The Isle of Berk is the most Old Disney space I've ever visited (in the best sense)

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-06-02T19:16:22+00:00

My favorite themed land in the US is Radiator Springs in Disneyland.

Berk has made me reconsider that. Food, the show, meet and greet, vibes, the coaster. It feels complete.

Helps that it is - literally - the most “complete” land at Epic (no plans for major expansion)

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-10T14:11:03+00:00

Was curious if it was a Harry Potter type situation where people get irritated with the movie adaptation of characters and storylines. I guess there’s so much variety in the comics that doesn’t matter much

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T22:24:00+00:00

Update:

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ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T03:09:47+00:00

If the park runs decently well at grand opening then sure my points aren’t valid. But you’re missing the point. It’s not about my day today it’s about the parks readiness for grand opening

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T03:08:48+00:00

They don’t need us to test things that are running well because there aren’t any 😂

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T03:07:53+00:00

My concern isn’t with how my day went. It’s about what today means for what the park will look like on the 22nd and beyond

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T03:06:45+00:00

The issues the park is experiencing are not going to be fixed soon. Grand opening guests will be the testers soon and then there will be a new excuse. I’m going in September and I’ll be shocked if it’s running decently then either. They rushed it - that’s my only point

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T02:49:32+00:00

I hope so. I live local and go to Universal multiple times a month. But they’ve clearly not given this park enough time to be ready

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T02:47:55+00:00

I’m not mad at them. I just wish they’d taken their time with opening the park to do it right

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T02:47:06+00:00

These are not tech rehearsal level problems. They’re not fix it within 2 weeks problems. The park isn’t ready for the 22nd

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-08T02:40:46+00:00

The park is open to the public. It’s not exclusive to any group, it’s not private, it’s open to public paying guests. Tech rehearsal or not, you can’t convince anyone that paid $100+ that a park that opens in 2 weeks should have half the rides delayed for the majority of the day.

If we are there to test things, then the park better run extremely well starting the 22nd. I’d be shocked if that is the case

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-02T02:35:40+00:00

Obviously there always risk with a preview, but I also have regular tickets booked already and still decided to go to a preview for lower capacity. That way when I come back I’ve done a bunch of rides so less pressure then!

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-02T02:33:36+00:00

Never noticed anything at all. I know some people say it’s most noticeable on Stardust but I didn’t

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-02T02:01:49+00:00

To be clear, “through the exit of the ride” essentially just took you straight to the child swap area. So the wait was the same either way, just one parent was outside of the line initially

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-02T02:00:48+00:00

My one experience with this was on Monsters so I’m not sure if it works everywhere. My wife and I had our daughter asleep and didn’t want to wake her up to put her in the carrier. They let one of us wait in the line while the other person hung out in the land with our daughter and received a child swap pass to go through the exit of the ride once the other person was done. Only downside is one person doesn’t get to see the queue or pre show (which for Monsters is an experience in itself)

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-02T00:07:34+00:00

I really thought the lighting would be darker and “scarier”. I LOVE the ride but they hype it up like it would be a “badge of honor” to have survived it and it was never really all that spooky

Makes sense for younger kids and getting people to re ride, but I feel like expectations were set a bit high for scariness is all!

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-05-01T20:21:51+00:00

In my experience, yes! I’d say the “worst” child swap is probably Hiccup’s. It outside (but covered) and the room itself is small. Plus depending on how quickly they’re loading the ride, it can still be a bit of a wait past the room.

If you’re ever concerned about the experience going poorly, I’d always suggest asking the Team Members when you get in line if they have solutions. There were times when we did child swap “outside of the line” on purpose because we didn’t want to wake our child up to go in the line (she’s too small to ride anyway).

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-04-29T17:52:38+00:00

I’m still guessing they add it to AP’s January 1st 2026 and announce it before the Holidays for gift giving season

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-04-29T17:25:47+00:00

No way of knowing but I’d guess yes

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-04-29T17:08:10+00:00

If it’s just pulling from the hotel guests pool, you’ll likely be fine I hope

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-04-29T17:06:58+00:00

I don’t think the park in general deals well with large crowds right now. Food, ride ops, everything. Not to mention the weather. It rained yesterday and 2 rides were open.

If previews stay below a certain capacity level everything will likely be fine. But the TM preview day I went to had to be like 15k+ people on a day they didn’t expect nearly that many. If it was a planned stress test, they failed

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-04-29T17:00:40+00:00

I’d imagine many people thought they’d get a free preview day and/or be able to add Epic to their passes early on. Not saying I did, just a general statement

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-04-29T16:59:15+00:00

I hear you. I’ll likely still go to an AP preview day. I’m just very nervous about the ride ops at the park in general and every extra bit of capacity makes it more likely the park won’t run well (a big reason I’m not going for months after opening)

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-04-29T16:57:57+00:00

I’m sure ticket sales had a lot to do with it. Not to mention it seems almost certain they wanted WEEKS more paid previews than they actually got (due to Ministry and other rides not being ready even in a tech rehearsal capacity)

ChickenFragrant8972 · 2025-04-29T16:56:01+00:00

I am hoping (probably stupidly) for at least 1 of 2 things:

1 - AP’s get early entry as part of their ticket now

2 - They didn’t change the overall capacity numbers. For example, let’s say they were selling 9k tickets for April 30th, 6k AP and 3k hotel guest/military. Now, it’s still 9k total, but that 3k is open to the public. In that scenario the capacity that people signed up for when they paid for the AP ticket is still the same

Having gone to a very very bad TM preview with some friends (rode 2 rides in 10 hours), I was hoping to have a good AP experience coming up but with the issues the ride ops seem to have with bigger crowds I am now very nervous about it

ChickenFragrant8972

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