OK. We just spent some or all of the last 4 days at Universal for the first time in 17 years. We had a 13 year old (DD), a 47 and 49 year old (DW and myself) and a 70 year old (DMIL). Now, I can't quite compare apples to apples, as we normally stay on site for Disney, and this was a case where we stayed off-site, so I will try to avoid comparing that aspect of the trip. (Though - I would generally say that staying off-site for Universal was not really a problem at all. The biggest issue was the walk to the front of the park. While DMIL walks very well, the 1/2 mile trek from the parking garage, forcing you through Citywalk, seemed a bit much. However, the security system and the moving sidewalks and everything were very nicely done.)
However, Disney won with everyone in our party hands-down. And here's why:
1) The music. This never occurred to me before the trip, but Disney literally has 100s of songs that are part of all of our upbringing, not even me and wife and DD, but even DMIL. They play everywhere in Disney, and you constantly find yourself humming them. Universal literally has none. Not one. I mean, we tried to come up with some...and we hummed the Harry Potter theme, and the Jurassic Park theme, and the Jaws theme, and then...that was it. Music to me is such a huge part of the Disney experience and I missed it.
2) The rides. There are some absolutely amazing rides at Universal. The Harry Potter rides (especially Forbidden Journey) are stunning. The new Kong attraction was great fun. Spiderman still amazes after 20 years. The coasters are fantastic. That said - our DD is 13 years old, and while i know she is not the norm, but she is still afraid of loud scary rides. I had avoided Universal for so long because of this. Well, turns out Dad was right. She rodes MANY of the rides (Refused to ride The Mummy / Kong / or any of the coasters, but rode everything else.) but for the most part kept her eyes closed the entire rides. We had to tell her what happened on Forbidden Journey because she couldn't keep her eyes open. My wife also closed her eyes a lot. DMIL of course didn't ride much of anything. In fact, I am probably the only one in our party that enjoyed all the rides. (I kept asking DD if there was anything she wanted to ride more than once, there wasn't ONE ride she wanted to re-ride.)
But that said - the rides individually are amazing, but on a whole, I am less than impressed. Every ride ASSAULTS you with sounds and with images,and with bumps and spins and tossing and jostling. Quite honestly, it got old. I now get the complaints about "yet another screen ride". The last day we rode Transformers, and again its wild and all, but it became as dull as watching a transformers movie. We had just had enough and were all glad our trip was ending.
3) Quality: The Harry Potter sections were amazing, but they just highlighted the overall sort of lack of quality in much of the rest of the parks. Lands like Toon Lagoon and Suess-land appeared faded and worn. Some other areas just looked cheap - the Marvel land and some parts of Universal Studios. And especially glaring - we were walking through the Marvel Land, we saw Captain America greeting, and then less than 100 feet later, they were doing the superhero show where they come out on ATVs - and there was Captain America again. My DD (who is old enough to grasp what the "characters" are) was the first to comment on it - "why is Captain America there when he's over there?". Bad, bad show Universal - I quite honestly think this is nearly the worst 'sin" that a theme park can do...I mean for us it didn't matter, but really? Overall, the team members in general rarely seemed to be "embraced with the theme". An example: We got butterbeer ice cream at Diagon Alley - when we asked to put nuts on it, the TM said "We aren't allowed to do that, it's Trademarked." Bad answer! Guest should be told something like: "The butterbeer ice cream is enchanted and can't be altered!" While the team members were all very good, I can think of other cases where they were not keeping to the "show".
4) Crowd control/size : It was pretty crowded on Tuesday, but the other two days not so bad, but holy moly - going into Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade was crazy, especially our first day. Lines for everything, people everywhere. I mean, this isn't Universals fault per se - more JK Rowling and her requirement for autheticity - but waiting in line to get into stores, and to get ice cream, and to go to the bathroom. The wand shop was almost unpleasant with the crowds in there. I don't know how to get around it, but the best aspects of the park were damaged by how many people were there to enjoy it.
However, I had forgotten how SMALL these parks actually are. Universal uses the confusing maze of streets layout to try and make it look sizeable, but from back to front of the park it's like a 5-minute walk. In the end, this should maybe be considered a plus because your feet don't get as tired, but it makes it so all the rides are right on top of eachother, and you really can't get immersed in the theme. IOA does a much better job of this for the most part, but there are still too many places where you can see one land too easily from the other. Especially glaring is the way you are standing Hogsmeade and you can look over and see the Jurassic Park gate. I'm a big theming guy - and to me that lack of space really hurts.
5) The "2-park pass conundrum" Maybe this just bothers me - but the way the essentially FORCE you to buy a hopper pass in order to fully enjoy the Harry Potter experience. Yes - I'm talking about the Hogwarts Express. In our case, we bought 3 APs for DW, DD and myself to take advantage of coming back next year. We waited 45 minutes for this ride - and it was barely worth it. I mean, I get the experience for a Harry Potter fan - but it's basically going in asmall room and watching a 4 minute video. And we have to pay $50 per person to experience it! YAY! I hope Disney never has the gall to build a ride that forces you to upgrade your park ticket to enjoy it. I cannot even begin to describe how much this angers me. I think if we ever come again, I will just do a 2-day 1-park ticket, and skip the train ride.
Now - I don't want to leave the impression we hated it here. We had a good time. But IMO Universal is a step down from Disney. It's a step up from Sea World, and about 3 steps up from Legoland. But it's not Disney. We'll be coming back next year for 2 days to use our APs, but honestly I could see us not coming back for a long while after that. Disney's the winner for us.
