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

C

Cliff

Well-Known Member
sonoma15 said:
If I'm being real. No way this park actually ever happens. Yes, they are breaking ground this year but only on an RV park and campground. If it does happen, it will not be on the scale or size of that concept art, because they have no money to do so, I honestly doubt 2 billion is enough, and for reference, Epic Universe is costing north of 6 billion dollars, and will probably be the most expensive theme park ever built.
Click to expand...
You are prolly correct. What I would expect is phase one being made and then a "wait and see" approach for phase two.

The size and scale (and cost) of phase two is entirely based on the success of phase one??. If it "is" popular? It "should" continue to grow and grow over time based on that customer demand. If they can successfully tug on our patriotic "red white and blue" heartstrings and grow from "that" love? I think it's possibly a strong recipe for success. If phase one "really" creates demand and it performs well? Will phase two bring even more investor support? The overall "theme" of this park certainly has an inherent "built-in" audience. (Unless they get "political" or go "activist"...which would destroy and wipe-out the entire park attraction draw immediately)

On the cost?...hmmm...I wonder what the land cost, local tax incentives, and construction costs of Oklahoma are compared to Orlando? I would have to suspect that the state will bend over backwards to help this theme park get built in their state. I would guess there is ENORMOUS local and state government support for this???
 
SplashJacket

SplashJacket

Well-Known Member
Cliff said:
Not trying to go too far off-topic here. (I tend to do that often;-)

"American Heartland" is yet ANOTHER new Disney-style project that appears (in the Blue Sky stage anyway) to again, capture the Disney-quality "Imagineering" that we have all come to love over the generations. And,...it's being done by a no-name company using ex-Disney Imagineers and over two billion dollars. They break ground this year.

View attachment 775697

For most of my life, Disney Imagineering was unique, proprietary and "safe" from any other company matching them. No,...that is no longer the case anymore! ANY company today, if they have the money and the willpower, can create anything that is truly "Disney-quality"....and completely PASS Disney and run right by it. (potentially)

The "Imagineering" industry is no longer a test or race of knowledge and skill. That knowledge and skill have escaped the walls of the company. It's a race and test of sheer actual "willpower". The organization that "wants" it the most can now have what Disney has (or had)....and "can" pass Disney with MUCH more.

I would argue that Disney might no longer have the Imagineering "willpower" today to be #1 and unique any longer.

Walt Disney's "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" will never be built by Disney. Someday, it will probably be built in a place like Dubai by a company that has the willpower to do it. It could literally be more "Disney",...than actual Disney is today.

"Disney magic" now belongs to anybody.

I think that this is where we are now....
Click to expand...
What people miss is Imagineering is more than just designing stuff for theme parks.

They do an incredible amount of R&D that isn’t necessarily Parks applicable.

Very different work than the old Bell Labs, but the R&D is extremely impressive for a non-tech company/university.
 
Rich Brownn

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
Cliff said:
Not trying to go too far off-topic here. (I tend to do that often;-)

"American Heartland" is yet ANOTHER new Disney-style project that appears (in the Blue Sky stage anyway) to again, capture the Disney-quality "Imagineering" that we have all come to love over the generations. And,...it's being done by a no-name company using ex-Disney Imagineers and over two billion dollars. They break ground this year.

View attachment 775697

For most of my life, Disney Imagineering was unique, proprietary and "safe" from any other company matching them. No,...that is no longer the case anymore! ANY company today, if they have the money and the willpower, can create anything that is truly "Disney-quality"....and completely PASS Disney and run right by it. (potentially)

The "Imagineering" industry is no longer a test or race of knowledge and skill. That knowledge and skill have escaped the walls of the company. It's a race and test of sheer actual "willpower". The organization that "wants" it the most can now have what Disney has (or had)....and "can" pass Disney with MUCH more.

I would argue that Disney might no longer have the Imagineering "willpower" today to be #1 and unique any longer.

Walt Disney's "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" will never be built by Disney. Someday, it will probably be built in a place like Dubai by a company that has the willpower to do it. It could literally be more "Disney",...than actual Disney is today.

"Disney magic" now belongs to anybody.

I think that this is where we are now....
Click to expand...
"EPCOT", as conceived, would not be possible. You can't put people into living situations with unproven (i.e., prototypes) equipment nor can you experiment with peoples lives. Imagine if they had built the city and installed the Evac garbage system. We now know it clogs, smells and breaks down frequently. Imagine that being the only was to dispose of you trash. You could build the "C" part (i.e. a city) but the E,P, andT would become obsolete faster than Tomorrowland
 
C

celluloid

Well-Known Member
Cliff said:
Not trying to go too far off-topic here. (I tend to do that often;-)

"American Heartland" is yet ANOTHER new Disney-style project that appears (in the Blue Sky stage anyway) to again, capture the Disney-quality "Imagineering" that we have all come to love over the generations. And,...it's being done by a no-name company using ex-Disney Imagineers and over two billion dollars. They break ground this year.

View attachment 775697

For most of my life, Disney Imagineering was unique, proprietary and "safe" from any other company matching them. No,...that is no longer the case anymore! ANY company today, if they have the money and the willpower, can create anything that is truly "Disney-quality"....and completely PASS Disney and run right by it. (potentially)

The "Imagineering" industry is no longer a test or race of knowledge and skill. That knowledge and skill have escaped the walls of the company. It's a race and test of sheer actual "willpower". The organization that "wants" it the most can now have what Disney has (or had)....and "can" pass Disney with MUCH more.

I would argue that Disney might no longer have the Imagineering "willpower" today to be #1 and unique any longer.

Walt Disney's "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" will never be built by Disney. Someday, it will probably be built in a place like Dubai by a company that has the willpower to do it. It could literally be more "Disney",...than actual Disney is today.

"Disney magic" now belongs to anybody.

I think that this is where we are now....
Click to expand...
Willpower bold and all of your other points are pertinent. Company wide issue proves it is not just a fluke and for this long. You could replace the WDI with animation studios and see how the rivals have, well rivaled far more often than not in the last decade.
 
Last edited:
J

JT3000

Well-Known Member
Cliff said:
You are prolly correct. What I would expect is phase one being made and then a "wait and see" approach for phase two.

The size and scale (and cost) of phase two is entirely based on the success of phase one??. If it "is" popular? It "should" continue to grow and grow over time based on that customer demand. If they can successfully tug on our patriotic "red white and blue" heartstrings and grow from "that" love? I think it's possibly a strong recipe for success. If phase one "really" creates demand and it performs well? Will phase two bring even more investor support? The overall "theme" of this park certainly has an inherent "built-in" audience. (Unless they get "political" or go "activist"...which would destroy and wipe-out the entire park attraction draw immediately)

On the cost?...hmmm...I wonder what the land cost, local tax incentives, and construction costs of Oklahoma are compared to Orlando? I would have to suspect that the state will bend over backwards to help this theme park get built in their state. I would guess there is ENORMOUS local and state government support for this???
Click to expand...
Without getting too political... I think getting political would actually be in the best interests of this park's investors. Do I actually want more wealthy businessmen preying on America's division? No, not at all, but it's already proven to be a very lucrative strategy. This could be equally true for a new theme park at a time like this, where folks of a certain political affiliation are constantly throwing vitriol at Disney. This could be their Disneyland! Would it turn off a whole lot of people? Absolutely, but most of us are never visiting either way, and the potential audience who are more likely to actually visit this park in the first place, given its remote location, would probably eat it up. Lots of people detest Fox News. That hasn't prevented it from also growing a militantly loyal viewership.

Oh, and asking for a bunch of handouts from the aforementioned audience is probably the only way this park even gets built, so there's also that.
 
Last edited:
Weather_Lady

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
JT3000 said:
Without getting too political... I think getting political would actually be in the best interests of this park's investors. Do I actually want more wealthy businessmen preying on America's division? No, not at all, but it's already proven to be a very lucrative strategy. This could be equally true for a new theme park at a time like this, where folks of a certain political affiliation are constantly throwing vitriol at Disney. This could be their Disneyland! Would it turn off a whole lot of people? Absolutely, but most of us are never visiting either way, and the potential audience who are more likely to actually visit this park in the first place, given its remote location, would probably eat it up. Lots of people detest Fox News. That hasn't prevented it from also growing a militantly loyal viewership.

