What are you looking at me for? You always get nervous when I
look at. You, I don't know what you're
going to say, Yeah, but it. It's OK to not know what I'm
going to say. I don't know what I'm going to
say most times that we get started with these shows.
Is this the first time you've worn that shirt?
It is honestly, I don't think that we would have been doing an
epic universe or universal show if it wasn't for the fact that I
had this shirt and I wanted an excuse to wear it.
It's got toothless on it. You you called these what goats,
but they're. Actually, they're not.
They're pretty sure, yeah. Dragons.
But yeah, I mean why? Why not have a show for a reason
to use? And then Derek's got his.
I guess it's. Fantastic.
Fantastic beast, Yeah, from Harry Potter.
And Eric's got a universal jacket on.
And I busted out the best. Part And then there's Jeff.
Hey, I'm I just got a Roosevelt's delivery today, but
I don't have any universal things so.
Everybody and welcome to this week's episode of The DVC Show.
I am your host, Paul Krieger, joined as always by my lovely
wife Amy Krieger, Sales Executive for the DVC Resale
Market, Derek de Boer. Hey now, happy Monday everybody.
The Honorable Jeff Haslam. Hey, dudes.
And we've got special guest Eric Hersey with us tonight.
Hello everyone, thanks for having me.
I say tonight, but we put the podcast up in the morning.
I never know how to address people and Derek's infamously
just addressing everyone for every time of day.
So, but yeah, thank you for joining us tonight, Eric.
I'm really happy to have you on the show.
Eric and I's history go back a long way, back to my time in
Wheeling, WV, because guess what?
That's where Eric is right now. And I truly feel there's some
weird epicenter of Disney and theme park magic that is in
Wheeling. I mean, it's just.
They call it Little Disney, right?
That's what we're all calling it.
I think. There's nothing about Wheeling
that reflects Disney, but we have this Nice river.
We'll just pretend that there's a a Mark Twain on it or
something. Yeah, most people say, oh, I've
been to Virginia. Three people from West Virginia.
It is, yeah. Eric also redesigned our DVC fan
website last year. He did, though.
Yeah, I've worked on a couple of different website projects with
Eric over the years, and also he's on multiple other podcasts
as part of the Jim Hill Media Network.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna probably not name them all, but I know
there's the epic Universal podcast, which is really
relevant to tonight's discussion, and then recently
new podcast Diz and Hers, which Eric and his and his wife do.
I just subscribed 5 minutes ago. Oh, thank you, thank you.
It's brand new. We just, we just created that
one not so long ago. I think that's the newest one.
But yeah, I help with all of the Jim Hill podcast.
So he's producing like 1 every 15 minutes it seems like.
So it's just a sausage factory. But the the Disney dish is the
one most people know about. That's Len Test and Jim.
So I've helped them for the last several years just getting some
of those shows off the ground and, and out to the feeds.
And it's funny that I was not a Universal fan whatsoever a
couple years ago and Jim did not have a Universal podcast.
And we were pretty much saying, hey, Jim, you know, there's just
going to be this big surge of people that are going to be
thinking and wanting to know about Universal.
Maybe we should put one out there.
And at the end of the day, we said, well, I'll help Co host
it. Although at that time, I've
never been to Universal Park at all.
I'm a die hard Disney. I was very tribal.
I was very much like, no, Universal is not my thing.
Disney is my thing. And over the last year and a
half or so, we're almost, we're about at episode 100.
Now we've done, I've converted, I realized that there doesn't
need to be a lot of tribalism. If you like Disney, you probably
are going to like Universal. So that's where we're at.
And I've absorbed ton of information from Jim and now
I've gone to all of the Universal parks stateside, just
just came back from Hollywood a couple weeks ago.
Oh wow. That's so cool.
We've not gotten out there yet. Not yet yet, although it sounds
like we're not going to the Olympics now, so we should go
there instead because Olympics ticket prices are bonkers.
In case you are are thinking about going to the LA 2028
games, but that's a whole other show and a whole other topic.
But yeah, check out Eric and all the other podcasts here on he's
on if you enjoy him tonight. If you don't, you never have to
hear from him again. You just don't don't watch any
other, you know, except I'm. The Wheeling.
Yeah, except the. Yeah, except the next two shows
in in this because he's going to join us for all the shows
tonight and for full relevancy. Eric, you are ADBC member also
correct? I'm Polly buddy.
I got that Polly contract 10 years ago or so.
Yeah, All right. Good work.
And you, you have such amazing credentials doing such amazing
shows. Can I ask why are you on this
show? Listen you, no, we, I've
listened and I like what you guys do.
And, and and truth be told, I always want to talk DVC too.
So like the epic DVC, all this coming together is a good combo
for all of us. We were asking that to ourselves
about 5 minutes ago when we were dealing with some audio issues
and some other stuff. And, and you know, here's Eric
with the giant headphones and the full podcast mic and
everything. And it's just like amateur hour
for the rest of us here. We're just, I mean, Derek's on a
flip phone with a keyboard on top of it, I'm pretty sure so.
He is so incredibly knowledgeable about everything,
not just Disney, but Disney Vacation Club and Universal and
all this. So I just wasn't sure if this
was part of like a community release program that you.
Know. Community.
Service project Community service.
I'm not going to show you my ankles.
But no, we are. We are really, really glad to
have you here. I can't wait.
It's been a long time since I think we've talked anything
epic, so I'm super excited to hear what you and everyone else,
including Jeff, has to say. No comment, Jeff.
I'll save my comments for now, I'm trying to be measured today.
Well, it we were right before we got started, we were discussing
the fact that it has been essentially a year since we
actually stepped foot in Epic Universe for the first.
Time, yeah. So right around now was when the
previews were beginning in April of 2025.
And so at that time, if you were an annual pass holder, you could
buy a ticket and do the previews.
Those were some of the best times because they were some
very low crowd, but with that in mind, there were definitely some
they were still working out some of the kinks of the rides and
you know, there were things that were down, but it was a really
good like it's just being you ever have that like where you
have like a core memory and then the weather starts changing and
it brings you back to that that place.
And so this right now in April, I'm starting to think about like
our first time at Epic and how much I loved it and getting into
the How to Train Your Dragon, you know, franchise and all
that. So a couple weeks.
So I think it was our cycle or two shows ago, Jeff, you
actually suggested this as a potential topic of let's revisit
Epic Universe one year later. Talk about what we've learned,
how wrong we might have been when we talked about it a year
ago, or how right we might have been on certain different
aspects of Epic, and see how the park has adjusted to being open
for almost a year now. And so, yeah, that'll be the
next hour. If you enjoy this content, as
always, please show some love for our sponsors over at Key
Holder Vacations. DVC Resale Market where you can
buy or sell a Disney Vacation Club resale contract.
Monera Financial who will assist in financing that DVC resale
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where you can try before you buy.
Rent some points or rent out your points for cash or swap
them for a trip to Universal and be our guest Vacations who will
help you with getting to Universal Parks and Resorts.
