Harry Potter IS making a difference!!

[wdwmagic]

Let's get to the part of the discussion that I care about, away from individual opinions on the quality of Uni vs Disney...

Is it your belief that Disney doesn't need to build anything to "answer" Harry Potter? That if they are just patient, the excitement over HP will fade and that in a year or two, Disney will have just as much share of the Orlando business (and merch sales) as it had before HP was ever built?

Disney will build things on their own schedule and timetable, regardless of what Universal does. I think you can see by the very presence of the new cruise ship that Disney are more concerned about losing holiday dollars to cruises than they are about Universal.

Disney will build a new E-Ticket at WDW soon enough, they always do, +- 5 years or so.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

And Im sure it'll be just super and magical.

 

[wdwmagic]

And Im sure it'll be just super and magical.

Well if we can go with something on the scale of Cars Land from DCA, or something along the magnitude of Tower of Terror, Everest or Splash Mountain, I think we'll all agree that would be super and magical

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

I think we'll all agree that would be super and magical

An agreement on an attraction? Now you are talking fantasy :drevil:

 

[T-1MILLION]

I would agree with this. Given a few years, I don't see people queueing 30 minutes just to enter a gift shop, or to see a wand demonstration. A single attraction will not hold the attention year after year. If it does, then they obviously are using magic on the guests LOL

You make it sound as if Universal will never build another attraction after this.

That being said of course the queues will not be outside the giftshops year after year...you don't need a queue outside a giftshop to be super succesful.

I would say that is a safe prediction for anything new. However years from now there will still be people in those gift shops buying many things.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

The lack of discounts on resort hotel stays seem to indicate that they are benefiting from an up turn too.

 

[wdwmagic]

You make it sound as if Universal will never build another attraction after this.

That being said of course the queues will not be outside the giftshops year after year...you don't need a queue outside a giftshop to be super succesful.

I would say that is a safe prediction for anything new. However years from now there will still be people in those gift shops buying many things.

Well based on how incredibly tight for land they are, how in debt they are, and how much they spent on Potter, I don't see anything big coming for the next 10 years.

 

[T-1MILLION]

Well based on how incredibly tight for land they are, how in debt they are, and how much they spent on Potter, I don't see anything big coming for the next 10 years.

Not Potter big (that comes around maybe once or twice a decade for any park(see ToT, Everest, Splash Mountain) The trend gets worse and worse with Etickets but Potter is the most recent big deal in the last ten years for WDW or Universal (Sorry, Everest does not compare to Hogsmeade and Forbidden Journey)

Universal now has a bigger budget to do more things. Land may be tight but they will do what they have done and replace older attractions or improve them to the mass opinion, even if it is not always my own.

 

[Monty]

Let's get to the part of the discussion that I care about, away from individual opinions on the quality of Uni vs Disney...

Is it your belief that Disney doesn't need to build anything to "answer" Harry Potter? That if they are just patient, the excitement over HP will fade and that in a year or two, Disney will have just as much share of the Orlando business (and merch sales) as it had before HP was ever built?

I'll answer in a few bits...

No, I don't think Disney needs or should build anything to "answer" Harry Potter. I think they do need to continue with their current course of upgrading, revisiting and assessing what thjey have and keeping a vision of where they want their parks to go entirely independent of what Universal does.

Market share will likely balance out over time. But there are too many variables in play to say whether Disney's share wil return to where it was, exceed or fall short. Suggesting the HP is the only factor to be considered is a very narrow view.

My feelings are based mainly on my own situation, WWOHP attracted me, they got a significant influx of cvash, but it won't continue. The question becomes how many others are like me and how many may find a hidden gem in Universal that keeps them going back? :shrug:

 

[TimeTrip]

And come on, stop pretending that Universal's theming is anywhere near the same level as Disney's, while the Wizarding World is the best as far as theming, being able to see the show building multiple times FROM THE LINE of the marquee ride is just disappointing.

I still think that IOA is the best themed park in all of Orlando. Every place you go is extremely well thought-out and richly themed with clean transitions. Universal OTOH is subpar. Some say AK is great, but I think it's a little too easy being a tropical theme so I don't think AK's theming is really that awesome. Good yes... but not great.

I can see why others might think IOA isn't the best, but to say it's nowhere near the same level as Disney's isn't being honest IMO.

 

[Pete C]

I think Universal has cemented itself for a while as a "must-do" in Orlando, but I don't think Disney needs to announce anything new for a while to try to steal their thunder. They already have Fantasyland and Star Tours 2 on the horizon. As long as they keep putting in new attractions every few years people will return again and again. Disney on the whole is such a vast and complete vacation it doesn't really need to make a huge splash like Uni does to get people's attention. However, make no mistake, Potter and whatever expansion they make to it will continue to either extend people's vacations or take a day or two away from their Disney plans for several years.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Personally (and that's ALL I present this as..my personal opinion :lol I think the theming at IoA is at least on par with Disney's "lesser" parks, like DHS and AK.

