Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[CAPSLOCK]

We did ask for & receive compensation for the exceptionally bad morning & the fact that so many of the main rides were inaccessible all day.

It is not acceptable to have literally 1 ride open for early entry, which did not open until 8:25am. Especially when they specifically send people to that ride but then hold you outside it anyways.

 

[GhostHost24]

We did ask for & receive compensation for the exceptionally bad morning & the fact that so many of the main rides were inaccessible all day.

It is not acceptable to have literally 1 ride open for early entry, which did not open until 8:25am. Especially when they specifically send people to that ride but then hold you outside it anyways.

Was just about to ask if you would look into compensation. Glad they gave you something.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I believe only Yoshi, Monsters, and Dragon Rally were up all day. 3 up all day, 3 down all day, and the majority of others down more than up. At least 1 showing of Untrainable Dragon cancelled.

It's surprising how many of the rides have seats that aren't working already/yet. 4 carousel critters, various seats on Mario Kart, Dragon Racers Rally.

That's pretty rough for a park set to open in a week. Hopefully they take those few days in between to do whatever fixes need to be made to get some more reliability.


We did see both shows & they were both quite good! Plus A/C & seating. Saw them both mid-afternoon & both were full up.

 

[hertamaniac]

Yeah...they are really showing that they should have added more time to testing before the grand opening. Sorry for today, but glad you stood your ground to get something.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Wi-Fi throughout Epic was on point, consistently everywhere. Pleasantly surprised about that.

Lockers at Monsters were taller and squarer and located in the queue, which is quite nice. Water bottle fit upright.

Theming at Dark Universe - that whole ambiance is so well done. Loved the colors ominous music. Particularly love the Toiletten, fun bathroom.


Nintendo very busy / stimulating - reminded me of an arcade/casino, lots of noises & colors & distractions, lots of different things going on. Theming is fantastic! Loved reading all the book titles in Bowser's castle queuing for Mario Kart.




Donkey Kong area surprisingly busy considering the Mine-Cart ride was closed for the day & no characters or anything in the area. The ride facade looks so awesome, looking forward to seeing inside!


Carousel very pretty, the rotating circles within the rotating ride is fun... but my goodness do they take forever to start the ride cycle.

I know there should be treat stores around (like fancy cookies / cupcakes / etc) but could not find any except some candy store in Ministry of Magic. Speaking of - the flues to enter the Ministry are super cool! Lots of people in there wandering the queue too.

 

[hardcorestitch]

Wi-Fi throughout Epic was on point, consistently everywhere. Pleasantly surprised about that.

Lockers at Monsters were taller and squarer and located in the queue, which is quite nice. Water bottle fit upright.

Theming at Dark Universe - that whole ambiance is so well done. Loved the colors ominous music. Particularly love the Toiletten, fun bathroom.
View attachment 965675

Nintendo very busy / stimulating - reminded me of an arcade/casino, lots of noises & colors & distractions, lots of different things going on. Theming is fantastic! Loved reading all the book titles in Bowser's castle queuing for Mario Kart.
View attachment 965677

View attachment 965676

Donkey Kong area surprisingly busy considering the Mine-Cart ride was closed for the day & no characters or anything in the area. The ride facade looks so awesome, looking forward to seeing inside!
View attachment 965678

Carousel very pretty, the rotating circles within the rotating ride is fun... but my goodness do they take forever to start the ride cycle.

I know there should be treat stores around (like fancy cookies / cupcakes / etc) but could not find any except some candy store in Ministry of Magic. Speaking of - the flues to enter the Ministry are super cool! Lots of people in there wandering the queue too.

That's not surprising. I'm assuming they're using Xfinity's 10G network...

 

[CAPSLOCK]

That's not surprising.

Found it surprising because Wi-Fi at CityWalk & the other parks can be spotty.

 

[tony67]

That's not surprising. I'm assuming they're using Xfinity's 10G network...

Found it surprising because Wi-Fi at CityWalk & the other parks can be spotty.

Yeah - I always find it odd that the wifi is not all that good since its comcast - seems like an opportunity to show off their network..
Also sort of surprised there are no comcast hotspots - or at least that I know of - to give customers a better connection.

 

[tony67]

Yeah...they are really showing that they should have added more time to testing before the grand opening. Sorry for today, but glad you stood your ground to get something.

