Imagine a world’s fair for stories. Instead of celebrating nations and corporations, each pavilion would celebrate a story – a hero’s journey, or perhaps even an anti-hero’s.
Human beings are built for story. Before we formed nations – and long before we started corporations – we told stories. Through stories, we made sense of the world around us and passed that understanding along to others. At its foundation, our civilization rests not upon the polity of nations or the profit of corporations, but upon epics – upon stories.
So why not celebrate them? It has become recent custom in the entertainment business to label any collection of stories under a unifying theme as a “universe,” e.g. the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Extended Universe. So perhaps it is appropriate to label our world’s fair of stories, our celebration of epics, as an… wait for it… Epic Universe.
Universal Orlando’s new Epic Universe opens officially on May 22. But today, Universal invited several reporters to experience its new park in advance of its public debut. So I can bring you here the first allowed reports and images from inside the park not produced by Universal itself.
Disneyland established the template for the modern theme parks in 1955. But its lands were devoted to broad themes – Fantasy, Frontier, Adventure, and Tomorrow – not specific stories or intellectual properties [IP]. Epic Universe completes the transition begun by Universal’s Islands of Adventure in 1999, which included a land devoted exclusively to Jurassic Park, along with lands devoted to the IP of Marvel Comics and Dr. Seuss. However, the catch-all themes of the Toon Lagoon and Lost Continent lands prevented Islands of Adventure from realizing the vision now made manifest by Epic Universe.
Epic Universe follows Disneyland’s hub-and-spoke design, but without an outer wheel to connect the individual spokes beyond the hub. That allows Universal Creative designers to dispense with any transition between the lands, save for the portals that connect each to Epic Universe’s hub.
That hub is Celestial Park. Guests enter Epic Universe through Celestial Park’s iconic, towering Chronos, a “giant machine used to harness the energy of the Universe that powers all of Celestial Park, allowing us to open the portals to other worlds,” according to Universal Creative Executive Producer Adam Rivest.
Universal has created a liminal space filled with neo-Byzantine architecture, accented with art nouveau and a dash of traveling carnival. It’s a mix of styles designed to evoke a past yearning for its future. As such, it declares, “we are in the middle of a story here.”
Across Celestial Park stands one of Epic Universe’s visual weenies, the Universal Helios Grand Hotel. It’s Universal’s first in-park hotel in the United States, named for the Greek god of the sun. Having Helios literally stand over Epic Universe is a bit spot-on of a design choice for a park that will roast in the Central Florida sunshine on most days.
Perhaps that Chronos might someday gin up enough extra energy to create some shade for this sunbaked park. Until then, an investment in a good sun umbrella (one with an opaque, black underside) may be well worth your time and money before your next Orlando visit.
Celestial Park offers three attractions: Constellation Carousel, the Astronomica splash pad, and the one that many fans will run to first when it opens for Early Park Admission to Universal’s on-site hotel guests, Stardust Racers.
The Mack Rides dual-track, multi-launch racing coaster reaches a top speed of 62 mph, with one inversion on each side of the track. I got to ride in the front seat on the green side and... oh my goodness.
This has got to be the new airtime king of coasters. It's just one ejector airtime hill after another, leading to a zero-G roll. I screamed so much that I realized mid-run that I needed to close my mouth due to all the air that was being blown into it, blasting the last drops of moisture from my overheating body. I walked off dehydrated, hoarse, exhausted... and ready to declare this one of the greatest coasters I ever have enjoyed riding. The flux capacitor at the rear of each comet-themed coaster train provides a welcomed Easter egg, too.
Universal provided lunch for us at The Oak & Star Tavern in Celestial Park, which was the only meal I was able to sample during my preview visit. The meats were fine at this barbecue restaurant, but the burnt ends baked beans and mango bread were my favorites.
Beyond Celestial Park, those aforementioned portals lead visitors into Epic Universe’s four other themed lands: Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, and How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.
This is Universal’s third installation of the land that it first opened at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka in 2021. The first U.S. installation came at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2023, and we reviewed that land – and its Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge augmented reality dark ride – here: Fans Pack Super Nintendo World for Official Opening.
An epic is a hero’s story, and in Super Nintendo World, Universal offers to cast you in the role of that hero. With an upcharge Power-Up Band, you can play several Key Challenges in Super Nintendo World. These are practical games that feel like video game challenges brought to life. Win enough of them, and you can take on Bowser Jr. in the final boss battle to win back control of the Mushroom Kingdom.
