Universal Announces Texas Resort

JT3000

Well-Known Member
I think IOA is subjectively in running for the best park in Orlando, so doesn’t need massive swaths of investment unlike the studios. But there is quite a bit more room than you allude to. There’s room for a marvel E-ticket, a Seuss landing expansion (possibly more with back stage, but without removing really anything). Both Toon Lagoon (Rip Saw Falls / theatre) with somewhat pressing need for a land retheme and the entirety of lost continent. That’s before they really even have to pull a Disneyland and create more space. All of the above from my knowledge has been bandied about in the last decade or so internally.
There's nowhere to put another Marvel attraction unless you remove the Toon theater and have Marvel annex that area, and even then I'm not sure that's enough space for an E-ticket.

There's space next to Cat in the Hat that could be considered an expansion pad, basically the only one left, but I've just about given up hope of them actually using it for that purpose.

I know Toon Lagoon has a lot of haters, but it's not getting rethemed any time soon. It's just not. They've been predicting it for years, only for nothing to happen. Frankly it doesn't even need a retheme. No, it's not the most culturally relevant theme for a land, but it's also not "MUST RETHEME IMMEDIATELY" material. Universal doesn't seem to care much about their themes being considered "outdated" either, given the fact that a brand new park will have an entire section dedicated to black & white monster movies, and you better believe people will be saying the exact same things about that land, no matter how good it is. Replace the Toon theater with a Rocky & Bullwinkle ride, like they should've done a long time ago, and maybe make some much-needed upgrades to Ripsaw Falls' onride theming, and the land is good to go for the foreseeable future IMO.

I will be sad to lose Lost Continent's theming, but with Poseidon being all that's left, it needs to go soon. Will it actually? With so much on their plate elsewhere, also doubtful. Especially with the predicament of them likely wanting to keep Mythos. I'm sure they'll get around to it eventually, but not as soon as anyone wants or predicts.

Creating more space at IOA would be very difficult, and essentially impossible anywhere but north of Hogsmeade. Disneyland ran out of space initially because it had a train going around it, which they worked around (or under, to be more accurate.) IOA is nearly surrounded by a service road, with external roads just on the other side of that. So there's literally nowhere for the park to expand on most sides. Even expanding the park north of Hogsmeade would require removing a number of backstage services... and possibly a gas station (which Universal doesn't own.) Unless someone works at Universal and has an intimate knowledge of that particular backstage area and what it's used for, I don't think we can begin to guess at how likely they are to move things around for park expansion. And then there's the cherry on top, the Hogwarts Express cuts right through the area in question. No moving that.

So yeah, people underestimate how much a new park was needed. It's possible the new backstage area at Epic will clear up some space at the current parks, but I'd guess nothing too substantial given the actual layout of things. And even then, that's a consequence of a new park going there.
 
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Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
It seems like he is a good dude and has done a great job so far with Indiana beach. It seems like a pretty big risk to buy a park taking care of so many animals though. At least there is hope for this park. The region really has enough visitors that having a pretty substantial park should be sustainable.
I think the plan is get away from the animals eventually. Turn it into a regular park.
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
There's nowhere to put another Marvel attraction unless you remove the Toon theater and have Marvel annex that area, and even then I'm not sure that's enough space for an E-ticket.

My understanding was it the area behind Doctors Doom's Freefall and to be fair I think was planning to remove that, or Storm Force, or both?

Someone else can correct me on that. It had to do with that flying Iron Man patent.

And for the record I'm not saying any of these things needed to be prioritized (or will be) over Epic Universe. Just was correcting that there could be a 10-15 year pipeline of projects for IOA and USF before they ran out of things to do. From what I'm kind of aware everything I mentioned has been bandied about internally and then scrapped for other things.

Personally as I said IOA is in a great state to welcome a third gate, whereas USF is a mess.
 
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J4546

Well-Known Member
I feel like Universal prob wont invest much more into the marvel themed area. If anything, I could see Disney acquiring the rights to the characters and that area being completely rethemed.
 

MagicHappens1971

Well-Known Member
I think IOA is subjectively in running for the best park in Orlando, so doesn’t need massive swaths of investment unlike the studios. But there is quite a bit more room than you allude to. There’s room for a marvel E-ticket, a Seuss landing expansion (possibly more with back stage, but without removing really anything). Both Toon Lagoon (Rip Saw Falls / theatre) with somewhat pressing need for a land retheme and the entirety of lost continent. That’s before they really even have to pull a Disneyland and create more space. All of the above from my knowledge has been bandied about in the last decade or so internally.
I don't think Uni can build another Marvel attraction without Disney's permission.
 

