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Universal Orlando Resort (USO, IOA) Discussion Thread

p. 623 - New Epic Universe details, including Celestial Park!

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Brilliant promotion for Universal. Surely this will help get people away from Disney and spending money on their property for a day or two instead (food, drinks, merch, etc.).

 

Yep, and it's working on me. I've already started planning a whole vacation there because of this free ticket. A vacation that I would have never even thought of or considered otherwise.

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^ Possibly. But it could be just a computer error (in terms of who registered first), rather than something intentional on the part of Universal.

 

But I'm still not sure that there is a problem. Did the contest say anything about "1 per household" or "1 per computer"? If it did, then they might have gone with the last one registered instead of the first (weird, but I suppose it would be their prerogative). Or, people might just have messed it up. (Registering during the commercial instead of after it, or mistyping the captcha, for example.) In any case, I don't think we can say that it was "random." A lot might depend on which commercial one tried to register after (say, if there were lots more people trying after some particular one).

 

So, yes, Universal could have farked this all up (on accident or on purpose). Or it could have been user error. Hard to say.

 

But I suspect that if there's enough uproar, Universal will just give one to everyone--since it seems they're banking on winners bringing other paying customers with them anyway. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

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I still never got a winning response,

 

BUT

 

Plan B went into effect just in case I lost with my first entry, and...

 

I am now in the winners catagory!!!

 

Different house, different email, same Big Mike!

 

Nobody beats the Big Man!

 

Moral of the story - always have a back up plan

 

 

Peace, Big Mike

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I finally opened an email from Thursday. I won as well. I don't know why annual pass holders would enter if they already had a pass and read the rules. I was hoping we'd hook up the Reading girl instead. That was probably her win lost then. She and I are Philly area people.

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Here a little update posted by Stewie_G. over at IOACentral.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wow.. that's very accurate to the movies!

 

This whole project confuses me in how it's all going to come together to be anywhere close to the renderings. There's a huge amount of work left to be done in the next year!! Including the retheme to Hogsmeade Village, the Forbidden Forrest, whatever will happen to the current Dragons theme... etc)

 

I wish Universal would leak out just a litttttleee more information! I guess that might come out with the new movie though.

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^

Someone posted on a different thread - I think it was the HRRR thread - a few weeks ago, claiming to work for USO. Whilst the nature of his post related to HRRR, he also mentioned (to put his post into context) that Dualing Dragons was being themed to a Quidditch game. Now, I don't know Harry Potter, so don't know if that would 'work', and of course can't verify this chaps information, but thought I'd mention it here. I'll see if I can find a link to the post.

 

Edit:

Found the post HERE

think it's more he knows someone who works there, so again, no telling the reliability of the info, but there you go.

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^Of course nobody knows for sure except Universal, but I think there's a very good chance DD will still be open in May. Right now you enter and exit through Jurassic, so it'll probably be the same when you visit in May. ...Now the fall season may be a different story, we'll have to wait and see on that.

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Thinking about the Dragons retheme.. I don't think the change will be as dramatic as some people think.

 

It makes the most sense with the current theme to just keep the dragons (except the poor statues...) and turn it into a Triwizard Tournament theme.

 

For those of you non Harry Potter fans, in the Triwizard Tournament Harry gets chased on his broom by... a.. you guessed it.. dragon.

 

Change around the front of the castle by adding on some tents, add a Dumbledore pre-show in the current Stained Glass Chamber, replace Merlin's Spell Book with the Triwizard Cup with cool special effects, change around some rooms to Hogwarts'ish stuff, and presto! Harry Potter theme.

 

I do hope that with the retheme however they do a few things:

 

1. Paint the track/dragons to make them "darker"

 

2. Figure out a way to make the Express Line work!

 

3. I always thought some crazy mist in the pond underneath would add a lot to the ride.

 

With Dragons though.. the height requirement isn't going to change.. so I dont think there's really a need to spend a ton of money on a complete overhaul when the ride isn't geared towards families.

 

Ok some more food for thought.. in the last picture I posted. There's Hagrids Hut.. looking just as it does right now! But behind it, there's a building. To me that looks like a new.. and massive.. station to the Flying Unicorn. It even looks like there's an area for an outdoor queue.

 

Then there's also a path leading into the now extended queue area between Dragons/Unicorn. It'd make perfect sense for the Forbidden Forest to go in there because it's already pretty wooded.

 

Those are my latest impressions!

 

As a disclaimer.. I worked at Dragons/Unicorn years ago so I have good overall knowledge of the area! But I dont have any insider info.. nor would I want to put anyone who still works there in that position! This is just what Im gathering from everything I see going on!

hagridshut.jpg.2017f47f58c6a0c7d62d329d4435ab4b.jpg

Hagrid's Hut and new Unicorn building?

dragonshp.jpg.29e8e205b3bbabd0b8dcf8c6b30876b7.jpg

Zoomed in Castle.. you can see the new entrance and people in line I'm guessing.

dragontri.jpg.4d956e9bd797d18872cc56136e936885.jpg

Triwizard Dragon

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So I'm sitting here trying to figure out when I can use my free ticket before it expires at the end of the year. It just so happens that we'll be in WDW for a week in November. Because we have already purchased our tickets (using the Disney Visa card's Disney Rewards - free tickets!), we only have one day during the week free.

 

So could we go to Universal for the day to use my free ticket, and visit both parks?

 

Let's see - we would need one adult ticket for my wife ($84), two tickets for the kids ($74 each), plus $12 for parking. Add in meals, snacks, etc., and that free ticket would cost us over $300 for the day!

 

Now I understand why it seems so many people won the free ticket - Universal is banking on the winner taking his family with him/her.

 

I think we'll stay at Disney for the week where our tickets are truly free.

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According to Screamscape:

 

"It may be a bit far away, but we’ve heard an early rumor claiming that Dueling Dragons will close entirely for it’s final transformation to become part of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter sometime between September and December 2009."

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I hear you mrhambone, but if you intelligently plan, you can easily save a boatload of money (like you did wit the Disney tickets). Yes my family and I are now going to Universal because of this free ticket, but I'm still trying to spend the least amount possible. I'm driving down to save the price of a flight, and renting a car. It's only about 15 hours from where I live (just outside of Pittsburgh), which is still quite a drive, but isn't TOO bad and very do-able. I've also found some nice hotels only a few blocks from Universal that run at about only $70 a night...compared to $175+ a night for on-site resorts like the Hard Rock Hotel.

 

Those thoughts of all the extra money spent crossed my mind, but life's too short, man. When these opportunities come up, I take them. Ever since my dad had bypass surgery in the summer of 2007, I try to do as much with him, my mom, and the rest of my family as I possibly can, plus BGA is where my parents went on their honeymoon in 1986, so they're pretty excited to go back.

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So I am a winner also. I didn't even fill out the survey until the Monday after the super bowl around 2 o'clock, and I have still not seen the commercial. I'm not really sure how that happened but I appreciate it. Now I just need to figure out how I am going to get to a park. lol

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