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2015 Holidays at Universal

Lol. The same thing has happened to me at Disney, most recently at DAK. When I told them I was late for meeting the rest of my party at the Lion King show, they basically told me tough cookie and I would have to go around the park to get there. Luckily, it was a really short parade.
 
You also have to take into account that on an average day, Disney is averaging around 45-50,000 people into MK (the only park with a parade). On absolute peak days, the park can handle 100,000 (as it did last year around New Years). Universal averages about 23-25,000 a day at USF. Peak days vary, but they don't go much farther beyond MK's average daily attendance as far as peak crowds.

So the point is, Universal has much less stress to deal with, they should be able to handle these situations a lot easier than CMs over at MK.

Two points quick.

1) dropped some friends a line, MK capacity is not 100k, more around peak of 80k at which point no one is allowed into the park. Phased closing would happen much sooner.

2) USF daily attendance is under estimated by a bit. USF is not pulling MK crowds, but they have more guests in park than 23,000-25,000 a day.

My point was Disney has issues too because parades are just a pain to deal with. I've worked parade duty before and it's not fun or easy. There are issues with how USF handles parades and crowds, but a tale has formed to perpetuate a myth of this anarchy that people think happens.
 
Two points quick.

1) dropped some friends a line, MK capacity is not 100k, more around peak of 80k at which point no one is allowed into the park. Phased closing would happen much sooner.

2) USF daily attendance is under estimated by a bit. USF is not pulling MK crowds, but they have more guests in park than 23,000-25,000 a day.

My point was Disney has issues too because parades are just a pain to deal with. I've worked parade duty before and it's not fun or easy. There are issues with how USF handles parades and crowds, but a tale has formed to perpetuate a myth of this anarchy that people think happens.

I would add that the addition of that bypass and expanded hub has helped alleviate some stress recently, but overall agreed.
 
Two points quick.

1) dropped some friends a line, MK capacity is not 100k, more around peak of 80k at which point no one is allowed into the park. Phased closing would happen much sooner.

2) USF daily attendance is under estimated by a bit. USF is not pulling MK crowds, but they have more guests in park than 23,000-25,000 a day.

My point was Disney has issues too because parades are just a pain to deal with. I've worked parade duty before and it's not fun or easy. There are issues with how USF handles parades and crowds, but a tale has formed to perpetuate a myth of this anarchy that people think happens.

I agree. No Parade can be managed to not disrupt crowds. Just not possible. You are going to have people that want to get places and have a tough time getting there. My point was they should have better communication and not send you in a circle. Because as a guest that is just really confusing and annoying. Especially since there was an open path and everyone could see that open path, but for some reason someone got on a power high and decided they wouldn't open that lane that would get everyone where they wanted to go.

Also, since the parade comes back to the same starting point. They need some kind of crossing lane so that people that finished watching it can get back to the back half of the park. As the only rides within the circle are Transformers and Shrek.
 
Two points quick.

1) dropped some friends a line, MK capacity is not 100k, more around peak of 80k at which point no one is allowed into the park. Phased closing would happen much sooner.

2) USF daily attendance is under estimated by a bit. USF is not pulling MK crowds, but they have more guests in park than 23,000-25,000 a day.

My point was Disney has issues too because parades are just a pain to deal with. I've worked parade duty before and it's not fun or easy. There are issues with how USF handles parades and crowds, but a tale has formed to perpetuate a myth of this anarchy that people think happens.
I agree both have to work to get a bit better. However I can vouch for the 100,000 number as I worked NYE last year, with the hub closed off, and managers told us we were at over 100,000 in park at around 8. It was absolute chaos, especially because the hub was still under construction.
 
I agree both have to work to get a bit better. However I can vouch for the 100,000 number as I worked NYE last year, with the hub closed off, and managers told us we were at over 100,000 in park at around 8. It was absolute chaos, especially because the hub was still under construction.

I was told 80k is the range, if they in fact exceeded this by 25% then something is terribly wrong.
 
I was told 80k is the range, if they in fact exceeded this by 25% then something is terribly wrong.

Not sure how accurate it is, but touring plans, which typically has a handle on guest attendance says the max is 100k, but that Disney does not like to go to the number.
 
Not sure how accurate it is, but touring plans, which typically has a handle on guest attendance says the max is 100k, but that Disney does not like to go to the number.

I don't wish to derail this thread all I'll say is 100k is not the capacity. It's like the fire code, you can't just keep adding people.

Ok back on topic about holidays at UOR.
 