JT3000

Well-Known Member
Disney will get the rights when Comcast goes bankrupt :)
They would likely sell off Universal and stick to their core business if that were in serious danger of happening, so not even then. 😄 The only way Disney acquires the Marvel rights is by acquiring Universal itself. Otherwise it's just wishful thinking for those who want to see it happen.
 

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
The more I reflect on this the more I think it’s directionally incongruent with Disney. I think Universal is getting ahead of it that it is a different product entirely. I just don’t think Disney would ever be able to create something like this (which is not a statement on capability and costs, which is a separate issue). You can’t launch a Disneyland with all the headliners stripped out of it and market it just towards little kids. Uni sort of can get away with it as their main parks never really served this demographic correctly.
I very much agree, and think Hong Kong Disneyland is something of a testament to Disney's difficulty in building 'regional' parks. In that case, they tried to build a Magic Kingdom on a more modest scale for a more local market but struggled to avoid people comparing it to the parks in Tokyo and elsewhere and branding it a lesser Disneyland. That's part of the reason I never thought that concept would work for markets like Australia as exactly the same thing would always happen in any market where people were familiar with Disney parks.

For whatever reason, the Disney brand also doesn't seem to really translate to regional entertainment venues or resorts without the whole theme park or cruise ship experience attached. That's where I am kind of curious about how this Storyliving by Disney concept will turn out as I'm not entirely convinced people see what they associate with the Disney experience as something to be integrated into day to day life.
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
I very much agree, and think Hong Kong Disneyland is something of a testament to Disney's difficulty in building 'regional' parks. In that case, they tried to build a Magic Kingdom on a more modest scale for a more local market but struggled to avoid people comparing it to the parks in Tokyo and elsewhere and branding it a lesser Disneyland. That's part of the reason I never thought that concept would work for markets like Australia as exactly the same thing would always happen in any market where people were familiar with Disney parks.

For whatever reason, the Disney brand also doesn't seem to really translate to regional entertainment venues or resorts without the whole theme park or cruise ship experience attached. That's where I am kind of curious about how this Storyliving by Disney concept will turn out as I'm not entirely convinced people see what they associate with the Disney experience as something to be integrated into day to day life.

Yes exactly. Even HKDL launched with a fireworks spectacular, Space Mountain and a rather plussed Jungle Cruise. All of which I think might be a bit bigger than what this Uni park is going for. They can launch a destination resort but have it driven by regional crowds (HK Disneyland and Tokyo Disney), but they’ve backed themselves into a destination corner. HKDL is supposedly finally seeing regional support, but that’s also because it’s actually a fairly good product these days.

Now I totally believe they can pull off regional experiences, but it can’t really be a regional amusement park without setting an expectation. Even still something like Aulani is still a ‘destination’.

Anyways, I await the results of this for Universal. Which I don’t think is a bad decision for them necessarily if they can set the correct expectations. Outside Orlando though, other companies are sort of gunning for Disneys space though, like royal Caribbean.
 

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
Now I totally believe they can pull off regional experiences, but it can’t really be a regional amusement park without setting an expectation. Even still something like Aulani is still a ‘destination’.
I am kind of curious as to whether Disney sees Aulani as a success. I have never been there, but it looks like a high-quality experience to me and I think I would book a few nights there the next time I end up in Hawaii. My impression, though, was that it was very expensive to build and didn't sell well as a DVC.

Anyways, I await the results of this for Universal. Which I don’t think is a bad decision for them necessarily if they can set the correct expectations. Outside Orlando though, other companies are sort of gunning for Disneys space though, like royal Caribbean.
Having been to the Sentosa Island Universal Studios in Singapore which seems to have been well-received, I get the impression Universal does have reasonable leeway to operate smaller parks in local markets without the weight of expectations faced by Disney. I suspect, as others have mentioned, though, that the Las Vegas horror venue is a more profitable concept.

