Happy New Year, everybody! It's 2022, and today i wanna try something different than Disney ("Which i would still do those Disney Projects soon"), I decided i wanna work on a Alternative/Reimagined Version of the Universal Orlando Resort.
Since i'm a Park & Coaster Enthusiast i always loved to travel & try out different theme parks in the United States & my home Canada, Universal Orlando is also my life of being an Enthusiast Lover for Coasters & Theme Parks.
But before we get to my vision of what Universal Orlando Should look like i wanna share with you a little history of how Universal comes to Florida.
Chapter 1 - A Studio of Dreams
On April 30, 1912, The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York City. As you all know Universal Studios was founded by 9 founders who made the world classed working studio; Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane and Jules Brulatour.
On March 15, 1915, Carl Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood, California. After Carl Laemmle opened Universal City, he later invited the general public to see all the action for an admission fee of just five cents, (which also included a boxed lunch with chicken.) There was also a chance to buy fresh produce, since then-rural Universal City was still in part a working farm. This original tour was discontinued around 1930, due to the advent of sound films and the stages being not sufficiently soundproofed.
The late 1950’s & early 60’s were a difficult time for Hollywood studios. The arrival of television had weakened movie attendance and more and more productions were going on location to save costs, The grand old movie backlots were quickly becoming a thing of the past. In the late 1950’s, MCA purchased Universal, they began to look for a way to revive the old Studio Tour as part of a new image for Universal City Studios. In 1963 legendary movie mogul Lew Wasserman, then president of MCA/Universal, asked Vice President Albert Dorskind to look into the feasibility of creating a permanent tour. On June 17, 1964, the first Studio Tour opened with tickets being sold out of a temporary trailer on Lankershim Blvd. The Universal Studio Tour at that time consisted of two trams & a handful of eager young tour guides. The Studio Tour of Universal Studios became so popular, Albert Dorskind persuades MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman to invest $4 million in designing a Theme Park with trams & building food courts, parking lots and restrooms & the Theme Park opens on July 15, 1964.
Chapter 2 - Hollywood comes to Central Florida (Well Sort of)
Universal City Studios brings so much great films in the 20th Century (1920s-80s), including; some of the Universal Monster Movies, Woody Woodpecker, The Birds, The Sting, Jaws, Back to the Future, E.T., The Thing & even An American Tail. Since Universal Studios Hollywood as a Theme Park became grand as it should be that in 1982 the people from Universal City contemplated the idea of opening an amusement park in Central Florida to compete with Disney. They considered building a larger, more immersive version of their Studio Tour located in Hollywood, retaining the Backlot tour theme to set it apart from what Disney was offering at Walt Disney World. However, Universal abandoned the idea after attempts to partner with a skeptical Paramount Pictures failed to materialize. They continued to focus on their Original Universal Studios location in Los Angeles, planning an upgrade to the Studio Tour with a new, massive scene based on the 1976 film King Kong. It opened in 1986 as King Kong Encounter and became an instant hit with guests, which prompted Universal to revisit the notion of building a Florida theme park.
(The Disney-MGM Studio Tour Concept by Collin Campbell in 1986)
Unfortunately Disney build their own Studio before Universal did, CEO Michael Eisner saw the plans for the Future Movie Pavilion at Epcot, he requested that, instead of placing the ride in an already existing park, it should be the anchor for a new/Third Gate park themed with Hollywood, entertainment, and show business & in 1985, Disney and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entered into a licensing contract that gave Disney worldwide rights to use the MGM brand and logo for what would become Disney-MGM Studios (Formerly plan as The Disney-MGM Studio Tour), which included working production facilities for films and television shows, a backlot, and a satellite animation studio for Walt Disney Feature Animation, which began operation prior to the park's debut for 1989.