Well one thing I will say is Monsters does seem to be really solid.
If they can get Ministry working and switch to a rumored stand by line it will be a big help.

Just as a general comment - if you are there and something is running - even if the line is a little long - get on it - you have no idea if it will be running later in the day.
Once we start seeing consistency that that is a different story.

For example when I got there Stardust was running really well but I did not do it as I was feeling slightly off and it seemed to be solid - then it was down for several days on and off and I did not get the chance.

 

[sherlockmiles]

What do these 'themed' freestyle coke machines look like, and has anyone tried the 3 new exclusive flavors?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Will also add there were lots of water refill stations around (freestyle machines as well as drinking fountains with bottle fillers).

Did not find the lack of shade in the park to be terrible, if it's 90*+ out you're hot while walking regardless. But they could really use more shaded seating, and more shade in certain "minor lines" (guest services, Toothless meet).

Posted waits were fairly accurate. Mario Kart said 75, took 70, then later said 35, took 30. Yoshi said 10, took 10. Carousel said 25, took 20. Monsters said 15, took 10 (twice in a row).

Except first thing for Monsters, they said we were 45-60min back, line wrapped around towards Curse of the Werewolf. But once we left the line, we discovered they were holding the line outside. It was just opening as we walked away, we couldn't have been more than 10min back.

Good news it seems like with wing Gliders is usually doesn't seem to be too long of delays when it goes down.

Yesterday it opened for the first time at 1:45pm(9am park open) and back down in about 30min. Came back up a few times but didn't stay up any significant time until after 6pm. Got in line briefly at the end of the night, LOTS of people in express line (recovery passes?). During about 20min in line, we heard the "cars will be restarting" announcement 2x and then the "brief delay" announcement at which point we bailed. Clearly was having difficulty staying running, did not think it would make it through the whole long line before the TMs gave up.


24,000 steps yesterday, 8.9 miles. We crossed the park a lot primarily due to operational difficulties.

 

[glamdring269]

Pivoting from original intent of this post:

I just noticed that they show Ministry of Magic and Curse of the Werewolf are closed today on the ticketing site. How far in advance do they typically announce these closures? Considering doing a Monday preview but also concerned about gambling that much money to find a lot of the rides I want are not available.

 

[DoryGirl1963]

Pivoting from original intent of this post:

I just noticed that

Sorry! Replied to wrong post.

 

[tony67]

Pivoting from original intent of this post:

I just noticed that they show Ministry of Magic and Curse of the Werewolf are closed today on the ticketing site. How far in advance do they typically announce these closures? Considering doing a Monday preview but also concerned about gambling that much money to find a lot of the rides I want are not available.

So Ministry was announced well in advance

Others - its usually day of. I guess there is a sign out front if a ride is down for a day - but I never saw a sign until I got into the park.
The 19th will be the last preview day so hard to know what to expect other than maybe a lot of influencers for the last day of previews.
In general I think their goal is to not shut a ride down for the day - but sometimes they have too.

All that said - if the day is over the top bad - you got to give them a little leeway for technical preview - they are good about giving a comp day or even a refund - if tis ridiculously bad. I cant fault Universal on the customer service side.
Just be sure to sort that out day of in the park - once you leave the park IDK.
I emailed about an AP issue last week and some praise for some specific TMs and I got a non response generated by ChatGPT so getting anything after that fact is very unlikely IMO. The response did not make any sense to me at all and I said immediately its AI - then I ran it through an AI tool (more than one) and they both came back 100% Chat GPT.

 

[fatmanatee]

Ministry is standby today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1923377487506981041

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Interesting that they opened it, I think it was still supposed to be closed today right?

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Looking on the app, happy to see Curse of the Werewolf up today!

MOM showing a 150 minute wait, but operating standby it seems.

All I know is I’m stoked to see and experience it for myself on Monday

 

[tony67]

Interesting that they opened it, I think it was still supposed to be closed today right?

Yeah - of course no one will complain that its open sooner than expected - they may have built in extra time just in case.
Also if they have to shut it down again today its hard to complain as they said it was going to be closed

Really glad to see they went with the rumored standby - I think its much fairer when the app just does not work well.

 

[DoryGirl1963]

Glad to see MOM go standby but sure wish that had been the case when we were there last week.

 

[Charade67]

Glad to see MOM go standby but sure wish that had been the case when we were there last week.

Same here. That’s the only ride I didn’t ride other that the 2 I didn’t want to ride.