Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Opens 2025

[Animaniac93-98]

Epic Universe's attraction land line up was probably determined by 2018, a year before the official announcement.

Fantastic Beasts 2 was released that November, and How to Train Your Dragon 3 the following February.

Like how Shanghai Disneyland has attractions based on TRON: Legacy and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, the mix gives us a clue as to when decisions were made, and in 2018, I'm sure it made a lot more sense to invest in those properties.

Obviously, Fantastic Beasts 2 underperformed and as a result the series was quickly wrapped up with no box office improvement. Hindsight is 20/20. Dragons has certainly aged better.

 

[BrianLo]

Not really sure how many people are only interested in visiting Epic Universe, but not the rest of Universal. Sounds like a demographic that's largely relegated to this forum.

Chances are, if Epic Universe appeals to you, you're already inclined to want to try some of the other park's offerings.

Someone who's only interested in Disney, isn't going to want to visit Universal. Epic or not.

Disney sells tons of single day MK and Epcot tickets.

There is a whole segment of tourists that are in Florida that want to stop in for a day. Not do 3-7 theme parks.

Then there is the other segment of 7 day vacationers who are going to go to Disney and find out they are stuck with a horrifically priced 4 day Disney, 3 day Universal option.

This is clearly being done to shunt people to their other parks, otherwise they wouldn't be engaging in these weird ticket mixes.

 

[BrianLo]

I’ll be honest, I would defer my trip if this were the final ticketing option (I highly, highly doubt it is).

I want two full days for Epic to enjoy it more casually.

I’ll even overpay for an extended ticket that I don’t need or a second day ticket (and grumble about it), but will pay for it. I’m looking at 5 days. Locking international visitors to 1/14 seems asinine.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Disney sells tons of single day MK and Epcot tickets.

There is a whole segment of tourists that are in Florida that want to stop in for a day. Not do 3-7 theme parks.

That I know and understand. For many, MK is WDW. It has that level of status. Parents who hate theme parks and Disney will begrudgingly take their kids there out of a sense of duty. Epcot benefits from being seen as the adult park, and (in the past at least) offered after 4pm tickets to locals, convention guests and others.

The existing Wizarding Worlds draw visitors for Universal for a day, simply because it's Harry Potter

I don't see Epic on its own having that kind of pull. It's an incentive to stay longer at Universal IMO.

I don't think anyone who is only doing a single theme park day in Orlando is going to pick Epic.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Then there is the other segment of 7 day vacationers who are going to go to Disney and find out they are stuck with a horrifically priced 4 day Disney, 3 day Universal option.

That is by design. Neither business wants you visiting the other.

Epic is Universal drawing a line in a sand, saying it's us or them. It'll either pay off or blow up in their faces.

MK, realistically, is the only park immune to all of this. It's the Disneyland for anyone on this half of the USA/Canada.

 

[BrianLo]

I don't see Epic on its own having that kind of pull. It's an incentive to stay longer at Universal IMO.

Perhaps not long term. For families, there is the Nintendo of it all, as you mentioned. Then the pull of checking out something new for the Disney day-trippers.

It is an incentive to stay longer at Universal for sure... unless they only let you go there one day. Then it's an incentive to stay one extra day, only.

I'm very agreeable to the forced nature of 1 day of Epic on a three day ticket. It's the lack of a one day ticket (why are they opposed to letting people in at full price?) or additional days on longer tickets, that doesn't make much business sense to me. It actually would just ensure Epic has the lowest attendance of the three parks, which would only make sense if they were highly concerned they under built it.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

To be clear, I want to do multiple days at Epic (surely the Helios guests can get multiple days?).

I don't like the rumored multi-day ticket model, but I get why they might do it.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I'm very agreeable to the forced nature of 1 day of Epic on a three day ticket. It's the lack of a one day ticket (why are they opposed to letting people in at full price?) or additional days on longer tickets, that doesn't make much business sense to me.

I'm sure more options will roll out.

I'm not convinced you'll have to buy multi-day tickets just to spend one day at Epic.

 

[JT3000]

That I know and understand. For many, MK is WDW. It has that level of status. Parents who hate theme parks and Disney will begrudgingly take their kids there out of a sense of duty. Epcot benefits from being seen as the adult park, and (in the past at least) offered after 4pm tickets to locals, convention guests and others.

The existing Wizarding Worlds draw visitors for Universal for a day, simply because it's Harry Potter

I don't see Epic on its own having that kind of pull. It's an incentive to stay longer at Universal IMO.

I don't think anyone who is only doing a single theme park day in Orlando is going to pick Epic.

I think you vastly underestimate the appeal of a brand new park. If I were doing a single theme park day in Orlando, I would pick Epic -- because like most other locals, I've already been to the other parks a million times. But even if I were a returning tourist with limited time, I would still choose the new park over any others, and I wouldn't even have to think about it. It doesn't make any business sense to not offer a one-day ticket to just EU.

