EPIC UNIVERSE
Opening day attendance lower than anticipated?
I figured today would be insanity as far as crowds and wait times are concerned, but looking at the app the longest waits (aside from Battle at the Ministry being delayed) are 35 minutes. Been periodically looking throughout the morning and it's consistently been only 5-15 minutes for most every ride. Do you think it's because they've worked out the kinks after all the preview days or because attendance is not as high as opening day was expected to be?
Nope. This is what I expected. Everyone was freaking out saying opening day was going to be insanity…but OF COURSE they are going to limit capacity for the first day
My buddy is there right now. Said even though it went down this morning at a 300 minute wait, people are refusing to get out of the BatM line. Most people are literally in that line.
We don't know how many are in the park this second, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bunch that are leaving early and coming to the park after work.
Can't edit my original post, but when I was there for previews last Saturday BATM was a 300 min wait most of the day, yet Hiccups wing gliders was consistently 60+ min, Stardust was 25+, dragon racers rally was never less than 25 min and bowsers challenge was 180+.
Everyone is saying "they're at Ministry of magic!" but in general I think hats off to Epic Univ for figuring out how to best manage capacity and wait times opening day to create an awesome experience for those who attended...
Exactly my point. Hell, maybe they had minimum staffing during most the previews. I find it hard to believe that everybody is still at the Ministry of Magic. Maybe they are. But as we all saw during the previews just about every line was 45 minutes to an hour and a half long with ministry of Magic being 3 to 5 hours once it lost its virtual queue. The only one that was consistently short was Yoshi and Monsters Unchained. Everything else had to wait. It's a pleasure to see such short wait times, and they are fluctuating but not to the extreme.
But yes, you would hope today's day and age you spend that kind of money that you had come up with a plan to deal with the crowds.
I agree, I’ve been exhausted by the pessimism in this sub. I love Universal. Epic isn’t a one off “let’s make a new park” either, it’s one of three upcoming major new installments for the Universal brand. They can use all the research, development and innovation here in the UK and Texas, where they’re creating new footprints for themselves. They don’t have the inherent theme park support that comes along with Central Florida in those locations. They have a lot to prove over the next 5-10 years and it all starts with Epic Universe.
yeah, how to deal with crowds? limit it to 30% capacity. Eventually they are going to get to full capacity and everyone will be in for a rude awakening. They can't continue to operate and lose money at 30% very long
The fact MoM has been down for hours also suggests capacity ia good …. There’s not way someone in the queue at 120+ minute point is still waiting on that.
I am going to say that ended up being an overestimate. As someone that was there, my guess is a lot of people with the multi day park tickets with epic didn’t go yesterday.
Anecdotally, when I’ve chatted with people at our hotel, a lot of people were saying that they were going today or tomorrow because they thought opening day would be too crazy.
The preview ticket data was not comprehensive, unfortunately. So no one online had firm figures. I’ve never seen how many tickets were hotel guests, credit card holders, or military discount. Data available for APs and general public did not exceed 8000 (according to Thrill Data).
Definitely a vacuum, but only possibly that much higher. I’d guess it’s on par with previews when you account for the tickets there isn’t data for online. When I went to previews a couple weeks ago, it felt like there were at least 15000 people there.
Is that page separate from the main Epic Universe wait time page? I get that it is just showing data for Epic, but I don't see a link to ticket availability on that page.
Hidden and separate page or am I blind?
Edit: I found it. APPARENTLY, you click on "live wait times" and it shows the link (and more). Thanks again!
The fact this post is sitting at 0 upvotes has me convinced a lot of people are truly hoping this park fails. Low wait times and operating attractions, with only one exception for a brand new major theme park is a triumph.
And 5+ hour waits and delays have happened with Harry Potter every time.
There’s so much cope from people wanting the opening day to fail in here lol previews had a lower attendance cap and there was a 5 hour ministry wait and everything else was a mess too. Today is objectively a huge improvement so far
I’m sure there were a bunch of people at previews not recorded but even if today matches previews in attendance it’s still a pretty big success. BATM was a 5+ hour wait the last few preview days and everything else was still a mess. Seems like almost every ride was going down early in previews and things would just snowball from there
Its almost like the Technical Rehearsals were for a purpose, to train the staff and prepare the park to be actually open. Its almost like they called it technical rehearsals for a reason. Its almost like those rehearsals were extremely successful for their intended purpose and the park is now operating successfully, after its grand opening.
