Epic Universe Ticketing Speculation

[Jerroddragon]

I'm going to point this out again

Us the consumers are very forgiving.....one moment people are like Disney is woke I will not see Wish to Inside out 2 making the most money of any other film this year

If you make some people like and want it does not matter how badly some people online and even in the community feel they will get over it and go if its great

Also people are already saying single tickets ill be here when the park opens, I really think the park is going to do just fine and most people here will go within the first year of it opening

 

[Alicia]

Single day tickets will probably be available by the time Epic Universe opens.

The multi-day packages are likely going to just the first options for presale.

I’m going to keep bringing this up once a week until Universal releases ticket info and we all see the disclaimer that says it, because there’s a lot of hypotheticals being discussed based on only the first early presale ticket options. This place will be folded into regular ticket operations and offer all the options before we know it, and them releasing tickets in phases leading to the grand opening to manage capacity is and will always be a blip of history; a temporary measure. And not relevant long term to regular park operations going forward.

 

[IzzyB]

If you look at attendance now people will say how hott it is but the real problem is multiple parks decided this was peak time on dynamic ticket pricing where tickets used to cost the same no matter the day and the punishment was built in that you went at the time where kids were off. Combine that with dynamic hotel pricing at peak rates and it becomes cheaper to avoid the summer at all. It's not surprising Disney is starting Halloween in August.

I am curious how long dynamic pricing is done, because I feel both parks with their dynamic pricing have priced people out of summer. But at the same point I am seeing on my Dollywood FB group that Dollywood that doesn't have dynamic pricing is also not as well attended this year.

if the Magic Kingdom charges $174 for a single day ticket, would Epic try to top that?

I have no info, but I could see them hitting $200 for a single day ticket.

I do not know anything about any reservation system, but I have heard that Priemer ticket holders will have to schedule their HHN night -- I also heard that Employees needed to use a reservation system last year for HHN -- that is just to say UoR has used systems (on a smaller scale) to schedule park days.

Premier isn't a rumor I believe it was in the terms and conditions this would start in 2025.

Does Universal really want to do that though? Epic is a great park... but they'd really be pushing it if pricing is over MK. We can go back and forth about which park is better, but MK is "the" park in Orlando. There's a reason why its attendance is an extra 6+million extra over the next most popular park in Orlando.

I agree, pricing above MK would be an issue. MK has more to do. You can say what Epic has is better, but at the end of the day you would be able to ride more at MK.

I don't quite understand this. Correct me if I'm wrong in my assessment, but -

Why exactly would limiting/restricting lose the war long term? Sure, APs may get upset by it, but will it really make people so upset that they won't renew when the upgrade does become available? That they'll just stop going to Universal?

How many on here have kids between the ages of 3 and 18? I do. And you end up hanging out with people who also have kids in the same age range. Most all of my friends have kids between the ages of 6 and 16 because my kids are 6 to 13 (I have some friends with older siblings to their 13 year old). I don't know anyone that has more than one park. Why? Because we have way too many kid activities and we do not have time for more than one park. When we were young and had no kids we all talk about having multiple parks, but now it is not worth it. We barely get to go to that one park. So guess what, we cancel Universal and pick up Disney, we are not coming back to Universal for awhile. We will be at Disney for 1 to 2 years. Most all of us bought universal around the same time and would cancel and move on if we have no chance of doing Epic any time soon as we will be bored of Universals 2 parks by that point.

I'm going to point this out again

Us the consumers are very forgiving.....one moment people are like Disney is woke I will not see Wish to Inside out 2 making the most money of any other film this year

If you make some people like and want it does not matter how badly some people online and even in the community feel they will get over it and go if its great

Also people are already saying single tickets ill be here when the park opens, I really think the park is going to do just fine and most people here will go within the first year of it opening

Do you actually know anyone who thought Disney was woke? I believe it was a very small % that thought this and from what I can see they are still saying this. These movies were huge with all the other people who didn't think Disney was woke. Disney didn't lose attendance over any of this. I bet you a large % who thought this don't even go to Disney to begin with. I agree single tickets will be available. I am more concerned about AP policy.

