I became a Universal Studios season pass holder for the first time this year. While walking through the park and seeing how little of it is changing from year to year, I am wondering if USH has any plans to stay competitve with new attractions.

First, the plus side of Universal. The upper lot is themed extremely well. You do get the sense of wonder/euphoria as you enter the park. The shows are also pretty good.

Now the negatives that stick out. While the shows are good, they really will not hold up to repeat viewings, especially if you plan to go once a month like the other theme parks.

So here are my suggestions, based on what has been done at USF, Warner Brothers Movie World, and the Disney parks.

First, add some thrill rides. Thrill rides, whether they be for the little ones or for the big ones, actually can be enjoyed repeatedly even on the same visit. I am not sure anyone would sit through four viewings of Animal Planet Live back to back, despite it being very good.

Looking at Tokyo DisneySea, they had a clever idea in putting thirll rides for little ones indoors to protect against whether. USH could do the same thing and convert soundstage space, say behind ET for example, and add in quite a few thrill rides for the kids. Wouldn't most of the Snoopy rides or SFMM Looney Tune rides actually fit into a soundstage?

Of course, the obvious advantage for building thrill rides indoors would not be for the weather, but for to sheild the rest of the studio and or neighbors from noise.

Keeping with the noise blocking theme, a coaster would not immediately be thought of as easy to build. But, as Disney has proven with both Space Mountian and Rock n Roller, both a traditional steel coaster and an invert coaster can be built indoors and still be excellent rides. Even the old Beetlejuice stage which is vacant can play host to a wild mouse design or even a flying coaster on a smaller scale like Zamperla's Volare, currently under construction at SF in Denver.

On the tram tour, they refer to one of the stages as haunted. Makes you wonder why they just don't build a "haunted" set for the tram to travel it's way through?

Or, why on Back To The Future, they don't film new segments for the trips through time? They don't even have to change the part with the live actors!

Could Doctor Doom's Tower by put inside or on one side of the Jurrasic Park building? Maybe not the exact same ride, but an Intamin drop ride?

I just can't help but thinking if they were a little more creative and expanded the parks to include more soundstage space to hide some rides that can hold up to repeat viewings, that the park would be quite a bit more entertaining for frequent visits.

Ditto.

I have similar views for this park. Right now I believe it sucks and they are going to lose business quickly.

First...on our recent visit, we noticed the demographic has changed somewhat...probably due to the cheap prices and free annuals. Less REAL film buffs and foriegn tourists who are Hollywood star struck.
Second and most important...USH has it's hands tied by some very vocal butthead neighbors who shutdown many of the 'cooler' plans. Next time you're there...look right above the Psycho House (and Ingen set) and see a house on the hill.
These are supposedly the worst and a constant pain in the rear with complaints and more.
They moved in LONG AFTER it was not only a working studio but a theme park....duh.

Universal Hollywood is still the best bargain in SoCal IMHO.

Did you ever hear that Universal started to buy up the houses up there, quietly, to move executives from the studio in? It is unfortunate that Universal may never be able to add some of the best additions of IOA, but I still think that both MIB and Spider Man are good possibilities. To me, I don't think USH is concerend all that much with keeping up with the competition in the attractions race.

I too, noticed that the demographic has changed quite a bit. I find the foreign tourists to be the best theme park guests. It is the locals on the AP who sometimes drag down the place. Sometimes I think they should give instructions on walking in the pamphlet, such as "please do not stop on a stairway after a show lets out. Exits are for exiting, not standing around."

My personal rank as the best values in CA are

1.) SFMM - Season pass with no black out dates, 52.99

Unlike Universal and Disney, the no black out dates puts it ahead.

I do wish Knott's would sell 54 dollar season passes, but that might lead to overcrowding on the weekends, which is a severe drawback of the SFMM pass. Knott's and SFMM are going to be the top draws this summer with X and the soon to be re-opened Perilous Plunge and Xcellarator.

Universal certainly has the options to expand the ride selection with MIB, Spiderman, Seuss Landing, all found at the sister park, yet they choose to offer the minimum in improvements. Incredibly frustrating knowing how great they could be, yet choose not to be.

I was particualarly ticked off at the condition of the SCREEN in
BTTF...there was crap all over it..huge globs of paper towels soaked and thrown and stuck on it...the film was slightly soft focus as well.
The presentation definately had the 'been there done that' feel to it. Time for a change. Look at all the room in the attraction!!!!!!!

The Truck was still missing from JPTR...though I still got a kick out of it. I was one of the first to ride it when it first opened and I still like it alot.

ET held up pretty well...still enjoyed it.

Terminator 3-D has the MOST God Awful LONG pre-show in the biz...no need to do THAT again! And the film was somehow underwhelming. Seemed outdated and old tech. (already)

The Mummy maze was pretty well done but for the butthead 'guests' who for the most part were acting like morons and trying to ruin it for everyone else. (Cheap passes again)

Here the ACE of the visit. We did the VIP tour thisd time...$99 each. I asked (they don't tell you unless you ask) about the annual and if it comes with it. Now get this...we have untill Nov. 17th to re-visit with the reciept...at THAT time our FULL YEAR annual pass will BEGIN. How cool is that!!!

Since the park was packed to the doors...the $99 ea. was well spent and we backdoored everything! Also got to wander around the Psycho House and the Ingen Set!!!!!!! (plus the Prop dept.)
Highly recommended. Very small group too.

Too cool.

DBJ - not sure I got all that you were saying ..........

Is it like this?

Buy VIP pass for $99 and get nowait/backdoor access for one day and then anytime after that within 6 months or so you can go back and get an annual pass good for a year after that date?

No wonder Vivendi is so messed up ....................