Epic Universe is Universal Orlando’s newest theme park, opening in 2025. The park opened to strong reviews, including our own, and has impressed with four distinct and immersive worlds for guests to visit. Unfortunately, the park has also had its share of hiccups (no relation to a guy in Isle of Berk) in the first year of opening. Fitting everything in the park into one day can be difficult but we’re here to help. In this post, we’ll detail five ways to make the most of your day at Epic Universe!

To be fair to Universal’s latest park, many of their growing pains are commonplace for a young theme park. Parks open with smaller ride rosters and typically have downtimes among all of those new rides. Companies can do all of the testing they want but things will go wrong once a place is operating on a large scale. The flaws that may have been overlooked in meetings become apparent when a theme park is open.

Epic Universe has shown this specifically in capacity issues and with rides breaking down. These haven’t plagued the park as much in the last few months thanks to smaller crowds in the 2026 summer and attractions becoming more dependable. Getting through all of Epic Universe in a day can be a frustrating experience but it’s not fighting a losing battle, like it felt like it was through most of the first year of operation.

We’re still a visit away from debuting our full Epic Universe park itinerary, as there’s more things to test out. But there are some strategic ways to maximize your day in the park, getting to every attraction, show and leaving time to explore.

One of those ways, that won’t be listed below, is by splurging on Express Pass. This is a skip-the-line pass for every attraction in Epic Universe except for Dragon Racer’s Rally. It also includes the two major stage shows. Express Pass allows guests to go experience everything without the need of a plan. Sounds great, right? The downside is obvious, this costs an extreme amount of money. Prices start at $150/person and will likely be more than that. If money is no object or you’re really looking to splurge then get Express Pass, it’s a good product. If that price is too much to swallow, then don’t worry you can still fit everything in.

The five tips below are fairly general rules of thumb to use while planning out your day at Epic Universe. We’ll add explanation for each of them, and discuss strategy a little further. Please note, like with all theme park strategy, that sometimes bucking the trend and just following a whim is the way to go. Maybe you’ve realized that riding on the back of Yoshi 8 straight times will bring you more happiness than getting to all of the other attractions in the park. More power to you! Our park strategy generally aims for a mix of whimsy and practicality, but this post is higher on the practicality scale with us trying to “make the most of a day” as the title says.

Stay On-Site

I promise that I’m not a shill for Universal, it’s just that they’re on-site perks are very meaningful for getting the most out of a day at Epic Universe. In this case, early park admission is what we’re after. This grants guests an hour of early admission to the theme park before all non-resort guests are in the park. Every land besides Dark Universe is open during this early hour, as of August 2026.

This is meaningful because guests could easily get 2, if not 3, attractions out of the way before the regular park hours even begin at Epic Universe. Using that extra hour for rope dropping a very popular attraction and then adding in a couple of others nearby is the easiest way to make sure the rest of the day goes smoothly. While we don’t typically recommend the extra cost of Universal Express Pass, staying on-site is cheaper (if you pick a value hotel) and worth the money. Heck, Universal’s cheapest hotels don’t cost much more than staying off-site. If you’re coming over from Walt Disney World, consider making this an overnight stay the night before. It’ll make your whole Epic Universe day much easier.

The flip side of not staying on-site is that you’ll be behind the crowds all day long. Headliner attractions will be backed up before you’re even allowed to enter the park and the morning in Epic Universe will be a far more frustrating experience. We put this at the top of the list because it starts the day but also it’s the most important piece to maximizing your time in Epic Universe.

Plan for a Full Day

Piggybacking off of staying on-site, plan for a full day in Epic Universe. I know this one isn’t for everyone and the park doesn’t make it easy on you in the middle of summer. There’s not much in the way of shade and many of the lands are very outside. A full day is still the way to go, plan rest days around it if needed.

