Everyone planning to go to the grand opening, or even within the first 6 months of opening, should expect long lines, huge crowds, and some technical hiccups in the process. That's the price to pay for getting to be "the first" ones to experience the first big new theme park in a generation. They are the guinea pigs, the data collectors, the trial-and-error folks. Props to them, as their sacrifice makes the park experience better for the longevity of the park. As much as bragging rights are fun, you certainly won't find me at a new park on the first day.
I want to be there on opening day and would absolutely pay up for express passes or whatever. I plan to visit USJ later this year and in that sense I could potentially skip the Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe or leave it for last if I have time at the end of the day.
@@AppleGaming4Real That's because that ride was absolutely not ready to be opened but it was opened anyways for different reasons. They needed another 2-3 months of testing before it should have opened and then it would have been a much smoother opening, just like VelociCoaster was. VelociCoaster was an absolute amazing opening with near zero issues.
I kind of wonder if its just because people want Disney to lay down more money for parks and the bigger Epic Universe is the more money Disney will spend.
@@hadeeesDisney parks in the US are sadly going backwards with no sign of it getting better in the next 10 years …as for Universal in the next 10 years they will have expanded to a new land at Epic Universe(rumored Lord of the Rings land)…updated lands in Universal Studios and IOA
Which is ridiculous, I want both company’s to succeed so I have more of a variety of experiences to go and do. Having both company’s competing is the ultimate W for theme park fans
Another concern I was thinking about was how much of a bottleneck the portals to the lands will be.With everyone trying to get into the same entrance and taking photos and whatnot I can definitely see that being a problem.
I brought this up a few months ago in the comments of somebody’s video(there are a million theme park channels narrated by white guys i couldn’t tell you which one) and the person mentioned there would be some other at least exit, & I assume there will be portals in places where lands meet but I’m still not convinced it won’t be a major issue for the first few years and ESPECIALLY in case of emergency.
I don’t think people are aware of the scale of the portals. The cameras do not do it justice. They are definitely big enough, and if they need to they probably have alternative entrances just in case for opening day.
I work at Universal call-center here in Orlando right next to where epic is. It’s still astound me. How many normal people call in with very little theme park knowledge and want to talk about epic with me. I think it’s because most families do research on TH-cam and TikTok before they start buying things and they see epic and they start to build hype for itis a double bladed sword. Universal is really suffering right now because people are withholding their vacations until next summer when epic opens.
When are tickets going on sale? Will they have a 4 park annual pass that includes studios, islands of adventure, volcano bay, and epic? Plz say it’ll also have express.
@@johnjohnson9915 I don’t know anything and even if I did, my full name is on my TH-cam so that seems like a bad idea, but I will tell you I think it would probably be better to not have Express at opening. Express passes are certainly useful for the people who can afford them however it does cause lines to be longer on average for everyone. Best case scenario is no Express for the first year or two, but like I said, I don’t have a lot of insight into how that’s gonna work. defunctland has a really excellent video on Fastpass systems that is worth giving a watch.
People, this is not Universal s first time at the rodeo.....I was there when the Studios was the only pank, with Nickelodeon Studios alongside...... everything went wrong that first year, from Kongfrontation, Earthquake and JAWS wasn't working....it was crowded, and crazy, and they did suffer from their "Big Three" not being able to take people, but they picked themselves up and fixed all the problems (well, not so much with JAWS-that took a few years), and the next year Universal was able to bounce back(also, having Back To The Future didn't hurt)...so, I have faith in them with Epic whatever happens, it will work itself out....
It's also why Island has a preview from March 27 until May 29 -- to test operations with guests. And IOA opened flawlessly (not counting the marketing fiasco)
Don't sleep on How to train your dragon.. the ride system is Intamin so if it comes even close to matching the feeling of Hagrids then it will be the busiest family coaster in the park.
I believe Universal was testing VL queues at Hagrid's for these very types of situations. However I think the way Universal does VL's is wayyy better than what Disney does. Universal releases times throughout the day depending on crowd levels and attraction downtimes rather than pretty much all at once at 7am. You just have to keep trying to get a VL queue with Unviersal's and you'll generally have pretty good luck getting a locked in time.
@@supremefan the problem with hagirds is that it is one of the most complicated roller coasters ever made, if not the number 1 most complicated. The how to train your dragon coaster only has 2 launches and is similar to basically everything that Intamin builds. It’s nothing new that they haven’t done 30 times before. Plus it’s already testing, over a year before the park opens. Hagrids is insanely complicated, plus it was rushed. That’s why it was so unreliable
@@samplautz5586 It being less complicated just means it will be able to have a higher capacity. I still think in the long run it will be more popular then the others due to how fun the actual ride will likely be compared to the others which are mostly theming. I don't imagine the DK coaster or Werewolf coasters will actually be good.
I think Epic will draw more people to Universal properties making it a destination for an entire vacation. Having another HP area will help tie all the parks together. Long lines for sure but people will be willing to wait. As long as they have the technology working it will be great. Having the coasters already working and testing a year out is a great sign.
You also need to consider that many of the lands in Epic Universe are rumored to have interactive elements that should add to "capacity." We know that a significant draw of Super Mario World will be the power-up band mini games culminating in the Bowser Jr. boss battle.
My favorite thing about riding a new attraction day one is just how smooth it is. Those gears and wheels are oiled up and it’s incredible. Rode the Mummy in LA day one and it was the smoothest roller coaster I’ve ever been on.
These are very real concerns and I’m glad you addressed them. I feel like the best option for universal is to a) train their ride ops to be ontop of their game for the opening months and or b) sell limited tickets for the first few months the park is open
so far all the promotional materials and marketing has looked great -- where I'm worried is if universal scraps the whole "stay at one of our hotels, get unlimited fast pass" policy
When I went to the opening of Universal Studios Beijing, it was amazing. On the first day, they limited the number of guests, so all the attractions had low wait times and everything went smoothly. On the second day, it was like night and day. Huge wait times and slightly overcrowded, but was still amazing and just as enjoyable due to the exciting atmosphere! I imagine the buzz within Epic Universe in its opening year will be enough for most theme park fans.
@@ChouhouinNeko I doubt it. Nobody likes a reservation system and you can do the same thing by just limiting ticket sales. If they only want 15,000 people in the park they they'll just sell 15,000 tickets and then stop selling tickets. A reservation system is worthless.
Evryone should know by now that not everything in Epic Universe will be at 100% but it doesn't mean that it will not be an amazing Orlando, FL theme park
The major potential impact on Epic Universe: Orlando weather! So many of their attractions will be impacted when storms come through the area. Hopefully they consider an indoor coaster for their next attraction. I can only think of 4 enclosed rides.
Man I wouldnt mind just spending hours looking at all the details in the parks! Why Im planning a 4 day trip to go to the OG parks and 2 days in the new one. But in 2026
I think you are correct about Epic having virtual queues. I believe during the first year, they will require virtual queues to enter each land as well as virtual queues for each major attraction.
I thought someone mentioned that they'd just ticket each land separately. Then they could stop selling tickets when each land reaches capacity to avoid overcrowding.
This is a great video, it's great to see an honest analysis of what could easily be some shortcomings for a major new theme park. Probably nothing major to worry about, but it's definitely good to manage our expectations.
As a theme park fan in the UK my concern is that if Epic Universe doesn't go ahead Universal's interest in a UK park would fizzle out and honestly that would suck. I'm probably not going to be able to afford to go all the way to Epic Universe either so I really hope that a park of the Universal quality does come to the UK. As much as I love Alton Towers and other merlin parks I feel like the competition from Universal would actually serve to have larger additions to their parks. Great video by the way, I love the content and I'm really happy someone addresses the concerns of this new park instead of continuing to keep hyping it up to a ridiculous degree. That being said I really hope this park is a success and I hope sooner rather than later I am able to experience it.
There will be issues at the beginning because Universal will have no analytics on it so while they can project and anticipate, until everything goes live they won't have any hard data to adjust. How long are lines, needs for restroom use, food services, etc. Once they start getting that data then they can make adjustments.
