LOL - if I have to choose between COP or a bench in the middle of August...you know where I'm going.
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I think you are deluding yourself if you think you will save any money when Universal adds their 3rd and 4th gate. Just look at their price increase today. They want $169.00 for a one day park to park ticket from the ticket office during peak time and $164.00 for children. (Can anyone believe either company cares about the family of 4 or more? Only families with only children can afford it.) That is $5.00 more than Disney's one day park hopper. Both parks charge too much and don't care about the one day guest. They want the tourist. They don't even want the local season pass holders. Once Universal finishes their additions and can fill their parks with people staying in their resorts do you think they will care about those staying a day or two? No way and neither will Disney. The one area the 2 companies agree on in the international traveler who will stay 2 weeks. Look out because they will most likely get together on those guests and offer them a combined deal but for the rest of us dream on. Support the one you want and stay away from the other. Maybe one place on even years and the other on odd years but forget the idea of being able to afford both. Season Passes will cost over $1,000.00 each at both Companies parks. Forget the average person. Only employees and rich guests will be able to afford to go and that will leaves the locals to Sea World and Bush Gardens and they will be better off for it. I pay $360.00 for 2 adult season passes to Six Flags with meals, parking and water park. And pay over $1,600.00 for Disney World annual passes and tickets to MNSSHP and MVMCP. And then food on top of that. If I want to go to Universal for a day it would cost me another $340 plus tax and more for parking and food.
If DHS and DAK are to really become true full day parks more is still needed especially at DAK. This is what happens when stagnation is allowed to set in for a decade. So much that needs to be done gets piled up to the point where you don't know where to start. I probably would be able to spend a day at Epcot exploring everything I don't do normally if I went alone but that's not really the case. For most people there needs to be more things to do and some things already there need to be made better (Imagination, UoE, Innoventions, etc.)
So to you it would be bad business to try to be attractive to both locals and international tourists? You have to kick one to the curb to be successful? What happens when some event occurs that causes international travel to go way down? It has happened before and can very well happen again.
One would hope that Universal's third park could force Disney's hand to continue investing in quality products for their parks but I fear we would just get more things of the Frostrom/TSL variety rather than Avatar/SWL. That third park could very well be the catalyst that finally brings Uni above the WDW parks that aren't MK.
For better or worse, it's largely irrelevant whether the Universal parks are "better" than the WDW parks. With the exception of Harry Potter and (I imagine) Star Wars, people don't go to Orlando for specific parks, they go for a comprehensive vacation experience. WDW's "blessing of size" will always be a trump card because Universal will never be able to fill out a week-long itinerary like WDW does. They simply don't have the space to build that much stuff.
I meant attendance wise though we don't know exactly what will happen between now and the third park. Avatar could be a big boon for DAK and Star Wars obviously for DHS. Truthfully I could see Epcot falling a bit if Frostrom and Soarin' is all they've got. For Uni I could see Volcano Bay and their three parks being able to fill a week with everything that will be opening. Remember that those three parks will have way more to do for average guests than Epcot/DHS/DAK. Uni could also start building more of their attractions like Transformers and "build up" to put better use to their smaller space available. Also add whatever will be done with "CityWalk 2" if you want.
I think you misunderstood my post. I said neither Universal nor Disney really care about the locals but care about those staying on property. Look at the ticket prices they charge and the extras they give those who stay on property. Look at the massive increases in the cost of their annual passes and daily passes but the discounts for passes then expire in 2 weeks. The profits margins are higher for vacationers than locals. That is why they can charge so much more than Six Flags or Cedar Fair. As for Sea World they will wind up a regional park and not a destination park after Universal finishes with their 2 new gates. There will no longer be a reason for them to join in and offer a discount to customers who go to Sea World. Sea World is holding on with their annual passes and those taking advantage of the Orlando pass. Do you really think Universal will continue with it? They want to make more money and compete with WDW not help Sea World and Sea World will no longer offers any value to Universal. Sea World should have expanded in the past when they had the opportunity but now they have nothing and are living on the scraps of Disney and Universal.
