Why You Should Skip Epic Universe
Epic Universe is fantastic, with world-class rides, shows, and restaurants. If I had to choose only one park to visit in Florida in 2026, it wouldn’t be Magic Kingdom or anywhere else at Walt Disney World–it’d be Universal’s third gate. At the same time, there major downsides to visiting this highly-anticipated new park while it’s still finding its footing.
Although I’m fully aboard the Epic Universe hype train, I also recognize that not everyone is me. The average tourist might not have the same time or tolerances to experience a new theme park and all that entails. Moreover, I’m somewhat concerned that the hype train is going a tad too fast, and needs the brakes pumped before it risks derailment.
To that end, I want to make the argument against visiting Epic Universe. Why you should skip it in 2026, and wait until 2027 to visit Universal Orlando’s new theme park. With everyone else fixated on hype, I thought it’d be pragmatic to temper expectations. With that said, this is one half of a point-counterpoint article series. For the companion piece, see Here’s Why We Highly Recommend Doing 2 Days at Epic Universe.
This article outlines the case against Epic Universe–that much should be obvious. If you’re excited about Universal Orlando’s new theme park, have already bought your vacation package or park tickets, or are otherwise averse to negativity, this post is probably not for you. This details the potential pitfalls in visiting Epic Universe in its first year-plus, meaning that it’s a bit of a downer by design.
While you may want to skip this post about skipping Epic Universe if you have zero intentions of skipping Epic Universe, there might be value even for those of you fully aboard the hype train. First, it’ll help in managing expectations. Second, in preparing for these downsides to mitigate their impact to the greatest extent possible.
On with the list of reasons why maybe you should wait to visit Epic Universe until 2027 or beyond…
Heat, Sun & Shade (or Lack Thereof)
Apparently, Epic Universe was designed for the folks who thought Toy Story Land was just a bit too chilly and didn’t offer enough opportunities to crispen their skin or get soaked during a storm. We’ve been critical of recent lands at Walt Disney World when it comes to the lack of cover and how hot they get, wondering if the designers responsible had ever left the comfort of their 70-degree air-conditioned offices in California.
The team behind Epic Universe heard that and said “hold my beer,” cranked their office A/C to 62, and designed the hottest and least shaded theme park I’ve ever experienced. There was a lot of bluster from Universal about Celestial Park putting the “park” back in theme park. Apparently that does not include trees or shade structures of any sort, but does include the most reflective pavement on earth. You can feel the heat from both above and below, making it difficult to spend time in the land during the day.
Celestial Park is lovely, to be sure, but all of the praise for it is necessarily coming at night. I seldom saw more than a handful of guests in here during the day aside from those going from point A to B. It was always a veritable ghost town, and for good reason–it’s really uncomfortable. None of this is exaggeration.
The other portals are better, but only marginally so. Ministry of Magic feels like a sauna, with the same reflective properties and heat emanating from the pavement and facades, until the sun is lower in the sky and the buildings block it from view. It’s a similar story in Super Nintendo World, Isle of Berk, and Dark Daylight Universe.
If you are going to visit Epic Universe this summer, I’d strongly recommend an umbrella with UV protection, cool-dude bucket hat, and ridiculously strong sunscreen. Also, be sure to bring your own water bottle–to Universal’s immense credit, there are refilling stations all over the place, including in queues. (See our Summer Survival Guide to Walt Disney World for more recommendations.)
There are several factors that contribute to Epic Universe having a worse “feels like” environment than other Central Florida theme parks, but the biggest is a lack of permanent shade structures and no mature trees. Epic Universe will be a lovely park-like setting a decade from now, but in the immediate future, it can be miserable on hot and sunny days.
High Prices
There have been a lot of complaints among Walt Disney World fans about price increases, and that conversation is often accompanied by comparisons to Universal Orlando. Many have suggested they’ll vote with their wallets and visit Epic Universe instead due to Walt Disney World pricing them out.
This doesn’t quite add up. Epic Universe is extremely expensive. For my first few visits, Epic Universe tickets, I paid as much as $180 per day after tax. Subsequent days in the park last year were cheaper.
The good news is that this year has brought with it more reasonable options with the release of 2026 Epic Universe 1-Day, Multi-Day, Park Hopper & Discount Tickets. This means you can now visit Epic Universe multiple days or portions of days; you could spend every waking hour at Epic Universe, never doing the legacy parks at all.
