{"id":280760,"date":"2026-05-22T12:51:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/280760\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T12:51:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:51:06","slug":"epic-universe-marks-first-year-as-orlandos-new-theme-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/280760\/","title":{"rendered":"Epic Universe marks first year as Orlando’s new theme park"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year ago, Epic Universe<\/a> opened its gates to the public. Universal Orlando\u2019s<\/a> new theme park added four roller coasters, five immersive lands, stage shows, restaurants and other attractions to the Central Florida tourism mix at a cost of $7.7 billion.<\/p>\n

It was the first new park in a generation to open in Orlando<\/a>, complete with technologically advanced attractions, familiar franchises and a high-end hotel attached.<\/p>\n

Yet amid all the new stuff, a burning question looms: Will there be more Epic?<\/p>\n

There are signs but no official announcements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like being inside of Epic Universe. I think the theming and the way that it\u2019s designed is very inviting, and it makes you want to stay all day and all night,\u201d said Alicia Stella, owner of Orlando ParkStop<\/a> website, who said she has visited Epic about 20 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst thing, though, is that sometimes the lines get long,\u201d she said. \u201cYou may enjoy the ambiance, but you feel like there\u2019s not enough to do because you don\u2019t feel like waiting in the three-hour line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epic demand and operational challenges such as technical woes have sometimes created hours-long waits for attractions, particularly Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry ride and Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment ride in the park\u2019s Dark Universe section.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of complexity, and I even call it muscle memory that has to be developed, both technical and the operational side. There are just those types of things that you have to learn your way through,\u201d Jeff Polk, Epic Universe\u2019s general manager, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel like we\u2019ve done a good job of balancing the demand, attendance and capability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests arrive at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic at Epic Universe on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests ride the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders roller coaster in the How to Train Your Dragon \u2013 Isle of Berk world at Epic Universe on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Universal Orlando park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests arrive at Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe Thursday as the theme park neared its one-year anniversary. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Theme<\/p>\n

Theme park visitors stream through the Celestial Park section of Epic Universe at its 10 a.m. opening on Thursday. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Epic<\/p>\n

Epic visitors explore The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests arrive at the entrance of Epic Universe, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Exchange<\/p>\n

Exchange students greet guests at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, at Epic Universe on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests arrive at the entrance of Epic Universe on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests meet and greet with Toothless, in the How to Train Your Dragon \u2013 Isle of Berk world, at Epic Universe on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests arrive at the entrance of Epic Universe, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests ride the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders roller coaster, in the How to Train Your Dragon \u2013 Isle of Berk world, at Epic Universe on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The lagoon at the How to Train Your Dragon \u2013 Isle of Berk world at Epic Universe, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests walk through the portal at the How to Train Your Dragon \u2013 Isle of Berk world at Epic Universe, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Universal<\/p>\n

Universal Orlando visitors snap a selfie at the entrance of Epic Universe, which has now been open for a year. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Guests<\/p>\n

Guests ride the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders roller coaster, in the How to Train Your Dragon world, with the Stardust Racers in the background, at Epic Universe on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Super<\/p>\n

Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 16<\/p>\n

Guests arrive at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic at Epic Universe on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the park\u2019s debut, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Options beyond those marquee attractions include the Stardust Racers coaster and Constellation Carousel in Celestial Park, Curse of the Werewolf thrill ride in Dark Universe, three rides in the How to Train Your Dragon \u2013 Isle of Berk area and three rides in Super Nintendo World, which features interactive stations using Power Up bands. There are stage shows in the Potter and Dragon sections. Epic also includes multiple restaurants and merchandise stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnologically, thematically, visually, I think the park is just spectacular,\u201d said Dennis Speigel, CEO of International Theme Park Services<\/a>. \u201cIt boils down, to me, one sentence: more capacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Adding rides and other activities could increase the Epic capacity, provide options when attractions have downtime and encourage visitors to stay longer and spend more.<\/p>\n

The money spent to build Epic is evident in its design details and the advanced technology in attractions, such as augmented reality, high-resolution projections and limber, lifelike animatronics, Speigel said. Universal secured more than 150 patents for Epic innovations, the company says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese places are expensive to operate, but the one thing you have to do, you have to give the people enough entertainment value,\u201d Speigel said.<\/p>\n

\"GuestsEpic visitors explore The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando
\nCrowd control<\/p>\n

