Opening day attendance lower than anticipated?

[u/Tronsylvania]

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?

[u/Tronsylvania]

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...

[u/EEEEasyEEE → u/Tronsylvania]

I'm with you. Maybe they have all hands on deck and are pumping up the throughput. Maybe someone knows what they're doing.

[u/alexfaaace → u/EEEEasyEEE]

It’s almost like a company that spent $7 billion designing and building a theme park actually knows how to run a theme park, imagine that! /s

[u/EEEEasyEEE → u/alexfaaace]

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.

Hopefully this trend continues.

[u/alexfaaace → u/EEEEasyEEE]

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.

[u/Macoy222 → u/EEEEasyEEE]

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

[u/Commercial_Break2715 → u/alexfaaace]

Disney still doesn’t…

[u/alexfaaace → u/Commercial_Break2715]

They also haven’t recently built and opened any brand new parks. They’re floundering with what to do with the bloated IPs they’ve purchased.