Disney Playing catch up with Universal... Potter Disney's biggest mistake in 20 years...

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

I think the comparison is relevant.
Most first-timers probably assume that all theme parks are one-day locations, and this is pretty much correct for Universal. Assuming you ride coasters, IOA is a solid 1-day park, and pre-Diagon USF is barely a one-day park. It's anyone's guess what either park will be like when hoards descend on the parks come July, so while I'd anticipate the 2-day hopper being the only smart way to do Universal a third day might become a necessity if the place says mobbed. Our plan for the fall is to buy the 2-day hopper and do the "trick" of staying a night at Loews for the Express Pass.

So, again how has DA affected Uni prices? Once you hit multiple days they come out cheaper per day than most popular parks in Orlando.
Have you been to Universal before?
I'd actually say the opposite, IOA could easily been done in a 1/2 day while USF takes a full day for us. IOA only has two coasters anyway.

 

[lazyboy97o]

No one is forcing you to buy a one day park hopper.

The incessant whining of Universal Orlando Resort Park-to-Park passes just proves how much people are willing to lie to save face. Not only does one not have to be "ripped off" but if one is so skeptical they can wait and upgrade the ticket at the Hogwarts Express only after they are impressed with everything else.

 

[GLaDOS]

I'd actually say the opposite, IOA could easily been done in a 1/2 day while USF takes a full day for us. IOA only has two coasters anyway.

Well, techincally it has 4. Hulk, Ice, Fire, and Hippogriff.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

I never looked at a WDW 1 day park hooper ticket, so I'm shoched that USF is more expensive. I know its lower than DLR's 2 park ticket price of $150. but... I still think USF should be 2 days since it looks like there is more than enough to do but maybe USF knows the one day 2 park pass is what most vacations buy. I just don't think its enough time. In 2015 I will get the 2 day ticket. The only question is to I make one of them park to park to ride the train.

I have always bought the 1 day hopper for Uni just because we only have a set amount of vacation time.
The only reason USF comes out $2.13 more is because WDW drops the cost of the park hopper addition to $35 for 1 day tickets as opposed to $40 for 2 & 3 day hoppers, While uni charges $40 regardless of how many days.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Well, techincally it has 4. Hulk, Ice, Fire, and Hippogriff.

The hippogriff is a kiddie coaster... would you consider the Barnstormer a coaster in MK? probably not.
Ice & Fire are both part of the Dragon challenge but if you what to consider than two seperate coasters sure... 3 coasters in IOA.

 

[Bairstow]

So, again how has DA affected Uni prices? Once you hit multiple days they come out cheaper per day than most popular parks in Orlando.
Have you been to Universal before?
I'd actually say the opposite, IOA could easily been done in a 1/2 day while USF takes a full day for us. IOA only has two coasters anyway.

At least three, since the Dragons should be counted separately.
Hippogriff is... fine, I guess. At least it's nicely themed.

I've been to Universal a handful of times, including before IOA was built and after Hogsmeade.

I just don't see Universal's pricing scheme to be relevant beyond 2 days, since they're not going to be selling that many of those, just like Disney doesn't sell many 1-day hoppers.

 

[GLaDOS]

since they're not going to be selling that many of those.

Your crystal ball tell you that?

That's like saying "WDW's ticket prices are irrelevant after the 4 day mark".

 

[CinematicFusion]

We know Disney has amazing IPs at their disposal, but the question is when will we really see Disney step up and really push any of them with immersive lands, and not just one ride?
I'm truly hoping that Avatar is themed well like Cars Land in DL, TDS, or Ratatouille in DLP.
You seem to be really hopefully that Disney will step up soon. We will see...

They are stepping up now. Avatar is being built as we speak. New Fantasyland has been completed. Star Wars is happening. It won't happen this year...but over the next 6 years we are going to see some impressive stuff. Disney at 2020 is going have some WOW areas...just like Potter. But it is a long long time from now.

