Epic Universe opened officially this morning. Fans lined up well before dawn to be among the first into Universal Orlando's new park - the major theme park to open in the United States in nearly a quarter century.
Universal limited capacity for today's sold-out debut. As a result, by mid-morning wait times were short throughout the park, ranging from many walk-ons to 45 minutes for Mario Kart. But, yes, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry was down. Everything else in the park appeared to be operating smoothly, save for a short downtime on Monsters Unchained. If you want to watch a replay of Universal's livestream from the park this morning, here it is.
Here are some thoughts about my visit this week, as I work on my final review piece on Potter.
While I initially preferred Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry to Monsters Unchained - The Frankenstein Experiment, after re-rides this week, I liked Monsters better than I did before and Potter a touch less than I had. Potter is technically impressive if you understand everything that is happening to create the illusions in front of you. But the whole experience can feel chaotic and confusing. The narrative is not as straightforward as the battle on Monsters Unchained. I also felt closer to the action on Monsters. So I am switching from placing Potter as my clear number one at Epic to considering this a toss-up.
But right now, if you made me choose one to ride, with no wait, and not considering the queue as an asset (which it very much is on Potter), I would pick Monsters. So maybe that answers the preference question for me. But if you do consider the queue, which you should, then we are back to a toss-up.
Ultimately, uptime is the deciding factor here. Monsters is up at full capacity most of the time. Potter isn't.
I do prefer the Ministry of Magic land to Dark Universe, however. There just isn't much there in Dark Universe beyond the Monsters ride. The Curse of the Werewolf ride was deliciously dissed by a media colleague as "a SeaWorld coaster." (Ouch... but not wrong.) Burning Blade tavern is tiny inside, and while Das Stakehaus offers plenty of space with dark vibes, nothing on the meat-heavy menu appealed to me. My favorite elements in the land are the graveyard decor at the entrance and the strolling violinist.
Potter, however, is a delight. Well-detailed, it's like visiting an ever more magical Montmarte in 1920s Paris. But the land I found myself returning to throughout my visit, to my surprise, was How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk.
Epic's largest land is also its most inviting, with its engaging characters and vivid decoration. The Untrainable Dragon show is my favorite in the park and one of its top three attractions. Yet it was Hiccup's Wing Gliders that I ended up riding more than anything else in the park during my visit this week. This is a brilliant family coaster, now joining Hong Kong Disneyland's Big Grizzly Mountain as my favorites in that category around the world.
And I love that Universal added a "sheep trick" to this roller coaster, in homage to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad "goat trick" at Disney.
One more note. I see that there was a social media kerfuffle over Universal reportedly selling out of Epic's opening-day medallions before any guests got into the park today. Yeah, that was bad planning on Universal's part, if that was indeed the case. Other media people and inviting guests were buying tons of merch over the past two days, including those medallions. For what it's worth, I've not been to a major international theme press event where the park handed out less free swag to the press - just a plastic shopping bag with a hat, water bottle, pin and notebook.
I'm not complaining - I don't care about swag and almost never keep anything (and I never sell it!) - but a steady flow of swag during the event does have the effect of dissuading merch sales. People tend to hold off in the hopes of getting what they want in a gift pack later during the event. With none forthcoming here, invited guests hit the stores hard, instead, wiping out that medallion inventory. The vinyl Dark Universe album was another popular purchase, too. It's all good for Universal's income but not so great for paying guests on the first day of normal operation.
Still, if you are looking to blame someone, don't blame me. I didn't buy anything.
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I really, really, really want the rumored glass-bottom boat Creature of the Black Lagoon ride in Darkmoor. Replace Werewolf to do it, if they must.
Any ideas as to why the park is so empty on open day? Especially considering that people were queuing up, before dawn this morning. According to Universal’s app, wait times (aside from BatM) are ridiculously low.
EDIT* Just read above that it’s limited capacity today, so that explains it.
I'm not surprised that Isle of Berk is proving to be such a hit. As someone who can only look from afar this appears to be the only land that actually offers enough to do to justify spending time in it. It's beautifully landscaped and imagined and looks totally immersive. Plus filling it with (mostly) family friendly attractions makes it the only real land with total mass appeal. Other lands may impress with a cutting-edge attraction but it's becoming obvious looking at the non-sycophantic reports from vloggers that the other three lands whilst visually impressive feel very short on actual things to do.
Other than Ministry being down for a majority of the day (it's back up), today was a success.
The amount of theme park influencers I saw today was crazy. It was like around every corner was someone I know.
Hope you enjoyed epic Robert! I saw you from afar a few days ago and wanted to say hi, but there were too many people blocking the path. Til next time!
Some numbers floating around are that the park has a 45-50K capacity and that Universal offered to sell only maybe a third of that today. That cap will remain in place for a few weeks, bumping up to about half capacity in July. Allegedly.
Of course, once they figure out how to get Potter running at capacity, any ticket sales caps go away.
Makes sense to control crowds. Universal learned the hard way how not to open a theme park, and it seems that lesson hasn’t been forgotten.
