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Universal Epic Universe - New Florida Theme Park

thinking about a possible broomstick ride that reportedly is an experience universal are keen to add- I wonder if the new Vekoma Thrill Glider concept would work as a ride system- sat in motorbike (ie Tron) style seats below the track. Vekoma have said it’s a family thrill model. make It an indoor coaster (any new attractions at Epic need to be indoors) with some physical sets and screen elements like on Tron and cosmic rewind it could work well especially using launches and similar style low to ground elaments like on FLY. The size of the building in the permit would also be large enough for an indoor coaster ride system.
 
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Technically speaking Forbidden Journey is a broomstick ride. You might not sit on one of course but a lot of storyline is about flying around Hogwarts on a broom.

A broom stick ride on the levels of Avatar at Animal Kingdom would be spectacular i have to say. I was absolutely blown away by that attraction in August.

An indoor broom stick coaster would be great too though of course. Given the building is 150,000 sq feet its certainly a strong possibility. Quiddich world cup where the death eaters attack is a prime candidate for that particular theory as well.

Whatever it is, Im sure it will be great. Its badly needed too for capacity.
 
Rumour is that the attraction might be an inverted version of BatM, once again built by Falcon’s Attractions (formerly Oceaneering). People will sit in a botorbike-style position in a configuration not too dissimilar to a Gerstlauer Skyfly.



Definitely a very interesting concept to potentially build, and an open-style ride configuration would make more of a 360 degree experience.
 
Does anyone know of any websites that show you average queue times for rides and shows you the times of day that the queues are larger?

Trying to plan for my trip in April, assume Potter is best to do at the end of the day but just wondered if there were any obvious trends.
 
Josh555 said:
Does anyone know of any websites that show you average queue times for rides and shows you the times of day that the queues are larger?

Trying to plan for my trip in April, assume Potter is best to do at the end of the day but just wondered if there were any obvious trends.
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if staying on site I found doing battle at the ministry was best to do at the start of the day. Yes lots of crowds headed to it but on the three days I visited I was on and off the ride my 9.30 each day (early entry from 9am, normal opening was 10am) this was in August. However it wasn’t advertised as an early entry ride but did open for each of my visits. After that queue tended to be at its lowest mid afternoon (still 90 mins ish+) evening would go up considerably again and closed at least an hour before the park saying at capacity for the day.
 
I’d agree, we stayed at Helios so were among the first 100 people each morning before the crowds from the other hotels arrived (the noise of thousand of people converging behind you is really quite something !) Another thing making Helios worth the extra if you can justify the cost
 
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When I was there off site guests could enter the park during early entry but held at the portals or outside stardust racers where they checking room keys for those allowed to enter- however this didn’t happen at Battle of the ministry on any day so off site guests could also ride during early entry- it’s not an official early entry ride and I heard some guests ask a team member and they said anyone can ride that ride during early entry if it’s open.
 
tayspru said:
I’d agree, we stayed at Helios so were among the first 100 people each morning before the crowds from the other hotels arrived (the noise of thousand of people converging behind you is really quite something !) Another thing making Helios worth the extra if you can justify the cost
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Unfortunately, that seems to be the main thing bumping up the price. Convenience. The views are lovely, but once you get over the lobby and realise that the restaurants there run a hard bargain, the hotel rooms are very, very familiar.

You can get free food from the lounges - ate there for dinner and breakfast, again, very familiar though, and getting in early is good.

If you cough up enough for a park view room, I’m sure that makes up for most of it.
 
The_bup said:
Unfortunately, that seems to be the main thing bumping up the price. Convenience. The views are lovely, but once you get over the lobby and realise that the restaurants there run a hard bargain, the hotel rooms are very, very familiar.

You can get free food from the lounges - ate there for dinner and breakfast, again, very familiar though, and getting in early is good.

If you cough up enough for a park view room, I’m sure that makes up for most of it.
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The price is absolutely mental for all onsite accommodation, especially given they don’t include tickets (or in the case of the none Loews hotels, Express).

I got return flights and accommodation at Rosen Inn International for £800, to upgrade to, for example, Portofino Bay would cost an additional payment of over 4 grand, it’s just insane.

Can see the benefit of the early entry but it isn’t even close to value for money, appreciate Loews is one of the premium resorts so you could find cheaper but still.
 
Already mentioned it once earlier in this thread but we stayed onsite at Universal Dockside in August and it wasn't expensive at all. In fact we thought it was a no brainer as it was only £15 per night more expensive than an off site budget hotel we'd eyed up for same dates but obviously staying onsite gets you transport to the park and early entry too so definitely worth doing.

We booked via the Expedia app. Useful hint for anyone thinking of doing that is to get a VPN and change the region to USA. We found the prices can often be cheaper for Americans than Europeans for the exact same hotel / room / dates in Orlando which is a bit naughty really.
 
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