Jurassic World VelociCoaster Construction Thread (Opening June 10)

[TylerDurden]

I think Universal is genius in skipping the under 5 crowd and going for the conscious 6 and up group...seriously, anyone remember going to Disney when they were 2?

Heres the thing...you may not remember going anywhere when youre 2, but if it becomes a staple or tradition, it's embedded in your mind. Disney is a tradition for a lot of vacationing families...thats why they dont build rides as often, because they rely on nostalgic visitors to visit year after year. Its kind of like the stupid rituals people do for the holidays...even if theyre not justified, you do them anyway because you have been for so long. By isolating younger families, Universal is losing out on this market of people who have the opportunity to make Universal their tradition. Theyll go for Harry Potter, but wont have the same connection to the parks because they havent been since Little Timmy or whoever turned old enough to ride most of the rides. While this is working for Universal just fine as they ride the hype train, the novelty visits will wear off...thats why they need family-centric additions...to keep these novelty visitors coming back. If all there is to do for a young family is Potter, they wont be returning, but repeats are what you want in this industry (or any industry for that matter).

 

[DufflesMcGee]

Theres a difference between targeting and catering to :bonk: Even Disney doesnt "target" 5-year-olds...it turns out 5 year olds usually dont pay for family vacations. The whole point of Universal's recent expansions has been to appeal to an audience that they have been largely ignoring for the past two decades. Nobody, not even Izzy, is saying Universal is going to turn into Sesame Place. They are just widening their appeal by adding attractions a younger audience can enjoy more than their current offerings. You can argue that as much as youd like, but the facts stack up against this side of the debate.

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Really? Is this what your extensive market research has shown you? There are numbers that beg to differ, unless the number of 5-year olds is exponentially greater than 8-year-olds.

No, thats just taking into consideration that the average child gets to the height needed to ride the thrill rides around 8-10 years of age. As someone who knows everything it doesnt seem like you considered the question "At what age does can a child maximize his experience at the USO?". Well due to height restrictions, that would be around the age of 8-10 where 97% of childen are above 50 inches. This is something important for Universal. Why? Because for parents who have children, which I am not, They would prefer to be in a park that children can go on more of the attractions rather than have to sit out of 60-70% of them.

And technically, birth rates are increasing so there would be more 5 year olds than there are 8 year olds...

 

[Mad Dog]

Remarks from Universal Studios Hollywood news conference today concerning expansion plans; Larry Kurzweil.Pres. Universal Studios Hollywood, "We're trying to significantly broaden our base"....."This isn't about adding rides. It's about a complete transformation". ........From Ron Meyer, Vice Chairman NBC Universal; "Our guests at this park used to start at about 11 years old and go up from there. We now have something for everybody, even very young children, with much more on the way".

 

[TylerDurden]

No, thats just taking into consideration that the average child gets to the height needed to ride the thrill rides around 8-10 years of age. As someone who knows everything it doesnt seem like you considered the question "At what age does can a child maximize his experience at the USO?". Well due to height restrictions, that would be around the age of 8-10 where 97% of childen are above 50 inches. This is something important for Universal. Why? Because for parents who have children, which I am not, They would prefer to be in a park that children can go on more of the attractions rather than have to sit out of 60-70% of them.

And technically, birth rates are increasing so there would be more 5 year olds than there are 8 year olds...

You're assuming a kid WANTS to go to Universal to experience thrill rides after he/she meets this magical age...read the post that's after the one you quoted.

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or just this....

Remarks from Universal Studios Hollywood news conference today concerning expansion plans; Larry Kurzweil.Pres. Universal Studios Hollywood, "We're trying to significantly broaden our base"....."This isn't about adding rides. It's about a complete transformation". ........From Ron Meyer, Vice Chairman NBC Universal; "Our guests at this park used to start at about 11 years old and go up from there. We now have something for everybody, even very young children, with much more on the way".

 

[DufflesMcGee]

You're assuming a kid WANTS to go to Universal to experience thrill rides after he/she meets this magical age...read the post that's after the one you quoted.

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or just this....

There we go, No more ambiguity, Now we know that they are trying to broaden their appeal.

