As Universal Epic Universe approaches its 1-year anniversary, many theme park fans are surprised that there aren’t Annual Pass options yet. We were very wrong in our speculation that Annual Passes could be offered last year, but we were correct in identifying ride reliability as a major hurdle preventing Pass sales. As it turns out, that may be correct. Here’s the latest.
Ride Reliability Likely to Blame for Lack of Epic Universe Annual Passes
At the Morgan Stanley Investor Conference, Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh offered some insight as to where Epic Universe is, and what needs to improve for Universal to really lean into its brand new theme park.
Cavanagh began by talking a little bit about the theme park division as a whole, noting that the division has experienced double-digit growth since Comcast folded in the theme park business more than a decade ago.
Cavanagh said that Epic Universe has done “everything they wanted”, and called the theme park a “great success” in driving up metrics not only within the portals, but to the other theme parks and resorts at the Universal Orlando complex.
Cavanagh then started talking about where Universal goes from here, and its in these remarks that we heard something interesting – perhaps a reason why Annual Passes haven’t been offered yet.
Cavanagh said that as “ride flow and capacity ultimately gets to its maximum potential”, Universal will then be able to “grow capacity, which will then unleash more attendance possibilities”. At the moment, Universal has rolled out a number of different ticket types, including a 7-day ticket that drives the price of an Epic Universe visit down to roughly $65 per day. Really, the only “attendance possibilities” at this point would be Annual Passes, and I think that’s exactly what Cavanagh is dancing around.
In terms of when Annual Passes may be offered, Cavanagh gave no hints. He seemed to mention the one-year anniversary of the park deliberately, but that could’ve been just in response to the framing of the question he received from the moderator.
That said, if we agree that ride reliability is (still) the last hurdle for Epic Universe to clear before offering an Annual Pass product, Cavanagh said that Universal has made some great strides, while acknowledging that there is “room to grow” as it relates to attendance.
Ironically enough, Epic Universe is dealing with a rather significant ride reliability issue. The Stardust Racers roller coaster has been closed since mid-February, and its refurbishment has been extended once so far. Currently, the attraction is scheduled to reopen on March 14th, but there are unsubstantiated rumors on social media that the closure could be extended again.
If Epic Universe is to offer Annual Passes, we’d either have to interest really fall off a cliff, or ride reliability reach new levels of uptime.
We’re fans of Epic Universe and think that it is a wonderful addition to the Universal Orlando landscape and Central Florida as a whole. That said, there is still plenty of room for improvement, and we’re hopeful that Universal will be able to turn a corner this year and open the portals to more guests to enjoy the park.
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