2025??
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Yeah, booking opened last week.
It was always expected that the sister hotels would open before the park.
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Thanks 
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I am booked for Mardi Gras starting in February - so yeah I am getting a butter beer anyway 
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Some price checks for comparison
Friday 2/7/25
Thursday 2/13/25
Friday 2/14/25
Friday 2/28/25, which is normally a lower rate time
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When do you think it will open?
Universal has said it will open in the summer of 2025.
I’m expecting limited phased previews to begin in April or May for TMs and special guests. Probably be open for Memorial Day weekend with a Grand Opening in June. Not for nothing but the 35th anniversary of the resort is June 7, 2025…
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This makes total sense & a perfect timeline for summer. Wouldn’t this be a cool coincidence?!!?
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Some info from Alicia Stella
- Expect official Epic U news/announcements in January from Universal
- The Epic Universe Preview Center is expected to open in June (Former Legacy store in CW)
- Tickets will go on sale late summer 2024
- Team Member and AP Previews are planned for “early 2025” (may not have a soft opening)
- Universal is not expected to offer AP upgrades to Epic when the park opens to help manage capacity
- Celestial Park (hub) is expected to open to non ticket holders for dining/shopping every evening
- The Express lanes are not expected to be open until well after grand opening (Helios will not have EP included initially)
- The first expansion (WWOHP Great Hall) may open already in 2026
- The next expansion may be a Luigi’s Mansion mini-land
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Like, even for the IoA and US??
Seems like if your paying for a premium hotel it should be included, even if the new park isn’t opening with EP lanes to begin with.
Probably not because that would take more capacity if the Helios guests would be able to jump to the old parks. They would have to adjust something like sell less Express passes.
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EP is already so limited though. I feel like the existing lines could cope with guests from a new hotel without too much extra waits.
Maybe that’s naive thinking.
I take your point 
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On the other hand, while there won’t be EP at Epic at first, there would still be hotel guests there, which would draw away demand for EP at the other two parks. I think this draw would be at least proportional to the new capacity at the Helios hotel if not skewed more toward Epic Universe. So EP might be actually under less strain.
But there are a lot of factors, and I think UOR is assuming the overall guest count will surge more than park capacity is increasing, meaning everything will be busier. So that could be why they’re being cautious with adding more EP-eligible hotel rooms.
Or, they could just not like the idea of giving Helios hotel guests EP access for parks which are a drive away (from a guest services perspective). It might confuse guests that the benefit is not available for the closest park. It’s a nuance that would be easier to not have to deal with.
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Good points. Yes it sounds like Universal is going to err on the cautious side, they’ll already have enough to deal with.
The new Parkstop Podcast is out today in case anyone wants to get their take on the Express issue.
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Yes, I was thinking that too, but then I thought that while of course everyone will check out the new park, they’ll probably still hit the existing ones too 
Maybe it all balances out.
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Depending on dates and how expensive the new hotel is, I could see staying 2-3 nights at a premier near city walk, and then transferring to Helios for a day at Epic Universe.
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I could also see them expecting demand for Helios being high, high enough that people would be grumpy if they were forced to pay premium prices at one of the ‘old hotels’. So, this is a way to even out the demand.
As someone that likes to move to Cabana Bay for VB access, I could totally see myself moving to Helios for Epic vacation time.
If they aren’t going to allow upgrades for existing passholders to add Epic, how would that work? I could see them not allowing it to be added for free.
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