Note: this is primarily a summary of work by Alicia Stella at Park Stop, and is based on planning and trademark applications (which have all been accurate with the official information released so far).

I have also only included rides on this list, not shows or other attractions.

Celestial Park (2 rides)

Constellation Carousel
Type: Flat ride
Manufacturer: Unknown
Comment: Seems to be a fairly standard carousel, except it foes in a figure of 8 rather than a circle

Starfall Racers (x2)
Type: Rollercoaster
Manufacturer: Mack Rides
Similar rides: Icon (Blackpool Pleasure Beach), Velocicoaster
Comment: Duelling Multi-launch Coaster from Mack, it will be this parks Velocicoaster and almost certainly the stand-out coaster

Dark Universe (2 rides)

Curse of the Werewolf
Type: Rollercoaster
Manufacturer: Mack Rides
Similar rides: Cobra's Curse (Busch Gardens Tampa)
Comment: Family Spinning Coaster from Mack, it's a shame they didn't go for an Xtreme Spinner but that may have been deemed too intense

Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment
Type: Dark ride
Manufacturer: Robocoaster (?)
Similar rides: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Comment: Uses the same KUKA-arm ride system as Forbidden Journey, though the layout suggests it will be less screen based.

Isle of Berk (3 rides)

Dragon Racer's Rally (x2)
Type: Flat ride
Manufacturer: Gerstlauer
Similar rides: Fairly common Sky Fly ride, especially in Europe
Comment: Duel Sky Fly's from Gerstlauer

Fyre Drill
Type: Interactive Boat Ride
Manufacturer: Mack Rides
Similar rides: Fairly common Splash Battle ride
Comment: Interactive Boat Ride from Mack

Hiccup's Wing Gliders
Type: Rollercoaster
Manufacturer: Intamin
Similar rides: Hagrid's
Comment: Family Multi-launch Coaster from Intamin. It looks like to will be similar to Hagrid's, but maybe slightly more family friendly

Ministry of Magic (1 ride)

Battle of the Ministry of Magic
Type: Dark Ride
Manufacturer: Oceaneering Entertainment Systems (?)
Similar rides: Amazing Adventure's of Spider-Man, Transformers 3D, Jurassic World Adventure
Comment: Uses the same SCOOP ride system as Spider-man, but won't be 3D - so hopefully less screen based

Super Nintendo World (3 rides)

Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge
Type: Augmented Reality Dark Ride
Manufacturer: MTS Systems
Similar rides: Mario Kart at other Universal Parks
Comment: Clone of the Mario Kart ride at other Universal Parks

Mine Cart Madness
Type: Rollercoaster
Manufacturer: Unknown (ride system is patented by Universal)
Similar rides: Mine Cart Madness at Universal Japan
Comment: Clone of the Donkey Kong ride at Universal Japan

Yoshi's Adventure
Type: Omnimover
Manufacturer: Unknown
Similar rides: People Mover, The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride!
Comment: People Mover style ride that will take you round the area

Interested to hear what ride people are most looking forward to, and if you think 11 rides will be enough?

Me and my mom are going to Universal (and Epic Universe) for the first time. We are Disney people who aren’t really into thrill rides. We love to do Tron but both of us didn’t really like the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. Both of us don’t do rides that go upside down or anything too crazy.

What rides are the most intense and the least intense? We don’t know what to expect and how many rides to anticipate going on. What do you guys recommend?

What are the best rides at Epic? There's lots of rides and all are great I'm sure 😄

POTENTIAL SPOILERS for those of you who don’t wanna see a ranking I guess, just in case.

I went for the second time about two days ago now and I managed to do every single ride in the park (with the exception of the Green side of Stardust Racers) and have now done my ranking of what I believe is the best to worst. Potential hot takes inbound, but ask away 🫡

I was lucky enough to attend a preview of Epic Universe and I wanted to share my thoughts on the park as a whole.

Overall, it's a really great park. Universal did really well with the design overall and I felt like it flowed well from one land to the next.

The Bad:

No shade - Now this I think will be fixed with time once all the trees grow. In the meantime there literally isn't any shade unless you go inside of a building. Same for some of the outdoor queues, about half of the queue is shaded and the other half is left out in the sun. Brutal.

Not family oriented - if you're a family with small kids, do no waste a day on Epic Universe especially if your child isn't 40" tall. There really isn't a lot to do with small kids at the park. A playground in dragons, the boat ride, and the carousel are the only attractions that small kids can do. I feel like Islands and Studios both have better small kid dedicated areas.

Nintendo guest flow - escalator up into the land and steps back down, this is going to be a nightmare especially with the number of strollers we see in Orlando parks.

The Good:

Cutting edge attractions - Monsters is amazing, so is almost every other ride in the park. Universal really knocked it out of the (theme) park with these attractions.

Rides designed well to handle crowds - Hiccup's has 2 loading stations, Monster's is a people eater just like Forbidden Journey, Stardust has a THRC north of 3000 people per hour, we were even surprised by the amount of people able to ride the carousel at the same time. With the exception of Mine Cart Madness and Dragon Racers Rally, this park's attractions are really built to handle crowds.

The park is designed to handle crowds - while the paths are not as wide as Tokyo Disneyland, they are wider than both the other Universal parks and will handle the crowds well.

The food - I would put Epic Universe up there with Dollywood and Knoebels for the best theme park food in the US. Everything we saw looked amazing and the pizzas we had at Pizza Moon were the best theme park pizzas (Via Napoli included) I have ever eaten. Another dining note was that we didn't find a freestyle machine out of ice all day (a big problem for the existing parks).

Standouts:

Stardust Racers - a really great coaster with really good capacity. I really enjoyed getting to race with the other train each time and the Celestial Spin is such a great element. Loads of airtime and some really cool views of the park. The coaster is somewhere in my top 10 (out of 354).

Monsters Unchained - Amazing. Great animatronics, great use of screens. A perfect take on a old school ghost train ride. I will say this is the best use of projected faces I have ever seen anywhere.

I didn't get to ride Battle at the Ministry but I'm sure that will be a standout when it eventually opens.

Untrainable - probably the best theme park show on the planet right now. The perfect length to keep little ones engaged and all of the special effects were perfect. Great use of large LED screens.

Musings:

So there was a lot of hype around this park and I think it lived up to most of the hype. I heard a few people think this park would be a Disney "killer" but I don't think that's the case. It's good, don't get me wrong. I don't think it will compete with the nostalgia and brand Disney has created from a general public (GP) perspective. I'm an enthusiast so I think just about everything in this park is better than what Disney has created in recent years. This park is so very good at world building and placing you in the middle of a movie accurate world and I can say that Universal does this way better than Disney (except for Cars Land, but that's a discussion for another day).

I think out of the park, Nintendo will be the hit with the GP while enthusiasts will gravitate towards Dark Universe.

Out of everything we rode, Mine Cart Madness was both my wife and I's favorite ride. I think it was really innovative and Universal executed it well (except for the low capacity).

I'm really interested on how Epic will affect market share/guest flow in Orlando. I'm confident that families would add an extra day to their Universal vacations to go to Epic. I am less confident that it would take a day off of a families Disney vacation. I think the biggest looser is probably SeaWorld in this situation since it's usually the park people add on to their vacations if they have an extra day.

Listening to Len Testa on the Disney Dish Podcast, he indicated that Epic has the same capacity and things to do as Animal Kingdom did opening day. Based on our experience at the park, that seems about right. I wouldn't say that Epic is a half day park though, it still took all day (10-7) to do everything. I could see however, if they let in too many people, it would make for a really miserable experience.

Where it ranks:

So I really like theme parks with flowing, tree lined paths that look like they have been integrated into the environment (see Efteling, Europa Park, Dollywood, Silver Dollar City, Tweetsie Railroad, Alton Towers, etc.) and parks with good capacity (see Europa Park).

While Epic doesn't quite fit into these categories—it's flat and lacks shade—it's still a world-class theme park that I highly recommend everyone visit if they get the chance. There's really nothing I dislike about Epic (aside from the points I mentioned earlier); I just happen to prefer 11 other parks a bit more.

