We’ve been dreaming of this new theme park at Universal Orlando for YEARS and it’s finally almost here! Epic Universe is Universal’s newest theme park opening May 22nd, 2025 and we got to experience the park early so that we can give you the scoop.

Hear more of our thoughts in this special edition video podcast!

How we got to go

As cool as it would have been to be there for the media event we aren’t that cool (yet), but they are in the middle of Team Member previews - Team Members are people who work at Universal - and they have been able to bring friends and family. We have a super kind friend who is a Team Member and invited us for a preview!

During previews, hours are limited, so we were able to visit the park from 10am-7pm. There has been a pretty strict rule regarding no photos or video, but they did relax that rule the day of the media preview (April 5th) and we just so happened to have our preview on April 6th! So any content you see in this post is allowed and cleared through Universal’s new guidelines. Rides and shows are still not allowed to be recorded and they won’t be as that is a normal rule for Universal rides & shows in general.

This won’t be a fully comprehensive guide to each land as there was still a TON of stuff we missed, but I want to share as much as I can of what we did as well as offer some tips to help you get the most out of your visit.

Entering the Park

The process is very similar to entering the Legacy Parks (North Campus) however Epic (South Campus) does have some differences. First being, it has it’s own parking lot. Typically for the North Campus you park or take a bus to CityWalk, and then go through security and walk to either Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure. Parking is also in a large parking garage structure.

At Epic, it has it’s very own parking lot and it is open air similar to what you would find at a Disney Park. This means there will be a little more walking, so do be prepared for that. There will also be parking fees associated with parking here, but pricing has not yet been released - I would imagine it would be pretty similar as the North Campus and they will have things like medical and preferred parking available.

If you are coming from a resort, you will be able to use bus transportation directly to the park. It’s around a 15 minute or so bus ride, so be sure to plan ample time in the morning.

Two resorts have special options for entering the park - The Helios Grand Hotel is actually part of the park! You will have a direct entrance right from your hotel into the park.

Guests staying at Stella Nova resort will also have a walking path directly to Epic Universe. Terra Luna - Stella Nova’s sister resort - does not currently have a direct walking path, but you can technically walk. However, using the buses might be a better option if you don’t want to have to cross traffic.

Once you walk up to the park, you will go through security. This operates exactly the same as security at CityWalk, so you’ll put all your items in a bin to go through the scanner and then you will walk through the metal detectors.

Immediately after you’ve gone through security, you’ll find the ticketing stands to scan into the park. It was also exactly how they’ve been doing it at the North Campus where you will scan either your physical or digital ticket and then they will verify and link you via a photo. You do have the option to opt out of the photos, just be prepared to show your ID.

And BOOM! You are now entering Epic Universe! You are greeted by walking through the Chronos Tower ‘portal’. This huge structure is somewhat of an Icon of the park and features elements of the five worlds you will experience throughout the park.

This thing is MASSIVE and a super fun spot to snap a pic before starting your adventure. Keep your eyes peeled at night too as it lights up and gives it a totally different feel that’s simply magic.

Rope Drop

As this is a preview, the procedure could very well change once the park actually opens, but I can at least give you an idea of the layout so you know what to expect.

When you first walk into the park, you’ll be in a small courtyard area that then splits off to either the left of right. On the left, you’ll find the main park gift shop as well as the Treat Shop and on the right you’ll find a smaller gift shop that also hosts the Christmas store.

This is where they hold guests before the park opens. If your goal is to hit up Nintendo World or Dark Universe, you’ll want to head to the left and if you are looking at Isle of Berk or Ministry of Magic, then you’ll want to head to the right.

This front area where they held us isn’t super big, so they did let us in a little earlier than when the park opened at 10am. I would imagine that they may do this when the park opens to the public as well, but may hold guests in front of each portal until park open. Again, we won’t know for sure until the park officially opens, but it’s good to know that getting here early is a good idea!

