Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[Keladry84]

I know you're from KS but so am I and I love it out here #sorrynotsorry

Technically I'm from Nebraska There's days I love it too, but I actually wish it was more to come back and visit rather than live. My ideal place to live would be Berlin Germany . Nice to see another Kansan!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Technically I'm from Nebraska There's days I love it too, but I actually wish it was more to come back and visit rather than live. My ideal place to live would be Berlin Germany . Nice to see another Kansan!

I know off topic but the weekend before last I wanted to do something different for my birthday so I had us do a mini day trip to the Flint Hills (hadn't been there in a hot minute) taking the scenic byway and stopping off along the way. There's something about walking in the prairie with cattle and bison (though they were too far back in the pens for us to see as it was a much longer walk than we wanted) and beautiful colors of the prairie exploring a nearly 150yr old one room schoolhouse to bring some fresh air. I live in the suburbs and while we have some farms here and there still along the road nothing like going out seeing the prairie land, I find it so peaceful. That said with all the international travel we've been doing lately there are many different places that have such amazing beauty that's for sure even if KS is my home there are many places to visit and explore!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Back to Universal, our now TM friend checked out a bit of Helios after his training and said it was a beautiful hotel and great views of the park. I can't quite tell if this photos below is of the sun being blocked by Helios or just the clouds, it's probably just the clouds



I know I've seen photos of the fountains and watched a snippet of some nighttime stuff but the fountain looks quite large from this point of view, I'm loving it (and it's making me miss Bellagio fountains *sigh* )

 

[jrsharp21]

Today was our EU preview day. Got to Sapphire Falls around 8:15am. No one checking in at all. Checked in and they had a room ready for us. The guy at the front desk ask if we were driving or taking the bus. He suggested to drive as the bus takes too long right now. So we unloaded the car and drove over. When we got to EU it was not really raining, but by the time we got through the gate and made our way into Super Nintendo World, it was pouring. Went to Donky Kong, and it was delayed. So we started walking back and jumped on Yoshi. Bad move, it started raining harder and we got absolutely soaked. Next we stood in line for Mario Kart to just get out of the rain. 70 minute later and we finally got on. That’s how we started our day.

To keep it brief, it rained a good part of the morning and early afternoon. Many of the rides were not operating. At one point there was only two rides going, Mario Kart and Frankenstein. Battle at the Ministry was already scheduled to be closed, but Werewolf also ended up being closed all day. The park was pretty much empty all day because of the rain. This allowed us to explore and walk around freely. When the rain stopped and rides came back up, we kep being in the right spot at right time and pretty much walked on them. I will say that Stardust Racers may be one of my favorite coasters ever. That was awesome.

We ended up leaving at 4:30pm and rode everything that was open in the park. We will definitely be back in January to try to get on Battle at the Ministry.

 

[tony67]

The land is in the 1920s...without giving away too much, you travel to the 90s to see the trial

At. Least that's how I understand it

Yes that is how I understand it as well - like you said don't want to give anything away

 

[tony67]

We were on vacation at UO last week & went to EPIC one day. I, too, expected the HP portal to be my fav but Dark Universe is incredibly well done - we were surprised that we both liked it so much - at least as much as the HP area!

Its impressive and the characters are pretty cool

I've not had time to go back through all my notes and such but one thing I missed and saw in a stream yesterday is that after the bells ring and before the windmill lights you can see the the torches of the villagers to the left in the bushes heading to the windmill and afterwards you can see them leaving. It a small detail and I am sure most miss it as everyone is focused (with their camera ) on the windmill. they could have easily skipped something like that. I've not even seen video of it yet so Ill have to look.

There are also a lot of things from various movies in random places and one other cool touch is when you exit look at the stonework around the gate - on the dark more side its gritty and aged and on the celestial site its clean new and spotless.

I'll be interested if they do anything here different during HHN - not sure it would get me back in - but it will temp me. Damn FOMO.

I honestly think I'd put hp as my least favorite land.

Doesn't mean it's bad. I just really enjoy all the others more. Everything is so well done

Yeah - Ill just say the atmosphere here is pretty cool - I am not a harry potter fan at all - but as I said early for me the high point of my trip was just sitting in the cafe near the main entrance and seeing all the people going crazy over the scale of it. I'd like to see more seating honestly and the seating near ministry isn't quite the same experience IMO.

Also be careful on those benches - the design is (I assume) realistic for the 20s - but when you get that bar in your back its not fun and I did that more than once.

I do think one issue with this area is its from a movie that is not as popular as the HP movies, so maybe 50/50 mix of people who even know the movie well. That said there were some hard core fans of the movie that really enjoyed it, but in general there is probably not enough here for casual fans - yet.

From what I saw in a stream there is a locked gate with doors behind it that is for a future planned expansion of the land - dont know anymore than that but there is more coming in the future - maybe a few years - but still they have room to add

Tale as old as time lol. FB is full of people complaining they can’t get excited for upcoming disney trips as the bloggers are all about U & Epic. Huh? Makes my head hurt. As a guest, it doesn’t have to be a them against us, especially when it comes to amusement parks.

Yeah no doubt - what I see as different this time around is Disney owns the news and is concerned about Universal (IMO) can over report issues. The news in general is not all that important anymore - but still has some pull with "normies"

At this point I think most of the Disney bloggers are gone - they were there those first two weeks when the vibe was very positive - and they have moved on. The hard core universal folks are still there. This Disney bloggers will be back on day one though no doubt.

 

[SkyGuy]

No no sun glasses at all. (They asked that about that when I had issues with entry as well)

I think it was just an issue with one of the screens at Monsters lockers - I had retaken the photo and really was really hard to tell it was me it was so dark, but when I went back to get my bag so on the other side of the wall the picture was perfect.