You also can use your Power-Up Band to score points via other touchpoint interactions throughout the land, as well as through your performance on the Mario Kart ride. Pair your band with a free account on the official Universal Orlando mobile app, and you can track your score to see how you rank among other visitors to the land.
Orlando’s installation includes the Yoshi’s Adventure track ride and Donkey Kong Country expansion that Universal did not have room to install in Hollywood. Donkey Kong’s Mine-Cart Madness is therefore the first American installation of Universal’s “Boom Coaster,” a novel design that enables a visual illusion of a coaster train jumping its track.
It’s a fun effect, if sitting in the front row, and better in person than in POV videos from Japan. But the boom coaster lacks the full feeling of lateral stability that one expects on other coaster models, making this feel very much like a prototype experience rather than as fully satisfying as Epic’s other attractions.
Universal first claimed space in popular culture in the early 20th century as the home of movie monsters. Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein’s monster and The Mummy, Elsa Lanchester’s The Bride of Frankenstein, and Lon Cheney Jr’s The Wolf Man ruled at the box office in the 1930s and early 40s. Universal Classic Monsters have enjoyed new popularity in recent years through annual appearance at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights on both coasts. But Universal Studios to date has failed to create a “Dark Universe” of new monster-driven films for modern audience, despite several efforts. (Anyone remember 2017’s “The Mummy” with Tom Cruise?)
So with its first theme park land devoted to Classic Monsters, Universal turns to its Experiences segment to deliver a home for the company’s original IP. Fans seem ready for it. In a vote last month, Theme Park Insider readers chose Dark Universe’s Monsters Unchained - The Frankenstein Experiment as the Epic Universe ride they plan to visit first in the park.
Set in a land’s stunning Frankenstein Manor, this Kuka robot-arm dark ride takes riders through the catacombs underneath the village of Darkmoor. We are riding a contraption created and controlled by Igor, so nothing possibly could go wrong with that, right?
Here is the preshow for the ride. (Universal was not permitting on-ride recording for this preview.)
Universal’s new original character of Dr. Victoria Frankenstein (yes, she is related) is out to clear her family's name by capturing all Darkmoor's monsters. The final trophy in her collection is to be Dracula, and we are here to witness his imprisonment. But of course that doesn't happen, and the rest of the monsters join the jailbreak.
Monsters Unchained includes more than a dozen animatronics, including some that appear to float in mid-air. It's by far Universal's most impressive use of this medium to date, especially with an intense moment featuring the Phantom of the Opera near the start of the ride. If you ever wondered what Halloween Horror Nights could do with an unlimited budget, well, this is it.
Dark Universe’s other ride is Curse of the Werewolf, a multi-launch Mack Rides family spinning roller coaster. Capacity could be an issue with this one, with a mid-course shuttle that will keep throughputs low until Universal's ops team gets cracking at the load station. But the ride itself is fun, though a spin on the final turn hit me with what felt like more Gs than I've ever felt on a coaster before. "Family" coaster is pushing it here.
For those who wish to join the show in this land, Universal is offering the Darkmoor Monster Makeup Experience (the “Bibbidi Bobbidi BOO-tique”), a professional facepainting experience that starts at $45, with a $169 option that includes costume accessories.
Harry Potter is the reason why Epic Universe exists. The 2010 opening of the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter land at Islands of Adventure pushed Universal Orlando to record attendance, allowing NBCUniversal to buy out its private equity partner in the resort and embark upon the expansion that has led us to Epic Universe today. [See Harry Potter and the Day That Changed Theme Parks Forever for that story.]
Universal’s third Harry Potter land is set in 1920s Paris - a nod to the Fantastic Beasts sequel series that Warner Bros. scrapped due to weak box office. The Le Cirque Arcanus live stage show plays in the land’s time period, but we were not able to see that today due to a technical difficulty at our assigned showtime.
For the land’s signature dark ride, Universal breaks out the time turner at the land’s portal entrance to return to another iconic location from the original film series. As the name of the land states, it’s the Ministry of Magic.
Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry takes us via the Floo Network into the British Ministry in the 1990s, which Potter fans saw first in 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This motion base dark ride is set after the film and book series, as Dolores Umbridge awaits trial for her crimes. But, as villains so often do, she has escaped, and it’s a race to recapture her. Enjoy my walkthrough the Ministry building queue.
We were able to ride what has been a finicky attraction so far in employee previews. And it’s well worth the wait. A dark ride that moves in multiple directions, this experience is themed to the omnidirectional lifts in the Ministry. Our trip to the courtroom is interrupted by Umbridge’s escape. She is after a time turner to return Voldemort to power, but ultimately it’s an unexpected hero who rises to save the day.