And since you have HP and Marvel there (And disney is doing a fantastic job with their movies) I's say most people want to go see Universal once they first watch a marvel movie or watch HP

 

[IzzyB]

Remarks from Universal Studios Hollywood news conference today concerning expansion plans; Larry Kurzweil.Pres. Universal Studios Hollywood, "We're trying to significantly broaden our base"....."This isn't about adding rides. It's about a complete transformation". ........From Ron Meyer, Vice Chairman NBC Universal; "Our guests at this park used to start at about 11 years old and go up from there. We now have something for everybody, even very young children, with much more on the way".

Well I guess now we don't need to be in their meetings to know their plans.

 

[AK-Jake]

OH SNAP! goes Izzy. :smiley:

But seriously, while it may seem foolish for Uni to try and "OutDisney Disney" when it comes to the small child segment, it's foolish for them to not try to grab entire families of ALL ages and get them through their gates. After all, that's how they'll grow their marketshare and boost their attendance numbers. It will be fascinating to see how their strategy unfolds over the next 5-10 years in the kid segment.

 

[mahnamahna]

OH SNAP! goes Izzy. :smiley:

But seriously, while it may seem foolish for Uni to try and "OutDisney Disney" when it comes to the small child segment, it's foolish for them to not try to grab entire families of ALL ages and get them through their gates. After all, that's how they'll grow their marketshare and boost their attendance numbers. It will be fascinating to see how their strategy unfolds over the next 5-10 years in the kid segment.

Universal's not trying to Out-Disney Disney :doh: they're trying to get rid of their "thrill park" stigma. Everyone thinks there's nothing for little kids or old people (60+) to do since most of their rides do admittedly involves lots of twists, turns and spins.

JP: Family wooden coaster (36"-40" height requirement) and tame flat ride (none)
Kong: an E-ticket "everyone can ride" family dark ride similar to GMR, POTC, HM, etc. (none)
KidZone: They're getting rid of the all-kids stuff (Barney, Fievel, sadly Curious George, and potentially Nuthouse) while conveniently keeping the all-ages Animal Actors and E.T. (both likely will get updates). All of the insiders have hinted the replacement is again... ALL AGES.
Seuss: Lorax dark ride, year-round stage show (blue sky idea I came up with) and Grinch family coaster (36"-40"), turning the Seuss Trolley into an all-ages ride would be a significant help as well.
Potter: Hogwarts Express is all-ages and Gringotts is supposed to have a 40" height requirement

Comcast is shooting to tread the fine line between kid and adult thus making both of them true-blue FAMILY parks. I definitely think every land could use a nice family dark ride to contrast the next-door thrill machine.

 

[JungleSkip]

Well I guess now we don't need to be in their meetings to know their plans.

Except that's not what I...nevermind. Not worth it.

 

[AK-Jake]

Except that's not what I...nevermind. Not worth it.

I know the feeling...mahnamahna misread what I was saying as well. And both you and Izzy bring up some good points, Skip.

 

[DufflesMcGee]

Except that's not what I...nevermind. Not worth it.

Hahahahaha. this was the right move. :thumbs:

 

[IzzyB]

I know the feeling...mahnamahna misread what I was saying as well. And both you and Izzy bring up some good points, Skip.

I think I get misread a lot too. People keep thinking I am saying Uni wants to go towards being a kiddie park or Disney 2.0 and that is so not what I have ever said. I am saying they want to go towards being a family park for all ages. They have the teenage/thrill seeker down pat. Now they need the rides that kids and elderly can ride that everyone can enjoy. They do need some flat rides sprinkled throughout, which is why I think we got kodos and kang and will probably get something in JP. But overall the other rides will be very all-age oriented.

 

[DufflesMcGee]

I think I get misread a lot too. People keep thinking I am saying Uni wants to go towards being a kiddie park or Disney 2.0 and that is so not what I have ever said. I am saying they want to go towards being a family park for all ages. They have the teenage/thrill seeker down pat. Now they need the rides that kids and elderly can ride that everyone can enjoy. They do need some flat rides sprinkled throughout, which is why I think we got kodos and kang and will probably get something in JP. But overall the other rides will be very all-age oriented.

I understand what you were saying. However, and I am not sure it was you who said it, but Kong and HE imo dont seem like rides young kids, who do not know the difference between horror and real life, will want to go on. With Kong having insects and bat AA's and the HE having the dementor scene, if it does have one, will kids 6 and under really want to experience that moment once they saw it?