Next up, let’s talk about the different Worlds!

Nintendo World

This is the world that you may be most familiar with if you’ve ever been or seen videos of the land over in Universal Studios Hollywood or Japan. This is based after Mario & Luigi and in this park they even have a Donkey Kong themed land.

BE WARNED! This land has a TON of stairs. To enter this land, you will go through the portal and immediately step on to an escalator. Then once at the top, you’ll be inside of Princess Peach’s castle and enter out to a super fun view of the land. You’ll then need to go back down the stairs to get to the main area of the land.

If you are unable to use stairs, they do have an elevator at the entrance to the portal off to the right. They do also have a separate exit for strollers and those with ADA needs that is a simple brick tunnel off to the left as you are exiting the land.

Once inside the land, there will be some elevator options as well for those that need it since this land is on multiple floors.

Mine-Cart Madness

Our first ride of the Day was Donkey Kong Mine-Cart Madness. This is a family style coaster where you will be inside of a mine cart and helping Donkey Kong search for the Golden Banana.

What makes this attraction super unique is that it has a ‘false track’ where the real track is underneath and the one you see doesn’t actually touch your ride vehicle. They are then able to make it look like you are jumping the track in certain spots and adds a few other cool effects.

The ride vehicle was decently comfortable to sit in. I would compare it to something like Escape from Gringotts over in Universal Studios, but your feet do touch the floor and you will keep your bags and other items with you at your feet.

The ride itself was surprisingly a little more rough and jerky than I expected, but it’s not overly thrilling and those who are younger would still find it enjoyable.

The animatronics in both the ride and the queue are so fun and really give this attraction a unique twist! This is a lower capacity ride (since the ride vehicle only holds four people at a time) so the line can move slow, but they do have a single rider option if you are ok with riding by yourself!

If you have a power up band, keep your eyes peeled in the queue as there are several interactive elements you can do AND you can even collect special stickers in the app. This is a game that is played throughout Nintendo World, but it’s fun that they do it within the attractions too!

Yoshi’s Adventure

This is definitely the most chill ride in the park. I would compare it to Seuss Trolley Train Ride over in Islands of Adventure or a SUPER short chill peoplemover. The queue for this also reminded me a lot of the Cat in the Hat attraction over in Islands of Adventure with big cartoon style theming.

This is the only attraction of the day that I felt was a bit of a tight fit. I’m not totally plus size, but I’m not far off and I found these seats to be more on the small side, so be warned if that is a concern for you.

There is a bit of a game element to this one! I will be so honest that I did not really understand how it works or what exactly you were supposed to do, but it was still fun to hit the yoshi egg buttons and it’ll definitely be a fun one for kiddos!

Toadstool Cafe

We didn’t exactly eat here, but we did make a pit stop for some Garlic Knots! This is a Casual Dining style restaurant. The theming in here is super cute and the food looked so fun!

You will be sat at a table and then you will place a mobile order for your food through the app. It is important to know that almost all the food locations operate this way, so make sure you have the Universal app downloaded and set up before your trip to make sure that you aren’t running into hiccups during your vacation.

I did also appreciate that this location had lots of Coke Freestyle machines so you can refill your Freestyle Cup or get water for your water bottle.

Pay attention to the windows while dining here! You never know what might happen!

Celestial Park

Stardust Racers

After we finished up in Nintendo, we headed back into Celestial Park and ran over to Stardust Racers. This is the big coaster in this park and let me tell you, it was INCREDIBLE!

This is a dueling coaster which means there are two tracks and you are basically racing the other car. This is absolutely a high thrill coaster with lots of drops, a few inversions, and it is definitely FAST.

There is a green track and a yellow track with yellow being the less intense one. If you’ve done velocicoaster, I would say that it is pretty similar intensity-wise, however the seats made me feel very secure which helped a lot. Honestly, I can’t wait to get back on this one!

