Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[sherlockmiles]

https://wdwnt.com/2025/02/all-three...-have-rooms-available-for-parks-opening-week/

All Epic Universe Hotels Still Available for Park’s Opening Week, Pointing to Lower-Than-Expected Demand
by Gretchen McDermid

LOL - No one really believs it's lower than DEMAND do they??
It's the ticketing arrangements!!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

LOL - No one really believs it's lower than DEMAND do they??
It's the ticketing arrangements!!

They mention that in the article as one of the possible causes. Too many restrictions.

I do wish they didn't force you to buy tickets for the older parks. I imagine if they lifted that restriction, people who bought ticket bundles would be upset, though...

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I kinda think they also want to get at least a few days of various previews under their belt before they increase the ticket sales for the first few weeks.

I also think that the current ticket structures limit the number of people who will stay onsite at the new Epic hotels. If you've only got 1 day at Epic, and 2-4 days at the other parks, it makes more sense to stay onsite at the main hub. One day of busing vs either moving hotels or busing for 2-4 days. And more stuff to walk/boat to if you're staying onsite around Citywalk.

 

[GhostHost24]

Meh.. It's wdwnt. Trash clickbait website

 

[Minnie1222]

We have packages, AP's Epic tickets, and regular APs. For the opening weekend, we'll only stay at Helios for 3 nights for our 3 park days at Epic. The rest of the time we will be at another premier hotel. There's no reason to stay at Helios without the EP privilege.

 

[zavandor]

I do agree with Tom Briker who wrote that their ticket policy is going to backfire. They're hugely limiting access to the new park at a time when tourism in Central Florida is slowing down. People get excited, then discover they cannot book as many days as they want (not wasting a lot of money) and may decide to delay a visit until next year. And if they realize they're way below expectations and scramble last minute selling single day tickets... how many families plan visits to Orlando last minute?
Honestly, I'm already invested visiting this year for other reasons (family trip, mostly at Disney) and I'll be back in a couple of years anyway, but if this would be a once in a lifetime trip, I would wait next year, without a doubt.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Meh.. It's wdwnt. Trash clickbait website

Regardless of the source, I do think it's surprising that opening week isn't sold out for hotel stays. I'm looking forward to trying Helios, but I'll wait until I can get tickets just for EU

 

[HokieRaven5]

Probably a broken record at this point but that ticket policy is just to protect/insulate USF/IOA from attendance drops. When Animal Kingdom opened instead of raising attendance at the other parks they dropped for the first year.

Also there’s more people who don’t want to be a part of the insanity of early influencers, etc.

2019 when SWGE was opened in Disneyland all the talk leading up to it was how crowded it would be with it being so new, then after it was “where are the crowds?”

 

[New Mouse]

I do agree with Tom Briker who wrote that their ticket policy is going to backfire. They're hugely limiting access to the new park at a time when tourism in Central Florida is slowing down. People get excited, then discover they cannot book as many days as they want (not wasting a lot of money) and may decide to delay a visit until next year. And if they realize they're way below expectations and scramble last minute selling single day tickets... how many families plan visits to Orlando last minute?
Honestly, I'm already invested visiting this year for other reasons (family trip, mostly at Disney) and I'll be back in a couple of years anyway, but if this would be a once in a lifetime trip, I would wait next year, without a doubt.

IMO the only fail with the Ticketing system is that it should be easier to buy 2 epic days.

I think the package idea was extremely smart.

As for the hotels, not having express IMO will be a gut punch for the Deluxe and the other two don't seem to have the greatest reviews.

 

[GhostHost24]

UO had said they'll sell single day tickets. Guessing it'll be sometime in March

 

[Smugpugmug]

Meh.. It's wdwnt. Trash clickbait website

I wish this site banned them as a source like other websites and the WDW subreddit did. They're horrible lol

I agree with the ticketing system being an issue. I've talked to people who are not "in the know" with theme park stuff who want to go to Epic but don't understand why they cannot get tickets for just Epic. They have 0 interest in the other 2 parks.

 

[fatmanatee]

I wish this site banned them as a source like other websites and the WDW subreddit did. They're horrible lol

I agree with the ticketing system being an issue. I've talked to people who are not "in the know" with theme park stuff who want to go to Epic but don't understand why they cannot get tickets for just Epic. They have 0 interest in the other 2 parks.

They were banned at one point but were brought back bc they occasionally break news and so many sites were banned for the same reason that basically the only source left was blogmickey and maybe one other dis news site. So you take the good with the bad I guess.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

2019 when SWGE was opened in Disneyland all the talk leading up to it was how crowded it would be with it being so new, then after it was “where are the crowds?”

I was there a few weeks after it opened in DL and the locals were just not impressed. To further hone that in, it only had 1 ride when it was supposed to have 2 at opening day (I believe a 3rd had already been previously cut) and that did not help things out with the impressions of it. Walking around it felt like there was way too much dead space so I get that criticism for Galaxy's Edge. The same was the case for WDW for the delay in the 2nd ride and the dead space and it still did feel like in 2022 when we were in WDW that there was dead space. So to me I think the problem for Galaxy's Edge mostly lies directly in Disney's hands in how they went about designing the lands in each park and the attractions there.

You were never going to appease completely the huge dedicated Star Wars fans (the hotel helped in that) but to the average person there were some glaring mistakes that Disney made that are not akin to what Epic represents for Universal unless upon opening day and the subsequent few months afterwards there are are too many gaps in operating attractions (meaning ones that are not yet ready).

