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Universal Epic Universe - New Florida Theme Park

Mick said:
How is Japan so much worse, not just in the example above but in general? Do they have far higher capacities, are their ops terrible, do they just like joining long queues? Japan is high up my bucket list of countries to visit but can’t say the thought of going to their theme parks fills me with any excitement!
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Japan is massively over populated essentially. Universal and the Disney parks get absolutely hammered every day.
 
Mick said:
How is Japan so much worse, not just in the example above but in general? Do they have far higher capacities, are their ops terrible, do they just like joining long queues? Japan is high up my bucket list of countries to visit but can’t say the thought of going to their theme parks fills me with any excitement!
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Very different cultural approach to suffering. Half said in jest but a lot of truth to it.

Ops are generally excellent in my limited experience, capacity seemingly endless.
 
Bowser said:
Very different cultural approach to suffering. Half said in jest but a lot of truth to it.

Ops are generally excellent in my limited experience, capacity seemingly endless.
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I can concur; another thing to note is that the park is having some growing pains at the moment. There are a few rides that need to be replaced; like Spider-Man, and when they are, are being replaced with more culturally relevant rides to Japan.

What I’m saying is is that you might have no idea what a few of the rides IP’s are, unless you’re a Japan nut, in that case you’ll have a great time. Generally there is enough stuff you will recognise though, like Jaws and Minions.

Also timed tickets are often open for Super Nintendo World, I didn’t even get in!
 
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Watched the projection show at Battersea tonight. The projection show itself was good, massive let down on the audio though. Totally unsure as to why some were expecting them to plaster Universal UK all over it tonight when it was clearly Epic's moment.

The real laughing moment was British Airways having an A350 flight sim on hand. The throughput?

3pph.
 
I have to say I think that the 'portal' branding for this park looks really good and I think it sets a new design standard for theme parks. I think we could see similar elements incorporated into Universal studios GB, although I don't think the same 'portal' branding will be used.
 
Looks like they are going to have Virtual Queues just to get into each of the portals to begin with after all. Electronic signs have all been spotted outside each of the portals in preparation for opening.

Have to be honest.......this is turning into quite the farcical opening for Universal what with the issues the Harry Potter attraction is also having. From the videos I have seen the park does look very nicely finished off with great theming but I think they have opened this place with 1 or 2 major rides fewer than what was actually required. Had my doubts they had enough capacity to handle the demand and haven't changed my mind since.

Another major rollercoaster and probably another dark ride / huge water ride was required here to soak up crowds I think. I can see the first few weeks being utterly miserable experience for those who go which is such a shame as it's a stunning park.

Just hoping things will have calmed down a tad by end of August. If the VQ is still in place for HP and most importantly for each portal too then I think we might not even bother attending Epic and just doing it on our next trip in 2027. Something to go back for as they say as disappointing as it would be to miss out on this trip.

Huge oversight to only have 11 rides in the theme park capital of the world. I think expansions will arrive much sooner than they usually would for a new park and it will be needed to.
 
The opening of Volcano Bay was pretty disastrous wasn't it? So it wouldn't be a huge surprise if this did turn out to be a bit of a mess.

Those who got to enjoy those early quiet passholder preview days seemingly got very lucky indeed, it's going to be rare to ever experience the park like that going forward.
 
Hopefully they can get some of the issues sorted- they did announce last week that Battle of the Ministry it is closed from last sat until Friday- I believe so they can try and get the capacity issue resolved. It hasn’t been opening until 3pm anyway to allow them to work on the ride.

Also universal have said to some they aware feedback of the VQ for ministry is not working and they understand the poor feedback they I believe are hoping to have some of the capacity issues sorted and may drop the VQ.

I am also been hearing that they don’t expect the VQ to be used that regular for lands but will most likely be used for say Nintendo on some days not long after opening (due to it being the open area for o site guests).to control the morning crowds.

Also I don’t believe they are allowing tickets to be sold to the actual capacity in the initial first few months and it’s capped lower than that to avoid any bad publicity while the park and rides bed in.

We will see how it all pans out in 10 days time and how it all settles for the rest of May and June. I always knew going this year would have its challenges, I am luckily got a couple of days in the park and do have express (well for the rides that except it) the express also covers 3 days in the existing two theme parks as well. Cost was £280 for 5 days in august. Expensive but I managed to rebook my hotels which saved me £480 vs what I original paid when booked last year and so still within my budget. No way could I have had express if was paying for a family and not something I ever normal pay for or have in the past at Universal.
 
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Super Nintendo World at USJ still requires timed entry tickets 4 years after opening so there’s certainly precedent for it becoming permanent though of course that’s a much busier park.
 
In regards to not being enough rides while it’s not massively different to some other Disney/universal parks I do think a couple more higher capacity attractions should have been added (something I have always thought since we first got the concept art back in 2019). Ie I think a large indoor (pirates style) boat ride in How to train your dragon and while I get ultimately they were not happy with the concept for the second Harry Potter attraction that was originally planned and was the right thing to scrap it rather than build something subpar - they should have added something to replace it, even if it was one of the planned phase two attractions (the creature of the black lagoon boat ride or Luigi’s mansion that been rumoured to have been designed) Also I still don’t get why they went with Dragon Racers Rally even with two and a capacity of 24 it’s not enough for a park that will attract at least 10m guests per year.

In the short term I hope they at least have lots of entertainment/street shows etc across the park much like you get in the main universal park and Disney Hollywood studios.
 
Alicia Stella who is known to have a lot of insider universal knowledge has said in her new podcast that universal have set capacity for opening week at 15k (at the end of team previews it was increased to 14k and they lowered it to 10k for past couple of weeks when the public where aloud to purchase). Individual ticket sales is less than the capacity limit allowing enough capacity for those with multiday tickets that have 1 day at epic as they can attend epic on any of the 5 days and universal obviously don’t know which day people will actually attend.

Universal have set the max capacity based on the current rides and attractions to be 22k which it will be set as from June. So much lower than the previously rumoured 40k.
 
Good news!!!!

The Virtual line for Harry Potter: Battle at the Ministry is no more. It's opened today without a VQ. Currently at 120 mins and the longest queue in the park which isn't a surprise given how hard it has been to ride it.

Fingers crossed it stays reliable. That being shut or on restricted capacity through VQ isn't going to work for this park when it's busy.
 
Benjsh said:
Good news!!!!

The Virtual line for Harry Potter: Battle at the Ministry is no more. It's opened today without a VQ. Currently at 120 mins and the longest queue in the park which isn't a surprise given how hard it has been to ride it.

Fingers crossed it stays reliable. That being shut or on restricted capacity through VQ isn't going to work for this park when it's busy.
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It’s opened a day earlier than planned as well. Hopefully they have sorted the issues. I heard the shut down was so a fix could be applied that they have been working on and tested consistently for a few days while the ride wasn’t operating. Hopefully they are now getting it to run at the intended capacity. If it worked they planned to drop the VQ, although it was also mentioned that even if it hadn’t VQ has had such poor feedback they might just drop the VQ anyway and just let people choose to queue or not. The fact it’s opened a day earlier is a good sign though.
 
Good news for now, let's see how it pans out once the park opens up proper! Hopefully the lack of VQ will alleviate queues around the rest of the park, as people will be waiting for Ministry rather than waiting for something else instead.
 
Maelstrom said:
On opening this morning Battle at the Ministry is already showing as a 300 min wait (5 hrs) 50 mins after the park opened at 9am!
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This is the product of the VQ farce. Loads of people are making repeat visits to finally ride it and people going for the first time are probably aware it's not been reliable.

I suspect it will come down to 2 to 2.5 hours after a few weeks of it being open and as capacity of the ride improves. They are still only using 2 of the 4 loading stations apparently. It can handle a lot more people.
 
Seems like Battle at Ministry had a 2.5hr delay this morning despite having a 300 min queue right from the off at 8am. Clearly it's still having lots of issues. I imagine when they get it working properly with all 4 loading areas in operation it's going to absolutely eat the queues up for breakfast. A true throughput beast. Shame it's been so problematic thus far.

On the opposite side of the coin though.....Monsters is proving to be incredibly reliable now and apparently working like a charm which is good. I doubt you'll ever have to wait longer than an hour for this attraction now and apparently the single rider line is walk on 95% of the time. Re-rides a plenty.
 
Yestedday and today after the morning rush Battle at the Ministry is setting into a 120-150 min queue (currently 120 mins). Also last few days Mine cart Madness has been down all day (it’s back open today) and Curse of the warewolf has been closed for well over a week now and still is today all which doesn't help capacity across the park. Last day of previews today as the park is shut tomorrow and Wednesday- with the grand opening event on Wednesday night and then official opening for guests on Thursday.

Will be interesting to see how it all copes with the higher number of guests from Thursday and then as they increase that cap on guest numbers as we go through June.

as I go to Orlando in August I always take afternoon breaks at the hotel - as struggle to be out all day with the heat and also helps avoid afternoon storm-(plus lack of shade is an issue currently at the park). I think will still likely do that on my days at Epic even if just for 2 hrs ie 2-4pm as staying onsite it’s only 12 mins on the Bus back to Aventura hotel. In August 2022 when last went to Busch gardens, I found it hard going being out all day and that park doesn’t have the most shade and lack of indoor attractions/aircon queues etc and then didn’t feel great the next day, so want to avoid that.
 
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