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!

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

I’ve been gone from the theme park community for the better part of a year so I’ve been a bit out of the loop.

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.

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?

Curious to know your best tips for Epic Universe and whether it’s worth it. I’m considering a visit but I’m seeing conflicting reviews from people. What are your honest thoughts?

Before I start I will say I land in the extreme on the roller coaster preference scale. Extreme thrill seeker. Okay- I went to epic universe previewing on April 26th. I was amazed by the park itself. The park itself is absolutely beautiful and will take your breath away.

In terms of straight theming I will say nintendo world was most impressive with ministry of magic being a close second. The nintendo world is just phenomenal, when you enter it’s the only world that literally just makes you feel like you entered an alternate reality. The queue for the mario kart ride is astonishing. As for the ride its self, I thought it was terrible and gets a C- (only reason for it being that high is the queue was so awesome). I had no idea what was going on, and the left side of my glasses didn’t work. Minecart madness is good. It’s a cute ride for what it’s meant to be and I don’t see the hate on it too much. Personally i’m an extreme thrill seeker so i won’t be waiting more then 45 minutes for it in the future (yes I know i’ll probably never ride it again) but for what it’s SUPPOSED to be its a great ride with unexpected moments and faster then it looks. I just do wish it was a little longer and maybe not as rough for how new it is? Overall a B.

Moving over to dark universe I’m not going to lie I was overall very disappointed as this is what I was looking most forward to. The theming was from the outside is awesome. But once you enter the castle the line is the most exciting part. I looked forward to the monsters unchained ride very much but again the queue was the most impressive part. The rides animatronics are so awesome and detailed but you only get to look at them for literally a split second before it takes you away from it. So much money on amazing animatronics to not be able to soak it in. The ride can’t help but feel like you are on forbidden journey but with no purpose. Overall a C- .

Just across the path on the otherhand was curse of the werewolf, a ride I had very low expectations for but was overly pleased with. The ride is very short, but for good reason many will get sick on it, but it is super fun and feels extremely fast because of the spinning. I thought it was very good. Overall an A- (thought the theming could of been a little bit better)

Alright, across the park stardust racers is possibly the best roller coaster I have ever been on. I went on it with the mentality that velocicoaster was king and despite what everyone is saying it can’t be better. But it just might be. Very close. It’s extremely fast, the dualing affect is so awesome and the best part is the ride feels long. There was about 3 times I thought it was about to end and you would just keep going. Overall an A+ and this ride alone makes Epic worth a trip to for anyone.

Over to ministry of magic, to start Paris is beautiful and very well themed and has that same affect and feeling you get at hogsmead. As far as the ministry it’s self it’s surreal. The detail and queue for the ride is so amazing. As for the ride it’s self (yes I was fortunate enough to get on despite the virtual queue issues) it’s pretty good. I loved it and thought the animatronics were so good and real looking. However, the ride is going to be a serious problem for anyone who even somewhat gets motion sickness. I do NOT get motion sickness at all and have never experienced it in my life, but even I got a little light headed on that ride. But overall a A- as it’s extremely well done, a good length and fun, it’s just rough on the head.

Last, how to train your dragon land is awesome. Very well themed and beautiful. This is where we ate for the day at the mac and cheese place everyone is talking about. It was very good but I was still hungry after I ate it and that wasn’t a great feeling after paying 16 bucks for one of them. The how to train your dragon coaster was very good. Not as good as hagrids, but it was fun. It’s well themed and pretty quick. The “going backwards” part is an extreme let down as you don’t really go backwards you just go like 10 feet back slowly and relaunch. But it was fun. overall a B+

Overall conclusion of the park, the park is awesome and much worth a visit to at the wait times I had to wait for everything (averaged about an hour for everything) however I think it’s going to be a nightmare when it opens. I couldn’t imagine waiting 2 or more hours for anything there other then stardust and maybe ministry of magic. The place is going to be a nightmare in the summer. Once you are in a queue you are almost always in a/c or some type of shade (except for the how to train your dragon coaster) which is awesome and I think all theme parks need to follow how they handled that. But the rest of the park there literally isn’t an inch of shade. it’s gonna be hot. The park is awesome though and I had a great time. If the park had one more coaster that was a step below stardust but a big step above the others (kinda like velocicoaster and hagrids or hulk) it would be the best universal park. But because it’s missing that, I say the other 2 park combo gets the cake. Overall park grading is a B+. If you actually read this whole thing thank you for your time.