Oh, and asking for a bunch of handouts from the aforementioned audience is probably the only way this park even gets built, so there's also that.
Click to expand...
I suspect it would go the way of Heritage, USA. Same people, different generation, and equally prone to financial over-optimism and mismanagement.
 
C

Cliff

Well-Known Member
On the politics, they would need to keep it politically neutral like Disney does with "Hall of Presidents" or "The American Adventure" or "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln"...etc

Disney had this idea back in the 90's for a new Disney park in Virginia and the Blue Sky ideas looked really cool.

I have to suspect that if done correctly while keeping construction costs down, there "could" be a powerful market for this. I myself would certainly race over there from Florida to check it on when it opens. If it's "really" is good? Yeah, I could certainly see myself going there every year or two or three. I fly to Disneyland for a week every other year....why not this place?
 
mkt

mkt

When a paradise is lost go straight to Disney™
Premium Member
JT3000 said:
I could be wrong, but I believe Universal has actually been losing more creatives to Disney than vice versa in recent years. The big exodus from Imagineering to Universal Creative happened back when IOA was under development.
Click to expand...
You're somewhat wrong, but somewhat right?

WDI and Universal Creative tend to bring in a lot of people on a project by project basis, but are actually pretty lean operations when they're not working a large project load. So it's extremely common for people to go back and forth between WDI and Universal Creative (as well as other companies that provide similar services to other parks, like Cedar Point, Six, Flags, Knotts, etc).

This is so common that I personally know people who have decades-long careers spent bouncing back and forth between WDI and Universal Creative. I even know of one person that has enough 1-year Mickey Mouse nametag pins to fill a full pin-trading lanyard
 
Andrew25

Andrew25

Well-Known Member
mkt said:
You're somewhat wrong, but somewhat right?

WDI and Universal Creative tend to bring in a lot of people on a project by project basis, but are actually pretty lean operations when they're not working a large project load. So it's extremely common for people to go back and forth between WDI and Universal Creative (as well as other companies that provide similar services to other parks, like Cedar Point, Six, Flags, Knotts, etc).

This is so common that I personally know people who have decades-long careers spent bouncing back and forth between WDI and Universal Creative. I even know of one person that has enough 1-year Mickey Mouse nametag pins to fill a full pin-trading lanyard
Click to expand...
+ take into consideration that the theme park market overall has grown... so more creative individuals overall. Universal Creative has (quadrupled?) in size and Imagineering was massive, then cut, and now gaining back headcount.

We can go back and forth on what theme park attractions are more well-designed... but Universal Creative & Imagineering can do pretty much the same thing today. The biggest difference is which one is being impacted the most by corporate decision makers.
 
SJN1279

SJN1279

Well-Known Member
I loved the first How to Train Your Dragon. I will definitely visit this park, but somehow I'm underwhelmed at the same time with the attraction lineup so far.
 
ToTBellHop

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
They could teach a masterclass on April Fool’s jokes.
1711992848030.png
 
trr1

trr1

Well-Known Member

bioreconstruct
@bioreconstruct

Aerial overview of Epic Universe.
1712005576872.png

Aerial photo of the portal to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic. In Epic Universe.
1712005653835.png

Aerial photo of an area of How To Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk. In Epic Universe.
1712005678721.png

A nearly straight-down aerial photo of the front of Epic Universe. At center is the work so far for the portal of the park.
1712005707878.png

Aerial look at some of the traffic flow at Epic Universe.1 Day guest parking entrance2 Parking toll plaza location3 An exit from parking4 An exit from parking, there's a split that bypasses the traffic circle.
1712005741166.png
 
T

TalkToEthan

Well-Known Member
Starfall will look gorgeous: I expect the ride station, ride vehicles, paint schemes and intertwined track layout to be first class making it the most majestic coaster on Earth.

It will have the adult thrills of a Magic Mountain/Cedar Point coaster but most importantly dressed up Universal style.

I’m already in line!!
 
J

JT3000

Well-Known Member
TalkToEthan said:
Starfall will look gorgeous: I expect the ride station, ride vehicles, paint schemes and intertwined track layout to be first class making it the most majestic coaster on Earth.

It will have the adult thrills of a Magic Mountain/Cedar Point coaster but most importantly dressed up Universal style.

I’m already in line!!
Click to expand...
Oh that paint scheme is 'majestic' alright. 😏
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom