I'm on several EU Facebook groups, and the people who insist on going during technical rehearsal, but expecting the full experience have officially lost it today.
Stardust Racers and Ministry of Magic never opened, and most of the other rides shut down for hours on end at some point. This drove everyone in the park to overcrowd the portals that had rides working to feel like they got something for their money.
There are pics. Garbage everywhere, and literal mutiny. Universal announced Ministry of Magic is also shutting down for a week before opening.
Passholders, in my opinion, are rightfully pissed. When I went, I had a good day, but could see the shortcomings of the park, and wondered how it'll all unfold come May 22nd.
The VQ has been an absolute disaster, so if rumors of it being cast aside, then I'm ok with that.
Universal should have given passholders exclusive access to the park for 2-3 weeks, instead of the debacle that has now ensued. It was a knee jerk panic move that has backfired badly, and now with only 2 weeks to go to opening, it's a mess. I feel bad for all those 1st day people, they really aren't first day visitors anymore. Yes, it officially opens, but everyone and their uncle has already been.
Heaven help those resort guests staying at the legacy hotels trying to get to the park on the buses. It could easily take an hour, probably more. That Kirkman intersection is a hot mess on any day, so let the fun begin on the 22nd.
What could go wrong??
Yes we have been watching the wait times and 1/2 of all the rides were closed..
Yikes - I am sure it will be corrected.
When Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike opened there were a lot of issues and down time...
I refuse to be a Universal apologist. All these people know it's in technical rehearsal, so too bad that the things that can go wrong all happened at the same time. That is just bad luck. Others have gone and rode / experienced everything and it was flawless.
That being said, charging full price is nuts, and so is allowing anyone to purchase tickets. This should be left open only to pass holders until opening.
Epic Universe will be filled to capacity for the forseeable future, but they don't get a pass after May 22nd. One day it's perfect, and the next, it's a beautiful disaster.
I'm still not sure what this park wants to be. Half kids park with a couple thrill rides, or just a jumble of IPs. This park will desperately need an escape (like CityWalk) to buffer the in-park only eating options.
That will only arrive when they decide to use the rest of the land for a second park or new themed water park.
I know my opinion is irrelevant, but the hub / spoke design is another flaw allowing huge bottlenecks in every portal. I like the loop design of US and IOA so much better.
Then there is Virtual Queue... 90% of all complaints on the groups stem from some groups being able to ride 3 times in a day, and others never getting a reservation. Everything about this park so far tells me to stay away.
I think what is most frustrating is that rides that were seemingly running well and moving towards more consistent operations have take major steps back over the past couple of days. Add that to a couple of attractions that were announced as being closed for the entire day, and it turned into a perfect storm. Also, Universal piled onto the misery by announcing that MoM would be closed during the final week of previews (prior to the official Media Days and grand opening).
Again, everyone needs to remember that this is the first time in 15 years where a major new theme park is opening. Universal hasn't done this since 1999, and there isn't a lot of other experience in the industry to establish procedures for an opening of this scale. That doesn't excuse Universal for some of the gaffes and charging guests nearly full-freight for what is more often than not, a sub-standard experience, but I do think there is some overreaction and overly high expectations for a park still going through its shakedown weeks prior to its official opening.
Too bad so sad! If I were local to Orlando I probably would have paid to go in just to check it out but would have had 0 expectations. Technical rehearsal means you don't get to complain if nothing is working.
Now if this happens after the park officially opens I would 100% be on the side of the complainers but until then if you don't want to risk it then don't buy a ticket!!!
This is what you get when you fill a park with high-tech, E-ticket attractions instead of focusing on some smaller flat rides. Notice how nobody seems to have any feelings about Dragon Racers Rally when it closes, but most people would ride if there's nothing left to do and/or the line is short. Remember all of the flat rides they had to add to IOA in its second year?
This is why I would never pay to go to a soft opening. It is made clear that the park is in a preview period and attraction availability is not guaranteed. Does that mean you can't be upset if things aren't great? No, but it does mean you should know what you're getting yourself into and set your expectations appropriately.
Now, if the park was officially open and had a day like this where over half the attractions were out for a majority of the day, I think a return ticket would absolutely be justified. Yes, tickets have fine print to disclaimer for that sort of thing, but if people feel ripped off the poor word of mouth could absolutely sink the park regardless of how good it is when operating properly.
It's too bad Universal didn't bring back the free ticket offer like they did when the original park suffered in 1990.
@James -- the park was officially open then so this is a bit different. Once the parks opens if they have issues like that they definitely should offer that.
@Francis 24 - The reports are that guests who took the time to provide honest feedback at Guest Services (without being entitled jerks) were given a free return ticket for Epic, so it does sound like Universal understood that the park's performance significantly underperformed expectations.
I think the biggest issue is the ticket price they are charging for a preview. If this were a more of a soft opening with expectations that most rides would be operating, bar the usual technical difficulties that can always come up, those ticket prices would be understandable. But charging basically full price tickets for what is clearly being treated by Universal as a preview/technical rehearsal is not great. They should have just done this for passholders either for free or a significantly discounted price and then you can do whatever you want with the operation because at least it's free/reduced price. I know there are plenty of signs and disclaimers warning you this is a technical rehearsal, but I still feel like people rightly see those ticket prices and expect they are going to get close to the full experience.
Granted, if people are willing to pay full price for a preview and take that risk just to be the first, kudos to Universal for making that buck. But I don't know why anyone would pay for these preview tickets to not get a full experience with all attractions operating and to not even get significantly reduced crowds, instead of just paying that same amount past the grand opening to have a much better shot and getting the full experience.
Remember when Disney was blasted for opening Galaxy's Edge before Rise of the Resistance was ready? They were smart to know how opening it with so many issues would have been worse. This is taking that to an entire park and Universal ignored it.
It's like no one there remembers the horror stories of USO opening messes in 1990.
This is the reason why parks do "soft" opens, but even with clear language and lowered expectations, guests seem to not get the memo. Perhaps Universal is charging too much for preview tickets, or perhaps Universal is not clearly managing expectations during this preview period. However, these issues further my criticism of this park that it is short on overall attractions.