Also there’s more people who don’t want to be a part of the insanity of early influencers, etc.

I think people forget too how things have evolved. When IOA opened in 1999 we did not have the influencers, the vloggers and the like that we do now. When AK opened up in 1998 same. New lands shouldn't be treated the same as a new theme park but we haven't had any new theme parks between these two companies since the late '90s so it's the only thing we can compare to that over time the first few days and weeks are a lot of people there just to write about it, vlog about it and live stream about it. Even when HP opened in 2010 the whole influencer thing was not really part of our vernacular the same as it is now. And to the point about waiting I was waiting myself to go to Universal until things died down a bit when that opened. We went in May 2011 and the waits were still quite long and the area still quite crowded but it would have been different had we been there in 2010.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I've talked to people who are not "in the know" with theme park stuff who want to go to Epic but don't understand why they cannot get tickets for just Epic. They have 0 interest in the other 2 parks.

To the bolded I agree more so looking at the tv commercials I've seen a lot which now include HP and Nintendo when before mostly it was Dark Universe for me. Haven't seen a whole lot of How to Train Your Dragon on the commercials yet. But in any case they don't make it very clear that there's limitations on how to get into the park even though people are naturally excited to see it.

All that said it's unrealistic for people to think there wouldn't be some sort of restriction, whether that is showing up at the turnstiles only for the park to be sold out for the day or for tickets online to be sold out for the day whether that was for on-site guests only or for guests of X resorts (nova, terra luna and helios to be exact maybe add in the other premier hotels), etc. I also think Universal probably saw how things were done during the pandemic meaning different methods different places used to restrict access.

I get the confusion in why people can't just buy tickets for Epic but it's just a different way of restricting the number of tickets sold while accomplishing the same thing and allowing their others parks to maintain some sort of attendance, not everyone can fit in at Epic at the same time. I'm more happy they didn't restrict to only allowing on-site and the upper hotels but they could have easily done that (so no ticket only package, no ap ticket option) and it would have likely meant the article being discussed would have been moot if they tied ticket access to on-site stays. And I think Universal gets bonus points for treating their APs with the option to buy 1-day tickets. The general public is always going to be upset or confused but we're all used that aren't we, the people who ask at MK where is the Hogwarts castle come to mind

 

[Keladry84]

I don't think there is any way to have a perfect opening, or even perfect news. If you sell too many tickets, the capacity is maxed and people have a horrible time and the park gets bashed in the press. If you sell too few and there's hardly anyone one there, you get bashed in the press. Rinse and repeat. Universal seems to be trying to hit that middle ground through how it is releasing tickets - only they know if they are actually meeting their desired target - they may be at, below, or even above. With the pricing structures though there are definite winners and losers.

Right now it seems passholders with an already activated pass are winning the Epic ticket lottery, at least as regards planning a trip during opening week. Or at least until further options are announced.

 

[Keladry84]

Looking at crowd management: So far a lot has been discussed regarding Universal managing crowds in all 3 parks through ticket offerings, but not much has been mentioned regarding crowd management within Epic itself - the design of portals has me quite a bit nervous that they might turn entire lands to VQ access only....:/ Imagine you're at Epic for your 1 day of ticket, and all you can access is Celestial Park unless you are phone/VQ savvy and also have a bit of luck.

As anyone heard any rumors or actual info if this might be planned?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Sincerely doubt it, at least for opening. For opening, EVERYTHING is shiny and new. So crowds will naturally spread out. For everyone who is super excited to see Nintendo World first, there's another who can't wait to see the new Wizarding World and another who is rope dropping Dark Universe.

Later, if they have a big new land or new ride opening, then maybe. Or if they have an event in just one land. There is definite value in having the option to close off a land.

 

[disneyseniors]

FOMO won over so we dropped our weekend at WDW to go to Universal in July. Just dropped the $2000+ for the 3 day ticket. Was hoping to somehow get ap tickets so we could return in Nov, but didn’t figure how to make it work since we’d really just want to do Epic in Nov.


As far as Hagrid's, I guess I’m the only person who prefers the sidecar. I think it’s so much more comfortable than the bike.

I'm the same way. I always get the sidecar and find it more comfortable, and we are all going the same way anyway

 

[Kit Jackson]

I also think that the current ticket structures limit the number of people who will stay onsite at the new Epic hotels. If you've only got 1 day at Epic, and 2-4 days at the other parks, it makes more sense to stay onsite at the main hub. One day of busing vs either moving hotels or busing for 2-4 days. And more stuff to walk/boat to if you're staying onsite around Citywalk.

I think this is exactly right. The way Universal has the ticket structure/policy, it really doesn't make sense for most people to stay at the newer hotels, especially since many of them do not include EP. If you only have one day at Epic, it makes sense to stay at one of the older hotels take the bus to Epic for that one day, instead of needing to take the bus for three days.

Because Universal is limiting access to Epic (and they do have good valid reasons for this) they can't be surprised that people are deciding to stay elsewhere, since that is where the bulk of the trip will be spent. Also, not including EP may also factor into some people's decisions as well.

 

[Minnie1222]

The article only mentioned that there are rooms available, but it didn't say how many are still available. It could be as little as 2 rooms, lol. And to speculate that Epic won't be doing well based on one's ability to book a room here and there? Definitely not investigative journalism material.