Epic Fail

[imbelle]

The 5 or 6 times that I've been to the Universal Parks I was either only there to check out new Harry Potter areas or because the people I was with wanted to go there. I fully intended on checking out the Ministry of Magic ride at some point, but not until after the original Epic Universe fervor had died down.

A few weeks ago my sister called me and said that she had booked us a room on Universal property because she had heard that you could buy a ticket for Epic Universe during the passholder preview period if you were a hotel guest. We expected reasonable crowds since park attendees would be limited to passholders and hotel guests. Although I am a long time WDW Passholder and have stayed in all of the Disney hotels, this would be my first time staying on Universal property and making a Universal park the focus of my vacation. I was looking forward to it and curious as to whether Epic would be the park that changed my mind about whether Universal was capable of matching Disney at their own game. We figured that one day would be enough since our sole priority would be the Ministry of Magic ride, with anything else being gravy.

Then after the hotel was reserved, plane tickets purchased, and PTO time secured, Universal opened up ticketing to the entire public. Since we were already committed, we went ahead and purchased two days of park tickets to allow for what would surely be bigger crowds than what we had originally expected.

The first day we were rather alarmed as there was a sign when we entered the park that said Ministry of Magic would not open until 3pm. That translates into 4 lost hours from 11am opening to 3pm that guests could have been pushing through, and probably a much smaller virtual queue capacity. Sure enough, even with four people, none of us could score a virtual queue slot at any of the 3 drops. Not that it may have mattered since the ride was posted as "Delayed" (Universal euphemism for down) much of the day after the 3pm opening time.

The next day, the exact same scenario. To make matters worse, most of the other park attractions were down for most or all of the day. Two of the 3 rides in the Berk area were down all day. The boats of the water ride were all jammed together like they had given up, with no visible sign of even an attempt to get the ride up and running. The Untrainable Dragon stage show was cancelled after we'd already waited 20 minutes in 90 degree sun. The Donkey Kong ride and roller coaster in Celestial Park were both down all day. One of the Harry Potter shops was closed and the Blue Dragon restaurant has yet to open. To add insult to injury, I asked for a take out box for my Butterbeer crepe in L'Air de la Sirene and was told that they don't have take out boxes because Universal wants you to have a "dining experience". This is a mobile order venue, mind you, hardly fine dining. The only bright spot was Monsters Unchained which we rode 6 times (for lack of anything else to do) and even that was in "B" mode a few of those times with Victoria and Frank on the fritz. (And why is Dracula smartly dressed with bare feet? But I digress.)

The theming in the different areas is pretty well done, but to paraphrase Ian Malcom "You do eventually plan to have amusements in your amusement park, don't you?" If we hadn't paid over $300 apiece for tickets, maybe it wouldn't have felt like such a bait and switch. Universal was not prepared and there was no way that ticketing should have been opened to the general public with Epic Universe clearly not in a state of readiness. Moral of the story, save your time and if you want to give Universal your money, wait until you can actually get some value in exchange.

 

[Robo56]

I just returned home Thursday morning and I stayed onsite at he new Hotel Helios Grand and was in Epic Monday and Tuesday of this week.

I was told that it was only going to be AP holders and onsite resort guests that would be in the park prior to the grand opening of the park on May 22nd and TM confirmed this to me. Someone in line for check in had told me she heard they had opened it up to the general public too.

All I can say is that Universal now has 11 resorts and every body and their brother was wanting to buy AP’s so I would guess those guests alone would rate a few thousand folks on any given day.

All I can tell you is I figured that if the park had been open to the General Public already it would have been mobbed with people and it wasn’t on the two days I was there.

The number one complaint by everyone was the VQ situation for the Ministry of Magic ride. I tried myself 6 times over the two days I was there and got in and received a possible time. I hit that time to accept and submit it, it said it was gone already. I think the ride was down more then up.

I agree that if you are going to offer rides at an amusement park they should be ready to ride when the park has opened to park paying guests.

Guest services were really inundated with complaints about Ministry of Magic VQ and they said they were forwarding it to the powers that be.

I did notice that the water boat ride in Isle of Berk was not running during the two days I was there, but the wind gliders were running and I was able to see the show.

The Blue Dragon restaurant was not open during the 2 days I was there either.

I had read up a bit before I decided to go and understood that some of the rides were still being tweaked as were the restaurants. Knowing that I decided to take the risk.

I should follow that up with a disclaimer that I’am in my 60’s and not into trying to get on every ride in all the lands. I’am just about the immersive experience and ride the rides I think I can tolerate.

On Dracula’s bare feet. There is a whole back story to Frankenstein Manor and Dr. Victoria Frankenstein. Short synopsis is that she is trying to control all the Universal original Monsters and she has captured and contained Dracula and removed his shoes as a sign of humiliation to him.

Monsters unchained was my favorite ride and like you I rode it numerous times. It was awesome.

It sounds like your experience was the perfect storm of disappointment. I’am sorry to hear that.

When you build a vacation up in your mind and spend the money to get there, you expect things to go well for sure.

I will return at a latter date when the newness dies down a bit and see how the experience is again.

For me Epic is the most beautiful immersive park ever built.

I would say give it another try again after the newness has died down.