Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Now Open!

DonniePeverley

DonniePeverley

Well-Known Member
wdwfan4ver said:
Anywhere from 3 million guests to 6 million guests for this year. I see anywhere from 7 million guest to 9 million guests for next year.

Epic Universe never will reach Magic Kingdom levels.
Click to expand...


Disappointing to hear. That's not even close to any of the Disney Parks. I would have assumed the ambition would have been greater, a game changer.
 
Last edited:
W

wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
DonniePeverley said:
Disappointing to hear. That's not even close to any of the Disney Parks.
Click to expand...
My numbers for attendance are low for multiple reasons although I should've said 8 million on the high end for this year and 11 million guests on the high end for next year.

Epic was not open till March and also Epic Universe during Soft openings were limited to certain guests. Also Universal did limit guests for the grand opening. To top it off, I see a decline of guests For Epic Starting in late August or Early September. My reasoning of the decline is due to Labor Day till around Thanksgiving week is when people go back to school and when people usually don't take vacations. From after Labor Day to the week before Thanksgiving, the busiest days for Epic would Saturdays and Sundays due to the locals. Epic will getting more busy from Thanksgiving week to end of the year.

The problem with Epic Universe with Attendance for next year is the park has a same thing as a lot of Disney theme parks do in the first year of operations is expansion pads not used yet. I know phase II has started already, but it is 2 eating places. Adding 2 more eating places in Celestial Park will not cause more guests going to the park.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Dial your attendance expectations back.

They are currently doing 20k gate clicks on their busiest days, that's about the theoretical limit of the park. It's averaging higher teens right now (and is atrociously busy). Rolling back to more of an 10-12k average in July and August is going to be sub 10k (quieter than opening week).

You can do the math from there. 6 million a year is about what this thing will do under optimal conditions.
 
DonniePeverley

DonniePeverley

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
Dial your attendance expectations back.

They are currently doing 20k gate clicks on their busiest days, that's about the theoretical limit of the park. It's averaging higher teens right now (and is atrociously busy). Rolling back to more of an 10-12k average in July and August is going to be sub 10k (quieter than opening week).

You can do the math from there. 6 million a year is about what this thing will do under optimal conditions.
Click to expand...



That's deeply sad to hear.

Bizarre investment if those are the figures they're look at. 6 million is terribly low.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
DarkMetroid567 said:
What do we think the goal is? 5 mill?
Click to expand...

I mean, probably that optimal 6-6.5 million range. They are withholding attendance with ticketing still, that can be changed if things soften. While August/September will naturally be soft, late Oct/Thanksgiving/Christmas will surely be maxing the park out again.

Though the success is going to be far more derived by resort wide attendance gains, length of stay gains, hotel bookings, pricing etc. Hard for me to parse that out. Some of the metrics might look surprisingly poor until they take off the ticketing chains. The success story isn’t being written at weeks 3-6, more like years 3-6.

I think there’s something to be said that the capacity is a bit of a miss, considering the money spent on the park. I say that not to be inflammatory, if you have to hold back visitation as they are, you underbuilt. But perhaps it’s a fleeting problem, which raises other mild concerns. DAK can seemingly handle significantly more guest load in its current format.

A parade running twice a day and more of a night spectacle would be two ways to better manage crowds, without the lead time of new build attractions.
 
rd805

rd805

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
A parade running twice a day and more of a night spectacle would be two ways to better manage crowds, without the lead time of new build attractions.
Click to expand...
A covered, family friendly, cheap add-on to Celestial Gardens should be fast-tracked. Something that matches the carousel, almost like the new Marvel Iron-Man test flight ride being built at DCA. Not that they will do this, I don't think they want to immediately put construction back up to a gorgeous "park" like feel; but it would just be so necessary to get something else up and running STAT.
 
Rich Brownn

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
Dial your attendance expectations back.

They are currently doing 20k gate clicks on their busiest days, that's about the theoretical limit of the park. It's averaging higher teens right now (and is atrociously busy). Rolling back to more of an 10-12k average in July and August is going to be sub 10k (quieter than opening week).

