Universal Epic Universe is now testing an innovative, land-by-land access system that would allow for a very unique operation of Universal Orlando Resort’s latest theme park. The testing was spotted at the Dark Universe portal, and if successful, could redefine how Universal approaches operations at Epic Universe. This has been a long time coming. Let’s dig into the latest!
Universal Testing Facial Recognition for Land-by-Land Access at Epic Universe
As spotted by florida_coasters_1, Universal Team Members were recently spotted testing a facial recognition system at the entry to the Dark Universe themed land at Epic Universe. As seen in the photo below, there are three facial recognition stanchions at the portal entrance to Dark Universe. Team Members can be seen monitoring the system.
Before we dig in to the specifics of this system, and what it could allow, let’s go back to the planning stages. Epic Universe implements a hub-and-spoke design that was popularized at Disneyland. Essentially, there is a central area (Celestial Park) that feeds into various themed lands.
What made Epic Universe unique in the planning stages is that it didn’t connect the themed lands to each other. Instead, each themed land would be a standalone experience, requiring guests to exit the land and return to the Celestial Park area if they wanted to visit another area. This design was in sharp contrast to how Disney has designed its hub-and-spoke parks. At Magic Kingdom, for example, guests can walk all the way from the far reaches of Tomorrowland to Adventureland (on the other side of the park) without ever having to return to Main Street USA, thanks to the interconnected walkways between each land.
It was clear from the planning stages that Universal had something different in mind for Epic Universe, and we’re just now starting to see the early testing of that design.
Dusting off the hard drive, we’re going to go back in time to when Universal Epic Universe opened. We were told that the long-term plan was to allow land-by-land access to Epic Universe, allowing for maximum flexibility when operating the theme park.
Therefore, when we visited Epic Universe during the previews, not only were we fascinated by the theme park itself, but we were also fascinated by three electrical boxes in the ground at each portal.
In the photo below, you can see the outlet boxes that are being utilized for the pop-up facial recognition test at the Dark Universe portal.
When thinking about how this land-by-land, or portal-by-portal, facial recognition system could be used, the possibilities are many. Epic Universe already utilizes facial recognition at the main gate to tie your face to your park ticket. That means that once you’re inside the park, any other facial recognition checkpoints should allow for a smooth experience.
In fact, this facial recognition system at the portals isn’t even the first in-park implementation of such a system. Universal already uses facial recognition for the Universal Express skip-the-line system. From what we’ve seen, the system is quite snappy and should allow for a pretty seamless entry experience if expanded to individual portals. But why would Universal want to limit access to the portals? Let’s speculate.
I was going to talk about Universal’s current predicament of trying to manage crowds with less-than-efficient attractions at this point in the article, but the land-by-land access is something that was created long before the issues that Epic Universe is facing at this specific point in time. Let’s talk big picture instead.
Indeed, I don’t think that the portal-by-portal access system is meant to fix anything. Instead, it is meant to give Universal ultimate flexibility when operating the theme park. Let’s talk about a few scenarios that this facial recognition system could address.
FREE ACCESS TO CELESTIAL PARK
We’ll start with the most likely outcome of the facial recognition system: free access to Celestial Park. Celestial Park is beautiful, and it contains a lot of shopping and dining offerings that could benefit from more guests visiting. In theory, if Universal is able to effectively gate access to each portal using the facial recognition system, then Universal could open up Celestial Park for free to anyone who’s looking to do some shopping or dining. From there, if you have a theme park ticket valid for that day, you’d simply be able to access the portals via a quick face scan.
In this scenario, Universal is able to fill up the Epic Universe restaurants and shops with guests. Right now, restaurant reservations are WIDE open for both table-service restaurants at Epic Universe. Beyond that, there is plenty of room at the various quick-service restaurants within Celestial Park to benefit from the influx of guests that would arrive should Universal open up access to Celestial Park for free.
