Epic Universe hype train is fantastic, from the rides to the shows to the restaurants. If I had to choose only one park to visit in Florida the rest of 2025, it wouldn’t be Magic Kingdom or anywhere else at Walt Disney World–it’d be Universal’s third gate. At the same time, there major downsides to visiting this highly-anticipated new park during its opening year. (Updated July 16, 2025.)
Although I’m fully aboard the Epic Universe hype train, I also recognize that not everyone is me. The average tourist might not have the same time or tolerances to experience a new theme park and all that entails. Moreover, I’m somewhat concerned that the hype train is going a tad too fast, and needs the brakes pumped before it risks derailment.
To that end, I want to make the argument against visiting Epic Universe. Why you should skip it for now, and wait until 2026 to visit Universal Orlando’s new theme park. With everyone else fixated on hype, I thought it’d be pragmatic to temper expectations. With that said, this is one half of a point-counterpoint article series. See Here’s Why We Highly Recommend Doing 2 Days at Epic Universe.
This article outlines the case against Epic Universe–that much should be obvious from foregoing (or even just a quick glance at the title). If you’re excited about Universal Orlando’s new theme park, have already bought your vacation package or park tickets, or are otherwise averse to negativity, this post is probably not for you. This details the potential pitfalls in visiting Epic Universe during its opening season, meaning that it’s a bit of a downer by design.
While you may want to skip this post about skipping Epic Universe if you have zero intentions of skipping Epic Universe, there might be value even for those of you fully aboard the hype train. First, it’ll help in managing expectations. Second, in preparing for these downsides to mitigate their impact to the greatest extent possible.
On with the list of reasons why maybe you should wait to visit Epic Universe until 2026 or beyond…
Heat, Sun & Shade (or Lack Thereof)
Apparently, Epic Universe was designed for the folks who thought Toy Story Land was just a bit too chilly and didn’t offer enough opportunities to crispen their skin or get soaked during a storm. We’ve been critical of recent lands at Walt Disney World when it comes to the lack of cover and how hot they get, wondering if the designers responsible had ever left the comfort of their 70-degree air-conditioned offices in California.
The team behind Epic Universe heard that and said “hold my beer,” cranked their office A/C to 62, and designed the hottest and least shaded theme park I’ve ever experienced. There was a lot of bluster from Universal about Celestial Park putting the “park” back in theme park. Apparently that does not include trees or shade structures of any sort, but does include the most reflective pavement on earth. You can feel the heat from both above and below, making it difficult to spend time in the land during the day.
Celestial Park is lovely, to be sure, but all of the praise for it is necessarily coming at night. I seldom saw more than a handful of guests in here during the day aside from those going from point A to B. It was always a veritable ghost town, and for good reason–it’s really uncomfortable. None of this is exaggeration.
The other portals are better, but only marginally so. Ministry of Magic feels like a sauna, with the same reflective properties and heat emanating from the pavement and facades, until the sun is lower in the sky and the buildings block it from view. It’s a similar story in Super Nintendo World, Isle of Berk, and Dark Daylight Universe.
If you are going to visit Epic Universe this summer, I’d strongly recommend an umbrella with UV protection, cool-dude bucket hat, and ridiculously strong sunscreen. Also, be sure to bring your own water bottle–to Universal’s immense credit, there are refilling stations all over the place, including in queues. (See our Summer Survival Guide to Walt Disney World for more recommendations.)
There are several factors that contribute to Epic Universe having a worse “feels like” environment than other Central Florida theme parks, but the biggest is a lack of permanent shade structures and no mature trees. Epic Universe will be a lovely park-like setting a decade from now, but in the immediate future, I’d imagine it becomes umbrella central this summer. And keep in mind that this is the feedback from days that never broke 90 degrees. But at least Epic Universe is exquisite in the evenings–oh wait.
High Prices & No Discounts
There have been a lot of complaints among Walt Disney World fans about price increases, and that conversation is often accompanied by comparisons to Universal Orlando. Many have suggested they’ll vote with their wallets and visit Epic Universe instead due to Walt Disney World pricing them out.
