Universal Destinations & Experiences proactively improves guest satisfaction with Azure Data Explorer

Universal Orlando Resort is home to three (soon to be four) exhilarating theme parks—Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, and Universal Volcano Bay—and eight (soon to be 11) magnificently-themed hotels in Orlando, Florida. “We have some of the most technologically advanced attractions in the industry, and we pride ourselves on this,” says Caesar Esperanza, Senior Director of Business Analytics and Industrial Engineering at Universal Destinations & Experiences (UDX). Universal Orlando Resort is a part of UDX, a division of Comcast NBCUniversal.

Predictive instead of reactive maintenance

Universal Orlando Resort prioritizes guest and team members’ safety above all else. With its complex, state-of-the-art attractions, regular and routine maintenance is essential for ensuring a seamless guest experience. Universal decided to embrace predictive maintenance (PdM). This proactive approach leverages data analysis to help detect and plan for potential operational anomalies. “With predictive maintenance, we can identify potential downtimes before they ever happen to improve guest satisfaction,” explains Esperanza. 

UDX chose Azure Data Explorer (ADX) as its big data analytics platform to process near-real-time analytics and generate insights. “We evaluated several other platforms but decided that ADX was the best all-around tool,” says Esperanza. “ADX can analyze terabytes of data and hundreds of millions of records to provide summary statistics, identify trends, and perform predictions in near real-time. It also enables us to build our own models, and its tools make it easier to forecast future values based on historical data. Plus, thanks to the flexibility of Azure, our other departments can also use other Azure tools for things like revenue management and labor.”

With Microsoft Azure and ADX, Esperanza’s team brought aggregated analytics, predictive modeling, and dashboards to one of its newest attractions: Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast at Universal Orlando Resort. 

Tracking and perfecting visitor journeys

“By analyzing data from interactions with ADX, we can see how our experiences and guest touchpoints are being used,” says Esperanza. “And we can answer questions like: How are our systems performing? What are our guests experiencing? How many guests are completing each experience? What operational trends and challenges do we have?” With integrated Power BI dashboards, the team can preview ride vehicle system performance information at a glance. 

With this unprecedented level of insight into the performance of each attraction, Universal can plan and improve proactively. “With this invaluable data on guest satisfaction, we can make sure that all interactive elements engage our visitors effectively,” says Esperanza. The company can also fine-tune things like gameplay balances—i.e., making sure that games are appropriately challenging for guests.

Optimizing capacities, costs, and experiences

At Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast, an interactive attraction with game-based technology where guests can blast their way to supervillain stardom, ADX processes more than 100 million records and nearly 100 gigabytes of data. “Our goal was to use the data from our systems to understand the performance of that attraction, particularly the blasters,” explains Esperanza. “With ADX, we can monitor different parameters like battery life and network drops and predict blaster performance. We went from zero visibility to excellent data, giving us much better awareness of our most critical asset.” The company also tracks metrics like frames per second (FPS) performance, measuring how quickly a game can render frames on computer screens to ensure a top-notch visitor experience.

Universal Orlando Resort’s team has overwhelmingly welcomed the greater insight and predictability. “The feedback from my team on using the platform has been very positive. Learning Kusto Query Language (KQL), the default language in ADX, wasn't difficult for anyone on my team. We managed to learn and set everything up quickly,” adds Esperanza. But the true victors are the guests who enjoy a seamless interactive experience and can be fully immersed in Universal’s attractions. The team at Universal also has the ability to better predict when a blaster at the attraction may need maintenance. “Since enabling the Microsoft Azure and ADX capabilities, we have experienced an impressive 66% reduction in labor hours on work orders related to the blaster network at the attraction,” said Esperanza. 

For Esperanza, a reliable partner was key to this successful implementation. “We wouldn't be where we are without the partnership with Microsoft and its technology and guidance,” he adds. “We didn't have an internal architect to help us with the proof of concept (PoC) or adoption. But we had outstanding support.” 

“Together, we’ll continue to create and deliver experiences that reflect the current and ever-changing face of the world,” concludes Esperanza.