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

[BrianLo]

Online reviews for park of this significance opening…is new territory. Somewhat unprecedented.

Anyways for the reviews that are legitimate, it just confirms what universal already knows.

We saw the same phenomenon with Volcano Bay and Trip Advisor. Of course they were having overcrowding and the very unpopular standby system. I think that trip population is extremely sensitive to crowding.

Which is to say I’m not surprised, I think it’s real, but also not really representative of anything significant but crowding (and maybe right now heat).

 

[BrianLo]

I'm not saying they wanted the park to be poorly built. There's also no indication that they consider the park poorly built. This is a subjective take, after all. Do you think they considered IOA poorly built? Because it took them over a decade to add another indoor attraction, which would seem to indicate they didn't see a problem. It's still the only entirely indoors attraction built there in the past 26 years.

I’m not sure what logical breakthrough you are hoping to convince us of. Not being aware they were under designing the park for Florida operations is not a better accolade. It seems a couple of key attractions were left behind that would have made for a better balanced park. Sometimes those decisions all occur in a silo from one another and add up.

That’s kind of both the truth and the reason. All the other reasons make the team sound worse.

 

[Andrew C]

(and maybe right now heat).

 

[mkt]

Team Member comps start working at Epic tomorrow (with restrictions). Hopefully this means AP access is coming soon.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Anyone consider that indoor attractions are just flat out more expensive than outdoor attractions?

I have no idea how budgets are divided when building a new park... but would you rather have.
A)what we have now
B) No CotWW, Hiccups, or DK, but add in a creature from the black lagoon indoor boat ride?

I would 100% give up CotWW for an indoor boat ride as well as DK even. (For clarification, I currently view CotWW as one of the worst rides I've been on in Florida period for how CHEAP it feels)

 

[DCBaker]

The Dark Universe album is now available on streaming services:

 

[DCBaker]

Universal Orlando has confirmed to @AliciaStella that Express Pass access is now available for Battle at the Ministry and Mine-Cart Madness:

 

[djlaosc]

So now it's just Dragon Racer's Rally and the Toothless M&G that aren't included - would be better for those with Express for Berk to be the land open for Early Entry

 

[Purduevian]

DK is on express as well?

 

[DCBaker]

DK is on express as well?

Yep:

Universal Orlando

Universal Orlando Resort

www.universalorlando.com

 

[Andrew C]

Good news for my trip next spring!

 

[mellyf]

Good news for my trip next spring!

And mine in 10 days!

 

[BrianLo]

Wait times finally appear to be softening as summer wraps. Today actually looked pleasant!

I was equivocating on express but it’s way too expensive and I think it looks very manageable the past couple weeks without.

Fingers crossed!

 

[BrianLo]

I know that no one actually has a strategy yet, but this seems valid? No one steal it until after I go.

But I think:
1) Early entry into SNW, Mine Cart Single Rider (if open) into MK single rider and then Yoshi. Poke around SNW games. Skip MK if terrible and prioritize that instead for my second day.
2) HTTYD for its rides; hit the show and then Potter show and lunch dining as the wait times seem to peak around noon park wide and Potter seems to be the more pleasant climate controlled land for the heat spike.
3) Ministry later afternoon as its waits unwind. Evening heat starts to break. Possibly two goes with a single rider if the day allows.
4) Monsters towards the evening and night. Re-rideable. Wolf coaster if I care (not really).

 

[MrPromey]

I know that no one actually has a strategy yet, but this seems valid? No one steal it until after I go.

But I think:
1) Early entry into SNW, Mine Cart Single Rider (if open) into MK single rider and then Yoshi. Poke around SNW games. Skip MK if terrible and prioritize that instead for my second day.
2) HTTYD for its rides; hit the show and then Potter show and lunch dining as the wait times seem to peak around noon park wide and Potter seems to be the more pleasant climate controlled land for the heat spike.
3) Ministry later afternoon as its waits unwind. Evening heat starts to break. Possibly two goes with a single rider if the day allows.
4) Monsters towards the evening and night. Re-rideable. Wolf coaster if I care (not really).

Assuming they have the kinks worked out/everything's up the whole day and there's no rain, that sounds like a good plan.

I'd consider a lesser backup in case that falls apart due to circumstances beyond your control - sounds like that might be what the second day's for?

 

[Tom Morrow]

Word on the street is:

Monsters hasn't been using the pre-show for over a month now, and both it and Ministry have multiple key show effects in the ride out.

Sorry, but this is unacceptable. Universal needs to show that they care about this, and that the standard theme park practice of needing to see rides when they are brand new because a good chunk of the effects will never work again because "whatever, project's done, people are coming, NEXT" is the attitude should have ended here.

 

[earlthesquirrellover23]

Word on the street is:

Monsters hasn't been using the pre-show for over a month now, and both it and Ministry have multiple key show effects in the ride out.

Sorry, but this is unacceptable. Universal needs to show that they care about this, and that the standard theme park practice of needing to see rides when they are brand new because a good chunk of the effects will never work again because "whatever, project's done, people are coming, NEXT" is the attitude should have ended here.

The preshow stuff is true but everything on ride on monsters was working yesterday! Ministry is mostly working too, the only effects disabled are anything that blocks the ride path as they are trying to get reliability up but its in a pretty great shape besides that, theres actually been a ton of new effects added since opening day.

 

[Tom Morrow]

The preshow stuff is true but everything on ride on monsters was working yesterday! Ministry is mostly working too, the only effects disabled are anything that blocks the ride path as they are trying to get reliability up but its in a pretty great shape besides that, theres actually been a ton of new effects added since opening day.

That's good to hear! Hopefully the pre-show doesn't become like Hagrid's where it is hardly actually used.

 

[Purduevian]

Does anyone know if there was any update to the green bars/paneling that was shown on the expansion plot? Last rumor I heard was that it was going to be a big wall to block the water treatment plant, but I haven't seen anything in a few weeks.

 

[MrPromey]

That's good to hear! Hopefully the pre-show doesn't become like Hagrid's where it is hardly actually used.

Aside from setting up the point of the ride which is a lot more important here where they're introducing a new character and explaining why all these monsters are in the same place, it's also used for staggering the locker access and dealing with crowding in that area.

They could manage that crowd issue with an employee controlling the flow of people but I'd imagine they'll be a lot more motivated to keep the specific pacing provided here intact be it with efforts for more reliable uptime or a good B-mode that could end up some day being the new A-mode (ala Everest Yeti encounter).