The Future:
1.Avatar:world of Pandora is going to be amazing just to walk through...and at night it will be Jaw dropping. That and the new night show will open up Animal Kingdom like never before. It's going to be fun. Knowing Cameron, he is going to want his rides to have detail..detail..detail. The two rides in Avatar will be impressive.
2.Star Wars is happening, it will happen, it's going to happen. It will be the crown jewel of DHS. It will be immersive, it will have an e-ticket ride.

The Present:
Disney has messed up. Not just with losing Potter to Universal.
Disney messed up not having rides open and ready from 06 to 16. In those 12 years they opened or will have opened 6 new rides in 4 theme parks. That is totally unacceptable. Between 07-16, not one was a huge e-ticket mouth watering style attraction. I'm not counting walk-thru, shows, restaurants, stores, refurbs. I'm talking rides. True, things can change and something could be announced tomorrow, but until then...
The Rides are:
2006: Expedition Everest. Solid E-ticket Great Ride
2007: Nothing
2008: Toy Story Mania
2009: Nothing
2010: Nothing
2011: Nothing
2012: New Fantasyland: Little Mermaid opens (I like new fantasyland for it's target market)
2013: Nothing
2014: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Solid family coaster for Fantasyland Crowd
2015: Nothing
2016: Nothing
2017: Avatar:World of Pandora Opens. (I'm assuming two rides here. One e-ticket, one d-ticket on level of seven dwarfs mine train. Family friendly with amazing theme)

I feel your pain. Disney has 4 parks in Orlando. Out of those 4 parks 6 rides have been built in in 12 years. It's why everyone is upset.

Universal on the other hand has created 7 rides in 8 years at two parks. 3 would be condidered solid E-ticket and I'm not including future projects from 2016-2017 that will open at Universal. Is Kong an E-ticket? don't know much on that ride.
The rides from 08-2015:
2008: Simpsons Ride
2010: Harry Potter Forbidden Journey
2012: Despicable me minion mayhem
2012: Transformers
2014: Gringotts Ride
2014: Harry Potter Train ride
2015: King Kong
It's upsetting, it's truly unbelievable. You have every right as a Disney Theme Park fan to be upset. Very very unacceptable. So, you can do something about it. Go to universal, enjoy the new rides and then go to Disney and enjoy the old classics.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Three, since the Dragons should be counted separately.

I've been to Universal a handful of times, including before IOA was built and after Hogsmeade.

I just don't see Universal's pricing scheme to be relevant beyond 2 days, since they're not going to be selling that many of those.

Okay 3, still not even close to a coaster heavy park... MK has BTMRR, Space, Splash, and 7dmt, no one considers it coaster heavy.
Even at 2 days, uni is cheaper per day.

 

[Bairstow]

Your crystal ball tell you that?

That's like saying "WDW's ticket prices are irrelevant after the 4 day mark".

It's just what I predict will and won't factor into people's vacation planning.
Universal obviously agrees with me- that's why they've built in such a precipitous drop in the per-day pricing scheme when you move from 2 days to 3.
Crack open an Orlando travel guide next time you're at Barnes and Noble. Most will advise people that Epcot and the Magic Kingdom take a day and a half to do and every other Orlando theme park takes about a day.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

They are stepping up now. Avatar is being built as we speak. New Fantasyland has been completed. Star Wars is happening. It won't happen this year...but over the next 6 years we are going to see some impressive stuff. Disney at 2020 is going have some WOW areas...just like Potter. But it is a long long time from now.

The Future:
1.Avatar:world of Pandora is going to be amazing just to walk through...and at night it will be Jaw dropping. That and the new night show will open up Animal Kingdom like never before. It's going to be fun. Knowing Cameron, he is going to want his rides to have detail..detail..detail. The two rides in Avatar will be impressive.
2.Star Wars is happening, it will happen, it's going to happen. It will be the crown jewel of DHS. It will be immersive, it will have an e-ticket ride.

