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IAmFloridaBorn Burg

IAmFloridaBorn

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Posted
1 hour ago, aent said:

I wouldn't be so sure. I mean, I don't think Universal Orlando will be able to surpass Walt Disney World in numbers, and beating the Magic Kingdom seems out of reach, but it seems extremely likely Universal's parks could surpass Disney's other parks in attendance. Universal has nearly doubled its attendance in the last 10 years, and is still growing faster then Disney. Infact, Universal is on pace to pass Hollywood Studios in the next couple years in attendance (which likely won't happen because of the Star Wars bump, but it shows just how close the war is)

And the rumors are Universal is really going all out to try to compete with the Magic Kingdom in the new park, with Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, LOTR possibly ALL being headliners to the Orlando park., and its supposedly being done in a way to attract the younger audience that Disney currently dominates. If Disney loses control of the #2 and 3 spot in Orlando, that would obviously be insane.

My big question is what Disney is planning with the hotels. Interestingly, each new resort they build they keep saying its a new "lower" price point, which seems to indicate they may be aware they can't win on spending per guest so they just want to compete with Disney on the raw guest count. They haven't been targeting the high end hotel market in some time. Hopefully the new park changes that, I've posted on here for quite some time (during the 23-star resort proposal) that Orlando is a market I think is starved for a new 5 star hotel or 2 or 3. Disney's constant price hikes is making it into a super-premium-luxury theme park, while Universal may be targeting being #1 of the everyday family's vacations, at least at this point, so I'm not sure how much high end hotels/shopping/etc we're gonna see.

Great points.

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jrs2
jrs2

^^ Spenser1058, you really need to do a podcast or something like that; YouTube perhaps where you're getting paid to blog.  your analysis and commentary is truly a great thing.  No BS, I mean it.

KJHburg
KJHburg

Yes I am tourist but I usually avoid the theme parks but did go to Disney Springs.  I knew they were restricting crowd size but did not know they had temperature checks in order to get in and masks we

shardoon
shardoon

We have to embrace the tourism. It allows a city our size punch up  way higher than it should. We have a huge airport, tons of nice restaurants, world class hotels......heck we just got 4 Michelin sta

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jrs2 Metropolis

jrs2

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, aent said:

I wouldn't be so sure. I mean, I don't think Universal Orlando will be able to surpass Walt Disney World in numbers, and beating the Magic Kingdom seems out of reach, but it seems extremely likely Universal's parks could surpass Disney's other parks in attendance. Universal has nearly doubled its attendance in the last 10 years, and is still growing faster then Disney. Infact, Universal is on pace to pass Hollywood Studios in the next couple years in attendance (which likely won't happen because of the Star Wars bump, but it shows just how close the war is)

And the rumors are Universal is really going all out to try to compete with the Magic Kingdom in the new park, with Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, LOTR possibly ALL being headliners to the Orlando park., and its supposedly being done in a way to attract the younger audience that Disney currently dominates. If Disney loses control of the #2 and 3 spot in Orlando, that would obviously be insane.

My big question is what Universal is planning with the hotels. Interestingly, each new resort they build they keep saying its a new "lower" price point, which seems to indicate they may be aware they can't win on spending per guest so they just want to compete with Disney on the raw guest count. They haven't been targeting the high end hotel market in some time. Hopefully the new park changes that, I've posted on here for quite some time (during the 23-star resort proposal) that Orlando is a market I think is starved for a new 5 star hotel or 2 or 3. Disney's constant price hikes is making it into a super-premium-luxury theme park, while Universal may be targeting being #1 of the everyday family's vacations, at least at this point, so I'm not sure how much high end hotels/shopping/etc we're gonna see.

great post.  I have actually felt that way about Universal, but WDW is spending $1B in projects right now.  It's a slug fest, except WDW is way ahead of universal in this game.  They've got more land- they've got secluded land, which is probably perceived as a huge plus to many tourists who want to be on a resort "campus".  The EPCOT resort area is impressive in that it connects to the the Boardwalk chain of hotels and connects to Hollywood Studios via canal.  That is similar to Universal's main campus as it is now.

What Universal needs is a "killer app" anchored 3rd theme park with connected resorts that mimics this, akin to the Magic Kingdom with the Seven Seas Lagoon chain of resorts surrounding it.  That's what WDW has in essence.  Now, WDW has really beefed up Diz Springs so that it is an even bigger draw, and it is also connected to a chain of resorts across the lake, and by skywalk to Hotel Drive hotels.

Yeah, Mario can become their Mickey.  Woody Woodpecker was just too out of date; Mickey is still on new shows and has remained relevant.  So has Mario, through the Nintendo family of IT.  That is the key I think, for Universal...Mario...to take it to the next level.

