Universal Studios Orlando Resort General Discussion (USO, IOA, Epic Universe)

[purdude86]

On 3/16/2026 at 6:15 PM, Diamondback_Is_King said:

Just call it Harry Potter 🙃. Or Wizarding Paris. I don't really care what they call the land officially, I just shorten it to whatever is easiest. Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is so long for literally no reason. We just call it Hargrid's.

Yea everyone just calls the other lands Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley even though the official name is longer. Just called it Ministry (of Magic) or Place Cachee, or just Harry Potter but might need to specify Epic's land with that.

[RollerColt]

On 3/16/2026 at 7:32 AM, Diamondback_Is_King said:

This ride already has tons of capacity. I don't see any way they increase it. In fact, when I visited last summer, I remember thinking that I don't think they could have made the ride more efficient.

Yeah, we were at Epic on July 3rd, super busy and packed naturally due to the holiday weekend. Stardust was consistently the fastest experience of the park by far. In fact, I don't think the ride wait time ever went over 25 minutes. 

[jzarley]

Universal sent out a survey to AP holders a few weeks ago asking questions to judge interest in Epic Universe AP scenarios—likelihood of expanding existing passes to include Epic, stand-alone passes and ticket packages. One of the things that surprised me was that when explaining the potential offering to add an expansion to the existing AP to include Epic it “would be roughly twice the cost.” It seems a little steep to double the cost of the existing two-park pass, but I guess they don’t want to overwhelm their already concerning capacity issues (still, in my mind I was thinking more like a 50% increase in cost to add Epic—that still puts a premium on it.)

The option I rated highest was the opportunity to purchase a 3 or 5 day annual package of day tickets to Epic at the time of AP renewal that could be used over the course of the year. (It specifically said that an option like this would require advance reservations—which doesn’t bother me.) No pricing was proposed for these packages but you have to think it would be lower (or at least no higher) than the current daily discounted price for AP holders—and, if my after 4p Express benefits would apply I’d definitely be on board with that option.

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I think the 5 day ticket package would be the best option while they need to keep the total attendance numbers down due to the park's low capacity. Reservations for these tickets are fine IMO, but they're probably not entirely necessary. Doubling pass prices would not be a good move. Maybe if they add a 3-4 park pass in 2027 (the discrepancy being whether to include Volcano Bay or not) then it could work, though I'd keep the 2-park pass as-is since it'd still be relatively "affordable" for families and people who don't live in Florida. 

If the recent rumblings of a second Universal Orlando waterpark or a dedicated Orlando Universal Kids' Resort were to come true then I would say double the price. It's too early after Epic's opening to open a whole new park or a second City Walk, but Universal does what they want. Maybe they could use one of the big expansion plots to build a cheap-ish but better executed DinoLand-style expansion. That might help with a little bit of capacity until they can build proper expansions. Heck, they could put in a pair of B&M Family Inverts for a new Dueling Dragons for some cheap nostalgia points and capacity.