As someone who's never experienced holidays at universal until recently, I'd say they are better than WDWs offerings. Sure they are the same things year after year but same with Disney. I loved the macys parade and mainheim was awesome for what I saw of it, can't talk about grinch because I only walked through it but it looked awesome online. I personally think Christmas is a weaker holiday in terms of what you can do in theme parks. It isn't like halloween where you can do literally whatever you want with it. They have to follow the typical parade, show and other little things around it formula for the family. Universal killed it with their content, hope to see more in the future
 
As someone who's never experienced holidays at universal until recently, I'd say they are better than WDWs offerings. Sure they are the same things year after year but same with Disney. I loved the macys parade and mainheim was awesome for what I saw of it, can't talk about grinch because I only walked through it but it looked awesome online. I personally think Christmas is a weaker holiday in terms of what you can do in theme parks. It isn't like halloween where you can do literally whatever you want with it. They have to follow the typical parade, show and other little things around it formula for the family. Universal killed it with their content, hope to see more in the future

Have you done Sea World? Both Disney and Uni could do a lot more for Christmas. Sea World sets up a whole village with a fire pit, games, food offerings, and Merch. They do a train display right next to the village that is top notch with several trains and buildings including a farm where the animals make noises. The village also drops "snow" at certain times. They do a light show timed to music using Christmas trees in their water area. They have an ice skating show, special fireworks (which BTW, Epcot also adds extra fireworks for the Christmas season), a special Elmo show, a show where animals tell the story of the birth of Jesus Christ and the show has real animals in it, and a special Shamu show that has live singers and a sax player along with water effects and of course Shamu. They used to also have a special Clyde and Seymour show, but I imagine since the animals are still learning the new daytime show they decided to not confuse them with a new night time Christmas show too. Also, most of the places to eat have a special holiday dish (or they did last year, I wasn't paying attention this year) and they give each passholder a free ornament that is different each year. Trust me, both parks could do way more to make it better. It pays off for Sea World too. Every passholder I know goes at least once during the Christmas season and because of the amount of things to do they stay long enough to spend money on at least a meal and a snack. Many like us try to make it out 2 or 3 times because honestly it is tough to do everything in one visit since most of the stuff doesn't start until 2 or 3 PM. For me personally I will always have a Sea World pass coming into the Christmas season. It is the one pass I get every year because of just Christmas alone. The other parks I sometimes will go a year or two without a pass, but never Sea World and mainly because of the holiday (Christmas and Halloween now that I have kids) stuff they offer for FREE.

I still say Disney edges out Uni slightly. But that is because they have more offerings this year I enjoy. It could change next year when they don't have the Osbourne lights and Uni adds something. But right now we have

Candlelight -> Mannheim (Candlelight beats out because it is every night with 3 shows and offers the Christmas story, not just music and lights. It also has different celebrities)
Osbourne Lights - > Parade (I think this is a tie. Again, just personal opinion. I don't need to do either of these each year, but I do enjoy them when I do them)
Santas around the world stories - > Grinch (I go with Santas only because there is more and different ones than just one show, but I could totally see this being more a tie and some enjoying Grinch more)
Decorations at both (Disney for me wins out, their trees and general decorations at each of their parks and hotels is much better in my opinion than Uni)

Epcot has extra fireworks at the end, Downtown Disney has an amazing Santa, and the hotels have things like gingerbread houses. So when you look resort wide you have those extra things too. They also do some extra things at their places to eat like Germany adds a special Christmas thing for the kids where they talk about Silent Night and give out gold coins. It seems more integrated into everything vs stand alone events.

I won't include the Mickey event since it is a paid event and Uni doesn't have any paid events. I am just talking about free stuff in this comparison.

But still when you do a one to one comparison I feel you have to give Disney the slight edge. Now again, if I was ranking all three, it would be Sea World and then about 10 lines down would be Disney and then right underneath would be Universal. The only knock on Sea World is it caters more to the locals and therefore outside of Christmas and Thanksgiving is only on the weekends.
 
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Damn Sea world looks like it destroys it on Christmas, probably the only reason I'd ever go to seaworld lol. Holidays around the world looks incredible, that interests me more than anything else in the orlando area right now. I did Osborne lights once and I thought it was cool for 10 minutes then just left. Went to very merry Christmas at MK this year and it was crowded as hell. Enjoyed myself at uni more dir the stuff I've done so far
 
Random Macy's musing: I've noticed that Universal custodial doesn't bring out the vacuums after the parade, leaving the streets in a mess of confetti until after park closing when they finally decide to clean up the mess.

I don't think it's fair to compare Disney/Universal in too many ways, but Disney is always on top of things like that. It's an easy thing to do and it makes a world of a difference in overall park apperance.
 
Random Macy's musing: I've noticed that Universal custodial doesn't bring out the vacuums after the parade, leaving the streets in a mess of confetti until after park closing when they finally decide to clean up the mess.

I don't think it's fair to compare Disney/Universal in too many ways, but Disney is always on top of things like that. It's an easy thing to do and it makes a world of a difference in overall park apperance.

Interesting. They changed that after the first weekend because they did clean it up on the 6th. I know because the machines were on the road and some lady didn't wait for the crowds to clear before using the Broom in front of the store and almost hit me with it. Lol

Maybe they had complaints and stopped? I don't see why the street cleaning machines would cause an issue though. Odd that they did it the first weekend and now don't though.
 
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