Universal Orlando Resort Expansion News (Part 2)

[UniversalRBLX]

The first few years this is going to be packed if they put popular IPs in the park. After that they can play catch up with some of their other land and have Mears bring them to the park if necessary then down the road build a garage as needed. I think the 5K will not be enough the first few years but in the longer term you are correct that day guests will come from Universal's and partner hotels and will be bussed in.
Any plans for a huge bus drop off yet?

There should be plans for a bus drop off that can hold at least 10-15 slots just for Universal transportation. (5 for the current on-site hotels; Aventura and Saphire share one, 2 for CityWalk-New Park transit, one for Endless, and a few more saved for the upcoming hotels.)

 

[Legacy]

Ubers are a thing now, too. A lot of off-site guests will be using that system which 1) is used far more often than Orlando's anemic taxi options ever were, 2) are going to built into the resort design.

5k will be fine.

 

[bob albert]

Ubers are a thing now, too. A lot of off-site guests will be using that system which 1) is used far more often than Orlando's anemic taxi options ever were, 2) are going to built into the resort design.

5k will be fine.

Uber is also probably cheaper for most guests staying in the area than the parking fee.

 

[Legacy]

Uber is also probably cheaper for most guests staying in the area than the parking fee.

Yep.

Also, it's easy to lose the context of how many people a parking lot actually means. Taking an average of 4 people a vehicle (for every couple there's a minivan), 5k spaces is 20,000 people. That's half a big park's capacity right there.

Throw in a third of the estimated 32,000 people (4 per room) available from their current resort offerings (including Endless Summer) - 10,000

Plus 2 thirds of the hypothetical 1,500 rooms opening with Site B - 2,000

You're at theoretical park capacity of 32,000 (closer to 35,000 in reality). Throw in bus drop offs and ride shares, it creeps higher.

That's... About right.

EDIT - Did I just figure out an unannounced park's capacity?

 

[Moose84]

Yep.

Also, it's easy to lose the context of how many people a parking lot actually means. Taking an average of 4 people a vehicle (for every couple there's a minivan), 5k spaces is 20,000 people. That's half a big park's capacity right there.

Throw in a third of the estimated 32,000 people (4 per room) available from their current resort offerings (including Endless Summer) - 10,000

Plus 2 thirds of the hypothetical 1,500 rooms opening with Site B - 2,000

You're at theoretical park capacity of 32,000 (closer to 35,000 in reality). Throw in bus drop offs and ride shares, it creeps higher.

That's... About right.

EDIT - Did I just figure out an unannounced park's capacity?

I don’t think you found capacity but more that you found Universals expectations for busy day guest count at the new park.

For reference Universal Studios Hollywood can hold more than 40,000+ guests at max before lockdown, and done so several times over the last year.

Magic Kingdom can do 65,000 before phase 1 capacity is reached and they have criteria for entry. Max capacity before lockdown is presumed close to 100,000. Averages almost 57,000 guests a day from attendance figures.

Epcot max presumed 95,000.

Animal Kingdom max presumed 65,000.

Hollywood Studios 75,000(I believe when park is fully opened though)

Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure are hard to find but average daily visitors by attendance look to be close to 30,000.

Enjoy

 

[Legacy]

I don’t think you found capacity but more that you found Universals expectations for busy day guest count at the new park.

For reference Universal Studios Hollywood can hold more than 40,000+ guests at max before lockdown, and done so several times over the last year.

Magic Kingdom can do 65,000 before phase 1 capacity is reached and they have criteria for entry. Max capacity before lockdown is presumed close to 100,000. Averages almost 57,000 guests a day from attendance figures.

Epcot max presumed 95,000.

Animal Kingdom max presumed 65,000.

Hollywood Studios 75,000(I believe when park is fully opened though)

Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure are hard to find but average daily visitors by attendance look to be close to 30,000.

Enjoy

"Sold out" for HHN is around 43,000 (IIRC). I think day-time ops lock out capacity is right around 50,000. Maybe 55,000. IoA is just under that. I definitely think P4rk's lock-out capacity is going to start well below there. I'd hazard around 45,000.

It'll be a "full-day" park at opening, I'm sure. But "full-day" doesn't mean 80,000 capacity on day one.

 

[Moose84]

"Sold out" for HHN is around 43,000 (IIRC). I think day-time ops lock out capacity is right around 50,000. Maybe 55,000. IoA is just under that. I definitely think P4rk's lock-out capacity is going to start well below there. I'd hazard around 45,000.

It'll be a "full-day" park at opening, I'm sure. But "full-day" doesn't mean 80,000 capacity on day one.

Oh I have no doubt it’ll be a full day park and can’t wait to plan a vacation around it.

God forbid the day a park averages 80,000 a day. That’s close to 30 million visitors annually(29.2 million to be exact). Shivers at the thought. Sadly I see my one my favorite parks, Disneyland, to be the first to even crack average numbers 60,000 and could see it around 65,000 by 2022.

 

[Happytycho]

Are they "undercounting" the parking spots because most of the guests from current UOR hotels will be arriving via bus?

It does feel like a relatively small number, but they probably just don't think there'll be that many separate guests driving in...

I can't see why the hotel guest numbers here would be significantly different than the other parks to which I was comparing. In fact, I would think that the initial proportion of hotel guests here would actually be lower than other Disney and Universal parks because it will probably take them a few years to get the number of nearby hotel rooms up to similar levels.

