Universal taking Disney Market Share

"Walt Disney World's market share has gone from 74.9% to 71.3% with Universal's market share increasing from 16% to 20.8%..."

Oh, my! I'm sure The Mouse is shaking in his oversized clown shoes.

Not.

Don't be so sure - they take those things seriously...

I do think HP has contributed to the latest buzz. I think more people will attend the park because of this, but they will never be Disney...Disney is in their own category.

And every year they deliver an E-ticket ride that I can't ride without losing my lunch. So color me not impressed.

This is why I love Disney World so much. Sure, there are thrill rides, but there are also plenty of E-ticket rides that nearly everyone can enjoy - kids, adults, the disabled, the equilibrium-challenged, you name it. At Universal nearly all the E-ticket rides are extreme thrill rides, and most everything else is just lame.

I am a HUGE HP dork but one day in the park is good for me. I wouldn't stay a week like we do for Disney. Even with the new section, ehhhhh... I really want to see it and really want to ride the train but I don't see it coming even close to Disney! or heaven forbid overtaking....

I watched the DISunplugged podcast yesterday (let's be real. I watch it religiously every Tuesday). I could have sworn they said that Disney lost 14% market share...have to go back and watch now. Maybe that was something else.

Personally i see this having a bigger impact for domestic visitors.Travelling from the UK we have mostly split our vacation between WDW and UNI/SW/BG.
We stay at WDW because and spend 2 days at UNI,1 at SW and 1 at the Mall (coming from the land even Starbucks forgot).Most of our time is spent at the mouse because that is what works out best price wise for us.A lot of travellers from the UK still only do WDW because of the incentives (King F ).

Well to be honest..Our first two trips were 2 centre ( one week in WDW..one week on I - Drive ) But on our third vacation,we couldn't get the hotel we wanted on I- Drive and our TA offered us a great deal for the entire two weeks on site at WDW...That's when the dime dropped...I don't need the outside world fix...Yes in 2010 we ventured to Uni-IOA as my DS wanted to see Harry Snotters ...So we have done Uni/IOA three times..Seaworld twice..Shopping in the malls too many times..But getting back to the thread..I think competition is good and WDW shareholders will be watching..Always watching..

the hard facts of the matter are that universal is delivering NEW things to fans every year, in the time it has taken disney to build new fantasyland, Universal have open wizarding world, transformers, despicable me, Springfield and are gearing up to open diagon ally pretty much the same time the mine train is going to open.

Universal is tapping in to what people want and I'm not talking about hard core disney fans, I meant the run of the mill blue collar theme park guest, can you tell me that kids are bugging parents to take them to new fanastyland? really? the attractions in the land are all from old films (timeless yes), snow white is nearly 100 years out, it is a dark and hard to watch movie for kids, the little mermaid is 25 years old and beauty and the beast 20 years old, I know its hard to look at as a disney fan (I am a huge fan) but are these films relevent to todays audience.

How many of us adults are going to sit through story time with bell? ride dumbo? re-ride mermaid?

then you look at what universal has done and its given fans experiences, with food and drink options straight out of the worlds with butter bear and duff, rides aimed at hard core thrill junkies and kids. and look at the movies/characters represented at universal noe and in the future:

Despicable me (huge movie for kids and adults)
Harry Potter (massive fan following of all ages)
Shrek (huge)
transformers (huge)
Marvel super heroes (sorry disney your films are so good they are sending people to universal)
Jurassic park (cult following and new film planned)
Lord of the Rings (this could be the KO to disney)

this is going to affect the way UK visitors use disney, the fast pass plus system has rendered extra magic hours pointless, and the on site perks are falling way side, its cheaper to stay off site, eat off site and travel in to the parks now. And Universal is becoming a park to spend 2-3 days of vacation at. Our adverse holiday length is 14 days and so I can picture uk visitors staying at universal for a week, heck I love the look of the cabana bay hotel and would love to stay a night there. Unversal like it or not are doing big things and disney are just not responding in the right way, by the time Avatar land (the land no body wants) opens universal are planning on bringing King Kong, the hobbit, harry potter enchanted forest, jurassic park expansion and sues landing expansion to islands of a venture and more at the studios park including the ministry of magic!

My opinion this is great for everyone, lets sit back and enjoy the theme park war! as fans if disney respond we are going to get a lot of new rides and hopefully that 5th gate (stare wars park)

New King Kong ride
They only took Banana breath out a few years back ...

I think it was 10 maybe 15 years ago? but yes he is coming back in the same vein as the awesome looking hollywood attraction.

2002 according to Wiki ... now i feel real old
Edit: I don't see Uni overtaking WDW in the long term as Uni just lacks that certain something ..

Yes Mr Ferret...That something is Magic...I'am glad there are people going to Uni/IOA ..it makes WDW a little quiter for me..

I'm sure you boys have visited my home town of london, no magic there and tourist still flood in, you actually have to book your harry potter tour in london 3 months in advance..... it is a great tour though

Universal was even smarter in opening a "value" hotel on property. When we visit IOA, we always stay offsite, across the street because it's about $150 v. $350 at the Hard Rock. The hotels at Universal don't do anything for me....I mean Hard Rock Hotels are all over.

We may be more inclined to stay on property now and spend 2/3 days.

