Post #776459 by EnchantedTikiGoth on Tue, May 30, 2017 4:33 PM

On 2017-05-30 06:38, happy buddha wrote:
I think this place looks great. Actually kind of surprised to see such a 'meh' reaction on this board. I don't see anything 'Party City' or 'Margaritaville' at all, more like a stylized, cartoony take a la the Disney parks/trader Sams etc. Looks well designed & faithfully executed.

Different strokes for different folks... First of all, I'm not a Universal Studios guy. Perhaps I would be more of one if they actually built an area based on the classic monsters, but as theme parks go, I still see Universal as a weird mix of thematic half-measures overcompensated for by visual and auditory loudness, brashness, and busyness. It feels more like a mix between Vegas and a carnival... Walking through Citywalk almost makes me anxious that Disney Springs or even Downtown Disney didn't, and then you get to the parks and its all soundstages and billboards and speakers fighting for your attention. I look at those photos of Volcano Bay and all I'm seeing is a claustrophobic mess of neon. The volcano looks cool, but the rest of it, like Citywalk, almost makes me anxious just looking at it. In comparison, Typhoon Lagoon or the grounds of the Polynesian Village Resort feel calmer and more enjoyable, for me. And even though Typhoon Lagoon and Trader Sam's and so on have their own contrived stories, they are far more naturalistic. Disney actually ISN'T cartoony in the way Volcano Bay appears to be.