What is wrong with you people?

I agree, @sanstitre_has_left_the_building. I went to UOR for the first time in April, and I liked almost everything about it better than DIsney. IMO, the level of immersion is unmatched, particularly in WWOHP. I can’t wait to go again!

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And an annual pass costs what, $400?

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Prior to having kids, I was also feeling disillusioned with Disney and started spending more and more of each Orlando trip in Universal instead of Disney. To the point that on my last visit before my daughter was born, I spent 4 days at Universal and 1 day at Disney (MK).

Now that I have toddlers, however, I’m back to Disney only trips. But in a few years, I think we will start splitting time between WDW and Universal.

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On one point… it isn’t just as if WWoHP was designed by Imagineers, they actually had some former Imagineers as part of the team that worked on it, didn’t they?

But in all honesty, I don’t hate on UOR or WWoHP because it “isn’t Disney.” I love UOR, honestly. I just haven’t been since 2016. And there are a few reasons…

  1. UOR used to be a mandatory visit for us every time we went to central Florida. Going back 15 + years ago, it was very, very inexpensive to get in there in comparison to WDW. That really isn’t so much the case anymore. I actually went for a whole week spring break back in 2005 instead of Disney World because we could do it for so much cheaper and all we really wanted to do was ride Hulk like 500 times anyway and then enjoy the nightlife on CityWalk. ETA - Yes Disney ticket prices are rising, but I’m coming at it from the angle of adding a day or 2 to our Disney tickets vs. buying a 1 or 2 day 2 park ticket at UOR. Not as cost friendly as it used to be.

  2. I’m just not a Potter fan. I look forward to riding the Hagrid ride sometime in the future. I’ll admit the Potter areas are immersive and pretty spectacular. But I just don’t connect with the IP. Kind of like Pandora, honestly. They are both amazing lands, but when I don’t have that connection to the IP they just don’t really draw me in, other than “yeah, I’m gonna go spend some time there if I’m already going to the park” but neither Pandora or WWoHP make me want to buy a ticket and walk through the gate.

  3. Right now we have young children. They can’t do anything at UOR, to speak of, our youngest is 3 years old, so we’d have to buy a ticket and he can’t even do some things in Seuss Landing. It really makes it pointless and cost prohibitive for us to take the time to go there. We considered adding on a day or 2 this summer because our oldest loves Jurassic World and Transformers and some of the other properties, but cost wise and given the fact that our other 2 kids couldn’t do much there…

  4. Motion sickness… I can ride roller coasters all day long, no problem. But simulator and screen based rides make me motion sick. When I went in 2016, I was absolutely miserable by the time Forbidden Journey ended. Those chase sequences on the broom did me in. I don’t have this problem at Disney World… I think because, for now anyway, there just aren’t many of them. I can ride Star Tours, no problem, but I’m also not turning around riding 3 other similar types of attractions. At UOR you’ve got Gringotts, Forbidden Journey, Simpsons, Transformers, Spiderman, and while I’ve not experience them I’m assuming Fast & Furious and Fallon are probably along the same vein. So just hard for me to justify going there.

  5. This one is neither here nor there, but it is just a pet peeve, I hate the metal detectors at ride entrances at UOR. Last time, my belt set it off. Every. Single. Time. I had a wallet, phone and keys and actually had cargo shorts with a zipper pocket… because that’s what I do if I tour a park solo. I’m not going to lose anything and I don’t have to carry a bag. And still I had to deal with the lockers. And then I’d have to get pulled to the side to be wanded and raise my shirt up to show them my waste to ensure I wasn’t carrying anything because my belt had set off the walk through detector. It just became a major annoyance that left a bad taste for me. I get why they do it and I cooperated with the team members… Rules are rules, nothing they can do, but I was there by myself and I just didn’t care for the process and really didn’t like the fact that I had to leave my wallet and phone in some amusement park locker. It just didn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

In any case, I used to spend a lot more time at UOR. There are things there that I miss. I love Hulk (haven’t been on it since the refurb), the Mummy, Rip Ride Rockit, MiB, CityWalk, Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon, etc… but until the kids are older and we can get more out of a visit there, I think we’re going to stick with Disney for the next few years.

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I think of all your points, number 3 stands out. I agree with you that Universal has done a VERY poor job of appealing to families with young kids. They will never fully compete with Disney until they remedy that!

The metal detectors at the rides don’t bother me. It is what it is. I’m all for safety. People try to sneak things on rides they shouldn’t. In fact, it happened to me once at Six Flags. Despite the fact that selfie sticks were prohibited, we were going up the hill on Goliath and someone in the front seat pulls out a selfie stick and extends it out to get a photo of the whole train. Fortunately, the ride ops noticed and stopped the train as we went up the hill. Afterwards, the rider was ejected from the park. BUT, people do stupid things like that and, if not caught, can cause serious harm (and in a few cases, death).

So, to me, the metal detectors are a way for me to feel secure that I’m riding safely among those who might otherwise be idiots! :wink:

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This is our current situation. Just doesn’t make sense. Of course we keep having kids, so it just prolongs the scenario. At some point we will probably just have to split up and send the older kids (and a parent) for a day or two. Not happening until at least 2 kids can ride the majority of rides though.

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I have not been able to understand why there is a 36" height requirement for Cat in the Hat and the High in the Sky Trolley Train. And 40" seems too high for Spiderman and Transformers.

Cat in the Hat is pretty rough - very jerky. I wouldn’t want to take a very little kid on it.

When were you last on the Cat in the Hat? It has really been toned down over the year. The first few years it was open, it was very jerky (and fun!), but the current version is pretty tame.

