Universal Studios Hollywood Misc Refurbs

[Brian G.]

Universal Studios Hollywood has closed Jurassic World: The Ride for refurbishment.

Jurassic World: The Ride closed for refurbishment through February 2023 at Universal Studios Hollywood

Universal Studios Hollywood has closed Jurassic World: The Ride for refurbishment. The attraction will be closed until February 9, 2023, for maintenance. Please keep in mind that these dates can change. Universal usually schedules annual maintenance for its water rides during the cooler mon

www.insideuniversal.net

 

[Jerroddragon]

Any word on when the little Harry Potter coaster is reopening

It gets 60 min lines when its busy so hope its open by the time Nintendoland is to help soak up crowds

 

[Brian G.]

WaterWorld will be closed for refurbishment until February 10, 2024.

WaterWorld closes for refurbishment at Universal Studios Hollywood

Universal Studios Hollywood has closed the WaterWorld stunt show for refurbishment. The attraction will be closed until February 10, 2024. Please keep in mind that these dates can change. Stay tuned to Inside Universal for all the latest news on Universal Parks & Resorts and follow alon

www.insideuniversal.net

 

[Jerroddragon]

The Boat the Big Bad comes out on hasn't worked the last few shows I saw so I assume its for that

Kinda insane we aren't getting Lunar New Years and this show is down....so there is the HP Tri wizard show and the Trash show (which isn't on the app) thats all the live entertainment we have right now

 

[Mad Dog]

The Boat the Big Bad comes out on hasn't worked the last few shows I saw so I assume its for that

Kinda insane we aren't getting Lunar New Years and this show is down....so there is the HP Tri wizard show and the Trash show (which isn't on the app) thats all the live entertainment we have right now

Going the way of Orlando live entertainment. I'd expect better from a movie company.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Going the way of Orlando live entertainment. I'd expect better from a movie company.

I just don't get how Lunar New Year isn't happening a month before the new Panda Movie....you think it would be a perfect tie in

 

[Jonathan]

Lunar New Year at USH was a thing for tourists (visitors from China) and that market hasn’t truly come back for Hollywood. They’re in the process of bringing back the Studio Tour in Mandarin. So baby steps in that area. And in all reality, Lunar NY was never truly that popular. They have merch and for the last two years they’ve sold food at Hollywood and Dine.

Regarding WaterWorld, they close the show every year to do a refurb. So it’s not cutting entertainment.

Hollywood has the best Meet and Greets from any theme park that I’ve been to. And whether you agree with them or not, Hollywood considers them part of their live entertainment lineup.

Do they need more entertainment, absolutely. But let’s not pretend they dont want entertainment. Entertainment is taking on the bulk of the budget for the 60th anniversary offerings. Let’s see how that pans out.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Lunar New Year at USH was a thing for tourists (visitors from China) and that market hasn’t truly come back for Hollywood. They’re in the process of bringing back the Studio Tour in Mandarin. So baby steps in that area. And in all reality, Lunar NY was never truly that popular. They have merch and for the last two years they’ve sold food at Hollywood and Dine.

Regarding WaterWorld, they close the show every year to do a refurb. So it’s not cutting entertainment.

Hollywood has the best Meet and Greets from any theme park that I’ve been to. And whether you agree with them or not, Hollywood considers them part of their live entertainment lineup.

Do they need more entertainment, absolutely. But let’s not pretend they dont want entertainment. Entertainment is taking on the bulk of the budget for the 60th anniversary offerings. Let’s see how that pans out.

It's also post Covid/SNW

So would be nice to bring it back even for just US guests, I mean Disneyland does it so there has to be some value there and if not then maybe offer up new things but the point is we need more to soak people up

WW has to go down but we have no other live shows right now besides the two smaller shows (one of which isn't even on the app or boards)

SO i hope next year but.....having nothing in the plaza 90 percent of the year is also just strange like, why not have things going on there to soak people up when its not HHN or the Holiday seasons?

