Exploring Universal Orlando’s Newest Park, Epic Universe
Written by Isabella Racinez
As soon as it was announced in 2019, my best friend and I began to dream of going to Epic Universe at Universal Studios in Orlando. What we were most excited to see come to life was The Isle of Berk, themed after the animated How to Train Your Dragon films, which we each had a love for in childhood and which had catalyzed our bonding in high school.
After years of sending each other Instagram posts about the park’s progress and eventual opening, the time finally came for us to plan our own journey there! We’re both now young working adults with limited time and funds, but we were able to put a weekend on the calendar for us to make it happen.
Planning for Epic
We decided it’d be best to visit in September, when the worst of the Florida heat would be behind us. This ended up working well, and in typical Florida fashion, we had both sun and light sprinkling rain, along with some humidity and the mid-to-high-70’s Autumn air broken up by the occasional delightful breeze.
Universal Studios offers a variety of different park ticket options, so finding the best option for your travel timeline and interests is definitely doable. We ended up just getting one day park tickets for Epic Universe specifically, as that was the main thing we wanted to see and all the time we wanted to dedicate to the park for my weekend visit. However, for anyone able to visit for longer, there are both multiple day and park hopping ticket options available.
Universal Studios has a variety of hotels and resorts next to the parks, and I was surprised to see Epic had its own hotel walking distance from the park! Lodging was easy for us as my friend currently lives 30 minutes outside Orlando with her boyfriend, so we were able to stay together that whole weekend. My boyfriend and I flew in on Friday night, with Saturday planned as our park day before heading back to the airport on Sunday evening.
Our Day in the Park!
On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and had our tea and coffee at my friend’s place before the four of us headed out. We left early to be sure we had enough time to get parking and get in line. Plenty of visitors staying at Universal hotels were able to have early access to the park attractions. A kind security guard let us know that we could still enter the central portion of the park before opening, we just had to wait behind certain bounds until 10:00 unless we had early access tickets.
I absolutely loved the layout of this new park! The themed lands, being Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe, and Wizarding World – Ministry of Magic, were laid out in a ring format surrounding Celestial Park, the starry and fantastical area acting as the central jumping off point for each of the lands. Visitors enter every park by way of a tunnel that was designed to feel like a cross-universe teleportation tunnel. My favorite was the green tube that led into Super Nintendo World, it was just like how I would imagine Mario would feel as he travelled by pipe in the games!
Transported to New Worlds
Every world was extremely detailed and immersive. The Isle of Berk was definitely a highlight, it was like stepping into the movie! Moreover, this land was not just modeled after the movie, but eagle-eyed fans will notice the park also includes references to the TV shows and books! We rode Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, which reminded me of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disney, and got to see a live performance called “The Untrainable Dragon.”
Super Nintendo World was clearly the most popular of the lands. This was the part we got to try the least amount of attractions given the crowds and the lines, but even just looking at the world they’d built was enough to satisfy us. That being said, the Mario Kart ride, our one Nintendo attraction that we waited in a 90-minute line for, was still loads of fun!
Next we stopped through Dark Universe, the classic monster themed land. This area had some more intense coasters for the thrill seeking park goers, but we chose not to partake. We stopped by in the daylight, and resolved to come back again later to see how the spooky vibes felt at night. We were totally right in doing so, walking around in the mist and moonlight felt way more on theme for Dark Universe. I’m sure the rides would have been way cooler at night too.
Wizarding World – Ministry of Magic was also super awesome. This land also had a live show, this one themed after Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This is also where we waited in our longest line of the day: a bit over two hours for the Ministry of Magic themed ride. It built on the where the beloved franchise left off in Deathly Hallows Part 2, but even non-Potterheads would enjoy this magic flying elevator adventure. This ride was probably my favorite and definitely worth the wait!
Luckily, the long wait time for the Ministry of Magic churned us out just in time for us to make it to our dinner reservation at The Blue Dragon. This pan-Asian sit down restaurant provided not only delicious food but also a cool, dark, and peaceful reprieve from what can be an overstimulating environment in the park. Both meals we partook in during the day, with lunch being an ube-crust pizza from Pizza Moon in Celestial Park, were satisfying, filling, and comparably priced to what one would pay for a meal in Orlando, especially the tourist packed sectors of the city.
Evening Activities
Our finale for the day, before driving back to the apartment and promptly collapsing in bed, was riding the carousel during the nighttime light and water show. Even if you don’t time the line as perfectly as we accidentally did to ride the carousel as the show was happening, the lights that come on the carousel as the moon rises still make nightfall the best time to try out this classic ride!
It was a jam-packed day, and boy were we exhausted by the end, but it was so worth it. The tickets are pretty pricey, not to mention the added costs of food and merchandise, but we went in with the goal of making the most of every minute and penny spent there, and I think we succeeded. As long as you start a theme park adventure with your main priority in mind, be that admiring the park’s artistic details, seeking all the thrills, or making memories with your family, success can be found despite the sweat and waits along the way.
