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It had been a long, long time since an entire theme park had opened in Central Florida. The two “big” resorts in the area, Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, had both added lands to their theme parks (think “Pandora Land” and “Star Wars Land” at Disney and 2 Harry Potter Lands at Universal). But when it came to entire PARKS, well, Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened in 1996, and Universal’s Islands of Adventure opened in 1999, so it had been over 25 years. So Universal’s brand-new third theme park, Epic Universe, is a BIG DEAL.

Epic Universe doesn’t have its grand opening until May 22, 2025 (that’s the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend). But they’ve been running previews for UO Team Members (UOTMs) since March 1st. They extended that to “friends and family” of UOTMs through March 31st, and since mid-April or so, UO Annual Passholders, UO hotel guests, those with military passes, and now regular day guests are allowed to purchase 1-day tickets to the brand-new park.

My husband and I each have APs, so we decided to visit the new park on 2 days – April 29th and May 8th. Why 2 days? A few reasons:

• Right now, UO hasn’t mentioned when they’ll include Epic Universe as a part of their annual passes. Figuring that could be a long time, we wanted to make sure we saw everything, in case we couldn’t go back for quite some time (to be fair, we could always buy day passes but with prices starting at $144 per person per day, we’d just as soon wait until our APs get us into the park).
• Weather in Central Florida in the spring can be iffy. If one day was a washout, we’d still have another day to potentially thoroughly enjoy ourselves.
• Because the park is in “previews/rehearsals,” being able to go on 2 days meant that if something was closed one day, it might be open the other day.
• And also because the park is in “previews/rehearsals,” they’re capping attendance to a much lower amount than when they’re open to everyone.

The Good

The rides

It seemed for a while that almost every new ride at the 2 older Universal parks was similar. The Fast & The Furious and Reign of Kong were essentially the same simulator ride but with different themes. Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem were also very similar attractions, but with different storylines. So far, every ride at Epic Universe is original…or if not 100% original, at least builds on the technology that they’ve previously used (read: Monsters Unchained – The Frankenstein Experiment uses similar technology as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but it’s obviously several generations newer/better).

Attention to detail

The park is absolutely beautiful. They spent a LOT of money to pay attention to detail, which is appreciated when you see what Disney did with the likes of, say Journey to Imagination, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, or the second half of Spaceship Earth.

The food

Theme park food is theme park food and as far as I’m concerned, the only theme park in the U.S. that’s consistently gotten their food “right” in the park is Dollywood. That being said, Epic Universe has done a good job with its restaurants. We didn’t get to experience either of their sit-down restaurants, but all of the quick service places we visited had fare that was at least “decent.” And the butterbeer crepes at the Harry Potter restaurant were really yummy.

We’re concerned that “perfect theming but odd for theme parks” food (i.e., beef goulash) might go away in favor of many Americans’ more basic tastes (burgers, chicken fingers, etc.), but time will tell.

I also salute the restaurants that sell non-alcoholic cocktails for those who want to imbibe without drinking alcohol.

The lockers

Because some of the rides really whip you around, they make you put your bags, items from your pockets, etc., into free lockers.

In their other 2 Universal parks, the lockers are at the beginning of the queue (actually, they’re before you even get into the queue). The areas are also always overcrowded, with those putting their stuff into a locker and those taking their stuff out of a locker, all in the same space that’s not adequate for ALL. THOSE. PEOPLE. In this new park, the lockers (A) are in a much larger open area that can handle lots of people (B) are placed towards the end of the queue, just before you go on the ride and (C) have 2 openings. You place your items in the locker from the front before boarding, and retrieve them afterward using the back door of the same locker. It cuts the crowds immensely, and is genius!

The bad

That parking lot!

Universal’s “other” two parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, share two multi-floor parking structures. Once you park your car, you have to walk to the main entrance, but it’s all covered.

