Universal Studios has in recent years launched a direct assault on Walt Disney World’s enormous and largely unchallenged market in Central Florida. Yes, Universal has existed for years, and even outside of the Universal-Disney dichotomy, other smaller nearby attractions have garner interest. But, even with all of that, Disney has always been No. 1, and everyone else has been left to jockey for a distant second.
That changed with the launch of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2010. Ever since, Universal has been far more aggressive in its pursuit of the big dog in Florida, and it has shown no signs of slowing down.
A little while ago, I took a look at a few things I thought Disney could learn from the newly-aggressive Universal Orlando Resort. But, while I still think those are important lessons, they don’t tell the whole story.
There’s a reason Disney is still No. 1. In fact, there are a vast multitude of reasons why Disney is still No. 1. Some of those are impossible for Universal to overcome – Disney has been around far longer, after all – but there are still things that the new-look Universal can learn from its big brother down the block. Some of which, they may have forgotten in their current rush to bring guests the newest and biggest thrills in the land.
Let’s take a look at some of those things that Universal could still learn from Disney:
4. Scale matters
Universal is at a perpetual disadvantage due to the very real size limitations they operate under. While Walt Disney World could build 3-6 new theme parks on their property if they so wished, Universal has come pretty close to reaching their full capacity. While there are currently rumors that they may be expanding their property in some way, the current reality is that they simply don’t have much room at all.
Where that hurts is not only in the fact that they cannot offer as many different entertainment options as Disney, but also because their current offerings must exist on a scale much smaller than Disney’s.
Compare, say, EPCOT and Islands of Adventure. With EPCOT’s sweeping views and massive walkways, it’s enormous pavilions and grassy areas, the park is able to conjure a grandiose quality that most theme parks can’t even approach. The park feels enveloping, which provides an even more immersive experience to guests. Islands of Adventure, while visually similar in its built-around-a-lagoon construct, feels much busier and compact. It’s far less relaxing an image.
But beyond even design aesthetics, the space limitation prevents Universal from building everything they could want. While the two-park expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is an innovative way to deal with this constraint, it’s hard not to look at each half of the Wizarding World as incomplete without its other half. Each only has one major attraction, and there are no real minor attractions to speak of that truly exist in the Harry Potter universe (Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogrif are both reworkings of existing rides). Thus, not only does the lack of scale affect the parks aesthetically, they affect their offerings too.
Rumors suggest Universal has learned this lesson and is working to rectify it, but only time will tell.
3. Control your own fate
If Disney had really wanted to, they could have constructed an entire Star Wars theme park, including a half-dozen attractions themed around the new movie, and opened said park on December 19 – one day after the new film is released. The reason Disney could do this is that they control every step in the process from start to finish. They own the intellectual property (Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012), they have their own R&D/design department (Imagineering), and they run the governmental entity that controls Walt Disney World’s land use (the Reedy Creek Improvement District). Disney can, as scary as it may sound, do pretty much whatever they want however quickly they want to do it.
Universal doesn’t have anywhere near the same level of control over their own fate. They’re often at the mercy of the owners of whichever intellectual properties they’re displaying in their parks (which, in the case of Spiderman and the other Marvel characters, means Disney, itself), and that can hamstring them in terms of the development of new attractions.
Additionally, Disney is aided by any ancillary benefits of having a ride operating in its park. While kids born today may never have seen Peter Pan, they likely will want to after enjoying Peter Pan’s Flight at the Magic Kingdom. That level of cross-promotional corporate synergy has largely been the cornerstone of Disney’s strategy for the new millennium.
So, how does Universal compete with that level of vertical integration? The glib answer is “make better movies” – but sadly, that’s not too far from the truth. Of the studio’s top-five grossing movies of all time, only one was made in the last 10 years – Despicable Me 2. Which is why Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Although there are other alternatives – many of Disney’s biggest and most beloved attractions aren’t tied into movies at all. Or, even more successfully, they’ve been so wonderful that they’ve inspired film adaptations themselves. An endgame like that would be one Universal would benefit from looking toward.
2. There’s more to innovation than just ride design
Universal is often seen as the risk-taking, tech-savvy company in Florida, while Disney is often portrayed as something of a lazy dinosaur. There are good reasons for this, obviously, but those characterizations are also a bit misleading. While Disney may not be as far on the cutting-edge as Universal with its ride technology, it has been innovating the guest experience in other ways.
Disney’s FastPass, which debuted in 1999, was one of the first ride-reservation systems in the country – a concept that expanded far beyond simply Disney, and was soon copied in some capacity in every theme park in the country … including Universal.
Now, Disney’s made the shift to FastPass+ as part of their much-maligned MyMagic+ initiative, but while the implementation process has been rocky, I’ve found it to truly be revolutionary – and, more importantly, I’ve found it inspires a lot of interesting questions about where the technology may go in the future.
Visiting Disney feels like visiting a theme park in the internet age – even with the copious bugs present in MyMagic+. Universal, on the other hand, is largely the same experience it has been for ever. A more pleasant one, complete with more attentive team members and more interesting attractions, but a similar experience nonetheless. Disney’s been looking at how to improve the guest experience by eliminating things like hotel check in, room keys, and lengthy turnstile waits. It would behoove Universal to put the same level of care they put into their attractions into updating this experience on their property as well.
1. It’s not all about technology
If you ask 10 guests at Walt Disney World which attraction is their favorite, you’ll likely get 10 different answers. Sure, some might respond they prefer the Tower of Terror, Test Track, or Dinosaur. But, others might say Pirates of the Caribbean. Space Mountain, or the Haunted Mansion.
The lesson there is that a ride doesn’t have to be the most modern and state-of-the-art attraction in order to be beloved. And that’s a lesson that Universal hasn’t really taken to heart.
I can only speak for myself, but while I adore Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey’s innovative use of ride technology to tell a story, I find the story rather muddled and hard to follow. In fact, for me, the time spent in the queue, touring Hogwarts castle, is of far more interest than the actual ride itself. That area is so rife with detail, that I get a little disappointed when I have to leave to board my “enchanted bench” – a concept that feels about as hastily thought up as one can.
Just because new technology exists, that doesn’t mean it’s automatically the best way of telling a story. Disney, even now, builds attractions this way. One needn’t look much further than New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom to see its new The Little Mermaid attraction – a simple, slow-moving omnimover ride, the kind Disney has been making in some form or another since the 1960s.
There’s so much that’s great about both resorts, and they each have unique strengths and weaknesses. Thankfully, in this new era of aggressive competition between the two, those strengths and weaknesses have become rather glaring, and there’s ample opportunity for both entities to improve in new and exciting ways. As always, it’s not about which resort is better – both are wonderful – its about how both can become even greater than they are now.
But, with this competition seemingly far from slowing down, we’re in for a lot more improvements in the coming years. Let’s be thankful for that.
