Epic Universe Opening Live Blog: I'm Reacting To Universal Orlando Resort's New Theme Park, The Blue Carpet And More

The show is rough, but Epic Universe isn't. The park is incredible. Tomorrow is going to be a huge day.

The production problems continue. One person asks a question, leading to a long delay before the answer, and the answer is clearly pre-written and given by a person who can't hear, the question

If people don't want to know basically everything about Epic Universe before they get to the park, they probably shouldn't be watching this. They're not leaving a lot of secrets here.

We're moving on How To Train Your Dragon: isle of Berk. Honestly, as a land, this is the best part of the park, and I say that as somebody who isn't a particular fan of the franchise. It has a great family roller coast, an incredible stage show, and between live and animated characters, the land is just alive.

It looks like we'll be showing off each land in detail. We're getting a prerecorded video of a look at the entrance area, Celestial Park. This includes both of the attractions inside the land, Stardust Racers and Constellation Carousel.

We have John Marks, an executive producer on the upcoming documentary series about the creation of Epic Universe. It will be available with a Peacock subscription next month. We shift to a clip, after another production slip from the hosts. The series looks to be the Universal version of The Imagineering Story. It's great to see Universal doing something like this.

Now we're getting a video package showing off various parts of the park, one land at a time. This is going to get more people to want to visit Epic Universe than anything else we've seen so far.

We're now moving "inside the park" according to the live stream. It's unclear if the Blue Carpet is officially done or not. To be fair, if we're only going to get more executives, it's fine to move on.

And now we have two executive from Warner Bros. who are on hand because of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Land. To be fair, Ministry of Magic is a pretty incredible land. The Ministry of magic attraction is the best in the park, and don't sleep on the Fantastic Beasts stage show.

Our interviewer is now mugging for the camera like he's waiting for somebody to walk into camera, but now it looks like it's not happening.

In the next interview, the great-great-grandniece of the founder of Universal Pictures was just asked what a relative she never could have met would think of Universal theme parks today. I don't know what to do with that.

Our hosting trio is now selling how exciting these interviews are. They break away back to the Blue Carpet because somebody exciting is there, the camera switches over, and we briefly see Nintendo Shigeru Miyamoto, who waves...and walks away.

It's weird that we're just getting wall to wall Universal executive in a live stream that is ostensibly designed for the general public. As a theme park nerd, I love to hear what these people have to say, but I'm not sure a lot of the public is going to care as much. Breaking up the C-suite with some celebrities would go a long way to smoothing this out.

Ok, the Chief Creative Officer of Universal Creative just thanked everybody who helped make Epic Universe happen, and that was lovely. For me, the best thing about theme parks is understanding the creativity and artistry that goes into them, and understanding it was all done by amazing people.

Everybody is referring to the park as Universal Epic Universe, and can I just say I hate it? The fact that they put Universe in the name of the park has always been a weird choice, there's no way to refer to the park and the resort without tripping over your tongue.

The next interview is Karen Irwin, the President of Universal Orlando Resort. I have to say the production on this is a little rough. To be fair Universal Orlando hasn't done a live event like this often, so this is all a little new for them.

Interestingly, Woodbury says the goal is to make Universal Orlando Resort a "full week experience." With three full theme parks, plus a water park and several resorts, they're awfully close to that now.

Following an Epic Universe commercial, we get a title card, and the show is officially underway. Mark Woodbury, the CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, is being interviewed as people are filtering in.

Hey, we're getting a commercial for Xfinity! That wouldn't usually be worth celebrating but as Xfinity is sponsoring the show (Comcast owns Universal) I'm guessing the show is now starting!

I assume this livestream will have a host and that host could be on screen saying literally anything to keep things going if the "show" isn't ready yet. That would be preferable to nothing.

I didn't exactly expect this thing to get started on time but 10 minutes late is getting silly. C'mon guys, let's get this thing going.

What're the odds we get an announcement of an Epic Universe expansion or whatever the next big project for Universal Orlando is, tonight? I wouldn't put it past them to confirm a land dedicated to Wicked, or possibly a confirmation of what's replacing Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, before the end of the night.

It's now 6:00 ET, which is the official start time for the live stream. Things haven't quite gotten rolling yet, not surprising for a live event. We are getting a taste of some of the park's excellent music, which isn't a bad way to wait.

I got to experience all of Epic Universe's attractions when I was there, but the thing that I need to go back and experience more of is the general vibe of the park. Sometimes the best part of a theme park is the feeling you get from it when you're not doing anything. We probably won't get much impression of that tonight, considering just how fully packed tonight's event probably is.

We're just a few minutes away from the beginning of the official Epic Universe Grand Opening Celebration live stream. Several celebrities were on hand over the last couple of days to "open" the portals to different lands, so we can guess we'll see them on the Blue Carpet. Beyond that, how the new park will be shown off is unclear, but it should be fun.