Why so much hate for Uni and still such devotion to WDW?

TubaGeek

God bless the "Ignore" button.
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BryceM

Well-Known Member
I'm neutral. I love both WDW and UOR. However, I do believe Islands of Adventure and Disneyland (which I was lucky enough to experience for the first time a few days ago) to be the two best theme parks I've ever stepped foot in.
 

jw24

Well-Known Member
I've visited to WDW and Uni and while I prefer Disney over Uni overall, I haven't been back to Uni since 2004, where I understand, a lot has changed. I think the reasons why there is so much hatred is that some people, I don't mean all, feel that everytime you criticize Disney and praise Universal, they may think you're a bandwagon fan/traitor and/or drinking the Universal Kool Aid so to speak. In other words, they may think you're a Universal fan, assume you never actually went there and possibly remark you're just saying the things you're saying to insult or berate Disney so to speak. Is it wrong for them to do? Absolutely. Nothing is worse than getting hurt when someone calls you out for not being a true fan.

Other than that, the only way I can try to explain all of this is to use the best sports analogy I can think and how it relates to Disney and Universal. In England, in the top division, there are two big clubs in Manchester: Manchester United and Manchester City.

I'll start with Manchester United. They are one of the top soccer clubs in the entire world with countless trophies, had quality players like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo and a team expected to win the league title every year. United is like Disney in many ways. They both are considered and expected to be the "best" in their areas of expertise, they have a big worldwide fanbase beyond their home city and in terms of birth, they came first before their arch-rival arrived. But even so, Manchester United, like Disney, has gotten criticism from the financial point of view. Manchester United has a boatload of debt as their biggest problem while Disney is criticized for not investing enough in their theme parks and cutting costs.

Now let's look at Manchester City. For years, they were the little brother so to speak to Man U. They were not as famous, struggled to win trophies (It took them 44 years to win the top division title since they last won it the mid 60s!), relegated to the lower divisions of English soccer a few times due to poor play, but they have a loyal fanbase who stayed with them both good and bad. But when the new owner from Dubai came along in 2008, everything changed. All of the sudden they were adding and signing more expensive players and competing to win titles and trophies. They actually won the title two years ago and it was even sweeter that they did on the last day of the season when their rivals were on the brink of winning it. What was just the other Manchester club is now a more recognizable brand beyond Manchester and gaining new fans all around the world. There's more history than that but it's just a quick story.

Now how does that relate to Disney vs Uni? Man United fans hate City not just because it's their local rivals but also, because they feel, "They were nothing before the Dubai owner came along". Sound familiar? There are some Disney fans who feel that Universal was nothing and not relevant before Harry Potter came along. That argument is debatable, yes, but the HP expansion did put Universal back on the map and gained more recognition. Nowadays, it's the City fans who are mocking the Utd fans because they stole the title two years back and as of now, they are in better position to win the league title this year while United are in a bad spot and have struggled. (Manchester United though did have a new manager/head coach appointed when the old one, Sir Alex Ferguson retired.) Uni fans are now mocking and if applicable, reveling Disney's drawbacks for several reasons. Butterbeer, superior attractions, poor TDO management, employee behavior, etc. This, in turn, aggravates the Disney fans/diehards so much and everything I stated above will certainly be done by some Universal fans.

Bottom line, what makes a rivalry a rivalry is one superior side thinking they should have the entitlement of always winning and dominating and view their biggest arch-rival as inferior and weak while the deemed inferior side hates the superior side for bragging, boasting, always succeeding and in turn, the "inferior" side gets angry, gets more motivated to succeed and they do their best to work even harder. When one side wins, it only makes the opposition even more angry and more bitter. I know when it comes to fandom, especially sports, we only want our team to succeed and our biggest rival to fail and fail miserably. It's not so much the case in regular consumerism in terms of deciding brands for household products, cars, restaurants, TVs, etc. But it's just really hard for most of us to even think of seeing two of anything succeed in today's society and culture and when it comes to fandom of theme parks, wanting both Disney and Universal to succeed is almost like wanting you and your ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend to have a happy life. That's just how I see it.
 

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
Well said! I also think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that a lot of current Uni fans are former die hard Disney fans. But because of Disney's lack of adding impressive new attractions while pricing out some of us former die hard fans, we are thrilled that another operator is providing new exciting attractions while keeping resort rates reasonable.
 

biggreen19

Member
Flight of the Hippogriff is a coaster with a height limit/and size limit. It is also a coaster, and not every member of a family will ride a coaster.
LOL! I can ride pretty much any type of Roller Coaster, or any ride that does not have repetitive motion, but any kind of spinning ride gives me motion sickness. So, If I apply your logic, some people cannot ride repetitive motion rides like Dumbo or Tea Cups, so I guess Dumbo and Tea Cups are not family rides......LOL!
 

