Is Universal Actually Getting Better or Is Disney Just Getting Worse?

[Weston Wallace]

After being a lifelong Disney purist, my wife and I decided to add a Universal tag to our seven-day Disney trip.

I must admit, I, like many others on this site, have become quite jaded towards Disney recently. I was fully expecting to be wowed by Universal, having heard so much from friends, family, and even the Disney community members here over the past decade.

I had a lot of feelings and was surprised by many things at Universal, both positive and negative. This is part of the reason I am posting here!

However, I couldn’t help but feel a bit let down when it came to that part of the trip.

This led me to a prompt that I hope people will consider responding to: is Universal gaining on Disney because they are putting out a superior product in their parks, or is it more because Disney continuing to degrade the Walt Disney World experience?

Before our trip, I would have expected to clearly think it would be Universal putting out a superior product to Disney, but after experiencing what they have to offer currently, I am not so sure that is the case.

As I mentioned, I have many thoughts about both sides of the trip, and the Universal portion was far from negative. They do several things much better than Disney.

However, the sentence my wife said sums up what we took away from it quite well: “I now understand why Disney doesn’t seem to be panicking or rushing to build in response to Epic.” The gap was much more significant than we had anticipated, which almost pains be to write as I was excited to come to something fresh and new after becoming more dragged down by Disney recently.

Also, I know the correct answer to this is “it’s both”, but I wanted to see what people’s more in depth thoughts where after getting to experience all six major Orlando theme parks over two weeks.

I have been on the forums for years, but have been a ghost and with all my negative thoughts towards Disney starting to come to a boiling point, I wanted to try my hand at being a bit more active here, and perhaps see some interesting perspectives.

Thanks all!

 

[TalkToEthan]

Both are true:

US Disney degenerates AND Universal improves

 

[SplashJacket]

Universal hasn’t really gotten better since their last major addition (VelociCoaster), which opened in 2021. That doesn’t seem like a long time, but when the park next door hasn’t gotten a major addition since Diagon (Bourne is fantastic though), the parks are becoming stale.

This is a direct byproduct of Epic, but Epic should really give Universal another kick in the same way that HP did. It may not directly compete with IOA’s attraction lineup day 1, but it would really surpass it in overall quality and atmosphere out the gate, it’s exciting.

All tides should rise with Epic. We’ll see how it comes into play when it opens, but we’re entering an exciting stretch

 

[Weston Wallace]

Universal hasn’t really gotten better since their last major addition (VelociCoaster), which opened in 2021. That doesn’t seem like a long time, but when the park next door hasn’t gotten a major addition since Diagon (Bourne is fantastic though), the parks are becoming stale.

This is a direct byproduct of Epic, but Epic should really give Universal another kick in the same way that HP did. It may not directly compete with IOA’s attraction lineup day 1, but it would really surpass it in overall quality and atmosphere out the gate, it’s exciting.

All tides should rise with Epic. We’ll see how it comes into play when it opens, but we’re entering an exciting stretch

(Bourne was spectacular. All of the main park shows were awesome. A clear area that park exceeds Disney in)

I guess my next question for you then would be does one theme park really bring Universal to the level of WDW, even if it is universally considered the best in the world? Prior to experiencing the two parks for themselves, I would have thought so, and my thoughts are more nuanced then this, but both Islands and UO stacked up to be more DHS then anything else.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Absolutely both in my opinion. Disney is getting worse while Universal is getting better.

There are hardcore Disney fans that will disagree because they hate universal because they are not Disney.

My thinking was if Universal gets better it will force Disney to react and it seems I was right but my expectation was that Disney would react by expanding WDW, not destroying and replacing things in WDW.

 

[Weston Wallace]

Absolutely both in my opinion. Disney is getting worse while Universal is getting better.

There are hardcore Disney fans that will disagree because they hate universal because they are not Disney.

My thinking was if Universal gets better it will force Disney to react and it seems I was right but my expectation was that Disney would react by expanding WDW, not destroying and replacing things in WDW.

