Agent H
Well-Known Member
Honestly based on video I think both of the Mario rides are being a little under hyped.I think everyone is sleeping on the Yoshi Peoplemover. It's a cute ride
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Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Opens May 22 2025
- Thread starter Bob Harlem
- Start date
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
I enjoy people mover type rides. Good relaxing moments...definitely have their place.I think everyone is sleeping on the Yoshi Peoplemover. It's a cute ride
Purduevian
Well-Known Member
None of the other Floridian Universial parks have their 0 height headliner
MK has HM and Pirates
EPCOT has SSE, Frozen, and Remy
DHS has MMRR (not quite a "headliner" but still a very solid ride)
AK has the safari
The only 0 height rides in all of USO
Constellation Carousel, Fyre Drill, Illumination's Villain-Con Minion Blast, Kang & Kudos' Twirl 'n' Hurl, The Hogwarts Express (both ways), Caro-Seuss-El, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Storm Force Accelatron, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem(stationary seats)
Hogwarts express is probably the best ride in all 3 parks for anyone under 34inches
MK has HM and Pirates
EPCOT has SSE, Frozen, and Remy
DHS has MMRR (not quite a "headliner" but still a very solid ride)
AK has the safari
The only 0 height rides in all of USO
Constellation Carousel, Fyre Drill, Illumination's Villain-Con Minion Blast, Kang & Kudos' Twirl 'n' Hurl, The Hogwarts Express (both ways), Caro-Seuss-El, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Storm Force Accelatron, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem(stationary seats)
Hogwarts express is probably the best ride in all 3 parks for anyone under 34inches
DarkMetroid567
Well-Known Member
That’s true, I slept on Yoshi. The TMs had to wake me up!!I think everyone is sleeping on the Yoshi Peoplemover. It's a cute ride
Wasn't it the case that Uni's plan is for one new ride per year? Your chart has them making 2-3 per year.
Looking a Comcast's financials... this plan looks... like a lack of funds to make it possible.
flynnibus
Premium Member
I think rides like Fyre Drill are a great example of family fun w/o relying on the same old dark ride trope.
I think instead of 'dark rides' people should focus on "family accessible" rides, or low intensity experiences. Things like individual interaction experiences... shows... self-guided things (think HP wands, treasure hunt stuff, etc)... rides like Fyre Drill... Soarin'... also fit these kinds of target audience.
The key value is experiences that people of a variety of ages can get entertainment from - it's not just a 'kid ride', it is widely accessible (not a difficult height requirement, not alienating by tough physical strain).
Soarin' is the poster child of this... A kid and a grandmother can both ride and both come off the ride cheering. It's not a dark ride... but does exactly what people begging for dark rides REALLY are looking for. Attractions with wide accessibility and still provide a theme park experience -- call them 'broad access' attractions
UNI has always had a reputation of being difficult for the young and old... because they lacked many attractions that fit this 'broad access'. I think people generalize this and try to pitch "they need more dark rides!" to fix this.
Trying to just be Disney and create more dark rides is kind of copy-cat kind of thinking. That's why I think Fyre Drill is appealing. Not that the concept itself is something brand new, but the application in the environment looks fun and novel. The Carousel is another that fits the requirements but is kinda less novel. It would be interesting if they could do something more in a spook-house kind of thing for Dark Universe.. There is a lot of room in the HP universe for these kinds of things that can appeal to both young and old.
ETA: Someone mentioned Hogwarts Express - That's another great example of the kind of attraction that fits this 'broad appeal' kind of attraction. And the kind of unique stuff the theme park can offer... that aren't just trying to copy what someone has already done.. but with different story/characters.
I think instead of 'dark rides' people should focus on "family accessible" rides, or low intensity experiences. Things like individual interaction experiences... shows... self-guided things (think HP wands, treasure hunt stuff, etc)... rides like Fyre Drill... Soarin'... also fit these kinds of target audience.
The key value is experiences that people of a variety of ages can get entertainment from - it's not just a 'kid ride', it is widely accessible (not a difficult height requirement, not alienating by tough physical strain).
Soarin' is the poster child of this... A kid and a grandmother can both ride and both come off the ride cheering. It's not a dark ride... but does exactly what people begging for dark rides REALLY are looking for. Attractions with wide accessibility and still provide a theme park experience -- call them 'broad access' attractions
UNI has always had a reputation of being difficult for the young and old... because they lacked many attractions that fit this 'broad access'. I think people generalize this and try to pitch "they need more dark rides!" to fix this.
Trying to just be Disney and create more dark rides is kind of copy-cat kind of thinking. That's why I think Fyre Drill is appealing. Not that the concept itself is something brand new, but the application in the environment looks fun and novel. The Carousel is another that fits the requirements but is kinda less novel. It would be interesting if they could do something more in a spook-house kind of thing for Dark Universe.. There is a lot of room in the HP universe for these kinds of things that can appeal to both young and old.
ETA: Someone mentioned Hogwarts Express - That's another great example of the kind of attraction that fits this 'broad appeal' kind of attraction. And the kind of unique stuff the theme park can offer... that aren't just trying to copy what someone has already done.. but with different story/characters.
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
Yeah. It isn't a toddler park...but we knew that already. They have always aimed for the older kids.
luv house of the mouse
Active Member
Actually this may understate it a little.
You don't even need to say headliner. Uni just needs more Zero height requirement for things that everyone can ride.
Not always. While darker in tone. Jaws, ET, Earthquake, Kong and others were all very acessible at Universal Studios.
Fyre Drill gets people absolutely soaked was the issue that was brought up. So one of the only rides without height restrictions gets one soaked, which turns off a lot of each quadrant to the ride. You are not going to likely have someone take their lap sitting child or infant on a soaking wet ride. Not that it in itself is a bad ride. That is why the people say dark rides because their mind is on the all height slow moving rides.
