Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[GhostHost24]

Saw reports from people at the park today confirming It.. And the TMs working the rides didn't even know til this morning

 

[georgina]

Fantastic! Now to find out how much of the queue the EP misses, especially for BatM.

 

[Minnie1222]

Now to find out how much of the queue the EP misses, especially for BatM.

Not much! I believe EP joins everyone right before the MetroFloo entrances.

 

[Philsfan77]

Not much! I believe EP joins everyone right before the MetroFloo entrances.

When we were there, DAS/VIP line had an entrance all the way through the typewriter room. Single rider went to the right of that room, VIP/DAS continued through that room

 

[Philsfan77]

Fantastic! Now to find out how much of the queue the EP misses, especially for BatM.

I don't remember seeing it at BATM in some of the rooms after the typewriter room. on Mine-Kart I vaguely remember seeing it where you come out near Cranky Kong. That queue is a dud anyways IMO.

 

[Disneyhanna]

Are there any sites selling refundable 1-day Express passes for Epic? I know UT used to, but looks like they no longer offer 1-day passes. I still plan to do my VIP tour so I can ride Ministry twice, but may want to buy an EP now just in case, but only if I can get a majority refunded if I stick with the VIP tour.

Edit: Looks like Orlando Informer sells them with 95% refund, yay!

 

[PrincessV]

Oof - as if standby waits weren't long enough already? I don’t expect I’ll get to ride BatM until APs include Epic AND carry over the Premiere level after 4pm ExP.

Speaking of…

I’m holding myself back from buying a 1-day ticket in fall because word is going around that APs might not be far behind now that TMs are allowed o use their tickets for Epic, but it’s hard to resist!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I’m holding myself back from buying a 1-day ticket in fall because word is going around that APs might not be far behind now that TMs are allowed o use their tickets for Epic, but it’s hard to resist!

I really hope that's not the case. Many days are already sold out for one day tickets. You'd think they would increase that capacity first before including it on an AP.

 

[PrincessV]

I really hope that's not the case. Many days are already sold out for one day tickets. You'd think they would increase that capacity first before including it on an AP.

IDK about other tickets, but I just looked at AP 1-day tickets and every single day from Sept through the third week of Dec is available. I’m sure they’ll calculate into the equation the potential value of Epic-included AP spending in parks vs AP 1-days going unsold altogether and redistribute if they think they can sell those tickets to non-APs, or add Epic to APs (in whatever form that takes) if they don’t think they can sell the day tickets at all.

 

[Minnie1222]

It looks like they had released more AP tickets for August and September. They were all sold out when I searched last week, but all days were available when I looked yesterday.

 

[GhostHost24]

It looks like they had released more AP tickets for August and September. They were all sold out when I searched last week, but all days were available when I looked yesterday.

It may have just been a glitch. It happens a lot with UO. I've been waiting for a buddy who's coming to buy theirs and been keeping an eye. Never saw dates on sept sold out.

 

[djmeredith]

Fantastic! Now to find out how much of the queue the EP misses, especially for BatM.

BATM you will not miss anything. I just did the EP and regular line over the weekend. Also did DK using special EP, the line starts where the other lines do at the entrance and is just a straight shot in between the last part of the main line and the entire single rider line. Single Rider and EP are parallel next to each other. You will still see Cranky Kong, you just will not be right next to him.

 

[Philsfan77]

IDK about other tickets, but I just looked at AP 1-day tickets and every single day from Sept through the third week of Dec is available. I’m sure they’ll calculate into the equation the potential value of Epic-included AP spending in parks vs AP 1-days going unsold altogether and redistribute if they think they can sell those tickets to non-APs, or add Epic to APs (in whatever form that takes) if they don’t think they can sell the day tickets at all.

Off topic, but how has their AAP been working at this park as of now? I can't even imagine what the wait times are going to be once you get into the queues with express being available to enter Mine-Cart and BATM. Going to wait 3+ hours for your ride time and then another hour in the queue wouldn't be that unrealistic to think about.

 

[PrincessV]

Off topic, but how has their AAP been working at this park as of now? I can't even imagine what the wait times are going to be once you get into the queues with express being available to enter Mine-Cart and BATM. Going to wait 3+ hours for your ride time and then another hour in the queue wouldn't be that unrealistic to think about.

I don’t know - I haven’t seen many reports from folks who’ve tried it and I didn’t use AAP myself. But agreed: for many who need AAP to avoid being in a queue for long periods, I don’t think it’s going to work well for those rides. I know I’d struggle big-time. I only recently started riding Hagrid’s since it was added to ExP and hitting it when standby is about an hour has meant about 30 mins in ExP, which my limit. I was able to handle some other Epic rides with longer waits, only because the queues were very open and relatively quiet, but an hour in the BatM queue full of people is a hard pass!