Based on what we experienced from our preview visit, I would rank Epic Universe #12 out of 73

1 Europa Park - Rust

2 Silver Dollar City - Branson

3 Efteling - Kaatsheuvel

4 Dollywood - Pigeon Forge

5 Disneyland - Anaheim

6 Alton Towers - Stoke on Trent

7 Tokyo DisneySea - Tokyo

8 Universal Studios Islands of Adventure - Orlando

9 Tokyo Disneyland - Tokyo

10 Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom - Lake Buena Vista

11 Parc Astérix - Piailly

12 Epic Universe - Orlando

13 Phantasialand - Brühl

14 Busch Gardens Williamsburg - Williamsburg

15 Liseberg - Gothenburg

16 Tivoli Gardens - Copenhagen

17 Knoebels Amusement Resort - Elysburg

18 Walt Disney World - Disney's Hollywood Studios - Lake Buena Vista

19 Disneyland Paris - Disneyland Park - Marne la Vallée

20 Epcot - Orlando

Column Categories are:

A - Which Land B - Name of Ride C - Type of Ride D - What to Expect

Super excited! :)

I'm glad I didn't listen to all of the negative reviews and wait a year for Epic. Seems like lines are better as the kids went back to school. Despite that, I really hate lines. I don't think many rides are worth waiting 2 hours. And I didn't do all of the rides in Nintendo land. But Epic is the best Universal park. I just wish they had at least one more roller coaster.

1. Stardust racer in the first row at night - this is by far the best ride. We rode it multiple times. But it's best at night, especially in the first row. I heard the last row is good too.

2. Monsters Unchained - Our entire group thought this was far better than Battle at the Ministry. I get dizzy on 3D rides very easily. I can't handle the 3D Harry Potter ride at IoA. It might be because the ride moves you to a horizontal position several times throughout the ride that I didn't get dizzy. It actually reset my senses. And there is a great mix of 3D and animatronics, with the animatronics being the best I've seen in a ride.

3. Hiccup's Wing Gliders - it's not as good as Hagrid's but it's similar. That's all I can say about it. It's also cute. But not nearly as good as Stardust.

4. Mario Kart - Bowser's Challenge - The game aspect of the ride didn't make a lot of sense to me. And I wasn't sure if I was competing against other people in my cart. But the ride itself was very nostalgic, especially the end where you go on Rainbow Road. That part alone was worth the wait.

5. Battle at the Ministry - The interior is beautiful and looks like the movies. But the waits are insane for the ride itself. I know I'm in the minority, but I found it very overrated. It also relies way too much on 3D screens, and I got very dizzy, especially in the beginning. It also broke down three times during the ride. My group are massive HP fans and did not think the ride was a memorable experience. A one hour wait is fine, but I do not think it's worth a 2 or 3 hour wait.

6. Constellation Carouse - Pretty cool but don't wait an hour for it. Do it at night.

7. Mine Cart Madness - This is one of the worst coasters I've ever seen. It's slow but tries to be more intense by jerking you around during turns. I knew it would be disappointing because they let you bring your bags on the ride. If the wait is more than 20 minutes I would skip it.

Overall the park is great considering the rides at some of the other parks can be kind of dated. It just needs two more coasters to be perfect. But I don't think it's worth waiting in 2 or 3 hour lines for anything at this park.

Went today for the second time, did all the rides. Had a blast, such an amazing theme park. All the worlds are truly awesome, so much thought and detail have been put in them.
Definitely get the powerup bands for Nintendo land, adds a lot more fun and I was surprised with all the games they had for it. Also the play area for kids in Isle of Berk is super nice, very big and a lot of things for kids. Here are some of my thoughts on the rides.

Curse of the Werewolf: 8/10 Super fun small coaster, it’s pretty unique from anything universal has.

Dragon Racer's Rally: 4/10 kind of like a fair ride. A bit of fun but ends wayyyy too quick.

Fyre Drill: 7/10 cool ride, especially if you have kids. Didn’t get soaked but fairly wet. You have a water gun and you get to hit targets. My daughter got to go on it but was too young to actually use the water gun.

The Battle at the Ministry: 10/10 ride isn’t open but did the queue which is BREATHTAKING!! Your jaw will legit drop, all I gotta say.

Hiccup's Wing Gliders: 10/10 really loved this ride, similar to Hagrids.

Mario Kart: Bowsers Challenge: 8/10 the VR is a bit weird but overall a good ride.

Mine-Cart Madness: 10/10 was amazing !! Super unique, loved the details.

Monsters Unchained: 9/10 the queue is crazy. The ride details and atmosphere is next level. It’s not as fun as forbidden journey in terms of movement though.

Stardust Racers: 10/10 truly epic, it’s pretty intense and has quite a few moments of airtime. During the end of the ride the other coaster goes right above your head, it’s an amazing sight.

Yoshi's Adventure: 7/10 very slow and chill ride. You get to see the whole of Nintendo land from it and the view is great.

Also we ate at Das Stakehaus and the food was great

Unfortunately didn’t get to do the two shows but people say they are great.

