I had something fun to share: Here’s some 10-11 year old’s reaction to the Epic news. I did a little “focus group” experiment with my 21 students:
I showed the Epic Universe full Announcement video at the very end of the school day. They’re 5th graders in Florida, so naturally they love the parks and are pretty familiar with what UOR currently offers….
Reactions:
Celestial Park: They were very amazed at Helios!!! They loved how pretty the entire area will be and they had so many questions about Starfall Racers (they’re too young to know Dueling Dragons, so the racing/dueling concept was wild to them) They were very concerned that it would crash.
Dragons: They were mildly impressed. It seemed like they knew the IP. They definitely want there to be “real” dragons in the land. They also hope that Universal will build the same stuff from the movie clips in the video (which they are).
Dark Universe: They seemed genuinely confused. No cheering (which made me sad lol). They recognized the monsters, but were mostly curious about what kind of rides would be there. One kid actually blurted out: “What about HHN?”
Potter: The kids went absolutely ape sh*t as soon as it showed the Wizarding World Logo on screen. They even specifically talked about how cool the Fantastic Beasts stuff might be. Definitely the strongest positive reaction to ANYTHING in the video.
Nintendo: They went absolutely insane, again… but not quite the same level as Potter. There was a big cheer every time they showed a character on screen! Definitely a hit land with the kids.
Common questions they had:
How did we never see this being built?
How long have they been working on it?
When in 2025 will it open?
Will the tickets be more expensive than the other parks?