Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

[Brian G.]

Do you have any insight into the reliability of Thrill Data's estimated tickets available for the previews? We have tickets for Monday, but Wednesday/Thursday have more availability.

I think everyone’s data needs to be afforded a learning curve since it’s so early in the park’s life (not to mention the expected downtimes with a soft opening).

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Should expect Epic Universe hours for June in the next day or two, park hours for June are reflected for USF and IOA, with June 1st for Epic Universe posted as 9AM to 9PM. Starting June 1st, park hours are consistent for USF (9-9) and IOA (9-10), with the exception of a handful of early closures.

VB does have one random 1PM closure on 6/27, so I'm hoping the site's calendar is still being refreshed.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

and possibly Saturdays....The locals flock to Universal most every Saturday, so that's always a good day to stay away from Universal if you're looking for decent stand by lines.

Right, but a lot of that would typically be bolstered by APs. We’ll have a lot of interested locals visiting for the first time, but otherwise, the money will run out until APs are finally offered.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

It'll be interesting to see how busy the restaurants stay open once the park fully opens. It's a lot of restaurant/bar capacity to fill, with no APs to fill those seats in later in the evening.

 

[sparky]

Should expect Epic Universe hours for June in the next day or two, park hours for June are reflected for USF and IOA, with June 1st for Epic Universe posted as 9AM to 9PM. Starting June 1st, park hours are consistent for USF (9-9) and IOA (9-10), with the exception of a handful of early closures.

VB does have one random 1PM closure on 6/27, so I'm hoping the site's calendar is still being refreshed.

The insanity of them posting early closures for park buy outs being 2 months is just wrong. People plN vacations 6+months out only to see the parks closing early multiple days. Buy outs should be posted 6 months out to allow the general public to know their vacations are being impacted by corporate nights

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Theoretically the UOR parks can fit a good 30-40K... but they don't see those often. They also can't operate the parks efficiently at those levels.

I expect Epic to slowly increase capacity over time as the attractions get more reliable. Expecting Epic to start off closer to 18-20K, and adjust as time goes on. This park isn't ready to handle large crowds yet.

Even with everything operating reliable, not sure how much past these busy Saturdays they can increase capacity? Majority of rides are outdoor and subject to weather delays. Half the rides have horrible capacity. They NEED people to be just hang out, visit restaurants and fill the bars and chill.

 

[JohnHammondsCane]

Even with everything operating reliable, not sure how much past these busy Saturdays they can increase capacity? Majority of rides are outdoor and subject to weather delays. Half the rides have horrible capacity. They NEED people to be just hang out, visit restaurants and fill the bars and chill.

Checking the app for wait times during a rain delay is ROUGH. The park will really need some indoor rides as they start thinking expansion

 

[jarmor]

View attachment 26250

Is that current as of the time you posted? Not sure if it is yesterday, today. . .

 

[BBPH]

Universal held an activation in London this evening, they projected across the two wash towers of Battersea Power Station.

It was great to see in person, SNW by far got the biggest reaction. They were offering Monster Makeup, HTTYD green screen photos, Nintendo photo op and Celestial caricatures interestingly noting related to potter (other than the projections).

Full show: here

 

[Imperius]

Seems Disney has no issue people going to Epic.

 

[Mike S]

Universal held an activation in London this evening, they projected across the two wash towers of Battersea Power Station.

It was great to see in person, SNW by far got the biggest reaction. They were offering Monster Makeup, HTTYD green screen photos, Nintendo photo op and Celestial caricatures interestingly noting related to potter (other than the projections).

Full show: here

View attachment 26257

Iconic building.

If you know, you know.

 

[Rikku]

View attachment 26250

I am sure this weekend will be busier than most preview days but thrilled I booked both Saturday and Sunday so optimistic I can get everything done at least once and Monsters and Stardust at least twice between the two days and take in vibes. Even if these numbers are accurate, they still seem manageable to me especially spread out between two days just got to monitor the weather and delays as they report them.

