Universal fans let them get away with ANYTHING.
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Portions of Kidzone closing January 16, 2023
- Thread starter ToTBellHop
- Start date
You do realize Disney has playgrounds, yes? You make it sound like this is the only activity in the entire park.
I'm personally indifferent to the retheme, mainly because it's exactly what we all knew it would be, and I'm going to use the area just as little as I had before.
Could they have poured more money into it? Yes.
Would it make any actual difference to myself and other childless guests? No. It would still be a glorified playground.
Is it any worse than what was there previously? Also no.
I think the only thing that bothers me, just on principle, is the obvious lack of foilage around the land's perimeter. Not very immersive.
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This discourse only exists in the minds of insecure Disney fans. Hardly anyone praises everything Universal does and hates on everything Disney does. It simply doesn't happen outside of a very small minority, which is quite insignificant compared to the number of people who do the opposite, and have for many years.
If Disney had replaced a meh playground with another meh playground, I would care an equally insignificant amount. Instead they're busy replacing classic attractions I actually cared about.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
I don't claim loyalty to either company, I am simply a theme park fan, yet this is the main discourse I have seen in the theme park enthusiast community for years: Universal Smart and Good, Disney Dumb and Bad. It's tedious.
This makeover is mediocre at best, and it's not a big deal, but already the "Disney always sucks" people are stumbling over themselves to excuse its mediocre-ness.
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The old playground had a water slide anyone could go on in jeans.
This is objectively a downgrade.
This is objectively a downgrade.
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
Not making any excuses for Universal, you can quote my rants on their operations team and Villain-Con lol
This is a kids land (doesn't excuse the poor design of Trolls though).
I think the right choice would have been to extend the theming of Shrek through the Trolls section, and "wait" for after Epic once more resources opened up to get better ideas/approvals for the Trolls/Kung Fu Panda areas.
In a Blue Sky world this area gets more fleshed out with a flat ride package.
This is a kids land (doesn't excuse the poor design of Trolls though).
I think the right choice would have been to extend the theming of Shrek through the Trolls section, and "wait" for after Epic once more resources opened up to get better ideas/approvals for the Trolls/Kung Fu Panda areas.
In a Blue Sky world this area gets more fleshed out with a flat ride package.
sonoma15
Well-Known Member
you know what you are right. as the #1 fan of woody woodpecker myself i am INCREDIBLY mad that they would update this land to that boring ogre SHREK and those LAME trolls. the land should've included at least 1 MAJOR dark ride and 3 new HIGHLY themed flat rides. Who wants to see a fat old sleepy panda when you can have a fantastic time throwing some rubber balls around with a curious monkey? Universal you have failed your fans again and this is why I will be going to DISNEY only from now on. I'm just so mad over this children's playground area i can't even gather the words to express it
The way Universal is treated with kid gloves combined with the sarcastic dismissiveness its fans treat any claims that they could do better are the reason Kong is in its present state. It’s astonishing to me how two world class properties charging similar rates in Central Florida are treated in such a vastly different manner. They serve overpriced garbage from literal tents at marquis events and the crowd goes wild.
They did win the crepe war. Credit where due. The strawberry Nutella crepe I waited 45 minutes for was delicious. And served from an actual building!
sonoma15
Well-Known Member
True, all the items at Disney or Seaworld food festivals are perfectly priced and served from golden palaces. It's a darn shame Universal is so far behind.
Yes, I’m sure all of us who keeping noting this difference are just crazy.
I never mentioned Sea World but Epcot’s festival booths are heavily themed and have been for years. Also cheaper and higher quality food but don’t let that impact the narrative.
Gusey
Well-Known Member
I think it's not terrible, but you could see that the flat characters were where they had budget cuts. At no point though did Universal announce they were adding rides to this area of the park, partly because of the limited pace, so not sure why people were expecting the surprise addition of dark rides and flat rides? 
sonoma15
Well-Known Member
No no, you are completely right my food festival narrative is crumbling around me. I don't know what I'll do, first the children's playground now this. I just can't catch a break
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
To be fair Disney's food booths are better priced, higher quality and offer way better service.
2023-24 Average Pricing:
WDW Food & Wine 2023 - $6.67
WDW Flower & Garden 2024 - $6.63
UOR Mardi Gras 2024 - $8.08
*Excludes any kind of beverages as Universal/Disney use different serving sizes that make it difficult to compare 1:1.
Different circumstances, but for reference, HHN 2023's average Food pricing was $8.68
Yup - I think sometimes people need to take a step back and realize what the "goal" of a project is. This is directed at children, and a quick fix to make Kidzone more relevant. Nowhere did any insiders (or Universal) suggest a massive new land with dark rides/E-tickets, etc.I think it's not terrible, but you could see that the flat characters were where they had budget cuts. At no point though did Universal announce they were adding rides to this area of the park, partly because of the limited pace, so not sure why people were expecting the surprise addition of dark rides and flat rides?
Of course. No one should have expected new rides. I’m an adult and not the target but the playgrounds seems like a downgrade while Trollercoaster is phoned in. The rest seems adequate given space constraints.
The bigger issue for me is their continued inability to improve USF. It’s jarring how weak it is when you go to IoA. EU will make it look even worse. It shouldn’t be that hard to fill warehouses with compelling attractions.
I’ll gladly just alternate between Mummy and Diagon all day, though. Thank goodness I love HP or I’d have nothing to do!
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
Don't get me wrong, I was very anti-Epic Universe when it was being rumored as I would have preferred 2 fully-fleshed out parks instead of 2 great parks and one park surviving on events and Diagon Alley lol
With that said, there are a lot of moving pieces that will start gearing up soon to get USF in a better long-term solution, quicker than most people realize.
sonoma15
Well-Known Member
I don't actually care that much about the average price of the festivals, I'm just joking and I think they are both great festivals. I've had great and terrible items at both, but as an AP holder I get a pretty sizeable discount on Mardi Gras items (20% discount with the gift card than my 10% AP discount) which I'm pretty sure makes the average price (in my situation) lower than the price of Disney food festivals, which offer no discounts.
I certainly hope that’s true, but at this point I feel like most people do toward Disney right now—I’ll believe it when I see it!
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
I think a better comparison is stuff like VillainCon - it's absolute garbage. "But it's not meant to be a major attraction!" - neither is Moana, but at least Moana is very pretty. Yet Moana was ripped apart by theme park fans and they've been mostly silent on VillainCon. Or Tron, a simple but competent E-ticket, is also ripped to shreds by theme park enthusiasts. But, you know, slapping some Minion statues on things - Smart and Good.
Exactly the snark @ToTBellHop was talking about.
Objective criticism of Universal is always dismissed or laughed at by its fans because, well, to be frank, theme park enthusiasts are largely a bunch of nerds (not saying I'm NOT a huge nerd!) who latch on to one of the two brands as part of their identity. A lot of these people (I've known tons over the course of my life so I'm not just spitballing) are the contrarian types who want to come off as more informed and more unique than the masses - thus, liking the less popular, less praised resort and bashing everything the most popular, more praised resort does falls in line with the image they want to project.
So you get things like "VillainCon fine, Tron absolute garbage". (I think Tron is an okay E-ticket).
To circle around back to Dreamworks Land, again, it's fine that it's mediocre, but it was basically a big mud pile for over a year and it seems like they perhaps could have done a little more than paint the ground and slap some 2D character cutouts around. I'd rather people just acknowledge this than be all "Well it's okay because ______." especially when this is a park that very much needs new high quality additions.