Originally Posted By RoadTrip The Studios name may have made some sense in the beginning, but after all studio work left the park it made no sense whatsoever. And I agree with Hans that movie making attractions lacked repeat-ability. I can't even remember the last time I saw the Indy Jones stunt show, the Magic of Disney Animation, or the Back Lot Tour. I still enjoy the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show but not so much for the "movie making aspect". I just like watching cars go fast. ;-) I agree that the new name will better reflect what the park has become.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Regardless, "Hollywood" does mean more than the physical location of actual Hollywood.>> Yes, Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards in the park have always done a good job of presenting "The Hollywood that never was and always will be". Even more so before dropping the B.A.H. right in the middle of it. But it still one of my favorite areas of the park.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA I just feel like by not following their own design concepts -- the hub - the various lands that radiate out from that hub -- that the park is like something out of the video game 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' where it's all patch worked together with very little flow between areas. And a theme park themed to 'movies' or 'Hollywood' is about as clever and interesting as a 'Salute to America' half time show.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Many of us LIKE attractions based on movies or television. It certainly seems to work for Universal Florida with their theme of "ride the movies". I think the best attractions (and certainly some of the most popular) at the Disney Studios are based on Hollywood. My favorites are the Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, Tower or Terror, Midway Mania, Rock & Roller Coaster (though the Hollywood connection is a stretch), Muppet-vision and Voyage of the Little Mermaid. The Great Movie Ride, Little Mermaid and Muppet-vision could really use an update, but I think they could still be enjoyable attractions. As for the Hub and Lands concept, it was never well-implemented at the Studios anyway. That park has been a jumble physically since day one. The only Lands in the Studios that ever had a cohesive feel to them were Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards, and to a lesser extent, Echo Lake. The rest of the park has always served as a challenge to your map-reading skills.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <As for the Hub and Lands concept, it was never well-implemented at the Studios anyway. That park has been a jumble physically since day one.> Totally agree Roadtrip. The bones of the Park were not well thought out, with pieces just added on in a hodgepodge - where you spend a lot of time doubling back and trying to figure out where you are.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "I just feel like by not following their own design concepts -- the hub - the various lands that radiate out from that hub -- that the park is like something out of the video game 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' where it's all patch worked together with very little flow between areas." The hub concept works great. But I don't really like it for every park. Will start to seem too cookie cutter. Not that the layout of the Studios is great, but I like different ideas being tried out. Leave the hub for the Magic Kingdom parks.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip The AK has a hub and it works relatively well... except for Camp Minnie Micky. Unlike the MK lands and the other AK lands, Camp MM has access ONLY from the hub... there is no "outer ring" connecting it with the other lands. I wonder if they will change it for Avatarland... the current design would create a real bottleneck for the (hopefully) large numbers of people trying to get there.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros ^^From what I've seen, they may be working on a secondary connection from Avatar to Harambe. They're definitely working on a route from the new FOTLK theater to Discovery Island near Pizzafari, which will only be used after the show when huge crowds flood the area, but it's unclear to me whether they plan to continue that path around to the new Avatar stuff. It would be a very long walk without much along the way, but I really think it would be a huge help logistically. Then again, if Cameron is as strict as Rowling was, they could end up with terrible traffic flow, just like in IOA's HP section >>The Studios name may have made some sense in the beginning, but after all studio work left the park it made no sense whatsoever.<< Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, should Universal Studios Orlando change their name? They never had the conceit of a working studio, but the name has always included "studio" >>...the park is like something out of the video game 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' where it's all patch worked together with very little flow between areas.<< And in a way, that's exactly what happened. Much like when playing RCT, they really only planned for what would happen at the park's opening. When it was suddenly successful and they needed to add more stuff, they didn't have a real master plan ready so they had to make do with what they could. So we have two big anchor attractions at the far end of Sunset Blvd (and F! even further out there), a handful of soundstage buildings that may or may not have anything for guests in them, and a backlot area that you feel like you're not really supposed to be in because of configuration of the walkways. It's just a very strange place >>The rest of the park has always served as a challenge to your map-reading skills.<< And that has only gotten worse with the new MyMagic+ maps. Seriously, *what* were they thinking with that?! I'm good at reading maps, and I know the parks like the back of my hand, but even I have a lot of trouble making any sense of that thing
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, should Universal Studios Orlando change their name? They never had the conceit of a working studio, but the name has always included "studio"> To me, it's different. Universal Studios in Hollywood started as an actual working studio. The trams were created out of necessity - to get guests up and down the steep hills and vast acreage of the backlot. For Universal to attempt to recreate that vibe of their Hollywood studios tour in Orlando makes sense to me. The Universal Orlando trams aren't 'needed' but the use of them makes sense because they harken back to the Hollywood property. But for Disney to include trams for a 'backlot' was an obvious attempt to try and trump Universal's Orlando park, and it was just sort of silly (it didn't work IMO).