I will say though, the military ticket discount at Universal freakin' sucks. We can get a 4 day Disney Hopper with Water Parks, Disney Quest, for $190 PP. A one day, military ticket to IOA was $79.99.....which is why we only visited one day, then booked it to Disney!

Will be doing this in September

My fiance would agree with you, Colonel. We even stayed at the Portofino bay a whole week at 2013 New Years, because he loves Uni and they offer the Express pass for guests.

The attractions at Uni and IoA are great...but not magical.
And as everybody here just said: they're just not Disney.

After a week at Portofino we went to PORS. Then I was home!!

Well, I guess this pressure Uni is putting over Disney might bring us great things in the future. And I think they should start at the WDW Resort hotels and guest perks.

I think they should consider giving some more perks to the WDWR guests, as their fares are really high (ok, I agree we can't compare any hotels to the WDWR hotels...but sometimes is hard to convince my fiance! haha). And, as the magic bands are for everyone now, the most important perk I can think of now, without considering free dining, is DTS and, of course, real splendid hotel landscaping.

I love Disney but the acquisition of HP has me planning a UniStu trip at least once every two-three years. The rides are exciting but the themes are just Meh...Disney will always win in the magical feeling department.
Lately i'm more inclined to sail with Disney and then go to the F&W fest. I know we have the additions to AK coming but I still think the Carsland/Starwars areas would be a huge hit.

Oh, Colonel...I literally just laughed out loud.

Just curious, did you read that Lord of the rings, the hobbit, ministry of magic and HP forbidden forest are definitely coming to Universal Orlando/ Islands of Adventure, or is this just based on conjecture from various websites? I can't find any information that says definitely that any of these are coming to Un. or IoA. If these are facts, especially the HP additions, I'd love to read about it. Can you tell me what website, or websites, you read this on. DH and I will buy Fl. res AP for one year to Universal again if they are adding all of these things.

Annie, at the moment a lot of it is rumours but... peter jackson has spoken about being in talks with a florida theme park and james cameron would only work with the one disney didn't so its pretty obvious universal are the park Jackson is talking to. But could be lego land as there make hobbit lego. Universal have also spoken about plans to re theme toon lagoon, this is where the rumoured at this point land could go.

Universal mentioned the an expansion to harry potter during press for the new land, the strong rumours are the above 'lands'
This is based solely on leaks and proposed plans when they build wizarding world

As for Kong this is an extremely strong rumour and universal have put forward planning permission behind jurassic park.

Theme Park insider (website) posts these insider rumours a lot and has a great track record of being right

Only been to London once..Flew from Glasgow to Heathrow..Stayed one night at a hotel in Hammersmith..Went to a memorial concert at Hammersmith.Odeon..( April 29th..1994 ) ..Got up in the morning..had breakfast..flew back home...Time spent in London..22 hours 17 mins...LOL..

Thanks Phil. I just HAD to know if the Ministry of Magic and Forbidden Forest were definitely coming, because I LOVE HP!

What I often say on Facebook regarding my sports teams is what I believe should hold true for Disney: If you settle for complacency, you're settling for nothing.

We spent a day at Universal during our trip in December 2014. Honestly, The only reason we visited Universal was for Harry Potter. We were traveling with friends and the kiddos ranged in age from 3 to 9. We were not impressed at all. It was dirty, off-the-charts expensive, and everything felt old, tired, and dated.

It's really interesting to read the comments in this thread that reference the newer attractions at Universal. We passed the Back to the Future area with the Delorean and the Train, and while the adults got all nostalgic, the kids in the area didn't care. We stayed for the evening show and the movie clips were so old! How do young adults relate to those shows that feature movies that are 30+ years old? The guests seemed meaner, too. I've read many reviews that say Universal is not a good park for young families and that was so true for us.

The cost wasn't worth it to us, and it will be several years before we go back (and the only reason we would consider going back is again for the HP experience!) We dropped close to $1,000 on park tickets w/ park hopper for the 4 of us, for 1 day. The Express Pass to skip the line in each ride once was another couple hundred each (way out of our budget!), and every little thing was a la carte. We had to pay for each picture we wanted ($36 for two pictures with The Grinch) and even the souvenir popcorn bucket was more expensive than Disney and you had to pay for refills.

The Harry Potter worlds are amazing, though. I wish you could buy admission just for those areas! We were there over the Christmas holiday so the crowds were at capacity. We knew the lines would be long and restaurants crowded, however we weren't prepared for how rude the other guests were. We tried to get pictures of the group in Diagon Alley with the Dragon in the background and people just didn't care. They stepped in front of the kiddos, stepped OVER the stroller, blocked the camera and behaved with general disregard for others. It was frustrating. Very different clientele than what we encountered at Disney.

Seuss Landing was fun for the kids, but the rides were in bad shape. Again dirty, chipped paint, the One Fish ride smelled and not in a good Smellitizer way! I agree with the thought that Harry Potter is driving the increased ticket sales to Universal. There wasn't much my DH and I were interested in seeing beyond that. We probably would have enjoyed it more if we liked movies in general more, but even Hollywood Studios is low on our list, so...yeah.

Much longer than I intended! I don't think Disney has anything to worry about. I know the original post is a few years old, but the rivalry lives on!

I had the same experience when we were there in Oct 2012. We'll go back eventually to experience Diagon Alley since only Hogsmeade was open when we were there, but I definitely agree overall with your review. We just wanted to get back to the Disney bubble the whole time we were in Universal.