Epic Universe Friends & Family Technical Rehearsal Preview Drama

Of course this kind of thing happens... Good thing universal is handing out the promotions they deserve to try to subdue this thing.

VelocicoasterFan - Well, there are some things I read that make it seem extremely out of hand. Supposedly, a TM tried to sell preview access on FB Marketplace. I saw a screenshot, but they say the listing was removed very quickly.

I would imagine Universal is probably monitoring other avenues like Ebay, Etsy, Craigslist, etc... I am sure anyone who posts they were hired to work at Epic are probably being approached through PM as well.

I'm sure it's not hard to see a group and notice one them seems "out of place".

Asking for a friend, do you know of any BOGO preview listings that come with free food and booze lol?

Sitting here shaking my head...

I knew this was going to happen as soon as word came down that Universal was doing a wide TM preview weeks before letting in credentialed media. The financial incentive to be first with on-ride videos can be staggering. That creates a huge incentive to do whatever you can to get those videos.

As someone whose online publishing includes a lot more than on-ride videos, I appreciate when parks defuse this situation by (1) releasing its official POV videos before opening to anyone, or (2) having a media day before doing any soft openings, including ones for cast or team members outside the immediate ops team.

This is a much tougher task when opening an entire park rather than an individual ride, obviously. But it does help prevent this sort of situation.

Robert, I am looking forward to your report from Epic.

I will Not - I repeat Not look at any cheaters pages, reports or photos..

I mean, I am a man of integrity if not anything else. I will wait for the Official TPI professional report.

Bobby - you need to make the Little tiny Text editor box larger and bigger font....

I can't help but shake my heat at all of these reports. It's pathetic that not only team members would risk their employment (and success of their place of employment), but that unscrupulous influencers and fringe media outlets would willingly pay someone to get early access to Epic knowing about the prohibition, and to continue to do it after widespread reports about influencers and TMs getting caught red handed.

More power to Universal for doing their best at trying to tamp down these leaks, but frankly it shouldn't be necessary if these influencers posing as actual theme park media had any sort of morals and their subscribers/followers held their feet to the fire for trying to ruin one of the most exciting developments in the industry since Galaxy's Edge debuted in 2019. I would hope that not only does Universal blacklist these morons, but that their identities are circulated to other parks so they can be uninvited from future events/openings as well.

FYI: The text size and input box should be adjustable in your browser. Just drag on the little diagonal lines in the lower right corner to resize the text input box.

i can't believe the number of people "stunned" that someone would risk a job that pays the same as target over a short term financial benefit. they're not working for the armed forces — you know, a place that famously never has leaks.

@ Jacob - You pretty much nailed it. We're talking about people who don't make a lot of money. They've been given a (albeit small) lottery ticket, so we shouldn't be surprised that they are looking to cash it in. It's unfortunate, but true. Universal is in a no win scenario, they need to do these rehearsals, but they also don't want the information getting out. I also understand why they couldn't do a full-blown media even before the rehearsals...especially if there are issues with one or more of the premier attractions (I'm looking at you Monsters Unchained.) In today's day and age of gotta be first, this is the unfortunate byproduct.

@Jacob - I'm not necessarily stunned, just disappointed. Also, not just disappointed at the TMs, who as you say have a financial incentive to leak given their salary, but the same has been argued about professional athletes and connections to gambling, and making examples of individuals who go afoul of the rules seems to keep the system in check. In my eyes, finances should not be part of the discussion here, and the fact that someone who signed a contract, whether they're pad $18/hour or $50/hour, should not take bribes to break the clearly written rules. Now, I do think there may be situations where TMs have been paid by influencers to get into Epic, but were promised by those they invited to not break any of the rules only to have video leaks surface online and subjected them to termination. However, they should have been more careful about who they invited as "friends and family" and understand those opportunities to tour their place of employment were meant as a way to test park operations, not as a free-for-all for pre-media visits no matter how much you trust someone.

Ultimately, this comes down to the scoundrels who feel the unquenched desire to be "first" and the community that for some reason supports immoral and unscrupulous behavior. I do agree with Robert that parks could head stuff off at the pass like this with their own POVs and behind the scenes features (Disney used to fill hours on the Disney Channel in the 90's and early 00's with behind the scenes features and programs highlighting new attractions and offerings), but I think we're all in new territory with Epic being the first full-scale destination-level theme park to open in the US in nearly 2 decades and during the social media era. They have to balance the need to stress test all of their systems against the chance of leaks, while still leaving some mystery for opening day crowds. I think doing TM and "friends and family" previews is perfectly appropriate ahead of the early media visits, because the last thing Universal wants is to have things breaking or just not working, because that would make a bad impression on the folks Universal will be relying on to spread the word about the new park. They can't just fling open the doors for APs, because Universal wouldn't have the same controls on those people that they do over employees, and if you're technically charging APs to visit, they're going to want the entire park available, which just isn't possible yet with Battle for the Ministry still working to become reliable.

This is way different than opening a new ride or land in an existing park, there are so many things Universal has to test in Epic, and they can't do that with just a few hundred guests each day.

During some of my shifts, I've seen Universal security escort people out of UEU for taking pictures. They seem to be taking it quite seriously.

Not that Universal doesn't enforce their rules, but hey I was still surprised.

I'm not at all surprised by this given how big the project is. Unfortunately, there really isn't a way in this day and age to prevent it, so it simply falls on those Universal has power over to enforce the rules or suffer the consequences. From what I've heard, it's not a new issue at UOR either, and every TM preview results in 2-3% of those invited breaking the rules and receiving termination as a result, which is a shame because it simply shouldn't be that hard to follow such basic guidelines.

Social media has made running these parks a nightmare (as well as probably other similar businesses). Not just because of employees but also fans of the parks, of which places like Disney and Universal have millions of, who learn every loophole of every little thing and ruin it. The amount of "Do not give [x] compensation for [y] problem" notifications they have to do nowadays because they go viral really ruins it for the people who genuinely deserve the compensation.

I once had to fire someone because he posted a picture of himself on facebook, in full uniform, standing in the exit scene of Space Mountain with the robots doing a double flick-off to the camera. Like...the amount of brazen narcissism and stupidity it takes to post that online while you still work there.

I cannot imagine how bad it must be to work for an airline with all the entitled people fighting over the limited amount of good seats on the plane, bag policies, etc.