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"Old School" Universal Orlando

I feel like it doesn't help that more people are traveling to Orlando. I did some fact checking - 1990 claimed 14 million tourists, while 2017 reports 72 million. That's hecka amounts of tourists. I think we can all agree it's gotten more crowded at the parks, and sadly, ticket prices increases are one of many ways to try to remedy that.

EDIT: Some USF relevant numbers: 2.8 million visited in 1990, 10.2 million visited in 2017. (Courtesy of theparkdb)
Yes...and more than a decade ago WDW management thought theme parks in Orlando were a mature industry with little upside remaining. They sure were wrong on that.
 
Ren & Stimpy

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The band plays there, and in front of Hello Kitty's store. .
When did they play in front of Mel's? Hello Kitty is their only location as of right now and i'm fairly confident in saying that based on what I know and from what some of the Entertainment TMs that I know have said.
 
When did they play in front of Mel's? Hello Kitty is their only location as of right now and i'm fairly confident in saying that based on what I know and from what some of the Entertainment TMs that I know have said.
I've seen them play there on my visits. Perhaps they've stopped using that location recently.
 
Yes...and more than a decade ago WDW management thought theme parks in Orlando were a mature industry with little upside remaining. They sure were wrong on that.
This is exactly why I wouldn't be surprised to see Universal adding another dry park and water park soon after Fantastic Worlds, to catch up to Disney's four dry + two water. Disney could reasonably try to one up them with a fifth dry park. During this time (about ~15 years), Legoland Orlando could grow enough to be considered a legitimate competitor in the theme park industry, alongside SeaWorld. (Legoland just needs to keep building year after year, which they have been.)

That would mean Orlando could go from the current 7 decent sized theme parks, up to 11 within a relatively short period of time. This would echo the expansion Orlando saw in the late 80s to late 90s.

But I digress. :)
 
Checkout this awesome large scale fireworks show from the early 2000s



IOA 2006. Small launch in the lagoon with high level stuff in what eventually turned into HPFJ


Another, this time shot from behind MIB. "Universal can't do big fireworks" pssh


Here you can see IOA, Citywalk and USF doing a massive show all at the same time. Holy smokes.

 
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