I don’t think that Celestial Park would be free all day long, either. I think that we could look at CityWalk for some direction on how Universal may approach operations at Epic Universe. Right now, Universal offers free parking after 6pm at the parking garages that service Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, and CityWalk. This is to encourage guests to visit the CityWalk shopping and dining areas. I think we could see a similar system implemented at Epic Universe.
Theoretically, Universal could offer free parking after 6pm, and open up Celestial Park to guests who want to do some shopping and dining. Before 6pm, Epic Universe and Celestial Park would operate like a traditional theme park, with the facial recognition system being rolled out each evening as Celestial Park opens to the general public. But what if you get into Epic Universe and really want to ride Monsters Unchained after filling up at Pizza Moon?
PORTAL-SPECIFIC TICKET
With facial recognition at each portal, Universal could, theoretically, sell portal-specific tickets. Instead of paying $184 per person to visit on May 21st, Universal could roll out a ticket type that allows guests access to a specific portal in the evening hours for a fraction of the cost.
Say that Universal opens up Celestial Park for free after 6pm. If Universal closes at 9pm or 10pm that evening, guests could, in theory, purchase a ticket that would allow access to a single portal or multiple portals at a discounted rate. If a full day at the park is somewhere in the $160 to $200 range, would you purchase a ticket to access Dark Universe after dark for $50?
PRIVATE EVENTS
Another way that Universal could leverage facial recognition at the portal entrances is for private events and buyouts. It is not uncommon for Walt Disney World to shut down an entire theme park early to allow for corporate buyouts. With land-by-land gated access, Universal could offer something similar, allowing companies or individuals to buy out an entire land while keeping the rest of the park open.
UPCHARGE ACCESS FOR SPECIAL EVENTS
Alternatively, Universal could offer upcharge access to portals during special events. For example, during Halloween, there could be a day or two out of the week where there is special entertainment or offerings during the evening hours in Dark Universe. Guests could purchase a special ticket to attend a limited-time Halloween event in the land while the rest of the park remains open to guests.
While the hub-and-spoke design is a popular one for a reason at traditional theme parks, Epic Universe could be something unique thanks to the land-by-land facial recognition system that it is currently testing.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on what Universal chooses to do should this system be rolled out for use in the future!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com for not only the latest Disney Parks news, but also news, photos, and info from great offerings Outside the Bubble!
How would they manage with stardust racers and merry-go-round ?
I know that Stardust Racers is already fitted with the same electrical boxes as the portals, and Constellation Carousel *might* have it too
How would free access work with the carousel and stardust racers, more facial recognition there? I think after 6PM makes more sense than an all day thing that they’d charge for, but might be an option as well (charging like $30+ to access celestial area).
Giving people the option to do that and then also per-portal charge makes sense business-wise. I like it for giving people access they otherwise wouldn’t have, but it also is going to erode the already poor wait times in some lands — I don’t think they should/would do it for Nintendo, for instance.
Obvi I hate shutting down upcharging and portals for events. If they do that they better announce it WAY in advance and charge a lot less for tickets (tho seeing how they handle grad nights, informer etc pricing, I doubt it, but closing a single portal is much more noticeable and anger inducing than “oh, they just close at this time” sort of thing, if that makes any sense.
With all this, and adding AP’s as well, this just feels — bad. I say that as an AP. They’re not addressing the wait-time problem but seem to be chomping at the bit to get even MORE people (money) in the door. Pretty tired of shareholders and profits over people. It’s ruining everything.
Stardust actually has the same electrical boxes at the entrance that the portals do to allow for facial recognition, so that could be gated as well. From what I remember, Constellation Carousel has *something* at the entrance, but it didn’t resemble the other electrical boxes, so that may be open to all
Charging people per portal seems an an absolutely ridiculous. It’s also crazy that I’m going to have to wait in another line to access the portals after waiting in crazy long lines to get in the park, through the crowds, on each ride, etc. If they do that I’ll never go back