Yes that one is on Lake Underhill road. It caused controversy a few years ago because they built a Public OCPS school right in front of it's gates. That one isn't for flight simulators, its another components facility. But I agree I never got why they built all that crap around the facility. I mean Lockheed has been in Central Florida since the time McCoy Air Force Base was founded. Way before Disney even thought about building theme parks.
For the record I am not looking at this from a stupid point of view. I am saying as someone who has an MBA in Hospitality currently working on his Phd in the subject, that this would be the first time any major theme park resort company would ever do that. As for what they had in plan it was a theme park devoted to a boy wizard. Vivendi didn't have the vision to proceed the project, sold the land, and now the wizarding world is in the two current parks. Now I am not saying this as a complete ignorant a-hole, but as an expert and employee in the industry, along side other experts, it's not in the best of interest for Universal to invest in the project. Build a park somewhere out of Orlando. Dubai fell for everyone, because of the drop in price of oil and instability in the region. But another universal park somewhere in the western hemisphere would be a huge move for them. I just do not see from an economic point of view, universal building outside it's current borders. Anyways this was dated November 18, it's Decemeber 10 I haven't heard from my friends who work at Universal that anything has happened. Anyone who works at Universal know if it's happened yet?
Building a park a few miles from another isn't exactly unprecedented. WDW's parks are separated by more distance than this, I believe it's about 7 miles from MK to DAK. Yes they own the land in between but that doesn't really matter, Disney seems content to bus their guests past wilderness and hotels this wouldn't be that different. Disney also had plans for the Disney Sea park which would have been an even greater distance from their existing resort. Many people including myself didn't think Universal would build the expansion to their HP land in a completely separate park, after all no other theme park resort had ever done anything like that. Universal obviously seems to be ok with pushing the limits of what is normal in the theme park business. If Universal is serious about purchasing this land I think there really is no doubt at all that they would build another park, they would be crazy not to with that much land.
Could have not said it any better myself. This isn't just a oh this land is available lets buy it type of thing. Orlando has grown so much since Universal built up to what it is today. Had they kept this land years ago and built a third park, it would have been better. Today there are simply way to many things to do, go and see, and eat. Not that I think it wont happen it's the same thing the industry sees.
I think there is very little doubt that Universal would connect these two properties. In an ideal world they would manage to get some sort of elevated rail transportation, however lets just assume they use buses. These buses aren't going to stop anywhere in between so local businesses aren't going to benefit from this travel between the two areas. There is effectively no difference at all between this and traveling between MK and DAK. Both Disney and Universal have businesses nearby to lure people off property, the key factor is creating benefits to keep people on property. This is why we have extra magic hours and free express passes. Using Disney as an example staying between the major centers of activity is not more appealing than staying closer to the parks, by your logic Port Orleans would be more desirable than the Contemporary or Boardwalk because it's located between parks rather than very close to one of them. In Universals case it would certainly be better to be at the existing hotels or new hotels on the new land, one or two parks are right next door and the others are a short bus ride away as opposed to needing transportation to both. I really think if Universal moves forward with this they will be able to create a seamless resort experience, and yes it will take a little more out of the box thinking that what is normally taught in hospitality schools.
Come on.
Would you care to explain the difference? Only thing I can think of is what you see out the window isn't Universal owned, and that can easily be remedied who say's the bus has to have windows. DME buses have small windows obscured by the wraps and TV's to draw your attention for this very reason.
There are plenty of non Disney buses operating on Disney property, in fact Lynx, the one you mentioned operates on Disney property.
I-4? These properties are both located on Universal Blvd., this is the road known for not having the traffic issues of International Dr. or I-4. Most guides will tell you to use this road as a great travel tip. I would expect a bus ride between Universal North and South to take less time than MK to DAK. And yes I've sat in traffic on Disney property, BVD near DTD and Seven Seas have both been rather bad lately.
Just looked at the map- you're right. For some reason I was thinking the property was west of I4- but sure enough, its right there on Universal.
Maybe they give us a nice screen based attraction bus ride w/o windows. That way we can have a warmup for all the attractions we'll be going to.
They mostly transport from Disney to non Disney locations, I'm really not sure what point your trying to make.
That is after all how the road got it's name.Just looked at the map- you're right. For some reason I was thinking the property was west of I4- but sure enough, its right there on Universal.
Maybe they give us a nice screen based attraction bus ride w/o windows. That way we can have a warmup for all the attractions we'll be going to.
That's no minor difference. There are plenty of legitimate Universal-versus-Disney debates to be had, but the fact that Disney has a single contiguous footprint for all of its parks and resorts (with enough room to expand and keep it that way) is not a point to be argued. It's an undeniable advantage that Disney holds. People talk a lot about the Disney "bubble" and its contribution to the escapism of a WDW vacation and that simply wouldn't be there if you were criss-crossing over 535 and 192 every day. You mentioned DME, but there's a HUGE difference between traveling through the "outside" world once at the beginning and the end of your vacation versus every single day to get to a quasi-off-site resort.
I'm not denying that having contiguous property isn't an advantage. I'm simply saying that Universal can mitigate that advantage quite a bit. At the end of the day your still taking a bus between locations. Most people aren't paying attention to whats out the windows anyway. If Universal can transport you from one location to another and not let you realize that you left Universal than they can, obviously with greater effort on their part accomplish the exact same thing Disney does.