 

welcometothenextlevel.png

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bqknight Hamlet

bqknight

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1 hour ago, shardoon said:

I can only assume that Disney did not feel the need to do it. They have a HUGE intellectual property inventory to expand on as it is. 

Disney doesn't really expand outside their IPs. Everything they have on their parks is at least partially owned by Disney, right? Disney does not own Nintendo and don't think they ever will. 

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spenser1058 Gigalopolis

spenser1058

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16 minutes ago, bqknight said:

Disney doesn't really expand outside their IPs. Everything they have on their parks is at least partially owned by Disney, right? Disney does not own Nintendo and don't think they ever will. 

Actually, they did for the Disney-MGM Studios and also Star Tours both here and in Cali (they didn't own Lucasfilm back then.) And who knows, with FOX coming up next, what else Bob Iger might buy before he retires?

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shardoon Hamlet

shardoon

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9 minutes ago, bqknight said:

Disney doesn't really expand outside their IPs. Everything they have on their parks is at least partially owned by Disney, right? Disney does not own Nintendo and don't think they ever will. 

Well, they didn't own Avatar when they contracted to make the whole Avatar land....... but I guess things come in a full circle since they now will own them with the Fox acquisition. 

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aent Burg

aent

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2 hours ago, IAmFloridaBorn said:

I think the real question is why didn't Nintendo partner with Disney. They know what Disney is capable of so why not? What puts Universal in front for a close kept property like Nintendo?

Rumor has it Speilberg, Harry Potter, and now Nintendo get a percentage of the tickets for the parks they're in, that probably is a no go for Disney.

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jrs2 Metropolis

jrs2

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Personally I think that there is more allegiance to Nintendo than to Mickey Mouse- in the now, but for the stigma of MM as he is ingrained in all of our DNA because of generation upon generation of The Mouse which has permeated society.  That's Disney's advantage.  But Nintendo has been around since the early '80's, and for someone who was a kid in the '80's, that's their whole life reference.  Kind of like being a teen when The Gators had Tebow and were awesome; that's the person's frame of reference, that The Gators were great at that time.  prior to that is ancient history to them, but not to people that are older, that remember the '90's era, the '80's era, the '70's era, and so on.  So, you have a generation or two of people that remember playing Donkey Kong (I love that name), Super Mario Bros, Zelda, Mario Kart, DK Country, Metroid, etc.  That's a 20 year span of IP that casts a wide net of interest.

As for MM, you have Kingdom Heart RPG which was big, but that was pretty much it for Disney and video games.

I didn't think anyone would give a %$#@ about Avatar because the ride was too far removed in time from the '09 movie release.  what do I know?

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dcluley98 Town

dcluley98

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Drove all around town today and by the attractions area on I-4. . . and . . .

StarFlyer is Operational!  The swing apparatus went up to the top of the ride with the swings spinning off of it. Couldn't take a photo because I was on I-4 driving and traffic was horrendous due to a fully engulfed Car-B-Que.

Maybe somebody in the area down there can snap a pic or a video of it in operation. 

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shardoon Hamlet

shardoon

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Well finally found out about that land across the street from Otown West on Palm Parkway. It is dining and retail called "The Beacon." This is being build by a South Florida firm. Smart move on their part. They will get off the ground first, there is tones of residential going up in the area, and get first shot at picking off the restaurants at the soon to be doomed Crossroads.  

 

 

Beacon.JPG

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aent Burg

aent

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1 hour ago, jrs2 said:

There is an article in the OBJ from April 26 that Universal bought another 100 acres near IDrive.  Anyone know where that is exactly?

Universal did not buy any additional land since the lawsuit settlement. They changed their mass grading water district permit to include the land they received as part of the settlement, basically, they're trying to start working on getting the drainage right for the park they're planning to build.

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jrs2 Metropolis

jrs2

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1 hour ago, shardoon said:

Universal looks like they are adding land bit by bit to form one giant congruent piece. 

Universal.JPG

Is the Kirkman Rd. alignment south of SLR supposed to go to the east of Martin Lockheed's core campus so that it will border Universal's property there?

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aent Burg

aent

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1 hour ago, spenser1058 said:

Free BEER back at Busch Gardens Tampa, at least for the summer. Will it save the declining company?

Most importantly, will Sea World be next?

http://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/events/Free-beer-is-back-this-summer-for-Busch-Gardens-visitors_167803264

From the St. Pete Times

About freaking time they decided to try to bring that back. If the owners have any clue what they're doing, they need to get it back into Seaworld as well... and I say that as someone who hates beer.

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