Just returned from Universal -

[Safari Queen]

We're in about the same place as Uncleromulus. US/IOA every 4-5 yrs to catch the new stuff. We're not thrill ride people and both parks aren't even a full day for us. We really resented having to pay for the equivalent to FP in June but figured we needed to pay it to do everything that interested us. We enjoy some of the attractions very much and Spiderman is the state of the art, I think. Still, there's a lot of lame stuff we'd never do again and no "magic" feeling in the atmosphere or from the employees at all.

 

[truedisneyfan]

We went to US/IOA before we went to WDW in 2005 (first visit ever for us to either one). I like US/IOA b/c of the roller coasters and thrill rides, but DS(was 13 months when we went) could not do much. We had to do the baby swap so we did not get to ride much together At WDW, he could do SO much more When they get older we will probably do at least do one day at US/IOA. To me, the people at WDW seemed happier and not so lets hurry and go.

 

[Metro West]

To me, the people at WDW seemed happier and not so lets hurry and go.

That's funny....I find just the opposite. Disney is full of commando parents who MUST show their families everything in one day but the folks at Universal are more laid back.

 

[Another Voice]

Here's news that really shows the deepth of hatred that the evil minions at Universal Studios have for the pure, gentle and all-good Mickey Mouse.

It seems that Universal Studios Hollywood is kicking out 'Desperate Housewives'. While the show is on Disney's ABC, the series itself shoots both interior and exterior at Universal. Disney long ago tore down it's own backlot (because Michael Eisner wanted to park closer to the Team Disney Building and underlings demanded larger offices than what The Dead Guy had) and let Disney's own facilities good for little more than shooting three camera sitcoms. So Disney is has to go off and film at other studios. The economics of television production really keep shows studio-bound and Warner, Universal, Paramount and others still maintain those types of facilities for their own productions.

Anyway, it seems the NBC-Universal will be moving taping of 'The Tonight Show' from NBC's facilties down the hill in Burbank to the lot a Universal. Where, one guesses, it will become a major attraction on the studio tour. The site Universal has chosen to use is the soundstage occupied by the interiors of 'Desperate Housewives'. Construction of the new soundstage will begin very shortly - so Disney is scrambling to find space for it's fading night-time soap opera.

 

[schmitty]

Maybe that lemon can be turned into lemonade and the show gets cancelled.

 

[Wick]

Anyway, it seems the NBC-Universal will be moving taping of 'The Tonight Show' from NBC's facilties down the hill in Burbank to the lot a Universal. Where, one guesses, it will become a major attraction on the studio tour. The site Universal has chosen to use is the soundstage occupied by the interiors of 'Desperate Housewives'. Construction of the new soundstage will begin very shortly - so Disney is scrambling to find space for it's fading night-time soap opera.

That really has nothing to do with US/IOA, but duly noted.

 

[EUROPACL]

So times I get the feeling that people don't follow the threads they read....heck maybe they don't even read them.

 

[Another Voice]

Or that they have such short memories.

There was a real - and very, very bitter - personnel hatred between Disney's CEO and Universal's CEO from the mid-1980's that lasted more than a decade. It was more than just not sitting at the same table at the Oscars party- both companies started phony "citizen's groups" that attacked Universal's plans in the Hollywood Hills and Disney's plans in Burbank. Disney all but accused Universal of arson on the set of Dick Tracy, Universal all but accused Disney is sabotaging their park in Florida, all sorts of dirty tricks being pulled on each other's productions - these were serious men with billions of dollars in resources engaged in a cat fight.

People who think that a joke on the 'Jaws' ride is "us vs. them" really haven't seen anything that happened between the two companies.

 

[KMovies]

Don't get excited Desperate folks ... the Housewives sets found a new home on the Universal lot.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Desperate Housewives, complimented Universal for the way it relocated sets from Stage 1 to a different -- and larger -- stage. "It is never easy to move permanent sets and therefore there was initial disappointment and hesitancy," the spokesman told Hollywood Today, "but because it was handled so well we are very happy to have made the change."

 

[Gonz Of Lancashire]

Disney all but accused Universal of arson on the set of Dick Tracy,

If Universal DID have a hand in the arson attack they need to be lambasted for not destroying everything to do with that film.

 

[Miss_Nellie]

People who think that a joke on the 'Jaws' ride is "us vs. them" really haven't seen anything that happened between the two companies.

I think I must be missing something. Is there a joke on "Jaws" that I missed or am I misunderstanding your post?

