State of USH - What's Next?

[Brian G.]

Unpopular opinion here I know, but the Studio Tour as is needs to go in favor of park expansion. No one is visiting the park anymore for the Tour alone, outdated and nothing special about it anymore.

No! Bad Ron101!

 

[Clive]

Park has been a ghost town lately, even during the holiday season it was slow. Can attribute it to people having less disposable income, but also there just isn't much to see and do and the park right now. Whenever I bring up to conversation of USH vs Disneyland to friends and family members, I almost always get the response that USH is boring and that they prefer going to Disneyland. Hence, why Disney can get away with charging so much for Annual Passes.

The new Fast and Furious coaster will band-aid the issue but USH's lineup/offerings is still pretty weak. Lots of the rides/attractions have POOR re-visit value. If were being honest with ourselves, SNW was a disappointment on all levels except adding another ride to the park, which I wouldn't even classify as an E-ticket ride. Unpopular opinion here I know, but the Studio Tour as is needs to go in favor of park expansion. No one is visiting the park anymore for the Tour alone, outdated and nothing special about it anymore.

When I'm at Disneyland I want to actually go on the rides whereas at USH I tend to avoid most of them lol.

What you've said here indicates to me that Universal Studios Hollywood is currently not meeting your needs or those of other local "power users" who visit the parks frequently. And I don't disagree that USH doesn't offer as much as Disneyland in terms of a ride lineup. But... a USH pass does cost significantly less than a Disneyland pass. The difference in offerings and overall popularity is baked in.

So many people visit just because of the Studio Tour. It's still their #1 attraction.

It sounds like you maybe just need to take a break from this park.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Park has been a ghost town lately, even during the holiday season it was slow. Can attribute it to people having less disposable income, but also there just isn't much to see and do and the park right now. Whenever I bring up to conversation of USH vs Disneyland to friends and family members, I almost always get the response that USH is boring and that they prefer going to Disneyland. Hence, why Disney can get away with charging so much for Annual Passes.

The new Fast and Furious coaster will band-aid the issue but USH's lineup/offerings is still pretty weak. Lots of the rides/attractions have POOR re-visit value. If were being honest with ourselves, SNW was a disappointment on all levels except adding another ride to the park, which I wouldn't even classify as an E-ticket ride. Unpopular opinion here I know, but the Studio Tour as is needs to go in favor of park expansion. No one is visiting the park anymore for the Tour alone, outdated and nothing special about it anymore.

When I'm at Disneyland I want to actually go on the rides whereas at USH I tend to avoid most of them lol.

I mean its night, USH has 13ish attractions if we are Generous and Disneyland has 49+

Also the Tram doesn't need to go they just need to move its location so we can add more lands/rides in the loading area and out to where supercharged is at the very least and while it would cost....if they can use jupiter's claim area (move the sets to the hill where we used to walk for HHN and then have the tram go back on the path to the psycho house) as well why not get the park bigger and drawing in more people and have more attractions.

Now WW and the Tram are like Super attractions and you can count them as more but WW is closed another week so yeah would be nice if the Plaza always had something going on in it.

I mean even for HHN just like rearrange it so it can keep a stage but some more shows at least would go a long way in the short term but....I've said this before and will again for the next 3+ years this park seems to be just on the lowest end of the list for Universal to want to update until the hotels and olympics are here and even then it will take most likely 5-10 years after that so we can finally have a park with more near 20 attractions.

USH AP is an amazing value, like even the highest pass after like 4 visits can break you even with some days cost 140 bucks and parking is like 35 now.

