Universal Epic Universe - New Florida Theme Park

[Maelstrom]

Harry Potter has settled into a more reasonable 120 min queue at 11am today and now 75 mins at 11.35am according to the queue times in the universal app

 

[Benjsh]

Harry Potter has settled into a more reasonable 120 min queue at 11am today and now 75 mins at 11.35am according to the queue times in the universal app

Yeah it went down to 25 mins past 7pm apparently too.

They have created too much hype for this ride, unintentionally too or course. People flocking there like sheep first thing.

 

[Maelstrom]

It’s the same with Hagrids at IOA it’s been open 6 years now and still guest are waiting up to an hr before early for the early entry for onsite guests (7am) and then a huge rush to get in the queue. It’s easy to get caught up init and think need to get their first- but When you factor in the wait outside the park gates etc you might as well wait and ride later in the day. Last August it would regular drop to 60-70 mins late morning.

Hopefully even if the max capacity that universal allow to buy tickets doubles as we go into summer- queue times will still be ok based on what they are currently.

Part of the issue with the previews when they started letting anyone attend was that most days at least 2 of the bigger rides where out of action all day, sometimes more. Plus lots of regular breakdowns (the last two days things have been more stable) plus some rides where being run not at full capacity I believe such as hicups wasn’t always running with all available trains and stardust racers only running one side.

 

[Matt N]

To be fair, I don’t think it’s Universal’s fault that people flock to Harry Potter. Every park will have attractions that everyone flocks to at the beginning of the day, and in a park of Universal’s calibre, those opening time queues will always be long!

 

[Maelstrom]

To be fair, I don’t think it’s Universal’s fault that people flock to Harry Potter. Every park will have attractions that everyone flocks to at the beginning of the day, and in a park of Universal’s calibre, those opening time queues will always be long!

Yep no different at Disney- flight of passage at AK, slinky dog and rise of the resistance at HS, Seven Dwarves and Tron at MK and Cosmic Rewind and frozen at EP.

 

[Benjsh]

To be fair, I don’t think it’s Universal’s fault that people flock to Harry Potter. Every park will have attractions that everyone flocks to at the beginning of the day, and in a park of Universal’s calibre, those opening time queues will always be long!

I didn't mean it that way though. It was always going to be one of the most popular rides.

I mean by adding the VQ in previews they have added an extra layer of dread to guests. That's why people are flocking to it in the numbers they are. It's not 4 and half hours of ride better than Monsters by all accounts. That's the point.

 

[Maelstrom]

The reduced capacity for opening appears to have now ended. Number of quests and length of ride queues significantly increased from yesterday. Rides that first 5 days had 5-15 min queues now 60 mins +

Mario Kart seems to have the longest queue and not to dissimilar to battle of the ministry.

Currently -

Mine Kart Madness is 135 mins
Mario Kart -190 mins
Stardust Racers- 90 mins
Hicups-85 mins
Curse of the warewolf- 70 mins
Yoshi- 90 mins

Battle of the ministry and monsters have both currently temp gone down, which won’t help. Even when these two have been operating last two days the queues much longer. Battle of the ministry seems to have stabilised more at the 120 mins mark (sometimes drops below this) and similar to Mario Kart. Monsters has much shorter queue- one due to capacity and also less family appeal as some younger rides won’t ride due to the theme.

But still a significant increase on the first 5 days.

 

[Benjsh]

Monsters been closed all day so far apparently which is strange as it's been pretty consistent now for weeks. Harry Potter BATM opened very briefly and went down almost immediately without many people getting to ride.

It's fair to say that the issues will continue for a while like this.


It's also end of school in America this week and just after a national holiday on Monday. It's one of the busiest times of the year for the parks outside of Christmas.

 

[Maelstrom]

Overall though ride uptime since official opening does seem much better than during the previews- but time will tell how that plays out over the coming months .

luckily for UK guests while it’s peak season for UK hols to Orlando in August it’s actually switches to off peak in Orlando the second week into August. The last 3 weeks of August (along with September) are classed as off peak by Disney and they don’t have many of those dates and where ticket prices are at the cheapest.

I always used to visit in October but as now work in education I visit in August and while it is hotter and more afternoon storms in two times now been in August it is not as busy as October has now become.

Although for uk based universal tickets, universal have based their pricing on peak times for UK visitors where Disney haven’t.

Also on a side note it heavily rumoured that Hagrids will get express added this week- replacing the single rider line. That’s going to make the standby even worse.

 

[Benjsh]

The wait times today wouldn't even be that bad if the two huge E ticket dark rides were operating either. Between them you're talking 4-5hours worth of people taken away from the other rides. This is the massive downfall of having a major park with so few attractions though. Only takes 2 of them to go down and the park can't cope.

Once they have worked out the bugs and fixed it....I do think BATM should replace Stardust Racers as the Early Access attraction though. It will help move the crowds around so much better from 8am and make sure Nintendo world isn't closed off for guests without early access at 9am. Stardust Racers is a people eater with two tracks and multiple trains. There's not much benefit to having that as one of the Early Entry attractions in my opinion. It's generally walk on all the way through early access apparently.

 

[Benjsh]

Minecart gone down too now.

The queue at guest services will be 3hrs the way it's going. Hahaha!

 

[MattBTP]

Epic Universe - Blue Sky - Celestial Park

Really interesting Blue Sky concepts here for Epic Universe

 

[Mick]

From all the many countless vlogs and social media posts about this park that I’ve seen (it feels like I’ve already visited myself!), I think I’ve come to my conclusion it’s maybe the most beautifully themed and immersive park in the world, but it needs more attractions to truly be an excellent visit. Everything else, from theming to F&B to merch etc seems wonderful, but people want to mainly do attractions and a couple more reliable queue eaters would make a world of difference, even if they aren’t world leading attractions in their own right.

 

[Benjsh]

I agree that they need more rides however as a starting off point I think it's pretty damn good what they have come up with. We need to remember that this place was built for the next 50 years and beyond not just for 2025. It's going to evolve a lot.

I'm predicting there will be 3 new major attractions added within the next 5 years, with the first 2 coming as soon as 2027 and 2028.

2027 - New Potter attraction. Badly needed in that area as it's so big with very little to do currently.

2028 - New Nintendo attraction. Luigi's Mansion Dark Ride or Zelda Attraction


2029 - Nothing


2030 - Creature from Black Lagoon Boat Ride

 

[dave___]

Minecart gone down too now.

The queue at guest services will be 3hrs the way it's going. Hahaha!

Seems that everything all goes to shit as soon as it starts thundering. All outdoor rides close, so everyone is piling into Harry Potter which then gets to capacity and closes, and then no one has anywhere else to go when monsters is already broken.

So close to managing it with two indoor rides and by all rights they should be absolute queue munchers but just.. don’t seem to be.

 

[Maelstrom]

Everything back open now.

I agree that they need more rides however as a starting off point I think it's pretty damn good what they have come up with. We need to remember that this place was built for the next 50 years and beyond not just for 2025. It's going to evolve a lot.

I'm predicting there will be 3 new major attractions added within the next 5 years, with the first 2 coming as soon as 2027 and 2028.

2027 - New Potter attraction. Badly needed in that area as it's so big with very little to do currently.

2028 - New Nintendo attraction. Luigi's Mansion Dark Ride or Zelda Attraction


2029 - Nothing


2030 - Creature from Black Lagoon Boat Ride

i am not expecting anything new ride wise until 2028 with likely being Luigi, followed by a potter ride in 2030. Hopefully quicker but I am not so sure will get anything ride wise until 2028.

While they could do with some more attractions it’s not massively different to what IOA opened with and not massively lower than Disney Hollywood studios and more than Animal Kingdom.

 

[Maelstrom]

Seems that everything all goes to shit as soon as it starts thundering. All outdoor rides close, so everyone is piling into Harry Potter which then gets to capacity and closes, and then no one has anywhere else to go when monsters is already broken.

So close to managing it with two indoor rides and by all rights they should be absolute queue munchers but just.. don’t seem to be.

i am not aware of potter closing due to being at capacity when it rains? The above wasn’t due to weather but just rides being down. The official app states if weather related as states weather delay, if it’s just gone tech states - temp delay which is what it said this afternoon.

 

[jon81uk]

Seems that everything all goes to shit as soon as it starts thundering. All outdoor rides close, so everyone is piling into Harry Potter which then gets to capacity and closes, and then no one has anywhere else to go when monsters is already broken.

So close to managing it with two indoor rides and by all rights they should be absolute queue munchers but just.. don’t seem to be.

Islands of Adventure has similar issues during lightning too as it was heavily focused on outdoor attractions, the addition of Forbidden Journey and Kong Skull Island helped a lot, but Spider-Man does still get incredibly busy if lightning means outdoor attractions get closed there too.

 

[dave___]

Islands of Adventure has similar issues during lightning too as it was heavily focused on outdoor attractions, the addition of Forbidden Journey and Kong Skull Island helped a lot, but Spider-Man does still get incredibly busy if lightning means outdoor attractions get closed there too.

Is it IOA that used to have the Poseidon thing too? I remember hiding from storms in that a fair few times.

I feel like Epcot is one of the places that has the balance "right" in terms of indoor stuff to eat the crowds when the weather is bad; or at least used to back in the good old days anyway.

 

[jon81uk]

Is it IOA that used to have the Poseidon thing too? I remember hiding from storms in that a fair few times.

Yes it did, but its been closed for a few years.

I feel like Epcot is one of the places that has the balance "right" in terms of indoor stuff to eat the crowds when the weather is bad; or at least used to back in the good old days anyway.

I don't think Epcot has any outdoor actual attractions? There is now the Journey of Water thing and of course some shows are outdoors (like the Chinese circus performers) but overall although World Showcase is very outdoors in general I think all of the parks actual attractions are indoors.