 

[Jonathan]

It's also post Covid/SNW

So would be nice to bring it back even for just US guests, I mean Disneyland does it so there has to be some value there and if not then maybe offer up new things but the point is we need more to soak people up

WW has to go down but we have no other live shows right now besides the two smaller shows (one of which isn't even on the app or boards)

SO i hope next year but.....having nothing in the plaza 90 percent of the year is also just strange like, why not have things going on there to soak people up when its not HHN or the Holiday seasons?

They definitely need more entertainment. Smaller streetmosphere stuff would help fill out the lineup. But having 3 live shows (Animal Actors, SES and WaterWold with 4-5 shows a day per show) was an anomaly. Theme parks state side just don’t do 3 large capacity shows in this day and age. So it was all a matter of time till they were closed. Hollywood has done a better job as of late in doing the Potter night show on Saturday’s and Sunday’s during the offseason. I’m not here to defend USH, they can always do better and more.

And if you’re going to criticize, you also have to give them credit when it’s due. Grinchmas offerings were increased this last year. New daytime song and dance, plus an extended tree lighting ceremony.

But I won’t go as far as to say they’re in full cost cutting mode. I definitely have my own private opinions on the current entertainment at the park, but that’s for another time.

 

[Jerroddragon]

They definitely need more entertainment. Smaller streetmosphere stuff would help fill out the lineup. But having 3 live shows (Animal Actors, SES and WaterWold with 4-5 shows a day per show) was an anomaly. Theme parks state side just don’t do 3 large capacity shows in this day and age. So it was all a matter of time till they were closed. Hollywood has done a better job as of late in doing the Potter night show on Saturday’s and Sunday’s during the offseason. I’m not here to defend USH, they can always do better and more.

And if you’re going to criticize, you also have to give them credit when it’s due. Grinchmas offerings were increased this last year. New daytime song and dance, plus an extended tree lighting ceremony.

But I won’t go as far as to say they’re in full cost cutting mode. I definitely have my own private opinions on the current entertainment at the park, but that’s for another time.

It was great, but also still a little less then pre covid since there was one more show back then and for some reason for a little while they had the reading of the Grinch book as a much smaller show but then the last week I went they had the reading on the big stage

Also each park has it's own strengths and weakness, I would like USH to look at USH because they have a TON of Holiday shows and would like them to try the little parade/music show since we can't have a full parade thats fine but for sure we can do something like Viva Navidad Street Party.

While Universal kills it with the end of the year......the rest of the year to me is now lacking. No summer stuff besides the HP light show and deatheaters. Also now with no Lunar New year.....we literally have ZERO events until HHN in September

I love USH but would like more events and also USH to be much more vocal about plans in the next year, now that Disneyland and Sea World post their entire schedules for the next year I would like USH to follow.

 

[Jonathan]

It was great, but also still a little less then pre covid since there was one more show back then and for some reason for a little while they had the reading of the Grinch book as a much smaller show but then the last week I went they had the reading on the big stage

Also each park has it's own strengths and weakness, I would like USH to look at USH because they have a TON of Holiday shows and would like them to try the little parade/music show since we can't have a full parade thats fine but for sure we can do something like Viva Navidad Street Party.

While Universal kills it with the end of the year......the rest of the year to me is now lacking. No summer stuff besides the HP light show and deatheaters. Also now with no Lunar New year.....we literally have ZERO events until HHN in September

I love USH but would like more events and also USH to be much more vocal about plans in the next year, now that Disneyland and Sea World post their entire schedules for the next year I would like USH to follow.

Actually, it’s a lot more that what they offered from the 2018/2019 Grinchmas. Remember when they did “cost cut” and removed the boy band singers and story time with Cindy Lou Who and replaced it with just a DJ and then the tree lighting was a 5 min show.

I agree they need an event like Mardi Gras to help fill the year out.

 

[Mad Dog]

Actually, it’s a lot more that what they offered from the 2018/2019 Grinchmas. Remember when they did “cost cut” and removed the boy band singers and story time with Cindy Lou Who and replaced it with just a DJ and then the tree lighting was a 5 min show.

I agree they need an event like Mardi Gras to help fill the year out.

Was any of that a result of the top management change after the Hogsmeade underperformance situation. Seems to have happened around the same time soon afterward?