I do have the same sense that Disney has to worry more about alternative vacation destinations beyond Orlando such as Royal Caribbean than regional attractions, one of the reasons they really need to correct the perception of the rapidly eroding value of a Disney vacation. I'm not sure that phenomenon will even necessarily drive their core market to Universal Orlando as much as it will send them somewhere else entirely for their vacations.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
very much agree, and think Hong Kong Disneyland is something of a testament to Disney's difficulty in building 'regional' parks. In that case, they tried to build a Magic Kingdom on a more modest scale for a more local market but struggled to avoid people comparing it to the parks in Tokyo and elsewhere and branding it a lesser Disneyland.
Part of the problem with Hong Kong Disneyland is that its expectations were not consistent. While part of the Disneyland Asia project was looking for potential areas for smaller projects, it was also a fishing expedition with Shanghai as its white whale. Once the project settled on Hong Kong the promise was for a much bigger park. Disney got Hong Kong to commit to developing infrastructure for a larger park and initially announced a much larger park.

Having been to the Sentosa Island Universal Studios in Singapore which seems to have been well-received, I get the impression Universal does have reasonable leeway to operate smaller parks in local markets without the weight of expectations faced by Disney.
Universal Studios Singapore is not owned and operated by Universal. Its purpose is not as a stand-alone attraction but to diversify the offings of Resorts World Sentosa. The park is also about twice the size of the reported Texas park and hotel.
 

AnotherDayAnotherDollar

Well-Known Member
Haven't posted on this forum in a long, but just wanted to chime in here.

I think this is a tremendous, aggressive move by Comcast and Universal. In line with Roberts goal of overtaking Disney. Texas is a great opportunity for major theme park lands and this is a great first step. Right now Texas only has SeaWorld in San Antonio and SixFlags in DFW. I am a bit confused by the choice for DFW though. I believe a bit south in the Austin area would be better. Yes there are more people in DFW, but it also gets way colder there than it does in Austin.

Excited to see how this will play out either way.
 

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
Haven't posted on this forum in a long, but just wanted to chime in here.

I think this is a tremendous, aggressive move by Comcast and Universal. In line with Roberts goal of overtaking Disney. Texas is a great opportunity for major theme park lands and this is a great first step. Right now Texas only has SeaWorld in San Antonio and SixFlags in DFW. I am a bit confused by the choice for DFW though. I believe a bit south in the Austin area would be better. Yes there are more people in DFW, but it also gets way colder there than it does in Austin.

Excited to see how this will play out either way.
This kids park is 20 minutes away from a legoland. I'm pretty sure they did the demo research
 

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
Haven't posted on this forum in a long, but just wanted to chime in here.

I think this is a tremendous, aggressive move by Comcast and Universal. In line with Roberts goal of overtaking Disney. Texas is a great opportunity for major theme park lands and this is a great first step. Right now Texas only has SeaWorld in San Antonio and SixFlags in DFW. I am a bit confused by the choice for DFW though. I believe a bit south in the Austin area would be better. Yes there are more people in DFW, but it also gets way colder there than it does in Austin.

Excited to see how this will play out either way.

San Antonio also has Six Flags Fiesta Texas, plus Schlitterbahn is just up the road from SA in New Braunfels (also with a location in Galveston), and we have Kalahari Resort Round Rock up here near us living in northwest Austin.
There have been rumors here in central Texas since I was in HS (I graduated in ‘80) that Disney was gonna’ build a resort here in the central Texas area.
I also related same in another thread regarding the weather in north Texas vs. central Texas. Many more colder days up there, so it struck me as kind of an unusual choice, as well.
So yes, either way, I’m glad it’s coming to Texas, as, hopefully, we’ll make some weekend runs up there with our 2 young granddaughters…!!! :)
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
This kids park is 20 minutes away from a legoland. I'm pretty sure they did the demo research
It’s a Legoland Discovery Center, not a Legoland Park. They’re small mall-based attractions described as “The Ultimate Indoor LEGO Playground.”

There have been rumors here in central Texas since I was in HS (I graduated in ‘80) that Disney was gonna’ build a resort here in the central Texas area.
Disney did seriously look into building Texposition. Not a park or resort, but a festival center mall.
 

Coaster Lover

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I am a bit confused by the choice for DFW though. I believe a bit south in the Austin area would be better. Yes there are more people in DFW, but it also gets way colder there than it does in Austin.

If I had to guess, based on similar parks of similar size in similar regions, the target attendance of this park is likely <1 million guests per year. I think that should be easily attainable in the region they are building.
 

TalkToEthan

Well-Known Member
but Texas has huge tourist destinations along the Gulf Coast and in and around Austin and San Antonio

"huge" ???

I just can't give you that one as a justified description

Huge tourism is found in places like:
Orlando
NYC
Vegas
Los Angeles
London
and especially Paris and Bangkok

Perhaps places like San Fran, Rio and Dubai on the second tier.

Texas gulf would be like 4th tier, dare I say 5th.
 

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