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flynnibus
Premium Member
No, I stand by my comment. It's a reputation the park has always had because of the balance of the park. I never said it didn't have ANY accessible attractions... but that the park has largely always been difficult especially for those with small children (especially when compared to the park down the road). Even in the early form, UNI was a lot more intense than it's MGM peer.
Everyone accepts that for the last 30+ years the Uni product appealed more to the young and abled... and less to the grandparents and toddlers. The attraction lineup post IOA has probably skewed that even more... and the intensity level of many things continues to ramp up.
I think UNI has taken a concious effort to make themselves more kid friendly.. but I think they still have yet to find a reasonable balance. But I don't think copycat thinking is the answer... I want more attractions that don't just count on flipping you upside down to try to entertain you.
Interesting. With Universal, Kong and ET were the only height requirements to experience the attractions in the opening year and super low at 34 inches.
So many shows, dark rides and hybrids that everyone could do. BTTF was the strictest added when it opened in 1991.(40 inches)
MGM Was Height requirement 40 inch simulator, Backlot Tour, and Great Movie Ride in its opening era. Years later, after some shows, Tower of Terror and Rocknrollercoater came about, and both in tone, thrill and height those are not very accessible. Uni still had it then.
Earthquake, Jaws(first edition and later in 94) Alfred Hitchcock, Hannah Barberra(simulator or stationary seating) ET Adventure. (that also used to have spaceship seating for an even lower than 34 inch height requirement)
What able and young requirement did Universal in its first years to you that were more intense than MGM's opening era?
The accessibility issue came more in the early 2000s for the studios park. Post MIB and then ROTM.
To MK EPCOT and AK, obviously no competition, but it seemed like we were comparing Uni to themselves here and now MGM.
Uni definitely needs to return to immersive large scale attractions for all. They were closer to this in the 90s than they are now.
Yoshi and Fyre Drill are nice, but EPIC definitely could use some more.
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flynnibus
Premium Member
The content, more so than the physical boundaries were the issue in the more film focused version of the park.
Yet of those things.. the most intense moment of any of that was the disaster scene and the alien sequence in GMR.
Outside of Nick studios... most of the content was targeted much older. There has always been "a few things" to do for the edge cases.. but they tended to skew to be more "kid only" and less "broad appeal". And that's what was being highlighted, the balance and broad appeal. It's difficult to do.. and really I'm more of the camp that it's OK to not be everything to everyone. But you gotta own your choices too. I would have loved to see the Ministry ride being less intense and more fun paced.. but that's just opinion.
It was just to compare that just because it was the film studio product, and focused on major film properties, that alone didn't pigeonhole it. And as mentioned, the MK managed a reputation that was far more 'for all ages'. A lot of that comes from the generational visiting pattern... but the park is also what enables it.
It's not nearly as fun to sit on a park bench and wait for your kid to come off Hulk vs competing with them on Buzz Lightyear/TSMM/etc.
Seeing the ride vehicle from the outside helped me grok it:
Monsters: almost identical to FJ, except it attaches on the bottom instead of the back and there are no "blinders" built into the vehicle to direct your attention forward, this one let's you look around far more
Ministry: a bigger evolutionary leap from the SCOOP system used for Spiderman and Transformers with far more dynamic vertical movement as well as pitch and yaw
For sure! That goes into more of my point though. You are taking exactly what I said to example. That is Universal of IOA and post that has gotten into this issue, and MGM post 2008 that has worked on remedying its issue from early on. That proves the point. MGM continued to get better at this and post 2000s Uni got worse. IOA and Studios have become more intensity and less balance
Ghostbusters, Hannah Barberra, Nickelodeon, and Back to the Future, ET, Fivel and Beetlejuice definitely had a win over kids and broad appeal with the rest of the park being physically accessible even when based on older disaster films over MGM's Wizard of Oz, Alien and backlot tours. Then the shows in Uni's opening era with had the broad appeal for sure. Animal Actors, Wild Wild Wild West Stunt Show, Dynamite Nights spectacular.
IOA always had fewer and now its even worse because it lost those. Triceritops Encounter went away, and Poseidon's Fury closed a few years after already losing Sindbad. For calm large venues, you are really left with Suess and often that has become a lessser version and the gearing is smaller in scale and younger targeted.
The thing they need to do is return a bit to the opening era, when they were better at broader appeal with their own take on shows and indoor attractions than they do now.
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Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
That is a big gripe my wife has about EPIC, for her, there are about 2 rides; the slow moving people mover one in Nintendo, the boat ride in Train Dragon plus the show in Ministry of magic, probably the carousel in Celestial park.
It definitely needs a(or two) large scale accessible for all indoor attraction.
Purduevian
Well-Known Member
The rumored Lugi's mansion shooter expansion could be a modern shooter ride like Buzz. As good as the MIB shooter is, hopefully they make it more family friendly and less spinny.
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
Universal said they intend on building at least one new experience at each resort years ago when Comcast realized the potential of the parks business, but I don't think that goal is set in stone anymore. (I think it's just the fandom repeating old information). There was nothing of substance added to the resort in 2022 and nothing of significant investment (officially) for next year at UOR.
I will be monitoring Comcast's financials this year, but the park division itself is doing just fine at an operating income of 34% last year. And they just confirmed the intention of building a UK park... so Comcast will continue to feed the parks division. Like I mentioned earlier, UOR went through an explosive period of investment with multiple projects being worked on simultaneously in the 2010s. I expect a similar situation starting in August, with Rockit being the first project.
USH saw a 15% attendance increase (if you believe in the TEA attendance reports) after SNW opened there.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
DreamWorks Land was rushed through as part of this cadence.