Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[glamdring269]

just saw the previews have opened up and this is hilarious… 24 minute online ticketing queue?

Now I wonder if I’ll even need express for the other 2 parks on either the 18th or 19th.

 

[GhostHost24]

I’ll join you missing that boat1

I’m getting mental pic of a sea of UV umbrellas in Nintendo area, ala mushrooms lol

All (few) influencers I follow were unable to see the show, closed for whatever reason.

At the risk of spoilers, I assume it’s Cirque - light sort of thing? Is it hot in ‘the tent’?

Yes, 10 would be swell. Nice if they would consider a 9 - 10/10:30 pm EMH sort of thing for onsite guests only or even a later VQ just for these guests each day.

Had hoped to rope drop, hit the nearby hotel pool (with a VQ in hand - ha, wishful thinking) and return after a few hours’ break. Not so sure that is workable plan at this point.

Indeed

Yes, however, they’ve not had any tix I could see offered for the end of May, yesterday stretching into mid June.

Referring to preview tickets not after opening so it would only be available till May 19th

 

[dez1978]

just saw the previews have opened up and this is hilarious… 24 minute online ticketing queue?

Now I wonder if I’ll even need express for the other 2 parks on either the 18th or 19th.

Dang, I was in and out in less than 3 mins.

 

[dez1978]

Agree...very disappointed - we have preview tix for next Wednesday we bought the day they announced passholder previews. They've really watered it down to nothing for us now.

Its still limited to like 10K tickets

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

All (few) influencers I follow were unable to see the show, closed for whatever reason.

our DISer friend who is a local was able to go a week or so ago said the cirque arcanus is her new favorite show so that sounds promising to me.

 

[PlutoNotPlanet]

At the risk of spoilers, I assume it’s Cirque - light sort of thing? Is it hot in ‘the tent’?

Just a part (no more spoilers). Not hot at all.
Go around noon or whenever it just opens. It can be closed later in the afternoon during preview

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

So it's a highly themed carnival ride in a cool scenic themed setting?

No. Carnival rides are longer. Seriously, it was a total fail. A flat ride spinner is superior. They would have been better off just installing one of those.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I'll probably skip the carousel as well, but I hear a lot of good things about it - still its a carousel.

The carousel on the other hand was really cool, and unlike Dragon Racers, didn’t have a 48 inch height requirement.

 

[Retro Magic]

Undecided whether I should visit during the preview period mid May?

I'll be leaving Orlando on the 22nd of May so the next time I visit is anyones guess. That said, will I even enjoy it during preview period? Not sure how limited crowds will be or if it's worth inserting into a free day during my WDW trip? Unless I go with the intention of just taking in the atmosphere and any attractions that are open will just be a bonus if the lines aren't too bad? What even are the hours of the preview days? Hmmm

 

[Minnie1222]

Undecided whether I should visit during the preview period mid May?

I'll be leaving Orlando on the 22nd of May so the next time I visit is anyones guess. That said, will I even enjoy it during preview period? Not sure how limited crowds will be or if it's worth inserting into a free day during my WDW trip? Unless I go with the intention of just taking in the atmosphere and any attractions that are open will just be a bonus if the lines aren't too bad? What even are the hours of the preview days? Hmmm

Why not? Just go have fun. Today is always better than someday.

 

[tony67]

Although not thrilled they added general preview tickets I'm not sure its as big a deal as we might think.
Weekends might be a bit much - like this weekend is sold out.
I'd also assume many of the folks who were waiting for hotel guests tickets are now buying them in advance.

That said I wont be too happy if I get down there and its packed - I only booked a preview trip because I figured it was a unique opportunity to enjoy the park - would have preferred to wait.


On a different topic AP related.
So my AP is not active and I bought the CC preview tickets - any idea if Ill be able to swap them for lower cost AP tickets.
I'm going to try anyway but just wondered what people thought - might just have them use the difference to upgrade the AP.

 

[DL1WDW2]

I m sure they will let you upgrade.
I purchased the Grand Open date w/ AP last October and also added one day ticket for Epic on June 8th . Now I am thinking Enjoy the Grand Open but probably wait til holidays or something to return.
I hope they let me change the date .

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Although not thrilled they added general preview tickets I'm not sure its as big a deal as we might think.
Weekends might be a bit much - like this weekend is sold out.
I'd also assume many of the folks who were waiting for hotel guests tickets are now buying them in advance.

I hope/think this is true. But they will get more people now that they have tickets in hand, who may not have booked on a "probably available upon checkin."

AP tickets were already sold out on Mon for this coming weekend.

So my AP is not active and I bought the CC preview tickets - any idea if Ill be able to swap them for lower cost AP tickets.

I would guess that you could if AP tickets are still available, but if AP allotment is sold out it'd be a hard no.

 

[PrincessV]

Undecided whether I should visit during the preview period mid May?

