Can you believe ...

[disneyseniors]

I thought they mentioned Tron in 2016 and started working on it in 2017?? Maybe I'm wrong, but tht would be 5 years building it.

 

[focusondisney]

I have no idea on the time lines* for any of these projects. But I thought I read something quite awhile ago about universal not even announcing projects until they’re well under way. But Disney announces them before construction even starts. Making it look like they get things done sooner than Disney does. Maybe I’m way off, I just seem to remember reading that.

*Edit: except the skyliner project & Riviera. I remember that was started in late 2017. We were in the CBR construction mess that December. They had closed the main food court & begun work on Riviera & the Skyliner a few months before we were there. It was a memorable vacation.

 

[shafke]

I have no idea on the time lines* for any of these projects. But I thought I read something quite awhile ago about universal not even announcing projects until they’re well under way. But Disney announces them before construction even starts. Making it look like they get things done sooner than Disney does. Maybe I’m way off, I just seem to remember reading that.

*Edit: except the skyliner project & Riviera. I remember that was started in late 2017. We were in the CBR construction mess that December. They had closed the main food court & begun work on Riviera & the Skyliner a few months before we were there. It was a memorable vacation.

That is not always the case with Universal... Jaws closed in Jan 2012 to make way for Diagon Alley which opened in July 2014. So, 2 1/2 years to demolish an old ride and build a replacement land.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

If look at the last five years, (2018-now) uni has opened 2 e tickets roller coasters. WDW has built two themed lands in HS with four attractions, (rise, MFSR, SDD, A2S) has opened ratatouille in epcot, has debuted two nighttime spectaculars, built a new transportation system in the skyliner, and has two e-ticker roller coasters in progress, not too mention the gutting and re-imagining of 1/2 of epcot. Would I like construction to be moving faster, sure. I don't think it is accurate to say that uni is building things quicker though, they are just building less so the individual projects might take a shorter time.

And how long did Pandora take? 6 years I think? It took UO 2 1/2 years for the first half of WWOHP which including tearing down existing rides and structures and 3 years for second half which included the Hogwarts Express.

 

[Galen_50]

I heard somewhere that the slow process may be due to rights. They were saying that the contract they have with Shanghai was that they could not open a clone of Tron for five years. That would have put the timeline to open right before the 50th started. There was also some discussion of water table slowing progress and that they had to put in some retaining ponds. This plus Covid probably slow down the building schedule. Then you had Guardian almost finished, so why rush and open two eticket rides at the same time when you could spread them out to give people something new to come back to ride.

 

[ChipnDale79]

i get it, there was a pandemic, but thats an awful timeline, just straight awful.

We had annual passes when initial construction started on this, and it was fun to see the progress. That seems like ages ago now.

 

[maverik85]

I have no idea on the time lines* for any of these projects. But I thought I read something quite awhile ago about universal not even announcing projects until they’re well under way. But Disney announces them before construction even starts. Making it look like they get things done sooner than Disney does. Maybe I’m way off, I just seem to remember reading that.

*Edit: except the skyliner project & Riviera. I remember that was started in late 2017. We were in the CBR construction mess that December. They had closed the main food court & begun work on Riviera & the Skyliner a few months before we were there. It was a memorable vacation.

This is part of it as well. Not so much that Universal has them well underway before announcing (though that is the case sometimes like with Velocicoaster) but more so Disney will announce new rides long before they even start to work on them or plan to have them open. Universal will wait until about a year before to announce attractions. However, Universal has been swifter in general with building too as mentioned by some other posts. Another great example of how quickly they can get stuff done is Transformers. The soundstages that were there were torn down starting the end of June 2012 (videos show the building still up as late as June 24). The demolition was completed with the land cleared and the new attractions built in time for technical rehearsals and soft opening to begin in May 2013. So it took Universal less than a year to remove old structures and build a technical dark ride that even involved it moving rides between multiple floors with an elevator system further complicating the construction compared to a single floor.

 

[bp2412]

How long has it been since they started building GOTG, too? I feel like that's been ages.

Man- way too long! I think they first announced it was coming in like 2017 and my wife and I love Marvel and Guardians is probably her favorite characters in the MCU so we were super pumped to ride this, talked about it a lot over the years with trips in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. Now its finally announced to opened this summer and I don't think we'll be back to ride it until later in 2023. Feels crazy how long we've been talking about riding this!

 

[cccory]

I can believe it.

 

[Gary2T]

You make a fair point that Disney isn't just sitting around doing nothing and has opened a bit, but you are underselling Universal here as well. Looking at the last 5 years (2017-Now) universal has opened a brand new water park, 2 e ticket rollercoasters (Velocicoaster & Hagrid's), Race Through New York, Fast & Furious Supercharged, & a new nighttime spectacular. They also have another attraction currently under construction with the Shrek replacement, which should open by the time Tron is open, if not before Guardians. As well as an entire new park currently going up slated to open within the next 3 years with an expanded transportation system and alterations to multiple city roads to accommodate the expanded system. So Universal has had a lot more going on than simply 2 roller coasters.

Shall we include 3 new hotels/resorts? Aventura (2018), Surfside (2019) and Dockside (2020).

 

[bbeagle]

This competition from Universal is a good thing. The DisneyWorld parks are becoming oversaturated with crowds. Ironically, DisneyWorld needs something to pull some people away to make DisneyWorld better.

Universal has been a no-go to me. I went once in the early 90's, and nothing appealed to me. Nowhere near as nice as Disney. Never went back.

