Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
A good example of demand driving ticket changes was when HoP and Country Bear swapped D and E classifications due to CBJ popularity
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Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Opens May 22 2025
- Thread starter Bob Harlem
- Start date
BaconPancakes
Well-Known Member
This is coming along so fast! Disney would never…
It's amazing what can be done with a full five years of construction!
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
True. By the time EU debuts, it will have taken only twice as long to build as WDW took to retheme/build New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom -- for a whole new park with 5 lands and 3 hotels, from scratch, and all the associated infrastructure!
What I wish Disney would take inspiration from isn't just the timeline, though. When I look at the attractions Universal is putting into Epic Universe, one things jumps out at me. I feel as if the designers sat down, thoughtfully looked at each IP (or theme) individually, and asked themselves, "What adventure or journey or event from this movie (or theme) do I most wish I could experience for myself?" The answers then dictated the appealing attractions they designed: I want to fly on a dragon! I want to pound down some ale and then go for a sail in a Viking longboat! I want to explore a spooky castle! I want to feel what it's like to be inside my favorite Nintendo games! I want to experience the Battle at the Ministry of Magic! I want to ride a comet through space!
You'd think that this kind of planning discussion would be a no-brainer, but I feel like Disney World has stopped engaging in it when they plan attractions. That, or there are some unqualified weirdos in their board rooms, shouting out things like, "I want to find ingredients for the foods manufactured using sustainable methods by co-ops who engage in fair labor practices!," "I want to learn about the water cycle, by observing how it leaks from broken pipes and floods walkways!," or "I want to participate in an exciting race through space or a computer or the matrix or something, except that I won't actually be racing against anything, and the experience shouldn't last more than 60 seconds or be accessible to the majority of park guests in a given day!"
I'm sure Epic Universe won't be perfect, and will have its positives and negatives like anything else (e.g., I'm already worried that the "portals," while really cool-looking, will be huge choke points), but I can't help but feel like its planners are much more in touch with what guests might actually want to see than WDW is at present. Ideally, they'll also have designed these attractions with sufficient capacity to handle the number of guests who will want to experience them during times of typical attendance (meaning, after the initial surge the first year or so, when everyone wants to try the new things), but time will tell.
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Andrew25
Well-Known Member
I was initially skeptical of the portal entrances, but they all seem large enough. Diagon Alley does fine with its rather small entry areas, so I don't think it'll be much of an issue.
I do hope eventually they can find a way to connect the portals to one another instead of having to go in and out of the hub.
Then again, Disneyland had the same setup, so I'm sure the park will grow together nicely over time.
Poseidon Quest
Well-Known Member
A difference I've noticed is that Universal's newer attractions don't rely on your knowledge of the IP to be appealing. I don't think you need to have seen a Jurassic World film to be thrilled by an assault by the Indominous Rex, or have seen a Secret Life of Pets movie to appreciate its complex and detailed scenes.
I don't think you need to have seen a Fantastic Beasts film or a monster movie to appreciate a well detailed Paris or haunted village. Good attraction design speaks on its own. I wonder how Galaxy's Edge appeals to people who aren't familiar with Star Wars? Even as a Star Wars fan, I don't find it particularly interesting land design because it only exists to fills up space, rather than create an interesting world. Even when it references specific things in the films, it doesn't do so in an interesting way that services interest in the IP.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
I'm really not sure I agree with this. Gringotts, Fast and Furious and Mario Kart all pretty poorly recreate the experiences one is expecting from their source material. Perhaps the chosen experiences were matched but the ride profiles were not? UC can be a mixed bag.
Disney's most overt "I want to pilot the Millennium Falcon" is also my least favourite of their recent attractions.
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
I was referring to the annoumced EU attractions, not the ones in other parks, but I agree there have been some big misses there.
The park stopped construction during Covid, but okay. It still takes Disney that long to build a single ride.
I wasn't counting the months of construction pause. I mean, that would be dishonest and disingenuous... despite the fact that people do that to Disney's projects during the pandemic.
So, let's add on 8 months for the pause and call it 6 years!
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
Don't forget 3 resort hotels and related infrastructure projects.
I think people forget that Universal is building some major attractions at Epic, 2 of which are completely new and will include unique ride elements/scenes never utilized yet in a theme park. Not to mention the park is huge.
Poseidon Quest
Well-Known Member
Other than Fast and Furious, I don't agree. Gringotts certainly services fans of the franchise with an impressive and atmospheric queue, and while the actual ride portion suffers from pacing issues in the second half, it definitely delivers on a thrilling mine cart ride through the vaults. I don't see any issues with Mario Kart either. It may not have the depth of gameplay as the actual games, but it's a practical implementation of those mechanics into a physical ride.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Why do you think there are already rumors about the first additions to Epic Universe? Because they’ve already been in development.
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
I couldn't disagree more on Mario Kart -- the ride doesn't really resemble the game. It's much closer to a virtual shooting gallery than a race.
I also think it's quite bad (it would be significantly improved if the AR glasses were excised and it was simply a Mario dark ride, because some of the sets etc. are very good and the AR stuff just gets in the way), but that's a separate discussion.
The park wasn't even announced until 2019, so nice try, but no cigar. It also didn't even go vertical until construction resumed. Were it not for Covid, it would have already opened last year.
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What does that have to do with the park's construction timeline?
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Everything. Construction doesn’t just happen. It is the last part of the design phase and can start at different point along the timeline. The idea that it’s somehow good that an attraction takes five years to go from start to open because construction was only a year and a half but bad that an attraction takes five years from start to open because construction was three years is nonsensical.What does that have to do with the park's construction timeline?
But we're strictly talking about construction, not the rest of the design phase. Generally speaking, none of us has any idea how long each attraction's design phase is anyway. We do know Tron was a clone and still took forever, so that doesn't bode well either way.
Another thing that should be avoided is announcing a project too far in advance, but both Disney & Universal have been guilty of that. Disney has just developed a knack for doing it while Universal typically tries to avoid it.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Just talking about construction is meaningless. It’s a pointless metric that tells you nothing. There are different means of project delivery that start construction at different points in the process. Universal’s entire process is still generally faster than Disney’s but not as much as is suggested by construction since Disney will often start that earlier in the process than Universal.
TRON is a great example as construction started very shortly after the design work started.