We went yesterday, and my locker pics were also extremely dark - no glasses either. I was scared the locker system wouldn’t recognize me on the way out, but that didn’t end up being an issue.

 

[SkyGuy]

Hi I just wanted to say I have done two AP previews. One was April 27th and the other yesterday. I won't go into a full report but I noticed that the ride ops are doing good. There seems to be a groove between them, they aren't fumbling around and genuinely want to be there. I believe once they get all the mechanical issues worked out with the rides, the ride times and delays will get much better. It is a new park with new rides. We were lucky I guess we had two great visits and I am thankful for that. We did stay onsite and use early entry which I liked. We were lucky the Blue Dragon openend yesterday and go to eat their great food.

I did have tickets for June but switched them to yesterday, and so glad I did. My only concern with this park opening is the capacity issues. I think if they go highcapacity which will be could be around 25,000 to 30,000 it is going to be tough. I think Celestial park can handle overflow but those worlds are on the smaller side. My concern with going after the grand opening for awhile is that they use a virtual queue.

fingers crossed that all goes smoothly and if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

Agreed! We were there yesterday as well. Rides were predictably down for the dismal weather, but once that cleared, they seemed to get them up and running efficiently. As we entered Dark Universe in the morning, we noticed that it was not very spacious and commented that a even a slighter larger crowd could be quite constrictive, and I think that would make me a little nervous, Burning Blade was packed, and I can’t see how this will be enjoyed on even a lighter than average park day. The immersion factor in Nintendo and Berk really impressed us, and we’d be excited to revisit, but well-after the hype dies down a bit.

 

[tony67]

We went yesterday, and my locker pics were also extremely dark - no glasses either. I was scared the locker system wouldn’t recognize me on the way out, but that didn’t end up being an issue.

So when you picked up your bag did you notice that the photo was much brighter?
It does seem like the have the facial recognition stuff down well.
I've also read some things they are testing it for express passes and have some sort of patent around using it to limit alcohol consumption.
So it does seem a lot more of its coming to Universal.

, Burning Blade was packed, and I can’t see how this will be enjoyed on even a lighter than average park day.

Yeah - this was something I was really wanting to check out - I don't get why its so small and not a "real" bar.
I was really hoping for a bar with bartenders and not just two lines to buy drinks.
Were there any Monster hunters roaming around?

 

[SkyGuy]

So when you picked up your bag did you notice that the photo was much brighter?
It does seem like the have the facial recognition stuff down well.
I've also read some things they are testing it for express passes and have some sort of patent around using it to limit alcohol consumption.
So it does seem a lot more of its coming to Universal.

Yeah - this was something I was really wanting to check out - I don't get why its so small and not a "real" bar.
I was really hoping for a bar with bartenders and not just two lines to buy drinks.
Were there any Monster hunters roaming around?

I honestly didn’t notice if the pick-up pic was any better than the drop-off pic.

We saw no Monsters Hunters walking around. We saw zero characters anywhere in the park - roaming or stationary meet-and-greet. It rained a good portion of the day, so maybe that was the reason? We left Epic around 6:30pm and although it had cleared for the most part, there were still occasional showers.

Forgot to mention my thighs were screaming yesterday after all the stairs in Nintendo on Monday. Wowza.

 

[jrsharp21]

I honestly didn’t notice if the pick-up pic was any better than the drop-off pic.

We saw no Monsters Hunters walking around. We saw zero characters anywhere in the park - roaming or stationary meet-and-greet. It rained a good portion of the day, so maybe that was the reason? We left Epic around 6:30pm and although it had cleared for the most part, there were still occasional showers.

Forgot to mention my thighs were screaming yesterday after all the stairs in Nintendo on Monday. Wowza.

When we went on Monday, the Invisible Man was out taking pics near the entrance to Dark World. When we went to Burning Blade, there was monster hunter out front. Not knowing the backstory, he actually had to tell us he was a monster hunter. He asked what problems we had, zombies, ghouls, vampires, or werewolves. So my wife had a pretty funny interaction with him. When we went into Burning Blade, they had three "bartenders" working. Two on the main counter and one on the right hand side where all the bottles were. Agree that it could get really crowded in there on a heavy crowd day, especially when people are looking to get out of the sun.

 

[sherlockmiles]

"the Invisible Man was out taking pics"
OMG - this made me laugh...................

are you sure he was there,,,,,??

 

[BorderTenny]

Epic touring plans are now available on Touring Plans.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Epic merch at the CityWalk Universal Studios store:











There was a bunch more too!

 

[Minnie1222]

Captain Cacao. I think this may be the official bear for Celestial Park. I really wanted one, but unfortunately he's a backpack.

 

[tony67]

For those that did not see it the grand opening celebration will be live streamed the night before (May 21st) there is a link to signup on the universal homepage.
Not sure if it will be on peacock but it may. (peacock is also going to be showing a 3 part Epic Universe behind the scenes\building etc - not sure when)
Still no info on what may or may not be part of opening on the 22nd, but I guess if you are staying with a view of Epic the night before it will be quite a show.

There are also videos on youtube for the drone testing - that is something I would have liked to see.

The same streamer got the fireworks a month or two ago

 

[CAPSLOCK]

1st bus from Aventura 6:40am this morning (early entry 8am today).

Arrived right before 7am. 40ish people lined at the main gate, which opened at 7am & allowed us to line up at the security gates - got the front of one of those lines as people spread out.

So excited!

 

[PrincessV]

Epic touring plans are now available on Touring Plans.

And crowd level estimates, too!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

And... Nintendo world is delayed.

 

[tony67]

And... Nintendo world is delayed.
View attachment 965470

Bummer - so this is a true early entry - which I feel will be much better than the 10AM - was there a very large crowd at opening?