Universal Lack of Announcements Thread

[Moose84]

Just want to correct a false bit of your statement:

Supercharged was moved to 2018 because there was delays in construction - aka foundation issues. Same issues which caused that Coke project by MIB to take so long.

Maybe but I think it had a little more to do with the fact that 2017 already had Volcano Bay and Fallon lined up while 2016 had Kong open, quite simply the same ride but superior version.

A full year before opening Universal knew it would be delayed by a year. A basic clone ride on an area that already housed attractions but now had foundation issues? A full years worth of foundation issues?

Universal may want us to believe that and I’m sure it’s what they put out but really.

Just seemed a little more like they needed a fill for 2018 and it’s all they had.

I know I don’t get squat from insiders and my view carries little, I just put 2 and 2 together and I still get 4 even if Universal Orlando swears the answer is 5.

No matter T2/Bourne/? replacement is 2020 because JP coaster moved to 2021 because Universal got scared about money and delayed/moved projects to the South.

My opinion and I promise that I’m not trying to come off rudely towards you, if I am my apologies.

 

[Brian G.]

Maybe but I think it had a little more to do with the fact that 2017 already had Volcano Bay and Fallon lined up while 2016 had Kong open, quite simply the same ride but superior version.

A full year before opening Universal knew it would be delayed by a year. A basic clone ride on an area that already housed attractions but now had foundation issues? A full years worth of foundation issues?

Universal may want us to believe that and I’m sure it’s what they put out but really.

Just seemed a little more like they needed a fill for 2018 and it’s all they had.

You may not agree with it, but that's what it was. They demoed Disaster and BJ, saw there were issues, and pushed it back. Resources were spread thin since Volcano Bay and Fallon was under construction, and you get a year delay. Hell, that little Coke Project building was a 4-6 month delay, too.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

I guarantee there's visitors at this point who don't even know that there ever was--or even will be-- anything in the spot Pottercoaster is going.

 

[Disneyhead]

I suspect something like this is imminent:

"While you're waiting on a galaxy far, far away, there is a Universe of Epic Adventures in Orlando ready to cast it's magical spell on your family. Experience an all new adventure where you journey into the Dark Forest on Hagrid's motorbike to encounter some fantastic creatures and old friends. Only at Universal Orlando Resort Summer 2019."

 

[Happytycho]

My opinion, I repeat my opinion..

I believe Universal Orlando needs true change in leadership to be more aggressive.

The higher ups seem almost cowardly in their actions.

The only things that have been confirmed and actually in construction are T2 replacement, Potter coaster, and hotels.

All these additions were in line before the D23 announcements of 2017. Since then we have seen them postpone openings F&F and cancel(move) projects like Nintendo.

We can hoot and ha all we want that a new park is coming but an opening date at the earliest is 2023(2022 would be really rushed) so really what.

They pushed F&F to 2018 cause they had nothing for the year and I’m calling it now, T2/Bourne will be pushed to 2020 cause they have nothing.

Why do they have nothing well they are afraid.
Afraid to spend, afraid to move, and afraid of Disney. The new park will cost money yes. You need a draw yes. But you took your projects from one park and moved them. Thats not really an addition to me, just a swap.

So the Orlando execs are not exactly going full speed ahead but just stealing from peter to give to Paul and it makes me sad.

They closed a stage show(I know it was crap) without a replacement for years and canceled/ delayed projects all so we can have another park.

To put it another way:
SLOP(Shrek)+MoM(FFL)+SNW(Kidzone)+
Berk(Lost Continent)+Volcano Bay Expansion+Seuss Landing Expansion+MIB expansion pad addition+Toon Lagoon Theater repacecement.
*I know not all were for sure but imagine*

=

New Park

What would really be better? Truly?

For me it’s both as they are equal in value.

I know it’s a lot but what will be the reason for those that have been to UO recently to visit the North resort just hit the new south property and save your money.

Now not only did you steal the projects for the new park but the customers as well. Yay the new park has decent attendance but wait IoA and USF are stagnant/decreasing but why?

Borrow from peter to pay Paul, well peter still needs to get paid.

The strategy will fail unless they get their acts together.

Oh and for those wondering why the Jurassic Park coaster was delayed and now likely a 2021 addition well because their actual 2021 addition got moved to the new park so they delayed the project for fill.

My opinion and it makes me sad to think this but it’s just to obvious.

2020 was suppose to be Disney and Universal for my vacation but with all these delays and indecision, why would I visit Universal. Disney and a 8 day cruise is now my plan.

