Epic Universe is Universal Orlando’s latest theme park. Having opened in May of 2025, the park includes storied franchises like Nintendo, Harry Potter, Universal’s monsters, and How to Train Your Dragon. While we aren’t exactly early to this review, we have had a few weeks to think through our Epic Universe experience. In this post, we’ll review the theme park, discussing what we like and dislike about it.

For better and for worse, Epic Universe is a modern theme park. Not counting water parks, Universal and Disney haven’t opened a stateside park since 2001. Things have drastically changed since then – immersive IP-focused lands became en vogue and are here to stay, screen technology has advanced and is an integral part of attractions, and crowd numbers are much higher than 25 years ago. Epic Universe is aware of all of those things. Most of the modern advancements are a feather in Universal’s new hat but a few do feel underutilized.

Before we get too far into what (and what doesn’t) work at Epic Universe, let’s break down what’s offered. The park’s entrance and spine is called Celestial Park which is home to two attractions, Stardust Racers and Constellation Carousel. There’s also an abundance of dining, shopping, water features and a few walkthrough attractions. Celestial Park is a gateway of sorts. The story is that this land is without a date or time and is powered by the Chronos (essentially the portal entrance to the theme park). Walking through the Chronos then powers the rest of Epic Universe and opens up portals to 4 other lands, or universes, if you will. More on this backstory later. Here are the four other lands along with their descriptions from the Universal Orlando website:

• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic: From 1920’s Paris to the 1990’s British Ministry, explore international wizarding communities and the magic that connects them.
• Super Nintendo World – At Super Nintendo World you’ll experience a new way to play, from challenging Bowser on the Mario Kart ride to venturing through Donkey Kong Country and so much more.
• How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk – Take to the skies and soar with dragons as you explore the colorful Viking village at the heart of Isle of Berk. It’s a heart-warming and exhilarating adventure for all ages.
• Dark Universe – From the experiments of Dr. Victoria Frankenstein to a shadowy landscape where monsters roam, Dark Universe is a world of myth and mystery.

To get into those lands, guests (or Celestians?) travel through large ‘portals’ before a big reveal of the world. Here’s the Super Nintendo World portal.

Hopefully that gives you some concept of the layout if you haven’t read, or watched videos, about the park.

Let’s start with the biggest positive of Epic Universe – the four worlds to explore. All four are proof that this is a modern theme park, as the worlds are immersive and transportive. They’re all beautiful and thought out, as well. Each world has at least 3, let’s call them, things to do between attractions, shows and dining. In fact, the only world with one ride is the Ministry of Magic and they’re already working on an expansion there. Every other land has at least 2 rides.

The competition for my favorite worlds is a two-horse race between Ministry of Magic and Dark Universe. We’ll start with the latter. The third iteration of Wizarding World of Harry Potter takes guests into Paris (the setting of Fantastic Beasts? Melissa is the Harry Potter expert in the family) and it looks stunning. After spending my first 15 minutes in there, I was ready to hop on a plane and get back to the actual Paris. Wandering through the streets and seeing the depth built was extremely impressive. As with other Harry Potter lands, there are places for guests to use their wands.

The land’s ride, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, is set in the British Ministry of Magic and is connected to the Parisian streets through the Metro-Floo. Everyone and their second cousin has a seen a picture of the attraction’s queue but I can confirm that it looks as amazing in person as it does in photos. There’s never been a more jaw-dropping queue built. By the time you’re actually to the ride, it almost feels secondary to the incredible atrium and following rooms. Thankfully, the ride is incredible on its own, as we talked about in our attraction rankings.

Dark Universe is the broadest themed world at Epic Universe, Celestial Park notwithstanding. Considering Universal’s long and elaborate monster history, there’s a lot of ground to cover here. Dracula, Frankenstein and the Werewolf all play an integral part in the land and there’s other references to the Mummy, Invisible Man and more. Architecture throughout Dark Universe is gothic. That may be an obvious choice but it looks fantastic, specifically as Darkmoor Village gives way to the chateau that houses Monsters Unchained. While the land has monsters, I wouldn’t call it scary and it’s definitely not on the frightening level of Universal’s Horror Nights. Instead there are spooky vibes inside of a world that is fun to explore.

Isle of Berk and Super Nintendo World aren’t slouches either. The latter is cleverly layered, taking a multi-level approach that adds great texture. While there might be quibbles about the escalator entrance to the land, Super Nintendo World is expansive with plenty to do. The Donkey Kong Country area makes for a big improvement over the Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Isle of Berk is beautiful, with a great entrance that overlooks a large lagoon. There’s more kinetic energy in this world than others, with a coaster skirting around the water, an attraction that flies overhead and boats sailing down below. Unlike the other lands at Epic, the How to Train Your Dragon area is best seen during the day.

When looking at each portal and subsequent land individually, they are all fantastic. You could make an argument for each of the four to be the best and it’s nice to see Universal build a well rounded park in that regard. While Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios have some very high highs, they also have a few ugly lows. That’s not the case here, there are no weak spots.

