Is Universal's Epic Universe a Shot Across the Bow or A Body Blow to Disney

I definitely prefer California's stress free lack of planning needed compared to WDW and their parks there are nice but I still love WDW for the amount of stuff it has. As mentioned in RamblingMad's post you can easily cover Disneyland Resort in 3 days whereas WDW I feel you can go to for a week and still have plenty left to do at the end.

But I agree I really hate the whole system now of WDW requiring you to pretty much have your entire vacation set up and planned out fully at least a month in advance down to what rides when and all meals. Wish they would go back to the old Fastpass system. Can still utilize the magic bands but wish Fastpasses were all jsut available day off in the parks on a first come first serve basis.

You and me both! It is such a better system. This is why I'm thinking I will concentrate on Universal on trips to Orlando and save most of my Disney fix for when we can make it to Disneyland (which is still my by far favourite over WDW). We might limit our WDW stuff to the parties (where things are more manageable).
 
I see Disney and Universal Studios as apples and oranges. I like them both. Disney is a more immersive experience overall. I feel like I'm in Pandora (which has my new favorite ride!) I forget that Animal Kingdom is in the United States. We still get goosebumps walking down Main Street. I love the food and the smells.

But I love Universal Studios too! Even though I am not a Harry Potter fan, I love those rides and the entire scene. I see something new every time I ride Gringotts. I like that "Hidden" world.

So here's what I want from Disney: I want Star Wars Land not to suck. I am a Star Wars nerd and I want to geek out while there. Oh, and I want more expansion into the Marvel Universe. I also want the Pirates upgrade from China along with that Tron ride. That's what I want.

Now here's what I want from Universal- I want immersive rides, but outside of the HP universe. But let's not do the Star Trek thing. That would be too much like imitating Disney and their Star Wars experience. Let's do something else- like make some of the horror stuff stay year round.
 
Oh, and I want more expansion into the Marvel Universe.

Marvel is a touchy subject due to it's contract with Universal. Disney was able to do the Guardians of the Galaxy attraction which is great. However, a lot of well known characters / Avengers are involved with the Universal property.

If it weren't for Universal there definitely would have been a whole park, or at least a land dedicated to Marvel by now since Disney acquired Marvel before Star Wars. I read that Disney announced something for Marvel at Disneyland, but then I found out, it's essentially just shopping and food.
 
I see Disney and Universal Studios as apples and oranges. I like them both. Disney is a more immersive experience overall. I feel like I'm in Pandora (which has my new favorite ride!) I forget that Animal Kingdom is in the United States. We still get goosebumps walking down Main Street. I love the food and the smells.

But I love Universal Studios too! Even though I am not a Harry Potter fan, I love those rides and the entire scene. I see something new every time I ride Gringotts. I like that "Hidden" world.

So here's what I want from Disney: I want Star Wars Land not to suck. I am a Star Wars nerd and I want to geek out while there. Oh, and I want more expansion into the Marvel Universe. I also want the Pirates upgrade from China along with that Tron ride. That's what I want.

Now here's what I want from Universal- I want immersive rides, but outside of the HP universe. But let's not do the Star Trek thing. That would be too much like imitating Disney and their Star Wars experience. Let's do something else- like make some of the horror stuff stay year round.
Disney is able to do much more Marvel properties in CA because the contract between Universal and Disney was meant with Orlando more in mind.

But the contract is very complicated and nuianced and many people have spent many years pouring over it and still don't have all the full answers.
 


I"m glad that Disney is trying to do something with Marvel at the Florida property. At this point it is a large money maker in the area of film. I'm interested to see how they are (or are not) going to fit into the Epcot mold. Although I do wonder if they have given up on what Epcot was originally.

I'm looking forward to hopefully be able to check out the Star Wars area in September at WDW. But I'm also going to get my Universal fix.
 
I"m glad that Disney is trying to do something with Marvel at the Florida property. At this point it is a large money maker in the area of film. I'm interested to see how they are (or are not) going to fit into the Epcot mold. Although I do wonder if they have given up on what Epcot was originally.

