From Susan Pfeil on August 10, 2007 at 5:55 PM
Hmmm...going back and reviewing the amount of attractions and rides at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT versus Universal and IOA, I feel the time has come where Universal is asking too much for the experience. I am surprised they followed suit so quickly, particularly when their attendance has dropped so low that now SeaWorld has surpassed them. Disney's parks offer alot more and I feel Magic Kingdom and EPCOT are worth it. However, I am not so certain I would fork out $71 for Animal Kingdom or Disney Hollywood Studios.

From Chris P. on August 10, 2007 at 6:20 PM
^My thoughts exactly.

It's almost like the price increases are an elaborate scheme by Disney to bring Universal down. Disney knows if they raise their admission price, so will Universal. So eventually the price for Universal will be so much that people will stop going there while Disney can still charge a large amount because they have a good number of attractions to justify the price.

From Robert Niles on August 10, 2007 at 7:04 PM
It's all about the discounts. No one with a lick of money sense will pay $71 to go to one of these theme park for one day. The real price is the per-day price that people ultimately end up paying. (I paid about $40 a day for the Disney World tickets I bought last month.) If Universal ups its discounts to cover the increase in the rack rate, then this is all PR for the analysts.

From Erik Yates on August 10, 2007 at 7:49 PM
You can get a seven day ticket for 86 dollars at Universal right now. How much is 7 days going to cost you at disney?
The overall goal is to get people to buy the multiday ticket and stay onsite, or keep coming back to the parks and spending more money on the things like parking, snacks and souveneirs.

From Derek Potter on August 10, 2007 at 8:03 PM
The numerous discounts you can get for Universal leads me to think that they shouldn't have raised their prices. Quite honestly, the bargain, or at least the illusion of one, drives American consumerism. It's not necessarily good to raise your price, even and especially if your competition does. Nobody is really going to shell out the full gate price, so why raise the price in the first place? The multiday ticket is only a few bucks more, so why have the PR of a cost raise. If Busch Gardens is smart, they will announce that their prices will stay the same.

From Jaivion Williams on August 10, 2007 at 8:17 PM
u know they would do it

From Eric Malone on August 11, 2007 at 4:02 AM
Not such a big deal. They raise prices so they can make money. It's best to just hope they're plunking some profits into doing something to keep us coming back.

At least we know Universal's doing something.

From Mark Hollamon on August 11, 2007 at 6:52 AM
Universal needs to focus on advancing their resort to the next level. So far the Mummy ride is the only decent new attraction they have added in a while. The Harry Potter addition is a long way off and there's no indication on how big of an impact that will be. I don't mind the prices going up, but the experience should match. Universal is well behind Disney in that area. Even Sea World has continually made efforts over the past few years and now with the addition of their water park they may pull ahead of Universal.

From Anthony Murphy on August 15, 2007 at 6:10 PM
Well I saw that happening!

But I do agree with most of the above statements! However, I do not understand why Universal would raise prices just because of Disney. I would see it as more of a draw if Universal can for certain say that they are cheaper than Disney. Their commercials have been a bit misleading in my opinion. Similar thrills and detail for a lower price? That seems to make more sense to me!