Absolutely yes, it’s time to let the animals retire.
Now, two brand new rides is probably too much to ask. But with some creative architects and engineers on staff, I think we can redesign the amphitheater to be an interactive exploratory environment like Super Mario Land or Donkey Kong Country. Like I said before, Power-Up bands with a new PokéGear design. If they really wanted to sell us stuff, they’ll include a Pokémon Go style app where we can “catch” Pokémon after unlocking them by completing mini games. Maybe even allow guests to battle each other! And instead of Bowser Jr’s Challenge, we can have a randomly generated Gym Leader battle. Strictly one Pokémon apiece, in the interest of time.
There’s plenty of unused land behind Springfield, that only ever sees action as popup haunted houses during HHN. I think if Universal is willing to do one less house in the future, you could do some major landscaping. Set it up as a nature trail like you’d find at Animal Kingdom. If you have the app activated, you can randomly encounter basic Pokémon.
I know this all sounds kind of fantastical. But Universal has the resources to make it happen. All they need is the willpower. Epic is full of risks, and almost all of them have paid off. Sure, you’ll always have paid shills like WDWNewsToday trashing everything Universal does while Disney can do no wrong. But after one major unpopular decision after another out of Anaheim, combined with Universal doing everything short of physically groveling to appease their fans, I think this is the year that the paradigm shifts.
DH is the least tuned into park information that an American adult can be. Even he at dinner last night said, “People are raving about EPIC.” He does listen to podcasts while he works on our house but nothing remotely vacation related.
Yeah, they’ll probably rename it eventually, but Mythos isn’t going anywhere. Maybe if it wasn’t on the waterfront. But it’d simply be too much of an obstruction to wall off. It would effectively cut off the quickest route to Hogsmeade
Fire Eater’s Grill along with those shops on either side of it got lucky. Probably just get a rebrand to go along with the new theme. But I don’t think it’s permanent. Once the rest of the land is complete, they’ll be next on the chopping block. It’s just a matter of practicality that the whole land isn’t getting demo’d at once
Really? Does he regularly refer to the Magic Kingdom as “Disney World”, rather than the entire resort complex? Does he refer to Universal Orlando as Disney, and when corrected dismisses you as “same thing”?
The in-park game experiences (power-up band, wands) would appeal to me way more if I was a local, especially since they require an initial investment, but I suppose that would be one more thing to push me to do a full universal trip, rather than just a couple days during a 2-week mostly Disney trip. Crossing my fingers and toes for Pokémon in the UK park (I know nothing in the concept art pointed to it but I’d happily sacrifice one of the other rumoured kids areas, sorry Paddington).
I know this isn’t really a Universal thing but I’d love a Navi River Journey type boat ride (with more AAs) as the secondary ride in the land. There isn’t a huge amount of non-simulator stuff for families in that park.
If it is in fact Pokémon, I can see Fire Eaters Grill rechristened as “Charizard Grill” or something similar, and Doc Sugrue’s being renamed after a Fire type Gym Leader
Mythos is gonna be a bitch to remodel, mainly removing all the human faces. Maybe they could do like the Tree of Life and do a great collage of Legendary (aka mythological) breeds, hopefully keeping the various water features
Hmm, I hadn’t consider UUK (I hate that name so much) because I figured they wanted to be as unique as possible. But judging from the concept art, it looks like they have at least two expansion pads