I know universal is strict so you don’t have to get into too much detail but please share with us what you can 😁

Hi! I’m planning to visit Epic Universe this September with 5 friends, probably on a Monday (around the 15th). It’ll be their first time, and I’ve only been to Universal’s Islands of Adventure once, so we’re not super experienced.

We’re wondering if it’s really necessary to buy the fast pass, because with that money we could almost go to Disney instead. Do you think it’s possible to do most of the rides in one day without it, especially if we go on a “low-crowd” day and arrive early?

Any tips or advice would be really appreciated!

Here is my ranking after my visit last Saturday. Here is the link if you would like to make one too: https://tiermaker.com/create/epic-universe-18131515

These are just my predictions! Tell me what you think and what your predictions are!!

Most Popular: MarioKart: Bowsers Challenge (Super Nintendo World)

This will by far have the longest line. Donkey Kong would come second but could be first.

Best: Battle at the Ministry (Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic)

I’ve heard rumors that this ride will be like Rise of the Resistance at Disney. I haven’t ridden that but people say it is amazing and regularly has the longest lines.

Most underrated: Monsters Unchained (Dark Universe)

The whole Dark Universe land will be underrated imo. People won’t know what to expect from this ride.

Spent the day there yesterday, very low crowds during the "technical rehearsal" before the official park opening. Only employees of Universal and their invited guests. Pictures and video were not allowed as some parts of the park are closed off or not working and there is still a lot of final polishing to do around the park.

Overall it's not a very large park but it's not a small one either. The art deco styling of the center section was really nice. The four themed worlds that branch off from the center were well done too. But I have to give a special mention to the Super Nintendo World area. You enter through a green pipe and emerge into what I can only describe as a Super Mario Brothers fever dream. I'm a theme park veteran of many decades but this had my mouth hanging open.

On to the rides. I'll only list the thrill type rides that I rode as this is r/rollercoasters

Monsters Unchained: Was temporarily closed for much of the day due to glitches, whenever it opened the line would be very long as people rushed over to try it. Cool ride, same sort of concept and vehicles as Harry Potter Forbidden Journey. It was more thrilling than Harry Potter but less likely to cause motion sickness.

Curse Of The Werewolf: Fun coaster with spinning cars but it doesn't get high up or go very fast and it was too short to be worth more than a 30 minute wait. Ops needs to speed up the launches to prevent the line from getting ridiculous. Hopefully they'll get faster as the official opening approaches. The tracks were a bit bumpier than you'd think for it being a brand new ride.

Mine Cart Madness: Medium thrill coaster with the neat effect of it repeatedly looking like you're about to jump off broken tracks and crash. I liked this ride better than Werewolf but it had the same issue of the line not moving as fast as I'm sure it could.

Ministry Of Magic: Not open yet but the que was open for walk throughs. They did a good job on the que areas, lots to look at. Better than the other rides for sure.

Stardust Racers: This is a really, really good coaster. Two tracks, both trains launch at the same time, curve underneath the loading docks, level out, then you're blasted twice by electromotive force up to an impressive speed and you feel like you're being hurled up the first hill. The positive G's were good without being terribly brutal but the negative G's were intense. Just before you reach the top of each hill you're given another electro shove forwards which is spicy. When the trains twist around each other is really neat, first you're looking up at an inverted train then you're inverted looking down at them. The trains are closer together than you'd think during much of the ride which adds to the thrill. The tracks were smooth as glass which increases the feeling of flying. At night the tracks aren't lit but the trains are, so people on the ground just see what looks like two comets dancing together through the sky.

A fun time was had by my group. We walked about five miles total including the parking lot but we were back and forth chasing open rides and shorter lines. Listed pricing for food, drinks and alcohol was about average for a theme park. All in all I'd say it's worth a day if you've already hit the big parks or there's something there you're especially interested in.

Finally got on all 11 Epic Universe rides today and here’s how I rank them

11: Constellation Carousel

It’s a carousel it does it’s job and it does it very well. But this is the highest I can possibly rank it

10: Dragon Racers Rally

Too short for how hard it is to spin.

9: Fyre Drill

Nice way to get wet in a park that is admittedly very hot. Still think there is much better to offer

8: Yoshis Adventure

Very good vantage points of Epic Universes best land. You ride it more for the view than the actual experience

7: Curse of the Werewolf

Fun ride but unfortunately way to short and kind of a wasteful supporting attraction for Dark Universe

Note from 6 on I love pretty much all of these attractions

6: Minecart Madness

Yes it’s rough but I like that it is. Adds so much to the fantastic theming of the attraction. Was honestly torn between which SNW attraction I like better.

5: Mario Kart Bowsers Challenge

As I said before I just can’t fathom that this ride gets as much hate as it does. It has one of the best queues of any theme park, The sets are absolutely astounding to look at, And the gameplay once you get the hang of it is so much fun. I really love this attraction

4: Hiccups Wing Gliders

Hagrids mini is exactly the perfect description for this. Slinky Dog Dash wishes it had even a fraction of the pure fun Hiccups gives me. If the queue didn’t suck I would ride it over and over again.

3: Harry Potter and The Battle at the Ministry

I know it’s a hot take on this sub to say Ministry is really good but Ministry is really good. Feels like Universal Creatives culmination while also opening up new possibilities. This also has by far the greatest queue line ever built.

2: Stardust Racers

As a pure thrill there is nothing that tops this. Such perfect elements mixed in with phenomenal dueling. Alone this would still be one of Universals best rides. But as a dueling experience it’s practically perfection

1: Monsters Unchained

Yeah this is my favorite dark ride ever bulit. Been on it 4 times by now and it gets better with every single cycle. I owe G Prodigy my life at this point.

Park was busier than the weekdays. Monsters Unchained was a nightmare in the morning with a 160 minute wait due it being broken down. It went back up while in line literally around the time people wouldn't wait anymore. It was a good ride imo but I think I liked Ministry of Magic a bit better. There really isn't a "bad" ride in this park. I do think there are a few that are just "fine" and some that just are so good.

Was able to ride almost everything but the carousel and did not do any shows. Will do them in June when I go. Lots of shopping and want to do that too when I go back. Just glad was able to get on stuff that won't happen when crowds are worse.

Ranking below:

1.Stardust Racers, yellow side (didn't ride green)- GOATED ride 2. Hiccups wing gliders-so fun 3. Curse of Werewolf-underrated imo and super fun even if it's quick ride 4. Ministry of Magic- amazing visuals and queue. A bit overrated imo but a good time 5. Monsters Unchained- great visuals. Enjoyed it but not as much as some 6. Dragon Racers Rally- Fun and very short 7. Fyre Drill- about what you would expect. You get wet 8. Bowsers challenge- didn't like the visor. Just take it off and enjoy the views 9. Yoshis adventure- relaxing kiddie ride 10- Donkey kong- cool concept but beats the hell out of you and too jerky. If a smoother ride would probably rate this around number 7 or so.

Best land and most beautiful is Berk tbh. Might be a surprise land that is always packed. Paris in harry potter is beautiful too. Most immersion probably Mario land. Honestly every land was great.

Epic universe is indeed epic and not overrated at all. Beautiful park. Can't wait to return for the shows and shopping.

My boyfriend and I are going on July 5th (prob going to be a very busy day) so I was wondering if we should rope drop battle of the ministry ride or should we wait? We have the express passes

The coasters coming to Epic Universe opening May 22, 2025, at the Universal Orlando Resort are:

Stardust Racers - Mack racing multi-launch coaster with a 48-inch height requirement.

Hiccup's Wing Gliders - Intamin family multi-launch coaster with a 40-inch height requirement.

Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness™ - BOOM coaster cantilever effect with a 40-inch height requirement.

My personal least anticipated: Curse of the Werewolf - Mack family spinning swing launch coaster with a 40-inch height requirement.

Werewolf should have been a Mack extreme spinner to counteract stardust. Epic Universe is already set to debut as the most family-friendly universal park, with the highest height requirement being 48 inches. Super Nintendo and HTTYD are lands dedicated to kids. I get werewolf was last minute, but still.

We all know Epic Universe will open on May 22, so I personally hope Epic Universe as a whole will be as great as Universal's Islands of Adventure. What about you?

I'm going with my family (party of 4) and I'm feeling already a bit overwhelmed. I know almost nothing about how the park works, what apps to use, how to handle lines, and how to make the most of our money and time (especially in the summer heat and crowds).

We do have Express Passes but I’ve heard some rides may still use virtual queues where Express doesn’t apply. How does that work? Any advice on how to make sure we don't miss anything?

I'd love to hear your tips: time of arrival, where to park, what rides to ride first, food sport that are worth it, tips to avoid the worst crowds, any app tricks or general hacks, or even what would you do different if going again.