I’m going to keep bringing this up once a week until Universal releases ticket info and we all see the disclaimer that says it, because there’s a lot of hypotheticals being discussed based on only the first early presale ticket options. This place will be folded into regular ticket operations and offer all the options before we know it, and them releasing tickets in phases leading to the grand opening to manage capacity is and will always be a blip of history; a temporary measure. And not relevant long term to regular park operations going forward.

100% agreed, the first tickets won't be the only one. I am more concerned about the rumors for how AP will be treated.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

This is a great point. My parents are amblers - love wandering around, looking at details, taking everything in. I do too, especially somewhere as detailed as Epic will be.

That said, if we only have one day as part of a package or whatever (and depending on lines), we might have to revert to commando-style touring and jumping from ride to ride, land to land, and maybe back again later to walk around more leisurely. I wouldn't book any sit down restaurants or special experiences, and i might not seriously browse shops until the end of the day if there's time.

if park hours are long enough it'll be fine, but I'll have to promise a rest day afterwards lol.

Yes, and especially with the level of detail that EU will have - I'm going to really want to take my time walking around the park.

How many on here have kids between the ages of 3 and 18? I do. And you end up hanging out with people who also have kids in the same age range. Most all of my friends have kids between the ages of 6 and 16 because my kids are 6 to 13 (I have some friends with older siblings to their 13 year old). I don't know anyone that has more than one park. Why? Because we have way too many kid activities and we do not have time for more than one park. When we were young and had no kids we all talk about having multiple parks, but now it is not worth it. We barely get to go to that one park. So guess what, we cancel Universal and pick up Disney, we are not coming back to Universal for awhile. We will be at Disney for 1 to 2 years. Most all of us bought universal around the same time and would cancel and move on if we have no chance of doing Epic any time soon as we will be bored of Universals 2 parks by that point.

I don't really mention it on here, but yes - I am a parent lol.

I just think people are being slightly dramatic on the long-term effects for some short-term ticket limitations for a new park.

(Dramatic? on a theme park forum?)

 

[IzzyB]

I don't really mention it on here, but yes - I am a parent lol.

I just think people are being slightly dramatic on the long-term effects for some short-term ticket limitations for a new park.

(Dramatic? on a theme park forum?)

I agree to a point. I think more ticketing options will come out and people will have options when vacationing and that won't be an issue for people out of town. The rumors of no previews and 6 months blocked out seem crazy to me and do seem harmful.

I also agree we can be a little over the top on any theme park forum including this one.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

With all this AP Epic Universe talk I deem it necessary to throw in my current situation and decision.

I am a first time WDW annual pass holder this year, it’s been a lot of fun I must say, but I had decided to not renew and get a Universal AP since Epic was opening and wanted to go as much as possible. But that’s not happening anymore.

If it’s true AP’s won’t even have some sort of limited access at Epic’s launch, I will just renew WDW.
There isn’t much of a point for me to get an AP for Universal with no new offerings at the other parks and not some sort of access to Epic from the get go.

But we will see what happens.

 

[kristenabelle]

Yeah I definitely don't mean to make assumptions/fret/etc. I do think this'll be the first park in a long time where I'll have to be strategic (as opposed to - we'll be back soon, or I've done that before so who cares if I miss it today). Tickets factor into that for sure, but by the time we get there I'm sure there'll be tons of resources on maximizing your time. So whatever comes out, we'll make it work for us

 

[Mad Dog]

and....so many reasons to be comfortable with my patient decision to stay away from the grand opening early months.

 

[belloq87]

I’m going to keep bringing this up once a week until Universal releases ticket info and we all see the disclaimer that says it, because there’s a lot of hypotheticals being discussed based on only the first early presale ticket options. This place will be folded into regular ticket operations and offer all the options before we know it, and them releasing tickets in phases leading to the grand opening to manage capacity is and will always be a blip of history; a temporary measure. And not relevant long term to regular park operations going forward.