But sadly nothing big will change until 2028. They choose a coaster and hotels before adding to the park, which for me was putting the cart in front of the horse but here we are with most likely next year going to do much better with the new ride out...but even then if inflation keeps going up and more people keep losing jobs wont matter how cool the coaster is people will just not come in the amount this ride cost most likely for a while

I hope I'm wrong but SNW before it even came bought value to the park with drinks/popcorn buckets and the minute bands went on sale...they were making bank of what cost at max 10 bucks a band to make and ship here. So Fast and Furious needs to at least attract the same if not more guests then SNW or....while its great for the park overall in the future the short term affects could the budget for USH gets lesser, I mean if HHN is as slow as last year I would not be surprised if HHN at least gets bet cuts and while I love Grinchmas I think we need more and the budget for that seems less now then pre covid

 

[DarkMetroid567]

Studio Tour getting removed is a horrific take but there’s some weight to the idea it needs to change. It’s unchanged and arguably a worse experience from when I first rode it 15-20 years ago.

 

[Clive]

I mean its night, USH has 13ish attractions if we are Generous and Disneyland has 49+

Also the Tram doesn't need to go they just need to move its location so we can add more lands/rides in the loading area and out to where supercharged is at the very least and while it would cost....if they can use jupiter's claim area (move the sets to the hill where we used to walk for HHN and then have the tram go back on the path to the psycho house) as well why not get the park bigger and drawing in more people and have more attractions.

Now WW and the Tram are like Super attractions and you can count them as more but WW is closed another week so yeah would be nice if the Plaza always had something going on in it.

I mean even for HHN just like rearrange it so it can keep a stage but some more shows at least would go a long way in the short term but....I've said this before and will again for the next 3+ years this park seems to be just on the lowest end of the list for Universal to want to update until the hotels and olympics are here and even then it will take most likely 5-10 years after that so we can finally have a park with more near 20 attractions.

USH AP is an amazing value, like even the highest pass after like 4 visits can break you even with some days cost 140 bucks and parking is like 35 now.

But sadly nothing big will change until 2028. They choose a coaster and hotels before adding to the park, which for me was putting the cart in front of the horse but here we are with most likely next year going to do much better with the new ride out...but even then if inflation keeps going up and more people keep losing jobs wont matter how cool the coaster is people will just not come in the amount this ride cost most likely for a while

I hope I'm wrong but SNW before it even came bought value to the park with drinks/popcorn buckets and the minute bands went on sale...they were making bank of what cost at max 10 bucks a band to make and ship here. So Fast and Furious needs to at least attract the same if not more guests then SNW or....while its great for the park overall in the future the short term affects could the budget for USH gets lesser, I mean if HHN is as slow as last year I would not be surprised if HHN at least gets bet cuts and while I love Grinchmas I think we need more and the budget for that seems less now then pre covid

Just a few things here, for the record...

• The statement "They choose a coaster and hotels before adding to the park" is nonsensical, as the coaster and hotel are additions. If you want more substantive investment in the park long-term, adding a hotel is a key step to getting there - corporate will be far more incentivized to green light major expansions if they'll drive hotel room stays on top of tickets.
• Speaking of cart before horse, I think it's a little early to assume Fast and Furious won't drive attendance gains, even with concerning economic trends.
• Fast and Furious does not need to attract "the same if not more guests than SNW."
• Horror Nights was not slow last year. It was still massively profitable.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Just a few things here, for the record...

• The statement "They choose a coaster and hotels before adding to the park" is nonsensical, as the coaster and hotel are additions. If you want more substantive investment in the park long-term, adding a hotel is a key step to getting there - corporate will be far more incentivized to green light major expansions if they'll drive hotel room stays on top of tickets.
• Speaking of cart before horse, I think it's a little early to assume Fast and Furious won't drive attendance gains, even with concerning economic trends.
• Fast and Furious does not need to attract "the same if not more guests than SNW."
• Horror Nights was not slow last year. It was still massively profitable.