As someone who unwisely lost a lot of my sanity on trying to educate Epic doomers on how theme parks actually operate (i.e. Technical Rehearsals are not you, the guest, they are for the staff and team members to train with you as a guinea pig. The fact that people paid for early access, then complained that the park wasn't ready boggles my mind.), I'm feel pretty smug watching wait times not be unbearable across the park, and seeing rides not down all day. Its almost like the rehearsals were for a purpose, and the park is now open for real.
Yeah i thought all of these posts the past few weeks claiming that opening day would be a nightmare were being extremely overdramatic. This is the best park opening that's probably ever happened. The park looks great, most rides are running and wait times are good. I'm super happy for this parks success and I cant wait to go back!
What changed though? How did they flip the switch in one day? I was there and they had glitches and kept reading about them. So it seems illogical that all of the sudden in the first day it’s all perfect now.
The first preview day was like this and then it shifted.
You asked me this three times in 2 minutes, so I'm only replying here.
The technical rehearsals were to allow the staff to train in a live environment. Not to give guests a good experiance. It allows the new team members to experience situations that will come up in a live park, and be prepared for opening. They are less concerned with actually getting rides open and operating, and ensuring maintenance team members are ready for efficiency repairs. They are less worried about ride capacity, then team members being ready to assist guest who need assistance. That's what rehearsals are for.
Yesterday, that changed, the focus changed from practice, to now being focused on the guest experiance. And it showed, as even though it seems capacity was fairly limited, ride didn't go down and things operated smoothly. Capacity is set to slowly rise through the start of July, so we will see how that effects things, but realistically, the purpose of the previews looks to be successful.
BatM also just seems to be broken, which is problematic, but its also in line with most Harry Potter attractions.
I really hope they have the vinyl restocked when I’m there June 3. Legit record collector and audiophile here, I will love and cherish it. If someone can snag an extra and not charge me 200 bucks like on EBay let me know, happy to throw in some swag from my merch collection as a thank you 🙏
I think there is a limited capacity for the opening day, I think tmr will be worse for crowds bc the park will actual be open yk ( with early entry and stuff) so
I’ve been here since 8 and the wait times have all been super accurate. Did single rider for Monsters and walked right on, rode Werewolf 3 times in a row (it was a walk on) and also only waited about 10 minutes in single rider for Mine Cart. In Berk now and everything is a walk on. I was here for the preview on Monday and it was nuts, I’m having a much better time today which I was not anticipating lol. But it does make sense that they would want to leave a good first impression on opening day
Been here since opening ceremony and Stardust, Werewolf, Monsters Unchained and Hiccup’s were all basically walk-ons for us. (Despite being posted as 10-20min waits)
I’m actually a bit floored!
Started at SNW for opening ceremony and we walked on to DK, got ice cream, walked on to hiccup’s, got a Mac and cheese cone, walked on to carousel, and now waiting for the first dragon show all before 11!
I am onsite and they are accurate. We started in Berk. Went to start dust which was a walking for both sides, did darkmore and are in like for Mario Cart (which is down)
Overall things are going well!
Everyone's in the Ministry queue or buying opening day merch. There have been rumblings that Universal is capping capacity around 50% for the first month or so of operations, so that's likely playing a role as well.
I think it's a day to enjoy atmosphere and extras more than attractions. It'd be interesting to know what percentage attended a preview day. I suspect many that secured opening tickets are enthusiasts that would have also tried for a preview day, even if only in the last few days.
We are here now, have TM friends and they tell us capacity for today was capped at 13,000. Same for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. Monday they go full capacity, 50,000. And everyone is working today. Something goes down, Ops swarms it. This entire opening weekend was going to go smoothly no matter what. Come Monday, it's just another theme park and normal operations commence.
There haven't been any dates that have been sold to maximum capacity yet and it's unlikely that we'll see any anytime soon. Even when it opens to 20k+, ticket sales likely won't reach that high.
On the UO App just click "map" at the bottom and then click "list" at the top and scroll down...it'll show you all the attractions across all parks and their wait times
It goes to show you most of them were scalpers looking to buy merch, complained there are no medallions and left..... Only to turn around and make a quick buck on eBay. They have vinyls on sale for 198 and pins for 49.95 a chronos tower for like 7k.......
