Universal's Epic Universe - News and Discussion

[Keyser]

We got the bad luck of lots of lightning "nearby" (could see in the distance for hours, but none seemed super close to the park) and light rain. The carousel stayed open even in this weather. Mario Kart, Monsters, and the Toothless meet and greet were open, as were the two shows, and I expect Ministry would have been (it was preannounced to close early that day).

As a side note, the very dark skies and lightning made the mood in Darkmoor even stronger...

 

[glamdring269]

We've got similar Epic vibes/concerns for our trip. Our Epic day is a little over 2 weeks from now and I'm assuming the ride won't be back up by then so that's one thing we won't get to do regardless of weather. Then if the weather turns bad... yeah. It's such a huge expense and they basically force you to a buy a day in a ticket package so we're just gambling at this point. But hey, Vegas is our favorite vacation spot so nothing new here I guess.

 

[matchu]

Does that improve the odds of the ride opening again soon? Or will they still keep it closed for a while, yet?

Don’t have a trip until April, so following this pretty loose. I read those statements as pretty carefully worded.

Says the ride operated within the parameters its supposed to. I imagine speed, braking, forces, restraints, etc. It didn’t malfunction. Operated as designed.

It doesn’t say they’ve determined that the ride (as designed) isn’t at fault and/or a big contributing factor.

They formally declared the cause of death blunt force trauma. So, he was alive and then somehow smashed his body or head so hard that it killed him. I can’t imagine there isn’t some kind of change to the ride.

To me that means there’s something about the design of the restraints, the design of the cars, the and forces involved that create a scenario where someone (while properly strapped in, with the ride running properly) can experience blunt force trauma significant enough to kill them.

I don’t see how you don’t end up will be some change of some aspect of the ride to eliminate or significantly mitigate that possibility.

I don’t know a lot about coasters though.

 

[Rory607]

We've got similar Epic vibes/concerns for our trip. Our Epic day is a little over 2 weeks from now and I'm assuming the ride won't be back up by then so that's one thing we won't get to do regardless of weather. Then if the weather turns bad... yeah. It's such a huge expense and they basically force you to a buy a day in a ticket package so we're just gambling at this point. But hey, Vegas is our favorite vacation spot so nothing new here I guess.

We’re in the same boat and have a vip tour scheduled. And I’m also nervous about the weather, but we’re going forward and hoping for the best. My DD will be bummed not to ride Stardust, but obviously understands the very sad situation. So we will go and make the best of it. I always figure a rainy or otherwise subpar day at the parks beats a day at work

 

[jenrose66]

I guess I never realized how common it is to pass out on roller coasters. I honestly don’t care for huge coasters. I prefer “old time” ones. But now that my kids are teenagers they want to ride the scarier ones….even at our local parks. Makes me hesitant to let them ride. I don’t get why everything has to push boundaries. There is an audience for a normal sane looking coaster I’d think

I remember riding millennium force at Cedar point when it first opened. I was 20. Hated every second of it and haven’t been on since. I have rode all the coasters at Disney. I’ve also ridden all the coasters at Universal that were there on our last trip (2017).

Either way, looking forward to going back to Universal in the near future. Kids are really excited to see the new park, especially Nintendo Land and the new Potter area.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

smashed his body or head so hard that it killed him.

FWIW using language like "so hard it killed him" is far to generalizing or at the very least it can be misleading. Certainly more information will come out hopefully understanding things like an estimated amount of force but purely and only as a general comment each person's body can be susceptible in different ways. Different health conditions can affect each person's body differently.

A random example is my neighbor about 10 years ago fell off his ladder and hit the back of his head, he had a moderate concussion for that and was unable to under doctor's orders to do pretty much anything that would be cause for concern for several months (things like mowing the grass were off limits for example). His body is susceptible to a repeated injury in a different way than someone who has never had a concussion before.

I understand people not wanting to finger point the "blame" (and I use quotes specifically as blame may not even exist here as we have no true information as to what happened) on this man's medical condition but it is worth mentioning and keeping in mind that it can be a contributing factor especially if we're talking about force required to be fatal.

That doesn't mean the ride wouldn't adjust things or that it couldn't be laid upon the design of the ride as well but just that when you're talking about someone with a pre-existing condition or prior injury it may affect their body with either an injury or death involved and the ride itself. If the ride didn't have warnings I do think the conversations and investigations would be drastically different (people are using them to determine their own personal risk threshold and without that they don't have guidance).

I do agree that no one should simply label someone in a wheelchair as someone who shouldn't have been riding the attraction which I've seen a lot of comments that people are doing but I don't think it helps either to dismiss that depending on the condition, depending on the actual force sustained, depending on if there was an injury related to a piece of the ride or the person themselves that it could be part of it. It's more about not trying to paint a broad brush anywhere.

And lastly the TMs, most especially the ones who were working that time period, should be kept in mind here. I do know a TM, one who does work Stardust Racers, and even though they were not working that day it has greatly affected them. I cannot truly cannot imagine how his (meaning the man who passed) family must feel but in relation to people commenting on the situation the TMs are also impacted.