This is a big win versus buying multiple single day tickets, which is what was necessary last year. If spending multiple days at Universal Orlando in 2026, I’d want to spend at least two-thirds of that time at Epic Universe–two days there and a day split between the existing gates. I’d add that this is practically necessary given the below issues.
If you do opt for only a single day at Epic Universe, those 1-day prices are still high. And I’d add that, in that case, you might want to strongly consider Express Pass, which is even more expensive.
Personally, I’d go with multiple days (or portions of multiple days) over a single day with Express Pass for a few reasons, but to each their own. Some people have more money than time!
High Wait Times Despite Low Attendance
The new theme park is seeing astronomical wait times for a number of reasons despite relatively low attendance. Despite low attendance, Epic Universe has astronomical wait times.
Since opening, the park’s monthly wait time averages have been 56 to 66 minutes. This may not seem that bad. After all, many rides at Walt Disney World have wait times that are over an hour. But keep in mind that this is an average across all rides and throughout the day, and it doesn’t take into account downtime (see below).
Weekly average wait times at Epic Universe since opening have been 44 to 82 minutes. Daily numbers have been even more extreme. And it’s not getting any better. Epic Universe’s busiest two months have been January and February 2026. March will likely be equally bad once the dust settles on Spring Break.
Some of those days have been absurdly busy. In January, Epic Universe had its busiest day ever. Not just the highest wait times ever for Epic Universe, but for any park at Universal Orlando or Walt Disney World since at least 2019–and by a very wide margin. The average wait on that date was 107 minutes, with peak waits of over 300 minutes and multiple headliners hitting 200+ minutes throughout the day.
To put these numbers into perspective, it’s also worth noting that Walt Disney World’s two busiest days since 2019 have been 71 and 70 minute waits–both came during the weeks of New Year’s (early 2020 and late 2023). Walt Disney World’s average wait time since Epic Universe opened has been less than half of Epic Universe. The same goes for Universal Orlando’s other parks.
On any given day, Walt Disney World’s average wait time has typically been less than half of Epic Universe. The same goes for Universal Orlando’s other parks, which are seeing averages of around 25 to 30 minutes.
This may seem contradictory, but Epic Universe has been seeing New Year’s Eve level wait times on a near-weekly basis since opening despite having attendance that’s one-third to half of the park’s theoretical capacity.
Wait times at Epic Universe are worse than any other park at Universal Orlando or Walt Disney World despite the likelihood of lower daily attendance than any of them. The high wait times at Epic Universe are due to ride reliability and operational inefficiency, and not overwhelming demand.
To the contrary, all signs have pointed to fairly modest attendance. Aside from Super Nintendo World and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, both of which are cramped lands based on hugely popular brands, congestion isn’t really an issue at Epic Universe. The park usually doesn’t feel crowded, even when wait times are triple-digits.
Universal has stated that efficiency and capacity constraints are posing problems for the new park. During the company’s most recent earnings call, Comcast CFO Jason S. Armstrong shared that Epic Universe is “not yet operating at full run rate capacity, but we’ve made meaningful progress expanding ride throughput and remain focused on scaling further over the next several quarters with higher attendance, stronger per-caps, and additional operating leverage over time.”
In plain English, this means that they hope to both improve operational efficiency by getting the rides firing on all cylinders while also increasing attendance. At the same time, Comcast leadership has shared that this process will be slow-going, and take until the end of 2026.
It’s unclear why leadership believes it’s going to take another full year to ramp up Epic Universe, but we’ve noticed minimal progress made on our visits, even ones that have been months apart. Hence our recommendation to consider skipping Epic Universe until 2027. Operational woes and high wait times are showing no signs of relenting anytime soon, so the wait may be longer than originally anticipated.
All of this is partly the nature of the beast with a new theme park. And it’s not going to become consistent anytime soon. Wait times and crowd levels on par with the worst week of the year at Walt Disney World are an obvious reason to skip Epic Universe.
Operations should find its footing, efficiency should improve, weather should get better. However, it’s also worth pointing out that the park is lacking in capacity and it’s heavy on headliners. What if it’s only going to get worse from here?! What if it’s a failure of imagination to not see this all somehow worsening?!
