Universal Orlando extends Stardust Racers closure

WTH! Something in the milk ain’t clean here—we’re clearly beyond a routine maintenance closure. Talk about terrible timing. With spring break crowds ramping up, the continued closure is definitely going to sting.

Starting to think the rumor mill might have been onto something. A friend of mine who’s an engineer at the park actually foreshadowed this two months ago and told me to postpone my park trip in March and April.

Granted, the park is amazing, but I’ll be damned if I pay all that money, even at my passholder price, for the headliner (in my eyes) to be SBNO.

Can you imagine what the "hate-Disney-at-all-costs" Comcast vlogger community would be posting for clicks if this were a Walt Disney World attraction?

HA!

As for the Comcast parks in Orlando, there are signs that they are struggling. Specifically there are deeply discounted tickets. WKMG (02/11/96): "Universal Orlando Resort has launched a new ticket option giving guests six or seven days of park-to-park access to all four of its theme parks. The new weeklong ticket is available for a limited time at a special rate, allowing visitors to enjoy a full week for the price of a five-day ticket. The ticket covers Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, Universal Volcano Bay, and the all-new Universal Epic Universe. Guests can explore more than 75 rides and attractions, including immersive experiences at Epic Universe’s five unique worlds."

The closure of the park's iconic rollercoaster. The prohibitively long waits for HPMOM, the lack of b-level attractions, the disappearing dragon/drones and the lack of a nighttime spectacular may be starting to have an impact. Conventional wisdom indicates that at the beginning of the day EU is crowded, but in the hours before closing its quiet.

Meanwhile IOA and USF appear to be drawing very low crowds.

TH. . .long waits for the park's headliner. . .lack of b-attractions. . . No nighttime spectacular? Are we describing animal kingdom or Epic Universe? (And the drones, well, DHS).

I do seriously hope that if Disney opened a theme park, I'd give them a little bit if leeway when it came to this kind of thing. Growing pains are common.

I do think that this is really unfortunate for Stardust's reputation, and Mack's relationship with Universal. I will say that many great coasters have has rough openings (I-305, steel vengeance, maverick, hagrid's), so I hope this evolved into something a little bit more reliable.

"The new weeklong ticket is available for a limited time at a special rate, allowing visitors to enjoy a full week for the price of a five-day ticket. The ticket covers Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, Universal Volcano Bay, and the all-new Universal Epic Universe."

Not to sidetrack the discussion here, but is that really a "deeply discounted" ticket? Universal has long been running ticket promotions that gave guests 2-3 days free on multi-day tickets. I'm not necessarily saying that there is some empirical evidence to suggest that UO might not be hitting its desired ticket sales right now, but let's not paint what appears to be a routine ticket discount as some jaw-dropping, desperate price drop to juice attendance.

There are rumors flying everywhere about the cause of this closure, and they're certainly not helped by Universal extending it at the last moment. Stardust Racers was the first major attraction to start testing at Epic, so Universal has run this attraction through likely hundreds of thousands of cycles, so the abruptness and nature of this closure would lead most to believe that this has to be something stress-related (makes me think that Universal is attempting to prevent something like Fury 325 from occurring, which is supported by guests observing UO staff using aerial lifts in the same locations on repeated days).

While it's important that Universal get this coaster back open to meet guests expectations for the new park, it's even more important that this coaster operate safely, particularly given the already checkered history with this attraction.

Both Kabletown and the Mouse are pumping out the discounts in order to get ahead of the continued economic fallout from President No New Wars. In addition to the previously mentioned UO ticket deals, WDW has the 4 day 4 park promo, along with free dining and room discounts for summer and fall.

And I think Kabletown had been getting a reasonable amount of online hate for Epic's sometimes shoddy operations. My family had a lovely time during our multi-day visit in January, but we did experience a posted 45 minute wait time for Mine Cart Madness morph into a soul crushing 2 hour and 45 minute slog. I think a couple of new flats and a kiddie coaster in the often barren Celestial Park area could make a world of difference.

If what I heard from a friend who works the ride is accurate, the park has been performing an unexpectedly large number of temporary fixes on the attraction and is using this downtime to have Mack come in and devise a permanent solution. Engineering work takes time, so I'm not surprised to see the closure extended, and until we have evidence of cycling taking place I'd consider the closure to be indefinite. They were told the closure could last anywhere from two weeks to three months, so I'd say it's extremely likely neither Universal is putting out optimistic dates without knowing for sure when everything will be ready to go and adjusting them as needed. Assuming everything goes well and whatever is done allows the coaster to operate more safely and reliably moving forward, nobody's going to care about this closure in the future, but if Stardust Racers is important to you and you've got a spring trip planned I'd definitely consider deferring it if feasible.

