Epic Universe is not a 2-day park for the average tourist. Despite claims to the contrary by diehard Universal Orlando fans, this is absolutely untrue for the vast majority of guests. The title might sound like pure praise, with us saying this is the first multi-day park in Central Florida since Magic Kingdom. It’s not. (Updated July 5, 2025.)
This is more about there being valid reasons why theme park fans and repeat visitors to Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando might want to allocate more time to Epic Universe during its opening year. Some of that is self-evident: it’s new! Of course locals and Annual Passholders would want to spend disproportionate time at the new park, as opposed to the ones they’ve done dozens to hundreds of times.
Part of that is more strategic, though. That certain experiences and offerings might require multiple days at Epic Universe, that it behooves you to build in a buffer so you don’t walk away saying, “I wish I had more time to do X or Y,” or “I can’t believe that, even after multiple days in the park, there’s still so much I missed!” Those are my sentiments exactly right now, so it’s not exactly hypothetical!
Speaking of which, I’m torn when it comes to Epic Universe. I love Universal Orlando’s new park, and cannot wait to go back this summer and beyond. But there major downsides to visiting this highly-anticipated new park during its opening season(s), as laid out in Why You Should Skip Epic Universe (Subtitle: “or How to Learn to Stop FOMO and Wait to Visit Until Winter 2026 & Beyond”).
To be perfectly honest/blunt with you, that ‘skip’ article is aging really well. Although it was met with backlash by a vocal minority of Universal stans, I feel ahead of my time and fully vindicated in publishing it. I still do see upside in visiting early and am eager to return myself, but with each passing day, I believe that waiting until 2026 is the “correct” advice for most tourists.
Nevertheless, I’m publishing this in the interest of balance…and because I said I would. Also, because by virtue of reading a niche site about theme parks, you already have put yourself in the minority when it comes to things like this. So it’s entirely possible that the advice here still applies to a majority of Disney Tourist Blog readers, even if the majority of all tourists should be avoiding Epic Universe until 2026!
As excited as I am to revisit Epic Universe ASAP (and I’m very excited), I also recognize that not everyone is me. I already did every ride multiple times in a low-stress, low-stakes environment. If I go back and do nothing but Monsters Unchained, a couple of coasters, and a ton of eating & exploring, I will consider my subsequent days to be successes. The average tourist might not have the same time or tolerances to experience Epic Universe, operational warts and all, in the coming months.
To that point, I’m married to an average tourist, so none of this is theoretical! Our family had an Epic Universe trip planned for this summer that we are postponing for the reasons covered in that ‘Skipping Epic Universe’ article. While I will return to Epic Universe many times in the months to come, that’ll be by myself and primarily “for research.” I’ll undoubtedly have plenty of fun, but our family vacation will be delayed until early 2026 for more optimal conditions.
Anyway, here’s how I plan to make the most of my future visits to Epic Universe in 2025, and why I recommend the same if you’re planning on tackling the new park in the coming months…
Outlast High Wait Times & Crowds
As explained in our Epic Universe Crowd Calendar, the new theme park is seeing astronomical wait times for a number of reasons (some discussed below) despite relatively low attendance. No ticket types are selling out for the remainder of July 2025 and beyond, which could be a good thing when it comes to crowd levels and wait times. But even with Animal Kingdom-level attendance, Epic Universe already has high wait times.
Just to put things into perspective, the average wait time for every week in June was 60 minutes or higher. The peak week was the second to last, when the average wait time was 68 minutes. There were several days when the average was at or above 70 minutes. This may not seem that bad. After all, many rides at Walt Disney World have wait times that are over an hour. But keep in mind that this is an average across all rides and throughout the day, and it doesn’t take into account downtime. Not only that, but four rides had averages over 100 minutes.
To put this into perspective, Walt Disney World’s two busiest days since 2019 have been 71 and 70 minute waits–both came during the weeks of New Year’s (early 2020 and late 2023). Epic Universe had 8 dates that were that busy or busier just in June 2025! Suffice to say, Epic Universe wait times are really high, making it difficult to accomplish everything in a single day.
On the same dates this summer, Walt Disney World’s average wait time has been less than half of Epic Universe. The same goes for Universal Orlando’s other parks, which are seeing averages of around 25 minutes. There is a very real possibility that all of these parks (except Animal Kingdom) are seeing higher daily attendance than Epic Universe, too.
As is always the case with theme parks, the easiest way to beat the crowds is to arrive early and stay late. If you’re eligible to take advantage of Early Park Admission, that’s huge. Even if not, regular rope drop is a great time to knock out one portal. Staying late to outlast the crowds at the end of the night is likewise another excellent strategic option for low waits.
