Universal's New Park/Site B Blue Sky Thread

[belloq87]

- DHS has never truly had an identity, although at least this expansion project is helping sorts give it one. I’d argue it’s now about all the studios Disney owns (LucasFilm/SWGE, Pixar/TSL, Muppet Courtyard/Muppet Studios, etc. They can’t really use Marvel in the park or else, but I do think Animation Courtyard could make a great WDSA area, with multiple dark rides.)
- USF I’d argue had a much better identity in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Now it’s more or less a hodgepodge.

Back in the MGM days, I think that park's "Celebrate the Hollywood that never was and always will be" mantra gave it a fairly distinct atmosphere and feel. Some of that still remains at the front of the park, but once SW:GE opens, it's really still going to be a disjointed place.

USF, I'd argue, had a wonderful identity. They made the intangible tangible, and focused either on putting you in certifiably classic properties (Jaws, King Kong, BTTF, E.T., Ghostbusters) or taking you behind the scenes of film and television and showing the tricks of the trade (Hitchcock, Earthquake, Murder She Wrote, Horror Makeup, Animal Actors).

 

[quinnmac000]

But it is successful.

Mardi Gras and to some extent HHN work because they are the only ones providing top notch experiences. Food festivals are hit and miss based on saturation. If they could get a unique theme and tie-in, I'm 100% for it because I love food and beverage but if its your basic international food festival, I would say going for a different kind of thing would be better.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

Mardi Gras and to some extent HHN work because they are the only ones providing top notch experiences. Food festivals are hit and miss based on saturation. If they could get a unique theme and tie-in, I'm 100% for it because I love food and beverage but if its your basic international food festival, I would say going for a different kind of thing would be better.

Agree 100%. I don't think the next park will lend itself to an International Food Festival anyway. I could see creating unique foods tied into the different areas only sold during Festival times.

 

[Disneyhead]

GastroCraft Festival

A cross between a hipster food fest, craft beer fest, and an arts & crafts fest.

 

[Nick]

IOA doesn’t have any festivals and has a higher attendance than USF. A park doesn’t need festivals to be a success.

The only Disney park to have a festival is Epcot for example. It just has a lot of them.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

IOA doesn’t have any festivals and has a higher attendance than USF. A park doesn’t need festivals to be a success.

The only Disney park to have a festival is Epcot for example. It just has a lot of them.

Festivals are just one thought. Most of the other parks have either special events or hard ticket events. Anything going on at Universal Studios is of course going on the North Universal Orlando property. Why would Universal want to have events on the old property but not on the new property?

 

[Disneyhead]

IOA doesn’t have any festivals and has a higher attendance than USF. A park doesn’t need festivals to be a success.

The only Disney park to have a festival is Epcot for example. It just has a lot of them.

Yes, Epcot is the only Disney Park with "Festivals". But throw in the discharge events like MNSSHP and MVMCP and the former Star Wars Weekends and the schedule fills up fast.

 

[Nick]

Yes, Epcot is the only Disney Park with "Festivals". But throw in the discharge events like MNSSHP and MVMCP and the former Star Wars Weekends and the schedule fills up fast.

I think there’s a place for events like MNSSHP and MVMCP at the new UOR property. They don’t have anything aimed at kids currently for Halloween, so it would be a good play.

 

[captainmoch]

I think there’s a place for events like MNSSHP and MVMCP at the new UOR property. They don’t have anything aimed at kids currently for Halloween, so it would be a good play.

I love the idea. A Mario area could have more Luigi's Mansion-esque lighting and theming at night, a DreamWorks area could base the properties off some of the Halloween specials, etc. It'd be a great alternative to HHN.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

My bet is that they will use a small portion of the new land for a year-round HHN-style park with permanent walk-through houses and a few horror ride-based attractions.

It will be open nightly, say, from 4pm-10pm. Houses can open/close based on season/attendance. This would be hard to resist for people after a day with co-workers at the convention center, or folks that just chilled by their pool all day, or at an off-property theme park. It's a bite-sized commitment, so to speak.

This is what Universal can do that Disney can't, and it's something Universal does very well. I'm sure the UC folks are dying to design permanent haunts, using everything they've learned over the past couple decades.

After this is up and running, we will laugh at the days when HHN had to be retrofitted into a park that wasn't built for it.

I know there are many reasons why this isn't a good idea -- no reason for you to list them -- but alas, this is my bet.

