Central HUB of Epic Universe is very disappointing and uninspired.

First let me start off by stating that I'm a UOAP member of a number of years, and I was even at the grand opening of Volcano Bay as an instant 3 park pass holder. I love what I see so far for the concept art of Epic Universe, with how detailed it looks like they will be going for the spoked lands (in what I am assuming is Nintendo land, Monsters land, etc). They look like they will be as detailed as Diagon Alley, which is fantastic. However, the overarching design, in particular the Hotel and central HUB area between the lands, I find incredibly uninspired, boring, and counter-intuitive to what makes theme parks so great.

It looks like you will no longer feel like you are in a theme park while traveling between lands, instead it will feel like you are exploring a hotels fancy courtyards and water features with a few rare shops here and there. Instead of it feeling like one big theme park with something exciting around every corner, it will feel like one hotels big courtyard, with mini-theme park entrances in various locations, that will probably require rescanning your ticket to get into, to separate the lands from the free central HUB hotel grounds area. I don't mind merging a CityWalk style area in between the theme park, I don't even mind having to rescan your ticket to access the different lands... but the design of the area is completely uninspired and boring. It feels like they have all this vast space, and they instantly kill it by just adding an over abundance of water features with unnecessarily long walking paths between lands, and it feels like the only reason this is done is so that hotel guests have a nice view at the expense of the non-hotel guests losing out on the ability to feel like they are still in a theme park between the lands.

You have a giant hotel as the main visible feature. I don't know about anyone else, but since when was a hotel the main thing you want to see while you explore a theme park? If there is any fast way to kick you out of the theme park mentality, it's a giant hotel that takes over an entire compass directions field of view. Directly in front of the hotel is the central HUB area of the theme park. It's mainly very long wide open paths, some nature, and tons of water features... basically just one giant fancy hotel grounds with a few rare experiences sprinkled here and there. That doesn't feel exciting, instead it feels like a bother to dread having to walk through every time you want to switch to a different land. It won't feel like you are traveling within a theme park, with all kinds of interesting things at every corner as you go between rides, instead it looks like you'll be leaving one theme park, walking across hotel grounds, before you arrive to the next theme park. This makes some sense if the park was called 'Fantastic Worlds', because then you could say this isn't a theme park, it's a corridor between worlds. But it's now called Epic Universe, except there isn't anything Epic looking about the hotel grounds area that cuts the theme park in half.

Some people may think it looks fine, but I counter with possibilities we could have had instead with a little thinking outside the box. For example, it would have been awesome if we had something like Disney's People Mover that transported guests between the lands while also giving an interesting perspective into each of the lands from above. It could have been awesome to have a coaster that traveled above the paths, so you'd have something exciting to walk under at some point while traveling between lands that reminded you that you are in a theme park. It could have been awesome to have an arcade pavilion, or Virtual Reality pavilion at some part of the central area. How about an awesome water ride that is more leisure but would add greatly to the atmosphere as you could see everyone on the ride relaxing while you walked to the next land? What about a stage area for live music, or an outdoor area that hosts various events like they do over at Epcot (Yes there is something that looks like a live stage area in the concept art, but it's nowhere near the HUB area).

There are so many awesome ideas that could have been done, and instead all we got was boring really long walking paths with some trees and water features the whole way, with a few tiny shops/experiences far and between. I haven't even gotten into the fact that the central HUB area looks like it will take a long time to walk between lands, and yet it barely has anything to help defend against the Florida sun. Current Universal in Orlando has tons of shops and rides at every turn to hop into to cool off. Where are those options in this concept arts HUB design? They are much rarer.

I understand what Universal is probably thinking, making Epic Universe the kind of place their hotel stayers can visit on multiple days, without needing an actual theme park ticket, to shop and dine, to help promote the idea of Universal Orlando resort as a week long stay... You can literally just leave your hotel and hang out at Epic Universe, having fun on all the parts that are free and never entering any of the lands where the rides are. It makes financial sense, you are promoting people to always be around to pay money shopping and dining. But by making the central area of Epic Universe this way, they kill the whole spark and wonder of being in a theme park and turn it into an annoying chore you have to endure with your only eye candy being a giant hotel that you probably aren't even staying at, sun blazing, before you get to the next mini-theme park where you need to rescan your ticket to remind you yet again that all this time you weren't in a theme park, you were just walking on fancy hotel grounds.

I know this is early art, and they don't want to play their whole hand yet, but that just makes it even more super important for Universal to hear this early feedback, because hopefully it is still early enough that they can make some changes. As of right now, the central HUB design of Epic Universe showcased in their first released artwork leaves a lot to be desired, and just feels waay too huge and a waste of space between lands. Hopefully they will have major improvements and something to make you go 'wow' in the future. Otherwise the HUB area just looks annoying to pass through for the sake of a nice view for those staying in the hotel.

What do you guys think?