Dude.. this is some serious backing yourself into the conclusion you want.
You're literally riding this "full priced ticket" thing into something way more than it is. We're literally less than a month into things.. and you're claiming all time opening success? "still doing busters" .. still? After a few weeks? This kind of stuff is measured in QUARTERS and YEARS.. not fortnights.
You're comparing apples and oranges with the ticket comparisons. Disney significantly discounted multi-day ticketing back then. The entire business model was different.. you can't discredit EPCOT's success because Disney had a different business model than UNI is using now. What it means is your method of comparison is invalid.
You're like the guy taking victory laps after the first quarter of play... act like you've been there man.
The park can't even run anywhere close to it's own full capacity, even after longer public previews than any other park I can think of, and you call it the 'smoothest'? This is some serious spin.
They make compromises to avoid disaster, and you make it sound like they are being overran with success. No, they simply went very conservative to try to avoid meltdowns.. and have managed to keep demand up even while making people pay for the park explicitly. That's what's happening.. They have a great product and have avoided a major meltdown in the public eye. I'm sure the execs are happy with the ticket demand... but gauging on totally arbitrary metrics? That's spin doctoring.
They are succeeding at their plan -- To extrapolate that to most successful opening simply because people have paid full price admission is a ridiculous reach around.
Parks like Shanghi Disneyland sold full price admission too.. and will still probably have twice as many guests in it's opening year than Epic will. (psst.. because Shanghi is a much bigger deal and draw... but that's why we don't draw conclusions on frivious self-gratifying stats)
No one discredited EPCOT's success. I specifically said this. Read entire discussions before posting.
All this and you want to compare Shanghai Disneyland in Mainland China to EPIC Universe in Orlando? You think being China vs third theme park at that resort in Orlando has something to do with it? (Shanghai Disney also allows Cast Members and families in and is Disney's first and only theme park of that resort with no other resorts quite like it around)
I covered all that when I said relative venture. But you are so quick to type all that out to prove something that just agrees with me.
Universal Epic Universe is a smaller capacity park than Maigic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom or EPCOT, and yet it is still near selling out even with these permitters. Yeah, its pretty dang a hit. Why do you think they are not selling expensive pass add ons early on for this light summer where the attendance is still selling well? Becuase attendance and guest spending is up. GSATS are upper for the park.
Uni would not charge more a day for EPIC than their other parks if it was doing anything lesser. The express pass demand very high valued in comparison and selling out.
And all this on a year that people predict a lighter summer?
Any other park opening you know of getting people well in and staying onsite when Annual Passes are not offered outside of Asia?
It is not sports. Shanghai's success in its method does not negate how amazing Epic has been doing relative to its market.
EPIC is a hit of a third park for a resort that has also had the most recent major theme park ground up opening in Central FL in 1999. They were the last to open one and most recent to open one. And in the theme park saturated market, the park is having a successful third at their resort.
Speaking of arbitrary, if you want to say "only a success for executives happy in a business sense" sure, but that leaves all kinds of subjectivity.
Disney wishes they could sell 16,000 to 22,000 full price tickets a day to any park not Magic Kingdom. (and even that one rarely gets those numbers outside of peak times of near full price admission)
Uni is going to ride doing that as long as they can, which is why, you can even sacrifice some attendance numbers for it.
I think there is a lot of local envy with this park that there are no annual passholder option.
Uni will need/want it like all of the others soon, but right now, busters.