My only issue with the park is its dependence on franchises instead of more universal themes. For example, you don't get "dinosaurs" or "superheroes," you get JP or Marvel. Still perfectly fun, but it makes it a little harder to tap into the timeless well of mythology than a general theme would do. I think this is where Disney has an advantage. It's easier for Disney to shed a dated franchise in its more general lands (e.g. Zorro was a massive presence in Frontierland when DL opened) than it is for Universal with its mandatory corporate ties.

Also, the Toon Lagoon area is sadly on the verge of being horribly dated, since newspaper comic strips seem to be going the way of the dinosaur in cultural relevance.

Those gripes aside, I've read several times that IoA was designed by ex-Imagineers, and I think it shows. The park really reaches into exciting and dynamic theming in a way that I don't think US across the way matches. I'm looking forward to my first visit in several years (to see WWoHP) next month!

 

[Monty]

Personally (and that's ALL I present this as..my personal opinion :lol I think the theming at IoA is at least on par with Disney's "lesser" parks, like DHS and AK.

My only issue with the park is its dependence on franchises instead of more universal themes. For example, you don't get "dinosaurs" or "superheroes," you get JP or Marvel. Still perfectly fun, but it makes it a little harder to tap into the timeless well of mythology than a general theme would do. I think this is where Disney has an advantage. It's easier for Disney to shed a dated franchise in its more general lands (e.g. Zorro was a massive presence in Frontierland when DL opened) than it is for Universal with its mandatory corporate ties.

Also, the Toon Lagoon area is sadly on the verge of being horribly dated, since newspaper comic strips seem to be going the way of the dinosaur in cultural relevance.

Those gripes aside, I've read several times that IoA was designed by ex-Imagineers, and I think it shows. The park really reaches into exciting and dynamic theming in a way that I don't think US across the way matches. I'm looking forward to my first visit in several years (to see WWoHP) next month!

Enjoy! WWOHP is really worth seeing.

 

[redshoesrock]

I don't know if Disney really needs to do something to "answer" Universal. There's nothing Universal can really ever do to totally outdraw Disney; it's simple numbers - Disney has more of everything. And despite our groaning about how we feel standards have slipped at Disney, those slipped standards are overall still very high. The only ones that can really hurt Disney is Disney itself. If Disney's standards go down while pricing themselves out of the range of the average family, it will begin to eventually hurt them. I think if Universal can build on what they've achieved with WWoHP, they will have more people through their turnstiles than they did prior to WWoHP. Disney, however, will still remain Disney.

 

[flavious27]

With what uni is making on merchandise sales, Disney HAS to be jealous, they're selling $30 wands, $10 glasses of butterbeer, with the current bean counters in control of disney, I am sure there is jealousy that uni is making such profits off merchandise

Well how much profit does disney make off of us with the pins and mouse ears? HP has the $30 wands but disney is selling us $12- $25 ears that I think most of us will get a set every trip we go down, along with a couple of $10 pins. You can never have enough pins and ears but do you really need more than one wand? And yes I know that some people did make their own set, I have seen the pictures of $200 worth of plastic.

 

[flavious27]

They didn't really have much of a choice - that building is crammed into the only open space that area of the property had left.Then maybe Disney should stop Wal-Marting their merchandise.

And HP merch isn't? I like the fact that we can get stuff up where I am that would only be available in the parks, I am not going to drive down to FL to pickup a Monorail set. What I do not like are the tvs that disney sells, I know that there is some insane margins on them but you can only keep a disney themed room for so long with children.

 

[flavious27]

We buy our each of our kids (13 & 9) a special gift on every Disney trip we take... something special to remember the trip - some kind of souvenir, preferably something unique to that year's trip so they will see it and remember what a good time they had.

Our next trip is in May, and the kids already decided what they want. In everything we will see and do all around Orlando including all the Disney parks, my kids want... Harry Potter wands.

We plan on having butterbeer too, even though it sounds kind of gross.

Disney SHOULD be jealous. So let's go - create something new that blows our socks off!

Well all that butterbeer is is cream soda, with some extra spices and flavors. If Disney wants to tap into franchises that offer alot of merch and drink/food, there is trek, bond and lotr. If disney has the money they could have just bought out MGM before the name switch to DHS.

 

[flavious27]

An agreement on an attraction? Now you are talking fantasy :drevil:

If we can't come to an agreement on having liveries on the monorail cars, no way can their be an agreement on an attraction. Though I think an expansion of Frontierland across the inlet from Big Thunder would be cool.

 

[jstricklin94]

i really hope disney executives and imagineers are watching this thread i saw some great ideas on here. AK really could use an australia/south america area. Also please we need a fantastic, state of the art thrill ride, possibly a star wars theme in addition to star tours II. the star wars fan base is massive (much more than HP) and disney could really take advantage of that with more attractions.

 

[cheezbat]

Disney will build things on their own schedule and timetable, regardless of what Universal does. I think you can see by the very presence of the new cruise ship that Disney are more concerned about losing holiday dollars to cruises than they are about Universal.

Disney will build a new E-Ticket at WDW soon enough, they always do, +- 5 years or so.

Ok...Everest opened in 2006. Next year is 2011. That's five years. Where's our new E-ticket? Oh wait. Disney isn't building one down here. You've gotta go to the other coast to find one.

The new attractions being built in WDW are being spread out further and further nowdays. It seems we get one big E-ticket every 7-10 years now.