This is normal advice, but there’s an added wrinkle to this: Epic Universe Rides “Secretly” Open Early & After Park Closing. This is huge, especially since it’s unpublished. The end result is that it makes the first two hours of the morning and last two of the evening as or more valuable than the entire middle of the day.
If you have two full days at Epic Universe, it also makes for easier strategizing. Simply knock out two portals during Early Park Admission and regular rope drop, and then two portals at the end of the night. This leaves you with one left over. Our counterintuitive advice is to Harry Potter and the Ministry of Magic and its marquee attraction during the late morning or early afternoon. Battle at the Ministry is the perfect attraction to get out of of the heat for a bit! (See our Epic Universe Morning Strategy: Rope Drop Rides to Do & Avoid to Save Time for more. We don’t have nighttime strategy yet, but it’s more straightforward, anyway.)
Best Food Park in Orlando
I cannot say definitively that Epic Universe is currently the #1 food park in Orlando. Even after spending multiple days there, I’ve still only scratched the surface of what its culinary scene has to offer. But what I did try was largely exceptional, a fantastic mixture of fun, photogenic, delicious, and ambitious.
Based on that experience, it is easily the #1 food park in Universal Orlando. That’s not a high bar, though. The other parks can be a bit, ahem, limited once you get outside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter lands, with more crowd-pleasing cuisine of varying degrees of edibility.
Epic Universe is a massive departure from this, with both inventive & intriguing options and theme park staples done at a really high level. Take Pizza Moon, for example. It’s a counter service pizza parlor (hence the name), so you might understandably have restrained expectations. It is somehow fantastic, being closer in quality to Via Napoli than Pizzafari. (Believe the hype about the ube-crusted Pizza Lunare.)
My concern is that this won’t last. It is very often the case that new restaurants at theme parks open with menus that swing for the fences, only to be dumbed-down over the months and years that follow to comport with the expectations of average guests, and in the name of operational efficiency and throughput.
I could see both being issues at Epic Universe. We waited over 45 minutes for part of our order one day at Café L’air De La Sirène (in fairness, it was fantastic). We also overheard another guest ask “why is the crust purple?” about the aforementioned Pizza Lunare (they appeared to send it back, but that wasn’t 100% clear).
Visiting earlier gives you a greater opportunity to enjoy the Epic Universe menus in their full glory. Going for two days gives you more time to try all of the ambitious and fun foods. And then, you’ll have craveworthy dishes to mourn decades from now: “Remember when Epic Universe had that unique and excellent ___? Bring it back, Universal!”
See Portals at Night
Like every theme park ever, Epic Universe is better at night. This is especially true of those in Central Florida during the summer, just by virtue of comfort from cooler weather and sunshine being replaced by artificial lighting packages. It’s my dream for Magic Kingdom to return to midnight closings.
Epic Universe is really pretty at night. The cartoonish colors of Super Nintendo World pop under a deep blue dusk sky as the lights oversaturate the environments. How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk sees its environment become a moody and atmospheric landscape, with rich lighting that amplifies the rockwork and craggy cliffs. Then there’s the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic with its romanticized take on Paris–let’s just say it does justice to the “City of Lights” moniker.
However, the two unequivocal highlights of nighttime at Epic Universe are Celestial Park and Dark Universe. The former is the park’s central hub, and it is downright unpleasant during the day due to a dearth of shade and heat-reflective pavement. At night, Celestial Park is stunning, with fountains and lighting effects that make you want to linger and soak up its unique atmosphere and nuanced original design.
Then there’s pretty much the entirety of Dark Universe, which ‘works’ much better at night. (It’s not called Daylight Universe for a reason.) You will absolutely want to see Burning Blade Tavern live up to its name, wander outside the Frankenstein estate, and spend some time getting lost in the alleys of Darkmoor.
Due to park hours, all of this is not possible in a single night. Maybe on dates when the park now closes at 10pm, but even then, it’ll be really, really rushed. You won’t be lingering or taking any time to absorb the atmosphere. The optimal approach is truly two portals per night, plus a slow stroll through Celestial Park on your way out. Even that is going to be a bit more rushed than you might like.
Slow Down & Drink the Details
Whenever a new theme park land opens, it has become the cliche to claim, “this is actually a full day land.” This happened with Pandora, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Super Nintendo World, and both Wizarding Worlds. And no doubt, I have spent full days in all of these lands–multiple, even–when they were brand new.