The travel agents over there are awesome and I also forgot
unlocked magic.com/DVC fan for Epic Universe tickets, Universal
tickets, Disney tickets, all that kind of fun stuff.
I feel like I have to add something to our plugs.
Yeah, and don't forget we launched the DVC fan forums,
Yeah, like Monday a couple days ago.
So forums.dvcfan.com if you want to join that conversation.
A lot of cool things happening over there.
Almost 2000 people have joined us already in three days since
this and we're excited to continue to see that take off.
And yes, there is a universal forum so you can go over there
and talk about all your universal things.
So kicking things off tonight, I really wanted to kind of just go
around the room and kind of get everyone's general thoughts on
epic one year later. You know, it's it some time to
digest our feelings. I think all of us have been to
the parks maybe once, maybe twice, something like that.
And overall like how we feeling good, bad, Jeff.
Oh, of course you're going to go with me first.
What's? Because you've been so quiet
over there in your Mickey Mouse shirt.
Oh no. Breaking out the curmudgeon
early. I'm, I'm just kidding, I I think
Universal, excuse me, Epic Universe is the best Universal
park. I still think it's not as good
as any of the Disney parks. Man, a few works.
You got a whole lot, got in a whole little bit of.
Work I have so. Much to say, but I don't want to
like take the. Whole hour here.
No, I mean tell. Us some more.
Lay in you. Put that curmudgeon on your
shoulder. I want you to like continue to
lay in here. Right.
Well then buckle up Cowboys, because this is going to get
ugly. No, I from a theming standpoint.
It is. It is a.
Home run, you know, every single, I'm not going to say
every single, every single land except for Harry Potter Land is
a home run from a theming point of view.
I think they did just a great job learning from what they did
with Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley and just taking that to a, to
the complete next level. I think Harry Potter Land is a
miss. It's this weird juxtaposition of
the new movies. Then you time travel to the old
movies, but that's because nobody watched the new movies,
so they had to do something to pivot.
There's nothing to do in that land other than the right
itself. I mean, the show is there, it's
fine, but it just, you walk into this big open, you know, walkway
and then there's nothing to do once you're in there.
The other three home run from a theming point of view where I
struggle with Epic Universe is threefold.
If you have littles. Like if I my family's coming to
see me this summer, I know everybody gives me crap.
You got more house guests coming.
Yes, I do. My grandkids are coming.
There's literally nothing for them at Epic Universe.
Everything at Epic Universe except what?
The carousel has a height requirement of 36 or 38 inches,
I can't remember. Like if you have littles.
There's no fantasy land rides. There's no, there's nothing for
them to do. And so that really makes it hard
to be a family destination. The second thing I have a
problem with is that the Celestial Park that is the Main
Street of Epic is way too big compared to the rest of the
lands because the rest of the lands are so overly crowded.
You walk in a Nintendo Land and you can't walk, yeah, anywhere
without bumping into somebody else.
Same with Dark Universe, especially at night time.
The exception to that is Harry Potter.
And again, that's because there's nothing to do in there.
And then lastly, if the weather comes like, which isn't out of
the realm of possibility in Florida, the whole place just
shuts down and suddenly Harry Potter and Dark Universe have
three hour waves. So I love it.
I want to love it. But Universal still hasn't
learned from their prior mistakes in that they don't know
how to deal with big crowds. So I struggle a little bit with
it. Having said that, I still think
Stardust Racers is the best roller coaster on property.
I think Dark Universe is so fun that it's such just a phenomenal
area. But again, you walk into the
Burning Blade and it is a beautiful restaurant with
actually really good food that holds like 6 people.
That's. True, They just don't know what
to do with big numbers when Universal comes where Disney,
they build a restaurant and it's made to to seat 300, you know
what I mean? So that's my struggle bus when
it comes to Epic Universe. Eric, you've gone from zero to
100 with Universal in like 1 year's period of time.
So give us give us your thoughts, how you feeling?
Well, I, I think I can agree with Jeff in so many ways.
So funny enough, when we traveled, we actually are kind
of like the perfect touring group because there are two
adults, male, female. We have a 19 year old, I have a
15 year old, I have an 8 year old and we travel with a 70 year
old grandma. So when we went to Epic, when we
went. So we are the basically the
survey group that you take. It's like, what does everybody
like? So when we went to Epic, it is
exactly that. Grandma did not have much to do
because she didn't like motion simulators.
My son had a panic because it's like we're running out of things
to do. He doesn't necessarily like
coasters and so forth. All the rest, we all kind of
loved it. We did deal with it once when it
rained and it's like, OK, what are you going to do?
Well, I think we're going to go to Monster Unchained and that is
about it. So there are a lot, I think from
a theming standpoint and kind of echo that statement theming it
is. It is probably one of the best,
if not the best themed parks in terms of detail and immersion,
especially with those portals. You get in there and you forget
there's the rest of the park, with the exception maybe of a
couple of different areas. We're like, well, I shouldn't
see a coaster right now. But for the most part, I think
it does the best job out of any theme park, but it is not
operationally where it probably should be.
I think this is a park that if I was giving recommendations, if
you really want the full shebang and you don't need to be an
early adopter and see it as it is right now, that's like a
three, 4-5 year park down the road.
I would love to see it then because I think at that point in
time, they had time to correct some of the shortcomings that
maybe they should have opened the park with, which I think
we'll probably talk about a little bit later.
Like, what the heck do we need to put in this park to make it
operationally work? Because I don't think we're at
capacity and we're not even close.
Yeah, Yeah. I don't, I don't think we've
even seen the number that was on the spreadsheets when they
originally drew it up. And and they were like, we're
going to make this much money in the first year with this many
people in the park. And it's like, no, no, scratch
that, throw it, throw it in the shredder.
We're not going to get there, Amy.
You know, I struggle because it's hard to, you know, there,
there are places, there are parks, there are theme parks
that really like hit your emotions.
And so I feel that way about like Isle of Burke, Super
Nintendo World. You know, it's like walking in
and being in my childhood when my brother and I used to play
Super Mario Brothers and it's, it's hard to like see all those
things and, and be in Celestial Park in the evening and not just
love the park. But that said, I do agree with,
you know, we do still see some operational things.
So I've I've been epic five times since it opened.
I kind of experienced the whole gamut.
So our first time was a pass holder preview.
It was in April. It had just opened like what it
had been open for, like previews for like a week maybe when we
went, yeah, it wasn't very long and we went on Paul's birthday
and great experience, but, you know, really hard to get on
Harry Potter. We it was near impossible to get
on, even though we managed to somehow get on it at the end of
the night but. It's because of your magical
toothless thing. It's because I can't do this
around with a sad face. But so then after that, we
actually, we were fortunate to go to the grand opening event.
And so we got to be there, You know, all the like, executives
and stuff are there. And of course everything's at
its best. You know, everything's working
and all the characters are out. And we actually have a really
cool reel from that that that I think has hit 1,000,000 views on
Instagram with just the different characters in Burke,
you know, talking to us because I had stripes on.
And so that was just a really, really cool experience.
And, and obviously you could walk on anything at that point
during that evening. Then I got to experience middle
of July or June, it was June, middle of June, no express pass,
you know, big crowds, huge lines.
We even stayed at Helios and the lines were huge, you know, Harry
Potter waiting in line for that through our whole first hour.
It breaking down before we can get on like just experience it
all from from that. And I think, oh, you and I went
another time in July and we did like nothing, didn't we?
We just like walked around and. Just walked around he.
Just walked around and hung out and had dinner at the Atlantic
and then we went with work. So we got the experience taking
a whole lot of people at once and, and getting on rides with
them and, and we have to do some stuff, but not a ton.
Obviously by that time Express Pass was sold out.
And I, and I'm not really one for express pass unless, you
know, it was like a big, big day with maybe family or something
because it's just, it's very expensive.
So we've kind of experienced all that.
And with that said, you know, there are like, like Jeff has
said, and like Eric has said, you know, if it rains you, you
miss out. You know, if it rains for a long
time, a lot of rides are down or if something goes down, it goes
down. So I was just looking at today.
It's a beautiful day. There's not a speck of rain out.
It's Wednesday at like 5:30. And there were some really good
wait times. You know, Stardust is only 10
minutes. Harry Potter 75.
It was 65 a little bit ago when I looked, but everything else is
like 45 or less. But Super Mario Kart was down.
It's now backed up, but it was down when I looked a couple
minutes ago. So, you know, you just, you do
have that those challenges where sometimes things go down.
I will say I think Monsters is only 10 minutes.
I think that they're getting there, but it is it is going to
take it is going to take a few years.
And I think expanding hopefully sooner rather than later is
going to be a benefit to them, you know, because they're
they're still thrown out and we're we're going to talk about
this later, but they're still kicking around the ideas of
annual passes. We know that they're not ready
to unleash that yet. You know, the park just isn't
ready to handle that yet. But yeah, I just, I, I, I'm kind
of excited for what the future is going to bring for Epic, but
I can also see us not going for a little while and waiting for
some of those things. Well, and that's exactly what
we've done. I mean, we we were sitting here
and we were saying we need to get back over there.
It's, you know, the middle of almost the middle of 2026.
And so it's been, you know, several months since we've
actually been in Epic Universe and.
I agree with that, what everyone has said so far.
But I played devil's advocate in one way, which is that I wonder
how critical we would probably be if we had set foot in Magic
Kingdom or Disneyland on day one as compared to where it was a
year or two years or three years after those parks opened.
I would question whether or not we would have some of the same
criticisms of things breaking. Yeah, or things not working.
We. Were just in a Disney park?
What? What park are we just in where
two big rides were down? I can't even remember.
I have no idea we. Were with Dan and Jeff.
I know it was. It was not that long ago.
Oh, with it, it was when we were at it was we were at Magic
Kingdom. Yeah, yeah.
What was down? I can't even remember.
It was Tron. Tron.
Tron was down. Space Mountain.
Space Mountain was down. Yes.
And so big. It's like, OK, big thunders down
for refurbishment. Tron's down, Space Mountain's
down. So, you know, I even said that
like, it still happens here too, you know what I mean?
So it's not like Disney's immune to it either, but.
The struggle becomes where the value for your money is.
And I think that's where I go to kind of what Jeff said, a little
bit of what Eric said is that at the end of the day, am I going
to shell out those ticket prices for a park that I know is not
fully operational for what justifies what I believe that
cost warrants? The answer is no.
Like it it, you know, it does take a lot to get us to go back
there because as we've said. Like $200 each day, yeah.
There's no annual passes right now.
We'll get into that a little bit more later, but that is a
bearing on whether or not you're making a decision to go there.
All that being said, all that aside, I still think if you're
doing a universal vacation, this is a must do.
Or if you've not experienced this park yet and you've
experienced the other universal parks, you need to experience
this because it does it, it it allows you to say, wow, it's
crazy where we've come technology wise with the rides.
It's crazy what a park in the 21st century really looks like
and what it's capable of. Is it fully doing what we
expected to do just yet? No, but it can get there.
And the man that I know is going to love talking about this park
and, and just runs there constantly is, is Derek.
He's looking around the room. Yeah, so, I mean, my little
soliloquy won't be very long, but I think I actually went to
the park before any of you guys last year.
I have a family member that's a team member there at at
Universal. And he sent us this text and it
was probably the most exciting text I had gotten in a long time
saying, hey, we're able to bring you guys.
Do you want to come to Epic Universe?
It was probably like a month before it actually opened and
like weeks before they started doing any other previews for any
anybody else. And yeah, I'm just with Jeff.
It's just, I mean, to make a Long story short, Universal just
ain't my jam. I love Horror Nights.
I look forward to my one night a year that I go to a Universal
park. I go to Horror Nights, I go all
out, I buy the VIP. We do every single house and
maybe a couple of rides at that park.
But other than that, I'm good, you know, I mean, if if you told
me, hey, do you want to go to Epcot for the eight thousandth
time or do you want to go to Epic Universe, I will pick
Epcot. That is not to say that epic
universe is a bad park. It's a super pretty park.
I remember going pulling into the parking lot and like Amy
said, I remember this feeling was like, Oh my God, we're do
you know how rare it is that you get to walk into a brand new
huge theme park for the very first time?
The last time that I had done that was when Animal Kingdom
opened. So I remember that feeling of
just being super excited. And then like Jeff said, you
know, you got in and it's like, okay, there's a carousel and
there's some amazing lands. How to train your Dragon was
like, wow, it was awesome. Universal dark ride was super
fun. The lands way too small, way too
small. That land is way too small and
there's like a carnival werewolf ride just fine.
Mario Land or Atari Land, whatever that it's just not my.
Thing. It's loud and there's like
87,000 stairs and escalators and elevators and you know, it's
just. It's just.
Weird like but I know people have attachments to it which is
awesome. My attachment at the end of the
day will always be with Disney and the Disney parks.
And Jeff is 100% correct however that Stardust Racers is hands
down the best roller coaster ever built, a bar none.
That's it. But other than that, I'll see
y'all at Epcot. We try not to point out that
you're the old guy, but you write the jokes themselves
sometimes, Derek. It's.
Really Hari land that's that's I I hear that's a rumored
expansion option for. Yeah, Dig Dug and and Pac-Man
and everything that's in that whole plot, that's really what
they're building and. And I know we're going to have a
discussion about the hotels and all that.
And I got a lot to say, however, on that Helio Hotel.
Has anyone used express pass at epic universe have?
I did once. Jeff, you've done it once.
Yeah I I've been to the park 4 times and the last time we did
use it with some friends. Did you feel that it like, I
guess my question is, did it help with, you know all of these
things that we're complaining about or are some of these
things still issues because of just the park in general?
Well, I'm going to compare it to to a, a Lightning lane at
Disney, right. If you're willing to spend the
money, it doesn't matter if you're willing to spend the
money for AVIP Tour, that's going to significantly different
than just buying your three to three Lightning lanes at Epcot,
you know what I mean? So your mileage is going to vary
based on how much you're willing to spend.