But, purely selfishly, it will be relevant to my ability to plan a trip for fall of 2025 if there is not a more dynamic set of ticket options available by early next year.

 

[Frank Drackman]

Does Universal really want to do that though? Epic is a great park... but they'd really be pushing it if pricing is over MK. We can go back and forth about which park is better, but MK is "the" park in Orlando. There's a reason why its attendance is an extra 6+million extra over the next most popular park in Orlando.

I was looking at it more along the lines that UNI will price single day tickets in a way to make multi day package a much better deal, why not show Epic (as a new park) more expensive than a 50+ year old park.

I was more curious (w/ all the 'no single day tickets' talk) well, at what price should they place a single day at -- or do they just charge more for Express as they do for HHN (compared to what they charge for admission)

I am curious how long dynamic pricing is done, because I feel both parks with their dynamic pricing have priced people out of summer. But at the same point I am seeing on my Dollywood FB group that Dollywood that doesn't have dynamic pricing is also not as well attended this year.

This is what puzzles me the most about theme park pricing. They call it dynamic, but it is not based on availability (as I thought dynamic is meant to be) but they instead seem to need to set a price well in advance (for planners) so they just figure summer is traditionally busy, so charge more -- but they do not seem to change now that Halloween is busier than summer.

Anyway, to me, I do not know if there is any logic used for single day tickets on any giving day of the week/month/year -- so I just see t as a means to make some sort of package show more value.

 

[Jake S]

It’s July. Wake me up in Christmas and maybe I’ll start to feel some type of way about it. But at this point, I don’t think they know when the park is actually going to open, which really puts a lid on selling tickets.

 

[MrBlonde]

I think specific allotments to Epic will be here for the first few months at least.

Keep in mind, Park-to-Park does not include Epic so I can see them pricing multi-day tickets with "add $X to add another day at Epic" in your tickets or on their website, making it a sort of add on.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I was looking at it more along the lines that UNI will price single day tickets in a way to make multi day package a much better deal, why not show Epic (as a new park) more expensive than a 50+ year old park.

I was more curious (w/ all the 'no single day tickets' talk) well, at what price should they place a single day at -- or do they just charge more for Express as they do for HHN (compared to what they charge for admission)

I'm all for Universal being confident in themselves... but outside initial week, no way I see Epic priced above MK being received well. They already price single day tickets high to make multi-day tickets appear like a better value, so I'd imagine it'll be at a similar level.

This is what puzzles me the most about theme park pricing. They call it dynamic, but it is not based on availability (as I thought dynamic is meant to be) but they instead seem to need to set a price well in advance (for planners) so they just figure summer is traditionally busy, so charge more -- but they do not seem to change now that Halloween is busier than summer.

Yeah, although I think it's intentional a bit. Jan-Early Mar is historically a quiet season, but I found them a lot busier the past 2 years compared to "historically busy" July-Mid August. Monday-Tuesday have become very busy at the WDW parks.

Hotel availability might be driving the lack of change in dynamic pricing for tickets themselves.

 

[Mad Dog]

I'm all for Universal being confident in themselves... but outside initial week, no way I see Epic priced above MK being received well. They already price single day tickets high to make multi-day tickets appear like a better value, so I'd imagine it'll be at a similar level.


Yeah, although I think it's intentional a bit. Jan-Early Mar is historically a quiet season, but I found them a lot busier the past 2 years compared to "historically busy" July-Mid August. Monday-Tuesday have become very busy at the WDW parks.

Hotel availability might be driving the lack of change in dynamic pricing for tickets themselves.

WDW has been so slow that even Mondays have been real slow the past few weeks....and that was their only bright spot day recently.

 

[IzzyB]

I was looking at it more along the lines that UNI will price single day tickets in a way to make multi day package a much better deal, why not show Epic (as a new park) more expensive than a 50+ year old park.

I was more curious (w/ all the 'no single day tickets' talk) well, at what price should they place a single day at -- or do they just charge more for Express as they do for HHN (compared to what they charge for admission)


This is what puzzles me the most about theme park pricing. They call it dynamic, but it is not based on availability (as I thought dynamic is meant to be) but they instead seem to need to set a price well in advance (for planners) so they just figure summer is traditionally busy, so charge more -- but they do not seem to change now that Halloween is busier than summer.

