Orlando, Florida
NCS
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As if the phrases from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” have jumped off the web page into actuality, fluorescent inexperienced fog shrouds folks strolling by a wizarding world Floo Network transit tunnel, to be greeted on the opposite aspect by an atrium with hovering ceilings depicting transferring storm clouds. It may be the primary time Muggles (non-wizards) have been contained in the Ministry of Magic.
That is only one jaw-dropping second for friends to expertise when Universal Orlando Resort formally opens its third and latest theme park, Epic Universe, on May 22. It is the primary main theme park to open in central Florida in 26 years.
At 750 acres, together with each visitor areas and backstage house for workers, it’s believed to be the most important theme park in the world and estimated to have price as much as $7.7 billion to construct, based on Dennis Speigel, proprietor and founding father of consulting agency International Theme Park Services. Universal hasn’t commented on the park’s price.
“I’ve seen them all,” Speigel stated of theme parks all over the world. And Epic Universe, he stated, is “too damn good.”
That first impression has all the things to do with Universal’s use of probably the most superior know-how out there coupled with intentional design to construct a way that the customer is really in a fantastical house with no glimpse of the surface world.
At a media preview forward of the general public opening, NCS noticed every of the park’s “worlds” and the experiences in them, together with know-how by no means seen in a theme park earlier than.
Let’s take you thru every part.
It all begins with strolling by Chronos, a portal that takes friends into the principle hub of Epic Universe: Celestial Park.
Here, friends will discover Stardust Racers, a dual-track curler coaster, in addition to Constellation Carousel, superbly lit with animals that spin in completely different instructions.
There are retailers, eating places and bars close by. But that’s just the start. From this hub, friends can select to enter 4 different portals, every main them to a unique world.
“It’s as if all of the worlds of Epic Universe are closed off from the rest of the park,” stated Alicia Stella, proprietor of Orlando ParkCease.
Stella, who has been monitoring the event of the park since its inception, stated “when you enter those portals … you are no longer in a theme park. You are in the Isle of Berk, from ‘How to Train Your Dragon.’ You are in the video games of Nintendo. You are in the Wizarding World, and you are in the world of Universal monsters, at Dark Universe.”
When friends are inside considered one of these areas, the one factor seen past its partitions and units is probably the highest of Helios, a glittering new lodge positioned in the middle of the park.
Through one portal, in the world known as Dark Universe, Universal brings to life its signature monsters together with Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Invisible Man. The anchor attraction in this world — and among the best in the park — is Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, using a few of probably the most superior, life-like robotic know-how ever created.
Epic Universe at Universal Orlando Resort
But it’s by one other portal, to Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic, that the resort has launched its most formidable trip thus far. Universal Orlando Resort already has two themed Harry Potter areas in its current parks, however the third installment inside Epic Universe brings folks into the Nineteen Twenties Paris of the “Fantastic Beasts” offshoot story, filled with road environment, retailers and eating places.
Guests will then be anticipated to time journey to expertise the spectacular trip, Harry Potter: Battle on the Ministry, going through metro tunnel from Nineteen Twenties Paris into Nineties London, after the unique Harry Potter collection has concluded. Staff on the awe-inspiring Ministry of Magic are making ready for Dolores Umbridge’s trial, and friends will trip an omnidirectional elevator, chasing her by the constructing.
VIDEO: Meet a life-like Toothless, the loveable dragon, on the new Epic Universe
Epic Universe’s third portal transports friends to the first-ever theme park land dedicated to the “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise. Guests have informed NCS that they’ve seen checks of enormous, extraordinarily life-like dragons flying by the sky through drone, though these weren’t on show throughout media previews. Guests will discover curler coasters and a kid-friendly boat trip in the midst of an elaborate Isle of Berk, the place dragons breathe hearth and ice. A technically spectacular present inside a theater options Toothless, the lovable dragon from the collection, who flies above the viewers, touchdown on stage.
Super Nintendo World, which presently exists in Universal’s Japan and Hollywood park areas, now involves Epic Universe by a fourth portal with a beloved Mine-Cart Madness trip themed to Donkey Kong, in addition to the go-kart racing trip, Bowser’s Challenge. Guests can put on particular “Power-Up” bands on their wrists to play video games and win factors, operating round a life-sized online game whereas Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach mill about.