Before you all start hating on me I love Universal and was rooting for them against Disney but Orlando’s resort looks timid and I’ll wait and save my money for greener pastures.

Hell Hollywood will have as many new attractions as both parks in Orlando between now and 2021 with one actually being an expansion land for SNW.

USH I’ll see you in 2021 and USO call me when the new park opens.

Just my opinion...

I agree with your comments about stuff being delayed (Bourne 2020, JW 2021, new park 2023), but I disagree with the sentiment that there were tons of awesome lands scheduled whereas now the current parks are being abandoned.

We can look at what has been added in the comcast era:
2012: Minions, Spiderman HD
2013: Transformers, Simpsons
2014: Diagon, HE
2015:
2016: Kong, Hulk Re-build
2017: Fallon, VB
2018: F&F

And these are the likely next few years:
2019: Potter Coaster
2020: Bourne
2021: JW land upgrade w/ new coaster
2022: VB Expansion (or something of similarly small scale)
2023: Fantastic Worlds

Its not the blockbuster years that some may have been hoping for, but its also not neglecting the parks. It's only a small drop in the pace of additions. There will still be plenty to drive attendance, and there is no reason to believe that there won't be more new rides shortly after FW opens as well.

 

[JungleSkip]

Here’s where I think we’re at. This is a mix of info, common sense, and some speculation.

Universal is prepping for (possibly) their best park to date to open in Orlando. Most of the resources are going towards it, including moving at leas 2 big projects out of USF to it (Nintendo and MoM). That creates holes in the lineup. Holes that Comcast probably aren’t in a rush to fill because they’re about to drop however many billions of dollars on a new park.

Meanwhile, we are stuck with a resort leadership team that is gun shy on announcing anything because of what happened between 2008 and 2010. Now, I think that’s a dumb move, and I think the UOR based leadership team needs to be replaced, but I think people are confusing a lack of announcements with a lack of investment, and that’s just not playing out. We’re still getting what I think could be the best ride to open this year in IoA. We’re getting a stunt show in USF that (IMO) will be an improvement on what was there prior, dodgy IP or not. And we are getting an impressive, potentially record breaking coaster in IoA in 2020 or 2021. That’s, at the very least, 3 new attractions leading into a new theme park. That’s not too shabby.

I’m not saying I don’t want a Pokemon land before 2023 or whatever. That would be great. But looking at the timeline, I think the idea that Universal is gunshy on Nintendo because of F&F can only be a realistic view if we’re feeding into our own confirmation bias. After the flop of F&F we all want to say “Told ya so, UOR!” and believe the entire Universal machine is incompetent and only we can run the parks correctly.

But if we’re being realistic with ourselves, the level of investment coming means it’s easy to see *why* we’re not getting brand new lands leading into park 3. I’m not saying people have to like it, but IMO, believing it’s because Universal is so dumb that they can’t see the lasting appeal of franchises that are decades old and still popular is a bit daft.

 

[ChrisFL]

It's interesting how completely different Disney and Universal's approaches are to new attractions.

Disney will start the hype machine several years out while Universal basically says "move along, nothing to see here" until an attraction is practically ready to open....removing any possible hype for guests until it's ready to open.

Both ways have their flaws. I do think Universal needs to get ahead and truly promote their upcoming attractions sooner because they already have a very good lineup for people to already visit. Plus, getting locals to see what's coming and post on social media about it (more than they do already, because Universal would have announced it) helps the hype for the attraction...aka free advertising at that point.

I don't think Universal's marketing has ever been their best asset (*cough*Universal Escape*cough)

 

[Scott W.]

I can't really add anything beyond what's been said except maybe offer a few excuses why we're in the situation we're in.

Universal has always held their cards close to their chest and the new Potter coaster is no exception. They didn't officially announce Gringotts name until January 23rd, further details in may and finally opening the ride in July. I think they want to release real photos in their official announcement and the trains being on site only adds to this. With rumours about the ride being slightly delayed, it makes sense for them not to give an opening date just yet. On top of this, this is a huge ride. Way bigger than anything else they've done before and it has a lot of moving parts and potential problems that could arise from this. Given Intamin's history with their rides having issues (Infinity Falls, Gringotts) then they don't want to be in a situation where they say the ride will be open, people book their vacation and it's not ready in time which results in far worse PR compared to a bunch of nerds online complaining about a lack of announcements.

We're still feeling the aftermath of Universal's response to Disney's announcements combined with their latest decisions to move projects to the new park.

The people are Universal Creative could be overworked, having to modify and change existing plans, having to build a new park in Beijing and design a new park for Orlando. Add on top the crappy response to F&F which is going to be a blow to their morale where the people working were forced to build something their knew would be a flop or they genuinely thought it was good.