A good example of this already happening is Universal overselling Express Pass for Epic Universe and adding Mine-Cart Madness and Battle at the Ministry to the line-skipping service to boost sales, despite neither having the capacity or reliability needed to be part of that yet.
Wait times could also increase as attendance increases because, as mentioned above by Comcast leadership, that is one of the goals as Epic Universe continues to scale up. The company didn’t spend $7 billion on this new park for its current (modest) attendance.
Comcast could decide its quarterly numbers aren’t looking so hot–that the theme park segment is falling short of analyst expectations–and start selling Annual Passes, Florida resident ticket deals, or multi-day tickets without restrictions. There’s a huge number of locals who are tapped out on single day tickets, sitting on the sidelines waiting for APs or special offers.
Universal could reassess strategies, and roll out monetized earlier entry (a la Super Nintendo World at USH) or late nights. It’s all uncharted ground, and unpredictable. Attendance could increase, and crowds could worsen.
In the here and now, it actually is possible to beat the crowds at Epic Universe, bad as they are. If you’re eligible to take advantage of Early Park Admission, that’s huge. Even if not, regular rope drop is a great time to knock out one portal.
Staying late to outlast the crowds at the end of the night is likewise another excellent strategic option for low waits. The first two hours of the morning and last two of the evening are as or more valuable than the entire middle of the day.
It’s also possible to choose your day to visit strategically. I’ve been to Epic Universe several times now, and have yet to encounter peak crowds. See our Epic Universe Crowd Calendar: Best Dates to Visit in 2026 for advice. The worst and least busy dates are actually pretty predictable, albeit slightly counter-intuitive and unlike the other Universal Orlando theme parks.
Suffice to say, if you’re considering a visit during the shoulder season or off-season, our advice is much different than if you’re traveling during a school break or the heart of summer.
I wouldn’t hesitate to visit in August or September 2026, or even certain dates in November or December 2026. But other dates between now and then, and even in early 2027, would be complete non-starters.
Honestly, I’m skeptical there’s going to be an “answer” to the park’s problem until the second wave of expansion comes online. Even though that’s currently being fast-tracked, the best case scenario on new attractions is probably 2028. In the meantime, the park really needs a daytime parade, added entertainment, and a proper nighttime spectacular.
Getting in Shape
Epic Universe continues the trend of Universal’s stringent guest containment policies, meaning aggressive restraints even on the slower moving attractions. This had the recipe for being another Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash, a slow-moving dark ride that many larger guests cannot experience due to its restraints. Thankfully, that is not the case.
Everything we’ve heard suggests that Universal Orlando took guest feedback to heart with Epic Universe, and the restraints are largely friendly to Pooh-sized guests. There are limits on this, but the same is true with Walt Disney World–TRON Lightcycle Run and Avatar Flight of Passage would like a word.
I’m about the worst person to speak to this, so it’s all second-hand from friends who reported being pleasantly surprised. There are plenty of resources tailored to this type of guest, but the salient point is you probably don’t need to fear embarrassment or accessibility issues if you’re a larger guest. Universal seems to have done a really good job threading the needle when it comes to Epic Universe’s seats and restraints.
The bigger issue, and the one I absolutely did notice, is all of the stairs. On my days in Epic Universe, I somehow managed to log an upwards of 20 flights per day. It seems like every single attraction has stairs both in the queue and at unload. Of course, attractions are also accessible, so there are elevators, but waiting around for those might not be an ideal use of your time.
Personally, I do not think Epic Universe involves an excessive amount of walking as a result of the portals. My average steps per day was lower, and considerably so, than prior days at Walt Disney World. But the difference is that I was actively trying to avoid spending time outdoors due to the heat and lack of shade and I did way more rides per day than my norm. So I’m not really sure that step count was representative of an average guest’s day.
Point being, you might want to work on endurance and get in shape a bit before Epic Universe. The one-two punch of the heat and the stairs makes this a park that can be unduly tiring. It was for me despite fewer steps, and I’m decently in shape.
Breakdowns & Downtime
As you’ve probably witnessed if you’ve spent any amount of time being a Walt Disney World fan, new attractions have growing pains and are often plagued by problems their first few months. This is not a uniquely Disney problem. It’s the nature of the beast as attractions become more complex.
Epic Universe is an entire park of new rides, many of which are innovative and envelope-pushing. Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is far from the only problematic attraction. It’s actually become one of the better performers as of June and July, owing at least in part to the fact that it’s indoors so it doesn’t suffer from weather-related delays.
Pretty much every single one of the park’s marquee attractions has levels of downtime higher than what guests would consider reasonable. These are unscheduled breakdowns, so they’re obviously unpredictable, but there’s not even consistency to which attractions are impacted. It seems like just as one problematic ride hits its stride and starts running smoothly, a new one starts having issues.
For the first few months that Epic Universe has been greeting guests, there have been some really rough days. We have not experienced these, thankfully, but have talked to friends who have (and have observed from afar via the Universal Orlando app).
Multiple headliners going down has a cascading effect, causing congestion in restaurants with long delays for mobile orders, and spiking the wait times of the rides that are open. Keep in mind that this is during days when attendance is heavily capped. When rides come back online, the backlog of Express Pass means sky-high standby wait times.
Suffice to say, you’re not going to want to be in Epic Universe the first time there’s an operational meltdown with the park operating at or nearer full capacity. It’s going to be a nightmare. And it’ll be one exacerbated by the above concerns about the lack of shade, as well as sufficient crowd-absorbing counterprogramming.
In the longer term, we don’t expect any of this to be much of an issue. Almost every new attraction or land has initial growing pains, especially the advanced ones. Again, Epic Universe is an entire park of those! We’re not trying to be critical or nitpick–this is more of a sober “it is what it is” type of commentary.
A year from now, our expectation is that Epic Universe is operating smoothly and with a high degree of efficiency. Many of the problems on this list, including ride reliability, will resolve themselves over time. There’s something to be said for experiencing a brand-new theme park, but there’s also a non-monetary cost to doing so. Consider both before taking the plunge.
Need trip planning tips and comprehensive advice for your visit to Central Florida? Make sure to read our Universal Orlando Planning Guide for everything about Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. Also check out our Walt Disney World Vacation Planning Guide for everything about those parks, resorts, restaurants, and so much more.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be attending Epic Universe ASAP, or will you skip it until the new park settles into a groove? Concerned about unreliable rides, how hot the park gets, or anything else discussed here? Think Epic Universe is a third gate that’s a worthy addition to Universal Orlando Resort…and on par with Walt Disney World? Any questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!
Welp… we are going regardless. I’ve mentioned in comments on other posts that we moved from a Universal resort to SSR due to the free dining and to add additional days to our 10 day PH tickets at Disney. We still purchased 2 days at Epic, like Tom suggested, just in case. But, thus far, I don’t know if we even need them. Honestly, most of my 12 person group cannot participate on majority of the rides, and we were looking forward to a better immersion and theming, food, experiences, etc. Sadly, we’ve heard poor reviews on those, and all this reinforced my decision to add on with Disney as the correct one, since I don’t know that we will stay for the full 2 days at Epic.
We are going in with a lowered expectation and will make the best of it.
We originally had a 9 day Disney trip planned for early May. Did not factor in Epic Universe as it was not going to be open. Our trip got changed to the end of August, first week of September. We are now giving up one of our Disney days to visit Epic on September 2nd. I am trying to temper my expectations and convince myself that we may not get to do all the rides but just seeing the new worlds will be worth it… hopefully…We really only have one day to visit so I don’t want to leave disappointed.
To add some personal experience to three points raised by the article:
1. Prices are out of control for Epic, and especially for Helios. I got a small yogurt that came with jam (no granola) from the grab-n-go in Helios. No prices were posted in the place (you’ll see why). When I got to the register, it rang up to $13. When I asked the clerk if there had been some mistake, she confirmed the price was $13 but looked a bit embarrassed about it. At a Disney hotel, such a yogurt at a lobby grab-n-go would be $6.
2. Even Early Entry does not guarantee a good time because of poor operations. On two separate days, Mario Kart was down at opening for more than 45 minutes. On the second day, we wasted the full early entry time in a stand-still line for Mario Kart. This would not be so bad if the whole park was open for early entry. But many of the other high-wait-time rides at the park (Ministry and Hiccups) are not open.
3. The rides have abysmal hourly capacity. The way Universal designed the load stations and rides is to blame. From inexplicable 4-person carts for Mine Cart Madness to the absence of separate unload stations for many rides (Mario Kart and Hiccups), this park has terrible capacity for its number of rides and size.
I’m taking my 16yo granddaughter 4 nights, staying at Endless Summer Dockside starting Aug 2nd.