Yeah I really don't think this is a smart play. I don't get why HHN fans want a year round HHN when they seem to enjoy the speculation leading up to the event more than the event itself...

 

[happy bunny rabbit]

Yeah I really don't think this is a smart play. I don't get why HHN fans want a year round HHN when they seem to enjoy the speculation leading up to the event more than the event itself...

While I agree, I dont want a year-round HHN area, it isn’t because I enjoy the speculation more. It’s because HHN changes yearly so the houses are always new and fresh, a year round attraction wouldn’t be able to do this, I feel it’d get boring after around the 10th run.

 

[Scott W.]

Yeah I really don't think this is a smart play. I don't get why HHN fans want a year round HHN when they seem to enjoy the speculation leading up to the event more than the event itself...

I’m not a fan of Horror Nights and I ignore the topic so excuse my ignorance but would it be possible for a small HHN experience in the new CityWalk. Something to give people a flavour of the event and convince them to come back in October.

 

[jseal777]

While I agree, I dont want a year-round HHN area, it isn’t because I enjoy the speculation more. It’s because HHN changes yearly so the houses are always new and fresh, a year round attraction wouldn’t be able to do this, I feel it’d get boring after around the 10th run.

Classic monsters dark ride = best of both worlds

 

[happy bunny rabbit]

I’m not a fan of Horror Nights and I ignore the topic so excuse my ignorance but would it be possible for a small HHN experience in the new CityWalk. Something to give people a flavour of the event and convince them to come back in October.

It’d definitely be POSSIBLE. Would it be successful? Maybe.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

I’m not a fan of Horror Nights and I ignore the topic so excuse my ignorance but would it be possible for a small HHN experience in the new CityWalk. Something to give people a flavour of the event and convince them to come back in October.

I think you may be lying into a bit of Goretorium territory, to where that may alienate families more-so than a seasonal event, especially if it's out there in the open.

 

[Scott W.]

I think you may be lying into a bit of Goretorium territory, to where that may alienate families more-so than a seasonal event, especially if it's out there in the open.

I don’t think it would alienate families any more than the multiple bars and night clubs already in CityWalk.

The real question is if it would be a success or not.

 

[Galaxy Defender]

For those of us that that never do HHN a permanent house sounds good.

 

[happy bunny rabbit]

For those of us that that never do HHN a permanent house sounds good.

Yeah, maybe a tamer house with a huge IP like StrTh would work

 

[shiekra38]

I think there’s a place for events like MNSSHP and MVMCP at the new UOR property. They don’t have anything aimed at kids currently for Halloween, so it would be a good play.

A daytime Halloween/Trick-R-Treating event in IOA would be fun...They could even do a special Grinch show based on The Grinch that Stole Halloween...And more Marvel villians could make an appearance

 

[Legacy]

My bet is that they will use a small portion of the new land for a year-round HHN-style park with permanent walk-through houses and a few horror ride-based attractions.

It will be open nightly, say, from 4pm-10pm. Houses can open/close based on season/attendance. This would be hard to resist for people after a day with co-workers at the convention center, or folks that just chilled by their pool all day, or at an off-property theme park. It's a bite-sized commitment, so to speak.

This is what Universal can do that Disney can't, and it's something Universal does very well. I'm sure the UC folks are dying to design permanent haunts, using everything they've learned over the past couple decades.

After this is up and running, we will laugh at the days when HHN had to be retrofitted into a park that wasn't built for it.

I know there are many reasons why this isn't a good idea -- no reason for you to list them -- but alas, this is my bet.

That’s a bad bet. There’s limited success (ie - scraping by) for year-round haunts, and despite the independent success of HHN and other more regional haunts, they’re successful because of HEAVY rotation of themes and timeliness. In a word, haunts work best as special events. If a single year-round house can’t survive, then a year-round haunted park would be a spectacular failure. There’s not enough of a viable market, globally, to support that.

Now, they may integrate house locations into a new park. But even then, probably not. HHN thrives because of the space the sound stages provide. And fact of the matter is Universal isn’t going to build more sound stages on the Southern property. You may get a couple of parade buildings at the new park, but most of its “house locations” will be extended queues. And you don’t want that. Never mind that P4rk’s theming will severely limit the type of streets you could use, which is a major factor that prevents IoA’s use.

People need to recognize that HHN isn’t the prize horse that keeps Uni in the black anymore. It’s really not THAT important anymore. Believing that its existence is some critical facet of the new property’s development is hopefully misguided.