Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure said Friday that attendance for 2009 totaled 9.3 million, a 12 percent drop from 2008’s 10.6 million attendees.

The bright spot in Friday’s report from the theme park giant was that attendance drops for the last quarter of 2009 were not as severe as the first nine months, down to 2.3 million attendees from 2.4 million in the year-ago period, a drop of 4 percent.

Universal is owned by General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and the Blackstone Group. The theme park expects to announce next Thursday the opening date for its new Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/s...5/daily40.html

It's like the tide going out right before a Tsunami. Soon as Harry opens up, they'll be way over averages for the first year or two. How can they not?

I've seen some newer pictures of the parks being quite empty. But, I haven't been there in quite some time so I couldn't verify it one way or another.

Has anyone been to Universal recently that can confirm the drop in attendance?

Well, I was there in October, and it was the best day of our whole little getaway. Even though Rip Ride Rockit was down, we had an awesome time. Lines were significantly shorter, it was a much better park experience, as opposed to F&W at Epcot.

Announcing another opening date is worrying for me though. As I've frequently said, my vacation is planned between May 12th and 19th. The Hard Rock has been sold out now for weeks, which made me question why people were planning on visiting before the ALREADY announced opening date of May 28th. We instead have elected to spend 4 nights at the Hard Rock (Because that was all they had available) and changing hotels halfway through our vacation. I had also read and heard that there would be an annual pass preview day on May 24th, which makes me wonder why they would consider pushing up the opening date. I highly doubt they would be pushing it back, as the Harry Potter packages that they have already sold in anticipation of the May 28th opening date would be null and void.

I do NOT want to see where this is going...I can only imagine they're going to be pushing UP the opening date and I can expect a very crowded vacation at both Universal, Seaworld/Aquatica, and even the World. Pray for me!!!

we were thinking of going to universal for a couple of days (couldn't convince a houseful of harry potter fans to be in orlando and not go)

soon pick up again come june 18

How lucky did I get?! I had NO idea they would push it back! I'd hate to have bought a package between May 28th and June 18th!