V- Coaster: "I do seriously hope that if Disney opened a theme park, I'd give them a little bit if I do seriously hope that if Disney opened a theme park, I'd give them a little bit if leeway when it came to this kind of thing.
Me: Why? They are charging money to park and enter and boasting about the experiences they offer. Why should we give multinational corporations "a little bit if leeway when it came to this kind of thing"?

Zarex: "Both Kabletown and the Mouse are pumping out the discounts in order to get ahead of the continued economic fallout from President No New Wars."

Me: Academic question -- what discounts is WDW "pumping out"?

Me: Puzzled Response - Are you kidding? The Mouse recently announced discounts on WDW multipark passes, rooms and meals stretching from spring to fall. If ticket discounts signal an Orlando ThemeParkalypse, Gatorland might be the only thriving attraction in central Florida.

@Zarex: It was (as noted) an academic question, so no I was not "kidding". Calm down, Beavis.

@TH Creative: Go scratch, Butt-head. I was a smidge confused as to why you wanted me to repeat information that I clearly provided in my initial post.

New complex machanical thing develops unexpected problems. Seems pretty par for the course to me.

Sorry guys, but Comcast's Orlando parks seem in disarray. You can't convince me that they expected Stardust to be so problematic and a litigation target. USF is decades old and by my count the last EXPANSION of that property was KidsZone -- almost 30 years ago. Meanwhile, IOA has embraced the "tear-it-down-and-substitute" model. Both of those parks have abandoned theaters.

And now that the alleged "Disney killer" park -- with its technical and publicity headaches -- has turned into a one (maybe two) and done experience. It strikes me that the Comcast footprint in Orlando is looking kind of ... meh. Or to put it another way "Something in the milk ain’t clean here".

TH, I think it's normal to allow a park ~1 year to really hammer out all the biggest issues. Sure, we're paying ticket price, but nobody's forcing us to. Everyone going to Epic for the first year must understand the risks.

V-Coaster: "Everyone going to Epic for the first year must understand the risks."

Me: Especially when it comes to Stardust Racers.

Let’s just agree that as the leaders of the industry, both Disney and Universal get subjected to a greater amount of hate than necessary.

“If a lot of people love each other, the world would be a better place to live.” -Tommy Wiseau

"Can you imagine what the "hate-Disney-at-all-costs" Comcast vlogger community would be posting for clicks if this were a Walt Disney World attraction?

HA!"

Pre-whining already? Perpetual Victim Syndrome much? I don't think you hear yourself when you say things thing in your head, then transfer them to words on a page.

You're like a battered wife protecting your alcoholic abusive husband (Disney) at all costs... for some baffling reason that nets you zero dollars. It's not like you're an influencer. If anything, you have turned more people off to Disney than helped them.

Let's hear about the the lack of expansion at the other parks... Oh, wait, there it is. You haven't mentioned in the last 30 seconds. You must have been shaking.

I'll take TH whining about Universal vlogger posts that never happened for 1000, Alex.

Funny thing is, the Pixie Duster vloggers / fanatics are all up in arms over the Dino Institute being re-themed to a Mayan temple for the new Indy ride in AK. Others are complaining about an area being cleared for the carousel. Sound like you people have enough to complain about in your favorite company's parks already.

I, for one hope, Stardust can overcome its problems. But, thus far, the short history of Epic Universe gives the Walt Disney Company (nor its Orlando market share) any real reason to feel threatened.

Good luck, Comcast.

"I, for one hope, Stardust can overcome its problems. But, thus far, the short history of Epic Universe gives the Walt Disney Company (nor its Orlando market share) any real reason to feel threatened.

Good luck, Comcast."

No one mentioned market share, but now that you have, I looked it up. Universal parks have approximately 35% compared to much lower numbers pre-HP, and dismal during the 90s. According to figures, Universal makes considerable gains every year, but nothing compared to the growth after the boy wizard came to play.

Implying Disney isn't worried or threatened is both denial and coping. Their numbers stagnated for a few years with little or no growth.

This being said, Universal needs to get their act together. Stardust Racers, Ministry of Magic, and Mine Cart Madness are down almost much as Tiana's.