Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Universal.WethinkthismayhavealottodowiththetargetdemographicofUniversalwith
older teens likely being in school for longer, whereas young kids are often not in school
and can visit Disney year-round. At the same time Disney also generally appeals more to
the older, retired population than Universal so it attracts them year-round too.
Having said this, if Universal Orlando continues to soar in popularity as it has done in re-
cent years (in 2013 for example the Universal Orlando theme parks welcomed 7.2% - or
1 million - more guests than they did the year prior), it is very possible that the same situ-
ation will exist at universal Orlando particularly as the parks have a very limited number of
attractions.
Character meet and greets
- A small note, albeit related to 'planning' earlier on. At Walt
Disney World you have to plan what characters to meet and when, at Universal its more
spontaneous and you should never have to wait in more than a 5 or 10-minute queue. Com-
pare that to a 180-minute wait for the princesses in Disney's
Magic Kingdom
and you can
see the difference.
Hotel accommodation
- We touched on this briefly earlier on in the 'resort size' section.
Hotels on-site at Universal Orlando are physically much closer to the parks than those at
Walt Disney World. However, there are a lot fewer choices and the three 'deluxe' hotels
are expensive, though Cabana Bay offers a more reasonable value-moderate pricing range.
The flip side is that there are off-site hotels located a 2-minute drive away or a 15-minute
walk, unlike at Walt Disney World where offsite hotels are a considerable distance away.
Not locked in at Universal
- This is related to our previous point. You can actually walk
off-site at Universal Orlando and be at a Walgreens within 15 minutes. If you want to make
the effort you can go and eat outside of the Universal resort and make significant savings
on the price of food, as well as the price of accommodation. This is simply not possible at
Walt Disney World without a car and more time.
Innovative attractions at Universal -
This one will be controversial from the view of
many Disney aficionados but in our opinion Universal is developing many more innov-
ative and revolutionary experiences that Disney is simply missing out on. Yes, Walt Dis-
ney World has some incredible revolutionary experiences of its own -
Test Track, Soarin',
Mickey's Philharmagic, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Rock n Rollercoaster,
and the
Tower of Ter-
ror
to name but a few.
However, in our opinion in the same timespan Universal has blown Disney out of the water
- Universal Orlando only opened in 1990 and the resort is dotted with innovative experien-
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