We have 2 park to park tickets and 1 day at EU and we’ve never been to any Universal park.
Tom, I’d appreciate any advice from you or any readers here in regards to which parks to visit on which days. I was thinking about starting at the older parks and saving the new park for last.
Wish I saw your article sooner!
Our family of 6 visited 6.12.2025.
We spent a total of 9 hours at the park.
Two hours in my husband said “it looks like we just wasted $1,100.”
We left around 3 and came back early evening.
An hour before the park closed wait times for all of the roller coasters were 75-100minutes.
16 total attractions + a park capacity of 45,000= astronomical wait times
It’s infuriating to now learn that Epic Universal increased the park capacity cap from a strict 12-15k to 45k knowing what that would do to wait times. The average family, would not intentionally pay $1,100 to experience ~4 attractions, but based on our experience and multiple google reviews that’s exactly what’s happening.
Oof Dot, that stinks. This is why we decided to wait until at least next year and for us the price would include flights which has been bad (price wise) as well.
i just… i don’t understand the lack of shade in central florida theme parks. what is the endgame here?
Maybe the execs in charge just want their guests to suffer. Besides bad design making parks hot, theme park execs also seem to try to hurt guests by not listening to their protests about bulldozing old favorite attractions to make way for new ones. And then, of course, there’s ever-increasing prices.
My guess, they want guests inside the restaurants and shops in order to generate more revenue.
Wait till November or even better, 2026. Having said that I’m going back on Tuesday and then June 4. Crazy! Never realized a theme park could be so HOT. Take your umbrella and water bottle. We have already bought tickets but the heat is going to be a killer. I made a ressie for Dockside so I could buy tickets for yesterday then they announced anyone could buy tickets – ugh! I’m sure pass holders are ticked off but we did get early entry which we did enjoy – walked the entire Park with hardly anyone around us as Nintendo was the only land open for early entry. I agree with all other comments about stairs, lack of shade,etc. We got on Harry Potter – pre-show fantastic. The ride – well, it isn’t that much better than the other one – no big WOW factor. Most of the rides were down a lot – that is to be expected, it will get better I’m sure. I don’t think Disney needs to worry a whole lot as there isn’t a lot of rides for little folks and preteens. I’m sure Megatron will be going to Disney a lot more than Epic.The Circus show – blah. I had just seen the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom 2 days before – absolutely no comparison. There are tons of eating places and drinking places – I hate all this alcohol being sold in all the Parks . We ate at the Atlantic. The restaurant is absolutely gorgeous inside and out but that is all the good I can say about it. We had a hamburger/fries and a salmon salad for $105 plus they sat us in a corner next to the kitchen – there were only 3 other diners in the entire restaurant. I was not a happy camper. Dockside Inn is new -$135 for 2 queen beds. I thought it was very nice for a moderate and the free bus transportation to the Parks is a plus. Tom, I started following you when we made reservations for Tokyo Disney – we have been to Tokyo now twice – last June and in December. We stayed at Toy Story and Disneyland Hotel. Epic will be fantastic in a couple years and I dearly love my Disney Parks but nothing comes close to Tokyo Disney Parks – they are by far the BEST. Nothing compares to Beauty & the Beadt, Frozen, Peter Pan at Tokyo. Life is Goid!
My family and I just went so I can confirm that the park lacks shade. The walk to the gate is similar to walking into Hollywood Studios if you skipped the tram. But it’s not as far of a walk as parking at the UO garage and then having to walk through Citywalk and to the gates of IOA or USF. The day we went the high was 85F. There is no way I would go to the park if the temperatures here higher than that, and this is coming from a local who visits UO and WDW in the summer. There isn’t enough shade and the queues are outside and in the sun. I jumped on Fire Drill twice to cool down. (This was the only ride that was walk on.) The entire park is basically Toy Story Land.
We encountered multiple ride delays and breakdowns all day. They ended up shutting down Monsters Unchained around 6pm and Curse of the Werewolf around 7pm for the night. (thankfully, we were able to ride them before it happened.) The Battle of the Ministry didn’t open until after 3pm. We weren’t able to get a VL, even though there were four of us (and we are all used to WDW’s VQ and the VL when UO had it for Hagrids a couple of years ago). I am under the impression that Universal is giving the VLs sparingly because the ride keeps going down. (And yes, there are stairs everywhere!!)
