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I have heard some amazing things from some people, and many valid critiques from others. Recently I saw a tiktok of a girl criticizing the park for many things, and many people in the comments flocked to say they were just a Disney adult and shouldn’t compare it to Disney.
However to me, her criticisms seemed valid. She received a lot of hate for this, so I was just curious what your alls genuine thoughts on epic universe is and how it compares to other theme parks across the globe and the other Universal/Disney parks in Orlando!
Florida native, I grew up going to Universal Studios and IOA. I’m back in Florida for a few weeks and was thinking about going to the new Epic Universe, but was shocked at the low reviews on Google Maps.
It seems most of the reviews are due to long wait times for ride and rides breaking down; however, I don’t do roller coasters or “scary rides”, so that wouldn’t bother me. I just like walking around, seeing shows and characters, etc. Also do love Mario and Harry Potter
Given that, is there anything I should be aware of as to why this is apparently the lowest-rated theme park in Orlando lol
I was a little nervous about going to Epic because my expectations were sky high and I kept seeing a lot of negativity surrounding the park opening. Overall, I loved the park. It’s tied or possibly better than IOA for me. I’ll just list my thoughts in an internet friendly numbered list a la Jenny Nicholson.
It’s not perfect but wow it still blew me away. I was aware that new parks always have growing pains and I think I went on a pretty busy day. It was fairly packed, but I still enjoyed it. I really was not expecting the scale of everything. Truly a masterpiece in modern theme parks. I went in spoiler free outside of knowing ride names so it really felt like a discovery the entire day.
I think express is a requirement to enjoy the park, I just can’t find any joy when waiting in line. I would rather only get 1 day with express vs 3 days with no express. The queues are massive and there were many rides that were a 2+ hour wait and Ministry got to 4 at one point 😭🤯
Yes, the shade is an issue. Even though it’s November, it got into the low/mid 80s. It’s hot, there isn’t a lot of shade and some areas feel like they are roasting you, specifically in Super Mario world. The Harry Potter area was great because of the large buildings creating shade. Idk how to solve the super Mario shade problem without ruining the look of everything being in the cartoon Mario style. Although many of the queues are shaded or have ac which is fantastic. Hiccups had large portions of waiting in direct sunlight, it did have trees so hopefully they grow in and help that. I did my best to do the areas with shaded queues during the hottest part of the day.
I was extremely disappointed that monsters was closed the entire day of my visit. Got to walk the queue and it was incredible but this was my most anticipated ride and it being closed really put a damper on the day. The incredible park made up for it but still so sad I didn’t get to experience the ride.
Stardust racers was fantastic. Got a morning and night ride and it was even better than expected. The night ride was one of my favorite coaster experiences if I try and forget about the smell. I’m so happy universal is continuing to add large scale thrill coasters because they do them sooooooo well. I know they aren’t for everyone but wow, they keep making hit after hit.
The Smell. I was a little confused when I kept noticing a… sewage type smell throughout the day. I only noticed it in Berk, stardust racers, and the Harry Potter area. After googling it, it’s some kind of water treatment plant nearby. I guess that’s why the area wasn’t very developed before universal got there. I know there’s nothing they can do now but yikes it was really strong in some areas. Maybe I was just there when the wind was blowing the wrong way.
The Mario area surprised me. I’m not a big Mario fan, I’m aware of it but haven’t played the games or anything in forever. It was incredible to see it, so many moving parts, it really felt like the games come to life. I do think real trees would ruin this illusion but they need some shade. Maybe a retractable canopy or something because I know Florida storms make something like that difficult to achieve.
Battle at the ministry has the most impressive queue ever made. Wow. It’s unbelievable how good it looks. I’ve been to the studio tour where they filmed in London and it has nothing on this. This was a true work of art and I can’t believe how good it turned out. I also loved the ride even though I’m not a big fan of this type of ride all the time. This was the right way to do it. Screens but not an over reliance on them, only there to enhance the experience. The line was about an hour even though I rope dropped with express pass because there was maintenance delays. If the line wasn’t insane the entire day, I would have ridden again. I think this ride will gain a better reputation once the line isn’t 2-4 hours long. I think Hagrids is having a similar evolution over the years, of people not all liking it their first ride because they waited an insane amount of time but now that the wait isn’t quite as bad most days, I feel like I see more positives. It’s much easier to enjoy something you waited an hour for. If I waited 2-4, it better be the best ride ever made and those expectations can ruin the experience for some.
They need to do away with the standing pre-show at the circus show in the Harry Potter area. This show was fantastic and a surprise as I’m not a big fan of fantastic beasts. Totally worth it though. They do this standing preshow here and at Bourne stuntacular. It’s very unneeded. I was already standing outside in line, then standing inside the tent in line, then you get let in and you’re excited to sit down and relax, enjoy a show in the ac. Only to find out you have to stand like sardines for 15 more minutes as they herd people in to a circular room and do a preshow that could have been done on stage. Amazing animatronics and character actors. I honestly only did the show because we had some extra time and it was the hottest part of the day, very glad we saw it.
Dark Universe is the best idea a theme park has ever had. Horror and monsters is a huge genre and a very successful genre. People love horror and Halloween year round. Yet very few theme parks take advantage of the wealth of horror related themes. This is the best theme park land I’ve ever been in. It’s perfect and I really hope they expand it. Still so sad I couldn’t fully experience Monsters Unchained but the building and queue was already one of the best I’ve ever seen. The castle?! Such an amazing backdrop for the land. The tavern was much smaller than I expected and the blades weren’t burning but it was still cute. Curse of the werewolf was a fun little ride. Very short but it’s a good supporting ride, the land definitely needs Monsters Unchained because Werewolf doesn’t work to me as the main act. It’s cute but nothing compared to the scale of Monsters. I ate at both the tavern and Das Stakehaus and enjoyed both. I really hope this land is a success because I want more. Definitely my favorite area in the park.
The hotel. This isn’t a complaint or a compliment. Just a little confused why they chose an in park hotel. It just takes up so much space that could’ve been used for an expansion to a current land or a couple of extra lands altogether. It looks cool from the outside, I’m just surprised they didn’t do it in its own area like all the other hotels at universal. The fountains and ambiance of it at night are beautiful though.
The park at night. If you can, make sure to spend as much time as possible at the park at night. It’s gorgeous. The lighting on the rides, the lighting in the park, the spot lights from each one entrnace, I could go on and on. No Florida sun, it’s makes the park look 10x better and it’s so much more pleasant to experience. I was only planning on going to Dark Universe at night but ended up exploring each land at night again because of how nice it was. Berk and Mario was so much nicer without the blazing sun. I could explore and look at all the details without being fried. Most parks are better at night but this park beat them all out, incredible at night.
Overall, one of my favorite parks I’ve ever been to and I’ve been lucky enough to travel to many theme parks. I’m a huge theme park buff and loved it, my partner is not a theme park buff and also loved it. So although it still has some kinks to work out, it’s a very well done park and I would go back over and over again if I could.
I really expected worse because although I tried to avoid any info on the parks, I constantly saw negative reviews about it. It definitely has potential to be the best park ever made, maybe a 5th land and a few more rides to spread people out some more. Can’t wait to see what the future holds for this park. Thank you for reading my thoughts.