BTW - I'm enjoying this thread, very informative.

 

[disneyfan67]

I'd hate to break the news to you, but that's entirely untrue

I have to agree with you. In my 5 visits to Disney World, I finally made the decision to go to Universal for 2 days on my last trip. I stayed at the Portofino Bay resort and was pleasantly surprised how good it and the 2 parks were. I don't get all the animosity and dislike toward Universal from the Disney people on this board? I decided that I will no longer make WDW the sole reason for going to Orlando and won't stay exclusively onsite there for 7 to 8 days, like I used to do. I'll split my time between both companies and my vacation will better for it. Universal isn't the greatest thing ever, but it certainly wasn't the run down, dirty, dangerous place some have made out to be. You just have to open your mind and remember that it isn't Disney, so don't be disappointed when you can't find it.

The Portofino had world class dining options, beautiful pools, and a nice staff working at the resort. I will stay there again, especially since I got it at a nice rate, compared to some of the "Disney Deluxe" rates. I also earn points or credits from Loews for staying at their hotels (which give me free upgrades) and welcome home gifts as well, all for free. That's a nice touch, IMO. I'll stay onsite at Universal for 3 days to get the total experience and the FOTL pass, then move over to Disney and do two or three days there. MK and Epcot are about the only two parks at WDW that interest me anymore. I have had my fill of AK and MGM for awhile.

 

[Another Voice]

Is there a joke on "Jaws" that I missed or am I misunderstanding your post?

Aside from the occasional ad lib from a boat driver, when the ride first opened there were a pair of mouse ears very prominently placed in the wreckage of a boat that has already fallen victim to the shark. I haven't been on the attraction in a while, so I don't know if they are still there. Others have reported Universal characters making comments about guests' Disney t-shirts.

At the same time, there have been many comments about Disney cast members making identical comments to guests in Universal t-shirts at WDW. And there have even been posting at this site about Disney concierge cast members "not knowing" the driving between Disney and Universal and/or refusing to give transportation options.

The Portofino had world class dining options, beautiful pools, and a nice staff working at the resort.

What’s really a good inside joke is that the Portofino is the exact same hotel that was announced as part of the “Disney Decade” in the early 1990’s. It was to have been called the ‘Disney’s Mediterranean Resort’ on the Seven Seas Lagoon just north of the Ticket and Transportation Center. It would have been the exact same “coastal village” design with rooms encircling a bay. The site was long planned for a hotel – in fact the original Phase One plan for Walt Disney World had placed the Venetian Resort on the exact same spot.

I’m sure that everyone knows the original hotels in the Magic Kingdom area were designed to reflect an aspect of the Magic Kingdom and to serve as a background for a land where they could be seen. Thematically, the Venetian/Mediterranean would have represented the turn-of-the-century “Old Country” origin of the residents of Main Street.

But, the Venetian was killed off by the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970’s that also dashed a lot of WDW’s Phase One; the Mediterranean fell victim to Michael Eisner’s ego (along with most of the Disney Decade). The Grand Floridian Beach (were you can’t swim ‘cause Disney’s too cheap to clean the water) Resort never attracted the free-spending “right type of people” crowd that Eisner wanted (think Paris Hilton’s parents)…and so he canned any plans for upscale resorts and focused instead on the motels. So Disney fired everyone working on the project - and they and all the Imagineers being fired at the same time, promptly marched right over to Universal Studios. They found a happy home there, so much so that it said more years of "Disney experience" went into Islands of Adventure than Disney's Animal Kingdom.

But like a lot of things at Disney, good ideas are hidden away like monks used to hide books in the Dark Ages. Disney’s Mediterranean was finally built as Tokyo DisneySea’s premier resort – the Mira Costa. Google for pictures of that place and see all the wonder that could have been at WDW.

 

[Miss_Nellie]

Thanks for the info Another Voice.

I didn't notice a set of mouse ears on "Jaws", maybe they're still there maybe not, I couldn't say one way or the other. I only rode it once during the day and the other times were at night.

DS7 wore Buzz Lightyear t-shirts 2 of the 4 days we were there and nothing was said that I heard.

DH wore a Dr. Pepper t-shirt and a handful of TM yelled out "Dr. Pepper!" and then gave him the thumbs up sign. Maybe they just like Dr. Pepper?

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Go to the Universal discussion board here on the DIS and you'll see the same amount of silliness with regard to snide remarks about Disney (pot calling kettle black). Both of these types of "fans" are guilty of wearing blinders and assuming that they know best for everybody. (For the record I'm an AP holder at both plus Sea World).