The Present:
Disney has messed up. Not just with losing Potter to Universal.
Disney messed up not having rides open and ready from 06 to 16. In those 12 years they opened or will have opened 6 new rides in 4 theme parks. That is totally unacceptable. Between 07-16, not one was a huge e-ticket mouth watering style attraction. I'm not counting walk-thru, shows, restaurants, stores, refurbs. I'm talking rides. True, things can change and something could be announced tomorrow, but until then...
The Rides are:
2006: Expedition Everest. Solid E-ticket Great Ride
2007: Nothing
2008: Toy Story Mania
2009: Nothing
2010: Nothing
2011: Nothing
2012: New Fantasyland: Little Mermaid opens (I like new fantasyland for it's target market)
2013: Nothing
2014: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Solid family coaster for Fantasyland Crowd
2015: Nothing
2016: Nothing
2017: Avatar:World of Pandora Opens. (I'm assuming two rides here. One e-ticket, one d-ticket on level of seven dwarfs mine train. Family friendly with amazing theme)

I feel your pain. Disney has 4 parks in Orlando. Out of those 4 parks 6 rides have been built in in 12 years. It's why everyone is upset.

Universal on the other hand has created 6 rides in 7 years at two parks. 3 would be condidered solid E-ticket and I'm not including future projects from 2015-2017 that will open at Universal.
The rides from 08-2014:
2008: Simpsons Ride
2010: Harry Potter Forbidden Journey
2012: Despicable me minion mayhem
2012: Transformers
2014: Gringotts Ride
2014: Harry Potter Train ride

It's upsetting, it's truly unbelievable. You have every right as a Disney Theme Park fan to be upset. Very very unacceptable. So, you can do something about it. Go to universal, enjoy the new rides and then go to Disney and enjoy the old classics.

And 2015 for IOA:King Kong...
I think NFL is nice, I find it hard to feel immersed in it though. The new parts are nice but the older sections like Peter pan, IASW, and Philarmagic look out of place with NFL. The "castle gates" look random in a massive walkway... That is my personal opinion... but I think its is beautiful but I never feel transported to that place.
I can't get excited for Star Wars until we see dirt move... I would love that!

 

[flynnibus]

So, again how has DA affected Uni prices? Once you hit multiple days they come out cheaper per day than most popular parks in Orlando.

UNI's prices... like many other attractions are very front-end loaded... much more than Disney. They get their revenue on the first day ticket, and then make it extremely cheap to stay longer. UNI is not a cheap diversion... our trip after our last cruise basically cost $1000 to be there for 3days/2nights. Staying longer would be cheaper.. but that wasn't an option due to the schedule.

This coming trip.. we only have one day before we have to head home. I really want to head to UNI for the new stuff.. but it's going to be insanely expensive because we only have one day. Still torn on what to do.. wish we had more time.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

It's just what I predict will and won't factor into people's vacation planning.
Universal obviously agrees with me- that's why they've built in such a precipitous drop in the per-day pricing scheme when you move from 2 days to 3.
Crack open an Orlando travel guide next time you're at Barnes and Noble. Most will advise people that Epcot and the Magic Kingdom take a day and a half to do and every other Orlando theme park takes about a day.

Disney pricing takes a drop once you hit 4 day tickets... so your point?
My most recent trip, we did all of MK except Pooh, Peter Pan, and Astro Orbiter and ate dinner in BOG in 6 hours w/o rushing, watch the daytime castle show, seen FOF, had time to find a seat for the parade, and using FP+ If we had stopped for character M&G it may have pushed us to one full day.
Epcot is half day rides, half day walking around stores.

 

[mahnamahna101]

I thought Seascape was Jimmy? Just because I refuse to be amongest the cattle being pulled around by the nose ring doesn't make me someone else. Sorry I can think for myself.

