Thoughts on crowd levels in 2025

[tinkandonaldfans]

We have a trip to Disney booked for August next year. Our group has some that have never been to Universal or haven't been for about 14 years. We were thinking of doing a Universal day (possibly 2) but Epic Universe has now confirmed it's opening date. I would love to do Epic but perhaps we will leave that for another trip and just stick to Universal and IOA. Do you think that these two parks will be quieter as everyone will be heading to Epic or do you think it will be mega busy throughout?

 

[Juventus]

I don't know how slammed Epic will be. I mean are they counting on only selling 1 day tickets (then maybe 2 day) until 2026? How many people pay 1 day full price for tickets. APs, like me, don't like that.
Paying 35% of my premiere AP for the cost 2 days at epic sucks.

 

[Minnie1222]

I would love to do Epic but perhaps we will leave that for another trip and just stick to Universal and IOA. Do you think that these two parks will be quieter as everyone will be heading to Epic or do you think it will be mega busy throughout?

I think the other two parks, UO and IOA will be less busy than usual. Universal has a lot of Annual Passholders and the majority of them will be at Epic waiting in line. Regular guests with limited time would likely choose to be at the new park.

 

[tony67]

Yeah - its tough to say. There will probably be a number of folks with the three day tickets - so two days at the legacy parks and then maybe even buy another day at Epic as well. Don't think they will waste those two days. The HP folks will want to do all three parks - I don't see that changing. Also there will be a lot of folks that have not been to Universal in quite a while and they will want to do all three IMO.

I think it was a big mistake not to have two Epic days on the 5 day ticket - that would have been pretty popular I suspect - even if they did not make it available until say June 1st to not mess with opening weekend.

I don't know how slammed it Epic will be. I mean are they counting on only selling 1 day tickets (then maybe 2 day) until 2026? How many people pay 1 day full price for tickets. APs, like me, don't like that.
Paying 35% of my premiere AP for the cost 2 days at epic sucks.

Yeah somewhat agree - still waiting to see if the general pool of tickets will be more expensive than the ones they offered to passholders - I assume they will be as the 150 is pretty reasonable for peak dates. I did not expect free tickets or a 4 park AP offered anytime soon - maybe a few preview days that were free though - and we may still see that - one free preview day per AP holder would be nice.

For me the AP tickets was a total failure - for whatever reason I could not even buy them even though I was online in time - and I still cant buy tickets.

I'm still very up in the air with things going forward - I'd like to do Epic but this mess has really turned me off.
HHN was also pretty bad this year overall.
I guess Ill be keeping a close eye on Epic and see how it goes - I expect it to be pretty amazing, but I am tempted to not renew my AP or go to HHN until they have an AP with Epic.

 

[Juventus]

There should have been a discount depending on what tier AP you have with a limit to the amount you can purchase.

Something like 35% off if you have premiere, 25% if preferred, etc..., maximum of 2-4 tickets each.

Because right now I'm looking at $900 for the AP, then if I want 3 days at epic another $450ish.

 

[marmentrout85]

We have a trip to Disney booked for August next year. Our group has some that have never been to Universal or haven't been for about 14 years. We were thinking of doing a Universal day (possibly 2) but Epic Universe has now confirmed it's opening date. I would love to do Epic but perhaps we will leave that for another trip and just stick to Universal and IOA. Do you think that these two parks will be quieter as everyone will be heading to Epic or do you think it will be mega busy throughout?

In theory there will be more people staying on property due to the high demand and increased hotel room capacity with the new resorts, BUT everybody they will now be spread out through 3 parks instead of two. I guess I'd be mentally prepared for the older 2 parks to be pretty busy, and if they aren't, then it's a welcomed bonus.

 

[drenalin'junkie]

I was on queue for 6+ hours yesterday to get my single day AP tickets to EU.
Demand indicates a strong presence. However they are crowd limited with daily tickets.
August is traditionally a slow month IMO.
UO seems to offer better value to APs by far over WDW but not as much as SW/BG. We " save " thousands per year with APs in UO and SW.