Why do people hate US/IOA?

[Puffy2]

I go to both and enjoy both for different reasons.

Universal is more for grown-ups although they do offer a lot for small children as well.

Universal is more compact - easier to get to parks, better food choices at City Walk (that cost less too) - City Walk offers some great entertainment - City Jazz is an upscale club with FABULOUS entertainment (not just jazz, but rock bands, stand up comedy and more and no one ever talks about this place - talk about something that is kept a secret!).

Islands of Adventure is a little dull to me because I don't care for thrill rides or getting wet on rides and they have a LOT of this sort of thing - but for a teen who loves thrill rides and getting wet - it would be heaven.

Universal Studios is the best theme park in Orlando in my opinion - especially with the new additions of the Mummy ride coming soon. I enjoy this park more than any Disney park.

The onsite hotels at Universal are superior to Disney - much more comfortable beds, great locations, great perks when staying onsite like front of the line access to all rides that offer it at the theme parks- just show your hotel room key!

I've never seen Unviersal "dirty" - it has always been just as clean as any disney park.

The only thing Universal could do better would be to plan activities like Mardi Gras, Grinchmas, etc... farther in advance so that people could plan their vacations around them better - the marketing dept at Unviersal really needs to improve in this area.

 

[gschmerl]

A friend of mine has season passes to WDW and last weekend visited Islands of ADventure for the first time. He and his family LOVED it. The funny thing was he went on and on about how spotlessly clean the park was. He has an aversion to public restrooms and couldn't believe how clean the restrooms were at IOA. He also loved all the attractions, the theming, and the friendly people. Needless to say, he can't wait to go back and he is a devoted WDW fan.

 

[johnvree]

Thanks for all of the replies.

I was kind of surprised how many people said they are not comparable. I think they are very comparable: They are both composed of themed lands/areas, albeit the themes are quite different. Almost every Disney attraction has a US/IOA counterpart. Even the resorts seem to be similar (Poly/RPR; GF/Portofino).

In my opinion (which is not completely based upon firsthand experience since I have not been to IOA yet), Universal gets the edge in the thrill ride category, but Disney gets the edge in overall feel, parades and fireworks.

Anyway, as I said, I really love both. However, and maybe this is just because I have always been a Disney fan, I do love WDW more. In fact, we always go to Universal first because we want to end our trip with the Disney experience.

Thanks again.

 

[johnvree]

Originally posted by Selina
Although most of you have obviously been around for a while - you have not on these "boards". The majority of people here are of the opinion that Universal and IOA are in a class of their own!!! Completely different parks and to compare them is impossible. Universal/IOA appeals to young children, adults and pensioners. There's many attractions for everyone (NOT including coasters). It is much more adventurous than disney (if you wanted a comparison) and I am not considering the coasters. Just the overall presentation and theming - the enormity of the attractions, the colours of Seuss Landing, the music that plays as you cross from one island to another in IOA - the attractions themselves are far more sophisticated, themed and exciting and that's WITHOUT the coasters and you can have a "DRINK" and don't have to leave the park just to have a cool beer!!! I am not knocking disney - that's a nice park too - but you can do each one in a day and there isn't one ride or attraction there that you would want to repeat again and again! At Universal the build up to the attraction is very well done and you DO want to go on again and again....Spiderman, Men in Black, Jurassic Park River Adventure, Popeye & Bluto's Barges, ET, Cat in the Hat and loads more plus coasters. Staying on-site at one of the superb hotels gives you front of the line access too, usually no more than a 10-15 min wait in heavy crowds - most times on the ride within a few minutes. Our children were 7 and 9 last time we were there and although they like the disney parks, prefer Universal and IOA even though they were too young to go on any of the coasters!!

OK, Selina, I wasn't sure until I reread your post, but you are either a Universal agent or a stockholder. What finally gave it away was when I realized that you capitalized Universal each time but used a lower case for Disney.