Mr. Voice, you know I respect your opinion and knowledge but that comment on the Grand Floridian Beach just doesn't ring true. The beaches at WDW are no longer swimmable due to the warm water ameoba that is prevelent in all Florida fresh water that can be so dangerous to our health (generally entering through the ear canal). As I recall River Country's demise was due to this poor water quality and Diney's unwillingness to upgrade the filtration system of the lake water used at that park.

All three Universal Hotels are great and the dining options over their, while not generally unique (as Disney once was) are chains of superiority, IMO.

 

[Another Voice]

I was waiting for the water thing to show up again.

Generally the critter is question has been around for millions of years. People have been swimming in Florida water since the gaint slothes were all killed off and "Florida" is not Spanish for "Land Where the Water Creatures Crawl Up Your Ears". It likes to live in the bottom muck of still water. It typically doesn't cause a problem unless people are out stirring up the bottom and getting the bug into the normal water.

Notice that Disney has no problem with you going out water skiing, boating or even fishing today in these horrible infested waters.

Disney was very careful when WDW was first built to carefull control all the water flowing around property and isolate itself from all the neighboring streams, lakes and flood plains. Disney also used to set aside 1/3 of the property as the Conservation Area that would also act as a nature filter to remove excess organics from WDW's water system.

The one thing the critter does like is urban run-off. Disney these days is one huge pond of fertilizer, dropped french fries and spilled Coke products all flowing into the water system. Over time all the development on property overwhelmed the original water treatment center (built to handle the MK, the Lagoon Resorts and EPCOT Center). Then the Conservation Area was destroyed to build Animal Kingdom (in Hollywood, that's called "irony").

Disney had planned on a building out a new, capable treatment plant that - along with maintaining Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon so that bottom muck didn't become a problem - would keep WDW's water safe. Several hundred acres of land was purchased just for the project.

But it turned out that it was cheaper to change the name of the Grand Floridian Beach Resort than it was to stop polluting their own backyard. The project was cancelled and the land sold off. Disney had always been very proud of the fact that it had "cleaned up after its own mess" and had employeed many highly innovative concepts over the year. But that was Real Disney - it's more "magical" just to hook up to the Orlando sewer system and dump the dumps on someone else.

Even today, the last few plots of the "this land will forever be protected as part of Florida's natural hertige" is being bullbozed so Disney can build more cheap motels and trinket shops. You're ability to swim in their lakes has been sacrificed to make Disney more money.

As usual.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Interesting--
I fondly remember our earlier trips to the Poly where Mrs U and I spent many an hour just lying in that shallow water right outside the resort and watching the world go by.
With no ill effects.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Thanks Voice and I don't disagree but the situation that exists at Bay Lake is the same in virtually all inland lakes in Florida, perhaps for the same reasons, development and while water skiing and such are still done it isn't a real safe sport these days.

I'm not saying Dsieny isn't culpable in their personal situation but the situation isn't strictly as Disney gafffe.

 

[Another Voice]

The problem certainly isn't the creation of Disney, but they have choosen not inact a solution for it. Additional water treatment to remove all the additional organic on which the microbes thrive and proper maintenance of the Seven Seas Lagoon (which is man made anyway), could have made the beaches at the Poly and the Grand safe. But safe enough for personal injury lawyers...that kind of question can't be really answered without language that is inappropraite for these boards.

To me the saddest loss isn't the beaches, it was Disney's unique desire to do the right thing. For twenty years they were a leader in "green technologies" long before it was fashionable. Walt and his people were very serious about minimizing WDW's impact and they went to great lengths to acheive it. They uesed to boast the water in the Kissimmee River was better when it left property than when it first entered.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

On that I totally agree, AV. In years past they would have done what it takes to be the shining example of being SUCCESSFUL at doing the RIGHT thing.

It's like when Universal built their parking garage. It works for Universal but many Disney folks rail at the mere thought of Disney building a parking garage at WDW (I think DD would be the place, btw)... But to my way of thinking a parking garage by Disney wouldn't (shouldn't) be the ordinary parking garage. It would be built (in my mind) in a way that would have suited everything Disney in some way, shape or form. A parking garage by Walt probably wouldn't resemble other parking structures ... So yes, Mr. Voice I agree that the sad thing is that Disney no longer looks inside itself to do what is right or superior and that is the crux of the matter, IMO.