas Bender)

Nik Wallenda holds a news conference Monday morning about his planned walk Wednesday on the Orlando Eye. (Staff photo / Thomas Bender)

ORLANDO -- It’s not like walking atop a moving Ferris wheel is a novel proposition for Nik Wallenda. In 2011, the Sarasota aerialist used his trusty balancing pole to test a 55-footer in Santa Cruz, California, where he also managed to pause, raise a clenched fist and posture on one foot.

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The Orlando Eye stands over 400 feet tall. (Staff photo / Thomas Bender)

The Orlando Eye stands over 400 feet tall. (Staff photo / Thomas Bender)

But on Wednesday morning, before NBC’s Today show audience of an estimated 5 million viewers during the 8 o’clock hour, Wallenda will challenge a 400-foot marvel called the Orlando Eye. Billed as the highest observation tower on Florida’s east coast, the posh contraption anchors Orlando’s newest tourist attraction, the $200 million I-Drive 360 entertainment facility, which will also stage its grand opening Wednesday.

Nope, this isn’t your mama’s Ferris wheel.

When the Orlando Eye opens for business Monday, tickets to ride in the air-conditioned glass capsules — each of which holds 15 visitors — will start at $18 apiece and include an “ultimate pre-flight 4D Cinema Experience” on the front end. For $35, you can get VIP priority boarding and a glass of Champagne.

04_28_Orlando EyeA full revolution will take 20 minutes to complete, which works out to roughly two feet per second. That’s the pace, at operational speed, Wallenda will need to maintain to stay atop the Eye’s summit. “I can’t wait for that view,” he says. In fact, at that height, promoters claim riders will be able to see all the way to Cape Canaveral on a clear day.

“How do you train for it? I don’t know, you wing it,” says the 36-year-old funambulist, who will hitch a capsule ride to the top and walk the outer-rim girders for as long as time allows.

“I can walk as long as they want me to,” Wallenda adds, “but given the time constraints of morning shows, I’m guessing it’ll be along the lines of three to five minutes.”

The Eye’s configuration will not accommodate the balancing pole that has assisted him on cable walks across Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon and Chicago’s skyscrapers.

On the other hand, the estimated 6-inch width of the wheel’s walking platform is a veritable freeway compared with the customary 5/8-inch diameter steel cable that normally enables his walks across thin air.

What likely won’t change are the hand-made moccasins — designed by his mother — Wallenda employs on the cable. “I just like the grip they give me,” he says. “The (Eye) surface is kind of sandy, kind of like how we treated the cable in Chicago, so it feels kind of familiar to me.”

Patterned on the 443-foot tall London Eye — known as the Millennium Wheel when it opened on the banks of the Thames in 2000 — Orlando’s latest draw is owned by Merlin Entertainments. Its I-Drive 360 complex includes bars, restaurants, shopping, a Sea Life Aquarium, a Madame Tussaud’s Museum and a $1.5 million water show.

Wallenda declined to comment on the size of his payday for the quick gig. But he says there will be no losers Wednesday.

“They’re getting a bargain,” he says of Merlin. “Do you know what a national commercial costs these days?”

 

Last modified: April 28, 2015
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