How will Universal's Epic Universe effect Disney?

[JusticeDisney]

You must not have ridden splash, space, mansion... The shape these rides were/ are in, yes run into the ground.

I've ridden all of them. Are there improvements necessary in the parks? Of course there are. But to say that WDW has been ridden into the ground is laughable.

Of course, by using your definition of "run into the ground" the same thing could be said of Universal. Or maybe you haven't been on the Simpsons.

 

[erasure fan1]

I've ridden all of them. Are there improvements necessary in the parks? Of course there are. But to say that WDW has been ridden into the ground is laughable.

Of course, by using your definition of "run into the ground" the same thing could be said of Universal. Or maybe you haven't been on the Simpsons.

Disney standards have been run into the ground. We can disagree and that's fine. The Disney experience is a shadow of what it once was. I'm not saying the place is crumbling at the seams. But the reason for the spending is they had to. If they really wanted to improve like you say. They would have given Tiana the ride she deserves as well as frozen. Mickey would have got his own building and great movie ride would have been updated. The list can go on and on.

 

[JusticeDisney]

Disney standards have been run into the ground. We can disagree and that's fine. The Disney experience is a shadow of what it once was. I'm not saying the place is crumbling at the seams. But the reason for the spending is they had to. If they really wanted to improve like you say. They would have given Tiana the ride she deserves as well as frozen. Mickey would have got his own building and great movie ride would have been updated. The list can go on and on.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I expect major delays on I-4 when Universal's Epic Universe opens be prepared and pack your patience's everyone it's gonna be fun in a few years in the meantime I'll visit my SIL in Sarasota and see you on Lido Beach ta ta for now

We'll see if Uni really loves their 12 hour queues to get into the park, or if they'll use their reservation system.

 

[flynnibus]

Our priorities are guest traffic and guest spend, which is why my comment mentioned attendance and skyrocketing prices. Both are up at Disney, both are up at Uni.

Casinos in Vegas love it when a new casino opens up on the Strip, it encourages people who haven’t visited for a while to come check out the new place, it results in national media exposure (free advertising for the whole city), it’s also why the casinos have worked so hard to bring in a pro hockey team, pro football team, Indy races, nascar races, rodeo, clubs, etc etc. Every one of those things is in direct competition for gaming and room dollars but the risk of losing a few dollars at the tables is more than offset by more people coming to town with wallets full of cash.

But these situations are not that similar. Casinos love the traffic generation - because so much of their business is opportunistic. More people in town == better for the casinos period. Because people can walk right in the door of a casino for free.. and people walking down the street in front of the casino is fresh meat for the casino to lure. Casinos love the entropy in the city - because they can easily tap into it. Someone can decide on a whim to hit up the tables at Wynn.. and the Wynn can lure people dynamically and people can change plans pretty freely.

That's not the same scenario for WDW or UNI -- because they are not drop-in or low commitment venues. They also don't feed on foot traffic. Sure it's better to lure someone who is already considering being in Orlando... but the ability to mix and match, especially adhoc, is critically different for a bubble destination like WDW and USO vs your example.

10 years ago Disney got 84% of 60 million yearly visits, now they get 75% of 80 million visits. Their percentage is down but they’re still getting more people through the door and those people are spending far more.

I could add average ticket price, average room price, and average food price over the last decade to further argue my point but we all know they’re all way up so it seems redundant.

Mixing in prices here is just a distraction. To your point about visits, the question would be is the delta between what Disney would have gotten on their own during that same period. No one praises the overall market growth when trying to face losing market share.

Reality is they have lost market share to a growing competitor. A competitor that is quickly trying to compete on a larger scale, taking more and more of the limited vacation time the target market has.

Disney can take solace in the fact they appeal to a wider demographic, but they will also more feel the void that a stronger UNI resort can cause. Eventually Disney is going to have to concede that spend, or try to lure it back.

 

[TalkToEthan]

a whim to hit up the tables at Wynn.

The Wynn on a whim..........for the win

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

That's not the same scenario for WDW or UNI -- because they are not drop-in or low commitment venues. They also don't feed on foot traffic. Sure it's better to lure someone who is already considering being in Orlando... but the ability to mix and match, especially adhoc, is critically different for a bubble destination like WDW and USO vs your example.

