Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

OMG I love this idea.

Could also be spooky during Halloween. The park is built for events like this and after hour parties/shows.

 

[boomerthom]

Yeah today has been good

So far:
2x Hiccups (rope dropped and ran it back with basically no wait)
1x DK (35 min wait after coming up from a delay)
1x Werewolf (posted 10, walk on)
2x Monsters (walk on and they let us go again. This ride is dead as hell)
1x Stardust (posted 20, was less)

Eating lunch now, and Ministry is down to 60 after starting at 180, so I’ll prolly try to hop on that next. MK had a couple delays so far, so that’ll be a wildcard.

 

[Skold]

@Brian G. was in a NY Post article about Epic!

 

[Mad Dog]

@Brian G. was in a NY Post article about Epic!

'7 times the size of it's sister parks'....I think the Post writer is confused....Without expansion areas Epic is about the size of IOA presently. ....750 acres plot of land doesn't mean a 750 acre 'park'. Reading this article, a reader would expect a really massive park with 50 attractions ( pretty minor stuff counted to get up to that quoted number). Good to see Brian interviewed and pictured,, but that is a very misleading article by a writer that doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable about his subject.

 

[jbman]

We have a week long trip planned coming up May 31 - June 7, bought the multi-day package, we planned on going to Epic on the Thursday June 5 and bought Express Passes for that day when we were worried about crazy lines, was $239 pp x 4 people.

I called in today and spoke with a team member just to see if it is possible to get a refund if we wanted, team member said they would do it for us and if we call in again, there is no guarantee, but implied it was likely any team member would be able to give the refund. But he did say if we changed our minds again and did want to buy the Express Passes, they are currently available for the same day, but the price is now $299 pp.

Tough for me to justify the price when we're seeing wait times this low, but my wife is very hesitant to give up the Express Passes at this point.

Wondering what the experts here would do, get a refund now and lock in the savings, hold off for now and see how things progress over the next week, wait until the day of and if we find we don't need them - and don't use them - try and get a refund that day?

 

[Brian G.]

'7 times the size of it's sister parks'....I think the Post writer is confused....Without expansion areas Epic is about the size of IOA presently. ....750 acres plot of land doesn't mean a 750 acre 'park'. Reading this article, a reader would expect a really massive park with 50 attractions ( pretty minor stuff counted to get up to that quoted number). Good to see Brian interviewed and pictured,, but that is a very misleading article by a writer that doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable about his subject.

Must've mixed my quote up or something.

My statement to him was this:

Epic Universe is Universal's biggest swing since Islands of Adventure opened, and a much bolder statement. Back in 1999, Universal was often viewed as the "little guy". Now, Universal Orlando is recognized as a major vacation destination, aiming for guests to prioritize their plans with Universal in mind, rather than treating it as an additional option.

But it's a "rising tide lifts all boats" situation with Epic. What's good for Universal is always good for Disney and Central Florida, and Disney is gearing up with some significant additions in the coming years. It's exciting to be a theme park fan right now.

 

[Mad Dog]

Must've mixed my quote up or something.

My statement to him was this:

Epic Universe is Universal's biggest swing since Islands of Adventure opened, and a much bolder statement. Back in 1999, Universal was often viewed as the "little guy". Now, Universal Orlando is recognized as a major vacation destination, aiming for guests to prioritize their plans with Universal in mind, rather than treating it as an additional option.

But it's a "rising tide lifts all boats" situation with Epic. What's good for Universal is always good for Disney and Central Florida, and Disney is gearing up with some significant additions in the coming years. It's exciting to be a theme park fan right now.

Oh yes, I assumed he messed up your statement since I know you wouldn't say that. His reporting was sloppy.....I used to run into that often when I did hundreds of media interviews back in the 80's and 90's when I was a Union President. Most reporters don't really know much about the subject they're reporting on, and they screw up quotes and other info. It got to the point that I always handed them a typed script from me and told them to use quotes from that if they wanted to quote.

 

[HHN Maddux]

Yeah today has been good

So far:
2x Hiccups (rope dropped and ran it back with basically no wait)
1x DK (35 min wait after coming up from a delay)
1x Werewolf (posted 10, walk on)
2x Monsters (walk on and they let us go again. This ride is dead as hell)
1x Stardust (posted 20, was less)

Eating lunch now, and Ministry is down to 60 after starting at 180, so I’ll prolly try to hop on that next. MK had a couple delays so far, so that’ll be a wildcard.

Seems most families are determining Darkmoor as either a skip because too scary/not interested, or saving it as a "eh, maybe we'll do it later". Has me a bit concerned already.

 

[Skipper Justin]

I don’t know if it’s saying anything but we were able to get FL Resident/AP hotel rates for this weekend. We booked yesterday.

 

[Mad Dog]

Rain or lightening just swooped in and more than half the rides are closed at this moment per the TP app.

 

[boomerthom]

Seems most families are determining Darkmoor as either a skip because too scary/not interested, or saving it as a "eh, maybe we'll do it later". Has me a bit concerned already.

