ORLANDO, Ill. -- In an odd alliance, Steve Wynn Resorts has entered into a cross-marketing scheme with the Walt Disney World Resorts to build hotels and casinos in each other's back yards.

 

According to sources close to the deal, Disney will build a family-style resort-casino on the Las Vegas Strip near the Wynn Las Vegas. Called Orlando World, the 1800 room hotel and 556,000 square foot casino will have a Central Florida theme to include roaming cartoon characters, over 700 T-shirt shops and live palmetto bugs. To further simulate the Orlando environment, a special HVAC system will maintain temperature in the buildings at a constant 90 degrees and 93 percent relative humidity, day and night.

 

Meanwhile Wynn will build Vegas World, a resort-casino on Indian property in Osceola county, just south of Walt Disney World.

 

Keeping with the Las Vegas theme, this property will feature scaled down versions of the already scaled down versions of towers, canals, monuments, and the like meant to represent such diverse destinations as New York, Paris, Rome, Venice and Cairo. And in keeping with a Las Vegas lodging tradition, most guest rooms will have unobstructed views of a parking garage.

 

Like many nearby family resorts in central Florida, Vegas World will feature on-site entertainment and attractions. But unlike those other resorts, the entertainment will continue 24 hours a day and the attractions will include professional mud-wrestling, topless go-kart racing and the world's only vodka-spiked water slide.

 

Both properties are scheduled to be completed early next year.