The queue is pretty much all outdoors and isn’t super themed, but it is all covered while still giving you a good view of the coaster while you wait.

This would be a super cool one to do a night! There are no lights on the track, only on the coaster cars themselves, so at night it will look like a shooting star and will definitely add to the thrill.

Celestial Carousel

Also in Celestial Park is the Celestial Carousel. This is a super family friendly attraction that mixes the fun twists and turns similar to something like the Teacups over at Disney with the more gentle movement of a carousel.

The lights and theming of these are simply stunning and there are 7 different songs that you can get. We got one that was super fun with a ‘record scratch’ effect that made everyone go backwards halfway through the song.

You can sit up to one or two guests on the animals or up to 3 guests on the larger cars. There is even an accessible car for those that are in a wheelchair!

Isle of Berk

This is the land I was MOST excited about, but unfortunately didn’t really get to experience. This does bring up a super important tip and that is to make sure you prioritize the land you want to do the most FIRST. We ended up spending longer in Nintendo than we intended, so it was a rush to get through the other lands which meant that we did miss out on quite a bit.

If you are able to spend a few days at this park, I don’t think you would regret it! If you only can do one day at this park, then I think having Express Pass (this is Universal’s skip the line pass) it will 100% be worth the money. If you really can splurge, a VIP tour may even be a great way to get the most out of your day at the park!

NOW what we did get to see of Isle of Berk was INCREDIBLE! This world is absolutely massive and there is LOADS to do for the whole family! Hiccup’s Wing Gliders is a family coaster that zooms through the land and over the water. I’ve heard that this is very comparable to Slinky Dog Dash as far as intensity, so it might be a great one for kiddos wanting to start to up the thrill level without being to intense.

There is also a water attraction and Dragon Racer’s Rally that takes you soaring through the air. That one was a nope for me, but it looked like guests were having a ton of fun!

The land itself was so incredibly detailed. I could absolutely spend HOURS taking in all the little details and hidden easter eggs of this land. There were dragons literally everywhere and I about lost it over this beautiful wood carving of Hiccup and Toothless right outside his meet & greet.

Speaking of Meet & Greets, there are also a crazy ton of characters in this land. You can of course have your iconic moment meeting Toothless and you can also meet other members of the gang like Astrid, Starfly, Ruffnut, & Tuffnut, and even Hiccup himself! There are also several baby dragons roaming around that will absolutely blow your mind.

We had the chance to meet Gobber in his workshop and even that little interaction alone was seriously mindblowing! He has a bunch of different hands that he can switch out and he’s so spot on with the jokes. This was absolutely a highlight of my day and I do recommend taking some time to be able to meet these characters.

Ministry of Magic

This is another land that I could spend HOURS soaking in all the details. This land takes place in 1920’s Paris from the Fantastic Beasts movies, so it has a different vibe than the other parks while still having that magic Harry Potter feel.

Opulent is an excellent way to describe this land. It is so detailed and beautiful with gorgeous shop windows, architecture, and of course lots of art from Mina Lima.

I also love that this one really plays on the Fantasic Beasts element in that there are creatures hidden all throughout the land. If you’ve ever done the interactive wand experiences at the other parks, you will 100% want to do them here. We don’t have wands ourselves, but a kind Team Member let us use their wand to try out a spell with a Niffler and it was SO COOL! Once the spell was cast, you could actually control the movement of the Niffler and make him move around.

We also got to experience a little live Jazz as well as the stage show in this land called Le Cirque Arcanus. I won’t spoil the whole show for you, but the story of this revolves around a circus ran by Ringmaster Skender that isn’t doing so well now that Newt Scamander took his animals. BUT Skender has stollen Newt’s Suitcase and is gearing up for a new show featuring the creatures that he stole! His assistant Gwenlyn is in charge of caring for the suitcase, but as you can guess things go awry.