This doesn’t quite add up. Epic Universe is extremely expensive its opening summer, and Walt Disney World has unprecedented discounts that essentially offer 2019 pricing. For Epic Universe tickets, I paid $180 per day after tax, and that’s at the lower end of the price spectrum this summer.
Of course, multi-day tickets are available…but that requires visiting Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida, with only a single day at Epic Universe and no park hopping. This strikes me as a poor allocation of limited vacation time, especially if you’re doing other theme parks in Central Florida during your trip.
To each their own, but if spending multiple days at Universal Orlando this summer, I’d want to spend at least two-thirds of that time at Epic Universe–two days there and a day split between the existing gates. This necessarily means buying single day tickets.
Epic Universe is the shiny new theme park, so it’s understandable that Comcast would want to recoup as much of its massive investment as possible while excitement is high. But the dearth of discounts strikes me as unsustainable and unlikely going forward.
At minimum, the highly restrictive ticketing policies will be dropped in 2026, but I’d expect even more deals and cheaper prices. This is like 2022 all over again, with Universal Orlando capitalizing on a different form of pent-up demand.
High Wait Times Despite Low Attendance
As explained in our Epic Universe Crowd Calendar, the new theme park is seeing astronomical wait times for a number of reasons despite relatively low attendance. Few 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. Despite low attendance, Epic Universe already has astronomical wait times.
Just to put things into perspective, the average wait time for every week since the start of June has been 60 minutes or higher. Thus far in July, the weekly averages have been 66 and 65 minutes. There have been several days this month and last 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 have 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 has had 11 dates in the last 2 months that were that busy or busier. Suffice to say, Epic Universe wait times have been 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 despite a very real possibility that all of these parks (except Animal Kingdom) are seeing higher daily attendance than Epic Universe based on leaked ticketing data.
In fact, the big story this June and July has been Why Are Summer Crowds So Low at Walt Disney World? If you just went by wait times, you’d assume it’s because Epic Universe is taking up all the oxygen in the room and drawing record crowds away from Walt Disney World and Universal’s other two parks. But again, it isn’t. Leaked ticket sales data shows that Epic Universe is currently the lowest-attended park–this isn’t a story about sky-high demand, but low supply (or rather, ride capacity).
This is partly the nature of the beast with a new theme park. And it’s not going to become consistent anytime soon. That’s a big part of why this entry is on this list. Wait times and crowd levels on par with the worst week of the year at Walt Disney World are an obvious reason to skip Epic Universe.
The thing is–what if it’s only going to get worse from here?! It’s difficult to envision Epic Universe breaking the 80 minute or 90 minute average wait time barrier. Operations should find its footing, efficiency should improve, weather should get better. But the park is lacking in capacity and it’s heavy in headliners. What if it’s a failure of imagination to not see this all somehow worsening?!
Comcast could decide its quarterly numbers aren’t looking so hot–that the theme park segment is falling short of analyst expectations–and start selling Annual Passes, Florida resident ticket deals, or multi-day tickets without restrictions. There’s a huge number of locals who are tapped out on single day tickets, sitting on the sidelines waiting for APs or special offers. Universal could reassess strategies, and roll out monetized earlier entry (a la Super Nintendo World at USH) or late nights.
It’s all uncharted ground, and unpredictable. Attendance could increase, and crowds could worsen. As unlikely as that might sound, that’s actually what normally happens with major new theme park additions. The summer is the calm before the storm, with the holiday season and winter being worse! That’s why this entry was originally “Unpredictable Attendance & Crowds.”
In the here and now, it actually is possible to beat the crowds at Epic Universe, bad as they are. 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. This strategy may cease to be viable once word gets out or Epic Universe adjusts official operating hours.
Again, we’re in uncharted territory, so what seems bad now might become even worse. It’s possible that August and September 2025 will be the sweet spot, and waiting until 2026 might end up backfiring. There’s a lot to consider!
Getting in Shape
Epic Universe continues the trend of Universal’s stringent guest containment policies, meaning aggressive restraints even on the slower moving attractions. This had the recipe for being another Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash, a slow-moving dark ride that many larger guests cannot experience due to its restraints. Thankfully, that is not the case.
