Universal’s Coming (and Going) Attractions

From the start, the Grinch was supposed to appear at USH only from mid-
November until the first of the year. The Grinchmas promotion, though, was
more successful than anyone anticipated. “Attendance during our
Christmas peak season — from December 26 to January 1 — was outstanding,
24,000 to 37,000 every day,” smiled a park manager. “I’m sure
that all the publicity about Disneyland closing the gates early also
helped us get people, but the guests ran into the same problem here —
overcrowding, long waits at attractions, parking full, and so on.”

Grinchmas being dismantled 1/14/01

USH management, hoping to keep attendance strong and noticing that
Disneyland would keep most of its Christmas decorations in place until
January 8, asked the company for permission to extend the Grinch’s run an
extra week. Vivendi Universal said no.

The Grinch area closed, as scheduled, on January 1. Sure enough,
attendance at the park paralleled attendance at theaters showing
Universal’s Grinch movie–both took a dive after the holidays.

Projections for most weekdays are now
a paltry 5,000 visitors. Dampened by the week’s heavy rains,
attendance at USH sunk on Thursday January 11 to an abysmal 3,200. To make
matters worse, the park almost was forced to shut down completely that
afternoon. Southern California Edison came close to pulling the plug on
the park’s electricity as the region neared a Stage Three energy alert.
Thankfully, it only reached a Stage Two critical level, allowing USH to
shut down just the tram tour’s Parting of the Red Sea and Collapsing
Bridge effects.

In the photos above you can see
where Universal has installed generator powered temporary lighting
throughout the park – just in case they get their power cut off – taken
1/14/01

Even what appears to be a tram tour
area escalator revamp is now pitched as “Universal is doing their
part to conserve energy” – taken 1/14/01

Plans are to revive the Grinch maze, kiddie snowrun, prop display and
small show in November 2001. In the meantime, the Blues Brothers, who had
been relocated to a temporary stage in the Studio Center, are back to
their old stomping grounds for the winter and spring.

Then, in the late spring, to coincide with the release of The Mummy
II, the area will feature a Mummy-themed maze and possibly a prop
display until the end of the summer.

The Tram Tour’s current Mummy
attraction – in the old avalanche tunnel

Also coming in spring (covered here on MousePlanet in the past, and now
officially announced in the guide / schedule given out to visitors at the
gate) is a Nickelodeon “Blast Zone” play area for kids,
including “The Wild Thornberry’s Adventure Temple,”
“Nickelodeon Splash,” and the “Nick Jr. Backyard,” all
complimenting the current Rugrats “Magic Adventure” show. In
addition the Animal Actors show is being re-themed and remodeled into
“Animal Planet Live!.”

The Animal Actors show moved next
door into the unused Castle Theater while the Animal Planet re-theming
takes place – taken 1/14/01

Less likely is the rumor that the
Mummy get its own attraction. Reportedly, the Mummy is one of
several themes being considered for a revamp of the Back to the Future
simulator ride. Other possible new themes include Spiderman, X-Men or
The Matrix. With attendance at USH expected to take a hit when
Disney’s California Adventure opens, Vivendi Universal is loath to invest
any money in its theme park business; the company’s still trying to sell
it. Converting the Back to the Future ride would provide a relatively
inexpensive E-ticket attraction, since the main outlays would be
redressing the ride vehicles and creating a new film.

Back to the Future gone?

What Vivendi Universal definitely
doesn’t want to see this fall is Halloween Horror Nights (HHN).
Despite next to no promotion for the event, the 2000 edition of HHN fared
better than it did in the three years previous. Still, says one manager,
“the overhead dollars were just too high. The Entertainment
Department is way overstaffed with managers in the office — at the
expense of a decreasing staff in the park.”

Universal Studios Florida will continue their wildly successful
Halloween Horror Nights, and he suspects the event will return to the
Hollywood park one day. “We are storing the HHN stuff at our Glendale
warehouse in anticipation that the event will possibly return in future
years,” he explains. “The fact that we were not ordered to send
the inventory to USF seems to mean that it might return in 2002 or
2003.”

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