As we mentioned, rope dropping early is a key here. Thankfully, Epic Universe doesn’t typically open until 9 or 10 so it’s not the earliest of earlies. Grab a coffee and get to the gates 20 or 30 minutes before the scheduled early park admission. You’ll have a productive morning before slowing down midday.

Sticking around until the park closes will also lead to a great day. Once 6 or 7 PM hits at Epic Universe, the wait times drop significantly. In our experience, the waits are usually shorter than the posted wait times at that point, specifically at Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. On top of the lower wait times, Epic Universe is best at night. The lighting throughout the park is really well done and you won’t have to find places to avoid the sun.

An afternoon break is an option with this park if you really need a break. The time it takes to get back to your hotel is an issue though, unless you’re staying nearby. Instead of a taking a midday break and leaving the park, we recommend having longer meals inside of the many excellent restaurants in Epic Universe. Nothing wrong with just sitting inside for a while and eating! We also recommend…

Stage Shows During the Middle of the Day

Epic Universe has two excellent stage shows to see – The Untrainable Dragon in Isle of Berk and Le Cirque Arcanus in the Wizarding World. Both are worth seeing and should be a part of your afternoon plan.

Around 11 or noon, wait times really start to stack up in Epic Universe. The queues are crowded, it’s hot outside and the morning adrenaline is starting to wear off. That’s the perfect time to get off your feet and take in a couple of shows. Not only will this get you a little relaxation, this is also just a good use of your time.

Even on the busiest of days, you won’t need to get to a showtime more than half an hour in advance. That’s less time in line than most of the rides at Epic Universe midday. This is kind of a 2 birds with 1 stone philosophy, recharge during shows that are excellent so that you can keep going throughout the night.

Utilize Single Rider Lines

The best way to avoid lines at Epic Universe is by not going in the same lines as everyone else! Big brain over here. Express Pass is one way to avoid the standby line but there’s also a number of single rider lines throughout the park and those don’t cost $200/person!

There are seven attractions capable of offering single-rider lines at Epic Universe:

• Mine Cart Madness (Super Nintendo World)
• Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge (Super Nintendo World)
• Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment (Dark Universe)
• Curse of the Werewolf (Dark Universe)
• Stardust Racers (Celestial Park)
• Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry (Wizarding World)
• Hiccup’s Wing Gliders (Isle of Berk)

For those traveling without kids, this is a great way to go. These really change the game at the park if you’re able to use them. The waits will be much shorter than in the standby lines and it makes riding something midday much less of a time commitment. In our experience, the only slow moving single rider line is Mine-Cart Madness. Everything else we’d recommend!

Those traveling with kids might not be able to take part in this. That said, a few of these are thrill rides that kids won’t be able to ride anyway so hopping in the single rider line while someone else waits with the children might be the quickest course of action.

Get Super Nintendo World Out of the Way Early

Our final piece of advice is to rope drop all of Super Nintendo World. Start with Mine-Cart Madness before moving to Yoshi’s Adventure and Mario Kart via single rider. Getting these three rides out of the way as soon as possible really opens up the day. Mine-Cart Madness is especially a headache to get on the longer the park stays open. The ride’s capacity is not strong and the queue is hot. The other two attractions do have wait times that drop in the evening but we’d still recommend getting them out of the way while there.

This step circles back around to rope dropping. If you’re able to knock out the Super Nintendo World attractions during the extra hour of opening plus the hour after, getting through the rest of the rides in the day is a relative breeze. You’ll be a step ahead of the crowds.

The one major headliner that could cause you problems is leaving Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry for sometime other than the morning. We recommend leaving it for the last ride(s) of the night when the wait times drop way down. The only problem with this strategy is if the ride breaks down in the evening and doesn’t reopen. You can remedy this by taking an insurance ride via single-rider sometime in the afternoon.

Those steps should lead to a great day at Epic Universe! The park can be busy and frustrating but if you come in with a gameplan and take advantage of the morning and evening hours then you’ll have a great day.

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!