Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

[DarkMetroid567]

I think the problem is that most UOR guests buy a 2 park pass. This basically affords them 2 theme parks to explore . Epic is on an island . It’s not close enough to the other parks to easily go back and forth like Disney.

I think it’s a little understated how much the bubble separation sucks. The buses stop close enough to Epic, but even with the new road expansion, the stoplights and long walk time from the north campus drop-off make a journey from Epic/Stella/Terra/Helios feel like an odyssey. Staying at Terra Luna felt so separated.

I understand that they can’t just plop a bus stop right next to the entrance of the legacy parks, so I guess my hope is for south campus to really flesh itself out.

 

[GAcoaster]

It’s been interesting reading reviews on FB the past few days— almost every post has been “I was worried about going because of the negative reviews, but I went and had a great time and got to do everything”.

I think things are “stable” at this point with operations and that’s why the numbers are on the rise.

Now we just have to wait to see when annual passes happen…

 

[johnathanm]

It’s been interesting reading reviews on FB the past few days— almost every post has been “I was worried about going because of the negative reviews, but I went and had a great time and got to do everything”.

I think things are “stable” at this point with operations and that’s why the numbers are on the rise.

Now we just have to wait to see when annual passes happen…

This is interesting to me.. I’ve seen some negative comments here and there, but I feel like most of the feedback has been quite positive, no?

 

[UNIrd]

If everything had gone to plan Potter would have had an extra attraction to soak up guests.

However money doesn’t grow on trees and this park was already going over budget with what was already planned.

Throw in Covid and now tariffs that’s a recipe for disaster for an ambitious theme park. They managed to accomplish so much with Epic.

I’m sure Creative is actively developing plans for expansions and other ideas to help with issues like shade. It’s not an easy task to satisfy all guest demands.

Woody's Lunchbox just got shade after.. :checks notes: .. 7 years. It will be addressed in due time.

 

[DrStarlander]

That Woody's Lunchbox shade structure that took forever to build is such a custom, specific thing.

Meanwhile, guests suffered. All they wanted was shade. And there are many off-the-shelf options for shade (see below) that Disney could have had installed in a matter of weeks or months, probably much cheaper. It wouldn't have been hard to "theme" these with designs and graphics, etc. to convincingly fit the toy theme (there's a lot of creative flexibility in that theme).

I have high expectations of Disney and want very cool, themed stuff in the parks. But when guest comfort is at stake, they need to have some urgency and get on it.

But what does this have to do with Universal? I am new to Universal Parks fanship but I get the vibe that Universal is just more of a "get things done" culture and that they also care more about guest comfort. I'm sure they have projects or problems fans have been waiting too long to have fixed, but if I had to bet on Universal or Disney putting up shade somewhere it's needed first, right now I'm going to bet on Universal.

 

[Skold]

Here’s a funny: saw more than a few people at Epic wearing a Mickey head band but with mushrooms.

Is this the shot across the bow?

 

[UNIrd]

Here’s a funny: saw more than a few people at Epic wearing a Mickey head band but with mushrooms.

Is this the shot across the bow?

View attachment 26704

My friend wore this bomb one to Epic. They actually started in USJ when their Super Nintendo World launched and just made their way to Epic.

 

[Evan]

Three weather delays yesterday and it was raining all morning today.

Odd that so much of this park shuts down for storms (i.e. is outdoors). Bad design?

I’ve been mentioning this for a long time. The summer weather is going to destroy this park many times a day, and a week. It was already bad at IOA, this is going to be way worse. There are few rides in the park that can remain open during severe weather.

 

[johnathanm]

I’ve been mentioning this for a long time. The summer weather is going to destroy this park many times a day, and a week. It was already bad at IOA, this is going to be way worse. There are few rides in the park that can remain open during severe weather.

I don’t disagree that Epic could use some more indoor attractions to better counteract weather issues, though having Ministry, Monsters, MK, and two large scale shows indoors should help things vs. IoA which effectively has Spidey, FJ, Kong, and Cat in the Hat. Plus, Epic feels like it has notably more dining areas to sit and chill. Still, would like to see another indoor attraction.

 

[Skipper Justin]

Was there yesterday and after the rain the park was amazing. Low waits all day other than waiting two hours for HP. The only thing we didn’t do was Donkey Kong because we were too tired.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Anyone know why Epic is open until 10 only on the last 3 Mondays in June?

 

[HandsomePete]

Anyone know why Epic is open until 10 only on the last 3 Mondays in June?

Probably because they’re assuming weekend arrivals on those multi-day tickets are going to use their Epic day first thing in the week.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

 

[ladiesman217]

I'm at the park today for my first visit and got here pretty early despite not having EPA. From what I'm gathering, team members had been telling hotel guests that the park would have EPA at 8AM, rather than 9AM. And 8m guessing that a ton of these people had not seen the new hours for today and onward. Needless to say, everyone here is pretty disgruntled. Pretty funny how even TM's weren't aware of these new hours though.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I really wish they can move Epic to 10AM to 10PM daily. No reason for that park to close at 9. If they are having trouble keeping guests late... motivate them to stay later with nighttime entertainment.

 

[Sithina]

I really wish they can move Epic to 10AM to 10PM daily. No reason for that park to close at 9. If they are having trouble keeping guests late... motivate them to stay later with nighttime entertainment.

Maybe the early closing time is in place right now to give the Park Operations/Ride team more time to fix things overnight? They're going to do the bulk of their work during third shift, so they can try and get things testing around dawn when the daytime maintenance team comes in. There's a lot of information that also has to be passed on to the next shift when these things happen, especially if that information also has to be passed all the way down to TMs working in the area that may be affected if a ride is still being ornery.

Resort execs, especially, are quite adverse to being up late into the night unless it's the crunch before grand opening, so if the Operations team needs Exec approval for things, they might need that extra hour to even get one on the phone. Can you imagine trying to get someone from Epic who is also involved with WB/HP on the phone with any quickness to make necessary changes that might "upset the brand" over at the Ministry? Nightmare fuel--from related experience.

When we had to call up the owner or his team directly for anything related to Operations at our resort (especially second or third shift), it had better be the resort burning down to expect him to get off it and come make decisions (his property was only 15 mins away, so he was there all the time anyway--just not late). Which was frustrating to the extreme when even the people he specifically had to make those decisions for him (so he didn't have to micromanage tedious things) were also waiting around for his approval to make any big changes. No one wanted to make the wrong call and face his wrath if he didn't agree, even if it was the right decision for the resort.

Never work for billionaire control freaks--even when they say they don't want to micromanage everything, they absolutely do expect to micromanage everything. Just... whenever they can work it into their relaxation time, no matter what anyone else needs to get done.