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Universal Orlando Resort Expansion (Part 1)

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Guys, its not something you will see in any quarterly reports. Of course there will be an increase in attendance and revenue. They will not show each days projected rate of attendance or sales in comparison with the actual figures.

The same guys saying that the area is under expectations (which, again, is NOT a bad thing) are the same ones who said the land and ride were behind schedule...interestingly enough, that wildly unpopular "rumor" turned out to be true, despite what our more vocal members had to say on the matter. So I trust what I hear and see. If you dont, thats understandable but its not something that I'll force upon anyone. But just to be clear:

1. I never suggested the expansion was a flop, so if youre counter to anything Ive said on the subject are capacity figures or attendance numbers, youre not actually arguing the point.

2. The original point was whether or not the inability to meet Universal's wild expectations would hinder the ambitious expansion plans, and the news that Kongs budget was increased suggests otherwise, so the topic is pretty much finished anyway. Go ahead with whatever other things there are to talk about...
 
FWIW everything I've heard is that we see two Universal Parks lead the World in attendance increase over LY.
 
No, that was speculation on my part before the thing opened...I took it right back as soon as I was proven wrong. Nice try though :thumbs:

EDIT: I was snooping around about info for Diagon and found someone who seems to agree with me and looks to be quite high up in the theme park community...http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=35993&start=10660

If you dont know what youre talking about don't blindly agree or disagree, please.
Tyler: Your Transformers posts were indeed a month after the ride was opened as Disneyhead stated, not before (see Transformers update with your posts). Your complaints on Transformers were almost identical to your Diagon alley posts. Heh, I see some of your points but if your sources are the same as last year, they may not be very reliable, that's all I'm really trying to say. Nothing personal, since I think you bring a lot of positive discussions to light on other topics.
 
^if you had enough free time to go all the way back and dig up those posts, you also would have seen how in July (which was the month business picked up) that I admitted I was wrong.

Im not going to force anyone to believe me. Although, its weird, if I was to say the same thing about Disney (which I cant because I dont know anything about their figures or projections) then Im sure nobody would say boo, even if I was completely talking out of my ass.

I have greatly enjoyed my time posting here but its gotten to the point where even the scantest trace of negativity said about Universal (even though its not negative as I have pointed out and explained 1000 times already) is met with blind disagreement and even some hostility.

Maybe a TM will come and back me up, maybe not. Until then, continue believing that posts that say "attendance is up" and "the capacity is greater" are hard evidence that expectations are being met. In any case, Im over trying to defend whats been reported from Universal's management.
 
^if you had enough free time to go all the way back and dig up those posts, you also would have seen how in July (which was the month business picked up) that I admitted I was wrong.

Im not going to force anyone to believe me. Although, its weird, if I was to say the same thing about Disney (which I cant because I dont know anything about their figures or projections) then Im sure nobody would say boo, even if I was completely talking out of my ass.

I have greatly enjoyed my time posting here but its gotten to the point where even the scantest trace of negativity said about Universal (even though its not negative as I have pointed out and explained 1000 times already) is met with blind disagreement and even some hostility.

Maybe a TM will come and back me up, maybe not. Until then, continue believing that posts that say "attendance is up" and "the capacity is greater" are hard evidence that expectations are being met. In any case, Im over trying to defend whats been reported from Universal's management.
That post of yours was from later in July more than a month plus from the soft opening. , and you continued to to post the same comments for a few weeks after that. You keep changing your story. Those posts were so fresh in my mind since they were so outlandishly wrong that it only took a minute or so to find them. You are taking this too personal. The only reason I keep posting is that you're all over the map on your explanations and your comment to Disneyhead which was completely wrong.
 
It's a tough discussion to join as I have no insight to operations at UOR. Maybe someone is not that good at projecting targets, maybe they believe in stretch goals?

Now if the 'dump' store is falling short, how often do they adjust targets? Are targets based on traffic from from the ride that is doing the dumping running at 100% capacity? Was the target adjusted when they learned they could not run at 100% capacity?

Is the shortfall just some stores? I mean it might be more successful than projected (as a whole) if they are over on higher margin items...I mean if they make more profit from ice-cream, water, food, stuff like that wouldn't it still be very successful if they beat on items with higher profits while they mis on lower margin items?

