NYT: "Universal....Takes Aim at Disney"

bubbles1812

bubbles1812

Well-Known Member
jt04 said:
Tirian is not some average poster is all I will say. He is well respeted by many long time insiders here as I believe he was and may still be involved in the industry. His opinion carries tremendous weight on these boards.

Unlike me. LOL.

I am an outsider expressing my opinion. And I will keep doing so but now that Tirian has set the record straight I can cut back some. As I have been saying, Uni needs to step up. I hope they and others will. WDW desperately needs good competition.
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Did you not read my post? I said I was sympathetic to him. It wasn't like I was just dismissing his complaints about Universal. Just like I don't just dismiss peoples' complaints about Disney unlike the way you or Jimmy often seem to do. But again, one person's bad experience when millions upon millions visit each year does not make that one person's opinion the majority opinion, even if they are well respected. You dismissed everything I said, as per usual. He didn't set the record straight. It was one person's experience. Though again, I do respect what he had to say. And Uni has stepped it up...over and over and over posters have proved that. Including the insiders, the well respected ones.

jt04 said:
When I say Uni needs to step up their game I mean they need to step up their game.
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This statement is completely devoid of any meaning. Universal is already stepping up there game. You just seem to dismiss what they are doing.
 
HenryMystic

HenryMystic

Well-Known Member
jt04 said:
I have been reading Tirian's contribution above. You might want to read it too. When I say Uni needs to step up their game I mean they need to step up their game. When Tirian is happy we know it is a good product. And that will be when you can be assured the mouse will take notice.
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Like 3 new E-Tickets for Universal Studios alone in the next 3 years?
 
GLaDOS

GLaDOS

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear about Tirian's bad experience, but there are just so many things I can't help but look at funny in his post.

Spider-man not a fully fledged environment? Really? It's by far one of the best attractions ever conceived, if not the best. So I very much disagree.

And as someone who habitually eats at the 3 Broomsticks, I have to disagree that the food is nasty. In fact, it's my favorite quick service restaurant in a theme park aside from Flame Tree Barbecue. It was possibly a bad day for it, but it's usually great.

The "glorified Six Flags" comment is laughable, so I'll just ignore it.

Islands is not Disney. Nor is it supposed to be. But it can stand next to any of the WDW parks, aside from maybe the MK.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
jt04 said:
That is a good start I admit. Hopefully they will visit Radiator Springs Racers for some inspiration on how to do it right.
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Now JT, you know they dont need to do that. They'd just come away with how to over inflate the price tag.
 
GLaDOS

GLaDOS

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Now JT, you know they dont need to do that. They'd just come away with how to over inflate the price tag.
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Not to mention they can probably save their money and time and look at Spider-man and Forbidden Journey. Because those are some terrific E-tickets.
 
invader

invader

Well-Known Member
GLaDOS said:
Sorry to hear about Tirian's bad experience, but there are just so many things I can't help but look at funny in his post.

Spider-man not a fully fledged environment? Really? It's by far one of the best attractions ever conceived, if not the best. So I very much disagree.

And as someone who habitually eats at the 3 Broomsticks, I have to disagree that the food is nasty. In fact, it's my favorite quick service restaurant in a theme park aside from Flame Tree Barbecue. It was possibly a bad day for it, but it's usually great.

The "glorified Six Flags" comment is laughable, so I'll just ignore it.

Islands is not Disney. Nor is it supposed to be. But it can stand next to any of the WDW parks, aside from maybe the MK.
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And Epcot.
 
whylightbulb

whylightbulb

Well-Known Member
bubbles1812 said:
Why aren't they capable of doing that? I just don't get it. I know it's true what you just typed. They always seem to have such inflated prices for projects. What would cost Universal or a lot of other theme parks a lot less to do, Disney always seems to find a way to make it more expensive than necessary. It can't be from materials...steel is steel, wood is wood. They are going to have the same price regardless of who is buying. Do the imagineers themselves just demand pay that way more they they are worth (at this point in time)?
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The answer to this question is complicated. Basically, Universal spends about 20 to 25 percent of an attraction's development budget on soft costs (design, admin, management etc.). Disney can go up to 30 to 40 percent in some cases. The reasons, in part, for Disney's higher soft costs are R&D as well as layers of wasted management labor costs. Universal will rely heavily on "free" work from its vendors to bid on a much less developed concept design package. The vendors will have to develop these bid packages to the point that Disney would have released its bid packages (whether these bid packages are going in-house or out to a sub makes no difference). For the Universal vendors to get these design documents up to the point of putting in a decent bid they will need to dedicate some resources to flesh out the basic concepts communicated from Creative Studios in minimal drawings and beat lists etc. So what ends up happening is UC gets a lot of free design work because these vendors want the job and will develop the basic concepts to a level that they can estimate budget and schedule requirements. Disney will have already gotten that far before submitting its bid packages.

As far as red tape and bureaucracy Disney wins big time on that one. Universal has its fair share but WDI's bloated management structure and recent history of hiring lower grade talent, just because they may hold more college degrees for example (I am positive that, were he alive today, if Walt Disney himself were to apply at WDI he would be turned down), makes Disney extremely inefficient.

The fact that WDI allocates a much higher percentage of project resources to R&D also adds to their higher costs.

There are more reasons but that will give you a start in understanding the differences.
 
M

maxairmike

Well-Known Member
Not quite sure how many grains of salt to give what I just heard from my roommate who has a friend in Universal's Special Projects, but was just told this person said Transformers was coming in 13-14 months. I said I highly doubt it, but he knew about the SS44 permits and the height balloons, so there might be something reliable in what was heard even if it isn't Transformers...
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
whylightbulb said:
The answer to this question is complicated. Basically, Universal spends about 20 to 25 percent of an attraction's development budget on soft costs (design, admin, management etc.). Disney can go up to 30 to 40 percent in some cases. The reasons, in part, for Disney's higher soft costs are R&D as well as layers of wasted management labor costs. Universal will rely heavily on "free" work from its vendors to bid on a much less developed concept design package. The vendors will have to develop these bid packages to the point that Disney would have released its bid packages (whether these bid packages are going in-house or out to a sub makes no difference). For the Universal vendors to get these design documents up to the point of putting in a decent bid they will need to dedicate some resources to flesh out the basic concepts communicated from Creative Studios in minimal drawings and beat lists etc. So what ends up happening is UC gets a lot of free design work because these vendors want the job and will develop the basic concepts to a level that they can estimate budget and schedule requirements. Disney will have already gotten that far before submitting its bid packages.

As far as red tape and bureaucracy Disney wins big time on that one. Universal has its fair share but WDI's bloated management structure and recent history of hiring lower grade talent, just because they may hold more college degrees for example (I am positive that, were he alive today, if Walt Disney himself were to apply at WDI he would be turned down), makes Disney extremely inefficient.

The fact that WDI allocates a much higher percentage of project resources to R&D also adds to their higher costs.

There are more reasons but that will give you a start in understanding the differences.
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Thanks for posting that! I appreciate it. Do you see WDI management structure changing in the future? I remember hearing somewhere, maybe here, that a reorg was in the works.
 
Captain Chaos

Captain Chaos

Well-Known Member
Regarding the SS44 demolition permit, these words were caught by a member on another site, pointing to the fact that, whatever if happening to SS44 will be completed within 2 years:

Expiration date of notice of commencement (the expiration date may not be before the completion of construction and final
payment to the contractor ,but will be one (1) year from the date of recording unless a different date is specified) - 06/07/2014

Is that member of the other boards reading this right or is that June 7, 2014 date mean literally nothing as far as when this project is to be completed?
 

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