You can do the math from there. 6 million a year is about what this thing will do under optimal conditions.
Click to expand...
The theoretic limit is twice that
 
Sir_Cliff

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
I think there’s something to be said that the capacity is a bit of a miss, considering the money spent on the park. I say that not to be inflammatory, if you have to hold back visitation as they are, you underbuilt. But perhaps it’s a fleeting problem, which raises other mild concerns. DAK can seemingly handle significantly more guest load in its current format.
Click to expand...
Must say that this is what seems so curious about Epic's capacity issues to me.

This is, admittedly, a very superficial-level analysis, but the park seems to have opened with a good raw number of attractions. Definitely heads and shoulders above what DAK opened with, and in some ways more impressive than DAK's attraction line-up almost 30 years later. Somehow, though, it seems to have lower actual capacity than DAK.

There should be some questions being asked at Universal Creative if that's true, because the issue doesn't seem to have been lack of money.
 
rd805

rd805

Well-Known Member
Sir_Cliff said:
Must say that this is what seems so curious about Epic's capacity issues to me.

This is, admittedly, a very superficial-level analysis, but the park seems to have opened with a good raw number of attractions. Definitely heads and shoulders above what DAK opened with, and in some ways more impressive than DAK's attraction line-up almost 30 years later. Somehow, though, it seems to have lower actual capacity than DAK.

There should be some questions being asked at Universal Creative if that's true, because the issue doesn't seem to have been lack of money.
Click to expand...
I think the rides going down an hour-ish each day, or a random ride just not opening all day, in combination with 1-2 hours of possible weather closings really hurt the park. They can't be without one attraction, and a lot of times you may be dealing with 2-4 on some sort of delay. Once that is worked through, and in combination with a new ride (3 if we are being honest), the park will be very even and easier to navigate time wise.
 
DonniePeverley

DonniePeverley

Well-Known Member
Sir_Cliff said:
Must say that this is what seems so curious about Epic's capacity issues to me.

This is, admittedly, a very superficial-level analysis, but the park seems to have opened with a good raw number of attractions. Definitely heads and shoulders above what DAK opened with, and in some ways more impressive than DAK's attraction line-up almost 30 years later. Somehow, though, it seems to have lower actual capacity than DAK.

There should be some questions being asked at Universal Creative if that's true, because the issue doesn't seem to have been lack of money.
Click to expand...


Pretty much this.

If you are opening a park with the same volume of attractions as DAK opened up with - then why is your capacity so low, compared to how big the DAK capacity was and is ?

Strange way to go.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
BrianLo said:
Sorry, sure, the fire code probably allows twice, much as MK can theoretically allow 100k people inside. But the place fully breaks by then.

The comfort limit has already been reached.
Click to expand...
The Florida Fire Prevention Code does not even place maximum occupancy limits on outdoor theme parks. Universal is free to pack in as many people they desire, but as their park with the least attraction capacity in Orlando, it would most definitely not be a pleasant experience.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Sir_Cliff said:
Must say that this is what seems so curious about Epic's capacity issues to me.

This is, admittedly, a very superficial-level analysis, but the park seems to have opened with a good raw number of attractions. Definitely heads and shoulders above what DAK opened with, and in some ways more impressive than DAK's attraction line-up almost 30 years later. Somehow, though, it seems to have lower actual capacity than DAK.

There should be some questions being asked at Universal Creative if that's true, because the issue doesn't seem to have been lack of money.
Click to expand...

Kilimanjaro has just a massive capacity. I think the problem is the accessible headliners have bad ride capacity. Kilimanjaro may be able to handle the full compliment of Super Nintendo World on its own. Everest is another current workhorse as was Dinosaur. As Lazboy just responded.

If I was to point to the largest problem in the parks base design, it was rehashing Super Nintendo World. Don’t get me wrong, I think the land is great. But it was not well designed for this parks needs.

The success story of this park seems to be Monsters. It’s just they didn’t have enough of that and of course that’s on the less accessible end.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom