Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Opens 2025

[sedati]

Who wants smaller windows?

I remember a thousand posts decrying full-sized windows on the second floor of Disneyland‘s Club-33 (A justified criticism). Epic Universe is breaking many theme park norms with inconsistencies of scale being a big one. It’s probably best to not think of this as a full, cohesive theme park and instead recognize it as a gated retail corridor with themed mini lands attached.

 

[JT3000]

I remember a thousand posts decrying full-sized windows on the second floor of Disneyland‘s Club-33 (A justified criticism). Epic Universe is breaking many theme park norms with inconsistencies of scale being a big one. It’s probably best to not think of this as a full, cohesive theme park and instead recognize it as a gated retail corridor with themed mini lands attached.

Well now you're just being silly. There's probably no theme park in existence that keeps a consistent scale between all of its lands. Most fail to keep their scale completely consistent within a single land, no matter how hard they try, including Disney's. We don't refer to any of them as "gated retail corridors." And for that matter, what even is the scale of Celestial Park supposed to be? Do we have evidence of forced perspective in use? Because I don't think I've seen any, and they would have to be utilizing tricks along those lines in the first place in order for the hotel to technically be out-of-scale with the rest of the land. Just having an imposing building in a theme park doesn't mean the scale is wrong.

Epic Universe also doesn't have "mini lands." It's not a small park, even if it isn't fully developed on day one.

How many of those posters decrying the size of the windows actually planned to use them? How many are staying in the top floor of that hotel?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Looks like almost the entire budget went into the bars.

Aside from it's prominence, this hotel defies any attempt to hide its real-world scale.

In fact, Helios goes even further in the opposite direction. Look at the Grand Californian, Disneyland Hotel Paris, and Mira Costa. While not at proper theme park scale, they do at least mask this by scaling down the upper floors by using smaller windows.

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Compare that to Helios where the windows actually start off small and get larger and larger as you climb.

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I remember a thousand posts decrying full-sized windows on the second floor of Disneyland‘s Club-33 (A justified criticism). Epic Universe is breaking many theme park norms with inconsistencies of scale being a big one. It’s probably best to not think of this as a full, cohesive theme park and instead recognize it as a gated retail corridor with themed mini lands attached.

You clearly don’t understand what you are talking about. The windows (and other design elements) at Club 33 were criticized because they were immediately adjacent to other elements that they contradicted. In this case you are referencing elements used to force the perspective. Those big windows betrayed that the buildings were not as big as they looked.

Smaller windows are only a “theme park
norm” because of the use of forced perspective. But you’ve mixed up how it works. Smaller windows as you go up would be part of making a building look bigger, not smaller. You can make a building looked smaller by using bigger windows and elements, see The American Adventure building.

There is no “proper theme park scale.” For one, it’s generally a misnomer repeated by people who don’t understand and two it assumes some sort of consistency that is not employed because it makes no sense. Forced perspective is an art, it is something designed that must vary based on the goal of the design. It is also employed due to cost. Epic Universe using less forced perspective is a perfectly valid design choice.

 

[Two Ears]

Guessing this will be early entry. Hope you like getting up at 5 am on vacation!

5am? How early is this park opening? 6am? That sounds awesome.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

You clearly don’t understand what you are talking about. The windows (and other design elements) at Club 33 were criticized because they were immediately adjacent to other elements that they contradicted. In this case you are referencing elements used to force the perspective. Those big windows betrayed that the buildings were not as big as they looked.

Smaller windows are only a “theme park
norm” because of the use of forced perspective. But you’ve mixed up how it works. Smaller windows as you go up would be part of making a building look bigger, not smaller. You can make a building looked smaller by using bigger windows and elements, see The American Adventure building.

There is no “proper theme park scale.” For one, it’s generally a misnomer repeated by people who don’t understand and two it assumes some sort of consistency that is not employed because it makes no sense. Forced perspective is an art, it is something designed that must vary based on the goal of the design. It is also employed due to cost. Epic Universe using less forced perspective is a perfectly valid design choice.

That critique is half-baked, but sorta makes some sense. If the scale of this map is accurate, it’s kinda crazy how much of a make-or-break Celestial Park is. The park is certainly not small, but the lands definitely are.