I don't want to go here, but I kinda want to go here...
Why is Universal the only park in the area that seems to be shutting things down (rides, parks, etc)
Am I missing something?
Theme Parks & Shopping Districts Reopening General Thread
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I don't want to go here, but I kinda want to go here...
Why is Universal the only park in the area that seems to be shutting things down (rides, parks, etc)
Am I missing something?
Universal Studios Hollywood is not in Orange County, but rather LA County.
Disneyland Resort and Knotts, are part of Orange County.
However, large environements like the parks, aren't expected to be potentially reopen until California goes into Phase 3.
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In terms of hotels I think it mostly has to do with HHN, and further goes to show that all systems were a go on having the event until likely just hours before the cancellation announcement. After reading into the bookings/cancellations for the fall, I'm guessing UOR realized that there wasn't a real need to keep their big 3 "HHN Hotels" (Cabana/Aventura/Sapphire) all running, and thus elected to close Aventura/Sapphire. When HHN is referred to as a cash cow for the resort, I don't think we take it seriously enough.
Also worth noting that WDW re-opened without putting many of their hotels into public operation. The NBA Bubble (which I'm sure paid handsomely) took over a bunch, while Disney elected to let places like the All-Star sit dormant. Even going into the fall, it'll take until the late Sep-early Nov for them to get Grand Floridian, Poly, Coronado, and Art of Animation all to re-open.
In the water park realm, Universal is at least still keeping VB open most of the week. I doubt we see Disney open Blizzard or Typhoon until the spring.
One continued to pay their employees throughout shutdown.
Water parks are shut down indefinitely. Entertainment is still virtually non-existent, other than a couple re-tooled shows. Major restaurants are shut down--for example, MK down to 3 TSRs, in EPCOT French restaurants closed and one of the Mexican places will soon be joining them, CItricos/V&A literally walled off (and Narcooses is NBA only). Tons of "snack bars" and gift shops are shuttered as well--I'd estimate at least half the storefronts in DHS on Monday, probably more. I wouldn't say Disney is business as usual.
That said, different corporate cultures. WDW values its "whales" above all else, the hard-core fans from the northeast who drop $10k on a trip. Keeping up appearances is everything to Disney, because you can't have super-fans putting off a trip because they think it won't be magical.
UOR not that long ago was a locals-heavy park, dependent on Mardi Gras and HHN to limp it through the rest of the year. Things were temporarily closed all the time back then -- even to this day, after 20 years as an AP, I can count the number of times I've eaten at Green Eggs & Ham or Wimpys or Dagwoods on one hand. Locals were more forgiving because there was happy hour beer and the cost of parking at HHN covered a year's worth of AP payments anyway.
Market somewhat different from what it was a decade ago but the corporate culture stubbornly remains. "This is fine--everything is normal" v. "Cut costs wherever we can to keep the doors open."
Oh yes, we were all there for the Blackstone and GE days :look:
I’m visiting Universal today and just saw Florida governor Ron DeSantis with his family.
He was hosting a meeting with representatives from all the Central Florida theme parks at Universal today.
It was, interesting.
Key takeaways:
- Parks want to spread awareness that they are "safe" for out of town tourists to visit.
- DeSantis is meeting with airlines to create incentives to get more tourists to fly to Orlando.
- DeSantis is fine with the parks increasing capacity... if they want to.
- Everyone patting themselves on the back for doing such a good job opening the parks "safely"
- And, "safe," "SAFE," "SAFFFEEE"
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Don't forget Penelope Toothsome in the back with the product placement!
This is largely because Universal kind of bet on an "all-in" reopening. By only not reopening one hotel (Dockside wasn't ever open), and effectively reopening everything except playgrounds and select entertainment, they attempted to try to reopen everything and hope that there would be enough pent-up demand to get attendance into a desired range. It didn't work.
- Apr 19, 2019
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All of the random displays that Universal put up around the roundtable were just kind of funny to me. I guess they wanted to find a way, other than the giant monitors with logos, to remind the three casual viewers that this conference was at UOR. I'm assuming S33 was used for this?
Yea, that was my guess. A lot of that stuff is used for corporate events and media events so I bet they keep it stored there to look pretty in the background.
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The LA Zoo reopens today, we will have to see how it goes this weekend. The zoo whenever I've gone was suppppppper crowded by noon so be interesting to see if they can keep kids distanced as they rush to look at the next animal
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Right, Portofino was the hotel that never reopened. Dockside never opened so it couldn't "reopen"
Man Accused of Hitting Disney Security Guard in Dispute Over Face Mask
The incident happened at Epcot on August 14.
www.mynews13.com
Florida should really consider selling palm trees as its major source of income
There are so many and everyone LOVES palm trees
- Feb 15, 2012
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Sorry, misread what you said. My bad.
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