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Universal Orlando Resort (USF, IOA, Epic) Discussion Thread

P. 625: Harry Potter Ministry of Magic revealed!

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Ugh. Universal Orlando has pretty much over the past few years, done absolutely everything in their power to piss me off and always do the wrong thing. Seriously, this has to be the worst announcement any theme park has made since...since...ever. Seriously, F*ck this!!

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For those of you who are planning on getting their last rides in, you cannot miss riding in the back row edge seats for both sides. Especially at night.. simply on another level!

This is 100% correct. Both of those rides at night in the back are most certainly still top tier coasters. And even when they dueled, it's not like you could really see that much of the other train in the back at night anyway.

 

A Harry Potter motorbike coaster is probably a one-and-done for me.

This is also 100% correct. Or I should say that is where my expectations are currently set. I've heard two possible rumors. The motorbike coaster or an "Arthur" style family dark ride. Neither of them sound appealing to me.

 

That being said, I thought Flight of Passage was also going to be a "one and done" and it pisses me off how much I like that ride, because I should hate it.

 

I'm not into Potter just like I'm not into Avatar. I'm also not into media-based 3D rides at all, but for whatever reason I could ride Flight of Passage all day long (not really, being figurative) but both Gringott's and Forbidden Journey were both "one and done" rides for me.

 

Regardless of the IP, I just didn't think those rides were very good.

 

I would hope that whatever it is that Universal is cooking up, it would have to be SIGNIFICANTLY better than both of those attractions *AND* Dragons for it to hold my interest.

 

Again those are just my expectations and who knows? Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised and maybe it will make me want to go to Universal more than just a couple of times a year.

Edited by robbalvey
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I would hope that whatever it is that Universal is cooking up, it would have to be SIGNIFICANTLY better than both of those attractions *AND* Dragons for it to hold my interest.

 

Again those are just my expectations and who knows? Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised and maybe it will make me want to go to Universal more than just a couple of times a year.

 

I'll be stunned if it is any more exciting/big/whatever than Universal's equivalent to 7DMT. And that's a fine ride (with an acronym close to DMT-7, a choice hallucinogenic, dunno why thats never come up), but basically a non-factor in the scheme of being a "hory shet" kind of experience. I have no idea why I should be excited about an E-ticket, one-of-a-kind ride being replaced with something that's gonna be a C/D ticket style family ride where I can hear, "Harry, over here!" for the one millionth time.

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Looks like we are going to pass up going to Universal in the spring. This is one of my favorite rides in Florida. I just can't justify spending $100 per person x 5, to go into a park with a bunch of screen based dark rides. We are not big Harry potter fans, so that don't appeal to us. It seems like they are alienating all non Harry Potter fans from there parks.

 

Extra days at Busch gardens and seaworld for us!

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When was the last time we saw a ride of that great caliber removed?

 

Clearly you're forgetting that fateful day Phantasialand closed Silbermine.

LOL! Even Googling it I had to ask myself "Damn, have I ever been on that ride?" and then I checked my trip reports and I had! I legit don't even remember it, so you are 100% correct...I had forgotten that fateful day!

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I'm sad I never got I chance to ride Dueling Dragons or Dragon Challenge but I noticed midweek flights to Orlando from LAX on JetBlue are $200 round trip in late August so I may be able to squeeze in a 3 day trip. Universal this time and next time I go to Orlando (hopefully next year) I'll just focus on WDW and probably Busch Gardens/Sea World. I really wish Dragon Challenge could be sold and relocated to another park but I guess Universal doesn't see the value of putting it on the market and selling it over scraping it. At least if I'm able to go in late August and finally ride Dragon Challenge I'll feel a bit of redemption.

 

On another note I actually do like the Harry Potter themed lands (at least the ones in Japan and Hollywood) and am looking forward to what E-ticket Harry Potter attraction comes next, especially since it will be coaster based. I just wish it didn't have to come at the expense of Dragon Challenge, but it is what it is.

