Universal Lack of Announcements Thread

No doubt. The cost to grab a seasonal pass is all of ~$10/person compared to a 5 day 3 PTP pass. To not get one is actually pretty dumb. Now if you're only there for 2 days, I could see it. But no one here really fits in that category.

Disney, on the other hand, you have to really make it worth your while for an AP. I still do it, but it's not nearly as affordable.

 

All this talk of APs is giving me the idea of buying one and maybe making a few trips next year instead of one massive blowout.

 

Easier mentally when you know you have a couple weeks off every 6 months than 4 weeks once a year. That 52 week wait is way to long.

 

I wasn't going to for a year and a half, but the 6 month free promo is getting me to break down and do it in March. I'll be in Orlando seeing friends anyway, so now am gonna pop over to the parks.

Sigh. Sometimes being a theme park fan sucks.

 

That Universal AP sure came in handy last September when my brother asked me if I wanted to tag along on his 1 week business trip in Orlando. Free hotel, some meals and no cost for tickets made for a nice low cost vacation. And I also used the AP for my normal scheduled vacations in May & December. Pure unadulterated "Value".

 

If the 6 months free is still going, I reckon I could easily get 3 trips out of it.

I put everything for work on my credit card and can easily get enough miles for 2 flights for me and the mrs in a year and if I save the miles from other credit cards a year before, I reckon I could squeeze 3 trips. Only paying the tax, a round trip for flights will cost about £400, a week stay at CBBR and I think we could easily be under a £1000 a trip.

We usually plan to go away in February or March with a big trip in September. Next September, Laura's sister is getting married and are planning to do a week in Orlando for their honeymoon with their daughter and are asking for her parents and me and Laura to go to show them about for a week before they travel else where and can bring their daughter home to give the newly weds some alone time. We're maybe looking at doing a cruise the week after and being able to get a few days at Universal would be a huge bonus.

Being able to then go again early the next year before finally settling down to start a family sounds like a great last hurrah in Orlando.

I'll need to look into this. I'm getting giddy thinking about it.

 

Out of interest are you using the Virgin Atlantic credit card, and if so how do you find the miles system? I have 30k miles but want to boost through credit card.

 

Yeah, that's the one I'm using. First impressions will make you think that it's crap but if you're persistent and check daily, you should be able to get any flight you have your eye on. Once they switched from American Express to Mastercard, the miles dropped from 2 miles per £ spent to 1.5 per £ spent but every company I deal with uses Mastercard so it's worked out better.

The American Express gold card is worth a look:
American Express® Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card | American Express UK

20,000 points (Which can be converted to Virgin air miles at a 1:1 ratio and some times you'll get a 30% boost) if you spend £2,000 in your first 3 months and 9,000 bonus points if you refer somebody. Me and my wife have been daisy chaining these by referring each other every 9 months (You need to wait 6 months before you can reapply for the card and still get the benefits.) The card is free for the first year and it comes with 2x airport lounge passes which can be used in Orlando and quite a few UK airports.

Apologies for going radically off topic.

 

@Scott W. - that’s a UK offer. If @UAN17 is from US, there will be much, much better offers available to him. No other country gets close to the cards or offers America has.

 

Just sayin....BUT....Iger's remarks during today's financial conference results. Concerning anticipated crowds for Star Wars, Iger jokingly remarked that the demand will be so high that he's instructed Marketing to spend as little as possible. He said that all we need to say is that "it's open"......I'm thinking Universal thinks the same with any new attractions concerning Potter.

 

I think Universal feels they have the opposite issue, where people are already there

Really, the new coaster only replaces a capacity need and doesn't add, so theoretically, IOA has the same capacity....And if Universal already sees the parks as "too crowded" then that could explain not wanting to push the new HP Coaster

Also, I think they will use it as ammo after Star Wars has already opened

 

Hearing that there will be some sort of announcement this month, which may also include hints about the new park. We'll see if it happens, though.

 

I’ve been hurt before.

 

UniversalOrl Twitter: *posts Spongebob meme*

 

May be true as far as marketing spend but they're still going full force with this in every other way possible you can imagine, having Tom Brady in front of the Galaxy's Edge construction walls all over social media, announcing the Galaxy's Edge cookbook, the comics/novel, etc. And that's just THIS WEEK.

Universal is not doing anywhere near the same thing. If you haven't been to the park or caught that one post, you simply would not know there's a new Harry Potter attraction coming. You couldn't. It's not even on their website under "Coming Soon."

 

I'm really struggling to see what they could realistically say about the new park or why they would do so now.

 

"We're excited to announce Hagrid's *insert name here* at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade. This brand new attraction is a part of our large expansion efforts in preparation for new adventures."

 

The key word was that Iger "jokingly" remarked. I'm sure Disney will be marketing this to the max. But, for both park system's, Star Wars and Potter still basically sell themselves, with a little help from the marketing people.

 

Mine is purely anecdotal, but there is a massive chasm between the amount of people who know about "Star Wars Land" vs those that know a new Harry Potter coaster is being built in my work life/personal life.

 

I calculated it out once - for a single trip, four days at UO can justify the Seasonal Pass and be about the same price. For Disney, you had to do 11 days for it to be worth it.

This is what I keep falling into, although last year we did a split vacation - did Wisconsin for half of our vacation (for a wedding) and then flew down to Orlando for the second half of our trip. The extra flight sucks, but otherwise it's two for the price of one.