 

[Viator]

Do they need more entertainment, absolutely. But let’s not pretend they dont want entertainment. Entertainment is taking on the bulk of the budget for the 60th anniversary offerings. Let’s see how that pans out.

Can add onto this as-well, what I have understood is the more intensive funding for budgets is also going to HHN ontop of that of the 60th.

I agree they need an event like Mardi Gras to help fill the year out.

Kind of hoping 2025 is the year of Mardi Gras--feel like you can easily do wonders with having a rotational "concert" lineup in the Plaza with Mardi Gras festivities carrying the park from February to April; and it'd do really good on getting people into the parks during that period of time.

 

[Jonathan]

Was any of that a result of the top management change after the Hogsmeade underperformance situation. Seems to have happened around the same time soon afterward?

I don’t believe so, no. Potter underperformance was really only the opening Summer. The ship righted itself during the Christmas season. When Karen came in summer of 2016 she did wonders for the park. She had a long term vision for Hollywood and were still seeing the fruits of it. Entertainment started seeing cuts in 2017/2018. And others more in the know may disagree with me on this, but I don’t believe she was the pusher of cuts…I think that blame goes to two others, but that’s for another time. Haha. There’s some interesting stories there.

 

[Mad Dog]

I don’t believe so, no. Potter underperformance was really only the opening Summer. The ship righted itself during the Christmas season. When Karen came in summer of 2016 she did wonders for the park. She had a long term vision for Hollywood and were still seeing the fruits of it. Entertainment started seeing cuts in 2017/2018. And others more in the know may disagree with me on this, but I don’t believe she was the pusher of cuts…I think that blame goes to two others, but that’s for another time. Haha. There’s some interesting stories there.

Are those two others still around?

 

[Jonathan]

Are those two others still around?

Yep

 

[Mad Dog]

Yep

and it all starts to make sense....Thanks Jonathan. Your opinion is always highly regarded.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Actually, it’s a lot more that what they offered from the 2018/2019 Grinchmas. Remember when they did “cost cut” and removed the boy band singers and story time with Cindy Lou Who and replaced it with just a DJ and then the tree lighting was a 5 min show.

I agree they need an event like Mardi Gras to help fill the year out.

See but I’m not going to give them points for taking away entertainment and bringing it back

They are making more now then back then and would just like to see these events get more and have more events

But hopefully the rumors of the 60th are true and it would help if universal, in anyway talked about plans like Disneyland and sea world

My basic points are

We need more things to soak up these large crowds
More events/grinchmas getting more to deal with crowds
Universal being more vocal on events and instead of just giving up on lunar new years asking guests what would get them to come back because Disneyland an hour away seems to pack people in with events

I understand USH strategy which is basically be as cheap as you can and hope people come but with APs on sale, it seems to me they need to do more to draw locals which means spending more and hope leadership sees in this case of you spend a little you get more then enough back

Edit: I will give USH credit for having three grinches that’s a great move and world like to see aggressive moves like this that add more entertainment to the park and soak up some crowds more

 

[salismetho]

Universal being more vocal on events and instead of just giving up on lunar new years asking guests what would get them to come back because Disneyland an hour away seems to pack people in with events

Universal is incredibly proactive when it comes to surveys, things just take time. I got a survey I think over a year ago now about various events (including LNY) and what I thought of them, would I pay for them as a separately ticketed event, etc. 60th Anniversary was on that survey and it seems to be coming into fruition now. They've also made great strides to improve both HHN and Grinchmas as events, I don't really feel like they're cheaping out there.

The LNY event works better at Disney because basically everything works better at Disney, people are going to come because it's Disney. It's the off-season, it's just harder to make a successful event at that time of year at a park without such a dedicated cult following.

When Karen came in summer of 2016 she did wonders for the park. She had a long term vision for Hollywood and were still seeing the fruits of it. Entertainment started seeing cuts in 2017/2018. And others more in the know may disagree with me on this, but I don’t believe she was the pusher of cuts…I think that blame goes to two others, but that’s for another time. Haha. There’s some interesting stories there.

Interesting, definitely have heard otherwise lol

 

[Freak]

So….any word on when the Earthquake refurb is finished? Really curious to see the final product!