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I'm a 35 year old single man with a 13 year old God son. What sold me on getting park annual passes at universal were the thrills it had. Now we've had our fair share of butterbeer but it was harder pulling him away from jurassic river adventure and jaws. The Potter areas look good but honestly the attractions aren't that great. They seem watered down to me. At this rate, and with the additions coming in the future, we may have to start checking out Disney again. He loves both Potter and star wars but he's never asked for more than Potter books vs wanting star wars Legos, games and other stuff.

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Not at all happy about this. I understand why Universal is doing what they're doing, and I'm sure the new Potter shit will be ultra-successful, but this is just disappointing. There will be very little drawing me back to Universal after this happens- and I actually enjoyed the Potter books back in the day.

 

I'll actually be in Orlando next week for work, and was planning on a day in Sea World to try out Mako- looks like I'll be splitting the day between the two parks, now.

Edited by Ed Farmer
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Dear Universal Orlando,

 

Head on over to Osaka and see what USJ did with Flying Dinosaur! It's a freakin' fantastic coaster and looks great in the park.

 

Sincerely,

 

-A growing number of people bored/unimpressed with continued simulator "experiences."

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it seems that closing this ride was "Universally" a bad move.

 

While people may not personally like this move (and they have plenty of valid reasons for that), let's not lose sight of the fact that it's almost guaranteed to be a massive success.

 

In 2010 when the Wizarding World opened, Universal's attendance was up an astounding 30.2% at Islands of Adventure and 6.1% at the studios park. In 2014 when Diagon Alley opened, the Studios park was up 17% from the year before. Do you even realize what a massive jump that is?

 

Those numbers are from TEA and obviously aren't exact, but these Harry Potter attractions have been overwhelmingly successful.

 

I don't expect this ride to create that same type of jump, first of all because there's some market saturation for sure and second of all because as attendance grows it becomes exceedingly difficult to duplicate growth as a percentage of total attendance but to imply that this is a bad move from the park's perspective is a little nuts.

 

You may not personally like it, but Universal's current formula seems to be working incredibly well for them. Harry Potter is an absolute powerhouse of a property and there's no indication that they've run this well dry.

Edited by coasterbill
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This is awful news. I've heard the rumors for the past year and was hoping they wouldn't be true. I do slightly prefer Rockit over Dragons, but these are still my two favorite inverts after Banshee. Even when they aren't dueling, they are extremely forceful and have very unique layouts compared to the other B&M inverts. It's nice not going loop, zero-G roll, cobra roll or Immelmann, corkscrew for a change, even if that progression is still fun.

 

From Universal's standpoint, I can get why they are doing this. If the ride's track needed to be replaced like Hulk needed to, which isn't too hard to believe since it opened the same time, it is more marketable for them to build an entirely new ride in that huge chunk of land. Still stinks as an enthusiast when you see a top tier coaster like this closing.

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Why is everyone so set on this being scrapped?

 

Personally I think it'll be scrapped because Robb has been hinting at this for a long time (well before it was a mainstream rumor), has been right about every aspect of this so far and seems pretty confident that they're not going to relocate the coaster.

 

Most people who start or confidently relay rumors in the coaster community are full of crap, so when someone's consistently reliable and clearly knows what they're talking about for a change I tend to listen to them. Crazy, I know...

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Dragon's will be scrapped. No question.

 

Secondly, this sucks. Dragon's was basically the only thing I care to ride at IoA (aside from Jurassic Park when I want to ride a water ride). Universal has become the better park out of the two, but still, attractions have been lacking for years now. I know future attractions will NOT be 3D glasses and/or simulators, which is exciting, as the rides will become more physical prop and immersive environments supposedly... So maybe, just maybe, there will be a silver lining on this one (aside from the theme...), but time will tell.

 

I know of someone working on some of these new projects and they are extremely excited for one of the upcoming attractions who I would really trust, ride-wise. So hopefully there is something really awesome incoming to IoA with this one.

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Dragon Challenge was the ride that turned me into a coaster enthusiast so I'm sad to see it go. I regretfully agree that it's getting scrapped since it most likely has too much wear and tear to make a relocation feasible. Doubt that whatever it's replaced by will be anywhere near as good.

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