Having said all that, if I was a ticker seller for Universal, I would be beyond pissed off. They know that the Potter coaster is going to be a wild success but they have virtually zero official information about it and they're having to rely on forums like this and photos from Twitter.

 

[Ryan]

I suspect something like this is imminent:

"While you're waiting on a galaxy far, far away, there is a Universe of Epic Adventures in Orlando ready to cast it's magical spell on your family. Experience an all new adventure where you journey into the Dark Forest on Hagrid's motorbike to encounter some fantastic creatures and old friends. Only at Universal Orlando Resort Summer 2019."

Honestly thought this was real for a second, job well done

 

[Nick]

Honestly thought this was real for a second, job well done

Take out the Galaxy far, far away part and it’s perfect. Universal would never promote/reference something Disney is building in their advertising.

 

[JoeCamel]

Take out the Galaxy far, far away part and it’s perfect. Universal would never promote/reference something Disney is building in their advertising.

I don't know, they attacked the whole princess thing.

 

[Nick]

I don't know, they attacked the whole princess thing.

That’s different bc that’s something Disney’s known for. SW:GE is meant to compete with Potter.

 

[UNIrd]

I'm the "theme park guy" in my circle as I'm sure most of you are as well and I literally had 3 different people ask me about Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opening yesterday alone. So great job, Disney.

Meanwhile, whenever I brought up that a new Harry Potter experience was opening this year, not one person knew. So there's that.

 

[shiekra38]

I'm the "theme park guy" in my circle as I'm sure most of you are as well and I literally had 3 different people ask me about Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opening yesterday alone. So great job, Disney.

Meanwhile, whenever I brought up that a new Harry Potter experience was opening this year, not one person knew. So there's that.

Yep, it's kind of scary seeing as we're a few months (theoretically) out from opening

 

[Nick]

I'm the "theme park guy" in my circle as I'm sure most of you are as well and I literally had 3 different people ask me about Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opening yesterday alone. So great job, Disney.

Meanwhile, whenever I brought up that a new Harry Potter experience was opening this year, not one person knew. So there's that.

And this is a great example of what most of us are getting at, I think. We don't need to know everything, but they should be saying SOMETHING, if only to let the public know this ride exists. Right now all of the hype lies with Galaxy's Edge bc no one outside of theme park circles knows Potter is happening.

 

[GAcoaster]

I'm the "theme park guy" in my circle as I'm sure most of you are as well and I literally had 3 different people ask me about Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opening yesterday alone. So great job, Disney.

Meanwhile, whenever I brought up that a new Harry Potter experience was opening this year, not one person knew. So there's that.

And how many people are showing up at Disney expecting Star Wars to be open already and complaining about their disappointment. And just wait until DL opens theirs and WDW still has 4-6 months to go before the DHS version is open...

I would not want to be working in Guest Relations this summer/fall at WDW.

 

[UNIrd]

And how many people are showing up at Disney expecting Star Wars to be open already and complaining about their disappointment. And just wait until DL opens theirs and WDW still has 4-6 months to go before the DHS version is open...

I would not want to be working in Guest Relations this summer/fall at WDW.

That's possible but nothing out of the ordinary. I've seen guests in line at USF guest relations holding tickets for USH. I've also been at a Disney resort checking in and the person next to me asking the front desk which of their parks has Harry Potter. I'm sure it happens every day.

My concern from the beginning was that it was actually going to be difficult to market this since they've been pushing Star Wars at DHS for years. They really needed to make the message clear that they're heralding in a whole new land and new attractions, which it looks like they're definitely succeeding in.

 

[Magic-Man]

I'm just waiting for Universal to shock us all and build the Pokemon land, just to get us all to shut up.

 

[Nick]

And how many people are showing up at Disney expecting Star Wars to be open already and complaining about their disappointment. And just wait until DL opens theirs and WDW still has 4-6 months to go before the DHS version is open...

I would not want to be working in Guest Relations this summer/fall at WDW.

And that's the guest fault for not doing their homework. You can't just not market something because you're afraid of pushback like that. You cross that bridge when the time comes.

 

[Scott W.]

I'm the "theme park guy" in my circle as I'm sure most of you are as well and I literally had 3 different people ask me about Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opening yesterday alone. So great job, Disney.

Meanwhile, whenever I brought up that a new Harry Potter experience was opening this year, not one person knew. So there's that.

On the flip side of this, I know two people who booked vacations to Orlando this year for the sole purpose of going to see Star Wars. One in September and one in May.