Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

[Casper Gutman]

This may not be knowable, but do we have any idea of what they opening day attraction capacity will be like compared to, say, opening day AK?

 

[JunoSynth]

Need to check out the series as well. Like the Lilo & Stitch series, it takes place between the films to expand the story further...

As for the park. It offers up something NEW instead of more of the same. Also it is geared towards the more "adventurous" kids looking for a mild thrill (or intense thrill for those tall enough for the flat ride!).

Cool. I'll check it out! I enjoyed the first movie so look forward to seeing the others.

The rides in that area do look really good too. I just need to catch up on the series to appreciate the experience more.

 

[Brian G.]

This may not be knowable, but do we have any idea of what they opening day attraction capacity will be like compared to, say, opening day AK?

I’d wager significantly larger considering the opening day lineup of AK.

 

[belloq87]

Didn't Animal Kingdom open with only two rides? Or three, if we're counting the Discovery River Boat shuttle service?

This has to be well, well above that. I'm guessing in the ballpark of IOA's opening lineup.

 

[Brian G.]

Didn't Animal Kingdom open with only two rides? Or three, if we're counting the Discovery River Boat shuttle service?

This has to be well, well above that. I'm guessing in the ballpark of IOA's opening lineup.

Yeah. I was there Opening Week. It was hell...

IOA would be an apt comparison.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Didn't Animal Kingdom open with only two rides? Or three, if we're counting the Discovery River Boat shuttle service?

This has to be well, well above that. I'm guessing in the ballpark of IOA's opening lineup.

I believe it had nine attractions with theater shows included (but not including things like the Bone Yard or the Exploration Trail).

I was just wondering where EU's opening day attraction capacity (theater shows included) stood in comparison to other parks, now and on opening day.

 

[Brian G.]

Ignoring the random animal exhibits:

1. Kilimanjaro Safari
2. Pangani Trail
3. Jungle Trek
4. Rafiki's Planet Watch
5. Tough to be a Bug
6. River Boats
7. Festival of the Lion King
8. Flights of Wonder
9. Dinosaur
10. Journey into Jungle Book

10 attractions. 2 actual rides (Not counting River Boats and Rafiki Train Ride). It's a hard comparison to make.

IOA had 16, with 11 actual rides (Not Counting the Tours). I believe Epic is around 13/14 with 11/12 rides?

 

[Magic-Man]

Ignoring the random animal exhibits:

1. Kilimanjaro Safari
2. Pangani Trail
3. Jungle Trek
4. Rafiki's Planet Watch
5. Tough to be a Bug
6. River Boats
7. Festival of the Lion King
8. Flights of Wonder
9. Dinosaur
10. Journey into Jungle Book

10 attractions. 2 actual rides (Not counting River Boats and Rafiki Train Ride). It's a hard comparison to make.

IOA had 16, with 11 actual rides (Not Counting the Tours). I believe Epic is around 13/14 with 11/12 rides?

I believe this is everything:

1. Starfall Racers
2. Constellation Carousel
3. Fountain Show
4. Mario Kart
5. Yoshi's Adventure
6. Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness
7. Power-Up Band Games
8. Curse of the Werewolf
9. Monsters Unchained
10. Ministry of Magic
11. Circus Show
12. Hiccups Wing Gliders
13. Fyre Drill
14. Sky Fly attractions
15. Untrainable

I'd count the Nintendo games as one attraction, as it's pretty much an extremely interactive walkthrough. 15 attractions in total. Epic has the benefit of multiple attractions have repeat value though, especially compared to Islands when it first opened.

 

[tielo]

About How to train your Dragon:
Books

Films

Series and 5 short movies

Christmas special

Comics

Games (just a few). There are console/PC/mobile and educational games.

And a live action movie is in the making.

 

[Alicia]

Guys guys guys, didn’t you hear the announcement? Epic will have 50 different experiences.

 

[UNIrd]

To be honest, in the flyover, the one thing I thought was missing is another flat ride in Celestial Park as it seems like a big distance between Starfall and the Carousel with nothing.

I would've loved to see their take on an Orbitron-style spinner in the aesthetic of this concept art.

 

[JoeMcSqueezy]

Guys guys guys, didn’t you hear the announcement? Epic will have 50 different experiences.

God I honestly hate that part of the announcement

Claiming that the Park has “Over 50 Experiences”, forgetting to mention that only about 10-15 of those are Attractions, the rest being Shops and Dining. And like, if they’re gonna be bold and call a Splash Pad an “Attraction”, what counts as part of the 50? Is every individual Power-Up Band Activity in SNW counted individually? Is every Wand Magic Activity in Wizarding World counted? Universal is being weird and vague about it to make the Park seem like it has more than it actually does

 

[tielo]

God I honestly hate that part of the announcement

Claiming that the Park has “Over 50 Experiences”, forgetting to mention that only about 10-15 of those are Attractions, the rest being Shops and Dining. And like, if they’re gonna be bold and call a Splash Pad an “Attraction”, what counts as part of the 50? Is every individual Power-Up Band Activity in SNW counted individually? Is every Wand Magic Activity in Wizarding World counted? Universal is being weird and vague about it to make the Park seem like it has more than it actually does

I don't "hate" (strong word) it. It's fair and if you ever saw kids spending 15 minutes at a water play area or some teens with a wand doing magic at Potter you'd understand. Most rides are on a e-ticket level, that is more than most theme parks have.

 

[Mad Dog]

Yeah, new parks in the past 20 years seem to generally start in the 10 to 14 ride mode. Probably a cautious business move. But they also tend to play up the little stuff to inflate the 'experiences', truly just a marketing ploy. If attendance warrants, expansion should follow. What will be interesting to watch with Epic is whether the exploration of the extremely themed lands diverts enough time to keep the lines on the rides reasonable. If not, Universal might need to add some live street entertainment in the interim to expansion. My thought is Epic will most always be swamped on weekends and the Spring Break/Summer/Holiday weeks. Weekdays during the non Holiday, non summer, non spring break times might have reasonable crowds. Universal is generally a weekend heavy park resort. Lots of locals and AP's. WDW is more balanced through the whole week. Probably due to all those hotel rooms, and being more tourist heavy than Universal.

 

[JoeMcSqueezy]

I don't "hate" (strong word) it. It's fair and if you ever saw kids spending 15 minutes at a water play area or some teens with a wand doing magic at Potter you'd understand. Most rides are on a e-ticket level, that is more than most theme parks have.

Yeah Hate maybe wasn't the right word to use, I just think it's a little silly

 

[GAcoaster]

So I'm going with June 13th as the "Grand Opening"-- I heard a rumor they want it to open the same day at the new HTTYD movie opens in theaters, and that's the current release date for the film. A Friday grand opening also makes sense so they have more eyes on the TV for a whole morning of the Today Show live from Universal Epic Universe.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

To be fair, we don't know the full or half the details on the restaurant in that land (yet). Although I'm sure it'll probably be similar to a European tavern (....The Slaughtered Lamb!!..) or similar...

Eitherway.... mmm stake, I mean steak..

This reminds me - is the restaurant in Dark Universe full service? Or are the full service restaurants in Celestial Park?

 

[GAcoaster]

I think (IIRC) that the Stake House was a hybrid like Three Broomsticks/Leaky Cauldron.

 

[IzzyB]

Honestly I think that Pokémon is more popular and multigenerational than HTTYD and even than the Minions. I think a Pokéworld would have been more profitable in merchan and generate more hype than Dragons. Of course only Uni and Nintendo know if it was possible.

BTW I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but the park is 4 of 5 areas inspired by Europe.

I think Pokemon in Studios makes more sense, you want to spread out the Nintendo IPs and not bunch them in one park. HTTYD is much more popular than you think and even for those that don't know it, dragons will appeal to them. You want IPs that even if you aren't into that IP the land itself will appeal to most and I don't know very many kids that don't like dragons.

I see. I didn't know HTTYD was this popular. So sounds like they want to give the public a park experience now due to this. I've seen the first one and will definitely have to watch the other 2 now.

And this is another thing. You are the second person I know to say this. So many will watch the movies before going to the park which is even more revenue. I know my friend's husband is super happy his kids now want to see the movies after seeing the park reveal this week as he loves the movies and prior his girls weren't into watching them. Now they want to watch the movies.

My kids however have seen all the movies and the series and one of my kids just finished the last book in the book series. But even my middle princess loving daughter started reading the wings of fire series. She started with the graphic novels and now sstarted the book series. It is a slow go only because she is in 3rd and they are 5th grade level books. So it takes her longer to read them than say a wimpy kid book she reads in a day or 2. My point with that is Dragons are popular.

 

[Alicia]

Completely unscientific, but the day of the announcement two of my older articles got a lot of traffic suddenly. The one with the most was Everything We Know About How to Train Your Dragon Land at Epic Universe, with 10,000 views in just a few hours. Potter got 2000.