Right I think overall Epics going to be a great thing for the theme park community.

I also had to keep in mind that Pandora and Galaxys Edge came YEARS after the Harry Potter stuff so they get major props for that.

My question I guess I’m trying to figure out is what do people think universal does currently that’s so much superior to WDW. Things I thought would be a home run for UO like Express Pass vs Lighting Lane, where much more muddled then I thought they would be.

 

[drizgirl]

I love Disney more. But Universal is a LOT more fun.

 

[DisneyHead123]

I haven’t been to Universal since the late 90s, so my viewpoint is based largely on what I’ve seen on the internet and such.

Until Epic, the only reason I would consider a trip to Universal would be to see the Potter stuff. Epic seems like a different story though. I’ll be really curious to see how that turns out.

My impression is that Universal found a clear, obvious direction with the success of the Potter lands, and the only major obstacle was spending large amounts of money on it. People ate up the Potter stuff. Theming sold. Sure, it’s expensive but - it sells. Alrighty then. Hire some awesome creative minds and try not to look at the bill and make it happen.

I feel that Disney, on the other hand, has been floundering a bit in finding a clear direction recently. Based on absolutely nothing but my impressions, let me be clear. But it seems like they don’t 100% know which direction to go moving forward and in their hopes of attracting new audiences they tend to lose cohesion. Putting Cars over ROA seems like a quintessential example of this - it has a hurried feeling of “Maybe this will appeal to boys! And young people! And maybe we could charge for a LL!” Those aren’t invalid considerations, of course, but when motivations like that happen in isolation, there’s a loss of cohesion. There’s less thinking about what the park as a whole is trying to accomplish, what Disney as a whole represents, and so on.

That said, Disney also has decades and decades of prebuilt history preceding it, so it can probably afford an identity crisis to some extent. So long as it’s not a prolonged situation, it probably doesn’t matter all that much. If Disney continues to cut amenities while Universal adds them, however, and focuses largely on random IP over overall atmosphere, then sure, it wouldn’t take all that long for Universal to pull into the lead.

 

[Weston Wallace]

I love Disney more. But Universal is a LOT more fun.

I really went into it with even more than an open mind I would say, as in a was LOOKING to find things I liked more than Disney.

Felt like a more net-negative experience than I was expecting.

 

[Weston Wallace]

I haven’t been to Universal since the late 90s, so my viewpoint is based largely on what I’ve seen on the internet and such.

Until Epic, the only reason I would consider a trip to Universal would be to see the Potter stuff. Epic seems like a different story though. I’ll be really curious to see how that turns out.

My impression is that Universal found a clear, obvious direction with the success of the Potter lands, and the only major obstacle was spending large amounts of money on it. People ate up the Potter stuff. Theming sold. Sure, it’s expensive but - it sells. Alrighty then. Hire some awesome creative minds and try not to look at the bill and make it happen.

I feel that Disney, on the other hand, has been floundering a bit in finding a clear direction recently. Based on absolutely nothing but my impressions, let me be clear. But it seems like they don’t 100% know which direction to go moving forward and in their hopes of attracting new audiences they tend to lose cohesion. Putting Cars over ROA seems like a quintessential example of this - it has a hurried feeling of “Maybe this will appeal to boys! And young people! And maybe we could charge for a LL!” Those aren’t invalid considerations, of course, but when motivations like that happen in isolation, there’s a loss of cohesion. There’s less thinking about what the park as a whole is trying to accomplish, what Disney as a whole represents, and so on.

That said, Disney also has decades and decades of prebuilt history preceding it, so it can probably afford an identity crisis to some extent. So long as it’s not a prolonged situation, it probably doesn’t matter all that much. If Disney continues to cut amenities while Universal adds them, however, and focuses largely on random IP over overall atmosphere, then sure, it wouldn’t take all that long for Universal to pull into the lead.

