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Universal Orlando (Studios/IOA/Epic Universe) : General Discussion

Maelstrom said:
The plan at the min is the refresh of the studios park, the next big thing planned for IOA was always expected to be the retheme of LC but a new E-Ticket ride is now apparently in development for Jurassic Park and jumped ahead of a LC retheme, and rumoured to open in 2015 to go long with Jurassic park 4 which has now been confirmed as a summer 2015 opening. Anything else in IOA likely to be 2017 onwards.
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What do you mean by 'E-Ticket Ride'?
 
E-ticket generally means a large scale ride (often $100m+) ie transformers would be an E-Ticket ride as would space mountain, splash mountain, Indiana jones adventura when they were built.

It came from in Disneyland's early years it wasn't pay one price but you payed small amount to enter the park and then Purchased tickets (much like Blackpool pleasure beach used to be) and their were different tickets each with different letters. when disney land opened in 1955 they had A, b, c, with a being for the smaller less thrilling rides, then in 1956 they added D tickets for the bigger rides. Then in 1959 with Disneyland's first major expansion they added the new Submarine Voyage, Matterhorn Bobsleds, and Disneyland–Alweg Monorail and they then created an E ticket for the newest, expensive and more thrilling rides.

Even though tickets ended in 1982 and the park became pay one price when ever Disney add a new major expensive new ride its referred. to as an E ticket ride. Smaller rides like the little mermaid dark ride for example wouldn't be refered to as an E ticket ride. Many people refer to universal major additions as e ticket attractions as well.
 
It's an archaic term that was only ever relevent to Disney parks. I've never heard anyone use it when talking about other parks before.
 
I have seen it recently used in articles talking about universal studios new additions. Before that had only heard it used against Disney parks. I assume it was just the people who wrote the articles/news items way of trying to explain the size of attraction that universal looking to add.
 
I've been thinking that the park would do this for a while and it seems that my prediction is going to come true: according to an update on Screamscape, the parking lot for Universal Orlando's staff is going to be turned into a multi-story. Work is expected to begin this Autumn with it all completed and open for 2014.

I wonder if this is to also free up any space for future expansion? Although the staff parking is more or less isolated at the back of the two parks and surrounded by the Studios and staff areas, is it possible that some buildings closer to the parks could be relocated on land opened up by turning the staff parking area into a multi-story parking lot? This would then leave space by the parks for yet more expansion.

:)
 
The basic frame for the IOA station of the Hogwarts Express is now complete and is ready for the next phase. Testing is expected to commence in October:

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Bit late, but I'm gutted to here that Disaster might be closing. It's a really great and unique ride. As much fun as all these new additions sound, with the removal of Jaws, Disaster and T2:3D, I'm worried that all the charming old-school 'classic' attractions are being systematically ripped out.

It's a shame because Disney rarely do this - they celebrate and renovate their classic attractions.

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Agreed. It looks like all the (non coaster) rides I would want to visit for either have been, or are going to be trashed. :( I have no interest in glorified simulators, it's the animatronic / special effects spectaculars that get me excited.

Meh, what does it matter? I'm never going to go there anyway.
 
Sam said:
Bit late, but I'm gutted to here that Disaster might be closing. It's a really great and unique ride. As much fun as all these new additions sound, with the removal of Jaws, Disaster and T2:3D, I'm worried that all the charming old-school 'classic' attractions are being systematically ripped out.

It's a shame because Disney rarely do this - they celebrate and renovate their classic attractions.
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Universal have a weird approach, where every ride needs to be deemed 'relevant' by whether there's been a film release in recent years. I'll admit it's quite worrying, as there are now less and less rides that were there on my first visit. In one way, with all the new rides it certainly makes revisits more attractive (as opposed to Islands of Adventure, where Harry Potter has been the only significant addition since the park opened in 1999), and some of the new rides do look good. But if they scrap all their old school rides it'll kill a bit of the soul of the place.
 
It's a shame they couldn't keep Jaws but update it as it looked really good. Hopefully the E.T. upgrades are a sign that the park does care for its older attractions? I'm also glad to hear that King Kong should be making a return. There's plenty of space to bring back classic attractions and films but in different forms.

One thing I've wondered about is whether they'll bring back the old Ghostbusters car and roaming actors for the upcoming third film (don't know if the new film will be any good but I'd still love to see Ecto1 driving around the Studios with the sirens going! :p )?
 
Some news from Screamscape regarding Universal reminding everyone of how awesome they are right now! :p

First up is news of a deal being done with Legendary Entertainment, creators of 300, Inception, Dark Knight, Man of Steel and the up-coming Godzilla movie (YES! :p ):

Universal Studios - (7/11/13) Interesting things are happening in Hollywood this week. Legendary Entertainment has signed a multi-year deal to work with Universal Studios on select projects, while retaining their existing relationship with Warner Bros as well. While the deal mainly allows Universal to distribute their films to the international market as well as work in some deals for future NBCUniversal TV programming, InParkMagazine also reports that the deal includes the possibility to create Theme Park attractions as well based on some of Legendary’s work.
While Legendary was the force behind the Batman Begins trilogy of films as well as the new Man of Steel film, other highlight films from their past include 300, Watchmen, Clash of the Titans and Inception. Of course their list of future films on the way is also impressive and includes Pacific Rim, 300: Rise of an Empire, Seventh Son and an all new Godzilla film.
While the DC comic based films may be difficult (but not impossible) for Universal to bring into their parks due to existing deals with Six Flags, some of the other films could likely be used in the Universal theme parks. One in particular that stands out is Godzilla, as Universal has a history with monster movies anyway, and it opens the possibility for an interesting “clash of the titans’ if they were to mix King Kong and Godzilla together for a modern audience. The ink on the deal has only just dried, so don’t look for anything to happen just yet… just something to think about moving forward. Unless there is a Legendary IP that would be perfect for Halloween Horror Nights, and then we could be hearing about that much sooner…
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Orlando Theme Park News have more photos of the Diagon Alley construction, as well as some of the new Simpsons attractions and work going on for the new night time show (all in the Studios). Here's a taster from their collection:

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Work on Halloween Horror Nights 23 is now underway too!


Finally, work on the Jurassic Park expansion is already underway with the first stage being to add some games to the area.
 
I really can't wait to return to Florida, and even though next time I'll be doing Disney World, I'm probably more excited to go back to Universal. The resort really is top notch, and by 2015 it'll be even better.

I hope they go with the idea of King Kong vs Godzilla, as it would be a great way of bringing Kong back. One thing that needs to be said about Universal Studios is that they do seem to be neglecting the older Universal films in favour of more recent IPs from other studios.
 
It's interesting that from what I've seen, they're choosing to build the station with a King's Cross facade when in the films, the exterior shots were all of St.Pancras. They have recently refurbished King's Cross so that it now looks much nicer than it did but you'd think they'd want some continuity with the films.
 
Well considering J.K. Rowling was describing Euston but called wrote King's Cross instead, I'm sure we can forgive Universal for this. :p
 
If you forget Harry Potter entirely and take the following fact completely in isolation...

...the idea that a globally-known mega-theme park in Florida are spending millions to build a replica of King's Cross railway station is hilariously ridiculous. :p
 
This picture is probably the best piece of IP based theme park theming I've seen in a long, long time...

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Benzin said:
This picture is probably the best piece of IP based theme park theming I've seen in a long, long time...

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"We need more Bort license plates in the gift shop...I repeat, we are sold out of Bort license plates" ;)
 
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