Epic Universe Ticketing Info, Advice, & Speculation

[IzzyB]

I'm gonna be honest - I don't think it should be THAT big of an issue to block out APs for .. idk, the first 2 months or so? At least through the first summer?

Depends if they allow upgrades to go during Preview period. I feel any real blockout without preview is a mistake, but I could be wrong. And some insiders are saying as much as 6 months.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

Depends if they allow upgrades to go during Preview period. I feel any real blockout without preview is a mistake, but I could be wrong. And some insiders are saying as much as 6 months.

If I were Universal, this is what I would do:

APs blocked out for the first summer, then AP upgrade becomes available around the time HHN starts.

As far as preview period - allow current APs the first opportunity for preview reservations, either at no charge or at a very discounted rate. Each current AP is entitled to 1 preview visit (reservations required).

I'd hope for at least a month of previews.

This is all probably a bad idea, and why I'm not in charge of running a theme park

 

[vgp]

As a current team member, I am very invested in how the employee ticketing system will work. My best guess and the guess from other team members (with no other information than what is public so far) is that we won't be able to use our IDs to get into the park for the first year / two years of operations, same with the comp tickets we get every quarter. My hope is a reservation system where we would book in advance and could go maybe once a week, but I don't know how that system works at Disney so I won't try to make sense of one.

Once open and when things have settled a bit, I'd expect something similar to the HHN comp model (for your access as a TM, at least). Just a guess.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

We talked about this earlier, but it seems to have been forgotten. Remember what, and how, happened to the Hogsmeade grand opening months at Universal Hollywood, and how Universal struggled to appease p.o. ed AP ers, after they treated AP's badly. Universal can't be inflexible again.....This is a difficult situation. Universal can project what may happen, but they don't really know until it happens. The Orlando theme park market has been very wonky the past 5 quarters, and now into the sixth wonky quarter. Best laid plans often go awry....I keep using the word 'Flexible'. I can't over emphasize how important that is. Hopefully, the powers to be don't get too hardheaded and arrogant with their ticketing decisions.

Yup - which is why I believe a temporary reservation system for APs should be fine. If the park ends up less crowded than forecasted, open up the gates to APs. If they're seeing increased demand on x gate, cut AP reservations. It's annoying, but far better than just outright no chance at getting in.

I'm gonna be honest - I don't think it should be THAT big of an issue to block out APs for .. idk, the first 2 months or so? At least through the first summer?

Problem is that people aren't to fond of visiting the parks during the summer anymore. July/August were quite empty last year, will be interesting to see how this month shapes up.

 

[Mad Dog]

Yup - which is why I believe a temporary reservation system for APs should be fine. If the park ends up less crowded than forecasted, open up the gates to APs. If they're seeing increased demand on x gate, cut AP reservations. It's annoying, but far better than just outright no chance at getting in.


Problem is that people aren't to fond of visiting the parks during the summer anymore. July/August were quite empty last year, will be interesting to see how this month shapes up.

Universal pretty flat. WDW has September like lines, or even slower, through most every day in the past 30. Summer heavy crowds are history.

 

[Mad Dog]

This is all really important. It's in our best interests, as regular Universal parks/hotels guests, that Epic be very successful and the other two parks maintain fairly steady attendance. If this doesn't hit projections, I'd be afraid that expansions would be delayed, and a round of cost cutting commences. So Universal management really has to get this right. It's not going to be easy decision making. Management has to have a really good game plan, and the flexibility to make quick changes if the market isn't what they projected. This would be an easier call if Orlando was going strong and summers were what they used to be before 2018. But that's not the present case. (Double post. Mods, feel free to combine with the previous post)

 

[UniversalRBLX]

This is all really important. It's in our best interests, as regular Universal parks/hotels guests, that Epic be very successful and the other two parks maintain fairly steady attendance. If this doesn't hit projections, I'd be afraid that expansions would be delayed, and a round of cost cutting commences. So Universal management really has to get this right. It's not going to be easy decision making. Management has to have a really good game plan, and the flexibility to make quick changes if the market isn't what they projected. This would be an easier call if Orlando was going strong and summers were what they used to be before 2018. But that's not the present case. (Double post. Mods, feel free to combine with the previous post)

Like what happened with Disneyland Paris, the company got too excited assuming people would just show up... and they didn't. They were left with serious debt, hundreds of empty hotel rooms, and no major E-ticket attraction ever added to its lineup... even to this day. It's one of the nicest theme parks built, but all of the operational/marketing/financial problems caused severe issues to the resort, and spread elsewhere throughout the company.

The quality of work at Epic Universe (fantastic and brilliant) can be easily overshadowed by horrendous operations and anti-guest ticketing policies.

 

[IzzyB]

Yup - which is why I believe a temporary reservation system for APs should be fine. If the park ends up less crowded than forecasted, open up the gates to APs. If they're seeing increased demand on x gate, cut AP reservations. It's annoying, but far better than just outright no chance at getting in.


Problem is that people aren't to fond of visiting the parks during the summer anymore. July/August were quite empty last year, will be interesting to see how this month shapes up.

My friends and I were just talking about this. One friend went end of June and she said it was not crowded really at all. Then I went and it rained so I couldn't really say, it was dead but rain does that. Then my other friends SIL went and they got to ride everything with no issues and this was 4th of July week. My other friend also went last week and they were just going for Minions. They were watching the movie in Citywalk, riding the 2 rides, and eating at the restaurant. She said it was not busy at all and if they hadn't had specific plans they would have enjoyed pretty low lines. That is crazy to me as over half my friends either were going somewhere last week or had people visiting them. So it was a popular travel week.

Universal pretty flat. WDW has September like lines, or even slower, through most every day in the past 30. Summer heavy crowds are history.

Flat everywhere. I am seeing pretty low wait days at Dollywood too being reporting from the FB group I am in. It seems summer travel in general is down? Crazy.

 

[ReelJustice]

I would just operate normally (with AP upgrades).

However, worst case scenario, I would have a reservation system (Disney folks are already semi-conditioned to it). I would guarantee a reservation to UOAPs with hotel reservations.

 

[wutisgood]

And if they realize they closed the gates to tightly they just open up more availability.

Any system/program/plan they may have always has the ability to open up for more availability as they feel more comfortable with capacity/crowds. Much easier to let more people in than turn people away because you oversold.

Having AP's ready to fill any gaps in attendance by utilizing a reservation system seems like an obvious choice.

I think that universal should let a limited amount of APs in from the beginning with some level of restrictions on how many times people can go so everyone with passes gets a better chance to visit.

I would be ok as a non local if in the first year they gave an upgraded pass that initially was restricted to only x number of visits in the first year. That would make it so I could renew/upgrade with knowing the restrictions.

Universal just needs to give passholders some type of option that will let then visit the park that would not lead to mass cancellations. Maybe they can be honest about the 3 park pass where we have a 6 month blackout for example. Maybe it is reservations or limited visits. Just give me something where I hit the renewal in April that lets me access epic universe.

If Disney wants to offer a season pass deal say letting out of state buy cheaper level passes for a year I am going with Disney. The counter to how greedy universal wants to be is Disney slashing prices which they have physical capacity to do that universal can not match. If universal makes me buy a 3 park vacation package and Disney is going to offer the same ticket deal or better than this summer I am again going Disney and waiting a year.

 

[Mad Dog]

Universal has to be careful that by limiting/restricting too much, they may win the battle (short term first year), but lose the war (long term).

 

[wutisgood]

Universal has to be careful that by limiting/restricting too much, they may win the battle (short term first year), but lose the war (long term).

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.

 

[Frank Drackman]

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.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

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.

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.

 

[Scott W.]

I was listening to the Disney Dish podcast and part of it was a survey about the Monsters make up boutique and it's got me thinking.

If it turns out that you can only have one day at Epic Universe, how much time will you be prepared to dedicate to certain things?

For example, would you go to the Monsters make up boutique if it's going to take an hour?

Would you be prepared to have a sit down meal over a quick service meal if it will take an extra 30mins?

Do you waste time looking at merchandise you probably won't buy?

 

[TheCodeMan95]

Universal has to be careful that by limiting/restricting too much, they may win the battle (short term first year), but lose the war (long term).

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?

 

[SeventyOne]

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?

Yes. Lot of churn in the AP market. APs are pricey, it's rare to have all the major parks at one time. And if you (or your kids) get in the habit of going to WDW, can sometimes be a hard habit to break.

This is especially true if there's a huge price hike, which there almost certainly will be. Part of Universal's appeal for decades was it being the affordable alternative.

 

[kristenabelle]

I was listening to the Disney Dish podcast and part of it was a survey about the Monsters make up boutique and it's got me thinking.

If it turns out that you can only have one day at Epic Universe, how much time will you be prepared to dedicate to certain things?

For example, would you go to the Monsters make up boutique if it's going to take an hour?

Would you be prepared to have a sit down meal over a quick service meal if it will take an extra 30mins?

Do you waste time looking at merchandise you probably won't buy?

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.

 

[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.

 

[Mad Dog]

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?

I'm not specifically referring to AP's, but the broad range of potential guests. If the first year ticket policies are too guest unfriendly & overly costly, by the second year, when the newness wears off a bit, they may have lost guests for the long term.....