Universal Epic Universe - Best New Park in America?

On April 9th, 2026, I visited Universal Epic Universe for the first time ever. I was on spring break from work, and I took a short two-night visit to the Universal Orlando Resort between April 8th and 10th to visit the new Epic Universe as well as Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure.

Throughout my visit, I spent nearly all of my Thursday, April 9th, at Epic Universe, and I briefly visited the other two parks on Wednesday and Friday. Since my trip was very short, I purchased express passes for all three parks to maximize the number of rides I could experience.  In my opinion, this is the best new theme park to open in America in the past five years, and Universal Epic Universe is easily one of the best parks in the world.

Epic Universe is divided into five different themed lands known as (1) Celestial Park, (2) the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic, (3) Super Nintendo World, (4) How to Train Your Dragon- Isle of Burke, and (5) Dark Universe.

All five of the different theme lands were beautiful, and they were all unique in their own ways. The Super Nintendo World and How to Train Your Dragon lands had so much kinetic energy, and I felt like I was stepping into the movie or video games they were recreating. I also really liked riding Hiccups Wing Gliders and Mine Kart Madness, which were great family coasters. However, I spent the most time in Celestial Park, Dark Universe, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic.

Celestial Park/Stardust Racers review

Celestial Park is the first land that all guests walk through when entering Epic Universe. It is literally themed to a park that connects all the other portals that bring you to the themed lands together.

This land is home to the Constellation carousel, which is the best carousel I’ve ever experienced, the Atlantic Restaurant, and Stardust Racers.

Even if I didn’t ride any attractions at Celestial Park, I had a great time just walking around and seeing all the scenery. The architecture was beautiful, and I loved seeing the fountains. My family and I had lunch at the Atlantic restaurant, and this restaurant can rival the Mythos restaurant at Islands of Adventure for being the best restaurant I’ve ever experienced at a theme park, thanks to its scenic views and delicious food.

I spent the most time in Celestial Park riding Stardust Racers, which was my favorite attraction in the entire park. I managed to ride in both the front and back rows of the Pulsar and Photon sides, and I rode a fifth time in row 8 on the Photon side, which was my best overall ride.

While Stardust racers was under construction last year, the park faced a major problem with the ride not meeting the ASTM International safety standards for amusement rides. The fifth car, which had row eight, did not comply with the standard by only milliseconds because of a very short transition time between the positive and negative G forces on the coaster. Thus, the park had to add a trim break to allow for more time on the train to go from positive to negative G-Forces. With this knowledge, I purposely sat in car five, and I could really feel the change in G-Forces in that row. The front and back rows are equally amazing on both coasters, but my favorite place to sit was in row 8 of car 5.

Both sides of Stardust racers were epic, and it became one of my new favorite roller coasters after I got off because of the onboard audio, racing, launches, and celestial spin inversion.  Although this ride is amazing, I still slightly prefer VelociCoaster at Islands of Adventure because I think that roller coaster is paced better, I prefer the queue on VelociCoaster, and the Mosasaurus Roll is still my favorite inversion in the world. However, Stardust Racers is still among my favorite roller coasters, and it is something I will always ride at the Universal resort.

Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic/ Battle at the Ministry 

Most visitors at Epic Universe will tell you that this is the best land to visit at Epic Universe, and it has the best attraction, named Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. I agree that this is the best themed section of the park, and Battle at the Ministry was my second favorite attraction that I experienced. This section of the park is themed to 1920s Paris in the Harry Potter universe, and I came here first to ride Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry.

SPOILER WARNING BELOW! 

If you haven’t ridden Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, I strongly advise riding this attraction first before reading my review. I stayed away from all of the ride POV’s online before my first ride so I could have a clean experience, and I don’t want this review to spoil anything.

This dark ride tells the story of Dolores Umbridge, one of the main antagonists of Harry Potter, escaping prison after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. We join all the main characters to fight her. This ride feels like it takes the best aspects of both Tower of Terror from Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man from Islands of Adventure and combines them into one ride with a Harry Potter theme. The projection screens and animatronics are mind-boggling, and sometimes I couldn’t tell if I was looking at an animatronic or an animation on the projection screen because it was so convincing and realistic. The queue is also amazing, and I wish I had the opportunity to see the entire queue instead of using the express queue to see more.

Dark Universe

Dark Universe is also another section of the park that I loved because of the architecture and spooky theme. I love visiting castles and old landmarks, and I felt really immersed in this section of the park. There is also an attraction named Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, which was my third favorite attraction in the park.

Monsters Unchained has the same style of ride as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Islands of Adventure, and it is about Dr. Frankenstein’s monsters waking up after an experiment goes wrong. The queue was amazing for this attraction, and I found that this is one of the most efficient attractions in the park when it comes to capacity, which led to a shorter wait time than most of the park’s other attractions. 

The other major attraction in Dark Universe is Curse of the Werewolf, which is a launched spinning coaster. I enjoyed riding Curse of the Werewolf, but I wish it wasn’t surrounded by nets.

Advice for first-time visitors

My best advice for visiting Epic Universe is to make sure that you ride Mario Kart Madness as your first attraction. Although I loved riding Battle at the Ministry, I would’ve saved a lot of time if I had ridden the other attraction first. I also didn’t think the queue was as immersive for Mario Kart Madness, and I would’ve rather waited in the long queue for Battle at the Ministry. 

Also, if you can get early entry and express passes for the park, this will help immensely as well. They are expensive upcharges, and you need to stay at a Universal hotel, but I don’t think I would’ve ridden every attraction without these perks.

Overall, Epic Universe is now one of my all-time favorite theme parks, and I cannot wait to revisit.