The refurb looks value to me. many lower cost boutique hotels around the country have that same look and feel now, especially ones in major cities like nyc. I welcome it, removing the carpets will have a huge change on my allergy situation when staying away from home. They are just cleaner. Also the floor will hold up much better and last longer so while it might look like they are upgrading the rooms (which makes sense, as universal is building competitive level hotels now so they want to up the ante now to stay ahead of the game) they are actually make the TCO of the property cheaper over it's life..
Personally I think the gondola actually is going to have another stop at ESPN (based on the construction, I would say the first support is there and it just got hidden in the other ESPN permits to realize it was in the master plan. the values fill to capacity when groups at espn are on property.. They are going to keep that group happy and coming with easier access to espn instead of having to get themselves there that they go through now.