Having said that, I think our express pass for that day in
September was, I want to say $169 a person.
Well, that's on top of our park ticket.
Then I. It can get as high as I saw 250
thinking upwards of 300. We went like midweek in the
offseason, so it wasn't horribly expensive.
It definitely made it easier to go on every ride.
Like if that's what you want to do.
If you're a a box checker and like you have your list and you
want to, you know, make sure that you do everything, I really
think that's the only way to do it unless you really enjoy
waiting in lines. Like that, that's the problem
for me is that, oh, unless you want to do everything, there's
like 5 things like that's it. You know what I mean?
Really, at the end of the day, there's just not enough stuff to
justify that. Jeff had have to buy a $200
ticket, then buy another whatever, almost a $200 thing to
basically ride. You know, what's the longest
wait is always what the the Mario minecart, which can
sometimes be like 2 to 3 hours for that.
Yeah. And so you can walk on, you
know, the best ride there besides the coaster is Monsters
Unchained. It's a phenomenal ride.
But I think even today, Amy, you said the wait is like 10
minutes. So it's like it it just.
Seems like. Yeah, extraordinary amount of
money for just too few attractions.
Eric, did you go and that's. What I was kind of going to get
at was our problem was is we wanted to ride Stardust, Harry
Potter, Monsters Unchained, Mario Kart and Hiccup Flyers
over and over again. Everything else is hot garbage.
Like I, I don't know how to put into words how bad the curse of
the werewolf is. We have that same ride at our
dinky little Utah Lagoon park. You know Yoshi, it's cute, but.
Don't bash Yoshi. Want it with kids.
I love Yoshi but it has a height requirement of 38 inches which
is bizarre. Really.
Yes. So you couldn't take so.
You can't take they missed the demographic they were going for
with that attraction because the ones that want to write it
can't. And like, don't even get me
started on that fire drill. That stupid ass stupid.
OK, we won't we won't get you started because I I wanna ask
Eric. Eric, you went after the park
was officially open, correct? Well, we actually went on the
very first preview day in April. We were just so happened already
had a Disney trip booked and we got in on the very first like
preview, not not team members, but like when everybody could do
it Annual pass holder preview. And then we went back in July 2
vastly different experiences, right.
The one in April, the weather was nice.
Everything we managed to do nearly everything we wanted.
We even got we even got the like 1:00 PM drop on ministry of
magic. We lucked out there.
Everything was seemed to be operating that we wanted.
It was open from like 11 to maybe like 8.
So we got everything done that we wanted.
The July super hot. The the no shade is pretty real
in many aspects. I do think that's a little
overrated. But I will tell you what
happened to us going from Isle Burke to Monsters Unchained
through the Celestial area. There is no shade.
And just walking through that, we were like, oh, we're done
with like almost passing out. So it is there, but there's
shade in lands. But like if you're out in the
open, that is rough. And we left the first day in
April saying this was fantastic. We felt like we got our money's
worth. We felt like we had a new
experience. We got to eat different places.
We got to relax a little bit 'cause it wasn't as congested.
In July. We were like, I don't, I'm not
going to pay again until it's a part of an annual pass 'cause I
think one of the things that we're really struggling with
here is it's all about the value of the money.
If you have an annual pass and you can go to Islands of
Adventure, you can go to, you know, Universal, you can go to
any of the Disney parks versus paying extra to go to a brand
new park that is having some capacity problems.
We love what we see. Nobody here is talking anything
bad about detail. Whether we like the IP or not.
It's very immersive and there are, But when you spend that
kind of money, you don't feel like you can just waltz around.
And a lot of people were comparing this park to trying to
be kind of like the Animal Kingdom, which is like an
exploratory park where like you're supposed to Mosey around
and explore. You can't do that if you feel
like you're spending $400.00 per person, like you can't get your
money's worth by looking at a tree for an extra 5 seconds, you
know, like you got a move. Yeah.
So we have to. And that is probably the major
problem. If it's, if you get us an annual
pass, it'll be like one or two, you know, that we want to book.
And, and I'll give you a weird circumstance that I didn't
realize that I was Privy to. So I didn't go to any universal
parks for years. I was a Disney fan for 10-15
years plus, knew all about them, but didn't go right.
The, I will say the first time going to Island's Adventure and
the first time going to Epic were the same level of
excitement for me because I've heard so much and there was all
types of press where everybody has already gone to these parks
for so long that they forget like what it feels like.
And I think the community was hyped up epic because it's the
first park in 25 years where me like going to a universal park
was the first time. So I don't think there was that
much different. But I think as a community, we
hyped this sucker up as being like the greatest thing of all
time. And truth be told, it is a new
theme park with great immersion, but it has problems because it's
a great new park. We had the same thing happen
with Animal them like all these opened up and there wasn't
enough to do and people left angry.
So we're dealing with that right now and it and it sucks that
we're in the midst of it, but like, you know, in a couple
years we should have some plots of land and new things to do.
Yep. So let's go to the elephant in
the room that we've all discussed in some capacity,
which is annual passes. And this is, you know, I was
looking around on the Internet like looking for other YouTube
videos and other YouTube content.
And the other thing that's very apparent right now is that
everyone went to the previews and everyone went to the media
invites and everyone went to these other things.
But very few vloggers and influencers are really out there
exploring Epic Universe or making Epic Universe content now
for this very reason, which I think everyone is in that
position of. We need an annual pass if if
we're going to go more often because paying 200, three, $100
a pop is just not going. To exactly.
Yeah. And my mom wants to go and it's,
you know, it's the same issue that that Jeff has with his his
grandchildren and and that Eric has with, you know, the the
older generation in his group is that there's not enough for her
to do for us to pay, you know, 200 some dollars a piece to go
and ride Yoshi with her. You know what I mean?
Like if I'm paying $200, I'm writing Stardust, I'm writing
all the codes. You know, I'm writing everything
that's there, which isn't a ton, but it's all things that she
won't go on. So, yeah, without an annual
pass, a lot of people are skipping out on going not only
themselves, but bringing family members who would then buy a
ticket. And you can't have an annual
pass if you don't have the capacity to hold.
Both, exactly. Yeah, you've got to be at that
operating capacity to do so. But we must be getting there in
some sense because Jeff, actually when you had suggested
this topic, you had heard of like some surveys that had been
being put into the world suggesting kind of some unique
annual pass offerings, correct? Yeah, the, the surveys that I
was Privy to they're, they were really looking at 3 or 4
different options on, on how they, they were, they're
surveying existing or former annual pass holders, trying to
get a sense of what they would be willing to pay for and what
would be a win to get them access to Universal.
You know, and some of the things were floated around that I saw
were, you know, we'll add Epic to the annual pass, but your
annual pass price will double. There was one that was you don't
Get full access to Epic, but you get X number of tickets almost
like entitlements per year, You know, So if you're at a
platinum, and I don't know these numbers for sure, but as an
example, if you're like their premier pass holder, their top
of the line pass holder, you got like 10 Epic visits a year.