 

[Disneyhead]

The way I look at it, Universal isn't catering to the ankle biters. But they are adding some things around the resort to be more attractive to families that happen to include kids under 5. They are tired of hearing, "oh we don't go to Universal because there is not enough for our little ones to do".

At this point, I actually believe that UOR is a much more well rounded resort than WDW.

 

[IzzyB]

I understand what you were saying. However, and I am not sure it was you who said it, but Kong and HE imo dont seem like rides young kids, who do not know the difference between horror and real life, will want to go on. With Kong having insects and bat AA's and the HE having the dementor scene, if it does have one, will kids 6 and under really want to experience that moment once they saw it?

I think if the kid can go on HM they can go on this and I see a ton of kids under the age of 6 on HM. You have to remember there are many scary scenes in kids movies and rides. Look at any Disney movie and you have "scary" scenes. As long as it is PG I don't think most parents would have an issue with either of these rides. Now are some kids more scared than others? Yep, but most of those kids probably wouldn't be good with many rides even at Disney. Those kids would probably also not be the type of kids that Uni will attract in the future either. So I think it will be fine. I don't think Kong will be any more scary than Jaws and Jaws attracted kids too.

 

[IzzyB]

The way I look at it, Universal isn't catering to the ankle biters. But they are adding some things around the resort to be more attractive to families that happen to include kids under 5. They are tired of hearing, "oh we don't go to Universal because there is not enough for our little ones to do".

At this point, I actually believe that UOR is a much more well rounded resort than WDW.

In 3 years I will agree with your last statement. When they have HE, Kong, and JP. Right now I think Disney swings too far to the young kids and Uni swings too far to the older kids. But Uni is making an effort to fix their swing and Disney is not doing anything to fix their issues. Then when they fix kid zone and make it a family area I think they will just blow Disney out of the water. If they can figure out how to lore families to lose 1 day from Disney and come visit their park, I guarantee those families the next time will do three days at Uni and the rest at Disney. Eventually as the kids get older they will spend more and more and Uni and less at Disney.

Word of mouth is everything right now. My friend lives in Raleigh, NC and she has two daughters (5 & 8). All their friends are going to Disney and all the parents are praising it. She doesn't have a lot of money right now for various reasons so when she drove down to visit the grandparents further south for Spring Break she stopped by our place and did one day at Disney to make the kids stop complaining about how all their friends are going to Disney. So what happens when a family up north decides to try Uni because they are a Potter, Transformer, or some other fan of one of the rides. Then they see, wow, look at all this new stuff our kids can do?!? Then they go home and talk to other parents who have kids that are younger. They say, yeah, my kids were able to go on X, Y, and Z we had a blast. Then the kids tell the other kids man this ride was really cool... Then the other parents planning trips to Orlando start to say, lets try this for a day. In the past this worked against Uni, because parents would come back and say, "The youngest one was bored" or "The youngest whined a lot because they were in child swap too much", etc. Then the other parents don't try. So for every family ride Uni adds, they add one more ride that the younger kids can ride making the impression on the park that much better.

 

[DufflesMcGee]

I think if the kid can go on HM they can go on this and I see a ton of kids under the age of 6 on HM. You have to remember there are many scary scenes in kids movies and rides. Look at any Disney movie and you have "scary" scenes. As long as it is PG I don't think most parents would have an issue with either of these rides. Now are some kids more scared than others? Yep, but most of those kids probably wouldn't be good with many rides even at Disney. Those kids would probably also not be the type of kids that Uni will attract in the future either. So I think it will be fine. I don't think Kong will be any more scary than Jaws and Jaws attracted kids too.

Youre right, we will have to wait and see how the insect and bat scenes come out tho - because those things were creepy in the movies!

 

[Cole]

Scary stuff attracts kids just period. While dumbo is a awesome movie, the only part I remembered as a kid was the pink elephants. You return to it because it gave you that adrenaline of fear and that's why rides like HM and POTC are looked on as classics. As a writer for kids movies I've understood that you have to add something dark or the happy ending is pointless

 

[Camza]

Scary stuff attracts kids just period. While dumbo is a awesome movie, the only part I remembered as a kid was the pink elephants. You return to it because it gave you that adrenaline of fear and that's why rides like HM and POTC are looked on as classics. As a writer for kids movies I've understood that you have to add something dark or the happy ending doesn't mean anything

That pink elephant scene scared the **** out of me as child.

 

[JungleSkip]

:died:

:wave: