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

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I'm a little curious as to whether the park will ever have a period of time when they open Celestial Park and have the other four lands be ticketed. It seems like something that would work for things like Halloween Horror Nights or separately ticketed events, although I don't entirely see them moving the event. Maybe having a special Halloween event in Dark Universe and Ministry of Magic could be cool and would let the families/kids still enjoy Super Nintendo World and Isle of Berk. (Imagine it as if Kings Island walled off Coney Mall and Rivertown for Haunt while keeping the rest of the park open as normal (I don't like this idea for KI)).

The park was specifically designed to be able to simply close off entire lands, and it both intrigues and confuses me. It's a really unique concept so I hope it works out either way.

[Diamondback_Is_King]

7 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

I'm a little curious as to whether the park will ever have a period of time when they open Celestial Park and have the other four lands be ticketed. It seems like something that would work for things like Halloween Horror Nights or separately ticketed events, although I don't entirely see them moving the event. Maybe having a special Halloween event in Dark Universe and Ministry of Magic could be cool and would let the families/kids still enjoy Super Nintendo World and Isle of Berk. (Imagine it as if Kings Island walled off Coney Mall and Rivertown for Haunt while keeping the rest of the park open as normal (I don't like this idea for KI)).

The park was specifically designed to be able to simply close off entire lands, and it both intrigues and confuses me. It's a really unique concept so I hope it works out either way.

I know they had talked about this before and it be like a Citywalk-style thing. I seem to remember that Universal decided against it because it would be difficult to separate the "Citywalkers" from guests at the park. Plus, those who are coming out of the land would then have to maneuver through the people enjoying this Citywalk-style event. I personally, can't see this working too well.

 

On a completely separate note, we now have our first in-park images of Epic Universe! These were taken by Universal and they look stunning! It almost looks fake and like concept art. My favorite picture here is Monster's Unchained because of how detailed the building is and just the effect it has on the surrounding area. I'm so STOKED!

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I guess one thing we can ask about is whether or not the other Super Nintendo World(s) have a singular entrance and exit and how those work out. That might give us some insight into how Epic Universe will work.

[jzarley]

6 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

I guess one thing we can ask about is whether or not the other Super Nintendo World(s) have a singular entrance and exit and how those work out. That might give us some insight into how Epic Universe will work.

In Hollywood it works pretty much as Diamondback described in the earlier post—there’s the main “pipe” entrance, then there’s another tunnel beside it that’s designed as an exit (I had forgotten about that). I was there on a Sunday in September and the park was busy but not extremely so (it was one of their first nights of HHN so was closing early). When I was there, they weren’t really regulating the in/out tunnels—in fact in my first time in the land I went back out the pipe the same way I came in because I didn’t notice the exit tunnel. However, I’m sure they do a much more regimented forced traffic when attendance warrants it.

[jzarley]

In addition to going to the preview on Monday (*so* excited ) my partner and I bought single day AP tickets when they first went on sale months ago for 6/20. I saw on the news this morning that Universal Express just went on sale for Epic so thought I’d look at adding Express to our trip on 6/20–the cost for that date (and pretty much all of June/July) is $240 *EACH* and does NOT include 

• Dragon Racer’s Rally
• Mine-Cart Madness™
• Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry

I’m still debating (hate the idea of 4 hour+ lines for everything) but have to say I’m a little sticker-shocked by almost $500 for two people in addition to what I already spent on the single day tickets (which, I can’t even remember how much they were since it was months ago that I bought them)

 

EDIT Update: yeah, I went ahead and bought the Express for 6/20. I rationalized it because my partner’s and my birthdays are a week apart and our Epic visit falls between them, it’s kind of like a birthday present…we want to have time to spend some time at the rooftop bar at Helios Grand, etc., etc. (You know—the normal rationalizations when you’re attempting to justify an extravagant purchase )

[Diamondback_Is_King]

51 minutes ago, jzarley said:

In addition to going to the preview on Monday (*so* excited ) my partner and I bought single day AP tickets when they first went on sale months ago for 6/20. I saw on the news this morning that Universal Express just went on sale for Epic so thought I’d look at adding Express to our trip on 6/20–the cost for that date (and pretty much all of June/July) is $240 *EACH* and does NOT include 

• Dragon Racer’s Rally
• Mine-Cart Madness™
• Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry

I’m still debating (hate the idea of 4 hour+ lines for everything) but have to say I’m a little sticker-shocked by almost $500 for two people in addition to what I already spent on the single day tickets (which, I can’t even remember how much they were since it was months ago that I bought them)

 

EDIT Update: yeah, I went ahead and bought the Express for 6/20. I rationalized it because my partner’s and my birthdays are a week apart and our Epic visit falls between them, it’s kind of like a birthday present…we want to have time to spend some time at the rooftop bar at Helios Grand, etc., etc. (You know—the normal rationalizations when you’re attempting to justify an extravagant purchase )

You'll have to let us know how it goes! Wishing you a fun filled day at Epic! I have heard that Minecart Madness goes down a lot, so if you get a chance to ride it, definitely do it then if you want to ride it. I guess Monsters Unchained goes down frequently too. There are some amazing reviews of it online (here are some on a Universal forum page: https://forums.insideuniversal.net/forums/epic-universe-reviews.257/)

I did see about Express coming out the other day. As expected, they are SUPER expensive. But, if you think about it, it could be worth it to some people. 11 rides, $20 per ride per person, is it worth it for me? That's the question I would ask myself if I were buying Express passes. I can't wait for Epic to open, but I think that it might be smart to wait a year before going. Sure, if you watch POV's then it spoils a little bit of the ride and you lose the effect of "how did that happen???" but the magic of the park is always on the inside. This park is really going to be Epic.

[jzarley]

I was able to visit Epic Universe on Monday as a guest of my friend who works for UO resorts. There’s still no photos allowed and they’re trying to keep things under wraps as much as possible, so I’ll give some impressions, but no real spoilers. (That’s also why I’m just adding this to this thread, instead of posting something new under Trip Reports…)

Design & Theming: The park is just absolutely gorgeous, and I’m guessing at least 95% complete. They were still doing some random painting and work around, but it felt very “done”—including landscaping, water features, theming elements, etc.

The park definitely has a familiar Universal aesthetic—from a visual standpoint it reminds me a lot of IOA (especially in its early years)—just “plussed”. I think if you were dropped in the middle of that park without being told where you were, you’d realize you were in a Universal park. I was surprised at how big and expansive Celestial Park feels when you enter the park—normally a park’s “Main Street” acts more like a funnel to pull you into the center of the park, but this feels so wide open and free-form in where you can go. The Helios Grand is beautiful—and definitely very grand looking.

The lands all feel very independent and immersive. There are a few places where you have sight lines outside the land (i.e., you can see the top of Helios from Dark Universe and can see the skyline of Harry Potter from Isle of Berk) but otherwise the immersion is pretty complete feeling.

Attractions: My biggest disappointment was I didn’t get to experience Monsters Unleashed (despite giving it my best attempt). The ride was down in the morning and we got in line as soon as it was back up—about 45 min into the wait it went down again. We continued to wait (for probably another 45 minutes) until they finally dumped the queue because it wasn’t coming up anytime soon. It came back up later the in the afternoon and we made a beeline there again—just to get there and find out it was down again because of a fire alarm in the building. We left the park around 6p (it closed at 7p) and it was not operational again before we left. Oh well, that’s why it’s a technical rehearsal—hopefully I’ll get to ride it when I return in late June.

A few rides which surprised me a bit as being much more fun than I anticipated—Curse of the Werewolf and Hiccup’s Wing Gliders. Both were really fun. I had thought Werewolf might be a good time because of the spinning, but Wing Gliders really surprised me. It was a zippy “story coaster” with good visuals and fun elements—sort of reminded me of Hagrid’s at IOA.

Stardust Racers was definitely the coaster star of the show. From a speed and intensity perspective it reminds me a lot of Velocicoaster, but with the visuals of the close fly-bys (which are AMAZING) from the other train. It’s an awesome coaster—and a fast loader.

I did not ride Dragon Racer’s Rally, Bowser’s Challenge, or Mine-Cart Madness. Mine-Cart was up & down all day (and, to be honest—my line patience was getting limited by the end of the day), and I had ridden Bowsers at USH last year, so didn’t feel the need to yesterday.

Operations: Well, as you should expect in a rehearsal like this there were some rough edges—particularly with food service (which is still not all fully open yet, so there’s a lot of stress on the open locations) and guest entry. In fact, the thing that surprised me the most about the whole park was that entry security was still using the old fashioned metal detectors instead of the new Evolv scanners that WDW, SeaWorld and many stadiums are now using. Epic is really the first major destination park to be designed and open in the US since all the new security started after 9/11 and I thought they’d really use that opportunity to do something state-of-the-art efficient for security, but nope—still the same old metal detectors and item x-ray machines that requires them to hand wand probably 25% of the people going in.

The one operational area where they are really advanced are with the ride lockers (required for all items on Star Dust Racers and available on Wing Glider)—they’re facial recognition controlled and work great! You just walk up, touch the button to start—it scans your face and opens a locker. Then, after the ride you’re on the back side of the lockers, scan your face again and your locker opens to retrieve your items. It’s amazingly fast & smooth. (CP could learn a LOT about how to do lockers at Steel Vengeance from them!)

I think that’s a pretty succinct summary. All-in-all it’s a world class park and a wonderful addition to the UO Resort and the Orlando market.

[Diamondback_Is_King]

49 minutes ago, jzarley said:

I was able to visit Epic Universe on Monday as a guest of my friend who works for UO resorts. There’s still no photos allowed and they’re trying to keep things under wraps as much as possible, so I’ll give some impressions, but no real spoilers. (That’s also why I’m just adding this to this thread, instead of posting something new under Trip Reports…)

Design & Theming: The park is just absolutely gorgeous, and I’m guessing at least 95% complete. They were still doing some random painting and work around, but it felt very “done”—including landscaping, water features, theming elements, etc.

The park definitely has a familiar Universal aesthetic—from a visual standpoint it reminds me a lot of IOA (especially in its early years)—just “plussed”. I think if you were dropped in the middle of that park without being told where you were, you’d realize you were in a Universal park. I was surprised at how big and expansive Celestial Park feels when you enter the park—normally a park’s “Main Street” acts more like a funnel to pull you into the center of the park, but this feels so wide open and free-form in where you can go. The Helios Grand is beautiful—and definitely very grand looking.

The lands all feel very independent and immersive. There are a few places where you have sight lines outside the land (i.e., you can see the top of Helios from Dark Universe and can see the skyline of Harry Potter from Isle of Berk) but otherwise the immersion is pretty complete feeling.

Attractions: My biggest disappointment was I didn’t get to experience Monsters Unleashed (despite giving it my best attempt). The ride was down in the morning and we got in line as soon as it was back up—about 45 min into the wait it went down again. We continued to wait (for probably another 45 minutes) until they finally dumped the queue because it wasn’t coming up anytime soon. It came back up later the in the afternoon and we made a beeline there again—just to get there and find out it was down again because of a fire alarm in the building. We left the park around 6p (it closed at 7p) and it was not operational again before we left. Oh well, that’s why it’s a technical rehearsal—hopefully I’ll get to ride it when I return in late June.

A few rides which surprised me a bit as being much more fun than I anticipated—Curse of the Werewolf and Hiccup’s Wing Gliders. Both were really fun. I had thought Werewolf might be a good time because of the spinning, but Wing Gliders really surprised me. It was a zippy “story coaster” with good visuals and fun elements—sort of reminded me of Hagrid’s at IOA.

Stardust Racers was definitely the coaster star of the show. From a speed and intensity perspective it reminds me a lot of Velocicoaster, but with the visuals of the close fly-bys (which are AMAZING) from the other train. It’s an awesome coaster—and a fast loader.

I did not ride Dragon Racer’s Rally, Bowser’s Challenge, or Mine-Cart Madness. Mine-Cart was up & down all day (and, to be honest—my line patience was getting limited by the end of the day), and I had ridden Bowsers at USH last year, so didn’t feel the need to yesterday.

Operations: Well, as you should expect in a rehearsal like this there were some rough edges—particularly with food service (which is still not all fully open yet, so there’s a lot of stress on the open locations) and guest entry. In fact, the thing that surprised me the most about the whole park was that entry security was still using the old fashioned metal detectors instead of the new Evolv scanners that WDW, SeaWorld and many stadiums are now using. Epic is really the first major destination park to be designed and open in the US since all the new security started after 9/11 and I thought they’d really use that opportunity to do something state-of-the-art efficient for security, but nope—still the same old metal detectors and item x-ray machines that requires them to hand wand probably 25% of the people going in.

The one operational area where they are really advanced are with the ride lockers (required for all items on Star Dust Racers and available on Wing Glider)—they’re facial recognition controlled and work great! You just walk up, touch the button to start—it scans your face and opens a locker. Then, after the ride you’re on the back side of the lockers, scan your face again and your locker opens to retrieve your items. It’s amazingly fast & smooth. (CP could learn a LOT about how to do lockers at Steel Vengeance from them!)

I think that’s a pretty succinct summary. All-in-all it’s a world class park and a wonderful addition to the UO Resort and the Orlando market.

A few questions if you don't mind (feel free to only answer a few if you want):

• How long did you wait for the rides you did experience?
• Of what you did see of Monsters Unchained (very unfortunate you couldn't ride it) was the queue cool?
• How large were the queue lines?
• How long would you wait for each ride?
• Were there any blow-away moments for you? How did it feel entering the worlds?
• Were you able to go into the Battle at the Ministry queue? Was the Floo Network effect working? (if so, how was it?)
• Do you think you would need 2 days to do all of Epic? (wands, food, rides, shows, etc.)
• How's the parking situation? Was it easily accessible? (unlike Magic Kingdom)

Sorry for the many questions, I'm just so curious!

[jzarley]

Sure—happy to give my perspective 

• How long did you wait for the rides you did experience?

Not counting Monsters Unchained (which we invested about 90 minutes) I think the second longest was Werewolf at around 50-60 minutes. It was interesting because that queue time had big peaks and valleys all day—sometimes it would be 75 minutes, then later 15 minutes, then later up to 60 again—it seemed to fluctuate a lot. We waited around 20 minutes for Wing Gliders and probably less than 10 for Star Dust Racers (and most of that was just walking thru the queue, putting stuff in the locker and going thru the metal detector).

• Of what you did see of Monsters Unchained (very unfortunate you couldn't ride it) was the queue cool?

YES! We made it up to just outside the first pre-show (someone in line who had ridden before said there are two pre-shows) so we got pretty far into the manor. It was *very* cool and well done—almost an attraction in itself.

• How large were the queue lines?

They’re built for quite a bit of overflow—if we would have actually gotten to ride Monsters I’m guessing our total wait would have been about an hour. There were large areas of overflow queuing that we completely bypassed. I’m guessing that ride alone probably has a 3+ hour queue capacity before its even close to expanding beyond the attraction’s footprint.

• How long would you wait for each ride?

That answer was different at 10:30a than it was at 5:30p . I would willingly wait 2 hours to ride Monsters. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty wiped—it was a hot day in Orlando yesterday. (But nothing compared to what its going to be like in July!)

