CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular

[OrlandoGuy]

It's mostly because Universal's decisions, like this one, causes the results to be self fulfilling. They never give any of these shows, and late evening closings, a chance to be impregnated in guests minds/habits. That Six Flags analogy might have made some sense when Universal only had three hotels, but it makes very poor business sense with all the on site hotels filled with guests that are focused to on site activities.

And, keep in mind, March, as I said above, is prime tourist season. No reason not to run the shows in March with the Spring Break crowds.

To you or I as huge fans, it doesn’t make sense.

To an exec who’s in the cable business sitting in Philadelphia seeing revenue come in hand over fist, the operation as is makes a lot of sense.

And I don’t mean to write this off as the “well it’s a business and they gotta make money” that we all hate as a scapegoat when the parks make tough decisions. I mean it more as a fundamental difference in the way the Universal parks are run/viewed compared to Disney.

 

[TheGentTrent]

Real talk: Is this a chicken or the egg scenario for Universal?

Let's face it. There is never an evening where the nightshows at Disney aren't crowded because the expectation is that there is always one available (which is part of the reason Animal Kingdom has again struggled retaining people without Rivers of Light). Universal guests don't have that same mindset. A lot of people leave around dinnertime regardless of whether Cinesational is playing or not. So is it really worth it for Universal to pay to keep the parks staffed for a couple of extra hours so they can do the show every night when the lines for most rides are around 15 minutes or less?

 

[Jake S]

Real talk: Is this a chicken or the egg scenario for Universal?

Kind of, yeah. I don't think it's possible for Universal to achieve the same level of affinity people have for Disney writ large, and I suspect Universal feels the same way. That's not to say there aren't big fans (we're on the Inside Universal forum, after all), but it is qualitatively different than how people think about Disney, Disneyland and Disney World.

Do I wish that Universal was more ambitious in its competition with Disney? Yes. Do I wish they more aggressively to win the hearts and minds of would-be theme park goers? Sure. But ultimately, Universal is choosing a different lane and it's clearly working for them. That's no bad thing.

I do think all this is why it's a bit silly to see people engage in wish casting about Universal "taking down the mouse" or "eating Disney's lunch." Universal isn't interested in that, really, and it shows in how they operate their parks.

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that I prefer the Disney experience to the Universal experience despite my immense frustrations with the ways Disney is *censored* up its product. But I do really appreciate the many ways Universal is trying to do its own thing, even when that doesn't align with what I want.

 

[DOOMBOT]

I apparently have many thoughts on this discussion, as I have written an entire essay about it tonight. I'm going to sit on it until morning and see if I still stand by it or want to edit / cut it down, instead of just dropping the whole thing here like a misguided drunk text haha.

The preemptive TLDR of it is, I firmly disagree with the notion that UDX isn't trying to cement itself as an equivalent to Disney in the theme park space, whether that is actually achievable for them or not. The main exception being USF itself, which is (often frustratingly) run more like a local non-theme park. I believe that is based primarily on opportunity cost; commiting limited resources and attention towards a DCA 2.0-style facelift for one park as opposed to further improvements towards the already solid and nearly world-class other 2/3rds of the resort.

 

[Mad Dog]

If those arguments are the case, why even run a night show at all. Heck they run the night show in the slow attendance months of January and August, but not during spring break in March. They run it in conjunction with Holiday Parades in mid November through Christmas, but not Mardi Gras Parades. C'mon guys, that Comcast home based decisions 'business excuse' doesn't hold ground. At the same time they cut Epic hours by one hour, during two busier months than the slow Jan. month. Sounds more like the local Orlando Execs. doing the same cost cutting stuff they were doing like crazy before Epic opened. Gotta protect those bonuses.

I just don't buy those 'blame it on Comcast home office' excuses. Orlando Execs. have a certain mindset M.O. that pops up often. This fits that local decision pattern, just like forced mobile ordering, no paper maps (Disney has them), limited times they run the new Parade, closing IOA early so often, Tapu Tapu gone, live entertainment theaters sitting empty, limited showings of Potter night time shows, not having enough maintenance crews to service all the Epic breakdowns, short staffing Epic when it opened, etc.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

If those arguments are the case, why even run a night show at all. Heck they run the night show in the slow attendance months of January and August, but not during spring break in March. They run it in conjunction with Holiday Parades in mid November through Christmas, but not Mardi Gras Parades. C'mon guys, that Comcast home based decisions 'business excuse' doesn't hold ground. At the same time they cut Epic hours by one hour, during two busier months than the slow Jan. month. Sounds more like the local Orlando Execs. doing the same cost cutting stuff they were doing like crazy before Epic opened. Gotta protect those bonuses.

I just don't buy those 'blame it on Comcast home office' excuses. Orlando Execs. have a certain mindset M.O. that pops up often. This fits that local decision pattern, just like forced mobile ordering, no paper maps (Disney has them), limited times they run the new Parade, closing IOA early so often, Tapu Tapu gone, live entertainment theaters sitting empty, limited showings of Potter night time shows, not having enough maintenance crews to service all the Epic breakdowns, short staffing Epic when it opened, etc.

I just don’t think the people running Comcast are that hands on. I imagine the decisions go something like this…

-UO: “we want to develop a nighttime show. It’ll cost x% of our allocated budget coming out of last year.”
-Comcast: “sure, you’re profitable do what you gotta do.”

-UO: “we’d like to keep the park open a few hours later so we can show off our show some more.”
-Comcast: “the park hours/OpEx are already budgeted for the year. what’s the ROI argument for this?”
-UO: “well, most of our restaurants will be closed already and the majority of our guests this time of year are in town for hhn/mardi gras/grinchmas…but maybe a 3% incremental sales conversion on merch for the handful of guests that can fit in Central Park while the show is on?”
-Comcast: “nah, we good.”

 

[Brian G.]

Good grief… sometimes it’s just as simple as “Mardi Gras is enough nighttime entertainment.”

I’m not saying it’s excusable or fine, but y’all go to great lengths creating these crazy narratives.