My biggest concern personally is the confusion with the identity of their third harry potter world. I don't mind it being about the Ministry of Magic, but I do care the rest of the world is designed after the Paris section of Fantastic Beasts and they realized way too late it was stupid to invest in on the bleh trilogy in any aspect
I’m not saying this in an attacking sort of way, but just asking your opinion. What other things could they have done instead? I’ve watched the movies once, and I’m not sure what other prominent locations they could have done, but I’m sure there are ones and I’m just not thinking about it enough
@@richardperhai8292 you want to be more confused? The current rumor is that after epic universe opens, they will expand the new HP area by building a new place to dine. It will be themed to the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Apparently you will travel there by Floo Powder. I can only imagine new guests to the resort: “So you’re telling me to eat at the Great Hall, i don’t go to Hogwarts castle? Instead I have to go to a different park 2 miles down the road, and I access it from a land themed to Paris?”
Epic Universe is going to be a nail in the coffin for Disney once it opens. I've seen construction on one of the coasters and buildings for celestial park. I'm very hyped for it Edit: ight, when I meant (a nail in a coffin for Disney) I didn’t mean that universal is gonna kill Disney, I meant as like universal is doing good type of thing.
look man i think this theme park will definitely even out the competition for universal but to kill disney? have you heard what a disney adult is? disney unfortunately cannot even be humbled
Ya I agree, it won’t kill Disney. But when Disney inevitably kills itself, universal will already be established and it will be that much easier to take over Orlando
@@samplautz5586 Disney isn't going to kill itself?? Do you know how hard it would be to do anything with 4 parks, 30 resorts, Disney Springs etc. The park are consistently making BANK. If Disney has a money problem, they could just drop a new Figment popcorn bucket and keep themselves afloat. Universal is closer to closing than Disney will probably ever be.
I'm surprised you did not mention the nearby Sewage treatment plant northeast of the park. I remember passing by there one time and the stench was completely awful. Imagine that reaching out to guests as close as in the the ministry of magic land.
I think Epic offers far more visual eye candy to amuse and satisfy those who just wanna sit and take in the atmosphere, get out of the house, maybe do a couple rides. A lot more locals now than when IOA opened to boost attendance and Celestial Park seems very much a place to sit. Its layout offers areas and paths to spread out the crowds--especially if the fountains do something special throughout the day.
I'd rather endure vast crowds in a brand new park filled with IPs I actually like than do the same in an old, aging park filled with annoying IPs run by a company that wants to price me out and replace me with rich, vapid influencers.
Wait until you see the price to get into EPIC. It's going to exceed or rival the most expensive day ever. No annual passes are going to be sold, just very expensive day passes.
@@vinnyv07 It might make me the world's biggest dope but I can't wait to give them the money for the privilege. As a non-US resident an annual pass is not in my interest anyway!
Supposedly the Donkey Kong ride is having ALOT of issues. I just hope Japan can find all of the issues so Epic’s can open up without too much downtime….
I just wonder about how timeless the How to Train Your Dragon IP will be. I like the movies, I just wonder how relevant they will stay in the coming years. And before anyone mentions Dark Universe- those characters are icons of media in general. Everyone and their grandmother knows who Frankenstein and Dracula are
Also Dark Universe helps fulfil the need for a "spooky" area that a lot of theme parks tend to have, perfect as the focus for Halloween-themed events as well. I like the original HtTYD enough that I'm at least open to the idea. I suppose it depends on how much Universal intends to continue to invest in the franchise. Disney has tried to bury Song of the South, for example, but that didn't stop people from loving Splash Mountain all the same, and people are still upset to see the original theming go. It also helps provide another very "kid-friendly" area of the park.
Considering how popular dragons are in general, I suspect How to Train Your Dragon will be more popular and have more staying power than most people expect. Each of the movies made half a billion dollars at the box office, which is quite impressive when you account that this was done prior to the high inflation we are experiencing today. Not to mention the kids show spinoff on Netflix and the book series that was extremely popular in its own right. There are also other IPs that are based around dragons that may fuel the success of HtTYD. Wings of Fire is one such book series that is very popular with young audiences. Not only are dragons popular but Vikings are also popular. I think there will be a good deal of people who will be excited just to play at being a viking in that area.
I understand the concern, but I personally wouldn’t be too concerned about the longevity. Httyd is not only a very popular brand as is, but in general is a hit with both young and older demographics. it seems like Universal is investing in newfound interest for the series through the live action remake that will release around roughly the same time that this park will open. Seems more strategic than convenient, but I don’t believe this will be an issue imo.
The ip itself may not stay popular forever but the general theme of Dragons in general is timeless. And they can always reboot the ip in a few years…. Not that they should…
I dont see it as a problem at all, Dragons are always a bankable IP, the movies are legitimately great. Peter Pan is a classic, but it isn’t the modern kids’ go to anymore, still Peter Pan is one of Magic Kingdoms most sought after rides (I dont understand why). I think a the aesthetic of a whole park that is viking/dragon themed w/references to genuinely great movies will be a hit with kids for decades.
Talking about innovation. I think park designers need to increase re-rideability of dark rides by inventing ways to make slight alterations when folks get bored with them. Either holiday overlays or new characters to bring back jaded guests. It's sad to see Cat in the Hat with a 5 minute wait now. It's a great ride, but just doesn't surprise anymore. Even Skull Island which I love is losing re-ride-abilty for me.
I wouldn't be surprised if the other reason Universal pushed Epic Universe's opening from 2023 to 2025 is because they want to make sure that all of those concerns you've listed won't happen at opening day or at least not happen to such a large degree. If that's the case then they're really being smart about it because they know that they've changed theme park history with The Wizard World of Harry Potter and they don't want to lose that title thus they're not taking any chances with Epic Universe. It's not like with how Disney took and from the looks of it still takes it's position in theme park history for granted for years which basically got them taken down a peg by Universal with the Harry Potter land in the first place and from the looks of it hasn't learned from it which we'll likely see history repeat itself next year in a bigger level. It's why despite the very valid concerns you've brought out I'm not too worried about Epic Universe since Universal themselves have proven to learn from their mistakes such as not relying on screens so much on their rides and apply them to their new rides and lands. I'd be more worried if either Epic Universe wasn't delayed to be given more time to really work or if Disney themselves were in charge of it given their recent track record with their parks in the USA.
No way they would voluntarily push the date 2 years that’s not how capital planning works. They’re better off launching imperfectly especially into a an already hyped date and begin to recover some of those capital expenses they’ve made by creating the new park. You gotta remember, this is a publicly traded company. And either way, there’s no way to 100% know what kinks need to be worked out until you run into them on day-to-day operations. The wait times is probably the biggest concern, but as was proven by For ideen Journey, Gringotts, and Hagrids,people will put up with the wait for the experience. When these rides opened Day 1, the queue went to City Walk and beyond.
One of the execs the other days said it's planned to open BEFORE the summer of 2025 which means open day has possibly been pushed to earlier, not later.
@@graffiti.777 Which was because of the pause in construction due to Covid. Between that and ramping back up (and material delays) it got pushed to 2025
Hagrid's runs 10 trains pretty often according to the ride operators I talked to two weeks ago. Also it is without a doubt top 2 in Universal Studios, I don't appreciate this Hagrid's slander.
I know for a fact that I am planning a universal trip either later this year or early next year because ain’t no way I’m stepping foot in that goddamn park until the epic universe opening day crowds die down
The raw amount of quality and care going to this park will be undeniable at the guest level and it'll be an all timer for guest within the first year. The first days and months will be rough with natural "oh we have crowds crowds now" experience being earned. By the first anniversary, everyone will love it without a doubt
I feel it will be the most successful launch of a Universal Park, but it will still have opening day issues. Though having a rolling opening will mitigate that (employee preview > media preview > pass holder preview > private previews > fully open). Realistically, Epic Universe won't hit it's true stride until 5-6 years in. Once they work out operation kinks, add 1-2 expansions, fix unexpected problems, and build up the resort features around the park.
I was impressed at how quickly this new park was built, but seeing the previews I can understand why--not that many rides. I notice that when they compare # of rides, they don't compare it to magic kingdom.
