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Attendance Tracker

Just got a mailing from 'Universal' for a special discount, for returning guests only, for Loews Portofino Resort. 25% off of all rooms with just a 3 nights or more stay Good for 8/12/18-9/27/18...& 11/25/18 - 12/20/ 18. . Usually you need to book 7 nights to get 25% off. Never got one of these before....Sounds like there might be some soft booking dates out there.
 
Just got a mailing from 'Universal' for a special discount, for returning guests only, for Loews Portofino Resort. 25% off of all rooms with just a 3 nights or more stay Good for 8/12/18-9/27/18...& 11/25/18 - 12/20/ 18. . Usually you need to book 7 nights to get 25% off. Never got one of these before....Sounds like there might be some soft booking dates out there.

Do you think this has anything to do with them cancelling their reward programme?
 
Just got a mailing from 'Universal' for a special discount, for returning guests only, for Loews Portofino Resort. 25% off of all rooms with just a 3 nights or more stay Good for 8/12/18-9/27/18...& 11/25/18 - 12/20/ 18. . Usually you need to book 7 nights to get 25% off. Never got one of these before....Sounds like there might be some soft booking dates out there.

I used to get these emailed to me all the time
 
Last week's Crowd Levels on Touring Plans, for WDW parks, were the lowest I've seen for a July week since I've had my TP subscription (7 years). Keeping in mind that crowd levels are only indicators of how crowded a park is, but not actual attendance, summer is looking pretty soft at WDW. I'm seeing numbers like 2, 3, 4, and 5 levels on many of the WDW parks on some days, even MK. AK still seems strong though....At Universal, crowd levels are pretty much where TP predicted them to be, mostly 7, 8, or 9's. (Note: level 1 is the lowest, level 10 the highest).....It will be interesting to see what the third week of July is, since we'll be heading into the middle of the summer peak.....(Additional Note: TP lowered most of their WDW summer crowd level projections last week since they saw the soft crowd numbers developing. )
 
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Would not be surprised if Uni/Dis eventually a create a summertime event in a few years, unless this year's decline is only people putting off vacation for all the new stuff.
 
With regard to DAK:

I think we often underestimate the power of one really strong ride. All it takes is one addition worth their time to completely change a lot of people’s opinions on an entire theme park.

I can’t tell you how many friends I have who switched from “Well, we skip AK because they only have the Safari, Everest, and Dinosaur” to “AK is amazing! They have Flight of Passage, the Safari, Everest, and Dinosaur! So many great rides in one place.” without batting an eye.

It also helps that the food is particularly strong in a park with relatively good quick service options. What they lack in magic wands they make up for in food that I actually crave on a regular basis.
 
Summers seem to be getting softer just about every year. Seems like a trend.Tourists finally wising up and staying away from Orlando in the miserable humid hot, rainy, & too crowded parks' summer, if they can work another time of year into the schedule. Schools have longer vacations during the school year. More kids are in cyber or charter schools that are more flexible on scheduling than public schools. And adults without children are more into theme parks than in the past...And, heck, even Floridians don't go outside in that summer weather. :lol: ...That said, , I would expect Universal to have a good summer in 2019 if they get the Potter coaster opened by late spring. Potter always brings in the crowds. It's as close to a sure thing if you were a betting person.
 
With regard to DAK:

I think we often underestimate the power of one really strong ride. All it takes is one addition worth their time to completely change a lot of people’s opinions on an entire theme park.

I can’t tell you how many friends I have who switched from “Well, we skip AK because they only have the Safari, Everest, and Dinosaur” to “AK is amazing! They have Flight of Passage, the Safari, Everest, and Dinosaur! So many great rides in one place.” without batting an eye.

It also helps that the food is particularly strong in a park with relatively good quick service options. What they lack in magic wands they make up for in food that I actually crave on a regular basis.

Same thing happened with Everest. I used to have no problem parking in Animal Kingdom in Peacock or whatever where it was still walking distance to the gate. Then Everest opened and suddenly I was like... what is this.. Giraffe? Where am I? lol
 
Just doing an update on July attendance at WDW & Universal . Looking at Touring Plans "Observed " Wait Times, WDW parks, except for AK, continue to experience low moderate to moderate crowds daily. While acknowledging that crowd levels are how crowded a park feels and not actual attendance figures, they are probably the best 'indicators' of attendance available to us. So WDW seems very soft this summer. June was the same. The irony of this is that a WDW visitor this summer will face shorter lines than a WDW visitor did back in January & February 2018 when Disney cut staffing levels causing a large increase in line waits (per TP)......Universal, on the other hand, is meeting TP's high observed crowd level predictions daily during July. Just about an 8 or 9 level crowd every day, even when the weather doesn't cooperate. So, it's looking like Universal has rebounded in the past month from their apparently flat or soft spring.
 
Just doing an update on July attendance at WDW & Universal . Looking at Touring Plans "Observed " Wait Times, WDW parks, except for AK, continue to experience low moderate to moderate crowds daily. While acknowledging that crowd levels are how crowded a park feels and not actual attendance figures, they are probably the best 'indicators' of attendance available to us. So WDW seems very soft this summer. June was the same. The irony of this is that a WDW visitor this summer will face shorter lines than a WDW visitor did back in January & February 2018 when Disney cut staffing levels causing a large increase in line waits (per TP)......Universal, on the other hand, is meeting TP's high observed crowd level predictions daily during July. Just about an 8 or 9 level crowd every day, even when the weather doesn't cooperate. So, it's looking like Universal has rebounded in the past month from their apparently flat or soft spring.

If you build it, they will come... even if it's Supercharged.
 
Seeing the after hours videos reminds me of WDW in the mid 90s at night. Almost everything was a walk on.

It was such a better time to visit the parks that I didn’t know that the Splash Mountain station was outside until 2012.
 
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