And then the next one down, you got a few less and so on.
But you had to book them in in advance and you had to make, and
they were kind of subject to park reservations, which we're
all used to. Another one was a Monday through
Friday add on to Epic or for Epic to your existing annual
pass. There's one more I can't
remember. It was something like after two
or something like that. And for me, none of them, if I'm
being honest, really moved the needle.
I don't want to pay double for my annual pass for one park.
You know what I mean? That that's just, that's too
much. I guess the one where you got X
number per year maybe, Maybe I would consider that, but I don't
know. It just seems like, and Disney
doesn't have an annual pass for everything but Epcot, you know
what I mean? Like an annual pass is an annual
pass. If I'm a local, or if I come to
Disney and to Universal frequently enough, it feels a
little bit shaded to be shut out.
Yeah, well, I I threw this question to the room, but every
single thing that you threw out there screams, we realize we
have a capacity problem and we can't open this up the way that
that that, that you want to. I found some of the survey
questions so most of what you said was right.
One of them was a discounted one day epic ticket if you are an
annual pass holder. So purchase one day, one, one
ticket per day per pass, which wasn't that wasn't exciting at
all. Yeah, upgrading.
Significant discount. Yeah, it would be a really good
discount We're. Talking 80%.
Upgrade your existing annual pass to include Epic.
And then you talked about what that was.
Let me see if I can find any other ones.
I will say one of the interesting things on on the
survey was that they asked if you were interested in things
like a Disney status match, which I don't.
Oh, I saw that one. I.
Don't know exactly what that meant, but basically if you were
a Disney pass holder you could purchase a universal pass at a
discounted rate. So yeah.
Yeah, that's that's circulating right now.
There is surveys going around that they're currently asking
that for a lot of Universal, which is odd.
And I don't know if it was this survey, but there was some of
them that were honestly talking about would you do a 2A3A4 year
pass, annual pass? They're trying to get people in,
which was very interesting. I don't know if it's Epic
related or I think it's more based off of let's get you
locked in before Disney opens up some of their new offerings
where you're going to have to make a choice.
Very apparent that it's capacity issues.
Like you can't open up the annual pass world as much as we
want coverage and stuff. If you can't handle the people
that are still making Universal trips because if you looked at
their marketing this year, they're going all in.
And I got AI, an anonymous person got a survey because
we're not allowed to talk about surveys we get from Universal
via the first little Clipper thing.
So somebody said to me a survey that was really talking about
their branding and pushing towards week long vacation
family like a book longer. So they're really trying to get
that, hey, we're not going for Disney and adding on Universal.
We're going for Universal and we'll add on Disney.
And I think this park is what they're trying to help for.
But that's difficult to do if we can't get in or when we're
there, we're we feel like we didn't get everything done.
Well, and to, to, to play off of that, one of the things that if,
if you're in the travel agent world at all, that Universal has
kind of been floating, but they haven't really like hard target
marketed, but it's available through their, their booking is
to your point, a Universal vacation with an ad on at
Disney. They're also pushing a Universal
vacation with an ad on cruise, a landed sea option with Royal
Caribbean. Wow, that Disney's had locked up
for decades. You know what I mean, that if
they can now turn this into an actual week's vacation and to be
fair, a week vacation at Universal is still significantly
cheaper than a week vacation at Disney.
So I mean there, there is some market share to be gotten.
Yeah. And especially if you can sail
out of Burke, I mean, if you get on right on a Viking ship and
you had right out, that would be amazing.
I think that would really help the numbers.
That that would be the universal cruise line concept that I would
that I would buy into with with like the package concept.
The other thing that I've struggled with, and obviously
they, they, they're, they're, they're trying to solve this
problem is the fact that if you're staying at any of the
other non epic Universe hotels, you've got a decent trek through
the heart of Orlando to get from Epic Universe over to the other
two parks and back. I mean, that's I, I don't know
if anyone's actually done that trip, but.
I listen, I will. I've done it.
I personally didn't think it was that bad.
I mean, I've gone both ways. I stayed at Epic and then we
travelled over and we did also the the alternate route of it.
I think it, I mean, I guess it could also come down to a lot of
traffic, right? It's not ideal.
I mean, it's it's not necessarily being on a monorail
and and popping over, but there are, I would say getting to and
as an out of towner or just anyone getting the magic Kingdom
is the biggest pain in the butt ever, you know, So I would say
if you, you know, and that is the greatest theme park in many
eyes, right to to get there. So it's not over it.
It's a thing, but I think it's slightly a little bit more
overrated to to say, well, that was a horrible inconvenience.
As long as you got the bus go in, I think you're OK.
I do want to say the the hotels that we've seen, so Selenova,
Terra Luna, I think the Doles were an absolute home run.
So we stayed in Selenova under $200 a night for a hotel that is
walking distance to Epic Universe.
So we were able to walk there in the morning.
Helios for me when we did the night there July of last year
was very, very expensive. So value wise you know you're
not getting Express 8 or. $900. Yeah, it was like 8 or $900 a
night, but we're seeing. So it must not be selling at
those prices anymore because we are seeing some really deep
discounts at Helios. I've seen people with like
annual pass discounts that were in the 200 or less range per
night depending on the the night.
So, so that's significant because when that first opened
up, that hotel was bonker price. Well, and you're rivaling at
that price point, you're rivaling like Animal Kingdom
Lodge at Disney. And there's no comparison
between the two at at all really.
Like, it's really cool to be a hotel that overlooks a theme
park and have a direct entrance into a theme park, but there's
really no benefits other than that and the hotel itself, in my
opinion. I didn't stay there for the
night, but it did not scream deluxe.
It did not, you know, scream like DVC level accommodations.
The the park entrance is cool, but if you're doing it first
thing in the morning, you're in this giant line.
Yeah, the room, we did have a room overlooking the park,
Beautiful. But then it rained.
And because there's no balcony and it's just windows, you can
see anything out out of the raindrops through the raindrop.
Water drops all. Over yeah.
So it was like kind of over to me.
I was like, oh, I I would go to Stella Nova every day over that
because the value is there versus what you're getting when
you stay Helios. The only thing other about
Helios that I do love is Flora Taverna.
I do think is an amazing restaurant.
The restaurants and bars there I think are are the only home run
that it really has going for it, but they are pricey too so but I
I still stand that Flora is probably one of the best
restaurants. Yeah, Eric, have you stayed at
any of the epic hotels? Yeah, we stayed at either the
Terror or the Stella. I, I, you know, they all, they
kind of look the same Patata. They look very much yeah.
Yeah, no, but I thought it was, they were clean.
They they were nice. I mean their value esque and the
price point was worth it to me. You know, we're also sleeping
family of five or six. So you almost had to get 2 rooms
and so forth. We found ourselves really, you
know, if we're going to do it, the Endless Summer is just a
it's 6 sleep 6. It's not the greatest in the
world, but it also is clean and it was fine enough.
And we that's how we travelled over in a couple.