If you drive to Epic Universe, you park in one huge, uncovered parking lot. Once you park, you have to walk to the main entrance, even if that means you’re at the far end of the row, 25 or 30 rows back. If you’ve ever been to Disney Hollywood Studios, it’s essentially what Epic’s parking lot is like. Except the Studios at least offers a tram. Epic makes you walk. It’s bad enough to have to walk all of that first thing in the morning, but when it’s the end of the night and you just want to get to your car, it’s a torturously long walk (I clocked it – figure about a half mile, +/-, in each direction), especially if you wind up doing it in that spring/summer/fall sun.

Lack of shade

Central Florida typically has hot, sunny weather from May through October. And from October to May, it might not be quite so hot, but it can still be pretty warm and definitely sunny. Yet the lack of shade in this park is astonishing.

Lack of places to sit

The park requires a lot of walking. I put in over 22,000 steps on our first day and nearly 16,000 on our second (it would’ve been more but a Florida monsoon kicked up at 6:30pm, and we went home). There are SOME benches here and there, and SOME low walls you can sit on, but they really need much more.

Lack of shaded seating

How bad is the lack of places to sit down in the shade? I saw a woman sitting on the ground, trying to shield herself from the sun by “hiding” behind a barrel planter. Others sat on the ground in enclosed areas that are supposed to be for stroller parking, or in the enclosed “portals” that lead you to and from each land. They need places to sit where you won’t be exposed to 90-degree sunlight.

Outdoor rides and Florida weather

Although Central Florida is known for its sunshine, we also have a near monsoon nearly every afternoon from May through October (it’s crazy…it’s sunny most of the day, then it rains for 20 minutes sometime in the afternoon, and then the sun returns). And these monsoons are nasty, with pouring rain, thunder, lightning, wind, you name it. So when the monsoons hit, outdoor and water rides close, due to the danger of lightning, and then they don’t reopen until there’s been no lightning in the area for X number of minutes.

And that’s a problem, because of the 13 rides at Epic Universe, 10 of them are either fully or partially outdoors:

• Stardust Racers (high thrill roller coaster)
• Constellation Carousel (merry-go-round, outdoors but covered)
• Astronomica (interactive water play area)
• Mine Cart Madness (medium thrill roller coaster)
• Yoshi’s Adventure (trolley-like ride; partially outdoors)
• Curse of the Werewolf (medium thrill roller coaster)
• Hiccup’s Wing Gliders (medium thrill roller coaster)
• Dragon Racer’s Rally
• Fyre Drill (water ride)
• Viking Training Camp (interactive play area)

So as soon as there’s rain or lightning in the area, they all close down, leaving exactly 3 rides for everyone to ride – and of those, 1 of them, in Harry Potter land, Harry Potter and the Battle at Ministry, offers a virtually queue that’s virtually impossible to get on. So that leaves 2 rides open during the rain (Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, and Mine Cart Madness). Those’ll be some mile-long queues, huh?

And about Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry

Both Disney and Universal have experimented with virtual queues. With those, instead of standing in line for hours at a time, you use your phone to access the theme park’s special app to try to get a return time to stand in line and go on the ride. Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry uses such a system, and right now, it’s pretty awful. I don’t know if they’re maybe purposefully limiting how many people can go on the ride in one day, but when the announced times come up to try to get in the virtual queue (at 11am, 3pm and 6pm), well, it seems that everyone stares at their phones, trying to get an elusive time to go on the ride. Over the course of 2 days, we never saw ANYONE around us get a slot (people know it’s virtually impossible. Had they, they’d be whooping and hollering).

I don’t know why so few people are getting onto the ride. The queue (which they let people walk through – it’s amazing. That attention to detail I mentioned earlier? They spent a fortune to get this queue “right”) is ginormous. I just hope the ride can eventually accommodate the hordes of people who want to go on it.

Our overall opinion

Overall, the park really is gorgeous and innovative. The developers noticed ongoing issues at their other parks and fixed them.

We did see the park during previews, when it’s expected that some rides will go down for at least part of a day, or maybe won’t open at all on any given day. But the issues I’m mentioning above aren’t just because the park is in previews; a lack of shade and places to sit down aren’t going to just disappear after the grand opening. I hope they’re able to fix these things.

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