Yep.

Also, it's easy to lose the context of how many people a parking lot actually means. Taking an average of 4 people a vehicle (for every couple there's a minivan), 5k spaces is 20,000 people. That's half a big park's capacity right there.

Throw in a third of the estimated 32,000 people (4 per room) available from their current resort offerings (including Endless Summer) - 10,000

Plus 2 thirds of the hypothetical 1,500 rooms opening with Site B - 2,000

You're at theoretical park capacity of 32,000 (closer to 35,000 in reality). Throw in bus drop offs and ride shares, it creeps higher.

That's... About right.

EDIT - Did I just figure out an unannounced park's capacity?

Thanks for figuring these numbers.

Based on this it seems that the planned lot should be plenty sufficient for the average 25-30k attendance days that the park will probably see the first few years. However, they may still have a problem if peak days are in the 35-40k range. Thus I see two reasonable options:

A) Universal doesn't expect the park to ever hit 40k daily attendance
B) For the <~25 peak days each year where the new lot gets full they send the extra ~1k cars to park in the current garages and run some extra buses

 

[DisneyDoof]

In addition to sending additional cars to the parking garages, I wonder if they are planning on working a deal with the county to send additional cars also to the convention center lots and then shuttling guests quickly across the street. Would work on days when large events aren't being held. Also, although highly improbable, SeaWorld lot?

 

[Nick]

I don’t think you found capacity but more that you found Universals expectations for busy day guest count at the new park.

For reference Universal Studios Hollywood can hold more than 40,000+ guests at max before lockdown, and done so several times over the last year.

Magic Kingdom can do 65,000 before phase 1 capacity is reached and they have criteria for entry. Max capacity before lockdown is presumed close to 100,000. Averages almost 57,000 guests a day from attendance figures.

Epcot max presumed 95,000.

Animal Kingdom max presumed 65,000.

Hollywood Studios 75,000(I believe when park is fully opened though)

Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure are hard to find but average daily visitors by attendance look to be close to 30,000.

Enjoy

The average for USF/IOA is more around 25,000, i'd say. Lot's of 15k days that get the number bumped up by the busy seasons. But the slow seasons are SLOW. WDW may not have seasons anymore, but UOR still does - to some extent at least.

Keep in mind when I say this, i'm talking about daily ops, not accounting HHN into the equation since it's a separately ticketed event.

 

[Scott W.]

Look at how high the fill is around that billboard!

It probably means nothing as this is where the warehouse is going but it could also mean that they're raising the resort height which may allow for rides to go underground or something similar to utilidors.

 

[Nick]

It probably means nothing as this is where the warehouse is going but it could also mean that they're raising the resort height which may allow for rides to go underground or something similar to utilidors.

CityWalk has tunnels very much like the Utilidors so it's very possible they do that again.

 

[natespf]

I am assuming, with the 2 entrances to the parking lot, it'll be segmented with a northern portion for busses, taxis, and dropoff/pickup, with the rest to the south for general guest parking.

Edit: with a separate loop for Universal transportation to the south west.

 

[truejonas]

CityWalk has tunnels very much like the Utilidors so it's very possible they do that again.

Learn something every day. Although I am not surprised, I don't think I've ever heard about Universidors before.


Doesn't MK have issues with moisture down there due to the whole area being ex-swamp?

 

[natespf]

Doesn't MK have issues with moisture down there due to the whole area being ex-swamp?

There's a few problems with the Utilidors that would be more expensive to fix than it's worth. But starting from scratch with knowledge of those issues and modern technology they can be avoided.

 

[Nick]

Learn something every day. Although I am not surprised, I don't think I've ever heard about Universidors before.


Doesn't MK have issues with moisture down there due to the whole area being ex-swamp?

When you walk off the moving sidewalks and are near the movie theater, you're actually on the second floor. Notice how you slowly walk downhill as you walk closer to the parks. The parks are on ground level. The clubs are level 3. The ground level entrance to the CityWalk tunnels is actually right next to the path near Margaritaville as you start to walk towards RPR, CBBR and Aventura.

 

[Legacy]

Learn something every day. Although I am not surprised, I don't think I've ever heard about Universidors before.

They're not impressive. Nowhere near as expansive as the Utilidors are.

 

[Nick]

They're not impressive. Nowhere near as expansive as the Utilidors are.

Yeah, i've worked a significant period of time in both and can still get lost in the Utilidors. The CityWalk tunnels I know like the back of my hand - although you can still get lost in them if you aren't familiar. They aren't THAT small. They just aren't the size of Magic Kingdom

 

[truejonas]

When you walk off the moving sidewalks and are near the movie theater, you're actually on the second floor. Notice how you slowly walk downhill as you walk closer to the parks. The parks are on ground level. The clubs are level 3. The ground level entrance to the CityWalk tunnels is actually right next to the path near Margaritaville as you start to walk towards RPR, CBBR and Aventura.

Dude. It's like I'm there.

They're not impressive. Nowhere near as expansive as the Utilidors are.

Makes sense with what @Nick said - plus, I'm guessing it's more of an employee convenience, rather than used for running fully costumed folk around.

 

[tielo]

What if Universal would produces a show in a theater on City Walk 2 with Academy Of Villain (like Blue Man and Cirque)?