New Universal commercial

Best in WDW and US combined. But apparently "too grown up", so back to family friendly I guess. Bad commercial timing.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the Hulk coaster...have to give some props also to Manta and Mako at Sea World
 
Wait, you guys LIKED Dragon Challenge??? I love coasters but I thought that one was horribly rough and jarring and nothing was particularly thrilling about it. Maybe it was better when it was newer? I hear it was more of a race then
 
Wait, you guys LIKED Dragon Challenge??? I love coasters but I thought that one was horribly rough and jarring and nothing was particularly thrilling about it. Maybe it was better when it was newer? I hear it was more of a race then
LOL...I still love the old wooden ones, speaking of jarring and rough.... actually hard to find a coaster I do not like. I especially liked how they used to let the coasters come really close together on the pass.... my kids would ride one,I would ride the other.

I grew up near to this tiny park in Holyoke called Mountain Park on Mt. Tom...,we would ride the Flyer coaster endlessly, prolly a good thing it eventually caught on fire and burned...before it disintegrated lol
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We usually do WDW every year or two, but this year am planning about half Universal and half WDW.

I will say, based on planning so far, WDW seriously needs to step it up!!

I was able to book and confirm Universal with no website issues, the price is substantially lower, and Universal seems much friendlier. For instance, my understanding is they are fine with pool hopping between resorts.
 


We usually do WDW every year or two, but this year am planning about half Universal and half WDW.

I will say, based on planning so far, WDW seriously needs to step it up!!

I was able to book and confirm Universal with no website issues, the price is substantially lower, and Universal seems much friendlier. For instance, my understanding is they are fine with pool hopping between resorts.
Pool hopping is fun and the resorts being so close together makes it even better. Every pool area is nice so no single location gets extra crowded.
 
I showed my 7 year old (almost 8) goddaughter YouTube videos of Universal and until she discovered Harry Potter she thought US was boring. As it stands now she wants me to buy 1 day passes for her and her mother to go and JUST do Harry Potter. Give Universal 10 more years and the 2 parks will be 50% Harry Potter.
 
I showed my 7 year old (almost 8) goddaughter YouTube videos of Universal and until she discovered Harry Potter she thought US was boring. As it stands now she wants me to buy 1 day passes for her and her mother to go and JUST do Harry Potter. Give Universal 10 more years and the 2 parks will be 50% Harry Potter.

We are in the early stages of planning our first trip to Universal (well, first time since the year 2000 - I hear a few things have changed) and it is because my daughter (who is 8) wants to go to "Harry Potter Land" - she doesn't care about anything else there

We are planning to take just her though and leave her younger brother and sister with her grandparents as just seems like not enough for them to do
 
I also agree. I know we're in a minority but Disney every time for me. Universal gets so much push and praise from so many around here but it's still no contest.

Again...I'm in the minority as the Universal Resort's numbers are exploding and Disney seems to be in retreat on almost all fronts.
I wish they’d explode more & make WDW parks feel less crowded! But, I agree with you. WDW all the way for us & we are all adults. IMO, we can do bigger coasters at closer to home theme parks. I’m not going all the way to FL just for that. WDW has something (for us) that no one else has.
 
I went last fall with the preconceived notion that Universal was a distant second to Disney, so I was pleasantly surprised. I left thinking Disney needs to step up their game because the gap is closing rapidly.

I'm no Harry Potter fan, but I thought Diagon Alley was amazing. I could have just hung out there all day. The Gringots ride was great. The theming at Hogwarts was also really well done.
My first & only time that I went, I was excited b/c I knew ppl who loved it so I expected to feel the same way. But it was one & done for me too. Everyone is different, but I go to WDW every few mos, but I have no desire to go back to Universal.
 
I wish they’d explode more & make WDW parks feel less crowded! But, I agree with you. WDW all the way for us & we are all adults. IMO, we can do bigger coasters at closer to home theme parks. I’m not going all the way to FL just for that. WDW has something (for us) that no one else has.

