Imagineering Insider: Navigator’s Wheel is coming to Epic Universe

Today we’re going to be taking an inside look at the development of Epic Universe’s newest attraction, the Navigator’s Wheel, a 200 feet tall ferris wheel themed around Maya of the Skies and Captain Cacao. All the information we’ll be sharing with you came from an interview with the upcoming ride’s director Elizabeth M. The new attraction was conceptualized out of a desire to 1. Better fill out Celestial Park’s line up, making it feel as complete a land as all the main portals and 2. Give guests who aren’t staying at the Helios Grand Hotel a chance to get an overhead view of the park. Before the designers even settled on what type of ride they would build, they knew that they wanted to give a newfound importance to the characters featured at the Moonship Chocolates & Celestial Sweets store, with the titular Moonship being a major visual they wanted to play off. As the second goal of the attraction might imply, when choosing what type of attraction to construct, finding something that could be feasibly built to the height of the Helios Grand Hotel was a major factor, with a drop tower at first being considered before being scrapped due to concerns of the land becoming too focused on thrills in combination with Stardust Racers, the idea of running actual hot air balloons was also brought up before it was, despite being favored by the designers due to the more relaxed nature of the concept, scrapped due to it being considered highly impractical to go with. Concept art of these early concepts is included below:

Ultimately it took a reevaluation of the design philosophy of Celestial Park’s pre-existing attractions to settle on choosing a ferris wheel, with the pick being justified under the logic that Stardust Racers and the Constellation Carousel are both simple carnival attractions at their core that stand out due to the loving care taken in making them feel thematically unique to the area of the park they’re housed in. Additionally, the lack of a ferris wheel in any of Universal’s current repertoire and inspiration from the nearby Orlando Eye helped drive the decision. Upon making the decision, the initial sketch shown below was drawn up:

 

After pouring over potential expansion plots, including over the central fountain before it was decided that that would actually hurt the land’s sightline, the designers chose a spot somewhat near the center of the land instead. Combined with the sketch seen above the concept, location, and height (around 200 feet tall) was pitched to higher-ups. While the general project was approved, the initial visual design was not, as designers were told that the wheel needed to have a more striking presence and be more reminiscent of the Moonship and its associated characters if it was to be built, which lead to the creation of the following sketch.

This concept was approved! With the cars being modeled after hot air balloons in reference to the earlier concept, the wheel’s body being modeled after a compass, and figures of Maya of the Skies and Captain Cacao being placed upon two of the cars, the wheel was now in a place where it could truly be considered a stand out attraction. A final, full color piece of concept art of the wheel was drawn up, alongside a version of the Epic Universe map with it included, before construction properly began, both of which have been included in this article.

Readers can look forward to boarding the Moonships and flying upon the Navigator’s Wheel in 2027.