But yeah, I don't know if I could do a Helios like that.
To me, that's just a lot of money to for access.
I'm like, I'll just wake up 30 minutes earlier.
Yeah, but I mean, you do get the express pass, right?
Like that could be valued in if you.
You do not get express pass at. My goodness, no.
Well then like, I mean, I always wanted to stay at the Hard Rock
'cause I'm like, well, I would like to stay there to see what
it's like and get the express pass.
But you know, I'm a, I'm a frugal guy.
I haven't done express pass at any of these yet.
I'm just, and it seems to me like with Epic, that is a thing
that you really should consider. Yeah.
And that was what we kept going back to when we compared the two
hotels side by side was it was like you could get another, you
could get another day at Stella or Terra Luna, you could get
park tickets and you could get an express pass for the same
cost that you're paying for this elevated hotel experience, which
really again, like. It was actually a smaller room
than at What's That's Stella Nova.
Smaller room, we've heard thin walls, we've heard all that kind
of stuff just related to it. Derek's going to explode if we
don't let him talk. I think about the hotels because
he said you. You've got some strong opinions
here. No, I, I don't, I have never
stayed there. I visited twice and I was really
excited to see it because as we all know, you know, wow, there's
a part, you know, a hotel that's kind of like their version of
the quote UN quote, you know, Grand Floridian or whatever,
man. Is it unimpressive?
It is just unimpressive. The lobby is unimpressive.
Everything about it feels generic.
It feels small. The pool area is weird and
again, they'll always advertise the rooms that overlook the
park, but again, you got what like a 5050 shot of you're going
to get the other ones that overlook like I4 and like, you
know, these industrial areas. It's just completely
unimpressive. And I just think that yes, while
Bart Helios is super cool, as long as you're fine with like,
you know, $18.00 high lies, whatever, the prices are
ridiculous up there. It's a very cool bar.
It's just not worth it for me because as we're talking and
Eric is so eloquent and does such a great job talking about
it, it just I just kept thinking, you know, Universal's
biggest problem isn't the parks. It's for me and I think for a
lot of people is you don't want to go on vacation for a week to
Universal because you don't have a bubble.
And Universal to me is biggest problem is, OK, I've got some
parks here, some resorts. Then you got to leave and go to
the real world and fight traffic on I-4 or Sand Lake Rd.
And then there's a few hotels over here.
Then there's another park that's like 20 minutes down the road,
but you got to go through, you know, weird vape shops on either
side. And it's just horrible.
Whereas when you're at Disney, that's the whole point of Disney
is that feeling. And I've said it, you know,
anytime, and I live here, anytime I enter those arches,
you, you blow out your troubles and you're you're in the Disney
bubble. Universal does not have that.
And because of their land issues that they have, they will never,
ever have that feeling. So I think that for me is
Universal's biggest problem. And as nice as they're trying to
do by spreading out all over Central Florida, it's just not
the same when you don't have a bubble.
Yeah, it's, it's a little bit different I and just going back
to the transportation real quick.
The the, the new plan that they're looking into, which I
think will be done by 2050, but perhaps is they're looking at
the, the Boring Company is going to bore a tunnel from Epic
Universe over to the other parks, which I, I mean, it's
cool. I've seen people use it in
Vegas. What about that whole thing in
Florida? Water levels that that could be.
No, not an issue, Eric. No, I mean you don't.
Think it's just going to be a water ride.
It's going to be their new Drafted World ride.
It'll be better than that other water ride that Jeff was ragging
on earlier. The fire drill, spray the fire,
whatever that. Was the worst ride ever created.
I just, I kind of want to just play devil's advocate to what
Derek was just saying though, because I do think we need to
give credit where credit is due with them.
Disney, Disney World specifically is in a kind of a
class of its own when it comes to the bubble.
Disneyland doesn't even have that.
You know what I mean? Most people don't stay at a
Disney hotel. When you go, there are weird
vape shops and sandwich shops and stop and Rob's and all those
kinds of things. But that doesn't ruin the
Disneyland experience. And so I don't know.
And like Eric was saying earlier, going from City Walk to
Epic on a universal bus is really no different than going
from Animal Kingdom Lodge to Hollywood Studios.
It's not that big a deal. It really isn't.
They they run those buses pretty frequently.
So I don't know that that's what's keeping people away.
And I don't think people should not go because of those two
reasons. Where I struggle is as shiny and
clean and as Epic is now with, you know, these bright new
things. And it really shines a light on
how not good the original Universal Parks are and how
dated and dilapidated and technology technologically
absent some of those older. You walk into Simpsons Land, and
I know why they're not putting any money Simpsons because
they're going to lose it here next year.
But there are some places at Universal Studios Florida.
That are Marvel, the whole Marvel area and the comic.
Betty Boop. No, no, it that's not her.
You're thinking of Cathy. Oh, that, that comics area.
It's just that it, it makes you smile walking through it,
really. I mean it, it makes it, it's
rough. I'll give you that.
Puts a laugh on your face and and no matter what they're
trying to do over there right now, I feel like nothing is
nothing sticking at the moment like the the last home run was
Velocicoaster really, but I'm sorry.
Hagrid's was a home run. Yeah.
And yeah, but Hagrid's was at was after or before.
That was before. 2019, right? Yeah, it's been a while.
It's been a hot minute, yeah. But the they're they're still
trying with the fast and furious concept and I'm still not sold
like we keep trying, but like the Internet.
The Internet invented 12 different variations of that
coaster that were 10 times better.
And when someone is that a Ghostbusters coaster, I would
write it every day. Yeah, now I I will tell you what
I always thought was one thing that Disney always had a leg up
on with Universal was nostalgia. They always that you just you
just have like the the history and you remember going as a kid
and Universal didn't have that until probably now.
So I think one thing they could start and I don't think they've
learned it yet because like you said, fast and furious.
If you made that Ghostbusters back to the future, any of
those. I mean, I'm wearing a nostalgic
90s. You know, we have Nickelodeon
like the kids that grew up with this in those properties will
start feeling nostalgic for universal, which brings you a
bunch of families that now have kids of their own and they can
start making their memories. I don't think they've leaned
into it yet. I I really you don't see that
happening. But once they realize that they
finally only get the one thing that they've always wished
Disney, you know, that they had over Disney.
And I haven't seen it yet, but I'm with you in many aspects of
like we're putting in franchises.
I know Fast and Furious has made billions of dollars for them.
And it's easy just to take one from another one.
But boy, I think leaning into some of what made them, you
know, like the Jaws, the earthquake, all that stuff right
now actually resonates it with with people of our age.
And I think they could probably profit off that.
But yeah, the, the other parks going to him for the first time,
Universal Studios proper is a bit like it the, the, the
coherency of like where you go for something like, all right,
we were just on Hollywood, now I'm over.
It's just different where Epic gets it right there.
You're in that themed area and you're there and you feel like
you're there. So they got that right.
But I I feel like that's gonna cause some problems here shortly
'cause there's a lot of rumors going on with these portal
things. So many rumors with the portals.
