Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[lebeau]

For those more familiar with the Orlando area, what's the distance between the new park and the others? Are we talking about an Animal Kingdom situation or farther?

They estimated it would take 12 minutes to get between parks.

 

[waldiddy]

Guess they’re planning on buses/cars to go between parks. But wouldn’t it be awesome if they built a train/monorail/ boat canal? Seems like I read awhile back that they had gotten clearance to build something over the interstate.

 

[mcjw2011]

I'm rather underwhelmed by this. When Universal announced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in May 2007, they had an initial open date of fall 2009/spring 2010. Why not something similar for Epic Universe?

So vague and irritating.

 

[Jennasis]

I like the name. They really shouldn't use the name "World" for anything in the name since there is Disney World already. Though, Universal's Epic Universe could be construed as repetitive.

While some will always find fault somehow (i.e....it isn't what I wanted/expected/would have done), I am very much looking forward to the new addition and having an actual EPIC sized vacation to do on the years we have to take off from Disney to let our DVC points accrue. We are doing USO next year but only 5 days (with 2 of those being travel days) and it still feels like too much time.

 

[Disxuni]

Universal threw serious shade at WDW with that comment.

I'm a huge WDW fan and haven't been to Universal in about ten years. But with Disney's rising prices, huge crowds, taking more away, etc., we've been talking about a Universal trip, instead of WDW, next time. This almost seals the deal. We only go to WDW every 3 years or more so this is good with us. We will just switch it out.

After being an APH for two years for Disney I'm switching back to Universal in the Fall once my pass goes out and it cools down. The highest tier AP for Universal is about the same price I pay now for Gold, which is considered one of the lower tier passes and that was prior to the price hike. Besides, in my opinion, Universal has been dominating in the theme park / attraction in terms of quality content. It's amazing what Universal has accomplished from now, all the back to when they first announced the first phase of WWoHP.

What's the poll question?

Am I excited for the new park? - YES!!
Do I like the name? - No, not really.

I feel like it went like this for the name...

For Disney, they named it Disneyland, then Disney World. So, we named our park Universal Studios, but how do we step that up? Okay, let's go back to Disney. What is bigger than a world? The universe! But we can't call it Universal's Universe. That's stupid. We need an extra word in between the two. Let's vote between: Awesome, Epic, and Fantastic. Clearly Fantastic is the winner, but too many people will think of Fantastic Beasts if we use that, so let's go with Epic, because that's the internet's favorite word.

 

[fatmanatee]

I'm rather underwhelmed by this. When Universal announced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in May 2007, they had an initial open date of fall 2009/spring 2010. Why not something similar for Epic Universe?

So vague and irritating.

It's a much bigger undertaking. Hard to understand the scale involved here but think of this as building 4-5 Wizarding Worlds at the same time. I might actually be underestimating here but Super Nintendo World is a major project on its own, we already know the basics of what will be built there. Now we see that there are several lands of the same size in the works, along with a hotel and other structures. I'm mostly bummed about not knowing more about the other lands but I'm not expecting an open date for awhile.

As it stands, I've been hearing 2023 as an early estimate but that's REALLY early. There's no benefit for Universal to make this announcement because they could screw it up badly.

 

[Disxuni]

On another note, considering we still do not have confirmation of what will replace T2 even though they have been building for quite sometime, or more details on the Jurassic Park attraction, I honestly was not expecting us to have really any information.

 

[BaymaxFan78]

I'm rather underwhelmed by this. When Universal announced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in May 2007, they had an initial open date of fall 2009/spring 2010. Why not something similar for Epic Universe?

So vague and irritating.

Wizarding World is just a land. This is an entire park, plus hotels, plus some "entertainment center".

 

[BaymaxFan78]

I added an extra option on the poll for yall

 

[DisneyLifePapioNe]

Finally a Hogwarts resort!!!

 

[BaymaxFan78]

Finally a Hogwarts resort!!!

Sorry a what now?

 

[AJ1983]

Realistically how quick does everyone think it will be built? Universal is pretty quick st this and the landclearing has commenced. Is 4-5 years too soon to hope for? Haha

 

[Scalemaster34]

This was more a hey we are doing something over here announcement...

I wouldn't be surprised if what they showed was a total concept for the park. But what they actually move forward with could depend on what they can afford. Kinda like the FL upgrade at MK a few years ago... initial plans and end results aren't always the same.

A lot might depend on how much retail and restaurant interest they get from 3rd parties... so Universal is waiting a little for hard info. This might be them kicking the tires a little.

 

[FireflyTrance]

I can't see this opening before like 2023 but who knows. Either way I am pretty excited for it. Usually we just go to Universal Studios for one day but I would dedicate a second day to going to this new park. I would love to see a Super Nintendo Land!

 

[fatmanatee]

This was more a hey we are doing something over here announcement...

I wouldn't be surprised if what they showed was a total concept for the park. But what they actually move forward with could depend on what they can afford. Kinda like the FL upgrade at MK a few years ago... initial plans and end results aren't always the same.

A lot might depend on how much retail and restaurant interest they get from 3rd parties... so Universal is waiting a little for hard info. This might be them kicking the tires a little.

Actually thought this too, obviously there's a layout and we have an idea of what's expected to be there but not announcing anything gives them room to make deals for IPs that might be in flux or other changes.

 

[ksdave]

Guess they’re planning on buses/cars to go between parks. But wouldn’t it be awesome if they built a train/monorail/ boat canal? Seems like I read awhile back that they had gotten clearance to build something over the interstate.

I would love to see a subterranean high-speed train system like the old Roddenberry movie Genesis II.

 

[lebeau]

I'm rather underwhelmed by this. When Universal announced the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in May 2007, they had an initial open date of fall 2009/spring 2010. Why not something similar for Epic Universe?

So vague and irritating.

That was a mistake they don't want to repeat. Attendance was down for the next three years.

 

[Disxuni]

Realistically how quick does everyone think it will be built? Universal is pretty quick st this and the landclearing has commenced. Is 4-5 years too soon to hope for? Haha

I can see them building pretty quickly considering how much they have built and changed in the past decade since they first announced WWoHP. If it was Disney, it would probably take them 10 years, or more considering how they move.

 

[mcjw2011]

That was a mistake they don't want to repeat. Attendance was down for the next three years.

I get that, but no concrete idea of what the park will be like in terms of licensed and studio-owned IP now? If they would confirm whether they're doing an extension of WW/FB, Nintendo, et al -- they could confirm it in a broad sense without giving anything away.

 

[glamdring269]

I'm sure this will be awesome. Right now if we stay on site we can basically knock out Universal in 3 days. This works well for a WDW + Uni combo trip but once this place is up and running we'll likely have to start doing dedicated trips. And I'm ok with that!