Once content to subsist on Disney’s table scraps, Universal thinks its expand- ing Orlando compound–centered on two theme parks, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Hollywood–now represents an alternative to the larger Walt Disney World Resort. Realizing it has the billion-dollar amenities to do better than poach an afternoon from a family’s five-day Disney visit, Universal is striking back where Mickey is most vulnerable: with teens who have outgrown Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Universal has even produced, but hasn’t yet had the chutzpah to broadcast, a TV spot with an ersatz Mickey wandering up to Universal Studios and saying, “I want to see what I’ve been missing.”
Disney isn’t laughing, and is pushing harder to sequester its guests. From the second they land at the airport, some of its visitors are whisked away to the four parks, never to set foot on enemy soil. Disney insists some tour operators include Disney tickets in multiday Orlando vacation packages, regardless of traveler interest. Disney is also developing an optional Internet service that aims to keep its guests booked to the minute: click here to reserve lunch at Cinderella Castle! Then it’s a 2:30 p.m. ride on Splash Mountain, a 4 p.m. mud wrap at Disney Institute’s spa and a monorail to Epcot for dinner. “Getting people to Orlando is our first job,” says Paul Pressler, chairman of Disney’s parks-and-resorts division. “Once you’ve arrived in Orlando, my goal is to capture as much of your time as I can.”
The theme-park fight has taken on new urgency. For the past year the scariest thrill ride has been watching the stock of both companies plummet even faster than the overall market. The September 11 attacks have curbed vacations, and the weak economy makes $51 daily tickets difficult to digest. In quarterly earnings announced last week, Disney’s parks-and-resorts profits slipped 17 percent, particularly worrisome since parks can contribute half of Disney’s profits. Universal’s parks, part of Vivendi Universal Entertainment’s film and TV operations, kick in just 5 percent of the bottom line, but delivered better first-quarter growth than any other Universal division. Universal’s two Florida parks sold 12.8 million tickets last year, up 11 percent from 1999. Attendance this year is ahead of 2001’s pace. Disney’s four parks sold 40 million tickets in 2001, down 6 percent from 1999. Disney’s 2002 reservations are off 10 percent.
Universal apparently has figured out how to build a better mousetrap. Rather than offer a pale imitation of a Disney park, Universal has created a PG-13 destination. Disney may have rides with more staying power and refined design, but Universal builds attractions linked to hit films; that can make the rides hot. Two of this year’s box-office smashes, “Spider-Man” and “Men in Black II”–have Universal rides based on them. Disney, conversely, wants to turn its theme-park rides into movies, but is off to a bad start: “The Country Bears” was just skinned at the box office.
Disney and Universal aim at different demographics. Disney has well-scrubbed employees, including an endearing waitress in the ’50s Prime Time cafe who calls herself Auntie Claire. Skip ahead a few decades to Universal’s Hard Rock Hotel, where a gift-shop clerk has nine (visible) piercings. “For little kids, who can be better than Disney?” says Ron Meyer, president of Universal Studios. “But once kids get past 10 years old, it’s hard for Disney to change its basic environment.” Universal’s attitude is most palpable when you climb on its attractions–and stagger off them. Seven years before Marvel Comics became a Hollywood franchise, Universal shrewdly licensed the characters for rides, yielding The Incredible Hulk Coaster and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man 3-D simulation ride.
Disney bristles over comparisons between its secluded 30,000-acre resort and Universal’s 2,300-acre compound, which borders on a highway of strip malls. Disney argues its real competition is destinations like Las Vegas and Paris. While both Disney and Universal have great restaurants and shopping malls, Disney World has such treats as 99 holes of golf and a lodge where giraffes wander by your room.
Even though Disney professes that Universal is no threat, it is building to meet the challenge. Disney-MGM Studios already offers the Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, and ride designers will soon add more drops to The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, where riders plunge 13 floors faster than gravity. Disney will also open next year the $100 million flight-simulator ride Mission: Space at Epcot.
The Magic Kingdom can’t be underestimated. And Universal, which first came to Orlando only 12 years ago, knows it. Not only do Universal hotels stock brochures for Disney theme parks, but Universal employees are all too happy to give out printed directions to them. Perhaps they know, like any good Disney fairy tale advises, a kid doesn’t stay a kid forever.
