Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Opens May 22 2025

Coaster Lover

Coaster Lover

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Entry for passholders as early as next week?!? That's pretty awesome. I assume the big media event/blitz will be the week of May 12th? Wonder if BatM will open for passholders, if they are still test and adjusting, or if it's already 100% and they will intentionally hold any further previews of it until opening day...
 
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DCBaker

Premium Member
Coaster Lover said:
Entry for passholders as early as next week?!? That's pretty awesome. I assume the big media event/blitz will be the week of May 12th? Wonder if BatM will open for passholders, if they are still test and adjusting, or if it's already 100% and they will intentionally hold any further previews of it until opening day...
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More than just passholders - see below:

www.wdwmagic.com

Universal Epic Universe Previews Begin April 17 for Select Guests

Universal Epic Universe Previews Begin April 17 for Select Guests
www.wdwmagic.com www.wdwmagic.com
 
S

Streetway Again

Well-Known Member
lentesta said:
I've not heard anything about this. My understanding is the next thing after the FF coaster replacing RRR is a Back to the Future re-do of the FF area. I could be wrong.
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Happy that we could be getting retro stuff at USF. After the whole tribute store, parade, and nighttime show with the retro characters last summer, had a gut feeling they could be considering it. But I gotta be honest, was not expecting BTTF.

With the frozen empire house, the fact they’ve had stuff added to the film vault store a few weeks ago, and that it is still a current franchise, I was honestly expecting ghostbusters to be the one that got a comeback.
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Coaster Lover said:
Entry for passholders as early as next week?!? That's pretty awesome. I assume the big media event/blitz will be the week of May 12th? Wonder if BatM will open for passholders, if they are still test and adjusting, or if it's already 100% and they will intentionally hold any further previews of it until opening day...
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Can we NOT do acronyms for things yet to open, please?
 
Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Absimilliard said:
After reading the accounts from the french side of Euro Disneyland, I strongly disagree with your assessment. I read Hop!, the book written by Philippe Bourguignon, the man who saved the resort, along with Disney et la France from Sébastien Roffat and it changed my perception on the subject. I view it as Walt Disney Imagineering spent like crazy and delivered too little at the end for the massive budget, leaving management with a resort that could not make money even if it hit capacity during peak periods.

Philippe Bourguignon came from the Accor hotel group and was originally hired to open and run the hotel side of Euro Disneyland. What happened in reality is that as the challenges piled on, Robert Fitzpatrick who was the company's CEO, was unable to deal with them and Philippe Bourguignon became the defacto leader of the resort. After a rough summer where the resort was forecasted to receive 9 millions guests, Mr. Bourguignon locked himself at home with the books and the analysis was shocking. The resort was on paper capable of receiving 12 million guests a year, but in practice, given vacations, slow period and winter, they got 9 million guests. In order to be profitable, the park needed 14 million guests anually. There were too many hotel rooms, prices were too high, the food was too bad, the park didn't have enough to do, etc.

To further the issues, even with the equivalent of 4 billion dollars USD to build the resort then, WDI only delivered a park capable of receiving 50000 guests at once. Bourguignon's calculations were that given the cost overruns and massive debts, he needed capacity for 60000 guests. He confronted Eisner with his findings, who was quite shocked, but nevertheless, authorized an extra 80 million USD budget to be rushed for a 1993-1994 capacity expansion. The goal here was not quality, but to give guests extra things to do. This is what lead to the creation of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, Storybookland Canals and Casey Jr, the Old Mill ferris wheel and all those walkthroughs that now make the park quite fun to visit as they never have a line and are nice visually.

Temple du Peril was rushed, as I estimate there were less than a year between green lighting a new roller coaster and the actual grand opening. The old "Spark Gap Coaster" concept for Tomorrowland was turned into an indian temple in Adventureland and Intamin quickly adapted the old Pinfari TL-59 coaster layout to boost capacity and be more comfortable.

