Universal's Epic Universe Wish List & Speculation

[Alicia]

I don’t expect much authentic German or any Scandinavian food. I’m guessing Stakehouse will be the park’s burger place and Great Hall is ribs and chicken.

Doesn't Toadstool Cafe have burgers? Also early concept art for Windmill at Monsters shows burgers. I expect this to be different.

It could offer German-inspired fare the same way Leaky Cauldron offers British Pub-inspired fare. No one “likes” British food either, but they made it work.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Why don’t Americans like German food? It’s sausages and potatoes. Americans like sausages and potatoes.

 

[Heisenberg]

I’m guessing The Windmill will have Bavarian snacks but Monsters and Dragons will have the big American quick service restaurants. They can get adventurous with some French Bistro menus in Wizarding World.

 

[GAcoaster]

Doesn't Toadstool Cafe have burgers? Also early concept art for Windmill at Monsters shows burgers. I expect this to be different.

It could offer German-inspired fare the same way Leaky Cauldron offers British Pub-inspired fare. No one “likes” British food either, but they made it work.

It could be like when the Simpsons go to Epcot and Marge is trying to figure out what to order between "Der Hamburger" and "Das Pizza" and joking she hopes she doesn't order an elephant accidentally. It will be dumbed down for the guests.

 

[GAcoaster]

Random thought I had today while navigating WDW transportation:

I am wondering if there will be park-to-park tickets that include Epic sold to day guests, or might we see a “resort guests only” policy for three/four parks? The reason why I question it is partly capacity, but also transportation between north and south campuses. It’s one thing to run shuttles for the resort guests, but the fleet of buses needed when day guests want to shuttle is mind boggling. Especially if the demand is unknown day to day or hour to hour.

I just picture that perhaps there are no APs for Epic, and no park to park tickets that include Epic unless you are staying on property. At least to start with just until they have a good handle on capacity and guest flow.

The thought of mass exodus from north to south with everyone wanting to see the nighttime show and then get back to where they parked is staggering without a mass transit system beyond just busses…

 

[Joe]

Random thought I had today while navigating WDW transportation:

I am wondering if there will be park-to-park tickets that include Epic sold to day guests, or might we see a “resort guests only” policy for three/four parks? The reason why I question it is partly capacity, but also transportation between north and south campuses. It’s one thing to run shuttles for the resort guests, but the fleet of buses needed when day guests want to shuttle is mind boggling. Especially if the demand is unknown day to day or hour to hour.

I just picture that perhaps there are no APs for Epic, and no park to park tickets that include Epic unless you are staying on property. At least to start with just until they have a good handle on capacity and guest flow.

The thought of mass exodus from north to south with everyone wanting to see the nighttime show and then get back to where they parked is staggering without a mass transit system beyond just busses…

Or they'll offer more buses? I think you're overthinking this.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

I think the hotels should have their own themed busses guests take to Epic and the current property. Then have your mass exodus of generic Universal Orlando busses departing Citywalk every 5-15 minutes.

 

[OrlandoGuy]

Random thought I had today while navigating WDW transportation:

I am wondering if there will be park-to-park tickets that include Epic sold to day guests, or might we see a “resort guests only” policy for three/four parks? The reason why I question it is partly capacity, but also transportation between north and south campuses. It’s one thing to run shuttles for the resort guests, but the fleet of buses needed when day guests want to shuttle is mind boggling. Especially if the demand is unknown day to day or hour to hour.

I just picture that perhaps there are no APs for Epic, and no park to park tickets that include Epic unless you are staying on property. At least to start with just until they have a good handle on capacity and guest flow.

The thought of mass exodus from north to south with everyone wanting to see the nighttime show and then get back to where they parked is staggering without a mass transit system beyond just busses…

I was thinking about this too, how the manage park-to-park ticket sales when one park is so separated from the rest of the campus. But then again, the two campuses probably aren’t more separated than Animal Kingdom from Magic Kingdom, right? And no monorail needed from the bus drop off to Epic to boot.

As someone who wrote thousands of words on WDW vs UOR dining (with data!) this spring for TP I have some interesting insights.

For guest ratings, UOR actually is very competitive with WDW. This is based on a thumbs up/down rating from Unofficial Guide and TP readers.

These are the star ratings for the restaurants by the professional Unofficial Guide critic. Now, you can see UOR does lack the big, high-end dining like V&A, Cali Grill, Jiko, etc., BUT they still hit the same middle percentile that WDW does. BUT, you also see UOR doesn't hit the same lows at Disney does with some of their dining locations (Rix, Tony's, Rainforest, etc).

There are two dining locations that hit the high end, thought:

• The Palm at Hard Rock
• Bice at Portofino Bay

I think there are two things holding back UOR's dining: the pricing and the clientele.

UOR aims for a lower price point than Disney, and it's not even close. The average full-service entre at WDW is $29.57, and $23.80 at UOR. I think UOR's keeping their dining prices lower as a competitive advantage which while is great for us, it doesn't allow for more creativity or the attention fine dining requires.

Second, WDW just has more people and more people who will spend more money. Simple as that, they have a clientele that will pay for it. Just as why when WDW has two parks they couldn't do the same things they can now they have four, UOR just can't pull that yet.

So that leaves us with likely three new full service restaurants coming to UOR in 2025:

• Grand Helios water show side dining
• BBQ place
• other dining in the hub (location/theme escapes me sorry)

BBQ ain't going to be high end, I think the best bet is Grand Helios pushing dining up the next level. Even at Disney most of the fanciest restaurants are at hotels!