This is, hand to heart, Universal’s greatest Harry Potter ride. The ride vehicle motion impresses, but the star remains the show, with a mix of projections, Pepper’s Ghost effects, practical sets and animatronics, including impressive depictions of actors I never expected to see realized in animatronic form. The timing of all these elements no doubt contributes to the ride’s finicky initial uptimes. Let’s hope Universal finds a way to overcome that and open this Ministry experience to the large audience it deserves.
As in Super Nintendo World, Universal invites Epic Universe guests to role-play within The Wizarding World. The tool here is a next-generation interactive wand. Universal introduced interactive wand play with the debut of the second Wizarding World land, Universal Studios Florida’s Diagon Alley, in 2014. But these wands, selling for $85, enable pairing with the Universal Orlando app, which open up scorekeeping and task assignments. Haptic and light effects on the wands also enhance the spellcasting experience for new targets here in the land and the older Harry Potter lands in Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida.
The final land in Epic Universe celebrates one of Universal’s newer film hits, How to Train Your Dragon, which is getting a “live action” reboot in theaters this summer. (It’s still animated - I mean, dragons - but the animation is more photo-realistic this time.)
Isle of Berk brings America audiences the U.S. premiere of The Untrainable Dragon, the Theme Park Insider Award-winning live stage show from Universal Studios Beijing.
Filled with large scale puppetry and energetic dancing and stunt work, Untrainable impresses with both scale and heart. Ultimately, it’s up to Astrid to restore Hiccup’s faith in himself, as the two discover just what made a massive new practical dragon character so “untrainable.”
Beyond this visually amazing and emotionally engaging production, Isle of Berk offers more attractions than the other lands in the park, led by Hiccup's Wing Gliders, an Intamin multi-launch roller coaster that winds through the Viking-themed land. I did not get to ride this, but others on my tour today called it a mini version of IOA's Hagrid's coaster - a lively terrain coaster that offers some character interaction and great views of the land. This is Epic Universe's true family roller coaster.
For those wanting a potentially more intense thrill experience, hop aboard Dragon Racer's Rally, by my count the third installation of the Gerstlauer Sky Fly (in the United States - see comments) and the first in Florida.
Scaredy cats like me will prefer Fyre Drill, a Splash Battle boat ride that promises at least temporary wet relief from the Central Florida heat. And kids who need to run out some of their pent-up energy from waiting in queues elsewhere in the park can take advantage of the Viking Training Camp playground.
So what did I think? Well, welcome to my new favorite theme park. The top four here - Ministry, Monsters, Untrainable, and Stardust - are not just an impressive top tier, they provide a balanced line-up of differing IP and experiences.
If you want me to get picky, I could - especially around the exterior of the park, where surrounding foliage has yet to grow in, making Universal's south campus feel more like some industrial park in Dubai than the lush environment to be found on Universal's main campus to the north. If this were located in California, I would be worried about that growth rate. But given that this is Florida, I give it about 12 months until this place feels like a jungle. Well, at least, I hope so.
Ultimately, it's a preview. I did not get to sample regular servings of any food, nor did I take advantage of the upcharge interactions. Universal has six-plus weeks to work on this park before its official opening. But based upon my experience today, this park promises to be, well... epic.
Epic Universe is located on Universal Orlando’s new south campus, located about five miles down the new Kirkman Boulevard from Universal Orlando’s first two parks, Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. As a bird flies, it’s about the same distance between Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, though there is no monorail connecting these parks. Universal will provide free bus transportation, however.
For those wanting to stay close to Epic Universe, Universal’s new south campus includes three hotels: the 500-room Signature Collection Universal Helios Grand Hotel and the twin 750-room Prime Value Hotels, Universal Stella Nova Resort and Universal Terra Luna Resort. Do note that Stella has a walking path to Epic, while Terra is marooned in a parking lot, with only bus access to the park. But Helios has the best access, with an entrance directly from the hotel into Celestial Park.
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Looks excellent. I love a good weenie, and you know what they say about weenies, the bigger the better! Some of these massive weenies are bigger than Disney's- and you can even ride a few of these weenies.
Wow, thanks for the review, Robert. The park looks stunning, and I can't wait to experience these attractions. It's an interesting time, economically speaking, for the park to open - I wonder if the recent uncertainties will impact attendance in the near future or if the excitement and positive reviews Epic Universe has been getting will drive strong attendance with multi-hour waits.