As an aside, I think anyone who expects the park to be packed to the gills for the entire first year of operation isn't being realistic. I'm sure it'll do better than IOA's opening, but I still predict Universal won't have any reason to go out of their way to limit attendance most days.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

You know those movies where the big bully kid gets punched in the mouth?

I really wish there was less hyperbole around this park.

It is cool to see a new park under construction and this will likely be a very fun park. Let's not kid ourselves, though, about the reaction if that was a construction shot of a new Disney park. We would firstly be grumbling about a high-rise, minimally-themed hotel as the focal point. There would be a lot of jokes about paying to enter other park icons, no doubt. We'd also likely be picking about those large sheet glass windows in the restaurant above the fountains as looking a bit too pedestrian/real world in the same way we were picking apart fonts on signage for Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Though not pictured here, Disney would also never get away with a new park with so many minimally-themed coasters.

Once again, I'm sure this park will be great. Let's not, though, pretend images like the above elevate the art of the theme park above something like Disney's Animal Kingdom.

 

[MisterPenguin]

People keep avoiding what Uni said about EU opening (and what many posters here said).

They said the goal is to make Universal a week long vacation, peeling away people who make WDW a week long vacation.

Given the rumored ticketing options... it seem the best they can do is 2 days in EU and 4 in IOA/USO.

Will people be happy with 4 days in IOA/USO?

 

[bwr827]

People keep avoiding what Uni said about EU opening (and what many posters here said).

They said the goal is to make Universal a week long vacation, peeling away people who make WDW a week long vacation.

Give the rumored ticketing options... it seem the best they can do is 2 days in EU and 4 in IOA/USO.

Will people be happy with 4 days in IOA/USO?

Yeah, 4 for 2 is not great. I’m sure they’ll have more options by the time I’m visiting in early ‘26.

We’ll be happy to do 2-3 days at Epic and 1-2 days at the other two parks.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I really wish there was less hyperbole around this park.

It is cool to see a new park under construction and this will likely be a very fun park. Let's not kid ourselves, though, about the reaction if that was a construction shot of a new Disney park. We would firstly be grumbling about a high-rise, minimally-themed hotel as the focal point. There would be a lot of jokes about paying to enter other park icons, no doubt. We'd also likely be picking about those large sheet glass windows in the restaurant above the fountains as looking a bit too pedestrian/real world in the same way we were picking apart fonts on signage for Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Though not pictured here, Disney would also never get away with a new park with so many minimally-themed coasters.

Once again, I'm sure this park will be great. Let's not, though, pretend images like the above elevate the art of the theme park above something like Disney's Animal Kingdom.

I expect individual elements and experiences to be as good as anything Disney has done of late.

Hiccups Winged Gliders should have some nice elements and features to it, as should Wolf Man to a lesser extent. Mine Cart Madness is absolutely themed in all aspects.

But for a park that strives to be "immersive" its biggest landmarks (the hotel and main thrill coaster) and their positioning bring the rest of the park down with them. Helios is taller than any in park hotel I can think of, and while Contemporary is 15 stories, it was deliberately positioned to only be visible from the land it shared aesthetics with.

These flyover photos also don't do the park any favors. Similar shots of Magic Kingdom spoil the illusion that the park is made up of many more individual buildings than it really is and don't convey what it's like to be there at street level.

 

[BrianLo]

These flyover photos also don't do the park any favors. Similar shots of Magic Kingdom spoil the illusion that the park is made up of many more individual buildings than it really is and don't convey what it's like to be there at street level.

Which is a tad interesting, because that is more or less the view from the hotel itself on upper floors.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Which is a tad interesting, because that is more or less the view from the hotel itself on upper floors.

Which makes the placement and height of the hotel all the more bewildering.

Contrast that with how DisneySea looks from Harbor View rooms at the Mira Costa.

Even if you're in a higher floor room at Contemporary facing MK, you're not right up against it.

Think of how the [DLP] Disneyland Hotel's rooms are mostly in wings surrounded by trees. Same with the Grand Californian. Both of which are not 15 stories high either.

Helios could have had similar architecture and features like a roof top bar if it had been build shorter and more spread out.

 

[trr1]

 

[Jon81uk]

Please don’t just post video links, a summary of what was said is polite to facilitate constructive discussion as this is a text based forum.

 

[trr1]

Please don’t just post video links, a summary of what was said is polite to facilitate constructive discussion as this is a text based forum.

as you wish I will start a new thread on Epic Universe for videos and Bioreconstruct photos so others may enjoy them and comment sorry to inconvenience you

 

[SplashJacket]

as you wish I will start a new thread on Epic Universe for videos and Bioreconstruct photos so others may enjoy them and comment sorry to inconvenience you

I don’t think he meant it as a slight. Bio’s photos are fine because the content itself is the photo contained within the thread, but with a video, the content is contained within the video and disrupts the flow of discussion.

Nothing wrong with posting a video, it’s just more useful to say what makes the video noteworthy/interesting/how it adds to the discussion.

 

[lewisc]

Same thing applies to links to news articles, blogs, other websites etc.

A brief summary, in addition to the link, is always appreciated. The point is made. The reader can accept the brief summary or decide to read the whole story