We’ll have to agree to disagree because I view the two scenarios as being the same, after travelling thousands of miles to get to Orlando the 15 minute Uber ride between Dis and Uni is no more of a deterrent than the 15 minute walk from Bellagio to Caesars.

Since I’m “already in the neighborhood” I’m going to do both, currently I’d never fly across the country for Uni alone but I love dropping in when I’m already down the street in WDW, the fact that Uni keeps getting better also increases my trips to WDW because I now have 2 reasons to go to Orlando instead of 1.

 

[Andrew25]

We'll see if Uni really loves their 12 hour queues to get into the park, or if they'll use their reservation system.

We are pro reservation system now?

What is going on?!?!?

 

[flynnibus]

We’ll have to agree to disagree because I view the two scenarios as being the same, after travelling thousands of miles to get to Orlando the 15 minute Uber ride between Dis and Uni is no more of a deterrent than the 15 minute walk from Bellagio to Caesars.

It's not the distance as much as the 'barrier to entry'. High ticket prices and scheduling make it so visiting UNI or WDW are rarely 'game time decisions'. You may hitup citywalk or DS on a whim... but few are gonna say "know what, screw Chilli's tonight, lets goto Magic Kingdom instead"

You can be at Belliago and go 'this sucks, lets goto Wynn' and $8 bucks and 10mins later be at the Wynn with full reign of the place. Can't do that with WDW or USO. Those take much larger lock-in.

Since I’m “already in the neighborhood” I’m going to do both, currently I’d never fly across the country for Uni alone but I love dropping in when I’m already down the street in WDW, the fact that Uni keeps getting better also increases my trips to WDW because I now have 2 reasons to go to Orlando instead of 1.

And that very scenario is the kind that hurts Disney... you're splitting your time and resources. Notice you didn't say "Oh, I decided to goto Orlando when otherwise I wasn't going to..." or "I decided on WDW instead of UNI" -- you decided to split your available resources. Good for the underdog... bad for the default (WDW).

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

And that very scenario is the kind that hurts Disney... you're splitting your time and resources. Notice you didn't say "Oh, I decided to goto Orlando when otherwise I wasn't going to..." or "I decided on WDW instead of UNI" -- you decided to split your available resources. Good for the underdog... bad for the default (WDW).

That’s exactly what I did say though, we take more trips to Orlando now because there’s more to do, instead of a 5 park day trip to WDW every other year or so we now do a 5-6 park day trip (or two) every year.

Disney used to get 5 days from us every year or two, now they get 8 and Uni gets 3-4. Uni gained 3-4 customer days, Disney gained 3 customer days.

They lost a second day at MK to Uni but gained a whole second set of days thanks to Uni.

We may be the exception but based on attendance rising at all the parks I don’t think we are.

Orlando being a better destination is a win for both.

 

[TalkToEthan]

We’ll have to agree to disagree because I view the two scenarios as being the same,

....not the same.

one place the typical visitor can readily walk in free without a financial hit and can hop to 10 other casinos if in the mood whereas the other requires $130+ per entry.

After dropping $145 at Epcot come 4:15 do you think people be like: "I've had enough of this place; let's all go up to Universal for the last 3 hours and listen to Morgan Freeman close it down at the lagoon"

 

[crispy]

Not literally, but if Disney continues to take away what made them unique in the past then deciding between Universal and Disney will no longer be a matter of preference. It'll be a logical decision with a logical answer, universal is by far the superior of the two so go there. Because I'm sorry but TRON is no Hagrid my friend.

EDIT: unless you have very small children of course. Which is obviously not the majority.

We have traded Disney for Universal. Universal has a great product. We don't have to make a theme park reservation to visit Universal. We don't have to stress about trying to make a ride reservation at exactly 7am. We don't have to make dining reservations months in advance. On top of that, Universal has much better hotels, transportation (we gave up on Disney transportation years ago) and rides (Velocicoaster, Hagrid's, Mummy, Spiderman, Gringott's, Forbidden Journey, Men in Black, E.T., etc.).

The best part is that it all comes with a much cheaper price tag. We are now Universal Passholders and their hotel discounts are excellent.

