Universal Studios Florida: What Do We Think About It?

[GA-MBIT]

To not further derail the Lost Continent thread, I'm bringing this here, because I think it's worth unpacking...


I think everybody would grant as a given that Universal has not intentionally created any bad attractions anywhere (the only thing close to this would be the decision to push through with Orlando's Supercharged after the fairly laughable reaction its counterpart received as part of the Studio Tour in Hollywood; they knew it wasn't good work, and regardless of how far along the plan already was for USF at the time, it should have been shelved).

But since Diagon opened, it's hard not to look at USF -- despite getting pretty consistent investment -- as being the park to receive the most lackluster (or outright bad) attractions compared to its sister next door over the same period and the bounty on offer in the now-open Epic.

When you couple that with Universal doing nothing to alter the park's composition to gain some non-screen attractions (despite having opportunities to do so with the Shrek replacement and the DreamWorks overlay), as well as the quite major projects that are seemingly next in line for IOA and Epic, it does feel like USF is the also-ran.

I think this is hard to argue. Regardless of your personal opinion on any of the following attractions, it's pretty evident just by going down the list. Villain-Con, Dreamworksland, Fallon, Supercharged. None of these scream high investment or "pushing the limits" for the company. They are side-projects. Small improvements or lateral changes to a park that's largely not changed much at all since Diagon; while they focus on more exciting prospects and IP like Potter, Mario, Jurassic, and now seemingly Pokemon elsewhere.

I do appreciate the new parade and lagoon show, as well as the improvements made to infrastructure and older attractions like E.T. and Mummy.