Subsonic Radio

I was thinking about starting a thread focusing on the Universal Orlando Resort. Even though this is a Disney site, I don't think we can't ignore what Universal Orlando is doing/planning for its resort.

Today, NBCUniversal President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Burke stated that, "We've done a study that says we could have 10,000 or 15,000 hotel rooms and still have occupancy that makes those rooms profitable." It seems very likely that Universal wants to add more hotel rooms to its resort along with Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort opening next year. He has also stated that "The company's goal is to open one new attraction every year at both Universal Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood in California."

Rumors have been flying around about the upcoming attractions coming to the Universal Orlando resort. We know that the expansion of Harry Potter is scheduled to open next year. There are rumors of a Lorax 3D type attraction for the Dr. Seuss area as well as an expansion of the Jurassic Park area.

Universal is aggressively expanding on a much faster pace than Disney. Disney is trying to answer with Avatar and the Fantasyland Expansion.

This is a cool idea since I enjoy both resorts. I was just at Universal Orlando last week and they are building an extension to the Harry Potter section. The new extension will be in Universal Studios and somehow connect to the Harry Potter section in Universal's Islands Of Adventure.

Interesting rumors from Universal. Keep in mind they will reach a point where there is no more space to add hotels and there is no place to expand out. They may be trying an aggressive growth strategy right now, but it probably won't be sustained. With that, attraction turnover is something I have been noticing. Universal has been big on refreshing attractions. It seems they are trying to utilize that as a means to keep people coming to the parks. It is a strategy that they need so they can keep annual passholders renewing yearly and attract repeat vacationing guests. Given the size, Disney has not had to worry about this as much.

The connection will be the Hogwarts Express train. There is an elevated track being built. The cars will have projections inside to make you feel like you are really on the train going between the two places. Thinking there will be a guest services on either end of the train for people to up their tickets and of course turnstiles before boarding.

Len90 wrote:The connection will be the Hogwarts Express train. There is an elevated track being built. The cars will have projections inside to make you feel like you are really on the train going between the two places. Thinking there will be a guest services on either end of the train for people to up their tickets and of course turnstiles before boarding.

Woah, that sounds like it's gonna be awesome. I will be checking that out when it's done lol. I saw they are building a new hotel across the street as well. I looked it up and it is going to be a retro themed value resort. Its gonna be based in the 50's, 60's and i think the 70's too... It will be called "Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort" and it opens next year. It looks pretty cool from the website which i posted below

https://www.universalorlando.com/Hotels ... esort.aspx

For anyone thinking that Harry Potter was going to be irrelevant in a few years, news came out today that a Harry Potter spin off movie is in the works. Link of the article is below:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... 2554.story

Yeah I actually heard about this a few days ago. It should be good, but I guess we gotta wait and see! lol.

A new restaurant is coming to CityWalk called Red Oven. A job description of positions for the restaurant was found on Universal's website. It is expected to be a custom Universal creation and not part of a chain. It is expected that the restaurant will feature hand toss pizza. The job description is linked below:

https://wfa.kronostm.com/?locale=en_US& ... 1905419896

Where in CityWalk will this be? I don't recall seeing any open places when I was there in July. And I recall there being an Italian based place with pizza there already.

That is a good question. I could see it replacing Pastamore but who knows

It'd be timely to expand the Jurassic Park section as JP4 next year will surely renew interest in the theme for the next few years.

Len90 wrote:Interesting rumors from Universal. Keep in mind they will reach a point where there is no more space to add hotels and there is no place to expand out. They may be trying an aggressive growth strategy right now, but it probably won't be sustained. With that, attraction turnover is something I have been noticing. Universal has been big on refreshing attractions. It seems they are trying to utilize that as a means to keep people coming to the parks. It is a strategy that they need so they can keep annual passholders renewing yearly and attract repeat vacationing guests. Given the size, Disney has not had to worry about this as much.

The connection will be the Hogwarts Express train. There is an elevated track being built. The cars will have projections inside to make you feel like you are really on the train going between the two places. Thinking there will be a guest services on either end of the train for people to up their tickets and of course turnstiles before boarding.

also there is to be a full diagon alley, as well as a copy of kings cross... and of course the gringotts roller coaster

Yeah, I don't recall seeing anywhere for this new Pizza restaurant to go. I guess something is gonna have to go? Sounds like a place I'd want to try out though! As for the new Harry Potter addition, oh wow I didn't hear about another roller coaster coming in!! I just got even more excited lol!

MetalRage wrote:This is a cool idea since I enjoy both resorts. I was just at Universal Orlando last week and they are building an extension to the Harry Potter section. The new extension will be in Universal Studios and somehow connect to the Harry Potter section in Universal's Islands Of Adventure.

I will be down there in a month, are there any buildings to look at or is it still a blocked off construction site?

Zillerzap wrote:

MetalRage wrote:This is a cool idea since I enjoy both resorts. I was just at Universal Orlando last week and they are building an extension to the Harry Potter section. The new extension will be in Universal Studios and somehow connect to the Harry Potter section in Universal's Islands Of Adventure.

I will be down there in a month, are there any buildings to look at or is it still a blocked off construction site?

The buildings are not completed yet, but you will see a lot of the inner steel that is used to support the building

I was there back in late July and you were able to get an idea of what the building shape would be like. I'm sure the construction has progressed greatly since then.