When and how will Disney respond to Epic Universe?

[Minnie1222]

That already happened in 2022: Islands of Adventure beat AK, HS, and Epcot. US beat AK and Epcot but not HS, though it was not far behind HS.

In all fairness, Disney had park reservations and did not sell AP that year.

 

[way2tyred]

Our family would love if they added several lands or another park to Disney, but even if they don't my husband 100% falls into this category. He has zero interest in any Universal franchise and doesn't like large roller coasters or carnival like rides.

This is us as well. And to add to that, even though I say I would love a new land, the thought of adding even more into a vacation stresses me out. Already it takes a full week to get through everything...

 

[mickeyluv'r]

But how is that possible they didn't have good 2023 when their revenue was in the billions? 6 Billion QT 1 2024 alone? And that’s for the parks only

I am not very familiar with the reports, so someone else can likely provide a better answer, but I think it is because the international parks did well, but WDW- on the whole- did not do as well as expected, or did not do as well as expected in the later 3 quarters of 2023.

The closing of Starcruiser is part of the calculation.

Disney also did away with park reservations and the 2pm park hopping restriction this year. I suspect it has to do with the amount of money Disney made last year.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

In all fairness, Disney had park reservations and did not sell AP that year.

Fairness?

Those were choices Disney made. Universal made different choices.

Universal had no park touring restrictions, and embraced passholders with a 3 month bonus on all passes/renewals, a passholder lounge, secret passholder menu items, bonus early entry days, and passholder appreciation events.



It is 100% fair for customers to choose where they want to vacation.

(It is worth clarifying: WDW only stopped the sale of new AP's for a time. They continued to sell AP renewals.)

 

[Minnie1222]

Fairness?

Those were choices Disney made. Universal made different choices.

Universal had no park touring restrictions, and embraced passholders with a 3 month bonus on all passes/renewals, a passholder lounge, secret passholder menu items, bonus early entry days, and passholder appreciation events.



It is 100% fair for customers to choose where they want to vacation.

(It is worth clarifying: WDW only stopped the sale of new AP's for a time. They continued to sell AP renewals.)

Fairness as in using the same parameters for comparison.

Universal continued to sell new AP and had no touring restrictions, while Disney stopped selling AP and had strict visitation rules.

Since we don't know what Disney's attendance number would be if they had sold AP and enforced no restrictions, it is unfair to compare them.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

No die-hard, decades-in-the-making, Disney fan will ever jump ship for Universal.

I knew one of those people who did indeed get an AP at Universal. Someone who lives and breathes Disney, someone who even worked for Disney who never had any interest before in Universal and assumed they wouldn't like it. Thing is everyone even the die hard fan has the capacity to open their interests up. It doesn't make it wrong or right to only go to Disney (I know another person who isn't a theme park person but rather just a Disney person) but I do think you're incorrect in your viewpoint on Disney fans. It's not being a Disney fan that makes you have no interest in other parks, that's a personal preference not indicative of your level of fan-ness (IDK if that's a word but we're going with it lol).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

And Universal still charges for resort guests to park if they have a car?

They do (although remember Disney did too for several years and remember Disney gave the line of "industry standard" as for why they opted to do so) however there are slight differences between the two properties.

1) Universal has a central parking garage for theme park guests at CityWalk. This is like Disney charging for parking at the actual parks for parking. Due to its proximity and transportation options it doesn't make much sense for many hotel guests to then drive to CityWalk parking garage to enter the theme parks. In a way because Disney opted to include parking at the parks for resort guests they do actually incentivize theme park parking lots filling up more with hotel guests but that also helps alleviate traffic on their own transportation including the buses.

2) Universal does have more space constraints for their parking because of their location. Honestly I preferred the parking garage that Endless Summer Surfside had compared to our parking at Royal Pacific but that's largely because it was a garage. I don't on principle like to pay for parking at a hotel but there are practical reasons why it makes more sense. Charging for parking when Disney did it at the hotels only made sense for Deluxe resorts that had higher issues with finding parking (due to a mixture of hotel guests, ADR and overstays or intentional parking then entering the theme parks).

IME however Universal had very efficient transportation. My husband and I tend to drive where ever it's possible and initially I was a little hesitant to how it would go over at Universal not driving to CityWalk when we were resort guest but everyone had said their process was very efficient and it was. I had so much more confidence in Universal's transportation than Disney's to say while the idea of being double charged for parking (parking overnight at the resort and parking at CityWalk) was a deterrent it's efficient transportation really sold it. At Disney, even when we were on site guests, we drove every day to the parks and typically drove between the parks with exception to MK and Epcot where we just parked at TTC and used the monorail between them. I found this to be a necessity given the time, efficiency and process of Disney's transportation.