Honestly my biggest concern with Epic is gonna be how general crowd control is handled. I get what they're going for with the whole 'portal' gimmick, isolating every land to make it feel like them all feel like their own world, but I think that's a decision that's gonna bite this park in the ass in the long run. USJ and USH's Nintendo Worlds, and Diagon Alley at Studios, have already demonstrated that singular entrance/exits create major chokepoints in the park layout, causing the land itself to be incredibly crowded. And that's gonna be *every* land here. For as excited about Epic as I am, I think that was an incredibly stupid design decision. Each land is gonna feel incredibly stuffed and overcrowded since there will only be one way to come in and leave. It didn't work for Diagon Alley, it didn't work for the other two Nintendo Worlds, and it's not gonna work here
I've been concerned about the amount of rides on opening for a while. The Dark Universe only has 2 rides/no shows and Harry Potter has 1 ride/1 show. If the 11 rides and 2 shows aren't enough to handle the crowds, i'd love to see Harry Potter and Dark Universe get their expansions sooner than later. Also kind of hoping this park draws away some crowds from Disney to get them working for our business again. Seaworld better prepare too.
After watching, I'm surprised you didn't mention one other factor. Employees and the unions. If no one knows, Disney costume character cast members had recently voted to make a new union called Magic United. In Universal Studios Hollywood, the costume department is looking to unionize as well. Now you're wondering what that has to do with Epic Universe. Well its because unlike Disney World in Florida that does have unions and employees that can choose to join, Universal Studios Florida doesnt have unions. In fact, theyve done everything to stop any unionizing at all. This is further developed partially thanks to playing politics to gain a special entertainment district when Disney was in danger of losing theirs. Funny how the big two get it but Legoland, Busch gardens and other parks dont have this as the governor wanted a "more fair playing field." But anyway, Universal studios has had issues with threatening to fire employees to even discuss unions. Another issue is how theit hr department is. I had an insider tell me their peronsal grievances with how the hr departmnet is at the psrks. And how when unibersal annlunced a pay raise last year to appeal for future hires, it wasnt mentioned that they would cut their hours. But then they would later force employees to work those cut hours with no overtime pay. I dunno if that happens at Disney or other parks but it sounds like bullshit to me.
I think the major issues could be that there isn't enough thrilling attractions like teen/adult type coasters and I think there isn't enough water type attractions. They really should have done a log flume/water coaster and river rapids type rides. Florida is hot as balls and I think that could become a major issue.
Maybe I'm overthinking this but I'm thinking there will be no single day tickets to E.U. at first. Basically force people to buy a three day ticket to even get into E.U. with only one of the three days getting you into E.U. More money for Universal and manageable crowds at each park.
Think about all the hype surrounding Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. They generated huge crowds. They had to limit people at Galaxy Edge with park passes. They did that at Nintendo world in Hollywood. They might have to do that at Epic Universe.
Honestly the best time to go to Islands of Adventure might be when this park opens. Everyone will be too distracted by the new park to bother with the old ones for a bit. Honestly I’m avoiding epic universe for at least a year. The waits will be insane!! Though I’m hopeful that the way the park is so spread out will helps dispel any major crowd crush.
I was already expecting wait time and potential ride malfunction issues but I really don’t think the park will fail with not enough people showing up. More likely the opposite problem.
On the subject of crowds, one other thing that worries me is this: The kids’ rides & play areas are largely clustered in Celestial Park, SNW, & HTTYD, which means that families with small children will swarm those three lands. SNW in particular I think will definitely require a reservation to enter on most days for at least the first couple years. I also think for this reason Epic Universe probably won’t hurt Disney as much as people are saying. Despite Universal’s recent attempts to win over the little ones with stuff like DreamWorks Land & Nintendo, they still very much have a reputation for being more geared towards tweens/teens/young adults compared to Disney and I doubt that will change with Epic Universe.
My family has already made the decision that we aren't going to go the first year the park is open. It's just not in us to be able to stand in multiple ride lines that are running 2+ hours each. We will certainly be monitoring the situation closely as the park opens and it runs through it's first year of operation however.
Disney MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom were both considered half-day parks by many folks at opening... and still get that label by many folks even today after they've upped their attraction content. The issue there was that folks could park hop on Disney property. Same situation with Disney's California Adventure. I think much of the issue at play with Universal will simply be creating and maintaining an efficient, speedy, and scaled-up transport between EU and the other two parks. Will be interesting to see!
One of my biggest concerns is that there is not enough to do in Celestial Park. This is a massive area that could really help with crowding in portal lands. Feels like a missed opportunity for a show of some kind or something.
I think Celestial Park is going to have plenty to do. Admittedly, there are only two rides, but if you look at the restaurants, snack / drink spots, merch stores for the lands, the big fountain and the various water features - there will be plenty there to eat up some of the crowds
@gregorycerven3484 For as big as it is, it has one real shopping location and 4 options to eat. The rides for sure will take up some capacity, but it still feels like it's lacking something. Although I do understand the concept of keeping the "park" in "theme park". Still very excited to see this open
At 10:01 you said that Mack has never worked in this large of capacity, but I beg to differ. I think that considering Slinky Dog Dash is veeeery popular, it's fair enough to put it at the same level as Universal's additions. The only difference is that Disney only has 1, and Universal is going to get 2. Let's see how that goes, but I personally fear way more about Intamin's coasters than Mack regarding reliability
I happened to go on opening week of Harid’s ride and not only where the wait times long but also the ride would become completely inoperable multiple times a day for hours
I agree that the wait times are going to be Horrendous during the first 2-5 years and then continue to have wait problems during peak attendance months, but that'll honestly make it worth it and make staying for a week+ a distinct probability which is something Universal has made clear is one of their interests with opening Epic in Orlando near their pre-existing park.
The Nintendo Universal Hollywood rollout showed how bad wood of mouth can spread. I had many friends hyping me to go but I told them they would be disappointed. They all came back agreeing with me.
Like you said, one of the biggest challenge which none themepark has been able to solve yet is on a system how to spread out the crowd. I think one of the solutions is data awareness to plot where the biggest crowd is, create alot of interactive waypoints which you can adjust to lead people to certain sectors. And most importand if you are in crowded Land A and in Land D there is more room. Create checkpoints where from Land A you reward people to move to a less crowded area. Think of a timed discount for a food stand on the other land. Or a terminial where you can reserve a spot on a ride on the other side of the park giving you a smart map on how to get there. Perhaps earn rewards as in points when you choose to go move from crowded spots to less crowded spots. And with these points you can earn a VIP spot on one of the biggest attractions. Not every1 will go for this, but mainly the yearpass guests are looking for efficiency.
I think the main concern is the number of attractions, they aiming for family market and young kids don't like queuing. 11 rides is not enough the attractions being built all look quality, they could do with another 5/6 small simple well themed flat rides i.e dragons land should have a Dumbo clone for tiny kids, the hub should a small launch tower and kiddie coaster. These extra rides don't need to state of art or take up much space just theme them well to provide some extra capacity
Thank you for being realistic about this... I'm as excited for it as anybody, but I'm so tired of people using literal concept art as proof this is gonna be THE BEST PARK EVER!! Like bro, they're ALL the best ever when they're in the concept art stage! We have to reserve most of our judgement for when it actually opens and, possibly, a bit after.
I think it will be great theme park but it'll be chaos for a while. It'll be super busy, things may not work right at first. Operating procedures that they thought would work well may not and they'll have to adjust. Rides may go down more often until bugs are worked out. Guests will just have to be very patient if they go the first few months of opening. Every other park Universal or Disney has been open for years so they've been able to perfect their operations over the years. It may be useful for Universal to cap capacity a little lower than normal for a bit until they get their ducks in a row. And then slowly raise it as they feel more comfortable.
Three of the rides at Epic Universe would have been operating somewhere in the world when the park opens. I already know I don’t want to go right at opening or in the opening month is because of the reasons listed. The fact two of the roaster coasters are already testing a year out from opening is crazy. I do hoping everything goes as well as possible when the park opens in terms of the rides running. Also still can’t believe there will be a whole theme park land based on the How To Train Your Dragon movies.
I like that you’re being realistic, it’s also shocked me to see how many people are praising a park that hasn’t opened yet THIS much. All theme parks have problems when they open, I def won’t be going there the first year of opening. I’ll probably just go to WDW again, even if I miss out on some really cool stuff. Maybe there will be less crowds bc everyone’s at Epic Universe lol. (… probably not though)
My concerns mostly involve how app-driven everything is going to be. I don't think they plan for hardly anything to have a standby line and literally everything from rides to ordering food is going to go through their app. And I expect network failures, dropped reservations, inability to access data.... and probably worse. No app releases glass smooth... I think it's going to be a real mess on top of the heavy crowds.
