free ticket!!

[CPM]

I Want One!!!

 

[Swirl_Junkie]

Any idea if they are transferrable? I have lots of family in florida , and some may get these. I am planning a trip there in two weeks. I know none of them will use them, if I could possibly make use of that would be great.

 

[ines248]

It looks like my assumption was wrong and you do have a blackout date on Memorial Day weekend. It sure doesn't give you much time to use them in does it?

I guess it`s time to start planning plan B.
What is plan B?
I don`t know it yet. I will have to just wait for now.
To be continued.......

 

[Savsmommy]

My DH just got this today with blackout days for Memorial Day weekend. We are FL residents. We were trying to decide when we should go, it's a great deal!!

 

[Whartonbound]

This seems like its a good thing for Universal. They believe that their product isn't receiving the attention it deserves from the general public. If they can get people that normally wouldn't go to their parks, then they hope that they can impress them enough to come back. Plus the people will probably bring friends and will spend money in their park. So while they are losing money in admission, they still make money in their parks from some people that wouldnt normally come.

While this theoretically seems like a good marketing campaign, it is one that comes out of desperation. When a company has been hammered as badly as Universal has been in attendance in the past year, they are willing to do anything to increase the number of people in their park. This desperation as been seen all year. Giving kids free tickets was their initial attempt to increase their parks attendance. Clearly that campaign didnt/hasn't worked as well as they've hoped, so no they go from desperate to super desperate and start letting adults in for free. Desperate or not, lets hope this plan works and increases the attendance. Maybe then GE will start putting more effort into the parks.

 

[Foladar]

This seems like its a good thing for Universal. They believe that their product isn't receiving the attention it deserves from the general public. If they can get people that normally wouldn't go to their parks, then they hope that they can impress them enough to come back. Plus the people will probably bring friends and will spend money in their park. So while they are losing money in admission, they still make money in their parks from some people that wouldnt normally come.

While this theoretically seems like a good marketing campaign, it is one that comes out of desperation. When a company has been hammered as badly as Universal has been in attendance in the past year, they are willing to do anything to increase the number of people in their park. This desperation as been seen all year. Giving kids free tickets was their initial attempt to increase their parks attendance. Clearly that campaign didnt/hasn't worked as well as they've hoped, so no they go from desperate to super desperate and start letting adults in for free. Desperate or not, lets hope this plan works and increases the attendance. Maybe then GE will start putting more effort into the parks.

11% drop in attendance is hammered?

 

[vellamint]

Definitely sounds as if they are trying really, really hard to bring people to the parks......otherwise why would they be giving away free tickets!!

 

[phamton]

Definitely sounds as if they are trying really, really hard to bring people to the parks......otherwise why would they be giving away free tickets!!

It's called a marketing campaign---the same reason you see free samples at the grocery store.

 

[Whartonbound]

It's called a marketing campaign---the same reason you see free samples at the grocery store.

Yea, and free samples are aimed at getting more people to buy that product. The fact is GE believes that Universal Orlando is underperforming, thus they offer people free product in hopes that they'll enjoy their stay and come back for more.

This is kind of like what Disney is doing with DCA. We all know how desperate Disney is to increase the attendance at DCA since it isn't meeting expectations. The funny thing is that they haven't had to resort to giving away tickets, I mean at least they made you buy a ticket to Disneyland at full price before they gave you a ticket to go to DCA. Universal is just giving away free entrance to their park, I dont think this has ever been done. Clearly Universal has fallen on some hard times when it comes to attendance numbers. If you have to give tickets away to get people to come to your park then that's really not a good sign.

11% drop in attendance is hammered?

Yes, having your park attendance drop 11% in one year without a new park opening up in the resort is getting hammered. Especially when the local and national competition is able to increase so much, Disney World increased by 5.5% while the top 50 parks in North America increased by 4.2%. In fact, Disney's worst North American park by far, DCA, actually beat IoA in attendance. So yes, I'd say Universal got hammered, demolished, destroyed, annialated, or however else you'd like to put it.

