April 10, 2025, 6:09 PM ·
Universal Creative has built one of the world’s best theme parks with its new Universal Epic Universe. Located on the new south campus of the Universal Orlando Resort, Epic Universe brings together four single-IP-themed lands surrounding a whimsical central plaza.Those four single-IP lands offer visual masterclasses in themed placemaking and storytelling. Each truly is an epic, as promised in the park’s name. They tell grand stories of heroes – not just from their source IP, but also by enabling us to play the role of a hero navigating each land.It is in that central plaza, Celestial Park, however, where we find Epic Universe’s weakness. In my review of the park following its press preview, I wrote this about Celestial Park:”Universal has created a liminal space filled with neo-Byzantine architecture, accented with art nouveau and a dash of traveling carnival. It’s a mix of styles designed to evoke a past yearning for its future. As such, it declares, ‘we are in the middle of a story here.'”And that’s the problem. It’s just the middle of the story, lacking the beginning and end that makes tales emotionally accessible and then satisfying. Celestial Park could be described cynically as “Intermission – The Land.”
Celestial ParkThe best storytellers, like the best teachers, meet their audience where they are. Disney’s castle parks greet visitors with some form of Main Street U.S.A. – an idyllic, nostalgic American downtown. Disney California Adventure updated that with Buena Vista Street, an early 20th century version of the same concept. Disney’s Hollywood Studios provides a stylized version of a mid-20th century Hollywood, California. Universal Studios Florida does the same. By offering a familiar frame of reference (e.g. “once upon a time” or “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”), a storyteller acknowledges the audience and invites them into whatever time or space the story will inhabit. That makes the audience comfortable with the transition they are about to take and builds trust in the storyteller.Epic Universe instead hits us in the face with the Chronos, an elaborately decorated tower. It’s delightful, but hardly familiar. Instead of providing a familiar or recognizable setting to begin this adventure, the Chronos and Celestial Park demand that visitors meet Epic Universe on its own, undefined terms.
ChronosUnlike the other four lands in Epic Universe, Celestial Park is not based upon any previously established IP that might be familiar to park visitors. Yet Universal Creative has created a backstory for the land. Designers often creative backstories for attractions and locations that they do not communicate directly to visitors. Developing a backstory for a location can help designers to create a space that feels coherent. If a proposed element in a space does not fit with or advance the backstory, that’s a sign it might not be a good fit for the space.So Universal does not need to communicate its backstory for Celestial Park. The land offers a distinct vibe that complements the park’s other four lands while remaining distinct from each. Given the disparity in themes and settings for the four IP lands, that’s an impressive accomplishment by itself.And yet… the name of the park is not “Vibe Universe.” It’s Epic Universe. The novelty of the Chronos and Celestial Park beg visitors to ask: What is the story here? Where is this place, and how did it come to be? And why are we here? Universal promised epics in this park, so of course some visitors are going to wonder about the story behind the land at the heart of the park – the one space in Epic Universe that is built on a story than no one outside of Universal knows.Universal team members have explained that the Chronos is a machine that gathers the cosmic energy needed to open the portals to the four IP lands. The Chronos also opened a gathering space for people around the universe who are waiting to enter the portals – Celestial Park. The story also goes on to explain that, before the development of portal technology, people used comets to travel around the universe, but that was unreliable. Still, there remain two comets in Celestial Park for visitors to ride as amusements – the Stardust Racers roller coasters.Uh… okay. So, who built the Chronos? Who developed portal technology? Is there an epic tale behind Epic, or is this all simplistic justification for some cool iconography and architecture that Universal Creative designers wanted to build in Epic Universe’s hub?If so, what a missed opportunity. Universal Creative developed a compelling original narrative for its Dark Universe land. I have no doubt that UC designers have the ability to craft an engaging story for Celestial Park, as well. The trick is, how to communicate that? With Dark Universe, Universal offered the advantage of a cast of familiar class monsters upon which to build an original story, allowing Universal to add original characters as needed. Yet the only existing IP representation in Celestial Park is the flux capacitor at the rear of the Stardust Racers coaster trains. That’s an Easter egg, not a narrative building block.None of this would be an issue in almost any other theme park in the world. Put the handsome design of Celestial Park in any Six Flags or United Parks location, and we all would be thrilled with the upgrade. But Epic’s four other lands are good enough that they put Epic in the conversation about the world’s best theme park. At that level, every detail matters. Every missed opportunity opens space for another park to claim the “world’s best” title.I suspect that most Epic Universe visitors will be satisfied with the vibe that Celestial Park offers. If there are to be complaints about the land, they likely will focus on its lack of shade rather than lack of coherent story. This is a space seemingly designed to be enjoyed in the last moments of golden hour through the cooling twilight and dusk. Unfortunately, for most of the time that the land is open, it will be braising in Central Florida’s heat and humidity.Celestial Park is hardly the only problem at Epic Universe right now. Uptime and capacity challenge most theme parks in their first days, and Epic has struggled with that on some of its attractions during its preview period. The space around the park is lacking at the moment, as well. When Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990, it also was yet another theme park marooned within a sea of asphalt parking. When Universal built the adjacent Islands of Adventure, it transformed those boring parking lots into what is now a lush, walkable environment, complemented by waterways and abundant shopping and dining locations.Perhaps a similar transformation awaits this new south campus. Further development of the south campus provides Universal an opportunity to create the familiar starting point and narrative framing that the Chronos and Celestial Park now lack. At the very least, foliage should grow up around the park’s perimeter, hiding the massive, blank show buildings now on display for all park visitors to see.Again, Epic is an amazing theme park, filled with attractions that I rank among the world’s best. Yet those successes create higher standards against which everything else in the park will be judged. Expansion pads sit between several of the existing lands at Epic Universe. As Universal works to expand and improve this already impressive theme park in the years ahead, I hope that Universal leadership will look inward to better develop Celestial Park and the story at the heart of Epic Universe, as well.To keep up to date with more travel and theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider’s weekly newsletter.
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