1) They could have built the rides first or at the same time like most parks. Its all promises for a day that might not happen. Your very trusting considering we don't even have an announcement like DIsney to hold them to, we have no idea what the ecompomy looks like in 3 years...could be worst and then we never get what the park needs
2) Once again we just don't know but from what I see inflation is going no where so yeah the coaster has a lot to live up to for its cost and time sink plus land used
3) Then why build it? You think Disney is building Avatar land or the Coco ride for fun? We all know it both will increase DCA by a good amount. USHH has little land and has some AMAZING Ips to use what was two shows for something that might not drive many people in to me seems like a waste of space and money then.
4) Never aid HHN didn't make money but it was slow, I've gone for years and never seen lines like this. Even look from just a year ago we had two hours at 3 hour waits and this year...I don't think one house got to those crowds


I want USH to grow and we had the moment where the iron was so hot after SNW and then....now we are here again and Disneyland is packed more then last year and no one even cares about Tia's ride so its not even that. If people want USH to be a ghost town most the year cool but that kinda stuff affects park houses, budgets and how many shows we get

But I'm being realistic here, the economy is not getting better so every year we don't build a new land that harder and most costly it will be later on and if the park can't drive in more people then the people at the top will see little to no reason to invest in this park like they will Epic and other parks that offere things people want and right now thw crowds are telling me USH is not offering what the people want because its been a ghost town for over a month

 

[Clive]

1) They could have built the rides first or at the same time like most parks. Its all promises for a day that might not happen. Your very trusting considering we don't even have an announcement like DIsney to hold them to, we have no idea what the ecompomy looks like in 3 years...could be worst and then we never get what the park needs
2) Once again we just don't know but from what I see inflation is going no where so yeah the coaster has a lot to live up to for its cost and time sink plus land used
3) Then why build it? You think Disney is building Avatar land or the Coco ride for fun? We all know it both will increase DCA by a good amount. USHH has little land and has some AMAZING Ips to use what was two shows for something that might not drive many people in to me seems like a waste of space and money then.
4) Never aid HHN didn't make money but it was slow, I've gone for years and never seen lines like this. Even look from just a year ago we had two hours at 3 hour waits and this year...I don't think one house got to those crowds


I want USH to grow and we had the moment where the iron was so hot after SNW and then....now we are here again and Disneyland is packed more then last year and no one even cares about Tia's ride so its not even that. If people want USH to be a ghost town most the year cool but that kinda stuff affects park houses, budgets and how many shows we get

But I'm being realistic here, the economy is not getting better so every year we don't build a new land that harder and most costly it will be later on and if the park can't drive in more people then the people at the top will see little to no reason to invest in this park like they will Epic and other parks that offere things people want and right now thw crowds are telling me USH is not offering what the people want because its been a ghost town for over a month

1) What are you talking about? They've committed to building a new ride, which is actively under construction, and are clearly preparing to start work on a hotel. They likely have other attractions in development that we are not privy to. They may or may not be green lit at some point based on a huge variety of internal and external factors. This is how every major theme park works. They aren't going to just abandon the park, even if there's an economic downturn.

2) I don't mean this to sound condescending, but you are not an economic expert, and you are out of your depth here. Fast and Furious absolutely needs to drive increased attendance to justify its cost, but even with the demolition of the theaters (which was inevitable due to long-term structural instability) and intricate land grading, the investment in this coaster is nowhere near what it cost to build Super Nintendo World. Different expectations. I have no idea why you keep bringing up inflation.

3) See #2. It's funny you're concerned Universal may just choose not to build anything because they haven't announced it when Disney is notorious for backing away from expansions they've literally hyped and provided art for. Coco and Avatar are many, many years away. They are far from guaranteed. To be honest, it's hard to tell what you're really saying in the back half of this point, but it sounds like you just don't like that they're building a coaster.

4) Horror Nights was not slow. It was slower than the last two years, probably for several reasons, including a comparatively lackluster lineup of IPs. If we did have two or three-hour queues, you'd just be complaining about how you can't navigate the event. So which is it?

Universal Studios Hollywood is not and will never be Disneyland. Useless to compare them. It's Tiana's, not Tia's, and yes, people care about the new ride. You don't know how Universal Studios Hollywood makes these decisions.