But I’m a dork who spends way too much time in theme parks who loves a shiny new object. It’s something to appreciate and obsess over, and there’s excitement in discovering all of the details and secrets these new lands hold. This is the case for many other locals and Annual Passholders, who have a willingness to spend inordinate amounts of time in new areas because everything else is “old news” to them. For a first timer or infrequent visitor, the circumstances are obviously different.
Nevertheless, without any background knowledge or intense fandom for any of these properties (save for Nintendo, but I’ve already experienced two other versions of that land), I found myself wanting more time within each portal. I kept stumbling upon new and interesting things while there, and I know my visits only scratched the surface.
Epic Universe is like a whole park of Wizarding Worlds in terms of design details, and unlike anything Universal has done before. In term of depth and attention to detail, it reminds me of Animal Kingdom. But frankly, with spaces that are more interesting and engaging to me, personally. It’s very difficult to both focus on riding the rides and savoring the spaces. You really need two days for that, even if it’s not a 2-day park in the traditional sense of the term.
Rainy Days, Downtime & Delays
Epic Universe has had several days offering a terrible one-two punch of technical difficulties plus inclement weather causing ride closures. I’d say this is only going to get worse during the height of storm season, but there have already been times when only one (1) ride in the entire park was running. It’s hard to imagine anything worse than that…hopefully!
Storm season is going to be rough, just by virtue of the number of attractions with outdoor components at Epic Universe. That will be exacerbated in the first year by the all-new attractions have growing pains that are often plagued by problems their first few months. Even without rain, things have been rocky recently–it’s often the case that only one-third of rides are operational at any given moment. Lots of ‘delays’ or flat-out ‘closed’ attractions. This is the nature of the beast as attractions become more complex.
The bottom line is that you’ll want to give yourself two days if you’re visiting Epic Universe in its first ~6 months as a buffer. As opposed to tilting at windmills and ‘forcing’ things when the stuff hits the fan, go with the flow! Soak up those details, explore the park, and give yourself “permission” to have a good time during a bad day.
This is very difficult with just a single day and no margin for error to get everything done, but easier with two. As someone who has made ‘lemonade out of lemons’ during many operational meltdowns at other theme parks, trust me–this is the way.
N/A. Earlier is Optimal
Normally, we advise diehard fans to go earlier as opposed to waiting when it comes to ambitious and envelope-pushing attractions due to the likelihood of pesky and problematic effects being disabled later for the sake of operational efficiency. The most infamous example of this is Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, with many long-lost effects that are the stuff of legends. More recently, this has also been true with Expedition Everest, DINOSAUR, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and more.
My fear was that this would also be the case with Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment and Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. However, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case. I’ve yet to have a perfect ride-through on Monsters Unchained, and others have reported Battle at the Ministry regularly running with broken effects. In this case, it appears these rides will get better over time, as further test and adjust hones their timing and gets the Audio Animatronics firing on all cylinders.
I’d also extend this to the park as a whole. During my visits, there were still closed-off paths in Celestial Park and other areas that needed their finishing touches. Maybe this will be done by opening day, but maybe not. Regardless, my perspective is that the park is going to grow into its own over time, and it may take a few rainy seasons to get it really looking good.
I’m well aware that this ‘positive’ article about spending more time at Epic Universe is fairly backhanded. Much of this is ‘lemonade out of lemons’ stuff. But if you booked an opening season trip months ago, that is the angle from which I’d now recommend approaching this new park. Go in with a restrained and reasonable level of hype, hoping for the best but prepared for the worst.
At the risk of belaboring the point, we do not expect any of this to be much of an issue in the medium or long-term. I’m cognizant of the reality that some recent posts have seemingly positioned me as an Epic Universe Hater, but I swear, I really am not. I love the new park! Almost every new attraction or land has initial growing pains, especially the advanced ones. Epic Universe is an entire park of those!
I’m not trying to be critical or nitpick–this is more of a sober “it is what it is” type of commentary in the face of what has felt like a runaway hype train. A year from now, Epic Universe should be operating smoothly and with a high degree of efficiency. It’ll hopefully have blossomed into its own. There’s something to be said for experiencing a brand-new theme park, but there’s also a non-monetary cost to doing so. Consider both before taking the plunge.
Need trip planning tips and comprehensive advice for your visit to Central Florida? Make sure to read our Universal Orlando Planning Guide for everything about Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida. Also check out our Walt Disney World Vacation Planning Guide for everything about those parks, resorts, restaurants, and so much more.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be attending Epic Universe this summer for its opening season, or will you skip it until the new park settles into a groove? If you do visit, are you planning on spending multiple days at Epic Universe to appreciate the new park in its full glory–or give yourself more of a safety net to experience more of the park and endure downtime and delays? Concerned about unreliable rides, how hot the park gets, or anything else? Agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!
