The older parts of Universal are nothing special and for a long time, Universal had a maintenance problem (when I was there in 97, stuff was kind of dirty and unkempt). But the new parts are much improved - and by that I mean HP and things built from then on. They decided to double down and compete - instead of only throwing up thrill rides with marginal theming at the entrance (we can all just go to Six Flags for that right?), they are starting to build more immersive experiences. We have only spent 1 day at Uni since the late 90s, but the Wizarding World, for us, blew away New Fantasyland in terms of design and theming. The Hogwarts castle when viewed from the outside felt true to size and real, whereas the Beast's castle only feels somewhat realistic at night when the darkness masks the perspective problems. It was clear that Universal had some crowd management problems with entrance to the area and ride queues, but hopefully they are learning to manage those as time goes on. We didn't ride Dragon Challenge as none of us has the stomach for it, but the other rides were so nice, inside and outside. The FJ castle queue is amazing of course, but even the outdoor queue for Hippogryph was very pretty and landscaped well, and the "wicker" on the ride cars was unique. Wizarding World was certainly on par with anything Disney might build. I think building Harry Potter, and Rowling's insistence on her involvement and her high standards for authenticity to the books and films, has actually been a really good learning experience for Universal's team and I hope that level of care and attention to detail carries over into everything they build in future. One innovative service thing that did impress us was their management of the Three Broomsticks. We ate lunch there. They manage that dining room tremendously well - people can't access it to camp tables, as people do at Counter Service places in WDW and DTD. You buy your food, and then you enter the dining room and are directed to an empty table by a staff member. There are many staff in the room managing guest traffic and cleaning. The whole time we were in there, I never saw anyone wait more than a minute before being guided to a (clean!) table, even though the room was full constantly. And we enjoyed our food without people hanging about the fringes staring at us, willing us to eat faster. (One of the more irritating experiences at WDW is standing in Ghiradelli's or the Patisserie in France with food in your hands and no place to sit down, and seeing half the tables occupied by one person "holding it". Disney would do well to imitate Universal's dining room management style in a few areas.) This last WDW trip two weeks ago, I personally wiped down multiple counter service tables so we would have a place to eat. Come to think of it, I think I cleaned ALL of them, except the table in BoG.
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