Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

[Mad Dog]

The staffing issues are not caused by Universal being cheap. They want the park fully staffed, but never hit their hiring goals to start with.

Ever since COVID, the talent pool in Orlando hasn't been very deep, and a lot that are here can't pass the background check. Usually they would just back fill the needed positions with J1s (short for J One Visa International Work/Study Program), but like International travel, the usual participants are deciding not to come to the US.

And it is being compounded by the usual attrition that happens when you onboard thousands of new hires. Some did it to open the park and are moving on. Some don't like their new job/boss. And some just "aren't working out".

Good summary and explanation from an old time insider. Thanks Dave.....Bottom line is that Epic should operate more smoothly if they ever get it fully staffed.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

The staffing issues are not caused by Universal being cheap. They want the park fully staffed, but never hit their hiring goals to start with.

Ever since COVID, the talent pool in Orlando hasn't been very deep, and a lot that are here can't pass the background check. Usually they would just back fill the needed positions with J1s (short for J One Visa International Work/Study Program), but like International travel, the usual participants are deciding not to come to the US.

And it is being compounded by the usual attrition that happens when you onboard thousands of new hires. Some did it to open the park and are moving on. Some don't like their new job/boss. And some just "aren't working out".

Is there a plan in place to implement a similar College Program experience at UOR? WDW thrives because of it, and UOR is large enough to support it today. I'm sure they've considered it before, but now they have the global presence/fandom to draw folks in.

Not going into the details, but all of Orlando would benefit from a massive housing project somewhere between both resorts (a larger version of Catchlight). Can't expect a Cast Member/Team Member to travel 45-60 minutes on I4 to get to their job and retain them long-term.

 

[Mad Dog]

Is there a plan in place to implement a similar College Program experience at UOR? WDW thrives because of it, and UOR is large enough to support it today. I'm sure they've considered it before, but now they have the global presence/fandom to draw folks in.

Not going into the details, but all of Orlando would benefit from a massive housing project somewhere between both resorts (a larger version of Catchlight). Can't expect a Cast Member/Team Member to travel 45-60 minutes on I4 to get to their job and retain them long-term.

Yes, the College Program works for Disney, but they also have the rep to get candidates. The days of depending on J1's are probably over for a good while, so that probably should not be a centerpiece of any theme park's hiring plans. If I remember correctly, BGW used to get a huge amount of their employees via J1, but probably not now. The key to 'retain' employees for any corporation is to train them well, and treat them well. Hopefully management will treat their employees as valued members of the team, and not as subservient numbers. If they don't, large turnover results.

 

[Magic-Man]

Universal needs employee housing. Full stop. I'd go back if I knew I'd have housing and transportation to and from work available. My current ride op job offers it and it's so damn nice. Central Florida is ridiculously expensive in so many ways and even if they raised wages it wouldn't solve the problem unless it was like 10 dollars.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

The key to 'retain' employees for any corporation is to train them well, and treat them well. Hopefully management will treat their employees as valued members of the team, and not as subservient numbers. If they don't, large turnover results.

This, from my experience at least, is the biggest issue. The leadership in Operations typically do not have the level of corporate experience that those in the back of house departments have. So when you’re bringing your best and brightest leaders to open Epic, you’re not really bringing in folks with recruiting and retention experience, you’re bringing in lifetime Ops folks. The problem specific to Universal is that it’s fairly new to being a big time destination…because of how competitive higher-level positions are, the managers who worked hard to get to Ops leadership are by and large products of a simpler time where “mom and pop shop rules” applied. That’s not a winning formula to convince kids/younger people to work in the heat dealing with annoying customers all day, five days a week, for years at a time.

 

[jwbitterman]

Just did my first trip to epic and had a blast.

Went on Friday 8/8 and Saturday 8/9 to celebrate my 33rd birthday. Crowds ebbed and flowed like any other park and those worth their salt understand the game already and can maximize their time accordingly. Early entry on 8/8 - rope dropped mario kart in 45 minutes, did yoshi in 25, did all the mini games and had lunch by 11 at Toadstool(just fine, did it in CA before, no surprises - it's the same). Got in line for Donkey Kong after with a 75 minute wait listed. The front queue worker saw my HBD pin and outfit(full super mario drip) and took us to the front of the line. I hugged him when i got off because he saved us an hour and really made my day.

Did Stardust next, 35 minute wait(yellow-side). Went to Dark Universe and got on Unchained(best ride in the park) in 10 minutes(both pre-shows were down), and had snacks & drinks at Burning Blade where the staff and characters in there really had fun with us. Rain started, so we walked over to Cirque and caught a showing in the next half hour. Got off, saw Ministry was at 110 and it was still raining so decided to do that. Got through in 90, which wasn't terrible for seeing it hit 180 or 210 at different points in the hours prior. I thought Ministry was okay, but wouldn't wait 90 for it again; Hour or less, but more on that later.

