What is the best plan for visiting Universal Epic Universe?
Let's talk about visiting the newest big theme park in America - Universal Orlando's Epic Universe.
With less than a full year of official operation for this park, it can be tough to game plan this park and its inconsistent operations. So I think we probably need two game plans for Epic Universe: one, if you have Early Park Admission, and a second, if you do not.
EPA here covers three of the park's four IP lands: Super Nintendo World, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic, and How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk. That leaves Dark Universe to open with the park, but its Monsters Unchained ride is the most reliable people eater in the park, and thus a foolish target for rope drop, IMHO.
Food options abound in Epic Universe, but timing can be tricky as you chase acceptable wait times for attractions while they are open.
Given all this, it may be tempting just to go ahead and buy the Universal Express pass, even given its $200+ price. But I don't want to push Theme Park Insider readers to do that, if we can come up with a better plan to experience this park.
Replies (4)
If you are visiting for the first time and want to do everything in this park (which is not much - see https://www.themeparkinsider.com/reviews/universal-epic-universe/ for the line-up), I would stay at the Stella Nova Resort and get the Early Park Entry. It's a better deal than buying Universal Express for each person in your party to buy yourself the time to do everything in a day.
With the EPA, target Nintendo first and head to Donkey Kong. After that, go for Mario Kart. If you are not a Nintendo fan, skip the upcharge Power-Up Band and those Key Challenges. If you are, buy the Power-Up Band at the hotel before arriving at the park to save time. Then do the Key Challenges before exiting the land.
Doing Nintendo first thing in the AM is key as the land is a shadeless oven that will roast you like a Thanksgiving turkey my mid-day. The land was a one and done for me, but if you must experience Nintendo, get it all out of the way first with your EPA time.
As for Potter, given its history of delayed openings, I would not go there first, but would try to get on Ministry late in the day, just before they cut the queue. I would do Hiccup's Wing Gliders and the Untrainable show right after Nintendo, with Stadust and Monsters my pick for mid-day rides.
My wife, my 23 year old daughter, and I went to Epic Universe for two days in September 2025 and stayed at Stella Nova. We walked to and from the park each day. The first day, we got in early and lined up for Ministry of Magic. Universal started this ride earlier that day. We were able to ride with maybe a 30 min wait. We ended the night at Mario Kart. We waited about 50 mins the first time. The line should have been shorter, but there was some kind of power surge while we were waiting and they had to 'reboot' the ride. We immediately rode a second time with a 5 min wait. The second day, we lined up at Mine Cart Madness early. After waiting 30 mins, it was still testing and had not opened. We then headed to Hiccup’s Wing Gliders for a 20 min wait. We did get back in line for Mine Cart Madness after lunch with a 30 min wait. We immediate got back in line thinking that it would be the same wait, but it now took 60 mins before we rode a second time even though the line length looked similar. We also rode Monsters Unchained many times over the two days with the longest wait of 15 mins.
I've only been once, but since it doesn't really seem like anyone else has been there a significant amount, I can at least provide a few do's and don't's.
DO:
-single rider on CotW
-Minecart Madness last
-budget a lot of time for wandering the lands
-go to pizza moon
-save dark universe for when the other lines in the park are long, and if that doesn't happen, do it when it's really dark out
-ride stardust racers at night!! That's my biggest advice. The soundtrack is synthier and the experience makes it so good that it's just one spot lower than Velocicoaster on my top coasters list.
-stay late>go early
DON'T:
-Trust the BotM wait time sign
-ride fire drill, rally, or the carousel if the wait is higher than 15 mins
-try to do Minecart or BotM first
-eat a big meal. Ideally, you'd sample around the many delicious restaurants.
Again, this is all from just one visit, but I had a great time. I would recommend either two days or Express to really take in everything, but for efficiency, you can do everything in one day if you work fast enough.
One other thing that I think we should consider for Florida theme parks - visiting Orlando in the summer can be nasty uncomfortable. However, as more families switch their Florida vacations to winter and spring, those other times of year are becoming more crowded. We don't have multiple years of data to parse here yet, but when do you think would be the best time of year to visit Epic?