Everything we’ve heard suggests that Universal Orlando took guest feedback to heart with Epic Universe, and the restraints are largely friendly to Pooh-sized guests. There are limits on this, but the same is true with Walt Disney World–TRON Lightcycle Run and Avatar Flight of Passage would like a word.
I’m about the worst person to speak to this, so it’s all second-hand from friends who reported being pleasantly surprised. There are plenty of resources tailored to this type of guest, but the salient point is you probably don’t need to fear embarrassment or accessibility issues if you’re a larger guest. Universal seems to have done a really good job threading the needle when it comes to Epic Universe’s seats and restraints.
The bigger issue, and the one I absolutely did notice, is all of the stairs. On my days in Epic Universe, I somehow managed to log an upwards of 20 flights per day. It seems like every single attraction has stairs both in the queue and at unload. Of course, attractions are also accessible, so there are elevators, but waiting around for those might not be an ideal use of your time.
Personally, I do not think Epic Universe involves an excessive amount of walking as a result of the portals. My average steps per day was lower, and considerably so, than prior days at Walt Disney World. But the difference is that I was actively trying to avoid spending time outdoors due to the heat and lack of shade and I did way more rides per day than my norm. So I’m not really sure that step count was representative of an average guest’s day.
Point being, you might want to work on endurance and get in shape a bit before Epic Universe. The one-two punch of the heat and the stairs makes this a park that can be unduly tiring. It was for me despite fewer steps, and I’m decently in shape.
Breakdowns & Downtime
As you’ve probably witnessed if you’ve spent any amount of time being a Walt Disney World fan, new attractions have growing pains and are often plagued by problems their first few months. This is not a uniquely Disney problem. It’s the nature of the beast as attractions become more complex.
Epic Universe is an entire park of new rides, many of which are innovative and envelope-pushing. Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry is far from the only problematic attraction. It’s actually become one of the better performers as of June and July, owing at least in part to the fact that it’s indoors so it doesn’t suffer from weather-related delays.
Pretty much every single one of the park’s marquee attractions has levels of downtime higher than what guests would consider reasonable. These are unscheduled breakdowns, so they’re obviously unpredictable, but there’s not even consistency to which attractions are impacted. It seems like just as one problematic ride hits its stride and starts running smoothly, a new one starts having issues.
For the first few months that Epic Universe has been greeting guests, there have been some really rough days. We have not experienced these, thankfully, but have talked to friends who have (and have observed from afar via the Universal Orlando app).
Multiple headliners going down has a cascading effect, causing congestion in restaurants with long delays for mobile orders, and spiking the wait times of the rides that are open. Keep in mind that this is during days when attendance is heavily capped. When rides come back online, the backlog of Express Pass means sky-high standby wait times.
Suffice to say, you’re not going to want to be in Epic Universe the first time there’s an operational meltdown with the park operating at or nearer full capacity. It’s going to be a nightmare. And it’ll be one exacerbated by the above concerns about the lack of shade, as well as sufficient crowd-absorbing counterprogramming.
In the medium or longer term, we don’t expect any of this to be much of an issue. Almost every new attraction or land has initial growing pains, especially the advanced ones. Again, Epic Universe is an entire park of those! We’re not trying to be critical or nitpick–this is more of a sober “it is what it is” type of commentary.
A year from now, our expectation is that Epic Universe is operating smoothly and with a high degree of efficiency. Many of the problems on this list, including ride reliability, will resolve themselves over time. 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.
Speaking for ourselves, we are inclined to wait to visit Epic Universe until Winter 2026. Our family had a trip planned for this summer that we’ve postponed until late January for the reasons above and more (also only getting to spend one day at Epic Universe plus our daughter’s age plus a family Festival of the Arts trip). While I will be returning to Epic Universe many times in the months to come, that is primarily “for research.” I’ll undoubtedly have plenty of fun, but our family vacation will likely be delayed until next year for more optimal conditions.
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? Concerned about unreliable rides, how hot the park gets, or anything else discussed here? Excited for Super Nintendo World, Harry Potter’s Ministry of Magic, Dark Universe/Classic Monsters, or the How to Train Your Dragon lands and/or attractions? Think Epic Universe will be a third gate that’s a worthy addition to Universal Orlando Resort…and potentially on par with Disney’s best lands? Any questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!
