Epic Universe — Universal Orlando's newest theme park — opens this week. From rides to restaurants, here's what you can expect from the five new 'worlds.'
Known as Epic Universe, the new theme park opens to the public on May 22 and will allow guests to explore five distinct worlds that are each inspired by renowned franchises. Celestial Park, a world dedicated to the heavens, stars and constellations, serves as a gateway to the four other worlds: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic, Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk and Dark Universe.
Universal's Epic Universe is the latest amusement park to join the Universal Orlando Resort's multiverse. Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990, followed by Universal Islands of Adventure in 1999. Construction for Epic Universe began in 2019, was paused in mid-2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and resumed in early 2021. The park took an estimated eight years and $7 billion to build.
Here's what visitors can expect from each of Epic Universe's five worlds.
Recognized as the central hub of Epic Universe, Celestial Park is filled with astrology-based motifs. Offering an in-depth exploration of constellations, stars and the heavens, the park connects the other four worlds together — and features its own two attractions.
Constellation Carousel gives guests the opportunity to 'ride the constellations' themselves. The ceiling of the ride is a Star Tracker that features rotating celestial star patterns. Stardust Racers, the other ride in this world, is a dual-launch roller coaster that races across the cosmos. Guests board 'a comet' and travel at speeds reaching up to 62 mph along twin tracks that intersect and invert around each other.
Celestial Park also features a nightly light and water show at the Cosmos Fountain, celebrating each of the five worlds. Dining options include Atlantic, an 'undersea' restaurant with glass walls that resembles a large Victorian aquarium.
Filled with shops, restaurants and streets reminiscent of 1920s Paris, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic invites fans of the franchise to immerse themselves in the magical Parisian atmosphere of the Fantastic Beasts movie franchise.
After encountering fantastic beasts, guests can then travel from Paris to the British Ministry of Magic in the 1990s via the Métro-Floo, to witness the trial of Dolores Umbridge. On the ride, known as Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, fans will embark on adventures with Harry, Ron and Hermione and will journey deep within the ministry's departments.
'This ride is an industry game changer,' one TikToker said. 'The scale of this ride will have your jaw on the floor from the moment you enter.'
The Ministry of Magic, complete with its golden statues and stately elevators, is covered in more than 125,000 subway tiles in five colors. One Harry Potter fan revealed on TikTok that she waited over five hours to get on the ride.
Guests can also devour some Paris-inspired eats at cafés like Café L'air De La Sirène, Le Gobelet Noir and Bar Moonshine.
According to an early Epic Universe attendee, to enter Super Nintendo World guests must ride a green escalator, which will then lead them to two separate lands: Super Mario Land and Donkey Kong Country. Replete with mushrooms, pipes, coins and piranha plants, the vibrant scenery bears an uncanny resemblance to the whimsical, virtual landscape on which it's based.
'The way that it's built, you really can't see out of the area where you are,' a reporter told NPR upon visiting the park. 'It's like you're inside a game completely.'
In Super Mario Land, guests can re-create the magic of Super Mario Kart by racing alongside their favorite franchise characters on Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge, before taking a spin on Yoshi's Adventure to search for glowing eggs throughout the Mushroom Kingdom.
With its tropical backdrop of majestic waterfalls and luscious foliage, guests are also welcome to ride Mine-Cart Madness, a roller coaster that careens through Donkey Kong Country and seemingly soars from one 'broken' track to another.
To power up before venturing into another world, park attendees can visit Toadstool Cafe for burgers, soups, salads and desserts made by the one and only Chef Toad.
Boasted by Universal Orlando as having 'fire-breathing fun' for all ages, How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk immerses guests in the astounding village of Berk, where Vikings and dragons coexist with one another. Bringing the fictional world of How to Train Your Dragon to life, Isle of Berk features 30 animated and static dragons, representing 17 disparate dragon species from across the globe.
'It was important to have an even distribution of eye candy, so the dragons are tiered from complicated to simple to static,' Katy Pacitti, an executive producer of the Isle of Berk world, told Attractions Magazine.
For some Epic Universe attendees who've yet to watch the How to Train Your Dragon films, the world's 'level of detail' has piqued their interest.
Attractions here include the show The Untrainable Dragon, where a 1,100-pound Toothless with a wingspan of nearly 27 feet soars above the audience, a roller coaster known as Hiccup's Wing Gliders, a dragon racing trainer ride called Dragon Racer's Rally and a competitive water adventure known as Fyre Drill.
Guests also have the option to eat like a Viking at Isle of Berk staples like Mead Hall, Spit Fyre Grill and Hooligan's Grog & Gruel.
Dracula. Frankenstein's monster. The Bride of Frankenstein. The Invisible Man. A land made for 'the goths and horror freaks,' as one TikTok user put it, Universal's classic movie monsters roam free in Dark Universe's Village of Darkmoor.
'You are watching where the movies went. The land itself could be considered a sequel to the original films. We took everything from the original films and used that as the basis for all of the continued storytelling,' Patrick Braillard, a Universal Creative show writer, said at New York Comic Con.
In addition to themed-dining experiences like Das Stakehaus, De Lacey's Cottage and the Burning Blade Tavern, where monster hunters hang out, guests can explore the catacombs that lie beneath Darkmoor by way of Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment. The ride, which features some of Universal's 'most technically advanced animated figures' they've ever created, sees Dr. Victoria Frankenstein return to the Frankenstein Manor to continue her great-grandfather's ill-advised experiments. Dark Universe has also received praise for its subtle attention to narrative detail.
Curse of the Werewolf, Dark Universe's second attraction, is a spinning roller coaster that ravages through a darkened forest at up to 37 mph, in an effort to escape from a pack of bloodthirsty werewolves.
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