 

[BlakeW39]

We have traded Disney for Universal. Universal has a great product. We don't have to make a theme park reservation to visit Universal. We don't have to stress about trying to make a ride reservation at exactly 7am. We don't have to make dining reservations months in advance. On top of that, Universal has much better hotels, transportation (we gave up on Disney transportation years ago) and rides (Velocicoaster, Hagrid's, Mummy, Spiderman, Gringott's, Forbidden Journey, Men in Black, E.T., etc.).

The best part is that it all comes with a much cheaper price tag. We are now Universal Passholders and their hotel discounts are excellent.

Yeah I mean like I said, once EU comes out I'll probably spend more time at Universal than I will at Disney. My favorite park is DAK, but it's still underbuilt, just as DHS and EPCOT are. IoA on the other hand has so many good rides they're hard to all do in a day, and it's the youngest park in Orlando. It's kind of sad, the difference. Especially when IoA is a year younger than DAK is.

 

[JusticeDisney]

Yeah I mean like I said, once EU comes out I'll probably spend more time at Universal than I will at Disney. My favorite park is DAK, but it's still underbuilt, just as DHS and EPCOT are. IoA on the other hand has so many good rides they're hard to all do in a day, and it's the youngest park in Orlando. It's kind of sad, the difference. Especially when IoA is a year younger than DAK is.

LOL, IOA is not a full day park.

 

[UNCgolf]

Yeah I mean like I said, once EU comes out I'll probably spend more time at Universal than I will at Disney. My favorite park is DAK, but it's still underbuilt, just as DHS and EPCOT are. IoA on the other hand has so many good rides they're hard to all do in a day, and it's the youngest park in Orlando. It's kind of sad, the difference. Especially when IoA is a year younger than DAK is.

It's especially sad regarding EPCOT because it wasn't underbuilt in its original incarnation (especially once Norway and Wonders of Life opened). That park had far more to do than the current version of EPCOT.

Most of those things would have needed updates/replacements by now (by a couple of decades ago, really), but the park still had more capacity in 1991 than it does right now.

 

[JusticeDisney]

It's especially sad regarding EPCOT because it wasn't underbuilt in its original incarnation (especially once Norway and Wonders of Life opened). That park had far more to do than the current version of EPCOT.

Most of those things would have needed updates/replacements by now (by a couple of decades ago, really), but the park still had more capacity in 1991 than it does right now.

What’s the net loss in attractions from then to now? I am trying to figure that out and I keep stumping myself, lol.

 

[BlakeW39]

LOL, IOA is not a full day park.

LOL are you insane, it's more of a full day park than the magic kingdom is. For me it's a two day park, because it's barely even possible to get to all its E-tickets in a day.

 

[JusticeDisney]

LOL are you insane, it's more of a full day park than the magic kingdom is. For me it's a two day park, because it's barely even possible to get to all its E-tickets in a day.

You should be more efficient then. Or maybe spend less time in Seuss Land. Or maybe save up and splurge for an express pass. It’s a half day park if you’re walking slow.

More of a full day park than MK, bwahahahahahaha! Now you’ve lost all credibility.

 

[crispy]

LOL, IOA is not a full day park.

Alternative thought: Universal doesn't make you jump through hoops to ride their rides so the average person can ride most big attractions other than Hagrid's just by showing up at the gate with a valid ticket.

If you are indicating that there isn't a lot to do at IoA, I don't know what to tell you. My family can easily spend a week enjoying what Universal has to offer. To each their own.

 

[BlakeW39]

You should be more efficient then. Or maybe spend less time in Seuss Land. Or maybe save up and splurge for an express pass. It’s a half day park if you’re walking slow.

More of a full day park than MK, bwahahahahahaha! Now you’ve lost all credibility.

Your laughing only makes you look small and infantile, so I humbly suggest you stop.

Anyways, it's not up for debate. IoA has more E-ticket attractions than Magic Kingdom. And unless you're 5 the princess meet and greets and flat rides don't add to its appeal. And like I have told you in the past, not everyone wants spend money on some expensive skip the line pass and because Universal isn't price gouging its costumers, you don't have to. Not that I haven't, in the past.