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Universal's Epic Universe Wish List & Speculation

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1. Is main street USA or port of entry the same size as two lands and maybe more? No. The space and size has to be justified with the cost to build, otherwise its wasted space that doesn't add any revenue.

2. Make a dine and ride package....if you dine or shop, free entry into hub attractions.

3. This is a deluxe hotel. There has to be some value added to the guest other than view of the new park. Of course not every park don't have a citywalk but comparing to other deluxe hotels, you have the water taxis and walking distance to Citywalk for additional entertainment. This does not have a fast option unless they want the hotel guests to go to I-drive.
1. I still think this is a huge stretch.
2. Then you inflate wait times for the people who spent *way* more money
3. There are plenty of Deluxe theme park hotels with no selling point beyond “staying in the magic” or whatever.

Maybe they keep the hub open initially, but I see it lasting about as long as the “Universal Escape” branding did
 
Maybe they keep the hub open initially, but I see it lasting about as long as the “Universal Escape” branding did
See, this is sort of my thought process

Though I am hoping it is being designed this way to possibly move to open hub down the line, not on day one
 
1. Is main street USA or port of entry the same size as two lands and maybe more? No. The space and size has to be justified with the cost to build, otherwise its wasted space that doesn't add any revenue.

2. Make a dine and ride package....if you dine or shop, free entry into hub attractions.

3. This is a deluxe hotel. There has to be some value added to the guest other than view of the new park. Of course not every park don't have a citywalk but comparing to other deluxe hotels, you have the water taxis and walking distance to Citywalk for additional entertainment. This does not have a fast option unless they want the hotel guests to go to I-drive.
1. Main Street is absolutely huge and has no attractions.

2. That only serves to cheapen the product and lessen the experience of those who actually paid for the park.

3. Do you think a deluxe resort will not have deluxe things such as fine dining, shopping experiences, spa, etc, etc? Disneyland Paris has an entrance hotel, yet they don’t get to just roam around Main Street whenever they want. People who stay at the hotels that look out on Tokyo Disney Sea don’t get to go into the park without a ticket. Etc, etc.
 
My guess is with the park still 3+ years out and the innovations continuing to be made with facial recognition technology, that would likely be part of the new park experience. Let's not get into the ethical issues surrounding it's "training" and use. The writing is on the wall that it's going to be implemented into many travel and leisure activities in the near future (and is already being tested and used in limited situations now) so I envision something like a "only park ticket holders allowed beyond this point" sign and then a little walk up to the land which might have a kind of turnstile area where you just walk up, look at a screen/camera, and it lets you in. It would be MUCH faster than waiting for people to find their tickets, scanning their fingerprints, figuring out which ticket goes to which family member's fingerprint, etc. There would also be cameras when you first enter the "buffer" between the center area and the individual land where people believed to not have tickets can be identified earlier and approached by a team member prior to getting to the turnstiles. If the recognition software fails to recognize you, you would still pass through the turnstile so as to not hold up the line, but a TM would have already been alerted to come and verify your paper/electronic ticket. Maybe have a thumbprint reader incorporated into the system as well for a backup or an option for anybody who objects to the facial recognition or has a reason that it might not work (religious/ethnic dress, medical apparatus, disabilities, etc).
 
1. Main Street is absolutely huge and has no attractions.

2. That only serves to cheapen the product and lessen the experience of those who actually paid for the park.

3. Do you think a deluxe resort will not have deluxe things such as fine dining, shopping experiences, spa, etc, etc? Disneyland Paris has an entrance hotel, yet they don’t get to just roam around Main Street whenever they want. People who stay at the hotels that look out on Tokyo Disney Sea don’t get to go into the park without a ticket. Etc, etc.

1. Disneyland Main Street USA (6.53 acres) out of 85 acres: 7% of the park
Magic Kingdom Main Street 14 acres out of 142 acres: 9% of the park
Epic Universe Hub: 30+ acres: comparison: SNW is 8.8 acres meaning you can fit 3 SNW inside it. That's a lot of merch and revenue being lost

2. Disagree about cheapening the product. Does Universal cheap their product by allowing free parking after 4pm to Citywalk? I mean people paid for parking in the daytime but now its free so its bad? (Fun fact it doesn't take away anything, it makes people more likely to go because then they feel they gained value)

An open hub would have to compete with I-drive. what better way than a meal and a coaster ride plus nighttime show not including parking fee adds up. Most people paying for the park would be spending times in the land anyway more than the hubs. Wasn't the argument that SNW was so robust with activities that itself takes a full day to do everything? If it takes a day to do everything in one land, then guests in the hub aren't taking anything away especially if it was robust with things to do when they originally came up with this concept.

3. Miracosta is a bad example. Miracosta is at most a two night stay kinda place. I've stayed at Miracosta, really really really beautiful hotel but at night after park close, there isn't much to do at the hotel. Everything closes an hour after park close. If you enjoy looking outside at the park and staying in your room for the rest of your night, then its a great value, but if you like to continue enjoying your night other hotels are much better choices. Maybe I've just been spoiled and expect a lot more from big name theme park hotels after experiencing others traveling abroad.

Using other Universal Deluxe hotels, they get bored they have city walk nearby until 2 am. With the exception of Endless Summer which is walking distance from attractions on I-drive for those who don't want to drive, all the hotels can walk to Citywalk after they get bored.

The hotel for this park I would argue is a bit of a walk to get to I-drive and using Universal's Graphic with transportation times to get from place to place Endless Summer runs at 10-15 to get to the main campus...I'm estimating from Epic Universe set to North Campus will take 15-20 minutes by bus and driving.

I think back in the day it was easy to say sell the magic and people will come but I think people prefer a good value and you need to give more incentives to make a difference. Otherwise why would I pay 300+ dollars to stay at Grand Helios which likely will be the starting price point, when I could save money and stay at a cheaper resort hotel and have more to do after the park closes nearby.
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Maybe I'm just crazy weird but if I was running a resort/theme park, I would like to give way more options to guests/locals to bring them to my attractions. Opening the hub would be one of the first and then after an after 4pm ticket price would be my second option because once they got into the hub and saw everything, they may decide to eat in the hub and hit one or two of the lands which still bring money into my organization as they would spend in restaurants, shops, and buying after 4pm tickets versus no open hub and only guests who are already spending money being the only ones spending money.
 
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Why does every park need an entertainment complex

It's ok to eat dinner in the park lol

I also tend to believe Universal will make it as easy as possible for you to get to CityWalk from EU
 
Why does every park need an entertainment complex

It's ok to eat dinner in the park lol

I also tend to believe Universal will make it as easy as possible for you to get to CityWalk from EU

Its kind of the same idea as exiting through the gift shop. I don’t think a single park needs an entertainment complex when the park should be doing that anyway.

If a second park ever opens on the plot of land, I could see it then.
 
Its kind of the same idea as exiting through the gift shop. I don’t think a single park needs an entertainment complex when the park should be doing that anyway.

If a second park ever opens on the plot of land, I could see it then.
Although I do see the benefit of having a complex that stays open late after the parks close (and choose to eat lunch and dinner in CityWalk everytime I go btw)...It seems like the hub is being intentionally designed to have restaurants that are Mythos level scattered all around

It would almost be as if you buried a highly themed CityWalk into a park

That's how it appears anyway

Again, I don't see them making it difficult to go to the other campus
 
Why does every park need an entertainment complex

It's ok to eat dinner in the park lol

I also tend to believe Universal will make it as easy as possible for you to get to CityWalk from EU

I've always assumed that Comcast would want some type of food/drink/shop venue with their proximity to the convention center to try and capture convention visitors with a night life.
 
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