Universal officers informed NCS the corporate invented new know-how and secured patents for Epic Universe experiences, together with particular animating results, trip design and robotics.
The outcomes are most evident on two rides friends are almost definitely to be speaking about after their go to: Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment and Harry Potter and the Battle on the Ministry.
The Harry Potter trip appears like an expertise combining parts of Universal’s current Spiderman trip and Disney’s Rise of the Resistance. It options trackless trip programs, augmented actuality, and high-resolution projections mixed in new methods.
For all the kids who waited at midnight for the discharge of a new Harry Potter guide a era in the past, “this is our new midnight release,” stated Ryan Clavin, host of DIS Unlimited: Universal Show on YouTube.
Like many theme parks, Universal employs dynamic pricing for tickets, which varies relying on the season and the way busy the parks are anticipated to be.
Single-day tickets for Epic Universe lately turned out there, ranging from $139 for adults and $134 for youngsters ages 3-9, plus tax. Those costs presently apply to some weekdays in September, with the most costly single-day tickets priced at $199 and $194 for youngsters, plus tax, in the course of the late December vacation season.
Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, probably the most visited theme park in the world, additionally has a ceiling of $199 throughout the identical time-frame.
Multi-day ticket packages are additionally out there, which permit friends to go to Epic Universe on a kind of days. Per-day pricing on multi-day tickets is decrease than single-day tickets.
Universal’s “Express Pass,” which permits friends to enter points of interest by a quicker line, can range by date. These passes typically price greater than the park ticket itself. For instance, shopping for an Express Pass for the busy July 4 vacation at Epic Universe will price $250 for a single day, a price in addition to the ticket worth.
Stella stated she believes these costs are in line with current parks.
“I think it’s priced appropriately. Actually, a lot of us who are big fans of the theme park industry are surprised at some of the price points being as low as they are, because I feel like there was an opportunity to charge whatever they wanted for opening,” Stella stated.
She added that Universal’s brand-new motels close to Epic Universe are additionally priced extra affordably than she anticipated.
With a lot buzz round Universal’s new park, trade specialists are expecting Disney’s response.
“Disney and Universal are in the greatest boxing match they’ve ever been in at this point in time, and it’s a slug fest,” Speigel stated. “I believe that within 12 to 16 months, Disney will announce its fifth gate theme park, because it’s necessary.”
Disney, nonetheless the dominant chief in the theme park trade, presently has 4 theme parks on its Walt Disney World property in central Florida, the final of which opened in 1998. For the second, the corporate has introduced a slew of new themed lands and attractions inside current parks, however no new theme park.
“Is [Epic Universe] going to put Disney out of business? Absolutely not. Is it going to put a chink in their armor? Yes, it will,” Speigel stated.
Universal’s momentum has ramped up ever because it opened the primary space themed to the Harry Potter franchise in 2010 at its second Orlando theme park, Islands of Adventure. Speigel stated Universal Orlando Resort noticed a 36% enhance in attendance in the yr that adopted, the largest one-year enhance he has ever seen in any park attendance in historical past.
In Disney’s 2024 fourth quarter earnings name, Hugh Johnston, chief monetary officer of the Walt Disney Company, highlighted optimistic early bookings for this summer season and stated, “The history of other non-Disney parks opening in Florida has been positive for Disney bookings.”
While which may be so, Stella believes the standard household trip the place more often than not is spent at Disney World, with a small portion of the week at Universal, might shift in stability.
“I could definitely see it being, ‘Well, we need two or three days at Universal, so we’ll only do two or three days at Disney,’” Stella stated. “If they’re coming to Orlando anyway, or if they’re coming to Epic Universe on purpose, will they decrease their stay elsewhere, like Disney? Will they skip Sea World altogether?”
Speigel stated, “Everybody subscribes to a rising tide floats all boats, but it does eat up some of the market too.”
He added that he expects 2025 to be a yr of heavy discounting by all parks, not simply to compete with Epic Universe, however to anticipate a worsening financial system.
Even with the inventory market curler coasters and Goldman Sachs predicting that recession odds are rising, Speigel predicts at the very least 6 million friends will go to Epic Universe inside its first yr.
Clavin stated what he noticed on the Harry Potter trip is indicative of the spectacle Universal has created in your entire park: “This is sort of a very good example of why we love theme parks … Where else can you literally step into a movie like this?”
Correction:
A earlier model of this story misspelled the Isle of Berk.