Disney has four parks and two water parks to show they can 'deliver the goods'. Disney is not building at the same pace as Uni right now because they simply don't have to.
And while the powers that be on here may not like the new fantasy land, the masses seem to be very happy with it. I don't remember being able to walk on to the 'underwhelming' SDMT, an I'm pretty sure there are lengthy waits for the princesses. I won't even get into BOG, another underwhelming failure in sure.
Well, considering how low capacity all of the NFL sans Mermaid are, I'm not at all surprised by the 2-4 hr waits
WDW visitors are also desperate for anything remotely new at this point.
It's not wrong though, Disney is not struggling.
It's funny because my wife gets it right off the bat. It's not a competition between Dis and Uni. They're two totally different markets.
Uni is all about thrills and macho and testosterone.
Disney is all about Pixie dust and princesses and larger than life kiddie rides and characters.
Despicable Me (you don't know how many teen girls adore the Minions...)
Shrek (very four-quadrant)
Barney (the exact opposite of macho
)
Fievel (see Curious George)
Curious George (preschool friendly... not macho in the slighest)
Woody Woodpecker (just a classic toon)
Animal Actors (just animals playing games... nothing macho lol)
DR. SEUSS (on par with the Disney classics for timelessness)
Beetlejuice (very flamboyant... not really macho lol)
Harry Potter (a lot of women love this franchise)
Dudley Do-Right (way too goofy to be macho IMO)
The Simpsons (pretty unisex... something for everyone)
E.T. (one of the most four-quadrant films of all time)
Universal has options to increase female/kid appeal too:
- SpongeBob
- My Little Pony
- Dora
- Nintendo
- Scooby-Doo
- Hello Kitty
- Sesame Street (buy out SeaWorld/Busch and get the rights already!)
- DreamWorks
- Wicked/Oz
- Sherlock/Doctor Who (both have surprising amounts of female appeal)
I'm sure I'm missing some others, but Universal is not pure testoterone... Disney also isn't pure girly-girl (most of Epcot, most of DHS, all of AK, 30% of MK)
Says who?
My wife is impressed, my kids are impressed, Disney wallets are impressed. You're not happy with what they're doing, I think they could do so much more than they do.
Guess what? We might just be wrong here.
Sounds like a positive to me. Disney spent tons of money building the massive advantage they currently have. How did Universal allow themselves to fall so far behind? Why weren't they building long before now?
9/11 and the recession happened... after their Potter gamble, they decided to use the profits to rebuild the parks... obviously, that's working as of 2015!
Disney has only truly added 5 attractions across the entire resort from 2005 to present day. In terms of actually expanding the attraction count of the resort, they've only TRULY added 1 attraction: Everest. Soarin' replaced Kitchen Kabaret. SDMT replaced Scary Adventures. Mermaid replaced 20K. TSMM replaced Millionaire.
No they don't, but until recently, Uni had nothing like Potter either. As for Spider-Man, yeah it's cool but it doesn't overwhelm me. Uni seems very much aimed at one demographic. Im just saying it's the wrong one.
All I'm saying is personally I mor my family would plan a Florida trip solely around Uni. Not many people I know would. While the boys like Uni, they're just as happy (almost as happy, being honest) going to Canada's Wonderland and riding the Guardian or playing at Planet Snoopy.
Again, there is NOTHING like Disney. It's my opinion, take it for what it's worth. I would venture that it's one shared by many of the unwashed from outside the boards too.
Spider-Man is leaps and bounds ahead of anything Disney's done since ToT/Indy stateside. JttCotE and Mystic Manor equal Spidey as far as overseas.
Marvel has significant female appeal. You wouldn't believe how many women love the MCU. To be honest, I'm glad Universal doesn't focus primarily on little kids. They've found their bread and butter: families with kids 8 and up, adults not blinded by Pixie Dust, teenagers, college kids.
I agree IOA and USF each need 2-3 all-ages dark rides added to them. Some smaller kid-friendly additions throughout would help as well. But Universal isn't Disney and it never will be. They cater best to people who actually want to be excited while on a ride as opposed to just watching their kids be excited while they're bored to tears. Jim Gaffigan's description of Disney as it is now is probably accurate lol. There's a lot of parents who feel the same way but simply don't know what Universal has to offer.
Will it? Or will there be another group of young boys and gals who are addicted the all the little stuff the mouse throws their way?
I agree it shows with Uni, but they're still ignoring a huge demo. One where most sucker daddies such as myself tend to spend most of our money.
Pretty sure the kids that experience FJ and Spidey are going to convince the other kids (6 and up) to go to Universal. Outdated AAs, broken special FX and declining customer service is tampering the WDW experience. Disneyland and Tokyo Disney are still amazing, but they're not Orlando.
Honestly, Uni could easily cover each kid demo:
- Boys (5-9): TMNT, Star Trek, Skylanders, Pokemon
- Girls (5-9): MLP, Hello Kitty
- Preschool: Sesame Street (just buy out Busch), Dora
- All-Ages/Genders: SpongeBob, Scooby-Doo, Mario
Uni appears to be expanding its demographics with each passing year, so who knows whether they'll still ignore kids by 2025?
