Universal Orlando's new theme park is now soft-opened to all.
Up until now, the previews at Universal Epic Universe have been restricted to Universal Orlando's annual passholders, on-site hotel guests, and Universal credit card holders. But starting today, anyone in the general public may buy an admission ticket to the new theme park.
Epic Universe's preview period continues through May 19. The park opens officially on May 22. If you are curious about the gap there. Epic Universe will be closed to the public for a press event on May 20 and 21.
Universal Epic Universe is located on the new south campus of the Universal Orlando Resort, just north of the Orange County Convention Center. The park includes four single-IP lands - themed to Nintendo, Universal Monsters, Harry Potter, and How to Train Your Dragon - surrounding a central plaza called Celestial Park. You can read my review of the park's initial press preview here: Robert’s first review of Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe.
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This is a bit of a shocker to me. I wonder if they're not generating enough capacity from APs and on-site guests to truly test ops, or if the park is performing so well that they can throw open the gates like this.
Purely anecdotal, Russell, but when I visited the Helios on Saturday for dinner I noticed that Epic’s parking lot looked to be about 30% full. I think many APs and hotel guests aren’t biting on the previews.
Kind of surprised by this move. I have to assume either they aren't getting enough sales from passholders or they're ready to ramp up capacity to a level beyond what passholder only previews can provide. Will be interesting to see if reports of short lines continue or if we quickly see the wait times of 1-3 hours that are expected when the park is officially open materialize.
Pretty easy explanation, its a cash grab, and they were probably planning it all along.
Was there today (29th) and they have a lot of kinks to work out. Stardust didn't get going till after lunch, and only then yellow side. Donkey Kong was down almost immediately after opening, and didn't open back for 3hrs. All coasters were down for sometime during the day.
Wait times were high ... Stardust got to 75min and Donkey Kong was steady between 85-100min. All other rides were regularly 30-60mins.
It's a great park, but I didn't like the portal system. Anyone who gets 15-20k steps in, are getting them going round and round the circular pathway, that takes you to those portals. I almost got giddy today .. LOL
I didn't do everything, as I'm back in November, but already i cannot see me getting a pass for Epic.
The man25, i could argue that the park was ready faster than they expected, and they didn't want to waste money with a perfectly good park for a few years, plus people will be expecting the kinks that they want to work out.
they're charging $150 for preview tickets. it's not hard to imagine that ticket sales were on the slow side, especially when we're so close to an official opening.
I don’t think this has anything to do with financial motives. These are complex ride systems with kinks that need to be worked out. The day before our preview MOM was down the whole day - due to a faulty seatbelt sensor in one ride vehicle seat. Better to work out the issues in a full park during previews when they are expected than after opening when customers will be less tolerant.
Jacob nails it. Other than simply wanting to be among the first who get to go, there's little incentive to pay over full price for a ticket when there's a giant asterisk that not everything may be ready.
So far, it seems to be luck of the draw on ops. Was there on Sunday, rode everything (including Stardust 5x and DK 2x.) But Saturday and Monday seemed to be plagued by delays. Sprinkle in a little weather and your mileage may vary.
Time is running out. Less than a month before opening and they need to slowly increase attendance before the crushing crowds arrive. For most passholders, the time commitment and expense will limit a visit to one time. Sure, there's a small minority of super fans that will come over and over again. But this is about testing capacity, not hearting UOAPs with low wait times.
If AP tickets sell out, then this move probably doesn't happen. To my understanding they are keeping capacity at around 7200.
jeremygary - I can't imagine how nuts that place is going to be when it officially opens. Anyone know the max capacity?
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FINALLY! I snagged some for 5/11. I got the Universal Rewards card just to buy preview tickets and they removed the link to purchase and replaced it with a "selected users will get an invitation link in their email" message. I couldn't get tickets from the Customer Service hotline or Universal Rewards. Now this? I guess ticket sales must not be doing so hot.
Anyways...I'm pretty stoked. I'll post my thoughts once I've visited!