It does seem like Isle of Berk is the masterpiece of this park not only because of the way it's designed with the lagoon and constant kinetic energy, but also because it has the most stuff to do with the various character interactions, multiple attractions, and has reportedly the most popular new food item - the mac and cheese cones. When they first announced the use of this IP in Epic, I was kind of scratching my head and then thought, they used HttYD because of the upcoming live-action move (corporate synergy). But after seeing videos and photos of the area, it's clear this is the Lost Continent of this park. While the IP might not have the "brand recognition" of the other portals, it does appear that this land is the most comprehensively themed, mature, and filled-out portal in Epic.
Some of the other things I've noticed about the opening week coverage is that not a lot of people are talking about Super Nintendo World despite the resonance of that IP in the public consciousness. I've seen a number of public (i.e. non-theme park folks) polls showing this portal as the one that an overwhelming majority of prospective guests want to visit despite the fact that everything in Epic is replicated elsewhere in the world with much of it cloned from USH. People LOVE Nintendo, but the coverage of this portal seems to just gloss over this area. Maybe that's a function of the theme park (and educated) media knowing their audience and not giving Universal too much credit for creating a fully cloned land, but there are some differences at Epic that are not really being discussed. The attractions, including Mine Cart Madness, are barely referenced in full-park reviews.
It does seem that Robert is on-point with his assessment of Dark Universe, and while the fanboys are loving what's there, everything beyond Monsters Unchained seems like a half-hearted attempt. There's also a fear that Igor, Victoria, and other characters will eventually be cut or significantly pared back, which would make this already small and sparse land feel even more baren. I haven't really seen a lot of coverage of the Burning Blade Tavern or the restaurant here, so either folks are not really exploring these areas or they're pretty underwhelming. I can say that when Universal released the menu and images of the food here, I wasn't all that impressed - a black-colored bun doesn't really scream Universal Monsters IMHO. I was interested to see what was being offered in the bar, especially the custom beers and clever snacks, and whether characters will be showing up or if the bartenders would be forced to carry the story like at Oga's, but very little has been said about this place aside from the impressive flaming effect on the outside.
I do think Universal did a great job with the look of Celestial Park, and I personally think the architecture perfectly communicates the theme. I don't think guests really need to get the full backstory to understand what is going on here, because to me it seems pretty obvious - God-like area with portals to various fantasy worlds kind of speaks for itself. However, I really do think the lack of attractions here is a big problem. I think Universal really wanted to hit a home run with the Constellation Carousel, but by trying to make it so unique, it just doesn't look at all exciting. Obviously, Stardust Racers is going to be a massive hit with everyone (including discerning coaster fans), but this area really could use another ride or 2, even if it's just a traditional flat ride or a motion sim or immersive theater (like Poseidon's Fury) that tells the story of Celestial Park to fill our this area. Celestial Park looks like it's about 3-5 times the size of MK's hub and Main Street USA, and aside from the fountain show, there just isn't anything else to do here if you're not eating or shopping. If Universal ever has to start holding guests in Celestial Park because the portals are at capacity, people are going to get really bored really fast.
The last thing is the role of Helios Grand as the park's alternate "Weenie" opposite the Chronos. The hotel is kind of in the park, but not really in the park. I feel like Universal really missed an opportunity here, especially after our stay at the Hotel Charles Lindberg last summer at Phantasialand. It's cool that Helios extends the theming of Celestial Park and has some pretty incredible views of the park, but it still feels like it's separated from everything since there are no attractions close to the hotel's exclusive park entrance. Also, Helios guests don't get any unique or special privileges in Epic, so aside from being able to look in to Epic from your room's window, which you can do by just going up to Bar Helios as a regular park guest, there's really not a compelling reason to stay in this hotel. With rates comparable to RPR, HRH, and PB, which all come with Universal Express at IOA and USF, and an exclusive entrance, you'd think there'd be something more to a stay in this hotel. If you're going to market a hotel that's part of a park, make people feel like they're in the theme park during their entire stay, and give them some special access that nobody else can get.
The first two days of official operation have revealed another issue with this park. It is thin. With capacity capped due to Ministry's ongoing issues, you can finish this park in a half day. You can fill the rest of your time by buying the upcharge wand and Power-Up Band and doing all those interactions, but no one ever need to buy Express at Epic.
Granted, this thin line-up includes five of the best attractions in the world. I think both Monsters and Ministry are potential Top 10 attractions worldwide. I think Untrainable is perhaps the number one show worldwide and Le Cirque is top 10 among theme park shows. Stardust also is a top 10 worldwide coaster for me. That's a crazy number of top quality attractions for one park, even if there is not a deep line-up of average attractions complementing them.
Hmm… looking at the wait times in the app today, everything has remained super low, even Battle at the Ministry has averaged a low of 45 minutes by around 5 pm.
I also see Universal has lifted its self inflicted ‘cap,’ and there’s tickets available to purchase for today’s date to enjoy the park for the rest of the evening (with 5 hours of park time left, it’s still very feasible to ride every attraction in the park before closing due to all the ridiculously low wait times).
Are all of these attractions people eaters, did Universal play this too cautiously by capping attendance too much, or is the sky high demand just not there?!
Very odd rollout and time will tell.
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I haven't been able to ride Battle of the Ministry or Curse of the Werewolf, but I agree with your general thoughts on the lands. Please Uni, a thousand times please, expand Place Cachee/Ministry and (especially)Darkmoor!