Anyway, to me, I do not know if there is any logic used for single day tickets on any giving day of the week/month/year -- so I just see t as a means to make some sort of package show more value.

MK has a ton to do, so pricing yourself above MK outside of the first week is really asking a lot.

They originally did it to get people to visit in traditionally slow seasons to spread out their revenue because if your hotel is half empty you still are paying the same staff. But I think they managed to price it too much and the swing was severe. Now summer seems to be pretty slow for Orlando parks. They probably need to make the gaps in pricing a little less for hotel and theme park tickets.

 

[Scott W.]

I'm going to point this out again

Us the consumers are very forgiving.....one moment people are like Disney is woke I will not see Wish to Inside out 2 making the most money of any other film this year

If you make some people like and want it does not matter how badly some people online and even in the community feel they will get over it and go if its great

Also people are already saying single tickets ill be here when the park opens, I really think the park is going to do just fine and most people here will go within the first year of it opening

That's the thing, nobody cares after the fact. Tron took forever but it's open now so who cares. Galaxy's Edge was a bit of a disaster in how it opened, but now who cares. 6 months after Epic opens and it's running as a normal park, who cares.

But, purely selfishly, it will be relevant to my ability to plan a trip for fall of 2025 if there is not a more dynamic set of ticket options available by early next year.

Weirdly, for me, it's Disney dictating how I book my trip for next year. Typically, their good deals for the next year finish at the end of October, so ideally, I would like to be booked up by then but we're in a weird position that Disney might be quiet and could offer better deals as time goes on.

I’m going to keep bringing this up once a week until Universal releases ticket info and we all see the disclaimer that says it, because there’s a lot of hypotheticals being discussed based on only the first early presale ticket options. This place will be folded into regular ticket operations and offer all the options before we know it, and them releasing tickets in phases leading to the grand opening to manage capacity is and will always be a blip of history; a temporary measure. And not relevant long term to regular park operations going forward.

I have no doubt that things will correct themselves within a few months at most. I'm planning on going in September, a typically quiet period and I assume/hope that things will be figured out by then if the park opens early summer.

Until then, I'm just having fun with bad memes.

 

[Alicia]

Seeing it brought up a lot, but to my knowledge there aren’t any credible rumors on timeline for when annual pass options will become available for Epic. Yes there are rumors for AP previews, but only thing I think ticket sellers have heard is the same as single day tickets: “information on Annual Pass options will be revealed at a later time.”

If you’re hearing rumors on when that may be, it’s probably speculation.

Fingers crossed it’s by park opening, but I doubt even Universal has decided yet, and is waiting to see how well initial ticket offers sell before setting dates for next ticketing phases.

 

[Mad Dog]

So far, the only fairly solid info is the leaked initial Travel Agent package. That's all we have to judge at this point in time. I would say that package is a very poor value for guests wanting to do Epic. I doubt it could get any worse than that package. I guess most will be watching. I have no personal stake since I'm not going to subject a vacation to that early potential chaos. I'll wait till stuff settles.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

Fingers crossed it’s by park opening, but I doubt even Universal has decided yet, and is waiting to see how well initial ticket offers sell before setting dates for next ticketing phases.

I think this is really what it comes down to.

If they open up single day ticket sales and they're CRAZY.. then they'll hold off on APs. If ticket sales are lower than they're expecting.. AP access from day 1. (maybe Day 14)

 

[wutisgood]

I think this is really what it comes down to.

If they open up single day ticket sales and they're CRAZY.. then they'll hold off on APs. If ticket sales are lower than they're expecting.. AP access from day 1. (maybe Day 14)

But a certain amount of APs are not buying single day tickets at all and are not renewing with no access to epic universe. There needs to be a way for universal to bridge that gap between lack of epic universe availability and keeping AP renewals. They need to have some sort of public plan for APs and the limitations they will have so people can work with it.