Universal Orlando to reveal 'Major News' at press conference next week

[Stripes]

Disney needs a fifth theme park like I need diabetes.

Why Walt Disney World Needs a 5th Theme Park By 2025

Please note this is not a rumor that Disney is building another theme park, only an analysis of Disney’s Parks & Resorts (P&R) financial data, suggesting that Disney needs to construct another Walt Disney World (WDW) theme park by the mid-2020s in order to maintain healthy growth within P&R...

forums.wdwmagic.com

After EPCOT's overhaul, the resort will be ready.

 

[JT3000]

If anything, the public already knows what Universal is announcing is in response to Disney. A new gate will be nice and good for themepark fans but won't be as profitable as some here think and will not hurt Disney.

This has nothing to do with Disney, other than Universal trying to take more vacation days away from them, which this certainly will do. Universal's entire expansion strategy revolves around taking a bigger piece of the tourism pie. But I don't see Disney building entire new parks, so I'm not sure how you get the bogus idea this is a direct response to them. Even IOA opened more recently than any of WDW's parks!

After EPCOT's overhaul, the resort will be ready.

Ready for what? A third half-day park? They still need to build out what they already have with DHS and DAK.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Depending on when they broke ground, yes.

Early site work has been underway for awhile. Disney going from nothing to an open park in less than four years seems doubtful at best.

 

[JT3000]

I'm hoping this announcement is an indication that construction will go vertical relatively soon.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I'm hoping this announcement is an indication that construction will go vertical relatively soon.

That seems doubtful as more specific site work still has to commence. The announcement is likely preceding that type of work as it would probably include filing plans with the South Florida Water Management District.

 

[JT3000]

That seems doubtful as more specific site work still has to commence. The announcement is likely preceding that type of work as it would probably include filing plans with the South Florida Water Management District.

They might have to file more plans, but the cat is already out of the bag there. That's actually how we first found out they were building a park.

 

[Stripes]

Ready for what? A third half-day park? They still need to build out what they already have with DHS and DAK.

DHS and DAK are/will no longer be half-day parks. DHS is about to have the most E-tickets of any park in WDW. And DAK is basically already a full-day park.

The existing infrastructure of these parks cannot handle the millions of more guests WDW will need to grow shareholder value. A fifth gate is needed to expand capacity and disperse crowds. Disney's recent upgrades to all four of the parks will make all of them highly desirable, making now the perfect time to build a fifth gate.

Due to Disney's pricing model, it'd also be easy to draw more people away from Universal Orlando. $100 to spend a day at Universal, or $25 to spend an extra day at WDW's new theme park? Of course, Disney would collect far more than $25 after hotel, merch, and F&B. While previously Disney had the limitation of the length of an American family vacation, they no longer have that problem due to the immensity of Orlando crowds.

 

[lazyboy97o]

They might have to file more plans, but the cat is already out of the bag there. That's actually how we first found out they were building a park.

The filed plans have a big empty space in the location of the park. It’s likely additional plans would reveal the layout of the park itself.

 

[JT3000]

DHS and DAK are/will no longer be half-day parks. DHS is about to have the most E-tickets of any park in WDW. And DAK is basically already a full-day park.

I'm going to need you to show your work.

The existing infrastructure of these parks cannot handle the millions of more guests WDW will need to grow shareholder value. A fifth gate is needed to expand capacity and disperse crowds.

And do you know why the existing infrastructure can't handle these hypothetical new guests? Why not improve the existing infrastructure instead of increasing the burden on the resort's operations on an unnecessarily large scale?

 

[ToTBellHop]

Disney will respond in kind by announcing a new float to Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade.

 

[ToTBellHop]

DAK has improved but for most people it's not a full day park. DHS is going to have much more stuff in it soon, I still doubt that will be a full day park after SW. The problem is the shows don't have much replay value to me. For someone who going to DHS for the first time you probably could make a day of it. ?

This is off-topic, but the fact that they didn’t update all of the shows over the last 3 years boggles my mind.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Some of those show have been running for much longer than 3 years with out an update. If fact when was the last time any show got updated or changed? Indy was always the same show, Lights action(whatever it was) had the same show as long as it was open. Etc. etc.

I’m saying they should have been replaced during the 3 years when the park was under reconstruction. Some shows are 30 years old. Indy, Mermaid, and BatB are the worst offenders.

And they were slated for updates.

