Universal Releases New Epic Universe Add-ons & Packages, Single Day Tickets Coming Soon
Universal Orlando has finally released more multi-day ticket add-ons for Epic Universe, as well as vacation packages. Although these are targeted at Floridians and U.S. military members, UOR has also teased the release of standalone single-day Epic Universe tickets soon. Let’s start with the announcement and official details, followed by our commentary.
Universal Orlando Resort has launched the next phase of tickets and vacation packages for guests to visit its highly anticipated fourth theme park – Universal Epic Universe – opening on May 22, 2025. Starting today, Florida residents can now purchase specially priced three-day tickets that include one day of access to Universal Epic Universe. Florida residents can also purchase Universal Epic Universe inclusive vacation packages like the “Create Your Own Vacation Package” or “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Package” to bundle and save.
These new products give guests additional options to choose from to plan their visit to the groundbreaking new theme park when it opens later this year. With a total of more than 50 incredible experiences that range from groundbreaking attractions to breathtaking entertainment to incredibly themed dining and shopping and so much more, Epic Universe will be Universal Destinations and Experiences most ambitious theme park yet – presenting a level of theme park immersion and innovation that is unmatched across five themed worlds: Celestial Park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk and Dark Universe.
See below for more details about the latest Universal Epic Universe-inclusive products that are available for purchase now:
Three-Day Florida Resident Epic Universe-Inclusive Tickets
Includes one day admission to Universal Epic Universe and one separate day admission to Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure and/or Universal Volcano Bay. Specially priced tickets and availability will vary by day of visit.
- 2-Park, 2-Day Florida Resident, Plus 1-Day Universal Epic Universe Ticket: enjoy two days of access to Universal Studios Florida or Universal Islands of Adventure, plus one separate day admission to Universal Epic Universe.
- 2-Park, 2-Day Park-to-Park Florida Resident, Plus 1-Day Universal Epic Universe Ticket: enjoy two days of access to Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure, plus one separate day admission to Universal Epic Universe.
- 3-Park, 2-Day Park-to-Park Florida Resident, Plus 1-Day Universal Epic Universe Ticket: enjoy three days of access to Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure and Universal Volcano Bay, plus one separate day admission to Universal Epic Universe.
Epic Universe-Inclusive Florida Resident Vacation Package
Florida residents can now create their own vacation package to experience all that Universal Orlando Resort has to offer, including Universal Epic Universe. The vacation package includes:
- 4-Night Hotel Accommodations
- 3-Park, 2-Day Park-to-Park Florida Resident, Plus 1-Day Universal Epic Universe Ticket
- $25 Bundle and Save Discount
- Early Park Admission to enjoy select attractions in one of Universal Orlando’s theme parks up to one hour before park opening
Epic Universe-Inclusive Wizarding World of Harry Potter Florida Resident Vacation Package
Florida residents can now create the ultimate vacation package for Harry Potter fans with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Exclusive Vacation Package which includes:
- 4-Night Hotel Accommodations
- 2-Park, 2-Day Park-to-Park Florida Resident, Plus 1-Day Universal Epic Universe Ticket
- $25 Bundle and Save Discount
- Early Park Admission to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter up to an hour before park opening
- Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Flight in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley, featuring four flavors of the guests’ choosing and one Honeydukes Cooler Tote
- Breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron in Universal Studios Florida
- Breakfast at Café L’air De La Sirene in Universal Epic Universe
- One Shutterbutton’s Photography Studio session in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley
Epic Universe Military Freedom Pass Add-On
Active duty and retired U.S. military members with an active 2025 Military Freedom Pass have the exclusive opportunity to purchase a 1-Park, 1-Day Universe Epic Universe Ticket, as an entitlement add-on to their Pass.
Military Freedom Pass Holders can purchase the 1-Park, 1-Day Universe Epic Universe Ticket via their Universal Orlando account.