Then they built Harry Potter in 2016. My interest piqued. But it's still only a 1 to 2 day park. And too expensive to do a side-trip, because I'll have to buy park tickets plus the Express Pass to get it done in a day. It's over $2100 for my family of 4 for ONE DAY in December. ($202 for a 2-park 1-day ticket and $299 for the Express Pass) Um, nope.



No way I'm adding that onto a DisneyWorld vacation. And no way I'm taking just a 1-2 day vacation at Universal. We normally take 7-10 day vacations.

But if the new park opens up at Universal in the next few years, and the Universal Parks become more like a 4 day thing, then we'll definitely plan a vacation to just Universal one year. Then it would be worth it to stay in a hotel there for 3-4 days and get free Express Passes.

I'm looking forward to it, as it will ease DisneyWorld crowds when more people do that.

 

[mom2rtk]

This competition from Universal is a good thing. The DisneyWorld parks are becoming oversaturated with crowds. Ironically, DisneyWorld needs something to pull some people away to make DisneyWorld better.

Universal has been a no-go to me. I went once in the early 90's, and nothing appealed to me. Nowhere near as nice as Disney. Never went back.

Then they built Harry Potter in 2016. My interest piqued. But it's still only a 1 to 2 day park. And too expensive to do a side-trip, because I'll have to buy park tickets plus the Express Pass to get it done in a day. It's over $2100 for my family of 4 for ONE DAY in December. ($202 for a 2-park 1-day ticket and $299 for the Express Pass) Um, nope.

View attachment 648343

No way I'm adding that onto a DisneyWorld vacation. And no way I'm taking just a 1-2 day vacation at Universal. We normally take 7-10 day vacations.

But if the new park opens up at Universal in the next few years, and the Universal Parks become more like a 4 day thing, then we'll definitely plan a vacation to just Universal one year. Then it would be worth it to stay in a hotel there for 3-4 days and get free Express Passes.

I'm looking forward to it, as it will ease DisneyWorld crowds when more people do that.

Why would anyone pay that for EP? One night at an onsite deluxe Universal hotel gets it for everyone in the family. And what you pay for the room is offset by one less hotel night at Disney.

 

[bbeagle]

Why would anyone pay that for EP? One night at an onsite deluxe Universal hotel gets it for everyone in the family. And what you pay for the room is offset by one less hotel night at Disney.

I just went on the website, did a 1 night stay Monday, Dec 19 - Tuesday, Dec 20. It's $1800 for 1 night for 4 people with tickets at the Aventura hotel. So, $400 cheaper. Whoop dee doo. Not gonna happen either.

I'm sure it's not much more expensive (just like Disney) when you stay longer, but it's not worth it to stay longer there yet.

 

[glocon]

You don’t get the EP at adventura anyway, so that wouldn’t help you. Usually the least expensive resort with ep is Royal Pacific. Sometimes it’s Portofino Bay. But one day at the resort gets you two days of EP (check in and check out day). And if you get an AP (which is waaaayyy cheaper than Disney ap’s) you could possibly get a discount on the resort as well. We usually do split stays of Disney and UO, the Disney portion a little longer than UO, and it is more expensive than just staying at Disney, but we love UO too and love love love the UO ep resorts.

 

[SteveH]

Upsetting, but to add even more insult to injury the The Walt Disney World Railroad has been closed this whole time. IMHO that's just totally unacceptable, it was one factor in our decision to bail on WDWs 50th. Get it rerouted and reopend while you sit and twiddle your thumbs on Tron. Remember all the rumors & discussions of Tron being mothballed?

 

[mom2rtk]

I just went on the website, did a 1 night stay Monday, Dec 19 - Tuesday, Dec 20. It's $1800 for 1 night for 4 people with tickets at the Aventura hotel. So, $400 cheaper. Whoop dee doo. Not gonna happen either.

I'm sure it's not much more expensive (just like Disney) when you stay longer, but it's not worth it to stay longer there yet.

We stayed for 2 nights with 3 day park to park tickets. At that time, it was only $6 more per ticket to get an AP. So we stayed at Hard Rock on a $262 AP rate. I'm sure time of year makes a big difference.

 

[bbeagle]

Upsetting, but to add even more insult to injury the The Walt Disney World Railroad has been closed this whole time. IMHO that's just totally unacceptable, it was one factor in our decision to bail on WDWs 50th. Get it rerouted and reopend while you sit and twiddle your thumbs on Tron. Remember all the rumors & discussions of Tron being mothballed?

I know, right? The only reason I think they can't re-route it (and like put a temporary canopy over it to avoid the dust from Tron) is that the railroad would be going through a work zone. And I think, for OSHA and legal reasons, that's not allowed.

 

[SteveH]

@bbeagle I know that logic makes total sense. But my love for the WDRR takes over and tells me that Disney should have figured out a way to get it back up if they are going to take the slow boat route. It's been closed way way to long for me to give them any leeway or excuses. But that's just me, I've just opted to vote with my wallet. While they don't care, makes me feel better

 

[tup1830]

Would it really make Guardians open quicker with no guests around? Would the construction of the moana area really go faster with nobody there? they've already walled off a huge chunk of futureworld.

 

[Gusey]

I think it was in an Offhand Disney video that they mentioned WDW has to wait 5 years before building an attraction that was originally designed for the Asian parks (And Paris but not 100% anymore as Disney completely owns it).
This article explains when the first steel structure went up in 2019, so at the time, it was planned to only be 2 years of proper construction. 3 months of closure should not have offset construction by nearly a year