 

[Keladry84]

Off topic, but how has their AAP been working at this park as of now? I can't even imagine what the wait times are going to be once you get into the queues with express being available to enter Mine-Cart and BATM. Going to wait 3+ hours for your ride time and then another hour in the queue wouldn't be that unrealistic to think about.

I used AAP when I was there opening week. Most of the rides it wasn't too bad. There were a couple it was problematic, and really stretched what I was able to do. I had a 40 minute wait for Ministry when it was backed up after it was down for a long time. Then post-merge Mariocart my first ride it was backed up on the stairs, and Stardust Racers I ended up needing an escort - I had a 60 minute wait outside the line, and a 45+wait in the line before reaching out for help, and would have probably had at least another 20 minutes without the escort (so 60 outside the line, appx 60 in...not sure how that is fair at all and how that is even an accommodation anymore.....). I was struggling the entire time at Stardust, and I am not sure if I will ever try riding it again in the future after the experience I had.

Minecart actually ended up generating a lot of 1x use passes as it went down every time my return time was ready. I was only able to access it once over the 3 days I was there despite trying multiple times to ride it, and that was with an empty "express" lane. I am really nervous how that one will be now that Express is open. I think both Minecart and Ministry are going to be very difficult to access for AAP users with the Express fully open.

 

[Mamabun]

We were there 2 weeks ago and my daughter’s AAP worked very well for her, but it was GREAT on Minecart and Ministry. When I saw this change I was glad we went before those 2 were added to express. OTOH, we were a little worried about Hagrid’s since it had never been on express in previous trips, but there was very little difference for us this trip even though all the express pass people were in the line. It moved very well. And posted standby wait times weren’t particularly worse than in the past either. So who knows?

 

[Philsfan77]

I used AAP when I was there opening week. Most of the rides it wasn't too bad. There were a couple it was problematic, and really stretched what I was able to do. I had a 40 minute wait for Ministry when it was backed up after it was down for a long time. Then post-merge Mariocart my first ride it was backed up on the stairs, and Stardust Racers I ended up needing an escort - I had a 60 minute wait outside the line, and a 45+wait in the line before reaching out for help, and would have probably had at least another 20 minutes without the escort (so 60 outside the line, appx 60 in...not sure how that is fair at all and how that is even an accommodation anymore.....). I was struggling the entire time at Stardust, and I am not sure if I will ever try riding it again in the future after the experience I had.

Minecart actually ended up generating a lot of 1x use passes as it went down every time my return time was ready. I was only able to access it once over the 3 days I was there despite trying multiple times to ride it, and that was with an empty "express" lane. I am really nervous how that one will be now that Express is open. I think both Minecart and Ministry are going to be very difficult to access for AAP users with the Express fully open.

We weren't AAP, but we had similar experiences on Mario Kart and Stardust with express. Stardust merge point is so far back...it still took almost 45 minutes with express. Mario Kart took us 38 minutes and we were also backed up the stairs (midway up the flight before you turn down the last flight). Mine-Kart also was backed up pretty far when we were in line (we did single rider for that one, so that line ran next to us...I'd guess people were waiting around a half hour or so and that was when it was just an AAP/VIP line or as you said a lot of 1x use passes as it was down a lot the day we were there as well). I was curious how AAP guests were handling some of these, as I know for us with express, some of the lines still were quite long and AAP guests would be in the same line, even after a long wait outside of the line.

 

[Keladry84]

We weren't AAP, but we had similar experiences on Mario Kart and Stardust with express. Stardust merge point is so far back...it still took almost 45 minutes with express. Mario Kart took us 38 minutes and we were also backed up the stairs (midway up the flight before you turn down the last flight). Mine-Kart also was backed up pretty far when we were in line (we did single rider for that one, so that line ran next to us...I'd guess people were waiting around a half hour or so and that was when it was just an AAP/VIP line or as you said a lot of 1x use passes as it was down a lot the day we were there as well). I was curious how AAP guests were handling some of these, as I know for us with express, some of the lines still were quite long and AAP guests would be in the same line, even after a long wait outside of the line.

So it seems like my experiences weren't a one-off. This is sad, as it does make it harder for those with AAP to access the attractions. I also don't think it is fair for those who paid for express to have that long of a wait, especially when for example with Stardust it is not really any shorter than those in standby. I was pretty surprised how many rides still had a very long post-merge wait.

 

[Minnie1222]

We had 4 days of EP over two trips. The wait for MarioKart was never less than 40 minutes. Hiccups was about 30 minutes. The only walk-on rides were Carousel and Monsters. We had recovery passes for Ministry and waited almost an hour .

At this rate, I expect to wait at least 45 minutes in the EP line for Minecart and Ministry.