Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
I hope you were joking, because you're way off.
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Nobody at IOA Am I daydreaming?? lol..
- Thread starter The_CEO
- Start date
I hope you were joking, because you're way off.
Luau Cove
New Member
I think that you are , pardon me for not finding a less derogatory word: spoiled. Island of Adventure is a great park, with great attractions and great theming. You cannot compare it to Disney because it just can't be, but from that point to speaking calumny is another story. It is obvious you never visited a real poor park , an amusement park with no theme or capital at all, after visiting these you'll learn to appreciate what you've got.
-->LuAu
Maria
New Member
Now I REALLY regret not being able to go to IoA while I lived in Orlando! I´m not a fan of rollercoasters and it was just too thrilling for me to try it when it first opened. I still have my ticket though!
My friends who went there (all Disney cast members), loved it! They said that it was the best themed! The "decorations" to call them somehow, were perfect and amazing. It was said that Disney Imagineers were hired to build it and they decided to make the best themed park ever. I believe that for some reason, and if my disney friends were amazed by it, it surely means something! I saw a special on tv about a year ago, and it looked great, and when I go back to Orlando, I´m certainly going to try it!
As for the parking lot being empty.... that parking lot is huge! Maybe the other floors had a few more cars... I hope! Also, not all the tourists go there by car... keep that in mind...
My friends who went there (all Disney cast members), loved it! They said that it was the best themed! The "decorations" to call them somehow, were perfect and amazing. It was said that Disney Imagineers were hired to build it and they decided to make the best themed park ever. I believe that for some reason, and if my disney friends were amazed by it, it surely means something! I saw a special on tv about a year ago, and it looked great, and when I go back to Orlando, I´m certainly going to try it!
As for the parking lot being empty.... that parking lot is huge! Maybe the other floors had a few more cars... I hope! Also, not all the tourists go there by car... keep that in mind...
Originally posted by Maria
Now I REALLY regret not being able to go to IoA while I lived in Orlando! I´m not a fan of rollercoasters and it was just too thrilling for me to try it when it first opened. I still have my ticket though!
My friends who went there (all Disney cast members), loved it! They said that it was the best themed! The "decorations" to call them somehow, were perfect and amazing. It was said that Disney Imagineers were hired to build it and they decided to make the best themed park ever. I believe that for some reason, and if my disney friends were amazed by it, it surely means something! I saw a special on tv about a year ago, and it looked great, and when I go back to Orlando, I´m certainly going to try it!
As for the parking lot being empty.... that parking lot is huge! Maybe the other floors had a few more cars... I hope! Also, not all the tourists go there by car... keep that in mind...
The rides were walk on .................................. hehe.....
~ Justin...
David
Active Member
Do you think now that you could do both Universal parks in one day? We are planning on a 2 day visit as part of our next trip to Disney and since we have been to Universal before, I think one day would take care of both parks, especially with these crowds. Our trip is not until October so the summer attendance should not be a problem. What's the opionion out there?
When I went we did both parks in one day with no trouble at all... IOA is in a loop right.... So we walked around the park 3 times.... Then headed to U.S. and did ALL the attractions with no sweat at all... Yes it is POSSIBLE to do the parks in 1 full day..
~ Justin...
~ Justin...
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
Not to say that Kyle's statements were a little biased but yours don't seem a lot better. I had an annual pass to Universal last year an only one time out of the dozen or so that I went was it not pretty much a walk on for almost everything. Most of the time in IOA, the only attraction that wasn't a walk-on was Spiderman and it usually had no more than a 30 minute wait (not that I'm complaining about not having to wait but I can't help but wonder how they could afford to operate with such low attendance)
I would agree with what Kyle said in regards to people coming to Orlando mostly for Disney or business. I mean, Seaworld, all of International Drive and Universal all sprung up as a direct attempt to leach business off DIsney. I don't see most of that area attracting international tourism without Disney in the picture. All of what Universal has to offer in regards to the parks can be seen in two days (or one with as slow as it's been) That doesn't exactly make it the ideal tourist destination.
Universal's nighttime entertainment district isn't exactly bustling with happy crowds, either. Actually, the busiest I've ever seen that are is during a park closing and that's mostly just people who have to walk through it to get to their cars. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with this area but it seems to have trouble keeping some shops and doesn't seem to be working in spite of Universals aggressive approach at shoving it down the public's throat by making you walk through it to get to a park... I really don't know what the problem with it is - maybe it's because it's tied in too closely to the parks like it is - maybe people don't want to park in a garage half a mile away and walk to go see a movie or go to a club, I don't know but I doubt that this problem is totally unfixable.
As for I-Drive, there is a reason that they want a direct connection to Disney property with the new proposed high speed rails going through Florida and it's the same reason that Disney doesn't want the direct connection. That area built up around Disney over the years starting back to when it was just one theme park and a couple resorts. Since that time Disney has grown to something much larger that can provide enough entertainment of it's own to keep a family going for a week or more without setting foot off Disney property. If WDW had opened with the size that it is today, I'm sure I-Drive would be a much smaller affair. As it stands, the amount of people coming to the area has obviously grown enough to support both the development of Disney and the other tourist attractions in the area but Disney still manages to maintain a higher occupancy level year round in its resorts than the rest of the Orlando area which is impressive when you consider that Disney's resorts are also some of the highest priced within their markets (value, moderate, deluxe)
I've made trips to Orlando just to go to Universal, too.. Of course I only live about an hour away so it's hardly that big of a deal for me. What part of the country/world did you say that you originate from?