I'll be leaving Orlando on the 22nd of May so the next time I visit is anyones guess. That said, will I even enjoy it during preview period? Not sure how limited crowds will be or if it's worth inserting into a free day during my WDW trip? Unless I go with the intention of just taking in the atmosphere and any attractions that are open will just be a bonus if the lines aren't too bad? What even are the hours of the preview days? Hmmm

I can only speak from my own experience and YMMV, of course, but…

I wouldn’t have been able to tell that it was a “preview” without already knowing that when I bought my ticket: it felt like a fully operational theme park on a slow day. Yes, Ministry was down half the day I went, but even at fully operational parks, rides sometimes go down.

I watched wait times on my day and have checked various other days and there's a definite pattern: wait times go up through the afternoon, and then come way down heading into evening. But also periodically throughout the day, wait times would plummet for specific rides - like going from 45 to 10 minutes. On top of that, I found posted wait times to be inflated - every ride I did had a longer posted wait time than what I actually waited. I think it’s important to note, too, that most queues are built for extended wait times and move along at a mostly steady pace, with plenty of things to see along the way. I was in the Monsters queue for 20 minutes and it felt like it went by much faster than that. Nothing on my day was ever longer than a 90-min posted wait, with most falling around 35-50 minutes at their longest points. The longest I actually waited in a queue for anything was 20 minutes.

There was NO crowding anywhere the day I went. I ate at 3 different places and all were maybe 30% full, tops. Shops had only a few people in them at any time I wandered in. No lines for snacks.

The hours on the day I went were 11am to 9pm. I was there the entire time and it was a VERY full day: I did not need all of those hours, but enjoyed a lot of the day just looking at things. I could have easily fit more rides in, but chose not to do some at all, despite their short waits. I think if you go in with no particular expectations other than enjoying a new park, you can’t go wrong!

 

[GhostHost24]

In my opinion when they announced the extension of previews starting May 9 that's when they should have announced general public tickets will be available for that date as well instead of being immediate

Also, maybe a coincidence, but it's funny the UOAP facebook page got shutdown a day before this got announced

 

[tony67]

In my opinion when they announced the extension of previews starting May 9 that's when they should have announced general public tickets will be available for that date as well instead of being immediate

Also, maybe a coincidence, but it's funny the UOAP facebook page got shutdown a day before this got announced

Yeah - that was exactly what I was thinking as well - would have made a ton more sense and been a lot less complaining.

I know I have said it before but I am not thrilled with the way things have been going for 2025 as far as AP.
There were issues with mine that were never resolved and I just let it expire - yeah I am buying a new one.

I also don't like the way Epic has been handled - been a passholder on and off forever - back when there was only 1 park - and they just have not handled Epic well at all - at a minimum existing passholders should have been able to upgrade to an AP with Epic.

Yeah - maybe some AP entitlement I know - but we are the ones that come back to the park again and again and get those attendance numbers up - which is important as far as the stock goes and in the competition with Disney.

 

[LilyWDW]

I love following this thread even though I won't be going until the end of 2027. I may end up at Universal this fall (for HHN but not set in stone), but I won't be going to Epic. I want to experience it for the first time with my friend.

 

[AngieInOH]

Came in to see everyone's thoughts on Epic opening up preview to everyone. I was actually looking yesterday morning at possibly booking a stay so we could get in during previews. Crowds have seemed light during previews, and I wouldn't have cared if something went down and I couldn't ride it. That can happen anyway. Now that it's open to the everyone, I don't think it's worth a special trip. I'll catch it when we're down for a longer stay.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

at a minimum existing passholders should have been able to upgrade to an AP with Epic.

I would expect that at a certain point but I wouldn't have expected it for the opening timeframe. I remember a poster asking if they should upgrade to an AP (this was earlier last year they were asking the question) when they really wanted Epic and my response was don't purchase the AP if Epic is what you're really wanting purchase the AP if you're content with the existing parks and treat it like a bonus if they include Epic. If all APs could immediately upgrade to Epic what do you think would happen for the normal guests? They would be shut out a lot more. We all saw how Harry Potter lands increased park attendance.

This is a brand new theme park here they haven't opened one in Orlando since the late '90s...cut them some slack

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Came in to see everyone's thoughts on Epic opening up preview to everyone. I was actually looking yesterday morning at possibly booking a stay so we could get in during previews. Crowds have seemed light during previews, and I wouldn't have cared if something went down and I couldn't ride it. That can happen anyway. Now that it's open to the everyone, I don't think it's worth a special trip. I'll catch it when we're down for a longer stay.

My opinion more lies in what you'd hope to get out of the trip and the ease of which you could get back. Since you're down for waiting I would personally wait but that's because we don't get down to Orlando much. But if you could go just to soak up the environment (and like you said you don't care if the ride goes down) that might be a good enough reason to do a quicker trip and then plan at a later date a longer trip where hopefully the stability of the rides is really good or at least you know if there's a ride that might have issues like how Hagrid's tends to have issues in the morning.

I've been contemplating Epic for September. We have a flight that goes out of Orlando to London and we booked Orlando connection point so we could see our DISer friends that live in Orlando but we're not sure if we want to spend the additional money at Epic so soon after opening and instead book a longer WDW/USO trip (like we normally do) at a later date. But then I think about well even a day there might be cool just to be able to go in and either focus on rides or focus mostly on exploring the lands. So I'm like torn at the moment.