The attractions within the 5 lands are a strong starting point for Epic Universe. Obviously, they will need to add some over time but that’s the case with any new park. I’m most impressed by the solid depth at the theme park. Yes, the top 2 rides (in our opinion, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry and Monsters Unchained) are brilliant but I’m just as impressed with the rides that could be afterthoughts but aren’t. Yoshi’s Adventure is more interesting than it has any right to be. Even our lowest rated attraction, Fyre Drill, looks pretty cool!

Entertainment follows in the attraction roster’s footsteps. I was very happy to see the park open with two full-fledged stage shows, The Untrainable Dragon and Le Cirque Arcanus. Both shows are well worth seeing and add some versatility, and air-conditioning options, to a teen and adult heavy park.

Epic Universe is also a fantastic food park. This is both a wonderful surprise and something we approach with caution. The surprise comes in because the previously existing Universal parks are definitely not good food parks, both worse than all 4 of Walt Disney World’s. Epic turns the tables, being among the best food theme parks ever. We ate in 3 of the 5 lands and honestly wish we had time for more. There’s always next time.

The reason for caution with the dining praise is that restaurants in theme parks tend to slip in quality over time. Seeing how ordinary the other Universal parks are in terms of dining scene has us slightly worried but we visited Epic roughly 7 months after it opened and didn’t see any slippage in quality. Hopefully the worry will be unfounded and the park keeps up the excellent restaurants for years to come.

Some smaller positives that come with Epic Universe being built this decade include larger lockers for storage while on rides, plenty of walk around space down the central spine, an emphasis on water features and a natural, green aesthetic, and room to explore. Those things all matter to the guest experience and are reasons that we prefer Epic to any other Universal theme park.

There are a few drawbacks though. Before I get to them, I should say that expecting any theme park to open without flaws is a fool’s errand. Things like capacity and total rides are meant to grow over time and Epic Universe is already on its way to doing this with an expansion. Similarly, ride breakdowns will always be an issue since you’re operating, in this case, 12 new rides all at once. These are definite problems at this new theme park and are things that need to get sorted out, specifically the ride breakdowns. But I’m willing to give the park some grace in those areas as it’s normal to open with operational problems.

Two things stand out to me as major flaws with Epic Universe, one practical and one subjective critique. We’ll start with the practical – there is very little shade in this theme park. That’s a problem in Orlando! There are a couple of indoor shows and restaurants, as well as a couple of lands with tall walls so guests aren’t without reprieve. But it’s a big misstep overall. This is especially true in Celestial Park, where the back half is filled with unshaded walkways. This should be an easy enough fix eventually but it needs to happen before the summer months make their way back around, even if it’s in temporary fashion.

My other big issue with Epic Universe is that the theme and story just don’t work for me. The four worlds share nothing in common and Celestial Park feels (to me) like a backstory was wedged in to try to get them to fit together. This is the issue with the modernity of Epic and the immersive IP lands. They are all trying to put guests into the movie or universe and then the next area doesn’t feel remotely similar and there’s no easy way to transition from them.

To give it credit, Epic Universe does try harder than the other Universal theme parks. Celestial Park can’t ease the architectural transitions but it can offer plenty of picturesque settings to get you from portal to portal. There’s even an elaborate backstory to the park’s spine that explains how it, and the 4 worlds, exist. Stardust Racers and Constellation Carousel are very good rides that fit within that whimsical framework. But as we’ve seen with other theme parks (I’m looking you squarely in the face, Dinoland USA), having a thorough backstory doesn’t make themed design successful.

Obviously, the degree with which guests care about this will vary. Some will not care at all and that’s fine. I tend to put more weight on the overall theme of a park and that’s why I’m drawn to DisneySea, most of the Disney castle parks, Animal Kingdom, old Epcot and a few others. Epic Universe was never able to convince me that everything fit together as I tried to grasp it while exploring the park. Even after coming home, I’ve soaked up as much lore as I can and my buy-in remains low on the connections.

This isn’t to say Epic Universe is a bad theme park, it’s not. In fact, it’s a very good theme park that I think will move to being excellent after an expansion or two. But the park does struggle in being connected through a theme. Again, to some that is getting bogged down in minutiae and to others (you can call me nerd, it’s fine) it will make a difference.

A few minor problems do exist outside of those larger complaints. Epic does have some coaster and screen fatigue although not as much as other Universal parks. The park also misses out on having much in the way for kids to ride, I think it’d be a tough sell for families with kids under 10. Lastly, I still don’t like the name at all but that’s a me thing and it has worked well in the marketing, judging by all of the ‘Had an Epic day’ posts I’ve seen on social media.

That’s just another little piece of the park showing how modern it is. Honestly, I give credit to the creative team for really embracing that aspect of it. There were minor attempts to tie this into being a classic theme park, with Celestial Park and the backstory, but mainly Universal set out to create 4 really cool and immersive lands. They did that very well through a mix of beautiful settings, good attractions and entertainment, and excellent food.

As our final few minutes of being in Epic Universe were running out, I felt a buzz while rushing around with my camera and tripod. There were so many areas to capture at the end of a wonderful day. Quibbles aside, this is a feeling that my favorite theme parks give me. I never quite get that feeling with other Universal Parks, or even certain Disney ones, but Epic Universe surpasses that. I’m already itching to get back!

What do you think of Epic Universe? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below. Looking for discounted tickets to Universal Orlando? Check out this site! Here are all of our travel guides to Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!