Speaking of 1-day Epic Universe tickets, Universal Orlando also teased this: “Additional ticket options for Universal Epic Universe – including Single-Day Tickets for the general public – will go on sale in the weeks ahead. For more information, visit www.UniversalOrlando.com/Epic”
Our Commentary
Universal Orlando announced the opening date of Epic Universe, started selling multi-day tickets, vacation packages, Helios Grand Hotel reservations, and single day tickets for Annual Passholders all within quick succession in late October of last year. All of this–from announcement to release–occurred in the span of a single week.
Five months later, Universal Orlando has made its next step–selling Florida resident multi-day tickets and vacation packages, along with single-day military ticket add-ons. If you asked me back on October 24–the last time new tickets were sold–when more multi-day and single-day tickets would be released, I would’ve guessed long before now.
There are one of two possibilities that explain the delay. The first is that Epic Universe vacation packages and Annual Passholder tickets have sold so well that Universal has no incentive to rush to sell single-day tickets. That it’s all upside in pushing the vacation packages with minimal downside risk.
I doubt this. In perusing ticket availability, multi-day tickets aren’t sold out for any dates this summer–including Epic Universe’s opening day. Now, it’s entirely possible that Universal is overselling admission and plans on reaching phased capacity at Epic Universe on May 22, but we’re skeptical of that.
More to the point, there are still hotels available opening night and opening weekend of Epic Universe, from the ~$200 night value resorts to $1,000+ signature hotels. Push the travel dates to the first week of June 2025 and literally every resort is available. And some aren’t even that expensive!
Another possibility is that Universal is playing a high-stakes game of chicken. That Comcast has dumped tons of money into the building of Epic Universe, including billions (plural) more than budgeted. That the parent company wants or needs Epic Universe to be a huge hit right out of the gate, especially as its legacy businesses struggle. That the goal is to capture as much revenue as possible, as quickly as possible to start recouping that massive investment–especially after a slow year for its parks.
There are multiple goals to this approach. In theory, it should increase Universal Orlando’s average length of stay, make guests more likely to book on-site hotels, prevent attendance cannibalization from Universal’s existing gates, and getting people to spend their park days at Universal Orlando rather than Walt Disney World, and also doing hotel stays at UOR as opposed to WDW.
It also controls crowds at Epic Universe and pushes people to the existing gates. It means attendance could be higher at Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure than Epic Universe, as there will be more park ticket days in circulation for the existing gates than there are for Epic Universe. Especially once you factor in the outstanding Annual Passes that do not cover Epic Universe. Again, in theory.
In practice, this could backfire.
American families largely plan their summer vacations between Christmas and the Super Bowl, and single-day tickets were not available during that window. While some theme park super fans (disproportionately the demo of a blog like this) might jump at the opportunity to experience Epic Universe as early as possible, they’re not necessarily the norm. Others may worry about opening season crowds, initial hiccups, or balk at all hoops they have to jump through.
These vacation planners might see Epic Universe soft-locked behind bundles with Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida, and find these undesirable for their vacations. That they want to spend a couple of days at Epic Universe, and perhaps only a single day (combined) at the two existing gates.
Another possibility is that casual vacation planners could see these ticket packages and conclude that this is being done due to concerns about high attendance. That crowds are going to be so bad at Epic Universe that this is Universal Orlando’s only option to carefully manage massive numbers of people pouring into its new gate.
In both cases, Universal Orlando could simply lose these potential guests. Not everyone is refreshing the Universal Orlando website on a daily or weekly basis, waiting for the next round of tickets to go on sale. Some check once, see options not to their liking, and book elsewhere.
The notion that tons of people will jump over whatever hurdles Universal throws their way because Epic Universe is so exciting is a fan fantasy. That’s not how normal consumers work. As we’ve mentioned on countless occasions (usually when it relates to Disney’s bad tech infrastructure), there’s a reason Amazon invests tons of money to removing all friction from the order flow. Because many people will only take the path of least resistance.