Edit: another problem is these rides have a lot of issues. I understand it’s a preview, but i don’t know. Hiccups was down the majority of the day. Every ride was delayed atleast once with minecart madness and stardust seeming the most reliable of everything. But at one point every single ride except for stardust was delayed. It seems kinda bad it’s like this less than a month before opening day.

I’ve heard a lot of somewhat negative things about epic universe. Shade, customer experience etc. Is it worth going to or should I wait until these issues are fixed?

Was lucky enough to go to Epic Universe for the first time, and I had an amazing time. Just wanted to share my honest experience about this new theme park. SPOILERS AHEAD so please be warned!

LANDS:

All of the lands (Celestial Park, Dark Universe, Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World, and Ministry of Magic) are expertly themed and immersive. I can't rank any one over the other, because I feel like they all have such immersive elements that really make you feel like you stepped through a portal into another world.

1. Celestial Park - a great, sort of world-between-the-worlds. I really like the green, covered walkways in this area. A beautiful carousel in the center along with great views of the portals and parks from anywhere around this circuit. Atlantic is an amazing restaurant. There's a Starbucks, a giant theme park store, and even a Christmas shop.

2. Dark Universe - I can't explain how much I really love this land. A great nod to the Universal Classic Monsters movies. Has a foreboding atmosphere that's even better at night. The Burning Blade tavern is without a doubt worth checking out, even if it's just for the aesthetic.

3. Isle of Berk - this might be the largest land. As a huge HTTYD fan, I was completely blown away but how great this land was designed. Feels like I walked right into the movies. Mead Hall is stunning - try the Yaknog it's delicious :)

4. Super Nintendo World - going up the escalator into this land was a breathtaking experience. This land is so much fun, and there's a lot to do. Interactive wristbands are available for purchase to collect keys, coins, and the like.

5. Ministry of Magic - name is a bit of a misnomer. This place is really set in Place Cachée in Wizarding Paris, which is one of my favorite places to walk around. This place just FEELS huge. Some of my favorite places to eat in the park: 1) Café L'air De La Sirène, which makes you feel like you're eating at a super nice cafe in Paris and 2) Le Gobelet Noir, a sort of darker themed restaurant which is really spacious and had a lot of great food options.

RIDES (RANKED by tiers):

GOAT TIER (MUST DO)

1. Monsters Unchained: Frankenstein Experience - without a doubt, my favorite ride at Epic Universe. Sort of a cross for me between Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, but for me, even better than both of those rides. I had a really fun time going through the castle queue. The ride itself is exceptionally immersive with a great story and cool scenes and animatronics.

2. Stardust Racers - close contender for #1. This ride is similar to the Dueling Dragons ride we all miss, but is even better. The two tracks you can go on are Pulsar and Photon (I liked them both). Super fast-paced with a lot of cool "dueling" elements. I walked off with a huge grin on my face, especially after seeing the Flux-Capacitor ;)

3. Hiccup's Wing Gliders - a really fun, family rollercoaster. Sort of a little brother to Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. Had some really great views of Isle of Berk. Not super crazy, so the whole family will be able to enjoy it! Much better than a lot of other rollercoasters at parks in the area (COUGH***Slinky Dog Dash***COUGH).

MID-TIER (ONLY WORTH IT IF THE WAIT IS SHORT, <60 MINUTES)

4. Mine-Cart Madness - first ride I went on at Epic Universe. Queue is amazing and the fans in the outside area were much appreciated. Ride itself is fun, jostles you around a bit, and has visuals that make you feel like you're going off the rails. Ended up waiting around 75 minutes for this ride, which was over in just a few minutes. In retrospect, I think it's like 3 minutes, but it feels a lot shorter than that. A fun time nonetheless, and favorite ride in Super Nintendo World!

5. Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry - HUGE hot take. Please don't hate me, and I'm really sorry if I ticked a lot of people off by ranking this ride lower than most. FWIW, I love the Harry Potter series and yes even the first Fantastic Beasts movie. I'm assuming that the Wizarding Paris location in set in the current day, because I'm really not sure how it would work taking the Metro Floo from 1920s Wizarding Paris to late 1990s/early 2000s Ministry of Magic :/. That aside, the queue itself is one of the best I've ever been through. The people who designed this place should be lauded on how great this is. A lot of people came just to see the queue without even going on the ride. As far as the ride itself, I got off with a mixed experience. I really like the premise, but found the whole time-turner side plot to be a little wonky. The Erumpent was a nice callback to the FB series, but wasn't really needed. The overall experience was just fine in my opinion. No major drop, no major twist or turns, kinda just felt like I was there. The visuals were STUNNING, and credit to Imelda Staunton for really making this ride so much better. Overall, this ride was okay. Nothing I'd wait more than an hour for.

6. Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge - a good, okay ride. I was really looking forward to this ride ever since I heard about it. Again, the queue is really fun and well-designed. The premise is cool, and I like the little helmet/goggles aspect that makes you feel like you're actually in the game. I found it to be a little all over the place though, and I really wasn't sure what was going on. I was just turning my wheel and hitting random buttons hoping it would all work out. Maybe I just need to ride it again to really master it, but I got off the ride happy that I did it but not wanting to wait a long time for it again.

SKIP TIER (COULD SKIP WITHOUT MISSING ANYTHING, OKAY TO DO IF <25-30 MINUTES)

7. Curse of the Werewolf - a bit of a let down, because I really like this theme and was hoping this would be an exciting addition to Dark Universe. The idea of a spinning coaster is a lot of fun. The queue itself I found to be a bit bland, nothing much about werewolves, just a tent and some tarot cards and crystal balls. Waiting outside here was a bit painful because of how hot this queue gets - it's all outside. The ride itself was entertaining, had some cool spins...and then it kinda just ended abruptly. The fortune teller at the end of the ride was kinda sus, and was giving me Spirit Halloween vibes. Maybe worth doing if there's a short wait, but you're not missing out on a whole lot sadly.

8. Yoshi's Adventure - really a ride for little kids, only reason I put it up here was because it's super immersive (really, they did a good job with it), and you get some nice views of Super Nintendo World :). Similar to the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley but better I think

9. Constellation Carousel - it's just a carousel. That being said, the aesthetics are 10/10 and instead of just going in a linear path, each figure kinda spins in a circle. Hard to explain but cool. At the end of the day, it's a carousel that's okay to do if there's not a huge wait, but you're not gonna miss out if you don't do it. A lot of great views of the Celestial Park area though!

CHOPPED TIER (NAH)

10. Fyre Drill - honestly not a bad ride. You board a ship and fire water cannons at targets (and the people in the other ship). It's designed really well and a fun time. Would probably do the other rides first, but it's fine to do if you have some time to kill.

11. Dragon Racer's Rally - I'll never forgive myself for waiting over an hour for this ride. I'll give credit where credit is due - it looks amazing, and the ride itself has some really nice views. You can manipulate the wings to try to flip yourself. Only bad thing is that you do like three laps in the air and that's it. I'd probably say it's a skip for me.

HOTELS:

1. Stella Nova - I've stayed at pretty much every Universal hotel (except the really expensive ones: Helios/Portofino Bay/Hard Rock/Royal Pacific). Good theming, plain white motif in the lobby interspersed with some space theming. Lobby is fine. There's a really cool floor with stars on the ceiling. Parking was kind of expensive for no reason ($30 a night). I actually booked my reservation earlier with a lower price for parking and they tried to charge me the higher amount. Had to talk with them but they were nice enough to honor my original reservation price, which was still kind of expensive. Pool is HUGE and really nice. Food was kinda overpriced and mid. I thought $15ish dollars for one person for breakfast was kinda wild. I paid $16 for a burger too which I thought was fine, but definitely not worth the price. No Starbucks at this hotel, and coffee/grab and go options were okay. I would honestly rather eat at the park. Gym is nice with great views. My room however was great: really good-sized and had a comfortable couch near the window. I really do like the walking path to Epic Universe which was really convenient if you don't want to wait for the shuttles. The shuttles come pretty routinely though.

2. Terra Luna - Pretty much the same as Stella Nova. I liked the lobby here better though, because of those really cool chairs that turn in a circle. Also has a plain, white motif. Parking has the same issues as Stella Nova expensive for no reason. The pool is smaller than Stella Nova but still good-sized and has a cool shape. Food, again, has the same problems as Stella Nova. I didn't really think it was worth the price for the quality and portion size. Service was exceptional at both places though. The staff is really nice and well-trained. No Starbucks at this hotel, so a bit of a bummer. Again, I would rather bring my own groceries/eat at the park. Gym is also really nice with great views! The rooms are the same, except I think I like the backdrop in the Terra Luna rooms a little bit more. A downside here is that there is no direct walking path to Epic Universe. It's a little awkward to try walking there, but the shuttles come pretty often.

Both fine, good hotels. They're both a tossup depending on what pros outweigh the cons for you. I'd probably pick Stella Nova for the walking path and ease of grab and go/cafe. But if Terra Luna is significantly cheaper, I'd pick it over Stella Nova. Stay in these hotels if you're planning on going to Epic, but if you're going to all the parks, I'd say maybe stay at one of these hotels for the Epic portion and one of the others for the Universal/Islands portion.

OVERALL:

I definitely enjoyed my time at Epic Universe. It is well-built, fun, and you can tell a lot of creativity went into it. I wish they had more shaded areas (it was incredibly painful during a hot, Florida day), but the team members and variety of stuff to do and see made it worth it. I wish the quality of rides were on par for me with Universal and Islands, but I probably need to experience them again to appreciate them more. Without a doubt, worth checking out because Universal is definitely taking the right steps to be one of the best theme park experiences in the area

Please don't roast me too hard in the comments, this was just my honest opinion of my experience. Much love ;)

I can’t believe paid guests will be at this park in a few days. I say this as someone who really wants this park to succeed but I’m concerned it just isn’t ready at all.

Monsters barely runs and when it does multiple animatronics are down. Battle for the Ministry still hasn’t run publicly. Mine Cart Madness has very very low capacity. Mario Cart seems to be delayed at least once an hour. Half the boats on Fyre Drill are already broken. Heck even the carousel goes down more than you’d expect.

In general the park seems to only be able to function well at very low capacity simply because the rides are having so many issues.

If you’re going to an AP preview day, I’d have very low expectations in terms of rides and wait times. Unless they’re running it at a media event level of capacity (very unlikely), this park just simply isn’t ready for paid guests and I am very concerned it will be received negatively by the general public once it fully opens in just a few weeks.

I hope I’m wrong!

My sons and I spent today at Epic Universe. Arrived as the park opened for the general public at 10:00 am. From then until 7:00, we were able to go on exactly four attractions: Stardust Racers, Ministry of Magic, Mario Karts, and Monsters Unchained.

All four rides experienced periods where they were delayed while we were in line.

While we enjoyed what we got to experience, we ended our day feeling exhausted, hot, and underwhelmed. While there are really stunning aspects to the design (I think Darkmoor is by far the most interesting portal), the vibe of the park felt empty despite epic wait times.

Coming into this, I was looking forward to Ministry of Magic as being some revolutionary ride. I’ll hand it to Universal for beautiful design, but the ride experience left me and my son disappointed. While it is clearly a more advanced ride system than the other Harry Potter rides at USF and IOA, it was basically big screens with a few bonus animatronics. Same same, but different. After, I was thinking how Rise of Resistance does a much more effective job of telling a great story and using different modalities to tell that story. I was expecting a latter day Tower of Terror here, but the outcome wasn’t very original.

Stardust Racers is a well-executed coaster that is fun to ride. We experienced multiple delays as we waited to get on…wish I could have experienced it at night.

My younger son and I had previously experienced Mario Karts in Hollywood. We again experienced multiple delays - but it really is a different type of ride experience. Even if you have no idea how to shoot anything, it’s a fun and unique ride. Bonus points for it being a longer than usual dark ride. The environment of Mario World, while exceedingly immersive, can just feel overwhelming with the heat. It just turns the already hot Florida heat into an inferno. We were happy to get out of there…and we were not going to wait 95 minutes for Donkey Kong.

Darkmoor was my favorite area of the park. It’s just silly and nicely detailed. There is a fog effect as you are coming in that helps you cool down. We were once again delayed when we were on Monsters Unchained - after we boarded it, we had to unload and wait for the ride to cycle through. Once we were able to experience, it was such a goofy and not super intense experience. It gave me a good laugh, and it was the most enjoyable ride of the day.

When we got off of the ride, my son noted that most of the park what shut down because of the weather. We decided to call it a day at that point. As we were walking to the front, they were able to hop onto Stardust Racers for a second ride.

We got talking to a park manager as we were leaving, and we talked about how we were disappointed by our experience. She directed us to customer relations, and after a nice chat with the rep (I appreciated how she took the time to listen to my kids), she offered us three Epic Universe tickets for future use along with three Express Passes each. I thought this was a nice gesture. We didn’t exactly dislike our experience. It just did not live up to the hype.

Earlier this week, we experienced USF and IOA. When I think about this resort as a whole, I was thinking that maybe the $7 billion spent on Epic could have been used for some TLC at the original parks.

As of 2025, I don’t see Epic as being much of a Disney killer. It needs 3-4 more rides to fill in the gaps (make them all indoor please) and a lot more indoor spaces just to escape the heat - I grew up in Florida, but the overall lack of shade, vegetation, and water elements make this a tough place to be in the summer.

Overall, I see the potential. I wonder why these investments weren’t made at the other parks (I mean, who gave the green light for the moving sidewalk/gun/Villian-Con thing?). I think that Disney has the overall advantage in creating cohesive environments that tell stories you want to revisit.

Not sure when we’ll use our free Epic tickets (we live in California), but I could totally see this park evolving into something really special. At the same time, I’d think I’d rather visit Universal Studios Hollywood for a “best of” what is developed in Florida…besides, no humidity!

The park will open in 81 days, and I feel like Universal is barely promoting and hyping up Epic Universe.

I see that the 3 new Epic Universe hotels are still available on multiple days through May and during the summer.

You can buy a ticket to Epic Universe for any single day still.

Why are they still not selling a 1-day ticket? They should have done this a long time ago to attract people.

Also, I’m from The Netherlands, and if I were Universal, I would go to the Dutch press, visit some Dutch talkshows and visit the press in all other countries in Europe and promote the newest park. Why aren’t they doing this?

People in Europe have no idea this thing is even being build! 🙃

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.

1. 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.

2. 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 😭🤯

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

I’m curious to see what everyone’s thoughts are on epic universe. Do you hate it, love it, think it will open late? Anything really

Hey everyone! I’ve usually just lurked for tips, but after visiting the brand new Epic Universe twice, once during preview and once after the grand opening (May 22), I thought I’d share some helpful info.

There's a TL;DR at the bottom as well

Crowds & Express Pass

I didn’t use Express Pass either time and still rode everything just fine. Universal is limiting daily capacity until the end of June, so crowds are very manageable. I even rode Stardust Racers (rollercoaster) three times in a row via standby.

1. Hotel & Early Park Admission

You guys know if you stay at a Universal hotel, you can enter the park one hour early. I stayed at Cabana Bay and Stella Nova. If you want to walk to the park, stay at Stella Nova, Terra Luna, or Helios Grand Hotel.

Helios is the fanciest option, it has its own dedicated park entrance and a stunning night view if you book a parkview room.

Only Super Nintendo World and Stardust Racers open early, but sometimes Harry Potter rides start a bit early too so if you’re a Potter fan, it may be worth heading there first.

Early Admission Attractions:

Mario Kart

Yoshi’s Adventure

Mine Cart Madness (Donkey Kong)

Stardust Racers

My pick: Mine Cart Madness (but Mario Kart can have longer wait times depending on the day)

2. Tickets

Buying a bundled ticket with Universal Studios Florida or Islands of Adventure is cheaper than buying a single park ticket.

But even with park-to-park access, you can’t hop between Epic universe and the other parks.

If tickets show as sold out online, check with the hotel Vacation Center, they often still have availability. Also, same day tickets sometimes open up around 9–10 AM, but I recommend buying in advance just to be safe.

3. Express Pass

It’s like Disney’s Lightning Lane, lets you skip the regular lines.

You have to buy it separately (it’s not included with hotel stays), and only the standard Express Pass is available for Epic Universe right now, no unlimited option. You can only ride each attraction once using it.

