Mark Woodbury, CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, revealed some new details about the upcoming Universal Epic Universe theme park, which is scheduled to open in 2025 at Universal Orlando.
What’s Happening:
- As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Woodbury was speaking at the Bank of America Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference on Thursday, September 14th.
- He stated that Epic Universe will be the “most technologically advanced park” yet for Universal.
- The park will use new “facial recognition, photo validation technology” that will allow guests to have a “frictionless experience,” as well as at the company’s other parks in Orlando.
- “It’s the most technologically advanced park we’ve ever done. And that speaks to both the attractions themselves, the next generation of robotics drone technology, all the way through to the guest experience. The full guest journey is really being taken to a whole new level.”
- The park itself will comprise “four themed lands” that are based on “powerful, trip-driving intellectual property.”
- The only land that has been officially announced thus far is Super Nintendo World, which will have a bigger footprint in Florida than it does in Japan and in Hollywood.
- Other highly rumored lands will be themed around Universal Monsters, Fantastic Beasts and How To Train Your Dragon.
- The four “lands” will surround a central hub, which will be a “lush landscape” with attractions and food service, which Woodbury said will differ from others and “bring the park back into theme parks.”
- A major goal with Epic Universe is to expand the Universal Orlando vacation into a full-week vacation, as opposed to the current average of three days.
- This will partially be achieved with the addition of 2,000 more hotel rooms alongside Epic Universe, which will have “unprecedented” hotel integration into the park experience, Woodbury said.
- When asked how Universal would handle the anticipated demand, Woodbury said:
- “We have the benefit of new technology that we’re deploying in terms of managing ticketing, revenue and revenue management across each of those platforms.”
- Epic Universe is currently on schedule to open in 2025.
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