(Early Universal Studios Florida Aerial Concept by Bill Castle)
In 1987, Disney CEO Michael Eisner, previously the CEO at Paramount when Universal pitched their Florida park idea several years earlier, announced intentions to create their own studio backlot tour at Walt Disney World. Disney-MGM Studios, was a preemptive move to counter Universal's planned introduction into the Orlando market. Although Universal publicly announced their Florida park intentions prior to Eisner's announcement, Disney was in a better position to fast-track construction and open sooner. This forced Universal to rethink their approach and abandon the tram tour concept. Instead, they opted to build standalone attractions while retaining the overall studio backlot theme. Their projected opening day lineup would include Kongfrontation, Jaws, and the Speilberg and Alexander collaborative project, Back to the Future: The Ride. A large theme park with separate attractions was a new concept for Universal, and their creative team ran into multiple obstacles during development and testing. Among the casualties from the early troubles was the Back to the Future ride, which had its opening delayed by nearly a year originally planning for 1989 but instead it opens in 1990 after the Disney-MGM Studios opens in May 01, 1989.
The park was built for an estimated $630 million, with 50% ownership in the hands of MCA Universal and 50% belonging to leisure company The Rank Organisation. While under the ownership of Seagram, MCA Universal would again partner with The Rank Group (corporate successor to The Rank Organisation).
Chapter 2 - The Big Box Office Flop of a Theme Park & Future of USF
On June 07, 1990 Universal Studios Florida open its golden archway gates. There was a star-studded opening ceremony which included Steven Spielberg, Michael J. Fox, Bill Cosby, Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, and other celebrities of the time, as well as a live Nickelodeon broadcast. However, things went south quickly. Power outages wreaked havoc with the park’s computer systems, shutting down numerous attractions throughout the day. Most damaging, Kongfrontation, Earthquake: The Big One!, and Jaws were down for a large portion of the day. This led to the rides that were working – The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera and the E.T. Adventure – shouldering massive demand. The unmitigated disaster of an opening was similar to Disneyland’s own black in 1955. Things even got so bad that a perhaps apocryphal story spread that Spielberg and his party got stuck on a Jaws boat and had to be evacuated.
An Orlando Sentinel article from the next day began with the line “Jaws didn’t bite and Kong was anything but king as technical glitches marred an otherwise glitzy grand opening Thursday for Universal Studios Florida.” The piece only got worse, full of quotes from disgruntled guests. Universal quickly responded by offering guests refunds as well as return tickets for another day. However, this proved to be a portent of things to come.
Universal Studios Florida limped through the rest of 1990 and early 1991. However, things turned around in May 1991 with the opening of Back to the Future: The Ride. The groundbreaking simulator attraction, which used then cutting-edge Omnimax screens, was a massive financial and critical success. In addition, the ride also ran perfectly from its opening day onward, which rehabilitated word of mouth for the park considerably and led to a massive attendance bump. BTTF, as well as other additions like Fright Nights (which eventually morphed into Halloween Horror Nights) and the revamped Jaws ride set Universal Studios Florida on the path to becoming the future of another Universal City in 1991, just one year after Universal Studios Florida had opened, Jay Stein, the head of Universal Parks at the time, held a meeting with a executives and a few attraction developers. In this meeting he proposed the concept for a new theme park, one that would not only be the company’s second gate in Orlando, but as he put it, it was “going to be our number one park.” Referred to at first only as “Project X,” the plan was to move from a niche park and one-day destination, to a much broader audience, capturing more of a family’s Orlando vacation time. Universal wanted to appeal to a younger demographic with this new park called Universal's Cartoon World.
Universal's Cartoon World is notably Universal Studios Version of the Magic Kingdom Park, it was featuring Warner’s back catalog of beloved cartoon characters from Looney Tunes, Tiny Toon Adventures & Animaniacs, as well as their ties to the popular film versions of DC Comics, Dr. Seuss & even the Comic Strip Worlds of Jay Ward & King Features from Toon Lagoon. Universal's Cartoon World became a great project for Universal to move forward, However refusing to budge, and not interested in Warner Bros % royalties, the project was decided to shelve in December 1993 but Universal & its company still decided to continue on with the second gate, so the plans were re-worked. The Jurassic Park ride concept that was being designed for Universal Studios Florida but now it was moved to this upcoming second gate park & becomes as a themed land called Isla Nublar (or as Jurassic Park). It was suggested that instead of cartoons, the new park could be based on legends. Universal Monsters were considered at one point, but eventually they went with a land based on historical myths called The Lost Continent. & Marvel was approached as a way to salvage some of the DC ride concepts. All of these new ideas were added to the existing plans for Dr. Seuss & Toon Lagoon attractions they still had the rights to. Many of this park’s new lands seemed to include a lagoon of some sort so the park became known as Islands of Adventure.
