Is Disney Building Up Dhs Because Of Universal?

[RiversideBunny]

No one has yet seen exactly what Universal will do with the Harry Potter connection. They could blow it and have a bunch of medicocre attractions.

It's a real shame that Disney didn't buy into Harry Potter.
The Disney Imagineers could have done so much with it.

IMHO

 

[Legacy]

It's a real shame that Disney didn't buy into Harry Potter.
The Disney Imagineers could have done so much with it.

IMHO

It's a shame that so many former-Imagineers work for Universal Creative...

 

[normdisney]

The proof is in the figures. Universal does not hold a candle. I hope the Harry Potter helps them out. The problem they have is they are land locked and have little room for expansion. Disney still has room for another gate and two more water parks and still plenty left over.

Good luck Universal?:shrug:

 

[Legacy]

People need to stop with this whole idea that Disney needs to bring in more people than Disney. Universal knows that that is logistically impossible. All Universal has to do is make a DENT in Disney's numbers to win the year. A DENT, that's it.

Universal needs to see an increase in attendence for the investments that are WWoHP and RRR to be a win.

 

[RiversideBunny]

Here's a magical possibility-

In a few years Disney will buy Universal Florida and operate it as another park, in a relationship similar to that of Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland.

The 'Fifth Gate' could materialize in an unexpected place.

Accio Universalus !

 

[krankenstein]

Universal wants someone to take a day or two away from there Disney vacation to go to Uni and experience the additions of WWoHP and RRR. Universal isn't necessarily expecting people to come to Central Florida and only visit Universal, that is illogical. All they want is someone to take 1 or 2 days, out of there 7 at Disney, to visit Universal.

 

[hokielutz]

I'm not going to bash any one park here.... so:

First off... I don't think you can just compare DHS & Univ. as standalone "studio" parks. Both parks are park of the larger conglomerate of WDW and Univ/IOA respectively.

I will say that WWoHP is very intriguing. And when opened, I am sure Univ/IOA will get a good bump in attendance. I might be interested enough to go visit it for a day or two. The question I have is how will it be executed? From what I am hearing, just in this thread, a re-theming of two existing rides really doesn't get my motor running for a Potter world. I would hope some original attractions, or a themed Diagon Alley would be in the works. A Hogward castle would be a huge undertaking on the order of a Cinderella castle in size in order for it, speaking only for myself, to not be a disappointment. Someone mentioned earlier that Uni doesn't have much new land to work with, and space constraints will be an issue.

Now DHS, previously MGM, has definitely been lagging behind in themed attractions. I am glad to see new items are coming to the front, like the AIE and TSM. But they have been floundering in recent years. I really was disappointed with Sounds Dangerous, LMA :hurl:, and the fact that the GMR hasn't gotten any updates to its movie sets. I hope changes for these and others are coming, but we'll never know until they break ground or announce upcoming attraction closures.

Also, I disagree that the recent DHS changes are coming because of pressure from other parks. The changes are NEEDED. ToT and RnRC can't support DHS forever.

 

[marni1971]

Let`s just say Universal Studios, IOA and SeaWorld has made WDW sit up and take note

 

[JML42691]

From my standpoint, DHS is being given all the work because it really needs it, the 3 other parks are way ahead of DHS in being up-to-date up until recently. DHS needed it more than anything.

 

[krankenstein]

I will say that WWoHP is very intriguing. And when opened, I am sure Univ/IOA will get a good bump in attendance. I might be interested enough to go visit it for a day or two. The question I have is how will it be executed? From what I am hearing, just in this thread, a re-theming of two existing rides really doesn't get my motor running for a Potter world. I would hope some original attractions, or a themed Diagon Alley would be in the works. A Hogward castle would be a huge undertaking on the order of a Cinderella castle in size in order for it, speaking only for myself, to not be a disappointment. Someone mentioned earlier that Uni doesn't have much new land to work with, and space constraints will be an issue.

Take a look here. If Universal can pull off what they show in the concept art I don't think anyone will be disappointed. Don't forget you are getting a fully developed dark ride. Also, Hogwarts is supposivly going to be explorable. From what I read you will given a "wand" upon entering Hogwarts, numerous things will be activated as you use your wand around the castle.

