Universal sees 4 percent drop in this year's attendance

[JROK]

My biggest Disney complaint is that they're the "King of Darkrides" yet they haven't done anything to trump Spider-Man which is by large and far the best darkride ever built... c'mon Disney! I say they replace WoL at Epcot with some freaking awesome darkride based on tornado chasing... like a mix between Dinosaur/Indy and Spider-Man... you have to wear these 'safety goggles' to protect your eyes... Awesome 3D (4D?) and a crazy ride vehicle... oh man it'd be awesome!!!

But yes, without Universal, Disney wouldn't have any competition in Florida except for Busch Gardens and that only competes with DAK... And Wet N Wild would have probably closed down had Universal not purchased it...

 

[beyondthepalace]

My biggest Disney complaint is that they're the "King of Darkrides" yet they haven't done anything to trump Spider-Man which is by large and far the best darkride ever built... c'mon Disney! I say they replace WoL at Epcot with some freaking awesome darkride based on tornado chasing... like a mix between Dinosaur/Indy and Spider-Man... you have to wear these 'safety goggles' to protect your eyes... Awesome 3D (4D?) and a crazy ride vehicle... oh man it'd be awesome!!!

But yes, without Universal, Disney wouldn't have any competition in Florida except for Busch Gardens and that only competes with DAK... And Wet N Wild would have probably closed down had Universal not purchased it...

I think Diz was trying to do that with Mission Space. It was a new dark ride technology that no one else had yet we all know reviews have been mixed about it plus all the unfortunate stories coming out of it.

I feel that DAK does not have that much competition from Busch Gardens. Yes they might be similar parks but once again there is not many guests who are willing to travel 2 hours away to see rides and animals when they do so at WDW.

Also, Wet and Wild can go away for all I care. Give me Blizzard or Typhoon anytime over that hole. I wish we would just sell it off.

 

[CTXRover]

I wonder how much WDW is up then from last year then.

During the first 3 months of 2006, WDW was UP 3% while Universal was DOWN 15 %, without the kids eat, stay and play for free promotion Universal is offering.

If UO's attendance during the first 4 months, which factors in the Easter/Spring break crowds , was big enough to "soften" that drop to 4% compared to the first four months of 2005, I wonder how much WDW's attendance could be up for that same time period.

UO is getting itself into a vicious cycle that Disney went through recently, but thankfully has been slowly reversing. Cost-cutting will only get you so far. Eventually, the park experience will suffer and attendance will continue to remain stagnant. Universal better get their acts together if they want to remain a true competitor.

 

[JT3000]

I agree there too...

Without Universal, would MGM have TOT...or RnRC.....maybe not...

Without Universal, MGM wouldn't exist in the first place.

I also fail to see how IOA was a big mistake.

 

[dxwwf3]

I also fail to see how IOA was a big mistake.

They have so little room to expand. And they haven't added anything worthwile since the park opened. And I believe that attendence has been going down year by year because of it. Also IMO the park is starting to lose its "theme park" roots and is starting to feel more like an amusement park. When it first opened, you couldn't beat the place. It was an amazing achievement. But now it feels somewhat old and dated because there have been no changes. Even if ONE major attraction had been added by now, things might be different.

Disney knows how to open a theme park. Start out with very little and constantly add to get people to come back and keep the park fresh.

 

[JT3000]

The park's current condition has no correlation with it being built though. That's no justification for calling it a "massive mistake". They simply haven't added anything, when they can. While it has less expansion room than other parks, it still has more than enough to have added something major by now.

And I'm personally glad they opened a good park to start with, rather than only having three attractions like MGM or AK. That's the cheap way to keep the park "fresh" in the future.

 

[dxwwf3]

The park's current condition has no correlation with it being built though. That's no justification for calling it a "massive mistake". They simply haven't added anything, when they can. While it has less expansion room than other parks, it still has more than enough to have added something major by now.

And I'm personally glad they opened a good park to start with, rather than only having three attractions like MGM or AK. That's the cheap way to keep the park "fresh" in the future.

speck is talking about a financial and business mistake.

 

[mousermerf]

Some areas had problems from lack of planning. The knee-jerk additions of Unicorn and Stormforce weren't good things. The decline of Mythos, the deteoriation of Suess Landing and Toon (dear lord, I don't even remember the proper name of it - that's sad because it means i stopped caring) because of cheap paint and poor structural choices, stuff like that were bad building decisions.

 

[speck76]

Without Universal, MGM wouldn't exist in the first place.

I also fail to see how IOA was a big mistake.

look at it from its original purpose (has nothing to do with its purpose as a theme park) and what became reality....it was a massive mistake.

 

[Michael72688]

Universal for some reason has a serious marketing issue. This was relavent when the opened Islands of Adventure, they didn't market it well and people didn't even know that it existed. Now their problem is just marketing the resort as a good family vacation destination, I just for the first time a few weeks ago saw a general universal commercial, as in not for Mardi Gras or HHN, on a local tv station. They need to make some serious changes to their marketing department, they have a great product, yes the parks need to be cleaned up a bit and some things need to be added, but its a shame because they should be doing much better than they are.

 

[CTXRover]

Without Universal, MGM wouldn't exist in the first place.

I also fail to see how IOA was a big mistake.

Financially, I think its difficult to argue it isn't at the very least a little bit of a mistake. Despite spending what I think was over $2 billion for the IOA/Citywalk expansions, the resort as a whole draws relatively very few additional guests as it did when it was a one theme park side-trip from Disney. The hope when it was built was to make Universal an all-inclusive resort experience that people would purposely make a trip to visit on its own merit. The hope was also to build a resort and theme park experience that would not only rival that of WDW but to directly compete and perhaps even surpass one or more of the Disney parks in attendance/profit.

