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

SplashJacket

Well-Known Member
Also just want to point out 1/3rd of NBCUniversal budget is going to the Parks. So if Nintendo is already paid for, and they aren't paying much for Beijing where do you think most of the money is going to? This park. So the E-tickets will be actually E tickets vice what happened with F&F. The scale will be huge

Source: Earning Call and the press conference.
Wouldn't that 1/3rd of the budget go towards running the other parks? In other words, is that 1/3rd of NBCUniversal the budget for investments or overall budget?
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Also just want to point out 1/3rd of NBCUniversal budget is going to the Parks. So if Nintendo is already paid for, and they aren't paying much for Beijing where do you think most of the money is going to? This park. So the E-tickets will be actually E tickets vice what happened with F&F. The scale will be huge

Source: Earning Call and the press conference.

Fast and Furious was actually one of their most expensive attractions.

I'm very optimistic overall, but spending does not actually guarantee quality.
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
It’s pretty clear that the hotel is connected to the hub which has an overall steampunk/discovery theme...

And while IOA is a great park, its layout is not one of its strong suits imo. It’s just a giant circle, which makes it impossible to go from FJ to Hulk, JPRA to Seuss, etc without walking at least half of the park. Not to mention the lagoon which just sits there unused. I much prefer this hub and spoke layout.

In a weird way, this park still suffers the same issue. You cannot make it from DK to Paris' Minstry without quite a long journey. The weird part being you can't actually make it from DK to its neighbouring land (Monsters) either without coming back to the hub. Akin to not being able to get from Jurassic Park to Kong without returning to the centre of the park first.

This *might* be something they fix with expansion pads actually filled in, but the major coaster seems pretty set on cutting off Berk and the Ampitheatre's back is turn on Super Nintendo World.

I think it might be slightly less irritating than IOA overall, but there is a certain irony that IOA is the wheel and EU is the hub and spoke. Together they'd make a sensible layout!
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
I'd like to dub this an immersion park.

Not to say immersion can't contain some theme and theme parks don't contain amusement, but its primary purpose is to immerse oneself in various unconnected worlds. It purposely does not really connect them.

So while current day Epcot does hew closer to an overarching theme park, that isn't some be all end all statement of quality... because current day Epcot kind of sucks.

The sooner the divide of this forum down company lines learns to accept that, we can all live in harmony.
 

Quinnmac000

Well-Known Member
Wouldn't that 1/3rd of the budget go towards running the other parks? In other words, is that 1/3rd of NBCUniversal the budget for investments or overall budget?

Investments and I misspoke I meant operating cash flow

Just looping back to Parks, which was part of your question, Jessica. We continue to remain very bullish on the Parks business. And obviously, we're investing in Beijing. We're investing in our domestic parks. We think there's a lot of opportunity down in Orlando. We built a lot of hotel rooms. We'll be talking more about investment in the state of Florida. And it's now about 1/3 of NBCUniversal's total operating cash flow. And we continue to love the business and think it fits very well with our animated movie business and other things that we're doing.
 

Timothy_Q

Well-Known Member
In a weird way, this park still suffers the same issue. You cannot make it from DK to Paris' Minstry without quite a long journey. The weird part being you can't actually make it from DK to its neighbouring land (Monsters) either without coming back to the hub. Akin to not being able to get from Jurassic Park to Kong without returning to the centre of the park first.

This *might* be something they fix with expansion pads actually filled in, but the major coaster seems pretty set on cutting off Berk and the Ampitheatre's back is turn on Super Nintendo World.

I think it might be slightly less irritating than IOA overall, but there is a certain irony that IOA is the wheel and EU is the hub and spoke. Together they'd make a sensible layout!
Without the direct connection between the lands, the hub will get VERY congested.

Can you imagine being on PotC and wanting to go on Splash, and having to go back to the hub

It'll be interesting to see how well this concept works, or doesn't
I can't think of any existing parks like this
 

some other guy

Well-Known Member
Names can be important. But I couldnt care less how a themepark is named. If the name is not working for people, nicknames and acronyms will surface directly.