If I were Universal, I'd start with passholder-only and (separately) VIP-only days at the parks. They could give people exclusive advance access and low crowds but only if they pay the VIP prices (or alternatively buy an annual pass at what I'm sure will be a new higher rate). I bet they'd print money hand over first, but it would help manage crowds at the start so everyone would still have a reasonably good experience.
It's like when universal florida was created, half of the rides malfunctioned, and they even gave the people who came the first day free passes to go to universal
Dont forget how Universal learned from its mistakes with its Studios opening day. They learned from their failure and were able to launch a very successful opening day for Islands.
Nah they're adding attractions to their existing parks as well to keep guests going there. The entire idea of Epic Universe is to make Universal Orlando a week long vacation between its 4 parks rather than just a day or two while families go to Disney the rest of their vacation. They'll also still have their usuals like Mardi Gras, Christmas and of course HHN that will bring people in. People will come to see Harry Potter alone in both parks.
@@Matthew-dd6kp They've already been doing things. Universal Orlando has basically redone their entire park with new paint, renovating buildings and facades, completely redoing paths, renovating restaurants inside and out with new menu's. Also some of their hotels were also under renovation as well. They're about to open a new land Dreamworks and there's new attractions already in the pipeline for both USF and IOA.
Im going to be living in Orlando during its opening year which is a double edged sword for me since I will get new experiences to see and experience, but the traffic and capacity in the city in general will be horid since everyone will be coming to this park
If Galtorland down the street is seeing better numbers, I think it's a little safe to say that the most anticipated new park of probably the decade will be a success. I have friends who aren't even thenepark fans asking me about this park because they wanna go so bad. But then again we shall see
I don't know if that is the case. I heard they plan to tie tickets to Epic with the other parks to "force" people to visit those parks as well. If so, it will also be busier there.
Maybe they have worked out testing and stuff a lot more, they did a lot of prefab for all the indoor rides, and the show building have been closed up for a long time. I think they have had plenty of planning and testing prep that Disney doesn’t normally do. Especially since COVID shut down construction, I think they did a lot more digital research and development than they would normally do.
It will have problems like most other parks when they first open, but I doubt it will be as drastic as you talk about here. I'm sure Universal will open the park in stages with cast members, VIPs, APHs, and then public soft openings. I'm sure they won't oversell the park to the point that they can't keep up with capacity when the park's fully functional. I have a feeling this park will always be busy for years to come, so they will be constructing those expansion pads very soon after opening. Thinking 5-10 years down the road, they can expand to the other side of new city walk and build a small 4th gate to alleviate crowds from Epic.
I'm not sure it will be a capacity night mare even at opening. We heard the same dire warnings about the Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, USF and IOA. And yet, it was never as bad as projected (heck, for USF that had changable signs to reroute when it hit capacity that were never used)
If anything, the only thing I'd plan to visit at Universal in 2025 is the Epic Universe preview center, because I was born to early to experience the magic of the preview center for Islands of Adventure back in the late 90s.
They are more than likely to introduce a reservation system. Universal started asking a lot of questions related to reservations back in 2021 on their email surveys I've taken 3 of them so far. Unfortunately they will probably introduce some steep pricing too. But not as bad as Disney for park hopping. With Universal testinf over a year out shows they have learned their lesson from opening say nightmares like Universal Studios and IOA.
My concern: getting in/reservations, will we have to pay per portal area or will it be one whole high price tag for admission? Lets not use our phones so much like we will have to at Nintendo
I’m surprised you never mentioned parking or transportation to the park. It’s small but plays such a huge role, just imagine how bad both the traffic and the amount of funneling they would need to accommodate in order to actually get people into the park sure some are willing to wait in line for hours but what about in there car trying to get in for hours
I think with any major operation the size of epic universe it’s going to be growing pains throughout the entire complex. It’s going to take a few years to stabilize all facets
4:08 to be fair Hollywood Studios really is a park that clean of evolved overtime. Nothing was really purpose built to handle crowds, except maybe galaxy edge. but universal has the advantage of being able to purposely build an anticipation of the crowds, where is Hollywood Studios did not.
Honestly might be worth having a guest limit on the park till things die down. Problem with this being it will greatly extend the length of time people will have to wait before getting to even go to the park.
My concerns is the new traffic and parking situations in the surrounding area. It's located in a popular area rather than the middle of nowhere. Pray for us Locals
What I think is most likely to happen at Epic Universe for the opening month is a lot of rides with downtime and extremely high crowds from all the hype. Which in turn of course will both contribute to long wait times. I’m not too concerned though because pretty much every new theme park has to go through this phase and they’ll eventually smooth things out. However they most likely will close some of the opening day rides if precedent is anything to go off of (Think of the boat ride at Islands of Adventure which very few people got to ride) within that first year. That’s just my thoughts though.
The fact they they had the foresight and guts to build it far outweighs any potential links. It will all work out. I hope the expansion is ready to break ground cause I bet people are chomping at the bits to experience something new.
Everyone planning to go to the grand opening, or even within the first 6 months of opening, should expect long lines, huge crowds, and some technical hiccups in the process. That's the price to pay for getting to be "the first" ones to experience the first big new theme park in a generation. They are the guinea pigs, the data collectors, the trial-and-error folks. Props to them, as their sacrifice makes the park experience better for the longevity of the park. As much as bragging rights are fun, you certainly won't find me at a new park on the first day.
Based on the hiccups of Hagrids, I would expect quite a few hiccups as that ride was terrible for breakdowns when it first opened.
I want to be there on opening day and would absolutely pay up for express passes or whatever. I plan to visit USJ later this year and in that sense I could potentially skip the Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe or leave it for last if I have time at the end of the day.
@@AppleGaming4Real That's because that ride was absolutely not ready to be opened but it was opened anyways for different reasons. They needed another 2-3 months of testing before it should have opened and then it would have been a much smoother opening, just like VelociCoaster was. VelociCoaster was an absolute amazing opening with near zero issues.
@@cyclicmusings2661 wow must be nice to be rich
And that is a sacrifice... I am willing to make
I think Disney has such a huge backlash going on right now that people are excited to hype epic universe as a means of clowning on Disney
I kind of wonder if its just because people want Disney to lay down more money for parks and the bigger Epic Universe is the more money Disney will spend.
@@hadeeesDisney parks in the US are sadly going backwards with no sign of it getting better in the next 10 years …as for Universal in the next 10 years they will have expanded to a new land at Epic Universe(rumored Lord of the Rings land)…updated lands in Universal Studios and IOA
@@GirthQuake416Universal Kids will also be open in Texas and the HHN attraction will be open in Las Vegas too
Which is ridiculous, I want both company’s to succeed so I have more of a variety of experiences to go and do. Having both company’s competing is the ultimate W for theme park fans
@@GirthQuake416 you are making me wonder how there isn't a Lord of the rings theme park, or at least a theme park land, already
Another concern I was thinking about was how much of a bottleneck the portals to the lands will be.With everyone trying to get into the same entrance and taking photos and whatnot I can definitely see that being a problem.
Are there issues in Japan with nintendo world? They're using the same warp tunnel approach aren't they?
I think theme park stop said there’s also paths to either side of the portals (I think primarily intended for exit)
W pfp
I brought this up a few months ago in the comments of somebody’s video(there are a million theme park channels narrated by white guys i couldn’t tell you which one) and the person mentioned there would be some other at least exit, & I assume there will be portals in places where lands meet but I’m still not convinced it won’t be a major issue for the first few years and ESPECIALLY in case of emergency.
I don’t think people are aware of the scale of the portals. The cameras do not do it justice. They are definitely big enough, and if they need to they probably have alternative entrances just in case for opening day.
I work at Universal call-center here in Orlando right next to where epic is. It’s still astound me. How many normal people call in with very little theme park knowledge and want to talk about epic with me. I think it’s because most families do research on TH-cam and TikTok before they start buying things and they see epic and they start to build hype for itis a double bladed sword. Universal is really suffering right now because people are withholding their vacations until next summer when epic opens.
When are tickets going on sale? Will they have a 4 park annual pass that includes studios, islands of adventure, volcano bay, and epic? Plz say it’ll also have express.