You keep catastrophizing and imagining a doomsday scenario where corporate leaves the park to rot. They aren't going to do that. They just aren't aggressively expanding in a way that you'd personally like. You're never going to get an immersive land with corresponding E-ticket every year. The park has never had more rides and experiences. It's been quiet due to a combination of slow season, cataclysmic fires and corresponding air quality, weather, and people waiting for the new coaster.

You're literally about to get a brand new event featuring a variety of exclusive experiences. Maybe try to look forward to that.

 

[saint.piss]

Lmao I don't get why this thread always turns into a Disneyland Vs USH debate. What's the point??? Both parks are so different. These debates never go anywhere

 

[Jerroddragon]

1) What are you talking about? They've committed to building a new ride, which is actively under construction, and are clearly preparing to start work on a hotel. They likely have other attractions in development that we are not privy to. They may or may not be green lit at some point based on a huge variety of internal and external factors. This is how every major theme park works. They aren't going to just abandon the park, even if there's an economic downturn.

2) I don't mean this to sound condescending, but you are not an economic expert, and you are out of your depth here. Fast and Furious absolutely needs to drive increased attendance to justify its cost, but even with the demolition of the theaters (which was inevitable due to long-term structural instability) and intricate land grading, the investment in this coaster is nowhere near what it cost to build Super Nintendo World. Different expectations. I have no idea why you keep bringing up inflation.

3) See #2. It's funny you're concerned Universal may just choose not to build anything because they haven't announced it when Disney is notorious for backing away from expansions they've literally hyped and provided art for. Coco and Avatar are many, many years away. They are far from guaranteed. To be honest, it's hard to tell what you're really saying in the back half of this point, but it sounds like you just don't like that they're building a coaster.

4) Horror Nights was not slow. It was slower than the last two years, probably for several reasons, including a comparatively lackluster lineup of IPs. If we did have two or three-hour queues, you'd just be complaining about how you can't navigate the event. So which is it?

Universal Studios Hollywood is not and will never be Disneyland. Useless to compare them. It's Tiana's, not Tia's, and yes, people care about the new ride. You don't know how Universal Studios Hollywood makes these decisions.

You keep catastrophizing and imagining a doomsday scenario where corporate leaves the park to rot. They aren't going to do that. They just aren't aggressively expanding in a way that you'd personally like. You're never going to get an immersive land with corresponding E-ticket every year. The park has never had more rides and experiences. It's been quiet due to a combination of slow season, cataclysmic fires and corresponding air quality, weather, and people waiting for the new coaster.

You're literally about to get a brand new event featuring a variety of exclusive experiences. Maybe try to look forward to that.

We just see things differently

I see the hotels as the cart before the horse, the park can't draw people and you don't think the coaster will draw in more then SNW so the hotels are needed.....because the bust seasons but my point is to make the entire park better and never have an off season like Disney which when SNW it was like that most the year the park was packed

Once again I go to Disneyland and Tiana's (also her nick name is Tia from movie) is mostly a walk on....yes yes its cold but my point being Disneyland is busy not for its new ride but because of what it offers in terms of its park and events which is what I want USH to be a park that can stand on its own all year

I'm not but if your paying attention to what is being said the US is about to drop thousands if not millions of federal works, the interest rate can't go much lower to Entice businesses to want to expand, and the people in charge aren't even faking it that what they are doing will cause inflation to go down soon maybe one day but not anytime soon. All these factors lead me to believe USH will have a harder time to get people in not easier as your dollar pays for less and most people are out of work

Fan Fest seems cool and I hope it goes well and hopefully whatever in the summer is cool too but have to wait and see and hope it draws more crowds then last summer

In the end, I want USH to almost always at least not be a ghost town and don't want it closing at 6 PM most nights. While its cool to get a picture of the MK stairs with no one on it, its not a great sign for wanting USH to invest more into its park which is my top priority, love the park but i needs work and not in 3+ years would be nice for them to use the plaza and have more events to fill the year including more free evnts like DIsney which yes they have paid events but their free events normally offer A LOT of things to do and seems to draw people into the parks

 

[Clive]

Lmao I don't get why this thread always turns into a Disneyland Vs USH debate. What's the point??? Both parks are so different. These debates never go anywhere

Excellent question. Very different destinations with very different priorities and expectations!