Got out of Ministry with the rain slowing and thought to check out Berk with the rain almost gone - got there just in time to see Hiccups reopen with a 30 minute wait. Got to our lockers and the 3 younger workers there loved my get up and we talked and joked about the day we'd been having, and they -at that point in the queue, where there is no express split anymore- took us to the front of the line and gave us the front seat on the next train. Everyone who said this was Hagrid's for kiddos was right on the money because this one surprised me the most. We grabbed a drink at the Astropub and thought about what to do next. While we were sitting there, someone who worked there with a nametag and title came up to us and asked us a ton of questions about how we were enjoying the park so far and what we have and haven't done. We mentioned missing Werewolf because it was never under 110 from afternoon and even after rain went right back up, and how we were gonna try to hit the Untrainable show the next day and weren't sure if we were gonna do either of the other rides at Berk(we didn't). She asked us to wait there and came back with two free express passes for any ride. At this point, i was gobsmacked because we had skipped an hour queue with DK that morning and maybe another 10-15 minutes on Hiccup's so this was just getting WILD at this point. We had already planned on going back to Nintendo to do another round of mini-games but this let us do Mariokart again to end the night too, even though the wait was only 35 minutes and basically walk on, the one time express before the day was over was icing on cake.

We finished with Flora Taverna at Helios and loved it. 9:30 res, but again, the staff just loved seeing us and the day we were having and asked about my birthday and i ran them through EVERYTHING and they just loved hearing about it all. We had a REALLY great meal. The seafood trio was amazing, saganaki was tasty, and i did the Lamb burger and loved it. My friend did one of the pastas and had perfectly cooked salmon added to it. We had some drinks and ended the day EXHAUSTED but 13 hours WELL SPENT.

Even though that was a lot - we did EVEN MORE the next day! I was dressed in another character based outfit that a lot of people -especially workers- knew and shouted out(Ness from Earthbound). We repeated the same morning to mostly the same effects with early morning entry, Mariokart and minigames. No yoshi, no DK, but went over to Dark Universe and did Werewolf. It took an hour and the queue sucks and the ride isn't worth the wait but it is what it is. Did Unchained again, pre-shows were working this time! Again, done in 15 minutes, that queue is FAST. Did Untrainable(waited 15) and the Toothless Meet n Greet next(about an hour). This is when we decided against the two other rides in Berk, just not interested really, and decided to try Pizza Moon. Did the Lunar Ube crust - loved it. Best park pizza ever.

This is when it started to rain again except almost EVERYONE left the park. I bought my 2.0 wand at this time and walked around in the rain to do the spells while my buddy sat back and watched in dry areas. It was funny but getting loud with thunder so we also went back to the room at Stella across the street. Chilled, tried the food at the hotel and it was OK, nothing bad but nothing great. It took about 2 hours for the rain to stop but once it did, we were back out and the park was EMPTY. From 6-10 we did Hiccup's, got the PBJ mac n cheese cone(thought it was alright but over-priced), Ministry TWICE IN A ROW, Stardust(at night this time, green-side), Unchained TWICE more, DK, Mariokart, and more mini-games(and they let us stay in the Bowser Jr. showdown twice because we were last ones in there that night). It's crazy how much we did in four hours that night, hitting ALL the best stuff in each land MULTIPLE times that took us almost an ENTIRE day previously to do.

Over-all, we did everything we wanted to and MORE at Epic without the need for express. I realize we got super lucky and got some hand-outs that aren't guaranteed for everyone but even without them, we did everything we wanted to multiple times-multiple days. I understand people aren't all built the same and families are probably going with kids and the need to stop or alter their plans to suit their needs, but as two adults with full freedom - we ran this park back and forth and couldn't get enough. Did not disappoint. This is a HUGE shout-out to the staff of both Stella Nova, Helios, and all of EPIC for making this one of the best trips i've ever taken. Every worker we talked to at every park and every restaurant was happy to see us having the times of our lives and not only seemed happy to hear it but helped make our days even more amazing any way they could. All in all, they matched my freak and made my Birthday one of the most memorable trips of my life.

Will be back in October and sure i'll get those last two Berk rides done with the crew i'm going with.
AND YOU KNOW ME and the ENTIRE CREW going to show up kitted FER SHER.
We got Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Baby Bowser costumes h0t-2-g0. lol

I'm very happy that you had such a wonderful experience based on your costume and sort of frustrated that when the diamond in my wife's engagement ring broke off and was lost (on our HONEYMOON), we were given shrugs and a form from Universal staff.

There was ONE person who was helping us search who cared - and we give her a hug whenever we see her.

We pinned down the timeframe we lost the diamond (about a 2 hour window). Hard Rock security are the only ones who took it seriously.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

This, from my experience at least, is the biggest issue. The leadership in Operations typically do not have the level of corporate experience that those in the back of house departments have. So when you’re bringing your best and brightest leaders to open Epic, you’re not really bringing in folks with recruiting and retention experience, you’re bringing in lifetime Ops folks. The problem specific to Universal is that it’s fairly new to being a big time destination…because of how competitive higher-level positions are, the managers who worked hard to get to Ops leadership are by and large products of a simpler time where “mom and pop shop rules” applied. That’s not a winning formula to convince kids/younger people to work in the heat dealing with annoying customers all day, five days a week, for years at a time.

100% - this is my continued frustration with the resort, it's been 15 years since Potter opened and they still operate the same way, even with attendance increasing nearly 3x as much.

 

[Mad Dog]

100% - this is my continued frustration with the resort, it's been 15 years since Potter opened and they still operate the same way, even with attendance increasing nearly 3x as much.

Well, if it's true that's a principle/major reason for high turnover, I have no sympathy for Universal's staffing problems. They've had a long time
to correct this. Train your employees well and treat them as valued members should be a Priority. People aren't mindless unfeeling minions. If your managers can't, or won't grasp this, then they shouldn't be managers.