Ultimately, it comes down to “laziness” on the part of Universal. It is far easier to just enforce a height that is taller than need be than to have to make sure they are staffing well enough to handle shorter guests, or worry about the ride restraint systems being properly adjusted, etc.

You end up with a chicken and egg problem. Universal was never typically a park for families with young kids, so they design their rides to meet the requirements of most of the their guests. And as guests see there isn’t much for young families, they shy away, further contributing to an attendance that is light on young kids. As a result, Universal says, “Well, we don’t get enough guests that small, anyhow, so let’s not worry about it.”

And the circle continues ad nauseum.

2 years ago, and I think it’s got worse over the years. I don’t remember ever thinking it was jerky or rough before.

Huge Harry Potter fan (nerd) who has been to Orlando just to see WWoHP and while I loved nearly every second of it for me, myself & didn’t want to leave, there were a few things that bugged me about the lack of total immersion (sightlines to things outside of WWoHP mostly). When they added Diagon Alley while I wanted to go back for me, we had babies so USO didn’t make sense. We we did take them to Orlando (at almost 3 yrs & 4.5 yrs old) & 8 full days of WDW wasn’t nearly enough time for it all so couldn’t justify any additions for USO (and all the waiting they would do without the same reward/level of character meets/parades/shows etc. as they would have at WDW).

Then a WWoHP opened up much closer to us, within a few blocks of one of the reasons we mainly drive down to SoCal and then proceed onto our favorite family destination- Disneyland. And while I have been tempted to make a day trip to experience USH’s on the way to DL, just as we had gotten to the point where our 2nd was getting tall enough to justify adding such a thing, we went & had a 3rd, plus my older 2 were still a little young to appreciate HP, so more delay to WWoHP yet again. (Also with USH’s lack of Diagon Alley, I’m not in any hurry to see what I’ve already seen in USO & the last time I was in USH in 2003, I remember being genuinely bored with the park and I know it’s changed quite a bit since then, but it’s not like the rest of the park has any pull like there is at WDW/DL that keeps me coming back over & over).

However, my 2 older kids are currently, on their own, reading the Harry Potter books (the oldest is near the end of Chamber of Secrets while the next one is in the thick of Sorcerer’s Stone), I am seeing the light for when I can really & truly add on to our Disney trips. But I’ve already told DH, I would need at least 12-14 days to properly include WDW and USO without killing ourselves. So more likely one of these times (maybe next spring/summer once the kids have gotten through the first 3-4 books) we’ll add a day to USH to see WWoHP and whatever else USH is about besides that. And by the way, they are not allowed to see any of the films until they’ve first read the books and the jury is still out on if I will make them wait a good 1-2 yrs between books 3 and 4 and 4 and 5 to get the full experience I had having to agonizingly wait for each release (this is also my excuse to give them buffer time to get older to mature with the content of those later books as I had time to do that they won’t and at a tender 6 & 8 I don’t know that I want them to read 4,5,6 & 7 quite quite yet).

Anywho, I’ll end by saying Batuu was incredibly immersive & for now (until I can get to Diagon Alley to experience the full effect of WWoHP), it blew my WWoHP experience out of the water as an immersion experience. I truly left SW:GE feeling as if I had returned to “earth” and reality (inside Disneyland the place we go to escape reality). I didn’t quite feel that way leaving WWoHP, but I fully accept that Diagon Alley could’ve changed that feeling and perhaps my personal tie to the IP will fill the gaps that USO have left that WDI didn’t.

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DD works at Six Flags Great Adventure as a security guard. You would be shocked at what they confiscate. It is not that far from NYC and NYC cops are required to be armed while off duty and they forget some times that they are still armed when entering the park.

My Problem is Universal is not FLUFFY FRIENDLY I don’t fit on a lot of the rides and I will not fit on the new one.

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@ryan1 Are there medical detectors at every ride of just the “dangerous” ones. I think selfie sticks are banned all throughout WDW, is that correct?

I’m not surprised. When we went to SF Great Adventure a few years back on our trip spanning 5 amusement parks. security at SFGA was orders of magnitude more intimidating than anywhere else. I felt like a criminal just trying to enter the gates. I also noticed the clientele of the park was far less, shall we say, friendly!

Yeah. Just a few. Hulk and Rip Ride Rock’it, for example.

Correct.

At first I read your comment as Not Furry Friendly
:smiley:

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When I was in high school they had problems at almost shut the park down. It is now the 3rd largest theme park in North America. This is due to the safari now being part of the theme park. It was the safari that saved this park from being shut down many time. We would go all the time and the park was empty because of gang violence and a bad reputation. They were one of the first parks to install metal detectors and beef up security but it still took about 5 or 6 years to see the crowds come back. I miss those years we could do the whole park and be out by noon while having ridden 90% of the rides.

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Come for the rides, leave before the drive-bys start.

There were a few stabbings and shootings in the late 80’s along with a fire that killed a few people.

We go to WDW because it’s where my family feels most comfortable. We live in Atlanta area and are less than hour away from Six Flags Over Georgia but we have been to WDW many more times than Six Flags. We like an enjoy the rides and attractions at WDW over Six Flags and Universal reminds me a lot of Six Flags.

We have considered going to Universal Studios but learning about the rides, the motion, the size of the seats(both my wife & I are plus size) and my wife’s aversion to roller coaster provides a lot of doubt.

Also, I don’t really care that much for Harry Potter. Harry Potter and Game of Thrones are my two movie/shows that helps me understand how normal people can think I’m a bit crazy when I start going on about Star Wars.