Yeah Monsters was totally empty after the preshows both times I rode (twice around 10am and another two times around 6pm), and nearly a walk on to the preshow - a far cry from those early previews. It seems to have been pretty dead in general since Ministry went standby, though I wonder if getting more APs/locals in the park would help boost it up. While today was very light in terms of crowds, there was a clear divide between the waits for Nintendo/Potter (Yoshi aside) and the waits for Berk, DU and Celestial Park. Monsters, Werewolf, Hiccup's and Stardust were essentially "free" to get on throughout the day, while DK, MK and Ministry held respectable-to-long waits.

 

[Mad Dog]

Yeah Monsters was totally empty after the preshows both times I rode (twice around 10am and another two times around 6pm), and nearly a walk on to the preshow - a far cry from those early previews. It seems to have been pretty dead in general since Ministry went standby, though I wonder if getting more APs/locals in the park would help boost it up. While today was very light in terms of crowds, there was a clear divide between the waits for Nintendo/Potter (Yoshi aside) and the waits for Berk, DU and Celestial Park. Monsters, Werewolf, Hiccup's and Stardust were essentially "free" to get on throughout the day, while DK, MK and Ministry held respectable-to-long waits.

I think this was expected. Potter & Nintendo were always going to attract the throngs. But there's not all that many attractions in the park, so Monsters &
Dragons will get their piece of the pie once the max lid increases and ride lines get longer.

 

[Mike S]

I think this was expected. Potter & Nintendo were always going to attract the throngs. But there's not all that many attractions in the park, so Monsters &
Dragons will get their piece of the pie once the max lid increases and ride lines get longer.

It’ll really help that Monsters is high capacity as well.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I'm going to be monitoring how much guest attendance increases over the next few weeks. My worry is that this severe attendance cap will require them to close a few of the quick service restaurants earlier in the day like at IOA.

It's a lot of dining capacity that will go underutilized with no AP early evening arrivals. I just really want an AP to hit up Atlantic after work... Old Fashioned is the best anywhere in Orlando.

 

[Mad Dog]

Epic looks busy this morning. Lines are longest I've seen yet. I wonder if they increased the available number of tickets?

 

[SkiBum]

Epic looks busy this morning. Lines are longest I've seen yet. I wonder if they increased the available number of tickets?

I was just getting ready to ask this question. Has Epic been as busy as expected or less than expected? The ride times quoted seemed like the park was not very busy. I'm too far removed to have a good feel for this.

 

[boomerthom]

I was just getting ready to ask this question. Has Epic been as busy as expected or less than expected? The ride times quoted seemed like the park was not very busy. I'm too far removed to have a good feel for this.

Park’s been pretty quiet since grand opening with Sunday being the busiest day seemingly. Basically any of the higher profile rides not named Mario Kart, DK or Ministry had next to no wait for most of the day. But the wait times today look magnitudes higher across the board.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I wonder if they will release better ticket package options if they are not selling out the park as they had hoped. Or, is this very low attendance being done on purpose to ease the park/rides into full swing mode?

 

[Frank Drackman]

Park’s been pretty quiet since grand opening with Sunday being the busiest day seemingly. Basically any of the higher profile rides not named Mario Kart, DK or Ministry had next to no wait for most of the day. But the wait times today look magnitudes higher across the board.

I think the biggest wild card is in that folks bought multi-day tickets that included 1 day at Epic. UoR sells tickets that allow folks to use their days non-consecutively -- so say 7 days to use up ones 3 day IOA/USF w/ 1 day at Epic -- makes me wonder how many folks were scared of opening day/holiday weekend day, that they thought it best to save Epic for the end of their week, or thought they would save the best for last -- then the folks on the other side, they planned to come after the holiday weekend and they decided to start w/ Epic -- I just have no clue how the 'caps' they use factors in the odds of 'which day of the 7 they could pick will the guest choice to visit Epic?

UoR did seem happy w/ their sales pre-opening -- I was hearing things like 'June is sold out' pre-opening as well as opening weekend so it could be just consumer behavior causing the changes in attendance (I assume 'attendance' is being based on wait times folks are seeing).

I have to guess most pass holders are not continually buying one day add ons or anything so I feel it must be tourist visiting Epic currently more so than locals.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Seems most families are determining Darkmoor as either a skip because too scary/not interested, or saving it as a "eh, maybe we'll do it later". Has me a bit concerned already.

obviously a new theme park is exciting, the technology is amazing, and it's very big,

but talking to some people from family or friends about their next vacation visits, and the properties in the park weren't really exciting people the way I thought they would.

for potter some people I talked to said " well it's gonna be similar to the other two parks, it's gonna be typical potter stuff"
and dragons, people I talked to said it looked interesting but that the dragons were ugly lol.
Mario had some people excited about them property. but I heard comments saying " that area seems for babies" or that the rides were for kids

and monsters, no one knew wanted to visit it. they said maybe in October if they come. or that summer isn't the best time to visit monsters lol