• Were there any blow-away moments for you? How did it feel entering the worlds?

I don’t think there were really any blow-away moments—but that probably has a lot to do with reading so much about it over the past several years, the fly over videos, and just the general hype probably made it hard to top. I have a feeling that the GP who go into the park not really knowing much detail about it definitely will be blown away. Entering the worlds thru the portals were pretty much what I anticipated—although, I think the Nintendo one was the most immersive & with the coolest effects. 

• Were you able to go into the Battle at the Ministry queue? Was the Floo Network effect working? (if so, how was it?)

Unfortunately, the queue was “down” (not sure how ) and they were not letting people in. The show there wasn’t running until a few hours after we were there and the only thing really open in that world were the restaurants and retail. That area actually felt the most empty of people, so you could really enjoy the detail. That will probably never happen again 

• Do you think you would need 2 days to do all of Epic? (wands, food, rides, shows, etc.)

Yeah, I think definitely this first year or so, 2 days would be warranted. There’s a lot of detail, and I imagine there will be things you’ll want to do twice, so two days would be helpful.

• How's the parking situation? Was it easily accessible? (unlike Magic Kingdom)

There’s a giant, open parking lot with a wide (and landscaped) pedestrian walkway down the center of the parking lot which leads to the entry plaza. Signage and roads in were very easy to follow. I came in off of Destination Parkway, but there will also be entrances off Universal and Kirkman. Unlike the original campus, Epic doesn’t seem nearly as walkable. I asked my friend how guests would walk from Stella Nova and Terra Luna to the park and her answer was “they won’t”. Of course, Helios will be easy walking since its actually sitting in the park

[Diamondback_Is_King]

I heard that team member previews got extended through April 16. I also have heard that there is supposed to be a walking path from Stella Nova (it was purposefully supposed to be there), and a way to get to the walking path from Stella Nova (which was unintentional I think). If you're wanting to not park in the parking lot, I think Helios is your best bet. Thanks so much for answering my questions @jzarley!!!

[jzarley]

One other thing I thought about in relation to your question about two days for Epic, I think Universal Orlando overall is now easily a 5-day visit (especially for first-timers or people who don’t get to go very often)—2 days for Epic, 1 day each for USF & IOA, then a 5th day to bounce back & forth between IOA/USF to pick up missed things or re-rides. (Well, maybe 6 days if you want to have a day at Volcano Bay too )

[Diamondback_Is_King]

2 hours ago, jzarley said:

One other thing I thought about in relation to your question about two days for Epic, I think Universal Orlando overall is now easily a 5-day visit (especially for first-timers or people who don’t get to go very often)—2 days for Epic, 1 day each for USF & IOA, then a 5th day to bounce back & forth between IOA/USF to pick up missed things or re-rides. (Well, maybe 6 days if you want to have a day at Volcano Bay too )

I think on a non-crazy busy day, you don't even need a whole day at Studios. You could even split it Volcano Bay/Studios or Studios/Islands that 5th day if you wanted to save money. But, most people making a once-in-a-lifetime trip down to Florida want to experience everything and go several days without worrying about money as much as the annual visitor.

[Diamondback_Is_King]

Well, I knew this day would be coming soon...Epic Universe videos are out. Universal has now allowed select people to take videos, but still no on rides. Not sure if all of these videos were allowed by Universal, so some may be taken of of YT soon. WARNING! THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!

Spoiler

 

 Above are some videos of the park, specifically Dark Universe and Battle at the Ministry. Included in this "spoiler box" is the queue of Battle at the Ministry video, Monsters Unchained pre-show, and even a Monsters Unchained pov of the ride. I still haven't decided if I want to see the videos or not, but I included them below in case some of you guys wanted to see it. I want to see them SO BAD, but also want it to be a surprise when I go.

[LuvingKI]

Carpet bagger on YT just posted a full tour of epic and the hotels. He was invited on media day.