@@johnjohnson9915 I don’t know anything and even if I did, my full name is on my TH-cam so that seems like a bad idea, but I will tell you I think it would probably be better to not have Express at opening. Express passes are certainly useful for the people who can afford them however it does cause lines to be longer on average for everyone. Best case scenario is no Express for the first year or two, but like I said, I don’t have a lot of insight into how that’s gonna work. defunctland has a really excellent video on Fastpass systems that is worth giving a watch.
People, this is not Universal s first time at the rodeo.....I was there when the Studios was the only pank, with Nickelodeon Studios alongside...... everything went wrong that first year, from Kongfrontation, Earthquake and JAWS wasn't working....it was crowded, and crazy, and they did suffer from their "Big Three" not being able to take people, but they picked themselves up and fixed all the problems (well, not so much with JAWS-that took a few years), and the next year Universal was able to bounce back(also, having Back To The Future didn't hurt)...so, I have faith in them with Epic whatever happens, it will work itself out....
It's also why Island has a preview from March 27 until May 29 -- to test operations with guests. And IOA opened flawlessly (not counting the marketing fiasco)
I think it will be a great park, but it will take while to be it’s perfect self
Yup, they can analyze all they want. But they will never be able to predict everything before guests actually enter the park.
I think the issue is going to be with individual land capacities. Virtual lines just to get into HP, Nintendo, and Dark Universe are likely.
Don't sleep on How to train your dragon.. the ride system is Intamin so if it comes even close to matching the feeling of Hagrids then it will be the busiest family coaster in the park.
Well at least their VL system is better than Disneys
I believe Universal was testing VL queues at Hagrid's for these very types of situations. However I think the way Universal does VL's is wayyy better than what Disney does. Universal releases times throughout the day depending on crowd levels and attraction downtimes rather than pretty much all at once at 7am. You just have to keep trying to get a VL queue with Unviersal's and you'll generally have pretty good luck getting a locked in time.
@@supremefan the problem with hagirds is that it is one of the most complicated roller coasters ever made, if not the number 1 most complicated. The how to train your dragon coaster only has 2 launches and is similar to basically everything that Intamin builds. It’s nothing new that they haven’t done 30 times before. Plus it’s already testing, over a year before the park opens. Hagrids is insanely complicated, plus it was rushed. That’s why it was so unreliable
@@samplautz5586 It being less complicated just means it will be able to have a higher capacity. I still think in the long run it will be more popular then the others due to how fun the actual ride will likely be compared to the others which are mostly theming. I don't imagine the DK coaster or Werewolf coasters will actually be good.
I think Epic will draw more people to Universal properties making it a destination for an entire vacation. Having another HP area will help tie all the parks together. Long lines for sure but people will be willing to wait. As long as they have the technology working it will be great. Having the coasters already working and testing a year out is a great sign.
You also need to consider that many of the lands in Epic Universe are rumored to have interactive elements that should add to "capacity." We know that a significant draw of Super Mario World will be the power-up band mini games culminating in the Bowser Jr. boss battle.
My favorite thing about riding a new attraction day one is just how smooth it is. Those gears and wheels are oiled up and it’s incredible. Rode the Mummy in LA day one and it was the smoothest roller coaster I’ve ever been on.
These are very real concerns and I’m glad you addressed them. I feel like the best option for universal is to a) train their ride ops to be ontop of their game for the opening months and or b) sell limited tickets for the first few months the park is open
so far all the promotional materials and marketing has looked great -- where I'm worried is if universal scraps the whole "stay at one of our hotels, get unlimited fast pass" policy
They're contractually obligated to Loews to offer Express at a minimum of 3 hotels. (Loews operated the hotels)
When I went to the opening of Universal Studios Beijing, it was amazing. On the first day, they limited the number of guests, so all the attractions had low wait times and everything went smoothly. On the second day, it was like night and day. Huge wait times and slightly overcrowded, but was still amazing and just as enjoyable due to the exciting atmosphere! I imagine the buzz within Epic Universe in its opening year will be enough for most theme park fans.
Didn't UBR open during COVID though? So it had very limited capacity per the government. EU will not be like this.
@@ducktails1695 a little bit, but as I said, the second day was crazy busy. But, you're right EU wont be like it.
also belive epic is also opening with a reservation system to limit the guests at the start as well to see how much can be handled at once
@@ChouhouinNeko I doubt it. Nobody likes a reservation system and you can do the same thing by just limiting ticket sales. If they only want 15,000 people in the park they they'll just sell 15,000 tickets and then stop selling tickets. A reservation system is worthless.
No one is making videos like this. Great work!
To be fair, this guy can be quite the negative Nancy, so that's why nobody is making videos like this 😂
Evryone should know by now that not everything in Epic Universe will be at 100% but it doesn't mean that it will not be an amazing Orlando, FL theme park
The major potential impact on Epic Universe: Orlando weather! So many of their attractions will be impacted when storms come through the area. Hopefully they consider an indoor coaster for their next attraction.
I can only think of 4 enclosed rides.
That’s exactly what I was thinking while watching too! One bad storm and your 11 rides drop down drastically with all of the outdoor coasters.
No different than IOA currently. Perhaps they didn't want a park full of big boxes that also take up a lot more room overall.
@@Matt_mill3rI think it will drop down to six rides during stormy weather but that's not including the indoor shows in the park.
Florida only has consistent lighting one month out of the year. We get daily rain for around 4 months and the rest of the year is California weather
Man I wouldnt mind just spending hours looking at all the details in the parks! Why Im planning a 4 day trip to go to the OG parks and 2 days in the new one. But in 2026
I think you are correct about Epic having virtual queues. I believe during the first year, they will require virtual queues to enter each land as well as virtual queues for each major attraction.
I thought someone mentioned that they'd just ticket each land separately. Then they could stop selling tickets when each land reaches capacity to avoid overcrowding.
@@tarazieminek1947 That plan was abandoned very shortly into planning
This is a great video, it's great to see an honest analysis of what could easily be some shortcomings for a major new theme park. Probably nothing major to worry about, but it's definitely good to manage our expectations.
As a theme park fan in the UK my concern is that if Epic Universe doesn't go ahead Universal's interest in a UK park would fizzle out and honestly that would suck. I'm probably not going to be able to afford to go all the way to Epic Universe either so I really hope that a park of the Universal quality does come to the UK. As much as I love Alton Towers and other merlin parks I feel like the competition from Universal would actually serve to have larger additions to their parks. Great video by the way, I love the content and I'm really happy someone addresses the concerns of this new park instead of continuing to keep hyping it up to a ridiculous degree. That being said I really hope this park is a success and I hope sooner rather than later I am able to experience it.
Yea y’all need something in that boring as country
@@kaydod3190fr destabilizing the cod population gets kinda old after a while
Universal seems pretty committed to building a park in the UK though right? They have the land already
There will be issues at the beginning because Universal will have no analytics on it so while they can project and anticipate, until everything goes live they won't have any hard data to adjust. How long are lines, needs for restroom use, food services, etc. Once they start getting that data then they can make adjustments.
My biggest concern personally is the confusion with the identity of their third harry potter world. I don't mind it being about the Ministry of Magic, but I do care the rest of the world is designed after the Paris section of Fantastic Beasts and they realized way too late it was stupid to invest in on the bleh trilogy in any aspect
I’m not saying this in an attacking sort of way, but just asking your opinion. What other things could they have done instead? I’ve watched the movies once, and I’m not sure what other prominent locations they could have done, but I’m sure there are ones and I’m just not thinking about it enough
Even more bizzare is the area and the show are 1920s Paris and the ride is 1990s London (Guess thats why there's a time turner over the portal)
@@richardperhai8292 you want to be more confused? The current rumor is that after epic universe opens, they will expand the new HP area by building a new place to dine. It will be themed to the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Apparently you will travel there by Floo Powder.
I can only imagine new guests to the resort: “So you’re telling me to eat at the Great Hall, i don’t go to Hogwarts castle? Instead I have to go to a different park 2 miles down the road, and I access it from a land themed to Paris?”
@@samplautz5586 According to Alicia that has now been scrapped
I hope the launch of Epic Universe goes well!