Note:

Express doesn't work for: Dragon Racer Rally, Mine Cart Madness, Battle of the Ministry of Magic

Prices fluctuate: up to $300 during peak times, as low as $140 off-season.

Also the pass uses facial recognition, so it’s non-transferable.

4. Epic Universe Worlds Overview

There are 5 total worlds (4 themed + 1 central hub), and you move between them through portals. During the grand opening, each portal had themed characters doing little ceremonies, it was a nice touch.

Celestial Park (hub area):

Beautiful landscaping, Bellagio-style fountain shows.

Food recs: Pizza moon (quick service), Atlantic (seafood) and blue rragon (asian) are full-service restaurants with good reviews.

- Stardust Racers: thrilling and smooth, possibly my favorite coaster ever. The spinning effect when two coasters rotate at once is jaw-dropping. Ride once in the day and once at night.. it feels totally different

- Constellation Carousel: Meh during the day, but surprisingly magical at night. Each animal dances individually. Nice for photos.

- How to Train Your Dragon Land: Kid friendly but still packed with stuff adults will enjoy. The Toothless and baby dragon meet and greets are adorable. Don’t skip them.

- Hiccup’s Wing Glider: Feels like a mini version of Hagrid’s ride. Soaring over the water is super refreshing.

- Fyre Drill: Water gun ride. You will get soaked. Skip if you hate getting wet.

- Dragon Racer Rally: You can control left/right motion. But ride time is really short. only 4–5 spins.

- Untrainable Dragon Show: High quality animatronics and great storytelling. Sit further back to fully enjoy the flying effects.

Super Nintendo World

If you’re a Nintendo fan, it’s a dream come true. Starts on the 2nd floor, so the view over the whole park is incredible.

- Power-Up Bands ($50) let you play mini-games. not essential, but highly recommended for fans. (If you can go to Japan, they sell for $20 there)

- Yoshi’s Adventure: Short and outdoors, but super cute. Not ideal under direct sun.

- Mario Kart: Uses AR goggles. Very divisive. some love it, some get motion sickness.

- Mine Cart Madness (Donkey Kong): Simulates jumping tracks. Front seat = better experience. Ride’s a bit short, and some visual effects weren’t working yet when I went, but still worth it.

Wizarding World — Ministry of Magic

Visually stunning, but a bit small. Only one ride for now (a broomstick VR ride was canceled).

Butterbeer crepe was a standout snack!

- Interactive Wand version2: Only sold at Epic Universe. Lights up, vibrates, and syncs with a mobile app. Costs $85.

- Battle of the Ministry of Magic: Most immersive queue I’ve ever seen. its a mix of screens + real sets made it hard to tell what’s what. Animatronics were insanely smooth.

Only complaint: not quite enough drops/thrills.

- Arcana’s Circus: Loved this show. Honestly preferred it over the dragon one. There's a pre-show and main show, both are super entertaining.

Dark Universe

Universal’s classic monsters come to life in this gothic, moody zone. Check out Burning Blade Tavern! a windmill erupts in flames on a timer

- Monsters Unchained: Uses a next gen robot arm ride system with fewer screens and more animatronics. top 5 dark rides I’ve ever done. Short lines (for now), which is wild considering how good it is.

- Curse of the Werewolf: Seats spin while you ride. Depending on where you sit, you might get tossed around a lot. Fun, but not super immersive.

TL;DR

Crowds: Super manageable through June due to capacity limits. Rode Stardust racers 3x without express.

Hotels: Stay at Universal hotels for 1-hr early entry. Helios Grand = best views + easiest access.

Early Entry Rides: Mario Kart, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Stardust Racers. Prioritize Donkey Kong or Mario depending on wait.

Tickets: Can’t park-hop to/from Epic. If sold out online, try buying at hotel’s Vacation Center.

Express Pass: Only standard (1 ride per attraction), no unlimited. Doesn’t work for Donkey Kong, Ministry of Magic ride, or Dragon Rally. Uses facial recognition.

Best Rides:

Stardust Racers: my fave coaster ever (try day & night!)

Monsters Unchained: insane animatronics, top-tier dark ride

Battle of the Ministry of Magic: amazing queue + visuals

Mine Cart Madness : jump track coaster, sit in front row

Food: Pizza Moon is solid; Butterbeer Crepe & Blue Dragon also good.