Completely agree with your assessment on Disney. Their addition and direction seems short sighted, but it really doesn’t seem any more wrongly aligned then Universal’s does for everything besides their new park. And even that includes a lot of what ifs. It seems like an obvious smash hit, but we need to find out.

And Universal can’t simply be known for Epic and expect to overcome Disney. There seemed to be such a culture difference at Universal to Disney, which was DEFINITELY not something I expected and something I find hard to believe would change with the addition of a theme park.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Disney World has become a worse experience for trying to emulate their main direct competitor.

Including focusing on "ride the movies" and single IP lands over original ideas, charging for their skip the line pass, removing long established attractions, having their on site mall be primarily third party stores and restaurants you can find elsewhere and more.

Meanwhile, Universal has shifted (mostly) to focus on quality and providing more of a complete, integrated resort experience. Volcano Bay, Celestial Park, the CityWalk mini golf, Toothsome, and HHN have shown more originality than what WDW has done of late. IoA has improved and Epic Universe looks to be the most impressive thing they've attempted in a while. It also feels like they've learned from their past mistakes and are looking to correct their non-Potter faults of the early to mid 2010s. Their on-site hotels also are not as overpriced (yet).

 

[DisneyHead123]

Completely agree with your assessment on Disney. Their addition and direction seems short sighted, but it really doesn’t seem any more wrongly aligned then Universal’s does for everything besides their new park. And even that includes a lot of what ifs. It seems like an obvious smash hit, but we need to find out.

And Universal can’t simply be known for Epic and expect to overcome Disney. There seemed to be such a culture difference at Universal to Disney, which was DEFINITELY not something I expected and something I find hard to believe would change with the addition of a theme park.

Interesting, what was different about the culture?

I do think the reception of Epic will say a lot about Universal’s future trajectory. If they appear to be trending up, then who knows, at some point they might match Disney’s success. If Epic shows that really no one else can do themed parks like Disney, that’s a different story.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

I went to both USF and WDW for the first time in 10 years this past January.

Despite all the issues with Disney lately, the Disney experience still absolutely blew Universal out of the water. From quality to customer service, there was no comparison.

 

[Quietmouse]

I really want to love universal as I think they do some great things, but I really wish they would emphasize more dark rides.

Coasters, especially intense coasters make me nauseous and I just can’t do them.

If universal was able to give us a hefty collection of dark rides along with there thrills I would be right there with you, but it still feels like they are hesitant on really pursuing this route and still remain very persistent on being a park more focused on thrills than anything else.

 

[Weston Wallace]

Interesting, what was different about the culture?

I do think the reception of Epic will say a lot about Universal’s future trajectory. If they appear to be trending up, then who knows, at some point they might match Disney’s success. If Epic shows that really no one else can do themed parks like Disney, that’s a different story.

I still think I have to digest it a bit to fully grasp what was going on but I think it starts with the employees. Don’t get me wrong, some of them seemed to be really into their job, but I noticed a significant number that where CLEARLY not wanting to be there. I would say the majority where as at Disney it seemed to be the minority as far as cast that outwardly seem like they don’t want to be there.

Disney also had coordinators at every attraction (sometimes multiple…. Wife called them white shirts) while we rarely saw any at universal, at least on the show floor.

Then there was the actual management of the rides themselves. Load and unload procedures where slow, they obnoxiously used the loud speakers to telegraph things they took you out of the story.

Other than the rides, things like sales people reaching out at us to sell express pass or credit cards (both of which we had anyway), an increase population of line cutting, and we overall came away feeling like the “culture” of the parks was more akin to a very fancy six flags.

Again, that’s NOT to say Disney didn’t have new issues we picked up on that have worsened since last year, but it was ultimately that “culture” that made us think Disney and Universal still aren’t even in the same general planet, and gives me doubt Epic will move that needle significantly even if it is world class.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Nah wdw blows universal away with attractions, food, shows, attention to detail, etc.

 

[Weston Wallace]

Nah wdw blows universal away with attractions, food, shows, attention to detail, etc.

I’m starting to see that I may be more in the majority than I thought with that idea!