How to Design a Theme Park (To Take Tons of Your Money)

Avatar Land is better

Another large reason behind the desire for experiences id say is the advancements of tehcnology to actually allow this type of stuff

My experience at the Harry Potter exaction at universal California was way more fun than Star Wars was at Disney. Which surprised me considering I’ve seen every Star Wars movie and I’ve never seen a Harry Potter movie before

I just can not justify the $175 entry to the park just to experience Rise Of The Resistance, in my opinion it was just ok and the land was plain boring.

I havent been to galaxies edge yet.

But ive been to the hogwarts deal. It got me for a butter beer and a wand. Though in the future ill go for a butter coke without the butter.

Not certain i can afford disneys rebranded coke ball, or that i want to enjoy the park at all since its new fast pass scheme.

Your writers sure like using the euphemism "guest"! The customers are not invited or staying in the thematic areas of the businesses. People who go to these places willingly pay dearly for a memorable experience. Using the word guest in these circumstances is on par with being a guest of Jeffrey Epstein. A memorable experience indeed.

It's a good video but the statement "deepest level of detail at a disney park" is wild when animal kingdom exists. Yes it's a different theme, but nothing comes close to DAK when it comes to attention to detail

This biggest mistake of the land is making the land based in the sequel trilogy instead of the prequels or original trilogy. Imagine a land based on a jedi temple or a rebel base. They are far more liked the the sequels aswell

I thought trackless rides have been around. Didn’t Winnie the Pooh come out as a trackless ride since the year 2000?

My family is dragging me along to disney in a month and I cant wait to insuffrably recite all these facts to them

Now that Disney has destroyed Star Wars does this still work out? Genuinely Curious.

They even themed the hand dryers.

This is pretty long but I have a point I promise.

The irony is that, after all this, Disney is still losing to universal, because of a number of factors. Firstly, they have alienated half or more of the Star Wars fanbase, who don't care about a Star Wars experience that ignores so much of what they love about it in the first place. Speaking as one of those people myself, Galaxy's Edge is definitely neat at first, but after two single-day visits, I don't really feel the need to go back. Secondly, Disney requires SO much more planning. Its a family experience, and is still designed with once every few years, blowout vacations in mind. Despite the size of Disney parks, your chances of getting to ride all of the rides, especially more than once, are very slim because wait times are still so poorly managed. Aside from that, everythjng outside of the brand new areas feels terribly old and dusty, with chipped paint, worn carpets, and even viewing windows that show the wear and tear of 30-50 years of use. Third, Social Media has also given former employees the perfect platform to show how badly Disney treats their employees, particularly during the pandemic. Half of my rideshare drivers I had my first time there were former Disney/Universal employees, and each of them described Universal as the better place to work by far. Fourth, Disney's reputation as a company overall has made a lot of people more hesitant to spend money at their parks, Bob Chapek doing a great deal of damage by showing that the Disney Company doesn't care about any of it's consumers, taking away annual passes and overall making the parks a more expensive, yet less curated experience. At the time of this writing, you can get a 3 Day, Park-To-Park ticket at Universal with 2 extra days free for $335.99. Thats 5 days with complete freedom between two parks that you can use anytime within an 8 day period, breaking down to $67 a day. Disney almost never offers ticket discounts, and at the moment a 3-5 day, single park per day ticket breaks down to $136-$165 per day. Because the parks are so close together, being able to go between the two parks in a day at Universal actually has value, as travelling from one park to another at Disney World can take an hour or two depending on how long it takes you to get back to the entrance, wait for the shuttle, board, travel, enter, and go through security at the second park. Because Universal's security is all at the start, all the parks and the Citywalk are self-contained, meaning you can just walk from one to the other in about 15-20 minutes. And, of course, there is also the option of a full-fledged ride to take you to the other park as well. Despite this, you can easily spend a full day at just one of the Universal parks. Universal manages their lines much better, usually overestimating the wait times to make it more satisfying when you get to the ride earlier than expected. Their wait times are also typically much shorter, even for their most popular rides. Universal is just easier to do than Disney. You can go into a day at Universal comepletly blind and still have a great time, whereas going into Disney blind means almost certainly missing out on something you really wanted to do because of wait times and not knowing where things are. Universal parks are newer and better maintained than Disney parks, and unlike Rise of the Resistance, Universal's most popular ride, Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, is fun to ride again, and again, and again. Universal's queues are also more fun to be in than Disney's, particularly in the Harry Potter and Super Hero Island areas, with plenty of details, things to read or stare at, and highly themed vibes to keep you entertained along the way, which also helps wait times to feel shorter. Actually, one of the best things about going during the pandemic and having to be spaced 6ft apart in line, was that the lines had to be extended far beyond the typical point, meaning that we saw beautifully themed parts of the queue that we would never have seen otherwise.

In going to the parks over the past few years, I have come to this conclusion about why I prefer, and why I think many people prefer Universal or Disney. Important to note, I am an old Star Wars fan, and a fairly new Harry Potter fan.

