I disagree. They may be in different categories, but they are subcategories. They are competing for the same market that WDW is competing for...that being theme park goers. The average tourist doesn't say "Well, I love theme parks, but I'm not into movie themed theme parks, so I'm going to skip US." Comparing the MK to other WDW parks is totally accurate. Every day we are at WDW, we could go to any one of the four parks on site...therefore, each of the parks is competing to see which we are going to spend our money at, the same way as each of the 50 states in the US compete with one another. We're all on the same team, but we still compete. You don't divide competition because goals/themes are different. Those are things that differentiate the two apart and are the deciding factors that help tourists decide which to go to. That IS competition.
When MGM and Universal first opened, Their Primary headline attractions were both of the "Backstage/Behind the scenes studio tour" varieties. They both also had your sound-artist attraction (Murder She Wrote/ Sounds Dangerously's predecessor) and several other virtual clones, along with several other attractions to fill out the lineup.
Beyond that.. even today, I still see the Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios parks being targetted at different audiences. The Magic Kingdom plays heavily towards nostaligia, and "whole family" attractions. It's at the point that you only have like 3 attractions (currently) which kids cannot ride...the 3 mountains.
Universal on the other hand doesn't play to that same audience. It's attractions tend to be a bit higher on the thrill or activity style. Around here it tends to get unfairly categorized as yet another "Thrill Park".... but I tend to look at it as MK (in particular, but Disney in general) tend to focus heavily on the kids/whole family/tamer style of rides that everyone can enjoy... and in return they don't have as many attractions that may attract those who demand a bit more of an adrenalin rush. Universal on the other hand may not have as many attractions of the tamer side that all the kids can ride, but they do have more attractions that will attract the adrenalin crowd.
Yes, Both are theme parks, but outside of that the similarities end as far as I'm concerned.
This is just totally contradictory. Universal opened in Orlando in order to compete with Disney for the tourist marketplace that Disney created, that's what we are both agreeing on.. I have no idea how you could arrive at the conclusion that that does not mean they opened to compete with Disney. People don't compete for their health, they compete to take market share away from other companies that are in the same industry as them. It's the same reason why every time an Advance Auto Parts opens, soon after, an Autozone is going to open annoyingly close to them. It is to tap into the market that the other is already involved in.
Maybe we are just thinking of the term "Compete" on different levels.
The way I see it is that Prior to Disney, there was not the air route infrastructure, or the Hotel room capacity, or any of the other tourist focused infrastructure within the Central Florida market. The Entire tourism Industry in Central Florida was virtually created because of Disney.
20 years later, Universal comes in and is taking advantage of that Tourism Infrastructure. They are not coming in to compete so much with Disney in a head-to-head type fashion, But are coming into an area that has the needed capacity in place to support the guests that Universal is hoping will Visit their park. It's a lot easier for them to enter the marketplace in Florida than it would be to create a marketplace in another location without the existing hotel, transportation, and tourism support infrastructure in place.
There is a difference between somone moving into a market/area because they want to compete directly with someone else, and someone moving into a market that someone else is already in because they both are looking for similar conditions to support their business.
Without a doubt, but that does not mean the other parks do not compete with Universal. That is Disney more directly competing...the same way that Comcast competes with Directv. Comcast is not a satellite company. Dish and Directv are more directly competing, while Cox and Comcast compete more directly with one another as well...however, Cox, Comcast, Dish, and DTV all compete with one another, though their markets are slightly different.
I don't think MSO's are going to be a good analogy here. I work in the Industry and see the Video provider marketplace as something with way too many differences.
It might be better to look at retail as an analogy here.
You basically start with a big barren location. Someone decides to build a mall because of the available space and the surrounding demographics of potential customers. So the Mall gets built.... and the roads and infrastructure to support the mall traffic and suppliers gets upgraded in the process because the mall has generated the need for the surrounding infrastructure to be upgraded.
Now this mall is bringing in a ton of consumers to the area.... so surrounding the mall you start to see other retail locations opening up. Not because they are trying to compete with the mall.... but because the roads, and potential customer traffic, is already in the area making it much more attractive for them to locate in that area.
Sure, This retail store could decide to locate across town nowhere near the mall, but this one small store is not going to have the draw to bring in the same number of potential customers to their distant location.... and even if they somehow where able to locate the customer demand, The road networks would still need to be upgraded dramatically in order to allow the customers to get to their place of business.
In this Analogy, The Mall Created the market in the area, and was the reason the surrounding infrastructure was built up. Other businesses built up around the area to tap into the market that now existed, But they don't plan, or have any desire to compete directly with the mall. That little frozen yogurt shop in the strip mall across the street isn't going to take down the mall.
Disney created the market in Central Florida. The surrounding infrastructure built up to support it. Hotels sprung up to house the tourists traveling to the area. MCO expanded to handle the people flying into Florida. Restaurants, shopping, and other minor attractions showed up to give people other things to do. Universal showed up as well. When Universal was built, Disney was easily done in 4 or 5 days. (3 parks, 2 water parks.... crowds not nearly as crazy). That still left time for most tourists in the area to go to Universal and/or SeaWorld for a day.
When Universal entered the marketplace, There was no need to compete, because most families would vacation for 7 days, and Disney would only demand a most 5 days of that (2 days for MK, 2 for EPCOT, 1 for the new MGM park. ). It was easy for Universal to pull guests visiting the area without taking those guests away from Disney. Since then however, obviously, the situation has changed. Disney and Universal have both expanded, so now there is much more in the way of direct competition happening between the resorts.
I'll still say that MK is untouchable and not in competition from Universal. Even if someone can only visit Central Florida for a single day, the odds are good they will end up at the Magic Kingdom. It's Classic Disney. It's the park the advertising for Disney highlights. It's "Magical". And most importantly... If someone goes to Disney, It's a virtual guarantee that they will at least spend a day at the Magic Kingdom. It's the other parks....MGM, Animal Kingdom, and EPCOT, that are more in danger of suffering from lost visits from those visiting other area attractions.
(also not a big star wars fan, although the rest of my family are star wars experts, so I think that will def. be a good idea) Also agree with the person who said they should make the indiana jones area a ride, so sick of that show, once you've seen it 4 or 5 times, you just are not that interested in going again. But I think it would make a really great ride.