I can honestly say the only attraction that I was really all that impressed with was Spiderman and as cool as this attraction is the first few times you ride it, once you've ridden it several times it seems a lot less spectacular. The ending is greatly diminished once you understand how they do the "drop". You only have to look up (which doesn't seem like such a strange thing to do when your car is supposedly turned sideways) to see the unthemed ceiling to have the whole thing spoiled.
As for the other attractions: By Hulk, what do you consider the theme elements? The green and purple track?.. With the exception of the front of it, most of Dudly Doright is like an e-ticket attraction themed like an original fantasyland one. Popeye and Bluto isn't all that bad and aside from some cheap looking animatronics (especially the t-rex in the end with what looks like a plastic tarp for a neck) neither is the Jurassic Park Rive Adventure - although if you can do without the building and the crapy animatronics, you get the same thing at Bush Gardens FL. Triceratops Encounter is cute for kids but I was mad as hell after waiting 45 minutes (the first time I was there and the only time I've been there when the park was actually busy) to go in and stand there and watch an animatronic move around and ______ (granted this is for kids) Dueling Dragons has a wonderfully themed line area... Once you're on the ride though, it's pretty much the same as the Hulk in regards to theme but at least with the hulk you get a good view. The retention pond that you see from the Dragons has a little to be desired.I don't know what to say about Sinbad. I thought that the set and that theater as a whole was very very well done, I just wish that I could say the same for the show. It is full of senseless violence, with little point and the humor... Lets just say I think the people who would put this on their top ten list, are probably the same people who thought Fox's celebrity Boxing was quality television. Poseidon's furry is a mixed bag for me. The outside is obviously well done (seems awfully large for what the inside actually consists of, though) Personally, I prefer the new guide in it over the old one with the very, very fake looking beard (nothing like a 20 year old guy trying to act like he's 100 years old) but I think that the newer story and reverse use of effects, is a step backwards in regards to quality. Caroseussel? It's a carousel. There isn't much more in the way of work that went into this than you would find in a typical carousel somewhere else. Sure, the poles are curvy but there is actually less detail to be found in the animals that you ride on this one than you would find in the horses of most that you would find in other large parks... For what it is, I would say that they did a pretty good job of Cat in the Hat. I don't like the fact that they have clouds in the line area that sit just below the visible rafters and a/c ducts and I think they could have smoothed it out a little so that younger kids and older people didn't get jostled around so much but other than that it's not a bad ride.
My biggest problem with Universal (and this covers both parks) is with the upkeep. It's quite obvious that Universal in day to day maintenance, places far less importance on theme than Disney does. Visible rust stains on some of the characters on the Popeye show a definite lack of maintenance. The last time I went, in the final scene just before the drop, Popeye's neck was broken (with the head dangling against his chest) which to me at least shows that they don't consider the theme to be an important enough of a thing to maintain. I've never been able to get a pair of glasses on any of the 3-D attractions (spiderman included) that weren't either very scratched or dented (from what looked like people trying to poke holes through the lenses). Overall, their parks seem dirtier to me which is surprising since Animal Kingdom (Disney's lowest performer in WDW) draws more attendance each year than either IOA or US...
Something I found interesting was your statement about them doing it right the first time. It take a lot more than that to make and keep a good park. Just look at US. While it's easy to say that they most certainly did not do this one right the first time (based on all the breakdowns and poor line conditions that they had when they first opened) they haven't changed an awful lot since they opened. They have opened up a handful of new things ( I don't include Jaws in this list since it was meant to open with the original park) and have left everything else to deteriorate.
I don't consider IOA to be bad but I think it would be better suited for a six flags type of location. If Universal wants to take Disney head on, this isn't the park to do it with. They came out of the gait with a strong start (comparing US to MGM when they were both new) but to me, IOA seems like a step in the wrong direction if domination of the tourist dollar is what Universal is looking for. The thing I sort of ask myself is if this park were to be exactly like it is but owned by Disney, would I like it more? The truth is that I'd probably like it less. I think I'd have probably thought more of Journey Into Your Imagination if it had opened at Universal but with Disney, I expect more. Am I a little biased? Well, of course! What do you expect when you come to a WDW forum? Of course, I understand why Universal fans find themselves posting to the Universal sections of sites devoted to WDW: It's a lot harder to come across good quality websites and forums devoted to Universal Florida. Why do you suppose that is?
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
very well-said, Mr. P! Another thing...the lack of new attractions...any new park needs to constantly add new attractions (not saying disney is doing a fabulous job of this at Animal Kingdom, but after Beastlie is done, it'll have been worth the wait). As far as I know, Islands got that Unicorn...thing...not exactly the best coaster I've ever seen, and pretty much nothing else (perhaps there is a Storm ride...that I seem to remember hearing about...not sure what it is, though). Other than that...not a heck of a lot of new stuff, and the park turns 3 in may...this certainly helps to show that Universal is not making money on this park...you have to make money to invest money, and you have to invest money, to make money...big circle, which Universal seems to have fallen out of (luckily for Animal Kingdom, the other three parks can contribute a bit of their profits to turn this park into what it deserves to be). I am obviously not a Universal fan..at all...that's why I subscribe to a disney forum...I personally have trouble seeing the POINT on Islands of Adventure...what are they trying to DO? It's obvious in disney parks what they want to show guests (magic, discovery, entertainment, nature)...but as for Islands of Adventure...um...how comic books heroes, the Cat in the Hat, dinosaurs, and dragons end up in the same park, I don't know...seems like more of an amusement park than a theme park to me...like a vast improvement from Six Flags, but still Six Flags style...
MrPromey
Well-Known Member
Why don't we all continue this discussion where it belongs? 
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6494
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6494