Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[tony67]

Not even surprised. If you have 100min of people waiting and they give every one of those people an EP for when the ride comes back up.... guess what, only EP people are riding that ride today. Especially when it keeps going up and down. Of course they want the line to self-empty.

I thought they were giving EP for compensation for lines going down? Saw that posted somewhere. For Universal, it doesn't physically cost them anything to offer an EP so it's their usual go-to.

Now, if a ride goes down 15min after it opened - hopefully they'd just empty the queue right then and no one gets anything. No one could have been queueing longer than 15min, regardless of how many people swarmed the line at once.

I had heard that because of the unusually large amount of people - a 4 hour line that started at 8AM - they were not going to do EPs

I know that they have done EP for other rides, and I have seen special EPs for ministry - so they did give them back in the day of VL.
They were also printing special ones at GS in some (many) cases.

The person who was talking to a streamer about it was sort of avoiding exactly what the compensations was to avoid having everyone go tot GS or causing hassle for the streamer.

 

[tony67]

So Ministry is only 60 minutes right now.
Monsters is 10.

People were saying they were on Minecart 8 times in a row yesterday - just off and on again.

 

[keishashadow]

Okay, I have to go get things done, but peeking at a couple livestreams, I’m surprised to see how un-peopley it looks, other than in queues! App shows all rides open and the longest non-BatM wait is a whopping 25 mins for Mine Cart.

I see one pic already posted, going to share another that probably explains why the park had a great day.

My viewpoint (unlike so many others) is them possibly restricting guests may very well be a good idea…

@ least until until they get a feel for how many heads the park can realistically handle/increase on a rolling basis.

 

[GhostHost24]

Looks like they added tickets today

Kind of upset now I couldn't change yesterday lol

 

[GhostHost24]

I'm on the phone with them again. We'll see. At first they're like doesn't look to be available and I said I'm literally looking at the calendar now online and it's allowing me to buy one

 

[GhostHost24]

Woo got it changed. I got a $4 refund for my day ticket and had to pay $20 more for express

 

[tony67]

Woo got it changed. I got a $4 refund for my day ticket and had to pay $20 more for express

So you are going over today - you probably don't need express

Enjoy

 

[GhostHost24]

So you are going over today - you probably don't need express

Enjoy

I know I thought of that lol. I may ask at the park if there's a chance to get it refunded

 

[MrBellatrixLestrange]

Yeah - more things to annoy me

Im glad for the folks that are there - they are having an experience I doubt they will ever see again until there is an OI event some day.

Anyone have any idea if/when the Meetups will get a chance to include EU? I assume it won't be soon and I went with an annual pass this year so I'm likely out for December but going forward would love to know.

 

[fatmanatee]

Yeah - with early entry its Nintendo or Stardust - I found early entry to be a bust in general - could not even get a coffee at Starbucks without a ridiculous wait.

This is kinda what I was worried about with early entry having limited options. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hopefully it settles down a bit.

 

[PrincessV]

Wait times are still good at the 2pm hour! Longest are BatM at 75 mins, Mario Cart at 50, Werewolf at 35. Everything else is 5-15 mins! My custom TP plan for early June still thinks I’ll be waiting at least an hour for Mario and Hiccup’s, and almost 300 for BatM, despite the same crowd level estimate as today…

 

[GhostHost24]

Gonna leave here in about a hour, excited to at least see the park at night since didn't get to during my preview day

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This is kinda what I was worried about with early entry having limited options. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hopefully it settles down a bit.

Well the first mistake was getting Starbucks (I kid but not really cuz the only think I buy at Starbucks is the former you are here mug collections) but for me I would view Early Entry as just being able to be in the park before official opening if you're not going for a particular ride that is opened during that time. You can meander around with less crowds in the open areas, you can get pictures with less people in the open areas, etc.

I know when we went for Early Entry at IOA they did let others in early but held them back at specified ropes. I'm not sure how Epic is handling that part if everyone is held at the turnstiles or not.