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Did USO ever have a tram tour to begin with? I thought the park was always based on the "where you can ride the movies" concept, rather than a peek behind how they were made. My first visit to USO wasn't until 1996, but there was no attempt to show how movies were made at that time (other than the ability to sit in the audience of certain Nickelodeon shows). Perhaps there was something in the park's early years, but I doubt it would have been as big of a focus as MGM's backstage tour
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <Did USO ever have a tram tour to begin with?> Yes. I remember a tram ride when my wife and I first visited in 1993.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, should Universal Studios Orlando change their name?" Probably. It's no more of a "studio" than DHS is.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Speaking of names wasn't DHS originally called "Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park"?
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA But at least Universal Studios Orlando shares a legacy with Universal Studios Hollywood - which does have the Tram Tour.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Speaking of names wasn't DHS originally called "Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park"?<< I've seen it listed that way in some publications, but not all of them, so I'm not sure. The original park was split into two clearly-defines areas: the theme park and the studios. The theme park was Hollywood Blvd and Echo Lake, while the studio was all of the "behind the scenes" type stuff. Guests entered the studios through the large archway that now serves as the entrance to the Animation Courtyard, and the entrance to the backstage tour (walking tour & tram tour combined into a single experience) was directly ahead in what is now the Animation building <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.yesterland.com/mgm-beginning.html">http://www.yesterland.com/mgm-...ing.html</a> It's also worth noting that the guest area of the studios was basically limited to the courtyard, and everything else could only be accessed via the tour. Since then, they've gradually opened more of that area up to guest traffic, and the tour has been whittled away to nothing. It kind of makes you wonder if Disney would ever attempt a multi-hour attraction again; even the Universe of Energy's 45 minutes seems like a huge outlier these days. It's tough to justify a semi-educational attraction with the amount of information that's available online, but I'd like to think that Disney's still willing to attempt something on a grand scope. It seems like every new attraction since then has been under 10 minutes, with the vast majority of them under 5 minutes
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Did Universal Orlando ever actually have a tram tour? When I first visited the park in 1996 they used trams to get people from the parking lots to the front gate, but I don't remember there being any type of tour. Now that the lots have been replaced with the humongous parking structure, I don't remember the trams being used at all. Also, didn't MGM Studios actually open before Universal Orlando opened? I remember hearing that Disney knew of the plans for USO and hurried the design planning and opening of MGM Studios to "beat USO to the punch". That story, if true, does much to explain the poor design of the park.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <Did Universal Orlando ever actually have a tram tour? > I answered that in post 71.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Well, "tram ride" and "tram tour" can be two different things. I rode the tram from the parking lot to the front gate. I just didn't tour anything!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I see the tour was discontinued in 1995 which would explain why we didn't see it in 1996. <<Production Studio Tour The Production Studio Tour was an attraction that toured the studio and production facilities of Universal Studios Florida. Inspired by Universal Studios Hollywood's Studio Tour, the Production Studio Tour opened with the park on June 7, 1990. Guests would board a tram in front of soundstage 19 (which was located next to Nickelodeon Studios) or in the middle of two of the soundstages in the park's production facilities. From there they would be taken on a 15-minute journey into and around various sound stages as well as being taken on a general tour around the park. Upon the completion of the tour, guests would exit into The Universal Studios Store where they could purchase a variety of merchandise. The tour was closed in 1995, yet The Universal Studios Store remains open to this day.>> Source: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_Universal_Studios_Florida_attractions#Earthquake:_The_Big_One">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L..._Big_One</a>
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Yeah, it used the full name at opening. Here's the ad for the grand opening TV special: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.lanesarasohn.com/tvwriter/images/disnymgm.jpg">http://www.lanesarasohn.com/tv...ymgm.jpg</a>
