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Springfield Expansion

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For having most the State of Florida and numerous other states back in school as of this past Monday those wait times are pretty heavy IMO.

Pretty incredible when even 5 years ago Universal was generally considered more of a "locals" park by a lot of people. Those are traditional Disney wait times for E-tickets.

We all know Potter is the 800-pound gorilla, but apparently Transformers and Despicable Me and The Simpsons are all 550-pound gorillas in their own right. (Not bad for a 24-year-old show).
 
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I remember first seeing UO/IOA in 2004 and while I enjoyed it, I felt there was just something missing and at the end of my stay there I was glad to head on over to WDW. Having revisited several times over the past few years and it amazes me how much it has improved. It's no longer a place where Disney fans on some internet forums can dismiss and ridicule. I can only imagine when this expansion opens up in 2014, how much more of a game changer it's going to be.
 
Universal wont pass Disney in terms of annual guests or even being the king of theme parks but they will without a doubt make one hell of a case that they are indeed the new guys and here to stay. Think Sony to Disney's "Nintendo" so to speak :lol: I'm reminded though of a comment I made a few months ago.

"Overheard something today, a certain big wig wanted to thank the entire team who made bringing Transformers to life in such a short time frame. He loved the attraction and knew the public was gonna love it as well. Everybody was appreciative of his thanks and continued on as usual. What most didn't hear was his quiet comment he made referencing how no one was gonna recognize these parks in a few years"

I shared this earlier as I said and many just brushed it off. But when you get a glimpse into the future, see the budgets, and hear such a small comment from someone with such power of the resorts future it just gets me all excited :wave:
 
Was on park today and did Twirl n' Hurl twice. I don't know if this has been mentioned, but the spiels and script for this ride are even better than the Simpsons Ride ones; they are genuinely brilliant. The robotic female announcer voice was my favourite - the dry sarcasm and claims of being "nothing evil or nefarious" really made me smile!

"You have nothing to fear but having too much fun!"
 
Monorail to third gate 2020. Callin' it.

With what we have seen from Universal in the last 4 years, and from all of the money they about to spend, it really seems like anything is possible at Universal. It's great to see a giant corporation get excited for something as small (in their eyes) as a theme park. I love that Comcast understands the great things that the UOR and the rest of the Universal Parks can bring to the company, and to all theme park fans around the world. So if I'm a fan and even if I'm working for Universal, dream big!

But before I can think of the many things that will come in the future, I gotta get to Springfield soon. I got a class trip going in April, and I cannot wait!
 
For Comcast as a whole it might be small (themeparks) but these parks are just crapping cash which send profit margins up, which can help share prices and the bottom line.
 
^what are you talking about? Nintendo and Sony was fine. More people have iOS iPhones than Android phones, and more people go to Disney World.
 
iOS also deals with Macs, Ipads, and other Apple products.

This is true, but you specifically mentioned phones in your earlier post (and if you want to be technical, Mac computers use OSX as opposed to iOS which powers Apple's phones and tablets). Either way, Apple does not hold a majority market share in either their computer or smartphone businesses (not sure about the tablet part, due to all of the cheaper Android-based options that are available).

Anyways, sorry to get off-topic. Just wanted to point out that earlier posts using the Android vs. iPhone analogy hold true (at least in my opinion).
 
Disney is Android: will always have loads of market share because of xxxx and xxxx and xxxx. Universal is iOS: developing the significantly higher profits. This will always be Disney's problem from here on out, they aimed for a market segment that doesn't spend money on the up sell experiences and merchandise.


Noooo,

Disney is Apple = struggling after its creator and mentor passed away by stagnating innovation and relying on brand reputation to keep the company afloat

Universal is Samsung = working quickly and fearlessly into new terrain, with lots of innovation and spending tons of money to become a leader.
 
LOL - Universal will never have more guests than Disney, but I think they can surpass DHS and AK in daily guest attendance and I think that is their goal. Expansions like Simpsons, is not bringing in people, but is causing people to spend more. So I think in the end not only will attendance be higher than those two parks, but guest spending is going to be thru the roof compared to those two parks. Who spends a ton of money in AK? Not many, I wouldn't be shocked if guest spending was already higher than AK.