Universal sets opening date for Donkey Kong land

The overall look of this land is pretty amazing, and I think UC did a great job differentiating it from Mario. However, I still think Universal is underselling the need for supporting attractions and relying on guests buying into the upcharge Power Band activities to spend their time in these areas. At least the Epic Universe installation of Super Mario World will include the Yoshi ride from Japan, but I think this will be a consistent refrain from Epic Universe in that it has a great collection of top rides, but is seriously lacking in supporting attraction.

I do like the interactive drum attraction (though worry it has the same fate as the Pandora drums - nothing but a playground for little kids) and the characters and food (particularly the sundae in the barrel mug) are sure to be massive hits.

I strongly believe Universal is pushing to open this coaster so they can run it through its paces well before the one in Florida opens. It's one thing to have issues on a new coaster type in a theme park half a world away, it's another for a e-ticket attraction to run into issues in the most anticipated new theme park in a generation. Universal cannot afford for any of the rides at Epic to run into hiccups in May, so any issues that can be worked through elsewhere under realistic operating conditions will be a massive help to the Epic team. Pretty much every outdoor attraction has been spotted testing (I would assume the indoor ones have been testing too, but we obviously can't see them), but it's a completely different animal when rides are put under the stress of continuous operation with guests.

@Russel

Don't forget that DK Country is itself a supporting attraction to SNW. Mario Kart, Yoshi, Mine Cart, and hours worth of the interactive power up band experiences I'd say is a pretty outstanding line up of attractions, not to mention that MK and MCM are both brand new ride systems which is also impressive.

Kids are as interested in facetiming grandma from a whole new world (supermario land or HTTYD) as they are in riding rides. If they leverage pokemon go, their powerup bands, harry potter wands, and character meet and greet the average kid will have plently to do.

See Daniel, that's exactly my issue. Universal is banking on (well almost blackmailing) guests into the Powerband activities (and WWoHP Wand 2.0 interactions along with Monsters Makeup experience) to occupy their time in Epic Universe. I don't have an issue with them creating these upcharge experiences as a way to supplement revenue. However, to not give guests other things to do while they're more or less "trapped" in a portal until they can go to another one seems to be a deliberate strategy to boost revenue from bored/exploited guests. That's the issue with me, if there wasn't going to be this portal issue that limits guests from going between portals, and forcing them to stay in one portal while they're waiting to access the next I wouldn't have a problem. Again, that's not an issue in the legacy parks where guests can leave Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley and visit other areas of those parks without having to sit around in those lands waiting for their time to go elsewhere in the park, but from everything that's been detailed, it appears that won't be the case in Epic Universe.

Also, even if guests aren't necessarily waiting to get into another portal, it seems pretty clear that re-entering a portal in the same day is probably not going to be allowed (maybe Grand Helios guests get this privilege). That will create a massive sense of FOMO with guests wanting to make sure they've done everything in the portal before they leave for good (eat, drink, buy souvenirs, meet characters, etc....). That has the potential to drive more guests to buy things impulsively, particularly if they see others doing it - the HP wands have to be one of the most brilliant marketing schemes in theme park history.

I just think this park is seriously short on smaller attractions to give guests things to do when big rides break down or guests just don't want to wait in massive lines. Certainly Universal doesn't need to break the bank or create unique experiences to support the headliners, but I really fear guests wandering around looking for things to do when they're waiting to enter their next portal. People love to criticize Disney for their policies and products that appear to be designed exclusively to maximize revenue, and I'm merely calling out what Universal is doing here with that same motivation of trying to extract more money from guests' pockets.