It will
Epic Universe is going to be a nail in the coffin for Disney once it opens. I've seen construction on one of the coasters and buildings for celestial park. I'm very hyped for it
Edit: ight, when I meant (a nail in a coffin for Disney) I didn’t mean that universal is gonna kill Disney, I meant as like universal is doing good type of thing.
look man i think this theme park will definitely even out the competition for universal but to kill disney? have you heard what a disney adult is? disney unfortunately cannot even be humbled
Ya I agree, it won’t kill Disney. But when Disney inevitably kills itself, universal will already be established and it will be that much easier to take over Orlando
@@samplautz5586 Disney isn't going to kill itself?? Do you know how hard it would be to do anything with 4 parks, 30 resorts, Disney Springs etc. The park are consistently making BANK. If Disney has a money problem, they could just drop a new Figment popcorn bucket and keep themselves afloat. Universal is closer to closing than Disney will probably ever be.
Disney has done so much dumb shit but people still flock to it so I doubt Disney will kill itself anytime soon
Disney is not going anywhere
Please stop 😒
I'm surprised you did not mention the nearby Sewage treatment plant northeast of the park. I remember passing by there one time and the stench was completely awful. Imagine that reaching out to guests as close as in the the ministry of magic land.
Well then it would just smell like normal France
I mean the smell is probably from the locals. The surrounding northern area around epicU is ghetto as hell.
I think Epic offers far more visual eye candy to amuse and satisfy those who just wanna sit and take in the atmosphere, get out of the house, maybe do a couple rides. A lot more locals now than when IOA opened to boost attendance and Celestial Park seems very much a place to sit. Its layout offers areas and paths to spread out the crowds--especially if the fountains do something special throughout the day.
I'd rather endure vast crowds in a brand new park filled with IPs I actually like than do the same in an old, aging park filled with annoying IPs run by a company that wants to price me out and replace me with rich, vapid influencers.
Wait until you see the price to get into EPIC. It's going to exceed or rival the most expensive day ever. No annual passes are going to be sold, just very expensive day passes.
@@vinnyv07 It might make me the world's biggest dope but I can't wait to give them the money for the privilege. As a non-US resident an annual pass is not in my interest anyway!
As long as Super Nintedo Land is good, I'm a happy camper.
Same
And hopefully Nintendo will be too busy to sue people
Agreed it’s the only land in the park that I actually care about.
@@Mario87456username checks out lmao. I completely agree
Supposedly the Donkey Kong ride is having ALOT of issues. I just hope Japan can find all of the issues so Epic’s can open up without too much downtime….
I just wonder about how timeless the How to Train Your Dragon IP will be. I like the movies, I just wonder how relevant they will stay in the coming years.
And before anyone mentions Dark Universe- those characters are icons of media in general. Everyone and their grandmother knows who Frankenstein and Dracula are
Also Dark Universe helps fulfil the need for a "spooky" area that a lot of theme parks tend to have, perfect as the focus for Halloween-themed events as well. I like the original HtTYD enough that I'm at least open to the idea. I suppose it depends on how much Universal intends to continue to invest in the franchise. Disney has tried to bury Song of the South, for example, but that didn't stop people from loving Splash Mountain all the same, and people are still upset to see the original theming go. It also helps provide another very "kid-friendly" area of the park.
Considering how popular dragons are in general, I suspect How to Train Your Dragon will be more popular and have more staying power than most people expect. Each of the movies made half a billion dollars at the box office, which is quite impressive when you account that this was done prior to the high inflation we are experiencing today. Not to mention the kids show spinoff on Netflix and the book series that was extremely popular in its own right.
There are also other IPs that are based around dragons that may fuel the success of HtTYD. Wings of Fire is one such book series that is very popular with young audiences.
Not only are dragons popular but Vikings are also popular. I think there will be a good deal of people who will be excited just to play at being a viking in that area.
I understand the concern, but I personally wouldn’t be too concerned about the longevity. Httyd is not only a very popular brand as is, but in general is a hit with both young and older demographics. it seems like Universal is investing in newfound interest for the series through the live action remake that will release around roughly the same time that this park will open. Seems more strategic than convenient, but I don’t believe this will be an issue imo.
The ip itself may not stay popular forever but the general theme of Dragons in general is timeless.
And they can always reboot the ip in a few years…. Not that they should…
I dont see it as a problem at all, Dragons are always a bankable IP, the movies are legitimately great. Peter Pan is a classic, but it isn’t the modern kids’ go to anymore, still Peter Pan is one of Magic Kingdoms most sought after rides (I dont understand why). I think a the aesthetic of a whole park that is viking/dragon themed w/references to genuinely great movies will be a hit with kids for decades.
Talking about innovation. I think park designers need to increase re-rideability of dark rides by inventing ways to make slight alterations when folks get bored with them. Either holiday overlays or new characters to bring back jaded guests. It's sad to see Cat in the Hat with a 5 minute wait now. It's a great ride, but just doesn't surprise anymore. Even Skull Island which I love is losing re-ride-abilty for me.
I wouldn't be surprised if the other reason Universal pushed Epic Universe's opening from 2023 to 2025 is because they want to make sure that all of those concerns you've listed won't happen at opening day or at least not happen to such a large degree. If that's the case then they're really being smart about it because they know that they've changed theme park history with The Wizard World of Harry Potter and they don't want to lose that title thus they're not taking any chances with Epic Universe. It's not like with how Disney took and from the looks of it still takes it's position in theme park history for granted for years which basically got them taken down a peg by Universal with the Harry Potter land in the first place and from the looks of it hasn't learned from it which we'll likely see history repeat itself next year in a bigger level.
It's why despite the very valid concerns you've brought out I'm not too worried about Epic Universe since Universal themselves have proven to learn from their mistakes such as not relying on screens so much on their rides and apply them to their new rides and lands. I'd be more worried if either Epic Universe wasn't delayed to be given more time to really work or if Disney themselves were in charge of it given their recent track record with their parks in the USA.
No way they would voluntarily push the date 2 years that’s not how capital planning works. They’re better off launching imperfectly especially into a an already hyped date and begin to recover some of those capital expenses they’ve made by creating the new park. You gotta remember, this is a publicly traded company. And either way, there’s no way to 100% know what kinks need to be worked out until you run into them on day-to-day operations. The wait times is probably the biggest concern, but as was proven by For ideen Journey, Gringotts, and Hagrids,people will put up with the wait for the experience. When these rides opened Day 1, the queue went to City Walk and beyond.
It was due to work stoppage because of COVID, nothing else.
One of the execs the other days said it's planned to open BEFORE the summer of 2025 which means open day has possibly been pushed to earlier, not later.
@@richardperhai8292I think the comment was talking about when they pushed the original opening date which was summer 2023 all the way to 2025.
@@graffiti.777 Which was because of the pause in construction due to Covid. Between that and ramping back up (and material delays) it got pushed to 2025
Hagrid's runs 10 trains pretty often according to the ride operators I talked to two weeks ago. Also it is without a doubt top 2 in Universal Studios, I don't appreciate this Hagrid's slander.
I believe they’ve already stated there won’t be any annual pass access to epic the first year or two and it’ll be scaled up openings
Thats not possible. People would cancel their passes, and Universal does not want that. At best they may have a limit on AP admissions per day.
I know for a fact that I am planning a universal trip either later this year or early next year because ain’t no way I’m stepping foot in that goddamn park until the epic universe opening day crowds die down
The raw amount of quality and care going to this park will be undeniable at the guest level and it'll be an all timer for guest within the first year. The first days and months will be rough with natural "oh we have crowds crowds now" experience being earned. By the first anniversary, everyone will love it without a doubt
I feel it will be the most successful launch of a Universal Park, but it will still have opening day issues.
Though having a rolling opening will mitigate that (employee preview > media preview > pass holder preview > private previews > fully open).
Realistically, Epic Universe won't hit it's true stride until 5-6 years in. Once they work out operation kinks, add 1-2 expansions, fix unexpected problems, and build up the resort features around the park.
true also if tehy tetsign the rides now 1 year out plenty of time to work out bugs that plagued the rides back during studios opening
I was impressed at how quickly this new park was built, but seeing the previews I can understand why--not that many rides. I notice that when they compare # of rides, they don't compare it to magic kingdom.
Honestly my biggest concern with Epic is gonna be how general crowd control is handled.
