Universal releases official photos from inside Epic Universe

I legit had to do a double take on that picture of the Frankenstein Castle. I thought the cobblestone esplanade was a moat at first.

Universal is throwing down the gauntlet.... holy cow.

Oh man, I thought it was a moat too! Now, I'm a little bummed that it's not. These are all gorgeous designs obviously, but I'm also not seeing a lot of shaded areas. Hopefully that's just these photos and there will be some foliage in real life.Regardless, these are soem of the best themed lands we've seen in decades.

A moat would have been great. These do look amazing.

Everything does look great. The faux stairs for sacre couer is going to trip people up all the time. Shade may be an issue but they want to keep you in their shops.

It makes sense to me that they weight for the installation of a few trees as they learn the habits of their viewers. Certain areas could be boom or bust. I think most will gravitate toward celestial park for shade.

I do think having a beginning to end sightline from the portal to helios makes the park feel small. I usually prefer reveals and discovery ... of course im a liar since ive been consuming every morsel of news. I will definitely not watch POVs... repeats mantra

Dark Universe looks Awesome...........!

The title of this post should instead be, "Universal says, Look at our Weenies!!"

@Russell LOL.

Dark Universe looks simply awe-inspiring. It doesn't look like a theme park- it looks like a still from a really expensive movie.

And the scale of the Parisian buildings in the Wizarding World is so impressive. Much larger and more realistic than Epcot's version of Paris.

Paris and the Harry Potter connection is news to like 99.9% of the population. Also Epcot has crafted other countries around the entire lagoon. You're comparing apples to an orchard of apples. And youre chery picking? Seems like a boutique version (read as small and unimpressive but detailed).

I’m actually excited to see more of Celestial Park. The concept art initially made this look like a tantalizing blend of cosmic Jules Verne fantasy combined with organic European gardenscapes. My favorite way to assess placemaking is to experience how it feels to walk through and place and also how it feels to remain static and take it all in. Does it flow? And yet, does it simmer with potential energy and/ or come alive with kinetic energy whilst just sitting there? My gut tells me yes. And I’m excited for it.

I'm really hoping that epic is their "open til midnight" park. If they're smart this park will stay open to midnight and they can funnel in people from the other 2 (or 3) theme parks and have their nightime spectacular here. Will it be wordclass enough to have the portals shut down at 12am. And around 1215am as people are leaving the portals an announcer comes over the hushed crowd. The lights synchronize and the the nighttime spectacular starts. Me with a butterbeer-beer in my hand.... and 10,000 of my closets friends for a nightime show with Cirque Du Soleil quality shows , drones, and fireworks.. (i doubt it this late). Maybe.. i doubt it. Park likely closes as 7pm and we never get a glimpse of this nightime potential.

‘ If they're smart this park will stay open to midnight and they can funnel in people from the other 2 (or 3) theme parks and have their nightime spectacular here.’

I’m still scratching my head how Universal intends to transport guests from one side of the resort to the other - especially for a specific event like a night time spectacular only held at Epic?

Sounds like a logistical/I-4/International Drive nightmare.

The only possible solution I see is a monorail or gondola style transportation that will bypass the heavily congested roads - but I haven’t heard either of these even being considered?

Well there is dedicated buslines. Again, if they are smart, future developments are incentivized by the city. You get your surface level light rail (elevated where it makes sense) and extend from Universal to Epic to Sea World and Disney Springs. The cities are agnostic on this front. Take some pressure off of existing infrastructure and plan for the future. I am suprised that we got a dedicated bus lane which means there is an active dialogue and not Universal hoping they can force the city's hand.

Ultimately i think Celestial park isnt long for this world. It is too generic and large and absent of actual rides. I think we get a retheming before we get a new land. Place Holder Coaster #1 and #2 at the actual edge of the land. All these sitelines are great for pitching your park and being world first. Lets get serious, they are competing with 10 other full-day park destinations + the random advertised on i4 parkamajig. They have to come correct and be the orlando cedar point.

The transport from the existing resort to Epic will, in my opinion being a local, be the single biggest nightmare of this new park.

As I've said before, the dedicated bus lanes do not start until after Carrier. They start just before the new Kirkman road extension. These lanes are in use now.

The buses leave the parking garage at UOR, then turn left onto Universal. From there they go over I4 and turn left onto I-drive. At Kirkman they turn right, and travel towards Epic, past Carrier and only then do they get into the dedicated bus lanes.

Can you even start to imagine what that journey will be like once the park opens !!!