This show is mindblowing and has a little mix of circus, puppetry, dancing, and incredible special effects to make it a must see! Even just walking through the queue is spectacular! The outside just looks like a small circus tent, but as you enter, you’ll go through a winding interior with posters and details on every wall.

This is also the land that we finally grabbed some food! We visited Café L'air De La Sirène which is a French cafe right at the front of the land. There is both indoor and outdoor seating an they feature a variety of French dishes. This was a gorgeous restaurant with portrait mosaics and fancy tiling all around as well as big windows that let in loads of light.

We got the Galette de Tomates et Fromage which was a pastry with tomatoes, goat cheese, and olives. This also came with an arugula salad. It was definitely a pretty dish and Mark Alan (my husband) really enjoyed it!

I got the Baguette de Dinde which was a baguette sandwich with turkey, brie cheese, and apples and this came with parmesan fries that were fantastic! The sandwich was light and really tasty too.

This is also where you can find the Butterbeer Crepe which I hear is fantastic!

The headliner attraction in this land is Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministy. This was not open for previews, so we have not ridden yet, but they did have the queue available to walk through. This was the single most immersive thing I have ever experienced.

There will be pictures and video, but honestly nothing can really portray the scale of just how massive this first room is! My jaw literally dropped when I rounded the corner and saw it. They didn’t just make it to look like the movie, the ACTUALLY made it! It makes me so incredibly excited to actually experience the ride.

Dark Universe

I think this is going to be a world best experienced at night! It was so cool to visit during the day and if you aren’t a fan of spooky, daytime might be a little easier, but either way this world is just as amazing as the rest.

The Dark Universe is set in the land of Darkmore with Frankenstien Manor as the centerpiece. I love that this has kind of an around the corner reveal that gives it a more grand view.

There are monsters that will roam and meet & greet but these are definitely more tame versions and nothing like what you would experience at Halloween Horror nights, so this is definitely still very family friendly.

We didn’t end up doing as much in this land either, but I hear there are some really fun restaurants like Das Stakehaus and the Burning Blade Tavern that actually has a burning windmill!

What we DID do was the Monsters Unchained attraction and WOW was this spectacular!

I will be so honest that I get motion sick super easy from anything with screens and especially rides that have what’s called a Kuka arm which is the same type of ride system used for Forbidden Journey over at Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure. That being said, I was SO nervous that this would make me feel ill.

The other thing I was nervous about is how scary it was going to be. I can handle some light frights, but I don’t love things that are too scary.

Luckily I am SO thrilled to report that none of these things were an issue and I LOVED the ride! There are lots of really cool effects in the queue that remind me of a very mild Halloween Horror Nights house, and I won’t lie, we got to the pre-show where they show a model of the ride system you are about to go on and that was honestly the scariest part. DO NOT LET THIS SCARE YOU! They wave the little model around and make it look like you will be whipped this way and that, but I PROMISE it’s so smooth and much more gentle movement than that thing makes it look.

As for the ride itself, the animatronics and special effects are so amazing! The monsters look so life-like and yes, there are screens, but they are done very well and in a non-disorienting way.

As for scare-factor, this might frighten younger riders, but nothing gets too close to your car or face and anything that jumps out at you again, isn’t too in your face. I heard someone say that it’s scary but camp and I think that’s a great way to describe it. I almost feel more like I’m in a monster video game rather than in an actual horror movie. Even if you think yourself a scaredy cat, I would still recommend giving this ride a try!

My Tips and Tricks!

Prioritize

As I mentioned earlier, my biggest tip is to prioritize your must do world or attractions first. It is really easy to get sucked into a land and want to focus on all the little details and then then next thing you know, half of your day is gone! Making sure to prioritize the most important things first will help you make sure that you don’t get disappointed later when you have to skip out on something because you ran out of time.

Truly, I feel like this park will best be experienced in two days (or three if you really want to take it slow). This would give you plenty of time to soak everything in and make sure you don’t have to rush from ride to show to character.