View attachment 852309

Spark Gap Coaster

View attachment 852310

Pinfari TL-59 coaster, which was the original layout concept for Temple Du Peril. Temple du Peril initally was not without its challenges, as it opened with a poor (for then!) 1000-1200 riders per hour capacity. It opened with 8 passenger trains and while it achieved its original goal of relieving demand from Big Thunder Mountain, lines remained massive for it. It was meant to be temporary, with the intention that as soon as the financial situation allowed, the ride would be removed and replaced by the planned Indiana Jones EMV and Coaster complex.

The Storybookland Canal ride system was off the shelf, purchased from Mack Rides. Tow Boat rides are popular in Europe, with Efteling having two, Parc Asterix one and so on. Casey Jr. was an off Vekoma prototype powered coaster that was never sold to any other parks after.

Philippe Bourguignon was named CEO of Euro Disney in early 1993 and Steve Burke as his number 2. They went to work on pricing, menu improvements and reducing costs. One good example from the Hop! book was the burger situation. The original hamburgers served at the resort were unpopular, as they were massive "lean burgers" that appealed to the taste of american managements. In practive, the average guests at Euro Disneyland found them dry and tasteless. Every burger across the resort was tasted by the new CEO and the recipes were changed to appeal to guests. End result? Spend some money changing suppliers and contracts and a much more popular food item that became profitable. The duo also transformed the park's restaurants, converting the Cafe des Visionnaires on the hub to an arcade and turning the Explorer's Club sitdown restaurant into a quick service pizza place.

I didn't mention Space Mountain: that project opened only by the sheer will and creative thinking of Philippe Bourguignon. A space was left in Discoveryland for the ride, but the original massive indoor area with the freefall, restaurant, roller coaster and other things was realistic financially. Philippe Bourguignon instructed his team along with a specific team of imagineers to discreetly design a new version of Discovery Mountain. Michael Eisner, the upper management team of Disney in California, along with the banks were not to made aware that they were designing the attraction. One interesting tidbit I remember reading about this was to cover the initial payment to Vekoma for design and fabrication start, it was passed off as a "Big Thunder Mountain emergency repair". It was only when construction was sufficiently far along to not be stopped, paid by the petty cash the resort had on hand, that Bourguignon went up to Eisner and asked him for the ride's budget to finish construction and open it. Eisner was understandably mad, as he felt they had already paid enough for the resort already. He still had no choice but to provide the money and Euro Disney finished building the ride.

Space Mountain: De la Terre a La Lune as it opened as, is to me the most important Disney attraction ever. It was one of the two thing that saved the resort from bankrupcy. It brought millions of new guests, increased revenues and more importantly: made the resort profitable from 1995 to 2001.

What's the other thing that saved the resort from bankrupcy? Bourguignon and his team finding a rich investor, Kingdom Holding Company. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal from Saudi Arabia was persuaded to invest in the company by reinjecting funds and become one of the largest shareholder of EuroDisney SCA. Even after Euro Disney SCA was taken over by the Walt Disney Company in 2017, the only non Disney shareholder to remain was Kingdom Holding.

To conclude, the situation in Paris was a lot more complicated than it appears and it wasn't the Walt Disney Company that found the solutions to save the resort after it opened.
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I wasn't talking about the resort as a whole, but even if you feel the Attraction Capacity Program additions were underwhelming it's unlikely the Disney of today could replicate those additions with a similar budget when adjusted for inflation (let alone build them in a similar timeframe).

And even if the notion that the arcades were not cheaper than a roof over Main Street, the decision to build them reflects a greater understanding to balance operational needs with aesthetics, which again WDI and Universal creative struggle with more.
 
C

celluloid

Well-Known Member
Coaster Lover said:
Seems lines might get a bit spicy... that's a pretty big list of guests the park will be open to. Seems Uni wants to test the park under a bit heavier of a load...
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Yes, it also gets a lot of the things people don't as often think about tinkered as well including restocking merch/F&B items people purchase to resell.

As stated before, this park will be tested live like no other major theme park has ever been put through the paces by the time it grand opens.
 
Disneyhead'71

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
TheMaxRebo said:
Almost like moving up the opening date BUT then can still state it is a preview of things break down/still not working optimally
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I mean, everyone expected AP Previews before the park opened. When IOA opened they did AP Previews but still called them Technical Rehearsals, so...

My guess is everything up until May 23nd will Technical Rehearsals.
 

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