The restaurants and shops were packed with people trying to escape the heat. We did one sit down meal at the Parisian Cafe. It took 45 minutes to receive our food after they seated us even through I mobile ordered our meals in advance. I always MO ahead of time at all parks (Pro tip!). The mac and cheese cones in Isle of Berk are amazing. I loved the lavender lemonade and cold butterbeer in WW, even though I hate the cold butterbeer at the other parks. It’s much creamier in Paris, go figure. (I prefer my butterbeer in ice cream form. 😛 )
After our visit, I moved our second day tickets to later this year. I rather have more night time in the park than daytime. The park is absolutely GORGEOUS at night. The rides are fun. Only two of them made our “Must do again” list though. There is no way to do everything in one day, especially if everything isn’t running smoothly. (Friends, who went on separate days, complained about the Battle of the Ministry ride having two hour plus lines. That’s too many hours to waste, IMO.) I’m glad Universal built it, and am looking forward to Phases II and III, but we won’t be visiting it again after our second day until they release annual passes.
To those who are going later this year, I hope you have a fantastic time!!
Hey Tom, thanks so much for the very insightful commentary! When will you post your pro – Epic Universe post? We have a trip booked in September and would love both articles to both temper and excite our expectations. Thank you!!
We tried every suggestion on the virtual line and we were not able to get on Ministry ride, heck, we couldn’t even get in to SEE the queue because of the ride closing multiple times during the day and they stopped letting folks in just to look…so be prepared for that possible disappointment.
Epic is beautiful, but HOT for sure. At this time of year, if you go early, it’s cooler and not nearly as bad. Tom is not exaggerating about that heat, get into some AC for the afternoon, it’s rough. DEFINITELY BYOS, bring your own shade!
(Side note: Universal hotel guests get in an hour early for Epic during previews, but only Celestial and Mario portals are open, just FYI)
Great post. I’m debating on adding a one day to my next Orlando trip to Disney but I’m not sure yet. It will be October, so I’m unsure yet how late Epic will be open for (I’m guessing it’s not involved in HHN, which is a good thing if so), how crowded because it’s Halloween, and how hot at that point. Not certain I will be back next year so it’s a gamble. Disney is only going to be 7 days this time anyway as we are also on a cruise after, so it’s going to be really tight.
You didn’t mention it, but people are also commenting that the parking lot for Epic is huge and hot, unlike the parking lot for the rest of Universal which is covered.
Thanks for the article, Tom! Our family has a summer WDW trip and, very excitedly, a Tokyo Disney trip (first time!) in the Fall. Have done Universal before but it’s not our jam, usually just go every 5 years for HHNs only, and without kids. However, the hype around the new park makes me thing that Universal has outdone itself so I’m wondering whether to shorten our 4 days at TDR to 2 and put that money into extending out summer trip to include Epic… it’s tough because the Youtubers all say it’s amazing but nobody is talking about the heat and such. Have APs this year at WDW so shortening that trip wouldn’t save any ticket costs to put toward Epic. After reading your article I’m inclined to leave my pans as they are and wait to do Epic in a couple of years, what would you do in my situation? Hard to know what to decide without having been to either but we are also excited about Fantasy Springs and everything else TDR so it’s tough
There is no chance on earth that I would trade time at Tokyo Disney Resort for time at Universal Orlando. Epic Universe is good–great, even–but it’s not on the same level as Tokyo.
If anything, go in the other direction and cut time from your WDW trip for more time in Japan. That’s my actual recommendation! 🙂
Thanks! We’ll keep things as they are, then! Cutting days from WDW wouldn’t add to Japan since those are sunk costs (DVC + APs) and we’ll already be 15 days in Japan total and can’t be away from work longer. So it was more of a cost trade… excited to spend 4 days at TDR! We’re staying at MiraCosta
I like your anti-hype angle. This post is very helpful and has confirmed what I knew all along; wait a few months before diving in (although I hadn’t considered the heat/sun issues) Thanks!!!
Coincidentally just bought my tickets this morning for a quick visit bookending Destination D. Both the tickets at the Express passes were at the cheapest starting price so I’m expecting zero crowds and walk-on rides. Right! Right???