 

[boomerthom]

I was there Wednesday and wait times were really bad for a couple hours, but then calmed down a good bit. At rope drop the Monsters line was wrapped almost all the way around Werewolf going counterclockwise with a posted 80 minutes iirc, so we did Werewolf instead with almost no wait. After that, the Monsters line was inside and we started at the covered outdoor section of the queue with just a few switchbacks - was on in likely 45 minutes or so (this also got down to 15-25 minutes later in the day with the post-preshow queue section being nearly empty at points). Mine-Cart Madness was delayed at opening and eventually went from like 120 minutes down to a posted 50 around lunchtime, and MK got down to 35 if I’m remembering right. Hiccup’s also opened at a whopping 80 but later got down to 25-35. I’ve been keeping an eye on wait times and it seems like there’s a pretty big “burst” for the first few hours of operation, but then most things calm down as long as there isn’t significant downtime to increase demand.

 

[AvoidTIMtation]

Wait times being 60+ with the park being at less than half capacity has me pretty nervous LOL

 

[JohnHammondsCane]

Wait times being 60+ with the park being at less than half capacity has me pretty nervous LOL

Agreed! MoM has me really worried. Always hard to know since we don't know have all of the details causing delays, but it seems like the sensor issue should be able to be fixed with tuning

 

[Mad Dog]

Still three weeks left to get everything well, or close to. Seems like they're doing better than anyone expected with Ministry being the only questionable attraction. Looks good for a successful official opening.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Wait times being 60+ with the park being at less than half capacity has me pretty nervous LOL

I've been adamant for the past few years now that Epic Universe won't have the best capacity (even though it has a lot of attractions on opening day) in Orlando, and equal to that of Animal Kingdom. Problem is that attractions like Donkey Kong, Werewolf, Racer Rally are low capacity, while the higher capacity attractions like Monsters & Ministry are not reliable enough yet.

With that said, this park has a lot of "filler" experiences like shows, interactive experiences and great dining to reduce the impact of low ride capacity.

 

[Mad Dog]

I've been adamant for the past few years now that Epic Universe won't have the best capacity (even though it has a lot of attractions on opening day) in Orlando, and equal to that of Animal Kingdom. Problem is that attractions like Donkey Kong, Werewolf, Racer Rally are low capacity, while the higher capacity attractions like Monsters & Ministry are not reliable enough yet.

With that said, this park has a lot of "filler" experiences like shows, interactive experiences and great dining to reduce the impact of low ride capacity.

Yep, like is normal with new parks, there's not a lot of rides, and when a good number are low capacity, there's bound to be some long lines on days that aren't slow. As you say, fortunately there's live shows and some street entertainment, that will help to occupy peoples time more than a 4 minute ride. It will probably be very fortunate that Universal decided to balance the park with a significant number of things to do besides rides. Myself, I often prefer good live entertainment to short time rides.

 

[Jake S]

With that said, this park has a lot of "filler" experiences like shows, interactive experiences and great dining to reduce the impact of low ride capacity.

Yeah, the shows and dining are going to be huge for this park in terms of spreading guests around.

 

[Alicia]

I've been adamant for the past few years now that Epic Universe won't have the best capacity (even though it has a lot of attractions on opening day) in Orlando, and equal to that of Animal Kingdom. Problem is that attractions like Donkey Kong, Werewolf, Racer Rally are low capacity, while the higher capacity attractions like Monsters & Ministry are not reliable enough yet.

With that said, this park has a lot of "filler" experiences like shows, interactive experiences and great dining to reduce the impact of low ride capacity.

It’s interesting because of the high demand for several headliner ride experiences we see people rope drop Monsters, Mine Cart, Mario Kart, and Hiccups, with all posting 60+ min queues in the first hour. But then most of those lines die down after an hour as everyone got their most anticipated ride done and start to move on to the filler experiences, or lunch (since previews have been starting so late in the day).