Also, the biggest complaint I've heard from TM's is .... very few and far between shady spots to hide from the sun. We wait and see ....

I think it’s going to take five or more years for the Celestial Park trees to provide much needed shade. Volcano Bay was similar when it first opened the foliage was not impressive. Now it’s like a tropical lush garden.

I Spy Express signs. Wonder if the unlimited perk for certain hotel guests applies here (probably not).

Super Nintendo World: Aside from the lack of Japanese writing, this looks like a 1-for-1 match with Osaka's (which is much more impressive than California's).

Dark Universe: The weather enhanced that one, but it looks absolutely stunning!

Ministry of Magic: This doesn't really feel all that magical to me, but it looks quite detailed.

Isle of Berk: Honestly the least impressive to me, but that might be because the attraction line-up doesn't lend itself as well to large themed structures.

Also, @puckpilgrim, the prevailing speculation is Epic will be a 10 P.M. close initially, and if it moves from that it is likely to be earlier rather than later. UOR also doesn't sell tickets that allow access to both Epic and another park on the same day, and there are no plans to change that at least for the remainder of 2025. Epic is a full day park in their eyes, and is designed so that visitors will immerse themselves in the worlds beyond what has previously been typical of the theme park experience.

Im over here checking out Magic Kingdom and midnight is a regular thing. It's going to be real neat having tik toks still pouring out of Disney for 2 more hours especially when Epic has the only hotel/resort beyond the turnstiles. Annual pass holders and park hoppers should be able to leave after the typical Universal Studios closing just after brunch. If HH nights can be open til 2am they need to set their precedent. As of now "i heard" rules the airwaves. Start at midnight and taper back from there. If you want to be perceived as an adult option. Immersive subversive. The people really "experiencing" the park are those that have had their phones sequestered. Until a theme park can outclass a phone it doesnt matter.

@puckpilgrim:
The only Orlando park I’ve ever seen close at 12am is Magic Kingdom (other than New Year’s Eve) and even that’s super rare. A midnight MK close maybe happens like 10 times a year? Most of the time, you’ll get a 10pm or 11pm closure at the park, but a lot of days have some after hours event happening so sometimes it’ll be 6-7pm closure.

I really wish that the parks would close later like DL does but I’ve noticed two things with that. 1) I’ve been to MK on those midnight closure dates and to DL when it closes at midnight as well and MK has a lot less people in the park at midnight than at DL. I think it works at DL more because there’s a business reason to do so, while the ppl at MK don’t want to stay out as late. 2) Another thing I’ve noticed too is that DL is closing at 12am less and less every year. I’ve seen so many 10pm closures when it used to close at 12am every single night apart from after hour events.

Midnight closures are often what fans want, but rarely make good financial sense because you have to staff labor for those late nights. Disneyland can get away with it because there’s never a time when those parks aren’t busy. But when was the last time anyone saw big crowds at the Universal parks after 7 outside of the holidays?

I agree, and you see a similar trend in WDW operating times. Those midnight (and even 11 PM) closings are fewer and further between since the Pandemic, and when they happen, they are exclusive to the MK. Even EPCOT has pretty much normalized 10 PM closings at the latest with NYE the rare exception to the rule. DAK, one of the most mesmerizing parks to walk around at night, is rarely open past 8 PM anymore even though PtWoA was explicitly designed to be experienced both at daytime AND nighttime.

I think Universal will utilize standard operating hours for the first few months, and if demand is there, they will gradually increase hours as needed. It is true that Universal has utilized a lot of elements that will completely change the experience as the sun goes down, but I think Universal is smart to take it slow.

I also agree with James in that staying open later is not as simple as it sounds. You need staff to run the park for those extra hours, and while staying open just one extra hour seems easy, it impacts thousands of employees and financial projections. There is also the simple fact that some attractions and rides need downtime (during overnight hours) to be refreshed/maintained so they can be reliable during operating hours. Every extra hour an attraction is run is another hour on parts and components that will incrementally shorten their lifespan or necessitate preventative maintenance more frequently.

Well i wont book a Universal trip because of their park closures. Am i supposed to go shop, then out to eat, and watch a movie. Who do you think i am? It is a chicken or the egg scenario. Ive bought the ol 4 da anumulz excuse for Animal Kingdom but that is the worst offender on closing times. When i plan my day out the first thing i look at is closure time. Its not a dollar per hour math problem but do i have to wake up for my vacation earlier than i do for a work day (curse you guardians... but now bless you).

didnt realize the dedicated buslanes were only like a portion of the way. yikes. my little rollercoaster tycoon self thought they secured some sort of walled garden. oh boy. i mean could they do a gondola system like they have at disney. im sure dangling over I4 during a lightning storm would be a treat.