Ultimately, it’s understandable that Comcast wants to capture as much revenue as possible during the opening season of Epic Universe, filling up its overbuilt hotel inventory and not cannibalizing attendance at its existing gates. It’s hard to fault this approach considering how much money has been spent on Epic Universe. There’s a lot riding on it. The third theme park must turn Universal Orlando into a bona fide destination resort that can hold its own with Walt Disney World.
But it’s also silly to pretend that there isn’t downside risk to Universal’s strategy, and I’m honestly surprised they didn’t start selling single-day tickets two months ago. (At the very least, launch them for Floridians before Walt Disney World started running its 2025 resident specials.) Epic Universe will be a smash success for Universal Orlando in the long-term, but I’m skeptical that its opening season approach is going to yield the expected dividends. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if, after the initial fanfare the first couple weeks, there’s a summer lull as a result of this backfiring. What do I know, though. Guess we shall see!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think? Is it possible pushing vacation packages and multi-day bundles will backfire? Will ordinary tourists who aren’t hardcore theme parks people sit out opening summer to avoid all of this? Thoughts on UOR’s approach to ticketing for Epic Universe? Excited for Super Nintendo World, Harry Potter’s Ministry of Magic, Dark Universe/Classic Monsters, or the How to Train Your Dragon lands and/or attractions? Think Epic Universe will be a third gate that’s a worthy addition to Universal Orlando Resort…and potentially on par with Disney’s best lands? Any questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below.
We have reservations at Helios booked for November but are waiting to book passes until we can get tickets where we can spend more days at Epic. I’d consider something like 3 days at Epic and 2-3 at the other parks as we like to really take our time exploring. I’m guessing a lot of other people are also waiting for more days at Epic. I’d also jump on passes that included express/line skipping at Epic.
I’m in the same boat. We’ve booked a hotel for a week in Aug, but are holding off on park tickets. Not interested in express passes though. too expensive.
Our family has made tentative hotel reservations at Universal, planning on spending a whole week there. However, we have been holding off on buying tickets because we’d really like to spend 2 days at Epic Universe and 3 days at the other parks. I hope they allow for this soon for the general public!
I’m in the U.K. and I’m waiting on one day tickets. I’m not a big Universal fan and think it’s lacking compared to Disney on almost every metric that matters to me. I really like the look of the Mario stuff though, and I love old school Monsters. I’m already booked with Disney for Halloween but I’d do one day at Epic with express passes. Otherwise I’m completely happy to leave it. I laughed when I saw the multi-day passes – I’m lucky if I can stretch a day across the other two parks so there is no way I’m paying for three days to get a day at Epic (and neither do I want to take that much time out of my vacation).
This is 100% where we are. Already booked a September week at WDW with 4 park days. I was intending on 1 Epic day, but there were no single day tix. So, at that point, we weren’t going. Now, I see they may offer single day and I will look at them. Depending on price, we may go.
Gonna wait a couple years till crowds die down and I can spend about 3 days there.
only reason I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, is that I can’t purchase express passes for Epic. I know the crowd are going to be bad, but we are going to be in Orlando for a Disney Cruise in July. We’ve been recently to Universal, but I’d even do 2 day ticket with one day at Epic IF Express was a possibility or even a VIP tour. It would be a splurge, but I’m a Granny that would love to surprise the grandkids with this.
I have a cancellable res at Helios, and I’m going to have to make a decision soon, bc my arrival date will change if we add this on, and I need to buy airline tickets.
Same here! I won’t step foot into the park without express or VIP passes. You would need three days minimum to see everything. Most rides will surely be 120+ minutes, It’s been like that for every major attraction in Orlando for last 10 years and it’s not going to be any different this time around.
I’m guessing they’re going to release it very close to launch or maybe a month or two after they get the logistics panned out.
I think that Comcast’s debt load and its forward projections are also evidence that Universal is trying to make a big bet in this year’s revenue. One thing I don’t know is if they’ve started reporting per guest revenue yet. It might be better for Wall Street if Universal has a smaller number of guests who are spending more on average this year, if they can sell that as a story of future revenue growth.