However, I am interested to see how well (or if it turns out to be not well) Universal's transportation will be between Epic Universe and the other parks. Haven't heard of complaints surrounding getting to Volcano Bay but I think Epic Universe is going to be the real test there.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Fairness as in using the same parameters for comparison.

Universal continued to sell new AP and had no touring restrictions, while Disney stopped selling AP and had strict visitation rules.

Since we don't know what Disney's attendance number would be if they had sold AP and enforced no restrictions, it is unfair to compare them.

I am using the same parameter to compare them: success.

Disney has already admitted these policies were unsuccessful.

In 2019 MK was the top theme park in the world. If MK's annual attendance drops to #2 or lower, that will be the headline.

 

[tx911]

Does Disney completely ignoring Universal count as responding?

 

[Jrb1979]

Does Disney completely ignoring Universal count as responding?

They don't think it's competition.

 

[tommygunn]

Pretty sure Disney will respond with price hikes, more wokeness, and a few more DVC properties.

 

[Magical2017]

YDS has been begging to go back to Universal. Neither kid is interested in another trip to Disney. Personally, I enjoy both parks.

 

[Minnie1222]

I also enjoy both parks and I'm very excited for the arrival of Epic Universe. Luckily, I don't have the grudge over Disney so I will continue to go there long after the opening of Epic.

 

[tx911]

I also enjoy both parks and I'm very excited for the arrival of Epic Universe. Luckily, I don't have the grudge over Disney so I will continue to go there long after the opening of Epic.

I feel exactly the same way. I don't think it came across, but ignoring Universal is exactly what I think Disney should be doing.

Disney should continue to develop their parks and cater to their target audience. No need to play tit for tat with Universal.

As the PP said, I enjoy them both, and hopefully can continue to do so for many years!

 

[Minnie1222]

Disney should continue to develop their parks and cater to their target audience. No need to play tit for tat with Universal.

Yes!

 

[Jrb1979]

I feel exactly the same way. I don't think it came across, but ignoring Universal is exactly what I think Disney should be doing.

Disney should continue to develop their parks and cater to their target audience. No need to play tit for tat with Universal.

As the PP said, I enjoy them both, and hopefully can continue to do so for many years!

I agree. Disney should go back to heavily themed story driven dark rides. Stop adding thrills.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I agree. Disney should go back to heavily themed story driven dark rides. Stop adding thrills.

I would be okay with thrills if Disney made a coaster as good as Hagrid's but so far they haven't. Guardians is the closest they've gotten but not enough.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I feel exactly the same way. I don't think it came across, but ignoring Universal is exactly what I think Disney should be doing.

Disney should continue to develop their parks and cater to their target audience. No need to play tit for tat with Universal.

As the PP said, I enjoy them both, and hopefully can continue to do so for many years!

The irony there is if Disney had ignored Universal when Harry Potter came along it's doubtful you would have gotten much investment when we did. No Disney shouldn't ignore Universal any more than Universal should ignore Disney. Both companies no matter what we think about them thrive off of each other in their competition. Hubris breeds stagnation and that's precisely what Disney has done in the past until Universal introduced the world to Harry Potter and then Disney did it again with not having much going on in their parks in the years that followed, that's why people are frustrated with Disney. Both companies push each other in the Orlando market as well as to an extent the world. Neither should ignore the other if you're talking about investment in the parks.

 

[tx911]

The irony there is if Disney had ignored Universal when Harry Potter came along it's doubtful you would have gotten much investment when we did. No Disney shouldn't ignore Universal any more than Universal should ignore Disney. Both companies no matter what we think about them thrive off of each other in their competition. Hubris breeds stagnation and that's precisely what Disney has done in the past until Universal introduced the world to Harry Potter and then Disney did it again with not having much going on in their parks in the years that followed, that's why people are frustrated with Disney. Both companies push each other in the Orlando market as well as to an extent the world. Neither should ignore the other if you're talking about investment in the parks.

Ignore is too strong a word.

I mean Disney should not run their business based on reacting to Universal.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Ignore is too strong a word.

I mean Disney should not run their business based on reacting to Universal.

All theme park companies (and companies in general) operate based on what's going on around them.

I think people assume that by reacting it means Disney builds an attraction every time Universal does or now that Universal has a new theme park on the horizon Disney should build another one, IMO that's too limiting. Reacting/not ignoring is paying attention to what in going on in your backyard and not being complacent in all sorts of parts of the biz.

The only reacting Disney doesn't need to do is respond to Universal's normal social media roasting but in all other facets 1000% yes they have to react based on their competition. All companies do. Sometimes that reaction fails in epic proportions sometimes it's perfection but they all should as part of their business operations.