The Disney Company, in my opinion, fails to attract the kind of return customers it wants because it has made it its business to shame Star Wars fans for being Star Wars fans, so everything at Galaxy's Edge feels fake, and disingenuous, and lacking the things Star Wars fans want to see in person. Universal however, celebrates Harry Potter fans, and tells them 'we love this too!'. Harry Potter fans feel like they are being welcomed home at Wizarding World, with details in the land and rides that fans can point at the be in awe of. It gives the fans what they want. They want to see the iconic castle from the movie, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, wands and shops that they recognize, but also sections and details that didn't make it into the movies like the Gringotts warning on the wall, Blast-Ended-Skrewts, the House Points hourglasses, and all the shops and areas that were left out of the films, etc. Galaxy's Edge gives me some of the things I want to see, like the Millennium Falcon, but thats about it. Everything else is made up, on a made up planet that I as a fan have no connection to. Its not Tatooine, or Coruscant, or Endor, or Nar Shadaa, or anywhere that I recognize. While it is cool, it doesn't feel like 'home' they way the Wizarding World at Universal does. Galaxy's Edge also bares some bitterness when I see Sequel character and themes running around, instead of Original or Prequel trilogy timelines. Again, it was cool the first time, but after that, I just want to see Anakin and Obi-Wan, or Luke Skywalker, Han, and Leia. I want the iconic Stormtroopers and Darth Vader, and Disney keeps trying to make me feel like I'm the bad guy for having things I actually want to see. Universal has a slightly easier job because Harry Potter is far more contained than Star Wars, but they still put in much more effort than they had to, and took it from achieving the bare minimum, to making it an attraction I still find new details at whenever I go.

But that's just my opinion.

And yet the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel is already defunct.

i’ve been on this ride. sure the experience was cool (even though i’m not a huge harry potter fan) but definitely NOT worth the almost 3 hour wait

Ill be honest, that galactica ride at altern towers was fucking sick with the Vr, i can understand why people didn't like it though.

This channel should be re named Bend over productions from all the bending over and cheek spreading they do for the woke mafia.

From someone who hasn't been to Galaxy 's Edge park and is (or was) a big SW fan, my biggest disappointment was learning that the park was heavily based on the new trilogy. That completely killed my hype for going there. I was planning on going from the time ot was announced but now is just "meh".

He is even worse than a consoomer. He is, and may Allah forgive me for uttering this, a Disney adult.

But… how did galactic star cruiser fail. It was pure experience but I would say the pure greed in cost. That’s why I’m excited for American heartland!

I was in Florida on business and my daughter came down about 2 or 3 months after Universal's Diagon Alley opened. I had never been as impressed with an attraction as I was with that, and thought at the time that Disney had more than met its match. I was initially confused over the total world-building there, but then got it.
We went to Disney on the 2nd day but half-way through she wanted to go back to Universal. So did I, so we did the next day. Got there at 7 or 8 am opening and had the place to ourselves for hours. Yep, bought a $40 wand.
Sounds like Disney got the message, though I understand that crowds can hurt the experience. Like always, once something becomes too popular no one wants to go there :).

Rise of the Resistance is very well done. It was such a cool experience

Love Galaxy's Edge! It is my favorite park ever!!!

There’s no comparison between Harry Potter World and Galaxies Edge!
We are both big fans of Harry Potter and Star Wars, we’ve just visited both parks and we were extremely disappointed with Harry Potter World (both sides) while we loved Galaxies edge.
Don’t get me wrong HPW is worth visiting, we enjoyed some of it while in the majority it was just, meh!
Galaxies Edge was so good we went back 4 times in 16 days and rode most rides multiple times.

Dam Americans make the best theme parks huh

star wars galaxys edge is a failure

Wizarding world still ranks supreme imo

Sounds like they are designing the map like a game developer would design a linear open world

im a huge star wars fan but honestly galaxys edge disappointed me so much (rise of the resistance is not included in that) but its just empty space!! theres SO much empty space which really kills the immersion

As massive Star Wars fans, we sadly found the land boring, dull, and the rides were "good" but not spectacular and we didn't feel a need to re-ride.

Honestly, people whine non stop about the reservation system yet our best experience on the parks was in 2021 when capacity was limited. Im really hoping Epic Universe diverts some of the theme park crowds when it opens!

Isn’t Galaxy’s Edge losing a ton of money?

This aged very poorly.

While cool, GE doesn't have much to it. A few shops, two rides (one of which might take you half your themepark day to get on of you don't want to tack on another $25), and a few static displays. While I love Star Wars, I was underwhelmed. I see so much potential, but it seems they aren't quite sure what to do with it.

Disney taking Ls is always a good day to me

Its kinda funny that Disney would be responsible for making Star Wars a shit franchise. So i am pretty happy Disney fumbled the licensee rights for Harry Potter.

It’s so immersive, you can feel Harry Potter in you as you explore

Woah woah hold up. You said "lukewarm reception to cars land???" You kidding? It's the most popular land in DCA!

At the end of the video....and thanks to our Sponsor Disney Resorts.

Ah yes, I would LOVE to pay for a 200$ light up stick at Disneyland

HP world is still better then SW world because HP represents a land from the series, SW's land is a random generic place. It would have done much better with better theming

I'm a coaster enthusiast, so I visit many amusement parks each year. I went to Disneyland California early this year, and let me tell you, Rise of the Resistance absolutely BLEW ME AWAY. That ride is such a marvel of amusement ride engineering. It truly needs to be experienced to truly feel how awesome it is!

That ride looks F*cking Awesome, ngl.

The biggest mistake with Star Wars Land was to theme it after Black Spire Outpost. Something that even now has almost no references in canonical Star Wars, besides a few books and a throwaway line in Solo. It's hardly an iconic location, I wager most fans aren't even exactly sure where it is from.

Without doubt, this park should have been Mos Eisley themed.

Who's better at designing imaginary worlds, imaginative authors (Rowling barely qualifies, which only supports my claim), or bottom-line obsessed corner-cutting unimaginative CEOs? I got to visit Disneyland last November ('22). Starwars world is indeed excellent. The cost of a visit will probably deter me from ever visiting again.

All this effort for the theme park, I see why they just didn't have the energy to do the same for the movies.