Universal hits stride as an all-inclusive park -- not a Disney detour (http://www.ajc.com/travel/content/shared/travel/destinations/flacentral/universal062203.html) - Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/22/03

QuikQuote: The opening of Universal Studios' new attraction this month is just the latest shade of green at the theme park, which has spent an estimated $2 billion on expansion since the mid-1990s.
In the past year, growth has been remarkable. In June 2002, the park added 1,000 rooms at the least expensive of its three hotels, Royal Pacific Resort. In February, the Royal Pacific's destination restaurant, Emeril Lagasse's Tchoup Chop (pronounced chop-chop), debuted. In April, Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast opened, taking kids on a wild ride through Nicktoons ("SpongeBob SquarePants," the "Fairly OddParents," "Hey Arnold" and "Rugrats").

It sounds like the author of that article had a nice little vacation. If Universal Orlando was located in, say, Atlanta, her premise would even be correct: that it's a true destination resort now. But the unfortunate reality for Universal is that they will never (well, never say never, but not for decades, at least) grow out from under Disney's shadow in central Florida. Of course they HAD to locate there, because who in their right mind would plan a vacation to "Universal World", especially when they started out with one lame theme park and a big Hard Rock Cafe. Now it's realistic for people to plan three days or so on-site at Universal, which must be doing wonders for their bottom line (and having a significant negative impact on Disney's). But I still suspect that the number of families coming from out of town for a destination vacation at Universal are in the statistically insignificant noise. Despite the author's claim, Universal is still and will always be "a Disney detour".