1. Main Street is absolutely huge and has no attractions.
2. That only serves to cheapen the product and lessen the experience of those who actually paid for the park.
3. Do you think a deluxe resort will not have deluxe things such as fine dining, shopping experiences, spa, etc, etc? Disneyland Paris has an entrance hotel, yet they don’t get to just roam around Main Street whenever they want. People who stay at the hotels that look out on Tokyo Disney Sea don’t get to go into the park without a ticket. Etc, etc.
1. Disneyland Main Street USA (6.53 acres) out of 85 acres: 7% of the park
Magic Kingdom Main Street 14 acres out of 142 acres: 9% of the park
Epic Universe Hub: 30+ acres: comparison: SNW is 8.8 acres meaning you can fit 3 SNW inside it. That's a lot of merch and revenue being lost
2. Disagree about cheapening the product. Does Universal cheap their product by allowing free parking after 4pm to Citywalk? I mean people paid for parking in the daytime but now its free so its bad? (Fun fact it doesn't take away anything, it makes people more likely to go because then they feel they gained value)
An open hub would have to compete with I-drive. what better way than a meal and a coaster ride plus nighttime show not including parking fee adds up. Most people paying for the park would be spending times in the land anyway more than the hubs. Wasn't the argument that SNW was so robust with activities that itself takes a full day to do everything? If it takes a day to do everything in one land, then guests in the hub aren't taking anything away especially if it was robust with things to do when they originally came up with this concept.
3. Miracosta is a bad example. Miracosta is at most a two night stay kinda place. I've stayed at Miracosta, really really really beautiful hotel but at night after park close, there isn't much to do at the hotel. Everything closes an hour after park close. If you enjoy looking outside at the park and staying in your room for the rest of your night, then its a great value, but if you like to continue enjoying your night other hotels are much better choices. Maybe I've just been spoiled and expect a lot more from big name theme park hotels after experiencing others traveling abroad.
Using other Universal Deluxe hotels, they get bored they have city walk nearby until 2 am. With the exception of Endless Summer which is walking distance from attractions on I-drive for those who don't want to drive, all the hotels can walk to Citywalk after they get bored.
The hotel for this park I would argue is a bit of a walk to get to I-drive and using Universal's Graphic with transportation times to get from place to place Endless Summer runs at 10-15 to get to the main campus...I'm estimating from Epic Universe set to North Campus will take 15-20 minutes by bus and driving.
I think back in the day it was easy to say sell the magic and people will come but I think people prefer a good value and you need to give more incentives to make a difference. Otherwise why would I pay 300+ dollars to stay at Grand Helios which likely will be the starting price point, when I could save money and stay at a cheaper resort hotel and have more to do after the park closes nearby.
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Maybe I'm just crazy weird but if I was running a resort/theme park, I would like to give way more options to guests/locals to bring them to my attractions. Opening the hub would be one of the first and then after an after 4pm ticket price would be my second option because once they got into the hub and saw everything, they may decide to eat in the hub and hit one or two of the lands which still bring money into my organization as they would spend in restaurants, shops, and buying after 4pm tickets versus no open hub and only guests who are already spending money being the only ones spending money.