Unfortunately, the resort has only been able to post a profit one or two years since the IOA/citwalk expansion opened, and as attendance for the entire resort continues to fall, it will continue to cost them financially. I'm certain the resort continues to be in debt from the IOA expansion project, in addition to the yearly profit woes.

Look at it this way, UO spent an extraordinary amount of money from day 1 to create a park that garnered near unanimous critical acclaim for a resort that attracts a little more than the nearly 10 million the Studios did on its own pre-IOA. On the other hand, Disney spent a much more modest amount to turn Disneyland into a similar two park/entertainment district/3 hotel Resort destination and despite the initial critical bashing, the resort is reaching attendance records and posting healthy profits. If UO continues to see attendance declines throughout the rest of the year, it may be very likely that DCA, the park most criticized on online message boards, could surpass IOA, a park that was once referenced as a critical achievement.

 

[Michael72688]

In the article it mentioned that UO has just lowered their debt to just about $1.4 billion. Not good :lol: but I guess if its improving then its something they can be hopefull about.

 

[speck76]

WDC has about $10.5 Billion in long-term debt.....

 

[beyondthepalace]

They have so little room to expand. And they haven't added anything worthwile since the park opened. And I believe that attendence has been going down year by year because of it. Also IMO the park is starting to lose its "theme park" roots and is starting to feel more like an amusement park. When it first opened, you couldn't beat the place. It was an amazing achievement. But now it feels somewhat old and dated because there have been no changes. Even if ONE major attraction had been added by now, things might be different.

Disney knows how to open a theme park. Start out with very little and constantly add to get people to come back and keep the park fresh.

The fact that we do not have enough room is always a constant problem. IOA rides take up ALOT of space (Dueling Dragons, JPRA, etc.) I think that currently IOA is better off NOT expanding then trying to squeeze in rides like they did for Storm and now for Seuss Trolley. UO simply does not have the land resources like WDW.

There has always been debate about starting with very little and constantly adding. DAK has added a few things sure (before Everest) but look at the land they had to use. They might of made a mistake with Dinoland but look at the area that Everest now encompasses, tons of space. UO doesnt have this unfortuntly UNLESS they get rid of the soundstages.

 

[JT3000]

The fact that we do not have enough room is always a constant problem. IOA rides take up ALOT of space (Dueling Dragons, JPRA, etc.) I think that currently IOA is better off NOT expanding then trying to squeeze in rides like they did for Storm and now for Seuss Trolley. UO simply does not have the land resources like WDW.

Nobody is asking for another Flying Unicorn. We want a good attraction that will make the most of the space. As long as that's the case, IOA needs to start expanding. It does have enough space for more large attractions.

BTW, they aren't squeezing the Trolley anywhere. It was there to begin with. You did know that... didn't you?

Look at it this way, UO spent an extraordinary amount of money from day 1 to create a park that garnered near unanimous critical acclaim for a resort that attracts a little more than the nearly 10 million the Studios did on its own pre-IOA. On the other hand, Disney spent a much more modest amount to turn Disneyland into a similar two park/entertainment district/3 hotel Resort destination and despite the initial critical bashing, the resort is reaching attendance records and posting healthy profits. If UO continues to see attendance declines throughout the rest of the year, it may be very likely that DCA, the park most criticized on online message boards, could surpass IOA, a park that was once referenced as a critical achievement.

You can't fairly compare UO to Disneyland. People go there based on the fact that it's Disneyland. DCA just goes along for the ride. Nobody would visit that park if it sat on it's own.

 

[JROK]

I say IOA needs a hardcore darkride with thrills... something like Spider-Man meets Dinosaur... :slurp:

 

[speck76]

I say IOA needs a hardcore darkride with thrills... something like Spider-Man meets Dinosaur... :slurp:

I doubt we will see that kind of money spent again at the Universal parks....especially with GE now in charge....

Mummy was $70 million for 2 rides......the budget for 1 Spiderman-type ride would be well over $100 million.....

My guess is that GE will spend the money on a cheap rollercoaster....B&M or Intamin...something that will generate headlines, but cost about $20million.....it has great ROI...and will get the gates moving...for the short term.

 

[dxwwf3]

Well I just wish SOMETHING would go into IOA. It's easy to say that the MK and MGM need some work done, and they do, but my gosh they pale in comparison to IOA.

 

[pheneix]

>>>GE will spend the money on a cheap rollercoaster....B&M or Intamin...something that will generate headlines, but cost about $20million<<<

They probably need to get UO's executive branch in order quick then, because they spent over $40 million on Suess Sky Trolley's ride system alone.

Not that GE is spending money on anything else. The parks are pretty much rotting to pieces. Anyone walked through USF lately? Sad stuff...

 

[CTXRover]

They probably need to get UO's executive branch in order quick then, because they spent over $40 million on Suess Sky Trolley's ride system alone.

Unless there is more to it than meets the eye when we ride it, they way overpaid for the ride system if that is true. Didn't ROTM cost around that much on its own? For the trolley ride, they didn't even need to build supports for the track as they have been there for the past 8 years. Off topic, but I personally don't like the look of the new coaster-style track lying on top of the old monorail track. It looks like exactly what they did...just plopped a new track on top of an old. However, that is a minor critique and it is only probably because I know what has been there for so long.