We bit the bullet and bought a one day preview ticket for May 16, taking a day away from our WDW vacation. Would love a strategy post which details a touring plan so we can get the most out of our one day preview! We won’t be able to go back for at least a year. Or is there another website you (or anyone else) would recommend for this? Would largely like to stay away from spoilers which is why I’ve avoided any You Tube videos. Thanks!
I was able to go three times with a team member for the team member preview days, and in my opinion this is largely going to depend on what’s most important to you.
If you’re mostly hoping to explore, do some shopping, try some food/drinks and maybe hop on a ride or two you can make a plan and reasonably stick to it. Without spoilers it’s hard to get into details, but know that the Nintendo world has a lot of interactive experiences and you could spend hours there. The Harry Potter land also has quite a few wand experiences that can get busy if you like to do those. In the how to train your dragon land there’s a photo op that typically has an hour+ line and was a must-do for a few people in our group. There are also shows and/or character experiences in the lands that take up time.
If your goal is to ride as many rides as possible, you’re probably going to spend most of the day moving between lands as rides open or lines get shorter. This is nearly impossible to plan for.
The days I went many rides were not working, so we focused mostly on exploring all the lands and the food options. Over the 3 days, we were able to ride most of the rides, but at any given time 2 or 3 (or more) rides were down, often the most popular ones. Ministry was only open for our last visit, but as the article mentions the virtual queue experience is not great, and we were unable to ride it. We did the circus show in HP, it was great, but if I was trying to do the whole park in a single day I’d probably skip the shows.
We also ate in most of the restaurants. The food is pretty good, not just for a theme park. Obviously you’re paying theme park prices though. We had hit and miss food service; sometimes it was nearly instant, but other times it was slow and 1 twice we had to go ask where our food was 20+ minutes after they marked the order complete in the app. This is not a dig on them, I’m thrilled I got to go, and I understand the soft opening, I’m just mentioning it because it can be an unexpected time suck when you’re trying to get a lot done in one day. This has probably improved in the couple of weeks since I went last.
Ben, Thank you for your response! Very helpful!
My boyfriend was so excited when he saw there was a new park with a How to Train Your Dragon land! We are from The Netherlands, but I bet when we come back to Orlando, we will vsiit all of the Universal parks. We did the Disney parks a few years ago, but this one is absolutely on the list. Thanks for sharing all the useful tips!
Thanks for this useful information! I am going with my daughter, her husband and 2 grandchildren, ages 7 & 8. The oldest is a huge HP fan and this will be their first tip.
I had every intention of purchasing a day in Epic, but now I am reconsidering. Our trip is in August, which I would never ordinarily plan a trip to the parks during the hottest part of the summer. But we are visiting Fl for other reasons, so it made sense to go. We have the unlimited military passes, but of course Epic isn’t included in that. Ugh.
So true about the lack of shade—think Seussland! The woman at Cabana Bay who sold us our preview tickets last week said it would take at least one hurricane season for the foliage to appear, but to our thinking it might be five seasons or more. Nevertheless we had a fantastic day experiencing every non-rollercoaster ride, two shows, and two excellent restaurants. We’re both 70 and didn’t even notice the stairs (other than the ones in Mario Land) which means we’re either in better shape than we thought, or there are lots of stairs involved on the rollercoaster attractions. We were there for 11 hours and our step count totaled 21,000 (about nine miles). We probably experienced one of the lowest attendance days, as we were able to do both Boweser’s Challenge and Monsters Unchained twice with minimal wait times AND we got a spot in the VL for Harry Potter. We were incredibly lucky, and while it’s doubtful that we could ever top that day in the park, we can’t wait to return next year!
There are stairs on all of the roller coasters, but also on Monsters Unchained and Bowser’s Challenge, so I’d say you’re probably in good shape!
I would agree that it’s taking more than one hurricane season for the foliage to grow out. At least 5 years is definitely more accurate.
Tom – Thank you very much for this article. We are Universal passholders, so we are going to wait to visit until Epic Universe is offered as part of the annual pass. We cannot tolerate the sun or the heat and only visit for a few hours at a time, so daily tickets make no sense for us. We are very much looking forward to visiting this new park in the future.
I let my Universal AP lapse (big mistake as the amount I would’ve saved just on EU so far would’ve been worth it), but I’ll absolutely be buying another as soon as there’s an Epic Universe option. I suspect they want to hold out until 2026, but my gut is that they’re going to cave and offer APs before the summer is over. We shall see!