The Crafty Veteran

Active Member
I don't hate Universal, I just don't feel the need to visit their parks. Being older and sporting glasses worse than the late Harry Carey, because Disney will pick me up and take me back to the airport is huge in my destination decisions.

I also don't care for the thought of putting any more of my money into Comcasts pocket after the years of terrible customer service I endured.
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
I love both. I don't care about those who prefer Disney over Universal, or those who prefer Universal over Disney. That's not going to influence my decisions on visiting either park. I'm going to continue to visit both.

What I find funny is the Disneyland/Universal Studios Hollywood fans don't hate/dislike the other. Most fans have passes to both.
 

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
I love both. I don't care about those who prefer Disney over Universal, or those who prefer Universal over Disney. That's not going to influence my decisions on visiting either park. I'm going to continue to visit both.

What I find funny is the Disneyland/Universal Studios Hollywood fans don't hate/dislike the other. Most fans have passes to both.

Yeah...you need to understand that msny east coasters are pretty much biased toward one resort or the other. They can't have an open mind about going to ALL the parks.
I was a Disney fan first, but Universal opened my eyes and I love hitting all kinds of amusement and theme parks. I want Disney to succeed. I want Universal to succeed. I want Sea World and Busch Gardens to succeed. I want Legoland to succeed. Why? The competition and success brings new attractions in which case us, the park visitors win! (For whatever reason the diehard WDW fanbois can't get that through their thick skulls!)
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Yeah...you need to understand that msny east coasters are pretty much biased toward one resort or the other. They can't have an open mind about going to ALL the parks.
I was a Disney fan first, but Universal opened my eyes and I love hitting all kinds of amusement and theme parks. I want Disney to succeed. I want Universal to succeed. I want Sea World and Busch Gardens to succeed. I want Legoland to succeed. Why? The competition and success brings new attractions in which case us, the park visitors win! (For whatever reason the diehard WDW fanbois can't get that through their thick skulls!)

I completely understand. I grew up going to Disneyland, Knott's, Magic Mountain and a trip to Sea World. My parents never took me and my siblings to Universal because apparently we never asked. I personally think that's BS. My first trip to Universal Studios was back in 2010. I was very impressed, especially with the studio tour (I'm a huge movie buff).

I want everyone to succeed as well. I don't get why so-called fans want other theme parks to fail. It makes no sense to me.
 
Also I HATE that you can see big ugly show building for basically every Universal attraction. With all the giant facades they built for new Potter, they couldn't build a few extra to cover the ride building for the new gringotts ride? I also never knew that Hogwarts castle was attached to a big,ugly white building. It was never mentioned in the books or seen in the movies. :p

You can see plenty of show buildings all around Disney! This would be my favorite example. Right behind Mainstreet next to the bathrooms on your way to Tomorrowland Noodle station you can see this! An un-themed show building with dirty dusty vents, exposed pipes and electrical wires everywhere. It doesn't matter. I'm a big theme park fan. I know every corner of every show building can't be themed all the time. It's impossible to cover every sightline. I walk past this all the time and it doesn't destroy the beauty and magic for me and a random building themed to a Soundstage at a Movie Studio park shouldn't destroy the magic for you. I think we can all agree on this right?
mainstreet2.jpeg
mainstreet1.jpeg
 
Also I HATE that you can see big ugly show building for basically every Universal attraction. With all the giant facades they built for new Potter, they couldn't build a few extra to cover the ride building for the new gringotts ride? I also never knew that Hogwarts castle was attached to a big,ugly white building. It was never mentioned in the books or seen in the movies. :p
You won't even notice it when the project is done. There will be a burm with a bunch of trees blocking the view.
 

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
I don't really hate Universal, it's just I've never been there and am therefore, at this point, loyal to Disney. I however, am not going to bash Universal when I know next to nothing about it. Simple fact: It hasn't been financially viable to go there yet. Being AP holders and DVC members, at this point, WDW works for us financially. I also would only go to Uni in the winter when it's more comfortable for walking around, and right now I go with a friend in the winters until I'm done with college because of when breaks fall. Not going someplace unfamiliar when it's just us, for now. Eventually? Yeah probably. For now, I still enjoy WDW and will keep going. But I'm not going to bash Uni when I know nothing about it.
 

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