 

[JaySalahi]

We just see things differently

I see the hotels as the cart before the horse, the park can't draw people

This park gets like 9-10m visitors a year and its like a tiny awkward movie studio on a hill with just 13 rides as you say. The only theme parks in the country that get attendance is Disneyland and Orlando, but this is doing that range already. So they actually can and do draw people.

Also the coaster is big attention, coasters are re-rideable, marketable and guests love them and most importanly they don't have a proper outdoor big coaster like EVERY other major theme park in So Cal, this fills a major gap.

I had a Universal pass from 2012-2017. I haven't been to the park since, other than Horror nights one time and the one time I snuck in from the backlot (keep it a secret lol). However my GF and I are getting a season pass for 26 because of the coaster and will probably keep It for years to come now. I live down the street, go to Universal Cinema ALL the time, now Im gonna come do a coaster lap or two before or after a movie

 

[Ron101]

Studio Tour getting removed is a horrific take but there’s some weight to the idea it needs to change. It’s unchanged and arguably a worse experience from when I first rode it 15-20 years ago.

Agreed. It seems they won’t ever remove it completely but a new experience is necessary.

And yes perhaps I’m burnt out from USH but I really just want the park to reach the levels of its Orlando counterpart.

 

[Jake S]

And yes perhaps I’m burnt out from USH but I really just want the park to reach the levels of its Orlando counterpart.

 

[TheHaunter]

Agreed. It seems they won’t ever remove it completely but a new experience is necessary.

And yes perhaps I’m burnt out from USH but I really just want the park to reach the levels of its Orlando counterpart.

It won't ever reach the levels of Orlando's counterpart sadly. Orlando has two lands and is getting a third one(epic universe) literally this year. It is way more advanced than Hollywood in terms of rides and attractions.

 

[highdefrex]

In the end, I want USH to almost always at least not be a ghost town and don't want it closing at 6 PM most nights.

Do you have a financial stake in the park somehow? I only ask because this seems like the same sort of point you've been repeating for years -- that you want the park to be busy, for it to succeed, for Universal to stop ignoring money on the table. Your base goals are always the same, for Universal to make money, sell more merch, etc. -- as if Universal execs aren't thinking about ways to do that -- in a way that reads like you're getting a slice of the park's profit.

We all love the park here, we all do, and we all want what's best for it, but at the end of the day, Universal has always closed early in off season(s) and has its empty days here and there because that's the nature of the park, and it thrives during summer, HHN, Grinchmas. But it'll never be Disneyland. It'll never even be Universal Orlando. It simply can't be. And even if the F&F coaster was open now and there was a Donkey Kong expansion or Diagon Alley, or whatever, right now today, the park would still close at 6pm because they know that, overall, people generally aren't interested in having to drive to Hollywood and deal with the headache of the 5's traffic on a school night during a work week in February.

And on top of that, most people aren't going every day or every other day to the park, but if you're going three, four, fives time a week, which is way outside the average, then of course subconsciously you're going to be restless that there's not more. But if those of us who go once maybe every month or two were to go and find it a ghost town, they'd find it a blessing because they'd be able to do everything without standing in lines. Universal's building F&F. They'll be replacing Simpsons. They've got goals they're going to strive for, like whatever's about to happen with CityWalk in the wake of its huge amount of closures, all of which will bring more people in -- it's not like the park is at risk of being shut down. It just takes time, as everyone's said so many times to you before, for there to be more, but if you're able to go to the park on a Tuesday night and walk on to Mario Kart, appreciate it for that fact than wasting your energy bemoaning that you don't get to stand in line for 70 minutes.