Shows: Arcana’s Circus (Harry Potter) and Untrainable Dragon. both worth seeing.

Buy Power up Band ($50) only if you want to play minigames in Nintendo World.

Thanks for reading!

My boyfriend and I are visiting Orlando late August/early September this year and currently have entry to Epic for 1 day. We are trying to work out what the best option is for us in terms of maximizing our time and making sure we get everything done. We are coming from the UK and have 14-day tickets, 1 day of which grants entry to Epic. We can't decide whether to;

A. Stay on site for 1 night to gain early entry (~£120)

B. Buy an express pass for EU (~£320)

C. Buy an extra day ticket for EU (~£200) (As far as I know can only be done by calling if you're from the UK)

Which of these currently seems like the best option based on Epic just now? We are slightly leaning towards option C but I don't want to buy a ticket for no reason when it would be overall cheaper to stay on property if we're likely to get everything done. Any help/opinion is appreciated :)

Just dropped

I have now been to the park several times and have managed to get on all rides, some of them multiple times. I like the park a lot but it doesn't quite live up to the influencer hype.

Here is my breakdown of attractions in my order of preference:

Startdust Racers - Great ride! Night time rides were amazing. Not sure I'd put it above Velocicoaster but it's close and still stands on its own. I'm still a little shocked that Duelding Dragons closed yet this was created because this two cars seem to collide closer than Dragons ever did.

Monsters Unchained - Well done attraction! Not quite as amazing as some have made it out to be, as more movie screens than I expected, but by far the stand-out dark ride at this park. Cars are exactly the same as FJ but I prefered this to FJ as it didn't make me as queasy.

3.Hiccup's Wing Gliders - What a fun coaster! Not getting a lot of attention but I feel like it should.

4. Donkey Kong - It's bouncier than it should have been but still fun. Really cool looking at night.

5. Mario Kart - I wish this was a fast moving roller coaster ride like Test Track. It is still pretty good. Took me a while to learn how to play the game. I would probably put it over Monsters but I had ridden the Hollywood version so it wasn't new to me and while that shouldn't factor in to my ranking it still does.

6. Yoshi's Adventure - I feel like I'm starting to run out of rides here, which is another issue with this park, so I'll just put this one next because it's cute and I like Nintendo.

7. Curse of the Werewolf - My least favorite of all the roller coasters. It was lame and it seemed the most Six Flags of all the rides there. This should have gone to Sea World.

8. Dragon Racer's Rally - I've ridden this ride at Mall of America and it spinned like crazy. I've ridden both sides, twice each now, couldn't get the thing to flip once.

9. Fyre Drill - Rode it once. It's cute but lame.

10. Constellation Carousel - I forgot about the carousel because that's the impact it left on me.

11. (Hot Take) Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry - Worst ride in the park. It made me so sick. I never want to ride it again. The line was amazing. But when you have a ride where the line is 10x better than the ride, that's a problem. I saw all the hype from the influencers and I waited nearly 3 hours to ride it and never again. It just wasn't that great of an experience overall. I prefer the other movie based potter rides and even Spider-Man and Transformers are better rides.

Other takeaways:

There isn't enough to do at this park.

Nintendo area is too small. Gets way too crowded and this is during previews.

Ministry area looks really nice, but it is my least favorite of the three Wizarding Worlds.

Both the How To Train Your Dragon and Ministry shows were enjoyable but forgettable. I like the pre-show to the Ministry show better than both of the actual shows.

How to Train Your Dragon land looks great. Probably my favorite land but only because I had seen the Nintendo land before. There just isn't that much to do in this land tho. Kind of a problem with the whole park imo.

Toothless is just sitting there in the open and you watch everyone go through the same show. Why wasn't this in a building where you couldn't see what was happening?

Celestial Gardens area is nice but if we are comparing gardens the new Epcot area looks more impressive than this.

Monsters area looks really nice. The castle reveal was strange though. Was expecting it to be right out of the portal but it isn't.

The park is very nice, a great addition to the variety of Orlando parks, but it is no way the best park in Orlando, not even the best Universal park. I still prefer Islands of Adventure.