In 1997, Universal opened the Islands of Adventure Preview Center at adjacent Universal Studios Florida & right next to the Kongfrontation attraction at the New York area. Opening two years before the new theme park in 1999, the Preview Center was designed to give guests a sneak peek at some of the themes and attractions for Islands of Adventure.
After the enormous capital expenditure required to build CityWalk, resort hotels & as well for Universal's Second Gate; Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in May 28, 1999, Universal sought to overtake nearby Walt Disney World in attendance. However, with the addition of the second park, new resorts, and entertainment district, the resort was named Universal Studios Escape. Essentially, it seemed that visitors were confused by the name, assuming that Islands of Adventure was a new area added to the already-existing Universal Studios Florida theme park. For the first two years, attendance did not rise as expected. By 2001, the marketing was revamped, clarifying that Islands of Adventure was indeed a second, completely separate park with new rides and attractions. Universal Studios Escape was renamed Universal Orlando Resort, and ended up being the only resort in the Orlando area to actually have an increase in attendance after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
But the future lives on to added new & excited attractions both for USF & IOA & then in 2007 with bad struggling to the Universal Orlando Resort, Universal brings out the greatest news when Universal Studios and Warner Bros. officially announce on May 31, the seventh island at Islands of Adventure, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The new land became so popular that Universal makes newer ideas for the resort & now as we come to the future of seeing Universal Orlando's Upcoming Things like Harry Potter's second land for USF Diagon Alley, Volcano Bay, New Hotels, Universal Buying Nintendo, seeing our 8th island Skull Island, Riding a Motorbike on Hagrid's & a course going on the fastest coaster in Florida that is the spectacular VelociCoaster to IOA & now in the very near future for Universal Orlando's Third Gate; Epic Universe in 2024/25, We are now seeing that the Universal Orlando Resort becomes a world classed resort in Florida since 1990.
So in the end, Universal Orlando became in my opinion a world classed resort for Orlando, Florida. Coming Soon i'm going to make my own version or as a Reimagining of Universal Orlando with maybe 2 more parks (if i could think about it), themed hotels & others that maybe i would expand when i'm done.
Until then, I would see you in the Movies. ^^
Since i'm a Park & Coaster Enthusiast i always loved to travel & try out different theme parks in the United States & my home Canada, Universal Orlando is also my life of being an Enthusiast Lover for Coasters & Theme Parks.
But before we get to my vision of what Universal Orlando Should look like i wanna share with you a little history of how Universal comes to Florida.
Chapter 1 - A Studio of Dreams
On April 30, 1912, The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York City. As you all know Universal Studios was founded by 9 founders who made the world classed working studio; Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane and Jules Brulatour.
On March 15, 1915, Carl Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood, California. After Carl Laemmle opened Universal City, he later invited the general public to see all the action for an admission fee of just five cents, (which also included a boxed lunch with chicken.) There was also a chance to buy fresh produce, since then-rural Universal City was still in part a working farm. This original tour was discontinued around 1930, due to the advent of sound films and the stages being not sufficiently soundproofed.
The late 1950’s & early 60’s were a difficult time for Hollywood studios. The arrival of television had weakened movie attendance and more and more productions were going on location to save costs, The grand old movie backlots were quickly becoming a thing of the past. In the late 1950’s, MCA purchased Universal, they began to look for a way to revive the old Studio Tour as part of a new image for Universal City Studios. In 1963 legendary movie mogul Lew Wasserman, then president of MCA/Universal, asked Vice President Albert Dorskind to look into the feasibility of creating a permanent tour. On June 17, 1964, the first Studio Tour opened with tickets being sold out of a temporary trailer on Lankershim Blvd. The Universal Studio Tour at that time consisted of two trams & a handful of eager young tour guides. The Studio Tour of Universal Studios became so popular, Albert Dorskind persuades MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman to invest $4 million in designing a Theme Park with trams & building food courts, parking lots and restrooms & the Theme Park opens on July 15, 1964.