That seems incredibly narrow-minded and silly puckpilgrim, and seems like you're looking for a reason to complain instead of having something legitimate to complain about. Epic is initially scheduled to be open daily from 9 AM to 8 PM with early entry for on-site guests (for specific attractions ONLY, as it is at the legacy parks). While you and many other TPI readers may have the tolerance and stamina to tour a theme park for 12 straight hours, the fact of the matter is that it's rare for guests to spend more than 6 hours straight in a park, even when they're paying top dollar for admission. I think the expectation is that most guests will arrive somewhere around 9-10 AM, stay for a few hours and perhaps leave for lunch (or Universal hopes that you'll go to Celestial Park or CityWalk), and then maybe come back for another couple hours to see the nighttime show - if it's worth coming back for. That's just a simple fact of life in the theme park business, and why Disney invests so much money in their nighttime shows and after hours events - to get people to stay in the parks late. It's why DAK can't stay open late anymore, because there's no show to keep enough guests in the park to keep things running past sunset. If you look at the other WDW parks, if it wasn't for the shows, they would be graveyards at night, because many rides have extremely short lines because of all the guests watching the shows - those people would just leave and get ready for the next day. There's also the natural circadian rhythms of humans that naturally make them sleepy when it gets dark out, so people will understandably start running out of steam after sunset, so the cost-benefit of staying open during nighttime hours just isn't there for the general public - maybe it's there for enthusiasts and super-fans, but ultimately that's what those hard-ticket afterhours events are for, which I would anticipate Universal to do once they are able to iron out all of the operational challenges of this brand new theme park. Again, even when Universal stages HHN, there is a slow, but steady decline in crowds after 10 PM and then after midnight (even on Friday and Saturday nights), the park has about 25% of the guests it had during the peak hours (same goes for Disney afterhours events like MNSSHP and others).

It's much of the same for the legacy UO parks that have struggled to hit on nighttime entertainment to keep guests in the parks to close. Epic hopes to buck the trend with their fountain show and appeal of all the different portals at night, but they're wise to not commit to long hours (and having to pay to staff to 10 PM or later) if people aren't willing to hang around. I just don't see how closing at 8 PM is such a dealbreaker. Annoying, sure. Inconvenient, I guess. Deal-breaker, no way, certainly not for me.

Well with their superbowl commercial and comments of this thread hitting the stratosphere at 24 i think that this park needs to do something that appeals to the superfan that is making this their destination over all others... or not. 8pm is real bad.

Attendance is already dropping at the legacy parks in anticipation of epic. You know fixing the weak rides, weak hours, and turning the 7/11 to a church, mexican restaurant, and current status as a payday loans building (simpsons, shrek, f and furious) needs to be a priority. None of that is being addressed with this park opening. Eggs in one basket miles up the road at the mercy of real life.

I am not going to be in a room overlooking helios watching the sunset on helios with no opportunity to ride. not going to happen. From concept art to the lands they chose and features on rides this a nighttime park. I honestly might not visit until evening. There is zero improvements from being here during the day. Who goes to the local carnival during the day. I think they need to enocurage and foster this as their nightime park. The post lunch park. Finish an epic day at epic. Their hours should reflect that.

I think universal studios upgrade is probably only going to be more permanent halloween horror scares houses year round... that could save it. Tell me what the hell nickelodeon and blue man are doing. Put something over there instead of the employee breakroom.

How long ago did they announce epic? Well were here now. Lets hear the next batch of upgrades. you dont get a pass because you overextended yourself.

"How long ago did they announce epic? Well were here now. Lets hear the next batch of upgrades. you dont get a pass because you overextended yourself."

Epic Universe was officially announced on August 1, 2019 with none of the IPs or attractions identified - just the fact that Universal was building a new gate in Orlando. The park was originally slated to open in 2023, but that was obviously derailed because of the Pandemic.

The official announcement of the IPs and more specific details was not officially announced until January 30 2024. That's @18 months from the official announcement of the IPs and minimal attraction details and the expected opening in May 2025.

That is all consistent with typical Universal timelines where work typically begins on projects with a general announcement of something new coming well in advance, but specific details reserved until 18-24 months ahead of time. If that convention holds, the expectation is that Universal would announce new additions to IOA and USF 12-18 months ahead.