Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

[kristenabelle]

I’d be pretty annoyed as a paying guest if I had to swim through hoards of non paying guests to get between worlds… or couldn’t get a spot to see the fireworks, or fountains.

This, and conversely - if I'm staying at Helios, and the park closes early, and there's nowhere to eat dinner but hotel restaurants or bus to Citywalk...that doesn't sound fun either (depending on capacity). Having the hub open could definitely release some of that pressure

 

[DarkMetroid567]

The decision to make Blue Dragon a Celestial Park restaurant rather than a Helios restaurant does lend some viability to the theory.

I ultimately hope it doesn’t happen, but this potential plan also explains virtually everything I dislike about Celestial Park.

 

[Brian G.]

Presented without comment.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I think the open hub idea may be a backup plan just in case management see's "oh, crap-- those expensive new restaurants are not filling tables". If the park is filling those restaurants, there's no reason to open it to everyone.

Now I could see it becoming a "if you have a ticket or pass to any Universal park, you can visit Celestial Park after 5 or 6" as a kind of semi-open hub so it's a further encouragement for resort guests to spend more money and time.

I can see it becoming a benefit of resort hotel guests to be able to visit Celestial Park with a resort stay when demand lessens.

I'm intrigued by the idea of the open hub, but I could see it becoming an issue if it ends up being flooded with non-park guests. Is there really THAT much dining in Celestial Park to be able to handle non-park guests coming in?

I mean, there is only 2 full service restaurants.

Yeah, I'm sure there were grandeur plans for Epic's 'open concept' hub but there isn't that much dining capacity at the park. Not entirely sure about seating capacity, but not a single location looks out of the ordinary size wise. All of the WDW parks have more table service locations inside the parks. Epic certainly doesn't have the capacity to match CityWalk's available capacity.

 

[Mad Dog]

They must have been nervous at the end of last year but not anymore. The HR dates I booked in December are now about $150 more per night for my September HHN trip. They are also wildly erratic, as I've seen SF standard rooms cheaper than Aventura standard rooms for certain dates and the SF the same as RP.

It's all over the map and constantly changing. Actually, I didn't book back in Dec. 2024, it was just a few weeks ago in late January. And to show how quick things change, the Portofino room I booked for mid November went up a bit by $20 a night as of today....BUT, the CBBR room price for Thanksgiving week dropped an additional $40 a night....so I booked CBBR, and added a couple nights since it was so cheap, for $124 night during Thanksgiving week (Nov. 21 to Dec. 20. That's crazy cheap, and it was never that low for a prime holiday week in the past. I'm guessing an additional 2000 plus rooms are having an effect on pricing.

 

[Jake S]

we love dynamic pricing, don't we folks?

 

[Mad Dog]

we love dynamic pricing, don't we folks?

Especially when it's in our favor. I never expected such good rates in 2025 since the trend was more expensive since covid. But I'm taking advantage of these great rates this year. I'll actually be spending a full month at Universal onsite for a combined two vacations (March/April....Nov. /Dec.). I'm a winner here, but so is Universal, since they'll be making tons of money off me. A great example of why it's sometimes best for a park to keep their hotel prices reasonable.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

It's all over the map and constantly changing. Actually, I didn't book back in Dec. 2024, it was just a few weeks ago in late January. And to show how quick things change, the Portofino room I booked for mid November went up a bit by $20 a night as of today....BUT, the CBBR room price for Thanksgiving week dropped an additional $40 a night....so I booked CBBR, and added a couple nights since it was so cheap, for $124 night during Thanksgiving week (Nov. 21 to Dec. 20. That's crazy cheap, and it was never that low for a prime holiday week in the past. I'm guessing an additional 2000 plus rooms are having an effect on pricing.

We're actually planning a split trip for the first time this year, and working out all the price differences between 2 hotels has been... fun lol

 

[Mad Dog]

We're actually planning a split trip for the first time this year, and working out all the price differences between 2 hotels has been... fun lol

I do splits more than half the time now. Before, Portofino and Royal Pacific were most always reasonable and we'd stay there the entire vacation. But once those started to skyrocket, and Lowes ended their great Rewards Program, we switched to using Cabana or Sapphire to balance the costs with a split stay or we just did a full Cabana or Sapphire stay and skipped the Portofino portion if the rates were too high...From what I've seen of this year, except for a few weeks during high demand or HHN, the rates are very reasonable again.....And yes, it's kind of fun to play around with the dates. But keep tracking after you book. Sometimes the rate gets better and you can just cancel and rebook. I've done that often.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I do splits more than half the time now. Before, Portofino and Royal Pacific were most always reasonable and we'd stay there the entire vacation. But once those started to skyrocket, and Lowes ended their great Rewards Program, we switched to using Cabana or Sapphire to balance the costs with a split stay or we just did a full Cabana or Sapphire stay and skipped the Portofino portion if the rates were too high...From what I've seen of this year, except for a few weeks during high demand or HHN, the rates are very reasonable again.....And yes, it's kind of fun to play around with the dates. But keep tracking after you book. Sometimes the rate gets better and you can just cancel and rebook. I've done that often.

Yep, I've rebooked before when prices dipped a bit! They're only showing Seasonal Rates for now, hoping prices dip a bit again.

(we let our passes expire)

 

[JohnHammondsCane]

Man, Sapphire Falls APH rates are all over for late September, early October. King Lagoon View cheaper than Standard 2 Queen. Standard 2 Queen at $260. Last several years it's about $180. Epic price bump is real!

We also go the first week of December. APH rate for a 2 Queen at Sapphire is $410???

I wonder if these prices are finally reflecting the jump into the Signature Collection tier for Sapphire?

 

[Mad Dog]

Man, Sapphire Falls APH rates are all over for late September, early October. King Lagoon View cheaper than Standard 2 Queen. Standard 2 Queen at $260. Last several years it's about $180. Epic price bump is real!

We also go the first week of December. APH rate for a 2 Queen at Sapphire is $410???

I wonder if these prices are finally reflecting the jump into the Signature Collection tier for Sapphire?

I'm thinking Sapphire might be getting some guest melt off from Portofino/RP/Hardrock since those hotel Express passes aren't as valuable as they were before since they won't include Epic. Portofino has some pretty good rates compared to the past couple years. Dynamic pricing denominator is mostly demand driven. We're probably going to see some realignments. CBBR has a lot of hotel competition now and their mostly lower prices are reflecting that I'd guess.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

Man, Sapphire Falls APH rates are all over for late September, early October. King Lagoon View cheaper than Standard 2 Queen. Standard 2 Queen at $260. Last several years it's about $180. Epic price bump is real!

We also go the first week of December. APH rate for a 2 Queen at Sapphire is $410???

I wonder if these prices are finally reflecting the jump into the Signature Collection tier for Sapphire?

I've been genuinely floored by the SF prices the last few times I've checked!

 

[Mad Dog]

I've been genuinely floored by the SF prices the last few times I've checked!

Touring Plans has it rated as the highest guest satisfaction hotel resort at Universal. I guess it has good word of mouth. I like SF better than RP if RP didn't have the hotel express.....but then again SF has good AP rates the week before Mardi Gras ends even though that's still Spring Break season. So it's gotta be about when the demand falls. I'm staying there (SP) the last week of Mardi Gras before I move to Portofino since it's $250 plus a day 'less' then the other Signatures. But SF did jump up $35 a night from when I booked it a couple of weeks ago.....Everythings in the timing, so you have to monitor these prices weekly or so.