Some Upgrades are Worth the Price

If one day is really all that you have time for and you want to be able to ride everything, then Express Pass is going to be a must. This is going to cut literally hours out of your day that you would be spending in line and allow you more time to do things like meet characters, try some of the amazing restaurants, or play with some of the interactive elements in the land.

VIP tours are another option if you want just a little bit more. The biggest difference between Express Pass and a VIP tour is that with Express, you are in an expedited line, but with a VIP tour you actually skip the entire line. Your tour guide will also have lots of insider knowledge about the worlds that they can share and this can really help you to have a truly immersive experience in each land. PLUS with VIP tours you get other perks like complimentary meals, ride photos, and express for the rest of the day after your tour. I did a VIP tour at the North Campus Parks and it was to this day one of the BEST theme park days I’ve ever had. I can’t even imagine how much better a VIP tour at Epic would be!

Learn more about VIP tours in my full video:

Dining

Speaking of time, another thing I found to be a big time suck was food. I do think that there will be more grab & go options once the park actually opens, but having to sit down at the restaurants does take quite a bit of time and it can be easy to put off eating because you just want to get to the next thing. Don’t do that….. it makes for cranky moods and nobody wants to pass out.

Instead, I recommend checking out the restaurant options ahead of time and have a game plan of the ones that you want to eat at for what meal. That way, it’s part of your schedule and you won’t feel so much like you are having to go out of your way to eat. At the very least, make sure you have a restaurant in mind for each land so that you can still be flexible without having to scramble and decide where to go.

As of right now, there is only one restaurant that requires reservations and that is Atlantic. You’ll be able to book this ahead of time through the app or website or you can always check same day for availability.

Hydrate!

Bring a refillable water bottle! The queues were great about having water fountains and there are loads of water bottle refill stations and freestyle stations, however, cups seem to be a little harder to come by, so make sure that you bring a refillable water bottle and stay hydrated. Since this park is still very new, the trees and foliage aren’t super big yet which means LOTS of sun. With this park opening at the beginning of summer, it’s more important than ever to keep yourself hydrated!

Lockers

Ok, this was actually a pretty big one! There are several locker stations around the park. The main one being at the front and then they also have lockers at each Concierge stand that is located outside of each World portal. These are pretty decently sized lockers that are $15 for a medium sized one and $20 for a large. The large locker would be if you were needing to store a pretty big backpack or lots of merchandise, but most will find the medium locker to be just fine.

The thing that makes these new is that you will use your face to access these lockers. There is a scanner that will take your picture, you’ll click ‘confirm’ and then the locker will open. If you do not wish to use your photo, you can talk to a Team Member and you’ll be given a card to access your locker.

This is the same exact system that you’ll use for the free ride lockers on the more intense rides like Stardust Racers and Monsters Unchained. We were thrilled that these are much bigger than the ones you’ll find at the other parks and had no problems fitting stuff from several of our party members in one locker.

That being said, I do still recommend small bags or fanny packs as your park bag as it can be a hassle when having to take your things in and out of lockers. (Plus, you’re back will thank you that you aren’t hauling around a huge bag all day!)

Is Epic Universe Family Friendly?

YES! I was thrilled at how many family friendly attractions were available in this park. Not only that, but there were really nice family rooms in each of the bigger attractions for those that want to go through the queue as a family, but maybe aren’t quite tall enough to ride.

Not only that, but you can tell Universal had families in mind with things like a huge play area in Isle of Berk, a splash pad in Celestial Park, and of course all the interactive elements like the Power Up bands in Nintendo and the Wands in Ministry of Magic.

Is this going to be the best park for babies and toddlers? Probably not, but your kiddos ages 5-10 are absolutely going to love this park just as much as the big kids or even the adults!

How excited are YOU for Epic Universe to open this summer? I know I’m already itching to get back as soon as possible!!!

We Got to Preview Epic Universe! Here’s How it Went