My rebuttal:
- Only 6-7 Months from opening. (Most folks that are planning on going before the ride opens, are not going to change their plans at this point). To say they will have this huge attendance problem if they announce the ride now is silly.
- Missing the December/January travel booking season. Probably their biggest error.
For the above 2 points, I'd argue that there are still tons of people in that time frame contemplating their Spring Break or Easter potential plans and the majority of them would hold off on booking a Universal Trip for either March Break or Easter if they know a new major attraction is coming shortly thereafter.
- Cost to announce something on social media, is literately nothing. They don't need to start paying for a huge marketing push if they don't want to.
The $ cost of the announcement itself is low/nothing. The costs of letting the mass public know earlier is potentially much higher as I've outlined above and in previous costs.
- Having the upper-hand since SWL won't open until Fall/Winter, when Potter is supposed to open this summer. if there is a time to capitalize "before SWL" this is it.
What does this accomplish other than potentially creating an abnormal spike in attendance for the summer ahead of SW land? The parks and resorts are at their highest capacity over the summer months to begin with regardless of a new ride. It might create such a spike in attendance that is not something that Universal is looking to have/can't adequately handle. Does Universal want the first reaction from park guests of the attraction to be "I waited 4 hours to ride it !!!" from a huge swell in attendance because a ton of vacationers pre-planned their vacations to be the first ones there?
- Disney announcing new info on a weekly basis, and coming out with a ton of new attractions in the next 5 years. That have actually been announced.
- Lack of ANY real details at all. Just one Promotional photo, that was more of a teaser.
- Failure to provide any other info on all the other projects that are in the works.
The above 3 points are just statements (complaints) of what Universal is doing (or not doing compared to Disney). It doesn't provide any reasoning as to *why* Universal should do like Disney it and what significant benefits it would provide. Let Disney do their thing of over-hyping things much earlier so the first 1/2 year of something new opening will be bedlam before things smooth out.
I'm happy with what Universal is doing as to keep things growing smoothly/organically.
With their strategy Universal is doing just as much as Disney is:
- Opening more resorts
- Adding new significant attractions continually
- Building a entire new park!
So they're obviously making money and continuing to constantly invest in their resorts. The only difference between Disney and Universal that I see from what they're doing is
how and when they tell the public about them.