About Theme Park Tourist
Theme Park Tourist is one of the web’s leading sources of essential information and entertaining articles about theme parks in Orlando and beyond.
We are one of the world’s largest theme park guide sites, hosting detailed guides to more than 80 theme parks around the globe.
Plan Your Trip
Our theme park guides contain reviews and ratings of rides, restaurants and hotels at more than 80 theme parks worldwide.
You can even print them.
Universal attractions are almost 100% screen based and often kinda rough around the edges. It's a lot faster and cheaper to make something if you don't sweat the details much. Outside of Potter lands, Universal doesn't even come close to matching Disney in quality. I'd rather a few great attractions than dozens of motion simulators.
BTW - Fact check: Animal Kingdom opened new trails in 21st century - which have more complex theming than anything non-Potter at Universal. Little Mermaids is 21st century.
These Disney fans seem a little defensive, no? Magic Kingdom robs you blind based solely on nostalgia and the "timelessness" of the Disney brand. It's a total ripoff. Hollywood Studios is half a park, with two good rides (Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror), Animal Kingdom is overrated, and EPOCT is a JOKE.
Admit it - ever since Potter invaded Orlando, Universal has dunked on Disney.
I do agree that yes, Harry Potter is a fantastic themed land, but some, no a lot of the attractions are cheap motion simulators. Magic Kingdom is not a scam based on Nostalgia, it is still adding more today, and keeping it relevant, and even though that is part of why the consumers come, there is a lot more to it. With Hollywood Studios, they have a pretty small variety, but they are fantastic including Toy Story Midway Mania, Tower of Terror, Star Tours, and much more. Also, do not go calling Epcot a joke. Are you calling celebrating our great countries and our heritage is a joke? In that case, that would be a very offensive remark. Animal Kingdom is not overrated, it probably has the least amount of attention out of the 4 parks, and it is one of the best showcasing the wonders of life, animals. That is all I have to say for now.
This article is fantastic and hits the nail on the head. Completely agree about the Disney Fast Pass / Universal comparison. Unbelievable to think now that Disney had a chance to acquire HP and passed on it. There is no way Avatar is in any way comparable, although I am looking forward to all of the new Star Wars stuff at HS.
Since I discovered your site yesterday and have been going through some of the articles (great ones on Horizon and the demise of the Alien attraction, btw) I've noticed your site seems to pull in some very weird commenters who seem more interested in criticizing your spelling and small grammatical or minute factual details than in appreciating the content of these great (FREE!) articles. I hope reading the "pos" comments doesn't discourage your writers from continuing to post great content like this and I hope you can expand your audience so that you receive more interesting feedback from readers (in contrast to much of what has been previously posted so far above... *sigh* ). Have a good weekend. :)
The Little Mermaid ride in New Fantasyland is 21st century, too.
I'd like to point to some flaws of the article. First of all, Disney's last new attraction was not the amine Train. In summer 2016 and even now, Disney is having more rides introduced such as Frozen Ever After, new concepts with Soarin' Around the World, and brand new ways of storytelling through Rivers of Light. Throughout this article you have an evident bias including your thoughts that Universal is "superior" to Walt Disney World. Yes, Universal does have new attractions more frequently but Disney has quality over their quantity. Disney attractions are timeless unlike a lot of attractions at Universal. You will always walk into a Disney and see Space Mountain, but in about 10 years, I bet about 2/15 of the attractions they have now will be replaced. Lastly, I want you to point out how Toy Story is related to Harry Potter. Look at how different these lands are. Toy Story is nothing like that so don't go calling Star Wars, Toy Story the same as Harry Potter. I would advise that you revise this article and fix these changes instead of spreading false facts. I love this site, but a lot of these bias articles have me leaving this site, and this makes me upset. Thank you.
Universal's express pass is over priced garbage that you can't even use on its busiest attractions. Y'all need to get some more intelligent people doing these articles
Magic carpets of Aladdin is also a 21st century ride. #fakenews
In your opinion, how much of Disney's stagnation came about as a result of their troubled theme park openings in the 1990s? After the problems they had with Disneyland Paris, California Adventure, Hollywood Studios (and finally finding some success with Animal Kingdom), is it possible that Disney was "burnt out" on making changes to their parks by the 2000s? Given their attendance lead over Universal at the time, perhaps they decided that further innovations to the parks weren't necessary - until Universal started catching up!
Wow. Just so much wrong with this article. How can you lambaste Disney for profiteering with their VIP tours but praise Universal for charging virtually the same amount as a ticket for the opportunity to skip the lines in their parks. IMHO Disney has much more class (so far) in not creating a tiered guest. Sure there are VIP tours and such but that has very little impact on ride queues. While Fastpass is available to ALL guests at WDW Universal is more than happy to take your money twice for the same purpose. Furthermore there is a really good reason why there are tiers in some of the parks. Having a hard time getting that Soarin' Fastpass? Imagine how difficult it would be if you could pick that up AND a Test Track FP or a Frozen Ever After FP. While Disney does have a LOT of upcharge events so far they do not interfere with any other guest's enjoyment of the parks.
Also there is a reason why Universal has to look outside of it's own IP. They have too. The universal IP catalog is extremely limited in scope. While you might chide Disney for mostly utilizing their own IP that is a very short sighted way at looking at the overall bigger business they are involved in. Instead of licensing other companies IP, which involves continued costs due to licensing fees and somewhat less control over the final product, Disney has shrewdly been buying up IP to bulk up their own catalog. Universal is taking much more risks because they have to.
The rest of the article is pretty accurate. Even the cringe worthy click-bait title. Competition is always good and Harry Potter really did change the theme park industry for the better. We are getting more and more higher quality experiences as all theme parks since Universal upped the bar.
Just wanted to point out that Skull Island is a pos. It does not in any way come close to being a thrill ride. Also Disney attractions are timeless, yes they need more and even plussing the existing ones CONSTANTLY. Imitating is not what they do, I really feel it is Universal that has a Disney manual at hand. Comparing FPs with Universal Express is not right at all. Disney has much more guest per park per day any day than Universal has. Disney parks as we all know come at a premium. If not for the boy who lived Universals numbers would not be that great. I love Escape from Gringotts and do believe it to be one of the best rides ever. I greatly enjoy express and do take advantage of it. But when ride as Rockit has been down and goes back operational the lines are crazy long even for Express.