We are all adults too, at least by our age. ;)

WDW is the ONLY vacation destination that I come home from and actually feel sad for more than a couple days. I get the blues for a little while after these trips because I know we won't be going back for 3 years. I am currently in the midst of the blues right now... :sad1:

That said, I love coasters!!! We do visit other parks in the country - last year we went to Dollywood, loved it!!! But these are shorter weekend trips and I can't bite the bullet to just do a Universal trip for more than 2/3 days and that's just not worth it to fly out to Orlando. It's something we need to tack on to another trip. It just doesn't draw me in like Disney.

We are going to DC next year...any theme parks nearby? :p
 
We are all adults too, at least by our age. ;)

WDW is the ONLY vacation destination that I come home from and actually feel sad for more than a couple days. I get the blues for a little while after these trips because I know we won't be going back for 3 years. I am currently in the midst of the blues right now... :sad1:

That said, I love coasters!!! We do visit other parks in the country - last year we went to Dollywood, loved it!!! But these are shorter weekend trips and I can't bite the bullet to just do a Universal trip for more than 2/3 days and that's just not worth it to fly out to Orlando. It's something we need to tack on to another trip. It just doesn't draw me in like Disney.

We are going to DC next year...any theme parks nearby? :p
Kings Dominion is about 1.5 hours south of DC near Richmond, VA and well worth the trip if you're a coaster lover. That was my home park growing up and I love it. Busch Gardens is about 2.5 hours from DC, also worth the trip and you have Colonial Williamsburg right there if you're into the history. There's also a Six Flags that is much closer to DC, but I would recommend the other 2 above that park any day.
 
Kings Dominion is about 1.5 hours south of DC near Richmond, VA and well worth the trip if you're a coaster lover. That was my home park growing up and I love it. Busch Gardens is about 2.5 hours from DC, also worth the trip and you have Colonial Williamsburg right there if you're into the history. There's also a Six Flags that is much closer to DC, but I would recommend the other 2 above that park any day.

Thanks! I will look into Kings Dominion. :)
 
My kids are older and prefer Universal right now (youngest is 9). We've been Disney annual passholders for years. But lately the kids have been bored with Disney. So now we have both Disney and Universal annual passes. They absolutely loved HHN so we plan on doing that next year too. Universal is a refreshing change. It's a relief for me to have another theme park as an alternative. With Disney and Universal competing with each other, we are bound to get more new exciting attractions from both. Let those two go crazy competing with each other, because it means more good stuff for us, we reap the benefits of this rivalry -- why hate on either one? As for me, I love both theme park resorts and if you were to ask me which one I like better, Disney or Universal, I can't really say. It's like asking which child of yours you like better -- the firstborn or the baby? They're too different to compare IMO, but I think each one has deficiencies that the other makes up for.
 
My kids are older and prefer Universal right now (youngest is 9). We've been Disney annual passholders for years. But lately the kids have been bored with Disney. So now we have both Disney and Universal annual passes. They absolutely loved HHN so we plan on doing that next year too. Universal is a refreshing change. It's a relief for me to have another theme park as an alternative. With Disney and Universal competing with each other, we are bound to get more new exciting attractions from both. Let those two go crazy competing with each other, because it means more good stuff for us, we reap the benefits of this rivalry -- why hate on either one? As for me, I love both theme park resorts and if you were to ask me which one I like better, Disney or Universal, I can't really say. It's like asking which child of yours you like better -- the firstborn or the baby? They're too different to compare IMO, but I think each one has deficiencies that the other makes up for.

Although I'm totally in the Disney camp over Universal, I am VERY thankful for Universal. Having an aggressive competitor is a good thing.
 
Commercials be darned - sometimes one's first impressions make an indelible impressions.

My first Disney experience (Disneyland - approx 1971) was incredible. It was still in the time of E tickets, etc. but I loved it. My first Universal experience (California) was in the late 70s. OMG - Universal was SO PATHETIC. I remember being in a tram with a fake shark from Jaws popping up. It was like the difference in a Disney Electrical parade vs. a middle school parade from a small town.

So in my mind Universal will always be this pathetic wanna be theme park. In my logical mind I know this is no longer true - but that's still my gut reaction to Universal.
 
We spend most of our time at Disney, but we enjoy both. They both offer their unique experiences. Harry potter is as well designed as anything at Disney and one other aspect of USO I really like is the wide streets for walking. It just seems so much easier to get around. But in the end, we are Disney.
 

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