 

[Prince Eric1]

As was already stated several time, you can not compare the two parks. They are both individual and unique, and if they were both the same why would people bother going to the other? Disney definately presents more atmosphere, but we think Universal does a better job on many of the rides, adding more visuals and detail. We plan to alternate each year (if possible) going to one or the other and can not pick one over the other.
As far as rude people, we have experience rude people everywhere we went. We have been standing in line to meet characters at Disney and had people cut in line, and I have watched people cut for rides at Universal. I have met less than friendly employees at both and met super employees at both that
went out of their way to help. We have been to Universal twice, once in 1992 and once in 2003, and we never saw it to be anything less than spotless. We have been to Disney three times, January of 2003 last, and I can say that it was slightly less maintained than on previous trips then but nothing for us to complain about. Also, maybe we have missed something, but on our trip to Universal in October we never experienced loud music that we recall, and I hate noise.
Summed up, we LOVE both parks for their individual qualities. We will go to both equal times probably as they offer us completely different experiences. I do believe some feel that going to or liking Universal is like cheating on their Disney spouse, and I do not understand why. Both are great and hard to compare.

 

[Selina]

Well said Prince Eric!! Going to cook now....will be on later x

 

[Geno1129]

I only went to Universal once in 1998. We loved it !!! There was more to do than at any SINGLE Disney park.Staying at both places this August. Looking forward to IOA, just hope the comments about line-cutting is exaggerated!!! I HATE people who do that.

 

[nativetxn]

I <b>love</b> USF and <i>especially</i> IofA

 

[Robinrs]

Why was this moved here????

I also agree with Hockey Mom and I'm so tired of the comparisons.

 

[damo]

Originally posted by Robinrs
Why was this moved here????

I also agree with Hockey Mom and I'm so tired of the comparisons.

I was wondering myself why it was moved here. Are we supposed to know why people hate USF?

 

[Selina]

That it explains it then. I thought it was a weird thread and I didn't recognise many of the people.

 

[monarchsfan16]

While I'm definitely a Disney fan, I'm definitely not Disney exclusive. I love Sea World, and some of the theme parks a little closer to home. However Universal wasn't my favorite. I certainly didn't go in there, or IOA expecting it to be anything like Disney. However, I had read many great reports, and great reviews, and different descriptions of the rides and stuff made it sound like US/IOA would be great. Even though we're not big on thrill rides, we expected, from reading different things that we would be able to find plenty of stuff to keep us occupied.
Instead we ended up relatively bored. We did go on most of the rides that looked like ones we would enjoy. However, we were disappointed with many of them. There were some good ones, but overall, there wasn't enough to do in either park, whether you're a thrill ride person or not to honestly pay for the tickets. We were finished with IOA within about 2 hours (very short lines for everything that day). US didn't take us long either.
I guess one of the reasons why I didn't like Universal was the fact that there just doesn't seem to be enough to do there. I certainly enjoyed that AAA discount on merchandise. I also really liked being able to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe at Citywalk. And I will absolutely agree that the theming in Seuss Landing cannot be beat. It's amazing. But overall, we were left with a sense of disappointment, as we couldn't see what all of the hype about Universal was about. It didn't make sense to us. I probably wont return to Universal, unless I ever have kids. I didn't hate Universal, it just wasn't a place I liked. I think it's all really personal preference, and just like some people can't stand Disney, I don't like Universal.

 

[Selina]

Robinrs....do you think you can move this thread back to wherever it came from.

To anyone else that reads this thread.........we are all happy people here on this board, like talking about our favourite places at Universal and IOA (as this is the Universal and IOA Board!) - and if you are not in this mould - perhaps you should go somewhere else.

 

[damo]

Looks like it came from the Theme Parks Attractions and Strategies boards. I liked it better over there.

 

[RescueRanger]

I posted on it when it was back on the Themeparks board. I quit trying to figure the moderators on the WDW boards out. Some of them make no sense in their decisions and they are very inconsistent. That being said, I think they probably moved it because alot of people have been defending Universal lately and the so called "ENEMY" was getting too much GOOD publicity. Oh well, now that I just got back from my week at WDW, I can start planning for my week at Universal at the end of May beginning of June.

 

[SpideyHulk24]

Who hates Universal???? Did I read that right???? LOL....

I for one love it and that is all that matters!

 

[Robinrs]

Enough...