Yeah, so actually, just this week they have erected these
facial recognition scanners at the entrance of every single
portal. And the rumors are running
rampant. But the biggest one that's kind
of taking off is the fact that Universal's considering some
sort of concept in which after a certain time of day, Celestial
Park becomes open. It is open for.
People. Come into like Citywalk really
which? It's a rumor, like it's
speculation, but. But we do know that part of the
Epic Universe plan from day one has always been the portals are
designed so that if X company wants to buy out said, you know,
Super Mario World for the night, close off the portal that's
theirs for the night. Perfect.
So they can do that. And I think that we're going to
see that sooner rather than later because these are all
these are the same moves that Disney has made over the years
with having after hours events and everything that allow them
to increase the amount of money that they're making per day in
these parks. So we're going to see not only
those type of things happen, but I, I still can't wrap my head
around like the rumor being true of like you're just going to be
able to wander around Celestial Park like and then you you
immediately go, does that mean I can get on Stardust racers?
Like I can just go on It's. Probably a facial recognition
there too, but it's worth dreaming.
To to me, it's interesting. Time letting annual pass holders
in then which are willing to pay extra, maybe not double, but
we're willing. But you're going to open it up
to just anyone to just walk in and I and I get it.
I, I understand at 6:00 PM if you go to the like the Atlantic
restaurant or Blue dragon, there's nobody there right.
That that's the big problem is like they're they they're trying
to do do that. But I mean like you're just only
going to pack a bunch of people in and maybe it's to get them to
try it. Like are you going to do this as
a trial maybe and then shut it back down.
You can't keep this open like that forever.
I just it's, it's a weird, weird flex that they're making, but
they are doing things like they've already copyrighted or
trademarked the name for their nighttime show.
They're hiring firework technicians.
They're doing all this stuff and that's going to be free.
Like you, you're going to have everybody.
Here's our nighttime show. You can get all for free.
I just, I just don't understand it.
But I do understand the aspect of like they need to get the
return on investment on this park.
And if we can't hit our capacity and get the money off of every
single day guest all right, let's double the admission.
You know, and imagine if you paid a full day and it's like,
well, Mario's closed at 6:00 today.
I just that is not going to be cool with people that want to
pay that kind of money. Or like you and me, we're
standing next to each other watching the fireworks at the
end of the night. I'm standing in front of you
blocking your view a little bit. And I paid 0 and I'm eating my
peanut butter and Jelly that I packed from home.
And you paid like, you know, $900.00 with, you know, Helios
and, you know, Express Pass and all this other stuff, so.
Someone's already thought this through, Paul.
Oh, I will be having already packed.
Peanut butter and Jelly, huh? Yeah, I mean, I'll be on a bench
there, you know, writing work emails and stuff like that.
We'll get, we'll get Derek salad resale contracts from the middle
of Universal. So I mean it's a done deal.
Well, wrapping up this entire discussion, I, I guess my
biggest question for each of you, and we'll go back around
the room just like we did at first, is what is next and what
should Epic Universe be prioritizing for the future for
the expansion? We know that there are expansion
plots for every single land. We know that there are potential
additional portal, you know, opportunities for franchises
that don't exist right now. They have essentially soft
confirmed that they are expanding already in the
Ministry of Magic area, probably giving us the ride that was
always planned for that area, which was kind of a Harry Potter
broomstick, you know, Flight of Passage esque experience.
So that seems to be a go. There's been rumors of
expansion. I know at Super Mario there's
been rumors of expansion of Dark Universe.
Haven't heard too any anything really for Burke that's been too
concrete. But of of all the opportunities
that they have at the present time, you know, what should they
be prioritizing and what's going to, you know, what's going to
personally get you to step foot back in there, You know, sooner
rather than later, Amy. I mean, I think they need to
just like, I feel like, yeah, they need to get their return on
investment, but, but didn't they not, I mean, everybody cares
about money, but didn't they care a little less about money
than Disney because they had Comcast behind them?
And so they had a lot more, you know, kind of to throw around
like do it all like start, start now, start expanding because you
want to grow this park and you're kind of at a stagnant
place, I think, where it's like, oh, well, we can't let the we
can't land pass holders in. We can't, you know what I mean?
So like, you need, you need another portal.
You need to start expanding the lands that are there.
Mario unit land is expanded. The I I'm so sad.
It, it makes me sad to hear about like Derry called it like
a carnival ride, The curse of the werewolf.
I, I heard several times that that was supposed to be a lot
longer of a ride and got cut back.
You know what I mean? To like fix, fix those things,
either make that ride longer or, or just like continue every
single portal, whether there's plans for it or not, needs more,
needs to be bigger, needs more space.
Mario needs another, you know, do the Zelda section or whatever
because it should not be shoulder to shoulder people.
Like, that's not the experience you want, especially in Florida
where it's hot, you know, 75% of the year.
So Yep, and and to your point of Comcast, that is exactly the was
their motto and it everything, everything goes in that
direction until the budget sheet says something different.
And I can only tell you from experience, you know, my, my, my
grandmother, my mother, multiple people I know have dropped
Comcast over the past few years. Like they're, it's, it's kind of
a dated that, that that mindset is a little bit dated.
So those revenue numbers start to dip.
And then the money that they could easily funnel into theme
parks. Yeah.
Well. If you weren't charging people
like $400.00 a month for cable maybe you would have more shots.
Fired Derek, What's going to get you to step foot back in Epic?
I think if they move Horror Nights to Epic Universe, that's
it, that's all I need 'cause I'm not going to go back.
Like, I don't care what extra land you build.
I don't care what extra ride you build.
It's just not for me, you know? Which is fine.
But I think their biggest issue, which my take away on this, that
is when you're talking about the annual passes and all that for
people that love that, you guys know, like I'm a YouTube person
when it comes to vlogs of theme parks and all that stuff.
I love them. You're never going to have the
amount of content until you open it up to annual pass holders.
Meaning you could see every day these Disney vloggers will have
a new one. And they went over to Animal
Kingdom just because they have a new, you know, a cookie.
And here's the vlog about Animal Kingdom and it's a whole 30
minute, 40 minute blog because they can get in there with their
AP that until you do this for people to be able to go to Epic,
you know, that's what you need. And and I think there's a lot of
people that just don't see the content, you know, because it's
just not available because these vloggers went, they covered the
park, maybe they went back again, but after that, what are
they going to do? Because they don't want to pay
to have to go back into the park again.
So I think if they could find a way to open it up to get more
content for me, you know, show me something else.
I haven't seen anything Epic in like a year.
So maybe be more exciting if I could be more content, but.
It's, and it's such a crazy statement because it's such an
easy fix to like get, give, give the Tim trackers and the mammoth
club people annual passes. Like obviously you can push some
some button in the system that allows those people to have some
sort of all access pass with the agreement that they're in there
making content. And you better believe these
people will be in there all the time if they if they're handed
that. And yes, it's sponsored content,
but again, that's what you want. That's going to be what
continues to bring people in for their family vacations and sell
that narrative to to, you know, Eric, what you spoke to earlier
of you know, it's a, it's a multi day destination and you
got to come here for four days and all that kind of stuff.