On the other hand it's probably not as crucial if you're staying at Helios with it connecting right into the parks.

But IIRC you felt from the get go that Early Entry was limited benefit at Universal because of what was open (as it didn't interest you) even though they are the same at its existing parks in terms of certain areas being open so Early Entry may not be something that personally works for you, maybe you shouldn't worry about trying Early Entry as you may be setting yourself up for disappointment if encounter lines and then wonder why you even made the effort to go early. If you know it's not your cup of tea I wouldn't do it, no need to start your day off already annoyed

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I would view Early Entry as just being able to be in the park before official opening if you're not going for a particular ride that is opened during that time. You can meander around with less crowds in the open areas, you can get pictures with less people in the open areas, etc.

I know when we went for Early Entry at IOA they did let others in early but held them back at specified ropes. I'm not sure how Epic is handling that part if everyone is held at the turnstiles or not.

Everyone can enter, they hold non-early-entry people back at the portal entries (and presumably Stardust entrance).

On my preview day, early entry was a terrible bust. Nintendo World didn't open (not just one ride, you literally couldn't enter the portal until 50min into early entry). I'm not sure how typical that is, or if we just got extra lucky? Which, since Stardust also didn't open until after noon, meant that there were 0 rides available and no portals to go in and explore. Frankly, you don't need to rope drop to explore Celestial Park. They opened Dark Universe about 20min in and then finally opened a ride (Monsters) about 25min into early entry.

Aside from having no portals and 0 out of 4 rides available at opening, once we actually got into Dark Universe the morning was quite a nice time to look at the scenery with a bit more ambiance (shading) than the blazing sun of mid-day.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Frankly, you don't need to rope drop to explore Celestial Park.

I don't think so either, my guess since you said everyone can enter is they are trying to give a wide open area for people to filter into and by what a lot of people say Celestial Park can absorb people (those brave enough to go without much shade that is lol). The design of this park is quite different than their other Universal ones. I know on our Early Entry days for IOA they would hold people back at Seuss Landing (presumably for most to go to Diagon Alley once official park opens).

With having Epic designed as is it reminds me of how Disney does MK with allowing people to meander around Main Street but not get into the areas open for early entry for guests. I don't think Celestial Park is meant to be needed to RD as in you really need to get there in order to be ahead of other folks for what's available in Celestial Park. IF I wasn't interested in attractions (which the PP wasn't excited for Nintendo being part of Early Entry) then you could IMO look at it as being in the parks ahead of time to be in the moment if you will with seemingly less madness than official park opening with people scrambling to get to where they want to go.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

IF I wasn't interested in attractions (which the PP wasn't excited for Nintendo being part of Early Entry) then you could IMO look at it as being in the parks ahead of time to be in the moment if you will with seemingly less madness than official park opening with people scrambling to get to where they want to go.

Agreed, if not interested in Nintendo it'd probably be easiest to arrive 30-ish min prior to opening, stroll up, leisurely get into the park, and make your way to whatever non-Nintendo portal you would like to hit first. Effectively everyone can rope drop the other 3 portals equally.

 

[GhostHost24]

In case you weren't sure...

It's hot outside. Went straight to watch unattainable dragon (which I forgot to see first time)

 

[GhostHost24]

Guess I chose a bad showing lol..

Delayed start.. Then stopped just after. It started and in another delay

Edit:and thr show is canceled

 

[DCLMP]

When the standby by was appx. 2-3 hours wait, about how long did you wait in the express lines? (I have a package with unlimited express this summer and am trying to get an idea of what to expect)

5 minutes at most.

 

[DCLMP]

I swear the popcorn lines were the longest but also the people who would enter the park and then get their spots for the parade and just sit there waiting for hours and hours like well at least they weren't in line for something else

People were camped out waiting on parade at 9am for a 3pm parade. I have no idea how you sit on the ground for 6 hours. That would be a form of torture for me.