 

[phamton]

The funny thing is that they haven't had to resort to giving away tickets, I mean at least they made you buy a ticket to Disneyland at full price before they gave you a ticket to go to DCA. Universal is just giving away free entrance to their park, I dont think this has ever been done. Clearly Universal has fallen on some hard times when it comes to attendance numbers. If you have to give tickets away to get people to come to your park then that's really not a good sign.

Universal knows that people seldom come to a themepark alone. They give away one ticket and hope you bring friends and family to purchase the other tickets. Sure some people will just use the free ticket but very few. Most will not only buy tickets so their family can go but will also purchase food and merchandise while they are there. Hopefully, they will enjoy the visit and return for another trip.

Both Disney and Universal give away thousands of free tickets. They are called comp tickets and all the employees get them. They sent out less free tickets through the mail than are given as employee comps in a month. It's a drop in the bucket and a brilliant marketing plan.

 

[Whartonbound]

Universal knows that people seldom come to a themepark alone. They give away one ticket and hope you bring friends and family to purchase the other tickets. Sure some people will just use the free ticket but very few. Most will not only buy tickets so their family can go but will also purchase food and merchandise while they are there. Hopefully, they will enjoy the visit and return for another trip.

Both Disney and Universal give away thousands of free tickets. They are called comp tickets and all the employees get them. They sent out less free tickets through the mail than are given as employee comps in a month. It's a drop in the bucket and a brilliant marketing plan.

I haven't once refuted that it is a good marketing campaign. Like you said, they hope that this will bring more people into the park, which is why they also sent the discounted tickets for up to 6 people. The point is, this "brilliant" marketing campaing was started out of desperation. If Universal had enough people in their parks then they would not need to give tickets away. I think we can all agree that Disney is the master of marketing. Whether their product is great are not, Disney is able to sell it. Disney has not needed to resort to giving away free tickets as part of a marketing campaing though because they are not struggling. They are able to sell their product through plain old advertising. Universal has tried too, with many of the Disney bashing ads they have. However, Universal is still struggling so they feel the need to pull out plan z and give away admission to their parks, hoping that it will increase attendance. This seems like a great campaign, but the fact remains that this type of campaign would not be necessary if their product was not underachieving. I mean Universal seems like a nice company and all, but you and I both know that they wouldn't give away admission if they didn't think they had to.

 

[phamton]

but you and I both know that they wouldn't give away admission if they didn't think they had to.

No, you and I don't know that. Whether you want to believe it or not, they are not struggling. Even with the attendance drop last year, the profits were up. There are two major reasons there was a drop: One was the Magical Express which kept Disney guests on property. The second reason is that they had a huge increase the year before which was a much higher percentage increase than any of the Disney parks. So even with a drop last year they were still higher that they were 2 years before.

You want to talk deperation, Disney introduced magical express after Universal had a 14% increase the previous year while Disney was only at 5-8%. http://www.coastergrotto.com/theme-park-attendance.jsp
Disney was losing day guests when their guests were driving over to Universal for a day or two. So they introduced ME so guests had no need to rent a car and they have a captive audience. Brilliant move on Disney's part as it did increase their attendance and hurt Universal's atendance.

Anyway, I'm tired of playing this game. If I want to debate, I'll go to the Disney boards.

 

[Whartonbound]

No, you and I don't know that. Whether you want to believe it or not, they are not struggling. Even with the attendance drop last year, the profits were up. There are two major reasons there was a drop: One was the Magical Express which kept Disney guests on property. The second reason is that they had a huge increase the year before which was a much higher percentage increase than any of the Disney parks. So even with a drop last year they were still higher that they were 2 years before.

You want to talk deperation, Disney introduced magical express after Universal had a 14% increase the previous year while Disney was only at 5-8%. http://www.coastergrotto.com/theme-park-attendance.jsp
Disney was losing day guests when their guests were driving over to Universal for a day or two. So they introduced ME so guests had no need to rent a car and they have a captive audience. Brilliant move on Disney's part as it did increase their attendance and hurt Universal's atendance.

Anyway, I'm tired of playing this game. If I want to debate, I'll go to the Disney boards.