And and that's my final thought too, is I want to watch
something on TV to get me the warm and fuzzies that I had when
I went during the team member preview before the park opened.
Because like Eric said so perfectly, I swear to God, if I
went in July, I would badmouth that.
Park nonstop. I'm sure I would hate every inch
of that park if I went. I went in April.
There was nobody where the longest wait we had was like 10
minutes. The food was great.
It was wide open but I know if I went in the summer as like an
actual paying guest man I'd probably hate that park so.
Well, and that's, and that's the problem.
We have to erase those expectations from our memory
because there were 10 people in the park those days.
You could fire a cannonball down the middle of it and there was
no one that it was going to hit. And it was glorious.
And it was the best experience. And I am so grateful that in my
life I got to experience a park like that because I've always
said, like I want to be the only one in Magic Kingdom.
I want to sit dead center in on Main Street and watch the
fireworks by myself itself like that.
That's that mindset that you put in your head.
And it's just like you don't that it's not just not the
reality unless, unless you got billions upon billions of
dollars to buy out the whole park.
But Eric, you're the you're the resident universal expert.
I I assume that you might already have plans to head back
there in some capacity. But what's what?
What do you think that next big move that they need to do?
I don't think this is, here's The thing is it's not sexy by
any means. They just need more dark rides
and flat rides. They literally need more things.
And that will help because we're complaining because we're not
getting our value right. We, we just feel like if we go
there and we can only do 4 things during the day or my you
know, the grandma or my son can't do anything.
I know it doesn't sound great, but the carousel is really it's
a really nice little carousel and the shows are really nice.
The How to Train Your Dragon show is.
Amazing. Build a couple more theaters,
get some shows. That is the biggest thing.
You you look at Animal Kingdom and there's not, they have less
rides and there's not as much to do, but they have some shows or
did you know there's things you can do?
You can walk around and see gorillas and all this other
stuff. You need to be able to fill that
day with some type of value that is not just standing in line and
you might not. They don't really need any more
E tickets like I would. I love a broom ride.
I would love but like the creature of the Black Lagoon
dark boat ride, whatever may I'm not making on the cheap, but
make it easy. Just make it to the point where
it's a people guzzler. It's like a pirates and it's
nice. And I think if they do that and
we can get some additional attractions in that park, then
we don't feel like we're chasing that next ride and we have to
get our value, even if we had to pay for it.
You're like, well, you know that we there's 15 things to do and
we got to do nine of them. That is enough for most people
to feel like it's a value. Plus you get to eat and there's
still some, you know, characters.
You get Super Mario Land. There's a lot for kids to do in
terms of you get your magic band and or your power up band and do
all this stuff. But people don't know about
because we're not able to slow down because we have to get that
money. So I think that take some of
these plots and set it out there to make the grandmas and the
kids happy. If you do that, there is enough
there to challenge as an IP, the Isle Burke and Nintendo.
That's enough to challenge some of the Disney parks that usually
get that younger demographic. If you just wanted to be thrill
rides like what Universal has done, then build another roller
coaster and E ticket. But I really do think they have
to do the smart move here logistically and open up some of
these flat rides. Easy creation, even if they're
carnival but themed really well in a immersion.
And I think a couple more shows would really help it because
that really helped Disney, you know, Hollywood Studios forever
having different shows. I mean, there's not a lot of
attractions there. There's a couple good E tickets
and then there's shows you have stuff to do.
So I think that's what they should do.
I'm sure the the next coaster head though is going to be like
we need 12 more velocicoasters. But Yep, no, no, what they what
they need is coming soon. Epic Universe grandparent
portal. Like a nursing home, Jeff, bring
us home. Yeah, and and so let's talk
about what they've done well, right, Let's give them credit
where credit's due. The food at Epic Universe is
probably the best at any theme park I've ever been to.
The theming out of the park, their E tickets, the few that
they have are better than most of the E tickets that Disney
has. They've done some things really
well. But to Eric's point, and that
was the number one thing on my list here, is they spent so much
money on these awesome E ticket rides that they forgot the rest.
They forgot about what else makes a theme park and I don't
want them to do it like they did Islands of Adventure, which is
all of the kiddie rides are in one land.
Doctor Seuss land or whatever we call it.
When Grandma can't ride Velocicoaster with little Timmy.
Grandma has to traipse her jazzy all the way across the park to
go ride Cat in the Hat. They need this to be a theme
park that everybody can take advantage of.
So when Mom and Dad are on, you know, Hiccup Flyers, now that's
a bad excuse because they're just going to take them on that
stupid fire drill. If they're on Monsters Dark
Universe, they need something. A simple dark ride, a carousel,
a Dumbo, you know, a, a, a Winnie the Pooh type.
Very basic, right? But it's something you could do
it. It would be so simple.
Preferably, but I don't want a whole.
Land that I never go into because I don't have kids on
that particular trip, you know what I mean?
I want, it needs to be throughout every land, a little
bit of something. Another thing they could do if
they wanted, instead of opening the front gates to everybody
that wants to, is they just need to do some Orlando Informer
events at Epic Universe and get some people in the door to
experience it and want want to go.
Back that would be, yeah, I think it's going to be a while
before we see it, but that would be an event I would pay for.
Yep. Well, we're curious, have you
been to Epic Universe in its first year?
If so, let us know in the comments kind of what you
thought of the park, what what it did well, what they need to
change and kind of these rumors for the future, you know, do
they need annual passes? Is that the next big thing?
But yeah, that's going to do it for this week's episode of the
DVC Show. Eric, thanks for joining us.
If you're interested in more universal contact, check out the
Epic Universe podcast on the Jim Hill Media Network, where I'm
sure that I'm sure you guys are a lot more positive than we are
about it, or at least more positive than Derek is about it.
He's never going back to the parking I was going.
To say we're a little bit more positive, we're critical, we're
critical. I've never been in a room where
I'm like, I have to this is I have to defend Universal here.
My I mean, my basement is theme Disney.
This is based off the utilidor here.
I got the darn purple wall from Tomorrowland painted on my wall
and. I guess you and.
Universal here. I'm like, but this I guess this
is my territory. But no, we, we are very critical
on what happens just like you guys.
I don't think anything was said today that was so blasphemous,
like criticizing Universals for not being Disney.
We're criticizing Universal because it's a theme park and we
pay and we have the right to criticize.
So I think this is Universal has helped us get a lot of stuff at
Disney and Disney is going to help Universal up their game.
So it is one of those things where I got out of my tribalism
and I'm like, it only helps all of us as theme park fans and all
that benefit from the community. So thank you for having me.
I enjoyed thoroughly talking about Universal and everything
in between. Totally, we'll stick around
because we're going to film two more episodes and you're
sticking around with us, so buckle up folks.
But that's going to do it for this weeks episode.
We hope you enjoyed it and we will see you next Monday.
Have a good week everybody.