Epic Universe Ticketing Info, Advice, & Speculation

[Skipper Justin]

Going for a couple days during the princess half marathon weekend. My friend wanted to see islands as well. It’s so annoying you can’t do park to park yet unless you buy three or more days. I guess it did work because I bought a 2 day ticket.

 

[OLSinFLA]

Folks keep buying day tickets!

But they keep leaving at 5pm. It's so bad many of the dining locations are only open 5 days a week after 5. You'd think at minimum they'd do an after 4 pass like Disney did for EPCOT to keep the dining areas busy

 

[UniversalRBLX]

But they keep leaving at 5pm. It's so bad many of the dining locations are only open 5 days a week after 5. You'd think at minimum they'd do an after 4 pass like Disney did for EPCOT to keep the dining areas busy

100%

I would sucker up as a local and upgrade my pass to include an after 4PM option for Epic. I've had far more pleasurable meals at Epic Universe than at Epcot's festivals recently.

 

[SeventyOne]

Meanwhile we sit here waiting them to include APs in anything related to Epic. Anything!

I get they can't handle the additional guests right now, but *what* is this?

In addition to the exponential jump in attendance any AP (even a post-5 pm) would cause, a 3-park AP would likely double in cost. A lot of guests are going to nope out when they see that top line price, even if a 2-park pass remains at current levels. In other words, I imagine a lot of APs are holding out because they think EU will be added--but aren't anticipating that means UOR can suddenly charge WDW prices.

 

[Mad Dog]

In addition to the exponential jump in attendance any AP (even a post-5 pm) would cause, a 3-park AP would likely double in cost. A lot of guests are going to nope out when they see that top line price, even if a 2-park pass remains at current levels. In other words, I imagine a lot of APs are holding out because they think EU will be added--but aren't anticipating that means UOR can suddenly charge WDW prices.

Yeah, it's a quandary. 'I agree with you that whenever they reach the point of offering an Epic AP add on, that it will be very very high priced.
I'm glad I've always been primarily a North Campus addict and have looked at Epic like it was a WDW one day add on park if I felt the need.
The problem though, is that the park restaurant wise is like a small version of Epcot and would probably be most successful as a primarily AP park like Epcot is. The lack of capacity kind of kills that concept.

 

[Alicia]

In addition to the exponential jump in attendance any AP (even a post-5 pm) would cause, a 3-park AP would likely double in cost. A lot of guests are going to nope out when they see that top line price, even if a 2-park pass remains at current levels. In other words, I imagine a lot of APs are holding out because they think EU will be added--but aren't anticipating that means UOR can suddenly charge WDW prices.

We lived through this with IOA. The jump in base price from single park AP to a suddenly required two park base AP did cause some folks to not renew at the end of their term. I however paid the difference to upgrade to add IOA immediately.

Over time it just becomes normal.

 

[Skold]

I would like the option to see the cost difference at least.

As of now, they are freezing loyal APs out while offering this sh!t. Not cool.

Between this and Boring, this may be my last year.

 

[Mad Dog]

I would like the option to see the cost difference at least.

As of now, they are freezing loyal APs out while offering this sh!t. Not cool.

Between this and Boring, this may be my last year.

If I 'loved' the current state of Epic, it might have affected my renewal decision. But since the park remains an operational mess, even though it's a creative success, Epic doesn't really mean much to my vacations. Epic is kind of a one and/or two and done. I'm content with the North Campus, that I love, especially since they've mostly got their operations back to where they were before covid......But I'm guessing Universal loses a lot of AP's in the interim, which ultimately will affect attendance at USF and IOA once this Epic newness wears off, probably by 2027.

 

[OLSinFLA]

We lived through this with IOA. The jump in base price from single park AP to a suddenly required two park base AP did cause some folks to not renew at the end of their term. I however paid the difference to upgrade to add IOA immediately.

Over time it just becomes normal.

Plus they were nice enough to give existing pass holders 3 months free - I certainly over did the preview period

 

[SeventyOne]

We lived through this with IOA. The jump in base price from single park AP to a suddenly required two park base AP did cause some folks to not renew at the end of their term. I however paid the difference to upgrade to add IOA immediately.

Over time it just becomes normal.

Didn't start going until 2 years later, but even by 2001, UO/IoA was a much better deal than WDW. Especially when you could grandfather your price in with a monthly renewal (I paid $12 a month for my AP until VB opened). I don't see a way a 4-park doesn't make UOR roughly comparable to Disney, which I imagine will inspire a lot more churn between the two.

I would like the option to see the cost difference at least.

As of now, they are freezing loyal APs out while offering this sh!t. Not cool.

Make no mistake, I think there are APs who would pay for an upgrade even if the cost was north of Disney (which it would have to be given current capacity). Let's face it, $1000+ HHN tickets sold out within minutes. But once you do that, you make a huge chunk of your APs feel like second-class citizens in a meaningful way, not just parking on the third floor and a bottled water every month. I have to believe there would be an initial backlash from that. And for a park more dependent on APs, I don't know that UOR wants to risk having to get them back at some point.

 

[Mad Dog]

Didn't start going until 2 years later, but even by 2001, UO/IoA was a much better deal than WDW. Especially when you could grandfather your price in with a monthly renewal (I paid $12 a month for my AP until VB opened). I don't see a way a 4-park doesn't make UOR roughly comparable to Disney, which I imagine will inspire a lot more churn between the two.



Make no mistake, I think there are APs who would pay for an upgrade even if the cost was north of Disney (which it would have to be given current capacity). Let's face it, $1000+ HHN tickets sold out within minutes. But once you do that, you make a huge chunk of your APs feel like second-class citizens in a meaningful way, not just parking on the third floor and a bottled water every month. I have to believe there would be an initial backlash from that. And for a park more dependent on APs, I don't know that UOR wants to risk having to get them back at some point.

Universal is kind of boxed into a corner on AP's at this point in time. There's really no good way out of this for them. The old, 'damn if you do, damn if you don't'........The result of what turned out to be, bad planning decisions. Reap what you sow.....I don't feel sorry for Universal, but I understand their need to block an AP Epic pass.

An Epic AP just doesn't matter to me at this point in time. There's 7 major parks in Orlando. There's 5 that are important for me to attend. I skip Animal Kingdom most vacations to WDW since it's not a very 'repeatable' park. Right now, with the operational and capacity issues, Epic is in the same status for me on vacations. I did two days there. That was enough to satisfy my curiosity. My wife Alene said she has no desire to go back there for a few years. I think she was spot on.....But we're taking our grandkids to Universal in June, so we'll probably do one day at Epic just for them because they want Nintendo and Berk.