Again, this "desperation" on disney's part required the customer to shell out the cash to stay on site. Universal requires NOTHING to enter their parks. I dont think you understand how meaningful this is. Disney has never been desperate enough to give away something without strings attached, you always had to pay them some kind of money if you wanted to gain something. Universal requires nothing. So maybe our definitions of desperate are different, but when things are simply being given away, thats not usually a good sign.

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

Again, this "desperation" on disney's part required the customer to shell out the cash to stay on site. Universal requires NOTHING to enter their parks. I dont think you understand how meaningful this is. Disney has never been desperate enough to give away something without strings attached, you always had to pay them some kind of money if you wanted to gain something. Universal requires nothing. So maybe our definitions of desperate are different, but when things are simply being given away, thats not usually a good sign.

You know, as much as you try to compare everything about Disney to Universal... some aspects just can't be compared. But if Disney were the one to send out the free tickets (which it very well could and would benefit in the exact same way), then is Disney desperate? No, not to you, I'm sure. Now Disney is smart.

Universal knows that last year was a weak year because they hardly advertised and the only new attraction they opened was a Fear Factor show. Disney, on the other hand, advertised the pooh out of the Happiest Celebration on Earth and had new attractions in all of the parks, including Soarin'. You get what you give.

Universal's free ticket offer and their various promotions this year are all in an effort to boost attendance and increase spending in the parks. I love the opportunity that this gives to some families who probably thought they couldn't afford a vacation in Orlando. I hope they come and have a great time, whether they spend $0 or $1000.

 

[Foladar]

Don't feed the troll(s).
He's just going to keep saying Disney is the best place on the planet.
Why he came here to do it, who knows.

 

[ines248]

Anyway, I'm tired of playing this game. If I want to debate, I'll go to the Disney boards.

Yes, people, Stop playing the tic tac toe game.

When ever you want to reach a conclusion. No park wins. Both are great parks.
Disney, expensive, most popular (more advertisements) (best customers childrens)
Universal, cheaper, less popular (less advertisements) ( best customers Teenagers)

Both have up and downs and this is not counting how the hurricanes passing thru FL raises both theme parks insurances. Then, they(parks) need more money for this and this is problably another reason why you see promotions, discounts, offers, etc.

If we, the people that have houses, get our insurances up to the sky because of hurricanes passing to FL, imagine how much Disney or Universal insurances go up in price!

So recently I have seen a lot of people trying to put Universal down posting negative feedbacks for USF. Do they work for Disney?
If they do they should tell them that I am going to get a job at BGF to get extra money to see if I can afford a nice trip to go to Disney in the future.Or to tell disney to bring more nice and better offers to the people because their prices are more higher than the universal prices.

I want to go to disney wordl again, but I can not afford it yet.

 

[OneFish]

I was just at Universal and it seemed quite busy, I can't believe Universal to be suffering a drop.

 

[Sleepy]

This is kind of like what Disney is doing with DCA. We all know how desperate Disney is to increase the attendance at DCA since it isn't meeting expectations. The funny thing is that they haven't had to resort to giving away tickets, I mean at least they made you buy a ticket to Disneyland at full price before they gave you a ticket to go to DCA. Universal is just giving away free entrance to their park, I dont think this has ever been done. Clearly Universal has fallen on some hard times when it comes to attendance numbers. If you have to give tickets away to get people to come to your park then that's really not a good sign.

And Disney is giving away food at WDW. WHY? Given the places people are eating with this Free Dining Deal, I hardly see where free admission to Universal for ONE person (knowing you will gain a good amount back with charging the other family members) can compare to the amount of money that is flying out the door with everyone eating free food at WDW. It all boils down the the same reason. They know that by offering people something for free, it means they will either stay longer, buy more souvies, stay in a more expensive on-site hotel or attract those folks who would have never gone on vacation to begin with. I don't see it as an act of desperation for either company.

 

[kerrynic78]

Just got mine in the mail today...already invited our friends up from Boca and we will be hitting the park soon. Great idea!!!!

 

[wadub56]

how do i go about recieving free USF tickets? i want one too lol haha