What are they trying to do? I've completely missed this.
 


Maybe they'll do a HHN over at the classic monster's land?

It would make sense, but we shall see. Back in the day they did do it at IoA for a couple of years switching back and forth. I wonder what the reason was for the permanent residence at Universal after that though. Never went to the IoA one, but all I can personally think of is there might be more locations to have houses due to the extra studios / buildings?

At Universal, all those buildings are essentially locations they typically do not use for the public, so I would imagine it's easy to set up shop there and take their time putting everything away. I do not know what IoA used, but if those house attractions had other attractions involved, or buildings that were used by guests regularly, it might be an issue to have to close something for the duration of them to set everything up, use it for a house attraction, and then still closed while they take everything down.
 
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I'm curious if Universal will have something Marvel-related for Epic Universe given the exclusive East Coast contract they have with Marvel Entertainment and Disney.
 
I'm curious if Universal will have something Marvel-related for Epic Universe given the exclusive East Coast contract they have with Marvel Entertainment and Disney.

They're not allowed to expand upon what they already have
 
Hugely disappointing.

I wish the two companies could work out a new deal to allow for UO's Marvel expansion.

Why would Disney ever allow that lol. If anything a new deal would mean Disney can build marvel stuff on east coast and Universal would rebrand.
 
That's true.

I still like going to Marvel Superhero Island every time I go to UO, I just wish they had the ability to refresh the site regularly (a la HP) instead of adhering strictly to the comic book aesthetic dictated in the contract.
 
All I have to say is thank god for Universal's Spider-Man. Disney apparently is doing Avengers Campus, which does include a Spider-Man ride at Disneyland California Adventure, but apparently it's going to be guests shooting webs to take out the drones (I'm assuming in reference to Far Away From Home), suggesting it'll be like Toy Story Mania. Lame.

Not that I'd be able to enjoy it, but I really hope there's a little more to it than that, because if not that is highly disappointing.
 
That's true.

I still like going to Marvel Superhero Island every time I go to UO, I just wish they had the ability to refresh the site regularly (a la HP) instead of adhering strictly to the comic book aesthetic dictated in the contract.

The super hero stuff at Universal looks like it’s stuck in the 90s. But I do like the Spider-man ride.
 
The super hero stuff at Universal looks like it’s stuck in the 90s. But I do like the Spider-man ride.

Spider-Man is the only ride not capable of having an overlay one. It's too great of a ride. As for the rest, that section of the park isn't crowded because of Marvel. It's crowded because of the coaster. They could color it yellow, call it the Mustard Coaster and people would still wait in line for it. I'd like to see them get rid of Marvel Island, only because any money generated from there ends up in Disney's pockets which irks me. It's a shame Six Flags killed the DC Universe potential. Universal could have done amazing things with that.
 
Spider-Man is the only ride not capable of having an overlay one. It's too great of a ride. As for the rest, that section of the park isn't crowded because of Marvel. It's crowded because of the coaster. They could color it yellow, call it the Mustard Coaster and people would still wait in line for it. I'd like to see them get rid of Marvel Island, only because any money generated from there ends up in Disney's pockets which irks me. It's a shame Six Flags killed the DC Universe potential. Universal could have done amazing things with that.

I'm glad things turned out the way they did as Spider-Man is my favorite superhero and one of my favorites as an attraction. Also, I do not think Marvel Land is pumping out that much money for Disney, as I rarely see anyone really getting that much in their gift shops. Perhaps, I'd feel more that way if those shops were filled like the Potter gift shops.

It may have been awhile since I've been in Spider-Man's, but it seems they do not update it really and sell the same things over the years. If they put things in relation to the films, or MCU perhaps it would sell more, however, for all I know I could be wrong since it's been a couple of years since I've been.
 
I love it. It’s classic old school NYC Marvel comics before the MCU mainstreamed it

I like the main streaming. However, I do like the 90s Spider-man cartoon, which for some reason you can't buy on DVD as well as the X-Men cartoon.
 

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