Even if they keep calling it 'Universal's South Expansion Complex', 'Universal Orlando's 3th Gate*' of 'Universal's Extra Park to Compete with WDW'. My impressions (and expectations) of a themepark are based on what is currently unknown. The theming and the rides :)

*4th or 5th depending on what counts as a gate these days.
Some Other Universal Park

Without the direct connection between the lands, the hub will get VERY congested.

Can you imagine being on PotC and wanting to go on Splash, and having to go back to the hub

It'll be interesting to see how well this concept works, or doesn't
I can't think of any existing parks like this
I'm guessing there's some medium-sized aspect to this that isn't clear yet. "Hope it doesn't get congested" might be a mistake to make on your first park or two but this is way too far into the game for Uni to drop that ball so totally.
 

Quinnmac000

Well-Known Member
Without the direct connection between the lands, the hub will get VERY congested.

Can you imagine being on PotC and wanting to go on Splash, and having to go back to the hub

It'll be interesting to see how well this concept works, or doesn't
I can't think of any existing parks like this

The hub is an estimated 28 acres in total....it can handle the traffic more than Disney which is why they can do something like this
 

JT3000

Well-Known Member
It has 5 lands. The huge coaster is it's own "land". If you didn't want to look at the coaster as being a land, then you could consider it part of the hub and call that a land as it's more than just a *normal* hub (It has a carousel, after all).

Either way, I'm more interested in "ride count" and "attraction count" than "Land count". Considering most lands only have 1 or 2 rides in them nowadays; if they have a land with 5 or 6 rides, that certainly appeals to me more than an extra land.

more lands = more rides

I'm not asking them to cut up the visible lands to make more. Assuming this art is actually remotely accurate as far as the layout goes, there's currently two huge stretches of nothing on the park's left and right sides. I would like to see at least one of those filled by opening day. Not just for the sake of content quantity, but also because I don't want to be forced to go back to the hub to move throughout the park. That's bad design.

I also wouldn't expect more than 3-4 rides in any given land, based on precedent.
 
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Quinnmac000

Well-Known Member
more lands = more rides

I'm not asking them to cut up the visible lands to make more. Assuming this art is actually remotely accurate as far as the layout goes, there's currently two huge stretches of nothing on the park's left and right sides. I would like to see at least one of those filled by opening day. Not just for the sake of content quantity, but also because I don't want to be forced to go back to the hub to move throughout the park. That's bad design.

I also wouldn't expect more than 3-4 rides in any given land, based on precedent.

HTTYD has 8 rides so....quell your fears of less than 3-4 rides per land.
 

Robbiem

Well-Known Member
How far is the new area from the existing resort? Does anyone know how this compares to the distances at WDW for example from the magic kingdom resort area to Epcot or Disney springs?
 

starri42

Well-Known Member
From CityWalk to roughly the location of the land, I'm eyeballing it at about 5 miles. Same ballpark as the Contemporary to Epcot, but you also have to leave the main property and cross under (over?) a major interstate.

It does make the location of Endless Summer more appealing, though. You're midway between both.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Connecting lands at the outer rims to avoid the hub is going to be problematic. Sure, you can have a path from Monsterland to Marioland (and go over or under backstage paths), and you can have one from Wizardingland to Dragonland (covered path under the coaster). But you can't complete the circuit. To go from Monsterland to Wizardingland while avoiding the hub means to go through the hotel, which is highly unlikely, and to go from Dragonland to Marioland means to go through (or over) the main entrance, which is, again, unlikely.

The figure eight in the hub seems to very clearly indicate criss-crossing the hub to get from land to land.
 

Quinnmac000

Well-Known Member
Connecting lands at the outer rims to avoid the hub is going to be problematic. Sure, you can have a path from Monsterland to Marioland (and go over or under backstage paths), and you can have one from Wizardingland to Dragonland (covered path under the coaster). But you can't complete the circuit. To go from Monsterland to Wizardingland while avoiding the hub means to go through the hotel, which is highly unlikely, and to go from Dragonland to Marioland means to go through (or over) the main entrance, which is, again, unlikely.

The figure eight in the hub seems to very clearly indicate criss-crossing the hub to get from land to land.

Not exactly true...there are two pathways in front of the hotel....one is blue though and next to a waterfall making it hard to notice in the concept art.

The blue one is how people will get from Monster to FB.
 

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