www.insideuniversal.net
Lot earlier announcement than last year, when they waited until the last minute. I'll give them credit for that. I'm glad I anticipated this and booked early November for a vacation when the weather is better for driving down. I'll probably be skipping Holidays at Universal in the future. Potential for too many cold days. Mid November wasn't bad though, when they were starting then.The 2024 Holidays at Universal Orlando dates announced
Universal Orlando Resort has announced dates for their upcoming Holiday season, beginning Friday, November 22, and running daily through Tuesday, December 31. https://x.com/UniversalORL/status/1810704911643873484 No other details were shared, but returning favorites like “The Magic of Christma
Think this year would be “Year 7” since the overhaul. IMO, a few float switch outs would be ideal to freshen up the parade a bit.
I guess I should say they don't offer enough in my opinion. The parade is fun, so is Grinchmas. But nothing else really excites me. We were able to do all the Christmas offerings in both parks in one day arriving between 2 and 3pm and leaving before close while hopping parks twice. This included a very long sit down dinner.
Yeah. Last year the excuse for the late start was that it was an early Thanksgiving and they allocated the same number of weeks as before. This year it's a late Thanksgiving so that rational doesn't hold up. They used to start around Nov. 12/13/14....No doubt the real reason is a bit of cost cutting, though I know some hate to hear that word.
But it is what it is....I don't care. I'm done with their Holiday season since they kicked the start date back like Epcot does. We have more Christmas shows and stuff to see in the Pittsburgh area. If I have to wear a coat, I may as well stay here. The times we went to Orlando in Dec., it was chilly most every day. So we quit Dec. and went mid November when they were starting the Holiday stuff earlier. . Mid November was nice weather though.
No doubt the real reason is a bit of cost cutting, though I know some hate to hear that word.
The new stuff started in 2017, so Nov. 22 is a real aberration. I really don't care. Makes my decision easy, like with Epcot. Don't go when it gets chilly. I don't buy their story since it's the complete opposite of last years' dates. If it quacks like a duck......They have a credibility gap when it comes to the truth....like the trial period for 3D Kong glasses
Just admit it Universal. You're saving a few bucks and the Efficiency Committee warrants their existence. It's not that big a deal to me since I expected it. It's become their MO....But I still love Universal Orlando....regardless . They've just lost me as a Holiday season customer. But I come other times.
It's obviously a cost cutting thing, bottom line. Their story on Thanksgiving date reason was what they used on their official Universal AP page last year when lots of posters complained about no notification and the later start date than usual.
It is just interesting that other parks do it earlier and also have Halloween events. SW starts November 8th. So not sure that need that many days to convert from Halloween to Christmas. SW Halloween stuff ends Nov 2nd (Hallowscream) and 3rd (Kid event). I really don't care as I will probably do early December instead of early November like I would normally do for SW. Not a huge deal for me.
Seems they're pretty quick with those changeovers at both Universal & Disney. I recall photos from last year that most all of the HHN stuff was down in a few days and they were putting up the Seuss Xmas decorations (started Oct. 24th) even before. They're both good at those changeovers. ....@Brian G. ....I was never referring to your explanations from last year. For some reason you took it personal. I was always referring to Universal's explanation on their FB AP page last year when there was an uproar from guests that scheduled their vacations anticipating Holidays as usual schedule. Universals story didn't make sense then, and it even makes less sense now with the later date for Thanksgiving. I really don't recall what your reasoning was. But Universal's sticks in my mind since it was fixated on the Thanksgiving date. If they just said they changed their way of doing it, I would be fine with that. But I don't like to be BS ed. They even shut the discussion down since they didn't want to hear it anymore. And I just watched. I don't participate over there.
The parts closed off for HoS are open for the kids stuff though. So the kids candy path and those decorations are over where the HoS is not. Now what I don't know is if they still do the party where the ice skating is. Because they used to do the kids party stuff where the ice skating is, maybe they changed that when they changed the candy path. We haven't been going to that as we typically go and get candy and do a show during the halloween stuff. They used to have the candy over where the scare zones are now, so when HoS came to SW they moved the candy route. They also have to switch the show over because they have a Christmas show in the same theater as the HoS show. But I agree, the sea of trees is put up well before November, it was odd seeing them at Halloween time. But prior to HoS they did have to convert the ice skating rink after halloween for sure, but they had less decorations to take down when HoS didn't exist.