(I guess it’s possible that they backed into this because sales of EU tickets to AP holders was brisk, but to locals who don’t need or want Universal hotel reservations. In that case, this might be the only way to sell that extra inventory.)
We just really really want single day tickets. I had to push my May package out to December just because we want to the chance to go to epic for 2-3 days, I’m still bitter that APs can buy unlimited single day tickets and I can’t even buy one!! I will not go until I can get at least two days at epic. As a TA I also am struggling to sell epic. We keep telling universal that no one is booking these current packages, but they won’t listen. I literally have no universal clients after May and most TAs I know don’t either. EVERYONE is waiting for single day tickets. They better be out soon!!
“As a TA I also am struggling to sell epic. We keep telling universal that no one is booking these current packages, but they won’t listen. I literally have no universal clients after May and most TAs I know don’t either. EVERYONE is waiting for single day tickets.”
I’ve heard this, almost word for word, from so many travel agents I know. It’s definitely colored my thinking and the commentary above, but I don’t want to put too much weight on it, because it’s all anecdotal.
Nevertheless, I’d love to hear more current or future reports (once tickets go on sale). For those who don’t feel comfortable commenting, my email is always open [tom @ website url]. (Fair warning: I’m terrible at keeping up with email responses.)
I’m still in the camp of Universal being worried about overcrowding/attraction reliability+/- playing from the Disney Galaxy’s Edge playbook and overestimating initial popularity (lots of overlap with those two trains of thought). Booked the vacation package first week, and crossing my fingers for moderate crowds at Epic Universe!
Comcast is acting like they expect park attendance to double from 22 million to 40 with the addition of a new park, i doubt the new park will sell out other than opening weekend and holidays
I was bummed to see you have to activate the military freedom pass before adding the EPIC ticket. We are going opening week and don’t want to chance getting down there activating the freedom pass and no add on tickets remaining.
We head down to Disney for a week the end of August, and are tentatively planning to bounce over to universal afterwards for one or two nights at their hotels (for early entry). Just wish they would sell single day tickets for non FL residents so we can see if we can work this whole idea into our budget. Would be nice to know pricing and availability, otherwise we’ll skip it, their loss!
My daughter (6) and I have annual passes to universal that expire in May. We had already decided not to renew because my while we enjoy universal there just isn’t quite enough for my daughter. My daughter loves Mario and while we were down last month saw all the epic stuff and wanted to go. I also have a three year old son who doesn’t have a universal pass due to it not being worth it with so few rides for him. I went to guest services as a passholder and asked if I could buy a single day ticket for my daughter and my son. They wouldn’t let me have one for my son. We will be in Orlando three days in July. I had planned to stay at a universal hotel for epic universe early entry and then drive to Disney the other couple of days. Since I couldn’t get tickets for all three of us I joined DVC membership magic beyond for the buy one get one DVC points and am staying at copper creek for the entire time. I still might buy a one day ticket to epic if they are available later, or we just won’t go because my plans are made now. They lost a good bit of money for not letting a three year old in epic that probably won’t be tall enough for all the rides but loves souvenirs!
I suspect you are correct that the multi-day tickets have not sold well. Initially Helios got booked up for the first few months. And now there are tons of open rooms for Helios. I bet that was people booking cancellable rooms hoping to grab single-day Epic tickets. I think you are right that this has become a high-stakes game of chicken with the customer base. My prediction is that Universal will lose that game, and that the boat has probably sailed for a lot of people’s summer vacation planning. They fell into that typical trap of thinking the online theme-park enthusiast community is reflective of the population as a whole–it is most definitely not!
Could you comment on the rumors that Universal has added an air quality meter to its app due to the potential for noxious fumes reaching Epic Universe from the nearby sewage treatment plant? Should potential guests be worried about this odor?
I only know as much as you.
The only thing I’d say is that Universal obviously didn’t add this app feature for no reason, and it’s not a move they make without knowing what the results will be on a consistent basis. Meaning that it’s nothing to be worried about, at least from an air quality perspective.