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Universal's Epic Universe General News & Discussion

I do like the idea of more live entertainment though. Curiously though, this is kind of surreal timing with Aiello moving to UC to supervise the Epic entertainment. That's the part that gives this some credence, though I'm like Jungle Skip and skeptical about the steel tariffs since they've been there for a year or two already. Unless they were counting on a trade deal that seems further away now than before.
 
Part of me wonders if this was decided before the concept art was released. Maybe that’s why we got that generic stadium near Monsters? More entertainment? Idk. We shall see.
 
From Mice Chat today: "tariffs on China's steel "has put a kink in the plans for Universal's new park as well as the upcoming Disney Epcot project". Mice Chat goes on to say that some of the Epic project plans that Universal was solid on are now being reconsidered due to the significant cost increase of steel. They also said that additional live entertainment may replace some of those changed plans.

This feels like a plant of info from someone not in Universal.
 
Funny that the article says they're replacing steel projects with live entertainment... Ya know, considering that's the thing that keeps getting cut year after year at all the parks. Like at Disneyland right now.

I'd be more apt to believe that things like Moana's Journey of Water could be replacing big steel enclosed rides over expensive actors that need to keep being paid regularly well after something is constructed. At least with steel, once it's built you don't have to pay it salary.
 
Doesn't Mice Chat also have a reputation for finding ways to spin stories related to Orlando in the most negative possible way?
I don't see them talking about Universal Orlando very often. Though they reference WDW on occasion. They're pretty much California for the most part. That's why this kind of jumped out at me.
 
It's now confirmed that Universal's expansion has been accepted as a Major Economic Development Project (MEDP).

Here is my original post on the topic:
It appears that the changes to Orange County's permitting process mentioned at the August 1st press conference were approved by the Board of County Commissioners last week.

They created a new streamlined management process for what they are calling "Major Economic Development Projects" (MEDP). The requirements for a project to qualify as a MEDP are:
  • 500+ acres of buildable land in unincorporated Orange County
  • Anticipated $1 billion increase in real property value over 10 years
  • Applicant ability to invest $1 billion cash equity in the project
  • Expected creation of 2,500+ jobs
  • Commitment to own and operate the project for 10 years after completion
Once a project is accepted as an MEDP, the mayor will appoint a County Project Manager who will work as the single contact point between the county and the applicant, with the authority to expedite permit applications and make certain approval decisions not required to be made by other public offices or boards.

The actual requirements for getting permits approved are staying the same, but the organizational process will change to allow for more prioritization and quicker permit approvals.


Orange County File# 19-1150
 
According to Tom Williams,

This campus is 750 acres total and the park fully planned. They will NOT announce IPs any time soon to prevent those deterring vacations. However via testing all IPs being brought to the park are considered Killers...They have a price but will also not reveal until closer. The total timeline of blue sky to opening is 5-6 years. And he confirmed you won't be able to compare this to ANY other park in Florida. Lastly, Universal wants to do well with Adults and children 7 and above because they know Disney has that market for the younger ones so while they may have some things for the smaller children do not expect much.

And then beyond that, Brian and I just announced August 1 of this year along with the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis and the County Mayor Jerry Demings that we would be building a whole another gate with more hotels in Orlando called Universal's Epic Universe. We have about 738 acre. About 738 acres on what we call the North Campus {Main UOR campus}. And then we have a Mid Campus with another 30 acres or so upon which we are putting 2,800 hotel rooms. And to the south of that, we just acquired another 750 acres.

This land is quite close to one another. It's about a 10, 15 minute bus ride between the two different locations which is actually quite quick. And so we are going to build this whole new fourth gate. And we haven't announced price. We haven't announced the content in terms of the IP or even timing because it's senseless to do so. Why tell the competition what you are doing? And beyond that, why risk deferring attendance. That makes no sense. So we are hard at work. We have done our demand modeling. We have done our research. We have fully planned the park. We are beginning to work on it now with masquerading and so forth, preparing the land, installing infrastructure. So that's definitely a big priority.

Q

So let's run through each one of them. So the U.S., I am not sure what you are going to answer. I just had a question on timing, like any color that you can give on either one of those? Okay.

Tom Williams

Just for the reasons I said.

Q

And the IP, just conceptual like --?

Tom Williams

I mean it's the best. And we have tested them all and they are killers. It's a great line.

Q

So this would be different than other parks in Florida?

Tom Williams

It takes it to the whole next level. It's going to redefine what a park experience is like. It really is special.

Q

How long do parks take, do you think, from -- you said you have already started to just --

Tom Williams

Acquire the land and then of course, you prepare the land for development. It's at least a five, six year process. Because you know, in our business, the way we do attractions, the vendor community that can support what we want to do is pretty thin. So it's not like you can go to a tradeshow and buy a ride and say, yes, I will take that ride. It just doesn't work that way. You have to design these from the ground up. You start with story, right. You start with popular IP that people have an affinity for and emotional connection to, take Harry Potter as an example. And you say, okay, what are the most favorite parts of that story? Of all that fiction? Seven books? What are the most favorite parts?

And so you select what those are and you combine that with characters, you combine that with environment and you then turn your attention to, okay, now I know what I want to do. How do I do it? And so that takes a lot of research and development. Especially on the engineering side, because a lot of times it involves technologies that have yet to be invented. That's definitely the case with our Mario, Super Mario cart ride. We had to invent and then you have to find a way to fabricate and meet all quality standards and so forth. And sometimes, like in that case, you have to do it yourself because no one, you can't find anybody that wants to do what you want to do.


And so this takes time. And so, by the time we get to design and all the R&D and eventual commissioning and soft opening, it's a good five, six year time period.
 
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And Volcano Bay is a water “theme park”... yeah yeah yeah...

They changed the terminology at least he did during the conference to theme water park...this talk wasn't for the GP, this is for Wall Street.

Take Epic Universe as an example, we are bound to get an extra day out of the visitation base. We already have. We have certainly did with IoA. And we have to a large extent with Volcano Bay, which is our theme water park, which doesn't have nearly the capacity of a dry park. So we have got the two parks plus the water park and we have got an average of length of stay of over, visitation wise, of over two parks. So when we do another one, it will edge up toward three parks. So a big chunk will be people we have already got.
 
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