Originally posted by SW-FL
IoA was not designed to be hidden away like WDW is (What do you think the lighthouse's bright beam at night is for) if that was the case they could have extended the big metal fence all the way around the park when they put it up so no one could see the rides. Everything there is designed to be larger than life and clearly in your face.
You're the one who doesn't get the point. The Hulk doesn't even take up 1/4 of the lagoon. The Hulk is designed to get attention, why do you think it's bright green? Why do you think the end of the launch tube is purposely over the entry to Marvel's island and then comes back under the bridge a few secs later.? To attract attention. Same for Dr. Doom's Fearfall, Ripsaw Falls, JP River Adventure, DD, and The GIANT RED and WHITE striped hat for the Cat in the Hat ride. All those and alot of other stuff in the park are designed to catch your attention.
As for all of this stuff being out of place, and breaking theme, that is your opinion.
I could use your same type of views to nitpick at MK, Epcot, and MGM by saying I can see attractions from other parts of the park. So what. Who Cares??????? I choose not to go to Disney's parks, and no one forces you to go to Universal's either.
As for IoA, if it can hold so many more people than USF, then why can't they hold the Horror Night's version of the Mardi Gras parade there?? Also why do they need to use 1 or 2 of USF's soundstages for Haunted attactions??? Wait until a good sized Fri./Sat. crowd are there, you're gonna see so many people packed together, it's gonna be a nightmare.
This is just my opinion but I think the real reason that HHN is moving over to IoA is that possibly Hanna-Babera, will be shutdown to be converted to Jimmy Neutron, possibly Kong will be shut down due to the rumor it also might be getting replaced, if my memory serves me correct last yr E.T. and everything else in the Woody Woodpecker Kidzone (except the Animal Planet Live stadium)were closed during HHN. Hitchcock is always shut down during HHN,plus even it it wasn't it would be this year since it's being changed over to the new Shrek 3-D movie. So that's the only way IoA could even come close to having the capacity level of USF.
First, let’s get some things straight. WDW is a resort and IOA is a park and as much as I’m sure you’d like to believe that seeing all of Orlando on tall rides was part of the “master plan” when they first built the thing, in reality it was a matter of what they could do with the budget they had for a park they were building right across the street (literally) from a local high school and right across the highway (literally) from tourist central, International Drive. To say otherwise would be like trying to say that those big parking garages were designed for convenience over traditional parking lots. They wanted to build hotels and they didn’t have enough land for parking and hotels. It would be like saying that Universal caters to more upscale guests because they have decided that the four (or was it five?) resorts/hotels they are building will all have moderate/deluxe rooms. The truth is that with the amount of land they have to work with, they make more money by charging more to stay on it and since economy rooms can be found within viewing distance of Hulk and the Fear Fall, there was no need for them to even bother with the less profitable group. Disney would still have more moderate deluxe rooms than Universal even if they never built another one and watched Universal complete all four or five of theirs. These kinds of comparisons are absolutely pointless. Disney always wins and it isn’t a matter of I like Disney more than Universal so they always win. They own 64 frigging square miles of land and have several of their own highway exits. Universal owns a small fraction of that in various places near International Drive. Sucks for Universal but Disney got there first when the land was cheap. Universal could have built somewhere else in Florida if they thought their resort was going to be strong enough to start a local industry instead of leaching off of Disney’s draw but they, as well as everyone else in Orlando, made their decision in regards to that when they decided to move in so the whole Disney was there first, Disney got their land cheap sob story doesn’t cut it. Universal could have built in North Florida or in an area that would have been more southern Florida. They could have bought land in Ocala exactly the same way Disney did in the Orlando area. Why oh why do we think they chose not to?
Catching your attention in the park is one thing; MIB and BTF catch your attention at USF. From outside, IOA looks like a Six Flags though. You see a big steel roller coaster and a smaller than some Six Flags and Paramount parks freefall drop. Again, with Disney TAKEN TOTALLY OUT OF THE PICTURE, I think they did a better job with USF than they did with IOA. BTF cost $70 million at the time it was built. I’d be willing to just about guarantee they got the Hulk for less than that. I’d also be pretty confident that if you remove the cost that went into the castle which isn’t really part of the ride (except for the AMAZING turn that one of the two track has near a wall
) DD came in at less than that as well. That was $70 million what? Ten or so years ago without accounting for inflation? Spiderman was a nice ride. They obviously put a lot of money into that one but that ride stands out from the rest of the park in almost every conceivable way. I mean, if you start your day on the left, the third thing you do is the climax and the rest is all a distant second. If their goal was to slap up a thrill ride amusement park they have done a really bang-up job but to call them the 1# THEME park in the WORLD when they are comprised largely of amusement park rides is a joke. Bush Gardens in Tampa Bay Florida has many similar ride systems and in the top twenty steel coasters, their two big ones on average, rate higher than IOA’s two – Plus, Montu (in bush gardens) has real theme (although sparse) they send you through Egyptian ruins on parts of the ride. They are considered a lower tier theme park – more of an amusement park/ theme park hybrid and on their newer stuff (which is still older than IOA) they do a better job with the whole theme thing.
As for the same type of views being used to nitpick Disney, have at it. They run height balloons to determine how one thing will affect everything around it before they even break ground. ToT? Next time you’re in MGM, see where it’s visible from in the park. It’s been designed to look like one of the building in France where visible in Epcot. RnR? The only place you can even see the building that houses the ride in the park is from the outside line (right about where they connect fast pass and standby lines you can look through an opening and see the “soundstage” building) and from the top of TOT when the doors open. When you see it from outside the park it has been made to resemble a soundstage. Can you see Cinderella’s Castle from Adventureland?...Can you see the Tree of Life from Dinoland or the Safari tour?..
I’m not saying that anyone is forcing me to go to a Universal park. Did I ever say that? This is a thread about IOA supposedly being the #! Theme park in the world and I’m strongly saying it’s not. Again, as I said before, I think that Universal Studios Florida does a MUCH better job with their theme than IOA does. Not JUST Disney. I think Universal themselves did better with a park that’s ten years older.
Why can’t IOA have the parade? Because the paths aren’t open around the park wide enough and tall enough to accommodate the floats. It has nothing to do with how many people the park can hold and everything to do with the logistics of running a parade. IOA was not designed to allow for parades. I don’t think USF really was either but since the area that the parade went through was themed after big city streets, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how they were able to have one there. As for USF soundstages, that’s been rumor up to this point and if they do need them, the reason is again obvious: What kind of big buildings like that does IOA have? What buildings could they put haunted houses in? Most of IOA’s attractions are weather-dependent amusement park rides with no or little in the way of buildings. They can’t shut down Spiderman to do it. There are only a few buildings that could possibly be used in IOA for haunted houses that wouldn’t put a major damper on daytime guests’ visits.
As for IOA and HHN, Universal has said from day one that IOA has a larger guest capacity. They were expecting it to become their flagship Orlando park surpassing Universal Studios Orlando. Being as how HHN is strongly geared towards teens and adults, I highly doubt that having Hanna-Babera closed had anything to do with the decision. Kong has actually been shut down the last two years that they’ve had HHN and if that closing was to be a factor, they’d have to be closing it mighty soon, wouldn’t they? I mean, October isn’t that far off. They’ve used the building for other things. ET was open (I had to go on it – I WAS forced to go on that one
- not forced to go to the park but forced to go on that ride) but the kid play area back there was shut down. Again, not a big deal since HHN isn’t marketed to families to begin with. Hitchcock is shut down because most of the people there for HHN could care less about it.
