Three full service restaurants with bars, plus additional bars, but street food vendors, a party atmosphere, and nightly fireworks. Plus, later, an entertainment flex space. It’s not just a cheap pizza/burger place to eat.
It may very well end up offering Universal’s fanciest restaurants, and perhaps that’ll be draw enough, the same way I’ve gone to Hard Rock or Portofino just for a nice meal. But we shall see.
I do agree that the restaurants here will be great/offer great designs, especially with the recent changes Universal is implementing resort-wide, but I'm struggling to see how, for example, a tourist will choose EU versus Disney Springs/Outlets for dining. Disney Springs is a
monster.
You are oversimplifying the hub....Think of it like going to a city park that has restaurants with the park area.
I'm sure they are going to have live entertainment and more in the spaces around the area giving it streetmosphere and I wouldn't be surprised if they kept the carousel running as the only attraction people can ride without a park ticket after 6 pm.
For people who work nearby in Dr Phillips area etc, i can see the hub becoming a hang out spot especially if they do bring free parking after 6pm which they drink at the Oak and Star Tavern and just hang out and talk in an area with better vibes than icon park or pointe orlando.
I don't think I'm oversimplifying it lol - it's large in size, but simple in its offerings: 2 rides, a handful of restaurants and an entertainment offering.
It's going to be nice-looking, it'll be grand... I'm just trying to figure out the draw from a tourist's perspective.
Additionally, Universal needed a place where guests who are residing on that side of the area can go that isn't far for dinner...this is the best option for that. They still have three new hotels full of guests they need to support for evening entertainment and busing them to citywalk isn't the best option financially or timewise.
I mentioned that it
could work as an onsite hotel perk, but I just can't see it realistically open to the public.
I also want to point out Universal isn't the first park to do the park being open to guests who are unable to do attractions.
There are a few non US based theme parks for example that allow park entry prior to people being allowed to do things in the park (ex before 4pm and after 4am ticket. with a before 4 ticket where you are able to ride things before 4pm but after 4pm you can stay in the park but the attractions are not open for you and switched for the after 4pm...and those parks and those park guests have no issues there). Those parks do well by adding a discount and people still spend money in the parks because they enjoy the ambiance and the food aspects.
That's a different concept than "the park is open to all, but restricted to only one section of it" that Epic is trying to do. Epcot for years had an after-4 PM annual pass, but it made sense for a park that had 20+ restaurants, multiple attractions, and various entertainment. EU doesn't have that capacity if they just use the hub.
Hypothetically, Starfall Racers and the carousel would be open to the public in some way as well. There would be plenty to do between the rides, the restaurants, the nighttime show, and the various stores.
As I mentioned earlier, that
might be a customer relations nightmare if the ride were to go down (let's say for weather) for a good chunk of the day and result in long wait-times later in the day once the After 6 people arrive.
They must be VERY confident on capacity if this is the case.
Or just not care about the paying day guests who like doing rides (in this case a roller coaster) at night.
Also, everyone seems to be assuming that the four lands will close early, but that would really put a damper on their night time atmosphere.
Starfall has good capacity, possibly 3-4K more than Velocicoaster, but flat rides historically aren't that great so the carousel might see ridiculous wait-times if after 6 PM people get in free.
I am quite opposed to the "hub open to non-park guests" concept, primarily because I'd like the theme park to remain open at night. As all theme parks should be.
Universal seems to have changed their attitude on early park closures a bit recently, with IOA consistently closing at 9 PM most days now and USF eventually receiving some sort of nighttime event in the next year or so. BUT, Epic Universe gives them a perfect excuse to unfortunately close lands early in exchange for private events.