 

[ToTBellHop]

OK I was wondering what you were talking about. I haven't been to a show in years because I have seen them all at least once. I've been to Fantasmic enough times that I do not care to ever see it again.

I have to say, it’s received significant technical upgrades over the last couple years. I was impressed.

But I should probably stop being off-topic.

 

[Tom Morrow]

DAK IS a full day park, but that also includes seeing every show, doing both nature trails, the Wildlife Express and Rafiki's Planet Watch, etc. If you only want to do rides, or visit frequently, then yes, it's a half day park.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Disney will respond in kind by announcing a new float to Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade.

Essentially it will play out like this:

 

[Jon81uk]

DAK IS a full day park, but that also includes seeing every show, doing both nature trails, the Wildlife Express and Rafiki's Planet Watch, etc. If you only want to do rides, or visit frequently, then yes, it's a half day park.

I've struggled to fit everything in one day if trying to do everything in the park like that, Planet Watch can be hard to fit in if you want to get all three live shows as well, and not doing the walking trails means you are missing out on a huge chunk of the park.
Any theme park (including Six Flags etc) can be a half day park if you visit frequently and skip many of the attractions you have done before.
Many people compare everything to Magic Kingdom and Disneyland when they are actually the outliers for having huge attraction counts, making them closer to two-day parks rather than everything else being a half-day park.

 

[JT3000]

I've struggled to fit everything in one day if trying to do everything in the park like that, Planet Watch can be hard to fit in if you want to get all three live shows as well, and not doing the walking trails means you are missing out on a huge chunk of the park.
Any theme park (including Six Flags etc) can be a half day park if you visit frequently and skip many of the attractions you have done before.
Many people compare everything to Magic Kingdom and Disneyland when they are actually the outliers for having huge attraction counts, making them closer to two-day parks rather than everything else being a half-day park.

Except Universal's parks, California Adventure and many others are squarely inbetween WDW's parks in attraction count. I tend to think Disneyland/MK are major outliers, but so are DHS and DAK, for opposing reasons.

 

[Jon81uk]

Except Universal's parks, California Adventure and many others are squarely inbetween WDW's parks in attraction count. I tend to think Disneyland/MK are major outliers, but so are DHS and DAK, for opposing reasons.

DHS is particularly low on attractions, but Animal Kingdom "feels" as good as IoA to me. If you aren't interested in the kids stuff on Seuss Landing and don't want to get soaking wet either then IoA doesn't have a huge attraction count. If you do DAK properly and see the shows and the animals then it does have a decent amount to do.

 

[lebeau]

DHS is particularly low on attractions, but Animal Kingdom "feels" as good as IoA to me. If you aren't interested in the kids stuff on Seuss Landing and don't want to get soaking wet either then IoA doesn't have a huge attraction count. If you do DAK properly and see the shows and the animals then it does have a decent amount to do.

The problem I have with DAK is that we live by a very nice zoo. The animal exhibits at the Cincinnati Zoo aren't quite on the same level as the ones at Disney, but we still have ample opportunity to see live animals any time we want at a fraction of the cost. When I am at Disney and paying a premium for every second of my vacation, I don't want to spend time doing something I can do at home. So for me, the zoo elements at DAK aren't a big draw for me. I don't feel like I am doing the park wrong if I focus on the theme park attractions because that's why I go to Orlando.

I do get what you're saying about IOA though. If you don't want to get wet, that carves out a good chunk of the park. Some people will feel like they can skip Seuss Landing (although I say everyone should at least walk through the land and maybe ride or ride or two). People who don't like thrill rides are going to be limited. The park has a lot of great attractions that won't have (pun unintended I swear) universal appeal.

 

[Jon81uk]

The problem I have with DAK is that we live by a very nice zoo. The animal exhibits at the Cincinnati Zoo aren't quite on the same level as the ones at Disney, but we still have ample opportunity to see live animals any time we want at a fraction of the cost. When I am at Disney and paying a premium for every second of my vacation, I don't want to spend time doing something I can do at home. So for me, the zoo elements at DAK aren't a big draw for me. I don't feel like I am doing the park wrong if I focus on the theme park attractions because that's why I go to Orlando.

I still enjoy zoos when on holiday as they usually are different to what is local to me and of course the animal behaviours are always different.

Busch Gardens Tampa for me is a hard park to get done in one day, I go mainly for the coasters, but we spent a good 20 minutes or so watching the tigers last trip. Sometimes you just get lucky and find the animals doing interesting things.