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

[Disneyhead'71]

Great video of the night show.

 

[rd805]

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.

Based off of my experience, and based off of wait times - Nintendo seems like a massive hit. The place is buzzing, everyone is buying power up bands - those at $40+ a pop is such a cash boost for Epic right off the bat, not even talking about the very large crowds (and ACTUAL souvenirs that everyone is buying from the land, AND arguably the busiest QSR at the park).

Monsters / Darkmoor is wonderful. It clearly needs another attraction, but also...it is seemingly the LEAST busy part of the park. Monsters Unchained is fantastic, but is walk-on many times of the day. This is both amazing& interesting when you think about...and somewhat (now) worrisome that maybe the park DOESN'T get another add-on ride fast-tracked if it is already as busy as the others. Does this put Luigi's Mansion, or a Zelda extension to SNW ahead of it?

Curious curious curious...

 

[BrianLo]

Based off of my experience, and based off of wait times - Nintendo seems like a massive hit. The place is buzzing, everyone is buying power up bands - those at $40+ a pop is such a cash boost for Epic right off the bat, not even talking about the very large crowds (and ACTUAL souvenirs that everyone is buying from the land, AND arguably the busiest QSR at the park).

Monsters / Darkmoor is wonderful. It clearly needs another attraction, but also...it is seemingly the LEAST busy part of the park. Monsters Unchained is fantastic, but is walk-on many times of the day. This is both amazing& interesting when you think about...and somewhat (now) worrisome that maybe the park DOESN'T get another add-on ride fast-tracked if it is already as busy as the others. Does this put Luigi's Mansion, or a Zelda extension to SNW ahead of it?

Curious curious curious...

That was my point that I think you misunderstood. Nintendo was built way under capacity for its demand. Monsters Unchained has a relatively speaking very large capacity. The three Nintendo attractions are various shades of bad capacity.

 

[MisterPenguin]

¡lo scandalo!

 

[Disstevefan1]

¡lo scandalo!

View attachment 868358

The Penguin is truly in his glory

 

[Sorcerer Mickey]

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.

Could it be that AK had all the animal attractions and walk throughs? There’s a lot to do in DAK beyond the few attractions they have.

 

[lewisc]

¡lo scandalo!

View attachment 868358

Admit it. You unscrewed the bulbs right before you took the photo.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Could it be that AK had all the animal attractions and walk throughs? There’s a lot to do in DAK beyond the few attractions they have.

Presumably that is also part of the equation, though BrianLo made the point that Kilimanjaro Safaris and Dinosaur could each equal close to the hourly capacity of entire lands worth of attractions at Epic which suggests why the raw number of attractions doesn't tell the whole story. Add in Everest and Pandora and it begins to make more sense that the capacity would be greater.

Both Universal Creative and WDI seem to have become less skilled at balancing compelling attractions and capacity in recent decades as attendance has continued to rise. This is, again, where perhaps both should be looking at Epic where a lot of money was spent and there are quite a significant number of attractions but capacity issues to learn some lessons.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Presumably that is also part of the equation, though BrianLo made the point that Kilimanjaro Safaris and Dinosaur could each equal close to the hourly capacity of entire lands worth of attractions at Epic which suggests why the raw number of attractions doesn't tell the whole story. Add in Everest and Pandora and it begins to make more sense that the capacity would be greater.

Both Universal Creative and WDI seem to have become less skilled at balancing compelling attractions and capacity in recent decades as attendance has continued to rise. This is, again, where perhaps both should be looking at Epic where a lot of money was spent and there are quite a significant number of attractions but capacity issues to learn some lessons.

And I’d again argue, a focus on “lesser attractions” that cost them less to build, but can help give a land more to do.


There is a place for small dark rides, walkthroughs, and those sorts of experiences.

HTTYD has the best balance, but it still sorely needs an indoor smaller family dark ride that can actually keep a ride open in that land when the weather turns.

 

[Andrew25]

I've been warning people about the capacity shortfalls of Epic for a while now. It's a concern I hope that Universal realizes needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

An E-ticket attraction at the scale of Donkey Kong barely reaching 1K guests an hour is a complete oversight.

To be fair, they are having reliability issues at Ministry and Hiccup's which are decent capacity-wise (Ministry could be closer to 1.6-1.7K theoreically, Hiccup's could do ~1.2K)

While I'd love to see the next Ministry or Monsters come to Epic Universe, I think the best option first is a "safe" ride system like an Omnimover (an actual high capacity one, not what they used for SLOP or Yoshi) that can accommodate large crowds efficiently.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Admit it. You unscrewed the bulbs right before you took the photo.

I put on a construction vest and entered as the park was closing with a power washer...

 

[DarkMetroid567]

To be fair, they are having reliability issues at Ministry and Hiccup's which are decent capacity-wise (Ministry could be closer to 1.6-1.7K theoreically, Hiccup's could do ~1.2K)

I’m really not sure what the endgame is for Ministry’s loading process. It doesn’t seem to have improved much more than previews/opening day even with the reduced capacity.

 

[Andrew25]

I’m really not sure what the endgame is for Ministry’s loading process. It doesn’t seem to have improved much more than previews/opening day even with the reduced capacity.

I don't think they have a clue; it was poorly thought out.

They were barely able to get it up and running in time for AP previews (some of the TMs working on the ride didn't even have a chance to ride it before opening it to APs).

 

[Dranth]

Both Universal Creative and WDI seem to have become less skilled at balancing compelling attractions and capacity in recent decades as attendance has continued to rise. This is, again, where perhaps both should be looking at Epic where a lot of money was spent and there are quite a significant number of attractions but capacity issues to learn some lessons.

Agreed, and when Disney does stuff like this folks like to argue it is so they can sell their line skipping services. Personally I don't entirely buy that, but my guess is the companies don't mind either.

 

[SteveAZee]

I put on a construction vest and entered as the park was closing with a power washer...

Better than carrying in a table.

 

[jrhwdw]

 

[jrhwdw]

 

[jrhwdw]

 

[Disneyhead'71]

I don't really know what to make out of the numbers these days. Apparently Epic is so bad that normally the parks would be swamped with S. Americans but nope. And Brits and Canadians are also vacationing elsewhere.

Thanks Universal!

 

[BrianLo]

I don't really know what to make out of the numbers these days. Apparently Epic is so bad that normally the parks would be swamped with S. Americans but nope. And Brits and Canadians are also vacationing elsewhere.

Thanks Universal!

Don’t get me wrong, despite being persnickety about attendance, capacity, etc etc. There’s very good evidence to suggest Epic has single handedly rescued the central Orlando tourism industry from major US tourism headwinds.

It’s actually a bit of a different narrative than it was/is destroying the other six major gates; it’s actually saving them from their poor 2020+ investment cycle decisions.