Chapter 2 - Hollywood comes to Central Florida (Well Sort of)
Universal City Studios brings so much great films in the 20th Century (1920s-80s), including; some of the Universal Monster Movies, Woody Woodpecker, The Birds, The Sting, Jaws, Back to the Future, E.T., The Thing & even An American Tail. Since Universal Studios Hollywood as a Theme Park became grand as it should be that in 1982 the people from Universal City contemplated the idea of opening an amusement park in Central Florida to compete with Disney. They considered building a larger, more immersive version of their Studio Tour located in Hollywood, retaining the Backlot tour theme to set it apart from what Disney was offering at Walt Disney World. However, Universal abandoned the idea after attempts to partner with a skeptical Paramount Pictures failed to materialize. They continued to focus on their Original Universal Studios location in Los Angeles, planning an upgrade to the Studio Tour with a new, massive scene based on the 1976 film King Kong. It opened in 1986 as King Kong Encounter and became an instant hit with guests, which prompted Universal to revisit the notion of building a Florida theme park.
(The Disney-MGM Studio Tour Concept by Collin Campbell in 1986)
Unfortunately Disney build their own Studio before Universal did, CEO Michael Eisner saw the plans for the Future Movie Pavilion at Epcot, he requested that, instead of placing the ride in an already existing park, it should be the anchor for a new/Third Gate park themed with Hollywood, entertainment, and show business & in 1985, Disney and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entered into a licensing contract that gave Disney worldwide rights to use the MGM brand and logo for what would become Disney-MGM Studios (Formerly plan as The Disney-MGM Studio Tour), which included working production facilities for films and television shows, a backlot, and a satellite animation studio for Walt Disney Feature Animation, which began operation prior to the park's debut for 1989.
(Early Universal Studios Florida Aerial Concept by Bill Castle)
In 1987, Disney CEO Michael Eisner, previously the CEO at Paramount when Universal pitched their Florida park idea several years earlier, announced intentions to create their own studio backlot tour at Walt Disney World. Disney-MGM Studios, was a preemptive move to counter Universal's planned introduction into the Orlando market. Although Universal publicly announced their Florida park intentions prior to Eisner's announcement, Disney was in a better position to fast-track construction and open sooner. This forced Universal to rethink their approach and abandon the tram tour concept. Instead, they opted to build standalone attractions while retaining the overall studio backlot theme. Their projected opening day lineup would include Kongfrontation, Jaws, and the Speilberg and Alexander collaborative project, Back to the Future: The Ride. A large theme park with separate attractions was a new concept for Universal, and their creative team ran into multiple obstacles during development and testing. Among the casualties from the early troubles was the Back to the Future ride, which had its opening delayed by nearly a year originally planning for 1989 but instead it opens in 1990 after the Disney-MGM Studios opens in May 01, 1989.
The park was built for an estimated $630 million, with 50% ownership in the hands of MCA Universal and 50% belonging to leisure company The Rank Organisation. While under the ownership of Seagram, MCA Universal would again partner with The Rank Group (corporate successor to The Rank Organisation).
Chapter 2 - The Big Box Office Flop of a Theme Park & Future of USF
On June 07, 1990 Universal Studios Florida open its golden archway gates. There was a star-studded opening ceremony which included Steven Spielberg, Michael J. Fox, Bill Cosby, Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, and other celebrities of the time, as well as a live Nickelodeon broadcast. However, things went south quickly. Power outages wreaked havoc with the park’s computer systems, shutting down numerous attractions throughout the day. Most damaging, Kongfrontation, Earthquake: The Big One!, and Jaws were down for a large portion of the day. This led to the rides that were working – The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera and the E.T. Adventure – shouldering massive demand. The unmitigated disaster of an opening was similar to Disneyland’s own black in 1955. Things even got so bad that a perhaps apocryphal story spread that Spielberg and his party got stuck on a Jaws boat and had to be evacuated.
An Orlando Sentinel article from the next day began with the line “Jaws didn’t bite and Kong was anything but king as technical glitches marred an otherwise glitzy grand opening Thursday for Universal Studios Florida.” The piece only got worse, full of quotes from disgruntled guests. Universal quickly responded by offering guests refunds as well as return tickets for another day. However, this proved to be a portent of things to come.