No, Seascape is in a troll class of his own

At least, Jimmy Thick made his petty arguments intriguing.

Either way, nothing wrong with not going along with the crowd as long as you're rational about it

 

[Bairstow]

Okay 3, still not even close to a coaster heavy park... MK has BTMRR, Space, Splash, and 7dmt, no one considers it coaster heavy.
Even at 2 days, uni is cheaper per day.

If we're contemplating what the average family is actually going to buy, you can't compare apples to apples.

I doubt very seriously that many families will be buying 2-day hoppers to Universal AND 2-day hoppers to Disney. Most people would either spend more than 2 days at Disney or forgo the hopper option, since the two most popular Disney parks are all-day+ parks and there's no awesome E-ticket park-to-park experience that requires you to buy a hopper ticket.

A more likely scenario would be 2-day hoppers to Universal (really, this is what the vast majority of guests will buy) and 3-5 day base tickets to Disney, possibly with the hopper or water park option on the far end of the scale.

My point is that for most of the likely buying scenarios for the average family making a 5-6 day Orlando vacation that includes both Universal and Disney (and possibly Sea World) their tickets for Universal/IOA will most likely wind up being their most expensive tickets per-day.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

UNI's prices... like many other attractions are very front-end loaded... much more than Disney. They get their revenue on the first day ticket, and then make it extremely cheap to stay longer. UNI is not a cheap diversion... our trip after our last cruise basically cost $1000 to be there for 3days/2nights. Staying longer would be cheaper.. but that wasn't an option due to the schedule.

This coming trip.. we only have one day before we have to head home. I really want to head to UNI for the new stuff.. but it's going to be insanely expensive because we only have one day. Still torn on what to do.. wish we had more time.

Understood, but he was saying that DA is going to make UNI more expensive than other parks in Orlando. Even with the hopper added, they still come out cheaper than disney.
That was my only point.

 

[dadddio]

I think we can all agree that Iceman was the main cause of Goose's death. To this day, I cannot watch a Val Kilmer movie.

There's two O's in Goose, boys!

My take on it was that Maverick screwed up by tucking in too tight behind Iceman to try to take the shot, rather than waiting a few more seconds for Iceman to either take it or give up his line.

 

[CinematicFusion]

And 2015 for IOA:King Kong...
I think NFL is nice, I find it hard to feel immersed in it though. The new parts are nice but the older sections like Peter pan, IASW, and Philarmagic look out of place with NFL. The "castle gates" look random in a massive walkway... That is my personal opinion... but I think its is beautiful but I never feel transported to that place.
I can't get excited for Star Wars until we see dirt move... I would love that!

Noted and adjusted with King Kong. Yeah..Universal is busy building. Very impressive.
You are right. Star Wars hasn't happened yet and there isn't a public time table yet. So, no reason to get excited about it.
As for New Fantasyland. I have 2 year old twin girls who love Disney and I'll be a very happy Daddy walking through fantasy land with them. Agree continual updates need to happen with the older Fantasyland.

 

[Bairstow]

Disney pricing takes a drop once you hit 4 day tickets... so your point?

The drops are indicators of what the park anticipates to be the most likely length(s) of stay.
As you follow the pricing scheme from 2 days to 4 and 7 and beyond, you can draw conclusions about the popularity of certain lengths of stays based on the percentage of the drop in price to add an additional day.

 

[flynnibus]

Universal obviously agrees with me- that's why they've built in such a precipitous drop in the per-day pricing scheme when you move from 2 days to 3.

Universal's pricing is the same for all tickets beyond 2 days.. +$10/day

They have two full parks... discounting the second day to trivial cost would be leaving money on the table. They know most people would entertain one park per day, so the other days are teasers to extend their stay beyond 2 days.

I expect this to change before too long.. the resort will easily be able to justify longer than 2 days. They might leave the tickets cheap tho as a loss-leader for the hotels.