I get what they're going for with the whole 'portal' gimmick, isolating every land to make it feel like them all feel like their own world, but I think that's a decision that's gonna bite this park in the ass in the long run. USJ and USH's Nintendo Worlds, and Diagon Alley at Studios, have already demonstrated that singular entrance/exits create major chokepoints in the park layout, causing the land itself to be incredibly crowded. And that's gonna be *every* land here.
For as excited about Epic as I am, I think that was an incredibly stupid design decision. Each land is gonna feel incredibly stuffed and overcrowded since there will only be one way to come in and leave. It didn't work for Diagon Alley, it didn't work for the other two Nintendo Worlds, and it's not gonna work here
I've been concerned about the amount of rides on opening for a while. The Dark Universe only has 2 rides/no shows and Harry Potter has 1 ride/1 show. If the 11 rides and 2 shows aren't enough to handle the crowds, i'd love to see Harry Potter and Dark Universe get their expansions sooner than later. Also kind of hoping this park draws away some crowds from Disney to get them working for our business again. Seaworld better prepare too.
After watching, I'm surprised you didn't mention one other factor. Employees and the unions. If no one knows, Disney costume character cast members had recently voted to make a new union called Magic United. In Universal Studios Hollywood, the costume department is looking to unionize as well. Now you're wondering what that has to do with Epic Universe. Well its because unlike Disney World in Florida that does have unions and employees that can choose to join, Universal Studios Florida doesnt have unions. In fact, theyve done everything to stop any unionizing at all. This is further developed partially thanks to playing politics to gain a special entertainment district when Disney was in danger of losing theirs. Funny how the big two get it but Legoland, Busch gardens and other parks dont have this as the governor wanted a "more fair playing field." But anyway, Universal studios has had issues with threatening to fire employees to even discuss unions. Another issue is how theit hr department is. I had an insider tell me their peronsal grievances with how the hr departmnet is at the psrks. And how when unibersal annlunced a pay raise last year to appeal for future hires, it wasnt mentioned that they would cut their hours. But then they would later force employees to work those cut hours with no overtime pay. I dunno if that happens at Disney or other parks but it sounds like bullshit to me.
I think the major issues could be that there isn't enough thrilling attractions like teen/adult type coasters and I think there isn't enough water type attractions. They really should have done a log flume/water coaster and river rapids type rides. Florida is hot as balls and I think that could become a major issue.
Maybe I'm overthinking this but I'm thinking there will be no single day tickets to E.U. at first. Basically force people to buy a three day ticket to even get into E.U. with only one of the three days getting you into E.U. More money for Universal and manageable crowds at each park.
Can they implement the same type of system similar to Volcano bay with the tapu tapu. It seems to work at that park.
There is literally no way the park won’t be insane at least for the first 2 years
five years 😮
Yep, I do think they are going to have to limit capacity somehow.
Think about all the hype surrounding Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. They generated huge crowds. They had to limit people at Galaxy Edge with park passes. They did that at Nintendo world in Hollywood. They might have to do that at Epic Universe.
Honestly the best time to go to Islands of Adventure might be when this park opens. Everyone will be too distracted by the new park to bother with the old ones for a bit. Honestly I’m avoiding epic universe for at least a year. The waits will be insane!! Though I’m hopeful that the way the park is so spread out will helps dispel any major crowd crush.
I was already expecting wait time and potential ride malfunction issues but I really don’t think the park will fail with not enough people showing up. More likely the opposite problem.
On the subject of crowds, one other thing that worries me is this: The kids’ rides & play areas are largely clustered in Celestial Park, SNW, & HTTYD, which means that families with small children will swarm those three lands. SNW in particular I think will definitely require a reservation to enter on most days for at least the first couple years.
I also think for this reason Epic Universe probably won’t hurt Disney as much as people are saying. Despite Universal’s recent attempts to win over the little ones with stuff like DreamWorks Land & Nintendo, they still very much have a reputation for being more geared towards tweens/teens/young adults compared to Disney and I doubt that will change with Epic Universe.
My family has already made the decision that we aren't going to go the first year the park is open. It's just not in us to be able to stand in multiple ride lines that are running 2+ hours each. We will certainly be monitoring the situation closely as the park opens and it runs through it's first year of operation however.
Literally the first time I rode Hagrid's the coaster broke down in front of fluffy. Then it started raining lol
Disney MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom were both considered half-day parks by many folks at opening... and still get that label by many folks even today after they've upped their attraction content. The issue there was that folks could park hop on Disney property. Same situation with Disney's California Adventure. I think much of the issue at play with Universal will simply be creating and maintaining an efficient, speedy, and scaled-up transport between EU and the other two parks. Will be interesting to see!
One of my biggest concerns is that there is not enough to do in Celestial Park. This is a massive area that could really help with crowding in portal lands. Feels like a missed opportunity for a show of some kind or something.
I think Celestial Park is going to have plenty to do. Admittedly, there are only two rides, but if you look at the restaurants, snack / drink spots, merch stores for the lands, the big fountain and the various water features - there will be plenty there to eat up some of the crowds
@gregorycerven3484 For as big as it is, it has one real shopping location and 4 options to eat. The rides for sure will take up some capacity, but it still feels like it's lacking something. Although I do understand the concept of keeping the "park" in "theme park".
Still very excited to see this open
It seems to me that the thing to do in Celestial Park is “stroll”.
Hmm . . . maybe a couple of walk-through attractions.
Just like with everything if you go in the first 6 month expect long waits and multiple downtime's.That is just normal for new attractions.
At 10:01 you said that Mack has never worked in this large of capacity, but I beg to differ. I think that considering Slinky Dog Dash is veeeery popular, it's fair enough to put it at the same level as Universal's additions. The only difference is that Disney only has 1, and Universal is going to get 2. Let's see how that goes, but I personally fear way more about Intamin's coasters than Mack regarding reliability
10:05 it’s funny that you’re talking bout Mackrides coasters whilst showing the only two coasters that are not in-house productions x)
I happened to go on opening week of Harid’s ride and not only where the wait times long but also the ride would become completely inoperable multiple times a day for hours
I agree that the wait times are going to be Horrendous during the first 2-5 years and then continue to have wait problems during peak attendance months, but that'll honestly make it worth it and make staying for a week+ a distinct probability which is something Universal has made clear is one of their interests with opening Epic in Orlando near their pre-existing park.
Ya I'm expecting massive crowds for a long time. I guessed they would maybe do a reservation system the first few months to minimize wait times?
I was at cedar point (20+ attractions) during post Covid. It was Full capacity and it was a 3-4 hours wait time on all rides.
The Nintendo Universal Hollywood rollout showed how bad wood of mouth can spread. I had many friends hyping me to go but I told them they would be disappointed. They all came back agreeing with me.
Like you said, one of the biggest challenge which none themepark has been able to solve yet is on a system how to spread out the crowd. I think one of the solutions is data awareness to plot where the biggest crowd is, create alot of interactive waypoints which you can adjust to lead people to certain sectors. And most importand if you are in crowded Land A and in Land D there is more room. Create checkpoints where from Land A you reward people to move to a less crowded area. Think of a timed discount for a food stand on the other land. Or a terminial where you can reserve a spot on a ride on the other side of the park giving you a smart map on how to get there. Perhaps earn rewards as in points when you choose to go move from crowded spots to less crowded spots. And with these points you can earn a VIP spot on one of the biggest attractions. Not every1 will go for this, but mainly the yearpass guests are looking for efficiency.
I think the main concern is the number of attractions, they aiming for family market and young kids don't like queuing. 11 rides is not enough the attractions being built all look quality, they could do with another 5/6 small simple well themed flat rides i.e dragons land should have a Dumbo clone for tiny kids, the hub should a small launch tower and kiddie coaster. These extra rides don't need to state of art or take up much space just theme them well to provide some extra capacity
I’m sure the few flat rides that’ll open with the park will help flow park capacity.
Babe wake up, Attraction Ideas uploaded
I’m so glad you confirmed that this will definitely be sunshine lollipop and rainbows🥳! Thank you soo much for confirming this
Thank you for being realistic about this... I'm as excited for it as anybody, but I'm so tired of people using literal concept art as proof this is gonna be THE BEST PARK EVER!! Like bro, they're ALL the best ever when they're in the concept art stage! We have to reserve most of our judgement for when it actually opens and, possibly, a bit after.
