I'm pretty sure they can control who goes into each of the lands - I recall something about that and the portals to enter each land - so that may be part of the plan to control the crowds beyond the total of number of folks in the park.
So you might get into the Park proper and then need a reservation for a specific land. IDK. You may only get one land in the park per day Initially for example. Maybe they will have three windows - so morning afternoon and night - and you can only get one of the three if you are on site and your then expected to leave when your window ends.
Bottom line for me is they are going to have to allow people staying on property in, especially if they stay at Helios.
Whatever Universal does - I would expect a lot of dissatisfaction.
They need to be really carful, because honestly I feel they have been turning into Disney more and more.
Ticket prices for
HHN were ridiculous. They were oversold and the park was far to busy. Express passes were a mess the first few weeks. It was also nowhere near as good as it was say 10 years ago, even 5 years ago.
Food prices are way up - lets not even get to drinks and water - I think they are actually more expensive than Disney on those things. How can they charge $5 or $6 for purified water - even Disney is not that bad. Disney also is much better about giving out large cups of water, not those tiny plastic ones. Yes you can use the soda machines, but it feels like there are fewer and fewer of those.
The food itself was also not all that great for the most part,
I feel they are focused on it looking good for a photo, but the food itself was very disappointing.
Much of the food at Mardi Gras was a disappointment for me.
Circus McGurkus started out strong, but seems to have fallen into a rut from what I hear. Too bad as it was pretty interesting.
Mels Diner had a nice refresh ..but the food is still pretty basic and not great they missed a real opportunity there and of course the usual suspects (influencers) are hyping it up.. For a $20 burger I think they can do better than the 99.
Universal seems to forget that Disney gets away with it because of the nostalgia factor - people have memories of going to these things with their kids, parents, grandparents etc,.. so they will put up with an awful lot.
Universal does not have that - they ripped it all down and replaced it. Curios George, Jaws, Kong, Earthquake, Hitchcock, Psycho - all gone.
Yes they were replaced for the better with things thar made Universal what it is today, but as we have seen with Disney, things change. For a while there people were not happy with the reservation systems and the park hopping limits and attendance did seem to go down. Well I was there in early march and it was very busy compared to previous years. Seems that Spring Break is also way busier than it has been.
I hope I am wrong and that Universal pulls this off, but even the AP is getting to the point of is it worth is to me.
What will happen at the next price increase \ restructure of tickets?
Going to be interesting no doubt.
Bottom line is Universal has a big opportunity here and better not blow it, I don't think they will get a second one.