Universal Studios Florida limped through the rest of 1990 and early 1991. However, things turned around in May 1991 with the opening of Back to the Future: The Ride. The groundbreaking simulator attraction, which used then cutting-edge Omnimax screens, was a massive financial and critical success. In addition, the ride also ran perfectly from its opening day onward, which rehabilitated word of mouth for the park considerably and led to a massive attendance bump. BTTF, as well as other additions like Fright Nights (which eventually morphed into Halloween Horror Nights) and the revamped Jaws ride set Universal Studios Florida on the path to becoming the future of another Universal City in 1991, just one year after Universal Studios Florida had opened, Jay Stein, the head of Universal Parks at the time, held a meeting with a executives and a few attraction developers. In this meeting he proposed the concept for a new theme park, one that would not only be the company’s second gate in Orlando, but as he put it, it was “going to be our number one park.” Referred to at first only as “Project X,” the plan was to move from a niche park and one-day destination, to a much broader audience, capturing more of a family’s Orlando vacation time. Universal wanted to appeal to a younger demographic with this new park called Universal's Cartoon World.
Universal's Cartoon World is notably Universal Studios Version of the Magic Kingdom Park, it was featuring Warner’s back catalog of beloved cartoon characters from Looney Tunes, Tiny Toon Adventures & Animaniacs, as well as their ties to the popular film versions of DC Comics, Dr. Seuss & even the Comic Strip Worlds of Jay Ward & King Features from Toon Lagoon. Universal's Cartoon World became a great project for Universal to move forward, However refusing to budge, and not interested in Warner Bros % royalties, the project was decided to shelve in December 1993 but Universal & its company still decided to continue on with the second gate, so the plans were re-worked. The Jurassic Park ride concept that was being designed for Universal Studios Florida but now it was moved to this upcoming second gate park & becomes as a themed land called Isla Nublar (or as Jurassic Park). It was suggested that instead of cartoons, the new park could be based on legends. Universal Monsters were considered at one point, but eventually they went with a land based on historical myths called The Lost Continent. & Marvel was approached as a way to salvage some of the DC ride concepts. All of these new ideas were added to the existing plans for Dr. Seuss & Toon Lagoon attractions they still had the rights to. Many of this park’s new lands seemed to include a lagoon of some sort so the park became known as Islands of Adventure.
In 1997, Universal opened the Islands of Adventure Preview Center at adjacent Universal Studios Florida & right next to the Kongfrontation attraction at the New York area. Opening two years before the new theme park in 1999, the Preview Center was designed to give guests a sneak peek at some of the themes and attractions for Islands of Adventure.
After the enormous capital expenditure required to build CityWalk, resort hotels & as well for Universal's Second Gate; Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in May 28, 1999, Universal sought to overtake nearby Walt Disney World in attendance. However, with the addition of the second park, new resorts, and entertainment district, the resort was named Universal Studios Escape. Essentially, it seemed that visitors were confused by the name, assuming that Islands of Adventure was a new area added to the already-existing Universal Studios Florida theme park. For the first two years, attendance did not rise as expected. By 2001, the marketing was revamped, clarifying that Islands of Adventure was indeed a second, completely separate park with new rides and attractions. Universal Studios Escape was renamed Universal Orlando Resort, and ended up being the only resort in the Orlando area to actually have an increase in attendance after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
But the future lives on to added new & excited attractions both for USF & IOA & then in 2007 with bad struggling to the Universal Orlando Resort, Universal brings out the greatest news when Universal Studios and Warner Bros. officially announce on May 31, the seventh island at Islands of Adventure, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The new land became so popular that Universal makes newer ideas for the resort & now as we come to the future of seeing Universal Orlando's Upcoming Things like Harry Potter's second land for USF Diagon Alley, Volcano Bay, New Hotels, Universal Buying Nintendo, seeing our 8th island Skull Island, Riding a Motorbike on Hagrid's & a course going on the fastest coaster in Florida that is the spectacular VelociCoaster to IOA & now in the very near future for Universal Orlando's Third Gate; Epic Universe in 2024/25, We are now seeing that the Universal Orlando Resort becomes a world classed resort in Florida since 1990.
So in the end, Universal Orlando became in my opinion a world classed resort for Orlando, Florida. Coming Soon i'm going to make my own version or as a Reimagining of Universal Orlando with maybe 2 more parks (if i could think about it), themed hotels & others that maybe i would expand when i'm done.
Until then, I would see you in the Movies. ^^
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