I think it will be great theme park but it'll be chaos for a while. It'll be super busy, things may not work right at first. Operating procedures that they thought would work well may not and they'll have to adjust. Rides may go down more often until bugs are worked out. Guests will just have to be very patient if they go the first few months of opening. Every other park Universal or Disney has been open for years so they've been able to perfect their operations over the years.
It may be useful for Universal to cap capacity a little lower than normal for a bit until they get their ducks in a row. And then slowly raise it as they feel more comfortable.
Three of the rides at Epic Universe would have been operating somewhere in the world when the park opens. I already know I don’t want to go right at opening or in the opening month is because of the reasons listed. The fact two of the roaster coasters are already testing a year out from opening is crazy. I do hoping everything goes as well as possible when the park opens in terms of the rides running.
Also still can’t believe there will be a whole theme park land based on the How To Train Your Dragon movies.
I like that you’re being realistic, it’s also shocked me to see how many people are praising a park that hasn’t opened yet THIS much. All theme parks have problems when they open, I def won’t be going there the first year of opening. I’ll probably just go to WDW again, even if I miss out on some really cool stuff. Maybe there will be less crowds bc everyone’s at Epic Universe lol. (… probably not though)
the gates seem like dangerous things. Theyll need fencing and impeccable crowd controll
Given that the portals are so essential to the park's design philosophy, I am confident they have thought about potential crowd control issues.
Man imagine the traffic on I-4 💀
It's going to make John young even worse.
My concerns mostly involve how app-driven everything is going to be. I don't think they plan for hardly anything to have a standby line and literally everything from rides to ordering food is going to go through their app. And I expect network failures, dropped reservations, inability to access data.... and probably worse. No app releases glass smooth... I think it's going to be a real mess on top of the heavy crowds.
If I were Universal, I'd start with passholder-only and (separately) VIP-only days at the parks. They could give people exclusive advance access and low crowds but only if they pay the VIP prices (or alternatively buy an annual pass at what I'm sure will be a new higher rate). I bet they'd print money hand over first, but it would help manage crowds at the start so everyone would still have a reasonably good experience.
It's like when universal florida was created, half of the rides malfunctioned, and they even gave the people who came the first day free passes to go to universal
Dont forget how Universal learned from its mistakes with its Studios opening day.
They learned from their failure and were able to launch a very successful opening day for Islands.
We should be worried about Universal Studios Florida that park will be a ghost town😂
Personally I see the crowd divergence as a bonus. Smaller lines for the rides.
Nah they're adding attractions to their existing parks as well to keep guests going there. The entire idea of Epic Universe is to make Universal Orlando a week long vacation between its 4 parks rather than just a day or two while families go to Disney the rest of their vacation. They'll also still have their usuals like Mardi Gras, Christmas and of course HHN that will bring people in. People will come to see Harry Potter alone in both parks.
They're probably going to do a massive rework on it. All of the people they have working on epic will be available to improve existing parks
@@Matthew-dd6kp They've already been doing things. Universal Orlando has basically redone their entire park with new paint, renovating buildings and facades, completely redoing paths, renovating restaurants inside and out with new menu's.
Also some of their hotels were also under renovation as well.
They're about to open a new land Dreamworks and there's new attractions already in the pipeline for both USF and IOA.
I’d say give them 2 years after epic opens before studios gets a new roller coaster, on the level of velocicoaster
Epic Universe has A LOT to to through, but let's hope this har opening would go SOLID!
Im going to be living in Orlando during its opening year which is a double edged sword for me since I will get new experiences to see and experience, but the traffic and capacity in the city in general will be horid since everyone will be coming to this park
If Galtorland down the street is seeing better numbers, I think it's a little safe to say that the most anticipated new park of probably the decade will be a success. I have friends who aren't even thenepark fans asking me about this park because they wanna go so bad. But then again we shall see
They have worked with Mack rides before: For example, space fantasy at Universal Japan and Jurassic flyers at Universal Beijing.
On the bright side. The lines for the other parks are probably going to ease up.
Right I was just saying I’ll be in volcano bay as much as possible during the epic universe opening weeks.
I don't know if that is the case. I heard they plan to tie tickets to Epic with the other parks to "force" people to visit those parks as well. If so, it will also be busier there.
Honestly i see them opening just for on site guests for the first few months to control the crowds.
No way. Imagine millions of pissed off tourists going home to tell people Universal isn't even worth trying to visit. That would kill it
I’ve pencilled in January ‘26 to travel to the USA and check it out. Hopefully the initial rush will have slowed down a little by then…
Maybe they have worked out testing and stuff a lot more, they did a lot of prefab for all the indoor rides, and the show building have been closed up for a long time. I think they have had plenty of planning and testing prep that Disney doesn’t normally do. Especially since COVID shut down construction, I think they did a lot more digital research and development than they would normally do.
If Universal did a VQ, could they do it like the way they have it at Volcano Bay? I think they nailed it there when it comes to VQ.
It will have problems like most other parks when they first open, but I doubt it will be as drastic as you talk about here. I'm sure Universal will open the park in stages with cast members, VIPs, APHs, and then public soft openings. I'm sure they won't oversell the park to the point that they can't keep up with capacity when the park's fully functional. I have a feeling this park will always be busy for years to come, so they will be constructing those expansion pads very soon after opening. Thinking 5-10 years down the road, they can expand to the other side of new city walk and build a small 4th gate to alleviate crowds from Epic.
I'm not sure it will be a capacity night mare even at opening. We heard the same dire warnings about the Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, USF and IOA. And yet, it was never as bad as projected (heck, for USF that had changable signs to reroute when it hit capacity that were never used)
If anything, the only thing I'd plan to visit at Universal in 2025 is the Epic Universe preview center, because I was born to early to experience the magic of the preview center for Islands of Adventure back in the late 90s.
I’m excited though my only concern is universals monster land which does not use the classic monster designs which is quite disappointing.
They can't use the actors faces as they don't have the rights - hence the change
They are more than likely to introduce a reservation system. Universal started asking a lot of questions related to reservations back in 2021 on their email surveys I've taken 3 of them so far.
Unfortunately they will probably introduce some steep pricing too. But not as bad as Disney for park hopping.
With Universal testinf over a year out shows they have learned their lesson from opening say nightmares like Universal Studios and IOA.
My concern: getting in/reservations, will we have to pay per portal area or will it be one whole high price tag for admission? Lets not use our phones so much like we will have to at Nintendo
I’m surprised you never mentioned parking or transportation to the park. It’s small but plays such a huge role, just imagine how bad both the traffic and the amount of funneling they would need to accommodate in order to actually get people into the park sure some are willing to wait in line for hours but what about in there car trying to get in for hours
I think with any major operation the size of epic universe it’s going to be growing pains throughout the entire complex. It’s going to take a few years to stabilize all facets
There’s no way they don’t use some sort of reservation or return time system for just entering the park with the in park hotel.
4:08 to be fair Hollywood Studios really is a park that clean of evolved overtime. Nothing was really purpose built to handle crowds, except maybe galaxy edge. but universal has the advantage of being able to purposely build an anticipation of the crowds, where is Hollywood Studios did not.
The casual quests are not uninterested😂 literally everyone is excited for it, even the news stations in South Dakota are covering it😂
Honestly might be worth having a guest limit on the park till things die down. Problem with this being it will greatly extend the length of time people will have to wait before getting to even go to the park.
My concerns is the new traffic and parking situations in the surrounding area. It's located in a popular area rather than the middle of nowhere. Pray for us Locals
Hence the Kirman Road extension. Day guests will access from there, locals can access off Universal Blvd.
Mack are capable of incredible capacities, the recently-opened "Voltron Nevera" being a prime example!
What I think is most likely to happen at Epic Universe for the opening month is a lot of rides with downtime and extremely high crowds from all the hype. Which in turn of course will both contribute to long wait times. I’m not too concerned though because pretty much every new theme park has to go through this phase and they’ll eventually smooth things out.
However they most likely will close some of the opening day rides if precedent is anything to go off of (Think of the boat ride at Islands of Adventure which very few people got to ride) within that first year.
That’s just my thoughts though.
The fact they they had the foresight and guts to build it far outweighs any potential links. It will all work out. I hope the expansion is ready to break ground cause I bet people are chomping at the bits to experience something new.
Lol foresight, the land was cheap because it used to be a testing ground for Lockheed martin weapons.