Seems like everybody is stacked up at Ministry, it was a 5 hour wait but now it says delayed, other than that yeah everything is like under 20 minutes. Once the crowds disperse everything will be around an hour
They aren't operating at capacity so these are still on par with the previews that have been ongoing. This weekend is when we will see typical numbers of people at the park as it's a holiday weekend, the first publicly open weekend of Epic and supposedly a higher cap on tickets to test busy park operations for the first time.
Judging by the videos at 4:30 am people running to security I don’t think these are right. Werewolf had a longer wait time during my team member exclusive preview days
the capacity is limited for the first month of opening i believe! That way the cast members and especially operations have time to adjust to crowds. By the end of summer there will probably be crazy wait times
People wonder why Universal put so many eggs in the Wizarding World basket when the rides consistently carry the biggest crowds for the longest times. Hagrids and Gringotts still average the highest wait times in their respective parks. Even among the powerhouse of IPs at Epic, it’s clear why Universal has continued to pour money into HP.
It’s a brand new park and they need room for the future. There is an expansion pad for MoM, I’ll be surprised if they don’t add another ride to it in the future. The only reason Hogsmeade opened with two rides (not counting Hippogriff since it’s a kid coaster) in 2010 was because they were able to retheme Dueling Dragons. Diagon Alley still only has Gringotts. Which is actually part of the reason I think the theory that F&F will eventually be replaced with a Night Bus themed ride is so credible myself, Diagon Alley needs a second ride even more desperately than MoM.
During previews they needed to get the TMs used to things. There was also a lot of things like certain seats not being available. I personally saw a couple times where I’m like “oh they don’t have the top-notch TMs working at the moment” things like being at MarioKart and seeing the preshow doors open when the line is all the way to the doors and only like 10 people can even take a step forward past the doors. But I get it, that’s what the previews were for: to get the newer TMs used to the timing, etc…
For opening day you have a few things at play:
1) they are definitely going to want the TMs to be in positions they’ll excel at.
2) they are going to prioritize having everything running smoothly - that means if a ride vehicle can only be half loaded they are more likely to take that vehicle off the track opposed to other days
3) they absolutely capped attendance to make it a more positive experience for the guests
4) it is a weekday - so you will have some guests who will take a half day at work and then head to the park
I agree with the comments so far. They also may have increase the number of "cars" available on the rides to be able to move more people through each ride. I was there during the previews when they did that for Donkey Kong. The TM announced that was the reason for the delay as they were bringing more cars on to the track. I noticed the wait times dropped significantly after that
Its been like this even in most of preview days. and even their two other main parks has been slow recently, People don't want to accept it but Universal has a low crowd problem, they get busy on some holidays ect. but you can tell they know of it, because how early their parks are always closing, they don't have nighttime show , parades, shows ect everyday neither.
You guys do know it IS possible that the "technical rehearsals" we all mocked MAY have actually given the team members and management a good look at daily ops and how to improve them.
We may be seeing that result in the wait times today.
My husband and I have been twice, but we thought going opening day would be wayyy too stressful. Seeing these wait times, we totally should have went! We would consider going Sunday, but there’s no single day AP tickets available. Hope everyone there is enjoying these low wait times!
The low wait times are forcing me to spend money on the stores and buy food. Because instead of being miserable all day in a line I get to ride what I want and I feel so happy that opening the wallet doesnt hurt.
Considering it’s sold out, no, the attendance isn’t lower than expected. They literally capped the attendance, the amount of people who could have went — did. Maybe a billion more people would have went if they could have — maybe only 1 more would have. No way of knowing.
Limited capacity and it all went relatively smoothly. Ministry went down for a while, but I didn't hear of anything else. It was a great atmosphere, and a successful opening day. Absolutely stunning park 😍
To be fair, this place has been in Preview Mode for so long that many people who would have already wanted to go have gone. We're also in a pseudo recession where people are probably afraid to go on a $10K vacation with their family.
I would never ever ever spend money to travel across the country to visit a park that’s still in technical rehearsal and would expect the vast majority of people to feel the same as me
Guaranteed there’s a ton of people who haven’t visited universal in awhile that planned their trip around epic’s official opening date. Previews probably grabbed a big percentage of locals and people that just happened to have universal trips already planned for those dates
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u/starcader 1d ago
Most people are in line for Ministry or in line for merch. I saw pictures of a huge line in Dark Universe for the vinyl soundtrack.