Managing Epic Universe capacity has been a first-year priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to have so many people here that they just can\u2019t get through stuff on any given day,\u201d Polk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we want to be able to accommodate the demand that we have and the ever-increasing demand. \u2026 That\u2019s why we have to look at future development within the parks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what we\u2019re really trying to focus on is building more of the interstitial moments with live entertainment and with live shows and things to really fill in the gaps between the checkbox of attraction to attraction,\u201d Polk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, that\u2019s, I\u2019d say, my primary focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GuestsGuests arrive at Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe Thursday as the theme park neared its one-year anniversary. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

The current public perception is that Epic has good days and bad days, especially when it comes to wait times, said Tharin White, a theme park fan and lead publisher of Everything You Need to Know<\/a> platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think you could get a full day out of it. \u2026 I think they need more,\u201d he said. \u201cI think they need rides that are indoors, and they need stuff to be working more consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s threatening weather can knock several Epic attractions, particularly the outdoor ones, out of the lineup, said White, who has visited the park 21 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think that the park could really set itself up for success if it added three new indoor attractions,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t need to be E-ticket, life-changing attractions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stella agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was in charge, I would add two smaller flat rides to Celestial Park to add more kinetic energy and more things for little kids to do,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it would really flesh out the central area of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UniversalUniversal Orlando visitors snap a selfie at the entrance of Epic Universe, which has now been open for a year. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)
\nPassholders on hold<\/p>\n

Currently, Universal Orlando annual passholders have daily access to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure theme parks \u2014 but not to Epic Universe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges of kind of allowing that audience full access at all times is very high, just because the park has a limited capacity,\u201d Polk said.<\/p>\n

Universal Orlando started out by selling only single-day tickets, then rolling out multiday packages with an increasing amount of Epic access. Polk expects this sort of process to continue into next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, we want to make sure we\u2019re doing right by them [passholders], and doing right by them also means not bringing them into a park condition that is very uncomfortable and not fun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Getting lost in Lost Continent memories at Islands of Adventure<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur ticket product, including how we mix annual-pass products, will evolve, and it will get us into a new place,\u201d Polk said. \u201cWill that be absolute unfettered access? I can\u2019t say yet. We want to make sure we do this at baby steps, so that we don\u2019t disrupt the overall experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grow and behold<\/p>\n

Government documents, local observers and the theme-parks rumor factory have stirred unofficial speculation about an Epic expansion. Construction trailers have been sighted, and there are permits for an unidentified 150,000-square-foot building near the park\u2019s Wizarding World of Harry Potter area.<\/p>\n

And activity on nearby company-owned land on Universal Boulevard has people hypothesizing about non-Epic additions such as an entertainment complex, hotel or transportation hub between the north and south ends of Universal Orlando. Already, Elon Musk\u2019s Boring Company has been selected to build what could be a network of tunnels<\/a> through which electric vehicles would shuttle resort visitors from place to place.<\/p>\n

\"ThemeTheme park visitors stream through the Celestial Park section of Epic Universe at its 10 a.m. opening on Thursday. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

The company owns multiple parcels in that stretch area and \u201cIt\u2019s almost becoming like its own bubble,\u201d Stella said. It loosely connects the original parks and the Endless Summer hotels \u2013 where Wet \u2018n\u2019 Wild stood \u2013 to Epic Universe and its three adjacent hotels.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now there\u2019s something in the middle, so I think that that\u2019s a pretty good theory,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve been pretty vocal about the fact that Comcast<\/a> [Universal\u2019s owner] wants to continue to leverage this business. It\u2019s doing well,\u201d Polk said.<\/p>\n

Epic Universe timeline: From dragons to butterbeer, here\u2019s how theme park evolved<\/a><\/p>\n

Bottom line: The company thinks Epic is helping Universal Orlando become a weeklong destination for vacationers. That\u2019s been the stated goal since the park was announced in 2019.<\/p>\n

Epic Universe \u201chas become exactly what we had hoped for, particularly from a business standpoint. It has yielded great attendance across our resort as a whole, certainly helped with the additional hotel rooms that we\u2019ve got on site now \u2026 and it, by all measures, is helping, I think, the Orlando marketplace,\u201d Polk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are absolutely loving the experience overall, but at the same time, people use the park the way they want to,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to adapt to that \u2026 and that goes on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. BlueSky: @themeparksdb. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year ago, Epic Universe opened its gates to the public. Universal Orlando\u2019s new theme park added four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[104,28,114,1335,139,141,140,109,76686,76687,76688,76689,2411,106,107,3434],"class_list":["post-280760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-entertainment","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-business","tag-social-entertainment","tag-social-theme-parks","tag-social-travel","tag-theme-parks","tag-things-to-do","tag-travel","tag-universal-orlando"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}