But yes, it would be very hard to see what is working and what is not from quarterly results. I was last in the parks the day the wall came down (so before anything opened)...this was about a week or too earlier than when I had visited a year prior for the pass holder preview for Transformers (normally I would not visit in June or July). Now what I saw was early entry for IOA was more crowded than I have ever seen, so I felt this to mean CBBR was doing well...so that should be adding to profits and guest spend...but it could be that when we were up their last year, we did early entry and USF for the pass holder pre-view, but IOA was way more crowded than USF on that trip, but this could have been because Mardi Gras was still happening, so maybe folks hit USF later in the day.

But I guess I am just saying I think this summer is going well for UOR
 
^ They don't just write it off as falling short and put on a sad face. They try ways to fix the failing... move merch around, bring in new merch, pair merch even... they will keep pushing to meet and exceed the original target. So, the only fail would be if Universal did nothing.

I would love to compare merch at various attractions when they opened vs what they sell now. I'll bet the differences are sometimes vast.
 
The only store downfall I see is Madam Malkins as I don't figure as many people are willing to pay 100 bucks for a robe. However, no one thought beforehand the Ice Cream Shop would be the most popular thing around either. Just wait for the 3rd Quarter results to come out before spreading doom and gloom.

However, Could this mean no potter phase 3??? If so, that would make me somewhat happy.
 
^ They don't just write it off as falling short and put on a sad face. They try ways to fix the failing... move merch around, bring in new merch, pair merch even... they will keep pushing to meet and exceed the original target. So, the only fail would be if Universal did nothing.

I would love to compare merch at various attractions when they opened vs what they sell now. I'll bet the differences are sometimes vast.
Exactly how a good retailer works.
 
The same guys saying that the area is under expectations (which, again, is NOT a bad thing) are the same ones who said the land and ride were behind schedule...interestingly enough, that wildly unpopular "rumor" turned out to be true, despite what our more vocal members had to say on the matter. So I trust what I hear and see. If you dont, thats understandable but its not something that I'll force upon anyone. But just to be clear:

1. I never suggested the expansion was a flop, so if youre counter to anything Ive said on the subject are capacity figures or attendance numbers, youre not actually arguing the point.

2. The original point was whether or not the inability to meet Universal's wild expectations would hinder the ambitious expansion plans, and the news that Kongs budget was increased suggests otherwise, so the topic is pretty much finished anyway. Go ahead with whatever other things there are to talk about...

The people saying the land and, more specifically, Gringotts were behind were stating derailments and other things as factors. Not the PLC issue. And the land was not behind schedule as everyone who attended PR previews saw. You are specifically asking if Diagon not meeting expectations will cause other projects to be cut or downsized. We tell you that projects are EXPANDING and more being added.

I'm sorry, but you are flat out wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

^if you had enough free time to go all the way back and dig up those posts, you also would have seen how in July (which was the month business picked up) that I admitted I was wrong.

Someone's backed into the corner, resorting to doing ad hominem attacks.
 
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ill tell you what my opinion is on bumpin attendance... clear skies and cooler temps joint with HHN event comers from all over the world.
 
Interesting, I was thinking about going up 8/9 for a couple of days. I was thinking about a trip before my daughter goes back to school and I figured I would try and go the weekend before the power pass block out was lifted...went to the UOR web site and saw something about updated blackout dates...I guess power pass holders can go to USF starting on 8/1.

Not sure how big of a difference it would make crowd wise...I may still hold off on a visit as we will be there before too long for HHN anyway.
 
I believe TD and I are looking at different department's data and projections. I've been told UOR's attendance is spectacular, especially compared to WDW's abysmal summer, and that any cuts or issues come from over projections inside UOR. Unrealistic projections vs actual very positive growth.
 
Maybe if it wasn't so HOT! I was there last week and by 10 AM it's toppin 90! Rode Hulk around 5pm the first day and was really tired getting off, came back the next day around 10am and it was awesome! Bring down some of that 75 degree weather the Midwest was getting! And their roller coasters.
 
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