Do you have a link to this full study? I have to look at stuff like this every day so it’s kinda cool seeing it applied to an actual interesting subject.

Curious if you had a control group? Something to counterbalance the difference in scores between theme park burger fans who give theme park burgers a 10/10 compared to upscale sushi fans who give something like the Japan quick service in Epcot a 6/10 (but wouldn’t have even bothered with a burger). The audience sample in this is everything…either way, interesting stuff.

 

[Mad Dog]

I was thinking about this too, how the manage park-to-park ticket sales when one park is so separated from the rest of the campus. But then again, the two campuses probably aren’t more separated than Animal Kingdom from Magic Kingdom, right? And no monorail needed from the bus drop off to Epic to boot.


Do you have a link to this full study? I have to look at stuff like this every day so it’s kinda cool seeing it applied to an actual interesting subject.

Curious if you had a control group? Something to counterbalance the difference in scores between theme park burger fans who give theme park burgers a 10/10 compared to upscale sushi fans who give something like the Japan quick service in Epcot a 6/10 (but wouldn’t have even bothered with a burger). The audience sample in this is everything…either way, interesting stuff.

One big positive on Touring Plans ratings/surveys is that they have a huge sampling, comprising a large varied demographic of different ages and including families, unlike smaller sites. Another positive is that their readership is mostly people who actually go on vacation to Disney/Universal and not just the fanboys of other sites that aren't representative of the actual theme park vacationing demographic.

 

[GAcoaster]

Or they'll offer more buses? I think you're overthinking this.

Disney has a larger bus fleet than many cities and they have challenges with staffing and equipment. I know that Universal contracts Mears for their busses currently, but this will be a bigger challenge.

 

[Tobias]

Disney has a larger bus fleet than many cities and they have challenges with staffing and equipment.

When you're having to service 27/28 hotels, four theme parks, an entertainment district, multiple water parks, a sports complex...yeah you're gonna' have issues with staffing and whatnot from having a fleet that massive. But that's WDW.

Universal/Mears currently has a fleet of buses shuttling eight hotels to just CityWalk and Volcano Bay, and once EU opens they'll just need a fleet of buses going between the north and south campuses. Even with another fleet, that's still nowhere near the buses that Disney has to deal with.

 

[Joe]

And if you drove to the resort... well you can then drive to EU.

 

[graspthesun]

I think this would be a bigger concern if there wasn't going to be a massive lot built outside EU. Aventura, Cabana Bay and Eternal Summer will be able to easily pivot because they already have dedicated bus areas with park shuttles. I anticipate minor construction to the valet areas of the other 4 resorts and I suspect that the refurbishment of the bus hub outside of Citywalk was done to prep for bus transportation between campuses for the people who don't want to move their cars. Universal is also building dedicated busways between the campuses. The infrastructure is there. I think the bus volume will scale with it.

 

[ReelJustice]

Big “Galaxys Edge at Disneyland” energy. Universal will be fine.

 

[Joe]

I was thinking about this too, how the manage park-to-park ticket sales when one park is so separated from the rest of the campus. But then again, the two campuses probably aren’t more separated than Animal Kingdom from Magic Kingdom, right? And no monorail needed from the bus drop off to Epic to boot.


Do you have a link to this full study? I have to look at stuff like this every day so it’s kinda cool seeing it applied to an actual interesting subject.

Curious if you had a control group? Something to counterbalance the difference in scores between theme park burger fans who give theme park burgers a 10/10 compared to upscale sushi fans who give something like the Japan quick service in Epcot a 6/10 (but wouldn’t have even bothered with a burger). The audience sample in this is everything…either way, interesting stuff.

Comparing Disney & Universal Full Service Dining – Pricing and Ratings | TouringPlans.com Blog

Here at Touring Plans, we love Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando both equally. Each resort complements the other's

touringplans.com

The control is the professional reviewers.

 

[JungleSkip]

Clearly parks in Orlando that require buses from on-site resorts could never survive.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Random thought I had today while navigating WDW transportation:

I am wondering if there will be park-to-park tickets that include Epic sold to day guests, or might we see a “resort guests only” policy for three/four parks? The reason why I question it is partly capacity, but also transportation between north and south campuses. It’s one thing to run shuttles for the resort guests, but the fleet of buses needed when day guests want to shuttle is mind boggling. Especially if the demand is unknown day to day or hour to hour.

I just picture that perhaps there are no APs for Epic, and no park to park tickets that include Epic unless you are staying on property. At least to start with just until they have a good handle on capacity and guest flow.

The thought of mass exodus from north to south with everyone wanting to see the nighttime show and then get back to where they parked is staggering without a mass transit system beyond just busses…

Uni does a great job at operating buses. If anything, Epic will reduce the stress of operating buses between the current resorts and CityWalk/IOA/USF as those guests will divert to Epic and spread capacity out. The only thing that I fear is Universal Blvd getting backed up during busier periods (like HHN) with buses, Ubers, and guests leaving parking garages.

Epic's only a 10-minute drive away and I'd assume Universal will run more than 1-2 buses like Disney does between their parks.

 

[Joe]

Ok my wish is the cut Italian restaurant is replaced with a new flat ride: a Huss Jump



Because if I'm going to dream I'm going to dream BIG.

 

[Magic-Man]

Ok my wish is the cut Italian restaurant is replaced with a new flat ride: a Huss Jump



Because if I'm going to dream I'm going to dream BIG.

I'd love to see that IF the downtime issues were worked out. From what I've heard it has a lot of downtime.

 

[jarmor]

They actually only made one as it was a custom design for wonderland. Thankfully so as it never runs and has had problems from day one. Could be why it;s only one made.