Thanks for the review. It sounds great! I’m looking forward to my visit to Epic in June even more.
"Dragon Racer's Rally, by my count the third installation of the Gerstlauer Sky Fly, and the first in Florida."
Is there something missing in that sentence about it being the third installation in the United States?
The Gerstlauer website reckons there are currently 25 installations of the Sky Fly (including 6 just within Germany!)
https://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/en/products/flat-rides/sky-fly
Yes, that is correct. Fixed!
Thanks for this Robert! Can’t wait for the more in-depth, spoiler-filled review to eventually come out…
Thanks, Robert! Great write up with just enough mystery left in the story to make anybody want to experience this theme park as soon as possible.
I tried to keep this review free of major spoilers, but if anyone is looking for those, I have opened a discussion on the forum for me to share all the information that I did not include here.
great review...happy to hear you love it as much as i do. hiccups is a very fun and potent "family" coaster. i really loved it.
Not going read this because im about 60 days away from my own visit. I am in Orlando this weekend and the distance between Epic and Universal Proper is a non-issue. Did my second driveby and and the scale of the place seems pretty big. Still not sure about fireworks ordinances. Maybe they will do drones exclusively... someone has to rip the band-aid off of the drone shows (still havent seen one)
Straight shot from Helios to the bridge over I4 and not some arduous task i was led to believe (gas lighting oneself? passing gas? and lighting it).
Park to Park at some parks at Disney could take longer and honestly if your gps wasnt working or your phone died might be impossible.
@puckpilgim - I'm not sure what the ordinances are, but there have been reports of fireworks testing, though they have been no reports of anyone having seen any nighttime entertainment. From what I've seen, none of the invited media were allowed to stay in the park at night, and while there are some aerial shots of the park after dark, there's nothing from inside the park after the sun goes down or any indication of if or how the park will change at night. The way I look at it, nighttime shows are REALLY expensive to put on, because it requires so many consumables, so it's very possible that Universal will just perform a couple of limited tests here and there in the leadup to May 22nd, but the full show (if there is one) will be kept under wraps until the park is officially open. In the meantime, it seems like the fountain show is very entertaining (on the scale of the Bellagio Fountains), and has the ability to be modified and changed for different times of day. When it comes to drones, it sounds like Universal will be using some, but it's unclear how prevalent they will be throughout the park and whether they will be utilized at night.
It might not be said enough but THANKS....
Stardust Racers looks wonderful.
Ministry of Magic is breathtaking.
The only thing is that the area's look somewhat narrow. Like the Portals entry, just hope folks keep moving and not stand in large groups or it will get clogged like a Fat guys toilet, hahahahaah
The other thing I noticed was the amount of folks just walking and looking around, did not seem like a Media Preview but more of a Day at the Park..
But Thanks Again.!!!
On the contrary, the passageways in many parts of Epic are huge. Potter has much wider pathways than any other WWoHP land. The streets in Celestial Park are quite wide. Only Nintendo feels tight. The trouble is that wide pathways just exacerbate the lack of shade problem.
That does look indeed Epic Robert, and I am so Jealous. My plans for a 2026 trip have been replaced with a cruise to Iceland instead due to the current climate, but it gives me great hope Universal UK will be awesome.
@Robert - I think Brian was specifically referencing the size/width of the portals, and whether lingering in those tubes taking photos, particularly of those screen effects that seem to change periodically, will cause backups. Obviously the Super Nintendo World portal won't have that issue since they've used escalators to move people from the entrance to the land (reminds me so much of the escalators at Liseberg), which is a brilliant design choice for a land based on video games IMHO. However, while it's probably a trait of content creators to stop and take pictures/videos of EVERYTHING they encounter, I could still see other random guests stopping to take photos inside the portals, which could create traffic jams. It's smart that Universal has made the portals one-way, guests exiting the portals go out a different way, but you could still end up with clogs from time to time, more likely at night when the screen effects can be metered better without blowing out the end of the portal basking in bright sunshine.
My concern with the portals is that those screens creating the portal effects are going to put off a lot of heat. I haven't see enough videos of the portals to see if there's any ventilation inside the tubes or if the screens being used are in some way cooled to prevent them from putting off immense heat, but I would be concerned that those areas could turn into giant EZ-Bake ovens if they aren't cooled in some way, even though they do provide shade.
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Wow. Looks even better than I hoped. Mark one on my bucket list even if I'll wait for the usual opening month bugs to smooth out.