 

[RiversideBunny]

Looks like Universal will have 'Haunted Mansion Lite' and 'Harry's Playful Spot'.

:animwink:

 

[Lucky]

DHS isn't competing with Universal. It is competing with the other 3 WDW parks.

That's right. It was the weak sister in the bunch until TSM, which was a huge upgrade for DHS. Now it's pretty much on par with DAK.

 

[ChrisFL]

I always thought DAK was the weakest park, it's still the lowest attended I think.

For those of you who think that WWoHP is going to be less than stellar, it's not going to be anything less than spectacular. It CAN'T be anything less than that. This is Universal's last, best hope for getting the attendance they expected to have when IOA first opened.

In addition to that, do you think J.K. Rowling would allow them to do anything less than a super quality environment?

Yes they are building some massive attractions and they are doing a good job of keeping them under wraps for now, besides the technology we're aware they are using.

MGM/DHS has always been competing with Universal, it's why MGM was created, and the fact that Eisner, since he was head of Paramount, hated Universal and always wanted to beat them.

 

[KevinYee]

I used to be pretty incredulous that people would visit Orlando and stay at the Universal Resorts for their whole visit, with no interest in visiting WDW at all. As a big Disney fan myself, that seemed inconceivable to me. Yet, lots of folks do it. (And Uni hotels give you their version of FastPass for free, something most folks in their parks don't have unless they pay).

Reflecting on that, it makes me think Wizarding World probably will make a pretty big dent in Disney's attendance. If DHS does bulk up with more to Pixar Studios and especially if they court George Lucas to move in in a big way, the competition would get ugly! (meaning: we customers would win huge on both fronts).

 

[krankenstein]

I used to be pretty incredulous that people would visit Orlando and stay at the Universal Resorts for their whole visit, with no interest in visiting WDW at all. As a big Disney fan myself, that seemed inconceivable to me. Yet, lots of folks do it. (And Uni hotels give you their version of FastPass for free, something most folks in their parks don't have unless they pay).

True, I myself have done this 3 times in the past. They were actually really enjoyable trips, a great change of pace from the typical Orlando visit.

 

[CaptainMichael]

Universal brought in Blue Man Group as competition for Cirque du Solei. It's a seperate ticket and the Sharp Aquos Theater is part of CityWalk, not the Studios themselves.

The closing "competition" for the American Idol Experience is Rising Star, a new kareoke bar that opened in CityWalk a couple of months ago. Rather than singing with a track, the people selected to perform sing with a live band and backup singers. Plus, since it's a kareoke BAR, there is drinking and it has a different atmosphere and audience than AI will have. However, since you go without entering a park it's not really direct competition.

Rip, Ride, Rockit, the new coaster going into the Studios, is a new mainline draw for the Studios themselves, and will probably be more competition for Seaworld's new Manta coaster than anything at DHS. Granted, RRR is (most likely) going to make RnRC look like a mouse-coaster when comparing "music coaster" to "music coaster."

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (not "Potterland" ), IS going into IoA rather than the Studios. However, much like Everest was the main draw for all of WDW Resort, WWHP is going to be a huge draw for Universal as a whole, not just the Studios. Yes, Dueling Dragons and the Flying Unicorn are just getting rethemed (Triwizard Cup and Hagrid's Hipogryph.... but the Kuka Robocoaster attraction (you know... the one Disney wanted by now can't get for ten years) is being built and will probably rival the Adventures of Spiderman attraction in terms of shear awesomeness. Throw-in a (rumored) fully-explorable Hoggwarts castle, and you have something that WILL get people's attention.

Frankly... Disney had better thinking about Universal right now. Starting the end of this year, the theme park competition is going to start getting down-right insane.

Thanks for already taking care of this.:wave:

 

[captainkidd]

I love the theming and feel of DHS, but after spending a weekend at Universal back in March, there's no comparison. Universal has better attractions, and more to do. They use their space much better than DHS.

That being said, I would take MK, Epcot or AK over any Universal park any day of the week.

 

[Legacy]

I love the theming and feel of DHS, but after spending a weekend at Universal back in March, there's no comparison. Universal has better attractions, and more to do. They use their space much better than DHS.

That being said, I would take MK, Epcot or AK over any Universal park any day of the week.

Watch out.

That's borderline heretical around here.