NBCUniversal’s Mark Woodbury, CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, has revealed exciting new details about the under construction Universal Epic Universe theme park, due to open in 2025.
In an exciting speech today, Thursday, September 14 at the Bank of America Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference, NBCUniversal’s Mark Woodbury, CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, revealed huge new details on the currently under construction Universal Epic Universe Theme Park, which is scheduled to open in Orlando in 2025.
As first reported in the Hollywood Reporter, the new park will be the most technologically advanced Universal Theme Park ever built,
It’s the most technologically advanced park we’ve ever done,” Woodbury said. “And that speaks to both the attractions themselves, the next generation of robotics drone technology, all the way through to the guest experience. The full guest journey is really being taken to a whole new level.”
Woodbury also revealing that they are making use of facial recognition, photo validation technology throughout the four lands of the park, including the already announced Super Nintendo World, which will be even bigger than the Super Nintendo World in Japan and Hollywood.
Facial recognition is being used to allow guests to have a “frictionless experience” at the new park, as well as throughout Universal Orlando Resort, including the theme parks, Universal's Islands of Adventure, and Universal Studios Florida.
The four “lands” will surround a central hub, which will be a “lush landscape” with attractions and food service, which Woodbury said will differ from others and “bring the park back into theme parks.”
Interestingly, Woodbury also shared Universal's aspirations to deliver a resort experience that will have guests wanting to stay for an entire week at the resort.
The companies goal is to extend the amount of time visitors spend at Universal Orlando, Orlando, with Epic Universe joining Universal Studios Florida, Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Volcano Bay and CityWalk, all providing an immersive experience that will get visitors to stay for a full week.
As for how Universal will manage the anticipated demand when the new park opens, Woodbury commented that after seeing high levels of interest for existing attractions such as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Super Nintendo World, Universal has “a good handle on it” thanks to new technology.
“We have the benefit of new technology that we’re deploying in terms of managing ticketing, revenue and revenue management across each of those platforms,” he said.
The park was originally announced in 2019, with a planned launch for 2023. However, construction was delayed by the pandemic, but with construction now well underway, Universal is on target to open Universal Epic Universe in 2024.
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