Is Epic Universe Worth the Hype? Our May 2025 Review

You only get one time to experience something new:

Yes, we are diving into the lands of Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, The Isle of Berk – How to Train Your Dragon, Dark Universe, Super Ninetendo Land, and Celestial Park. First, though, I have to get this written out for people to understand, and it is all about experiencing something new for the first time.

Everything is fresh and exciting! Your eyes take in all the new sights, the sounds are vastly different, and even the air feels unique, almost buzzing feeling in your ears. There’s a real sense of adventure because you don’t know what to expect around each corner. Every ride is a brand-new experience. You can go back again, and it will still be fun, but that pure feeling of “wow, I’ve never seen this before!” – that only happens the very first time you explore it. This feeling can muddle a review, and although we had this experience, we will try to be fair.

Did you go to a Disney Park for the first time as an adult? Remember walking into the Magic Kingdom here at Walt Disney World, turning that corner by the Emporium or Main Street Confectionery, and seeing Cinderella Castle the first time? It most likely took your breath away, maybe a tear of nostalgia ran down your cheek? This was what happened to us upon entering Epic Universe, then again entering Super Nintendo and Isle of Berk. It was like our inner child leaped out from somewhere deep within us to come out and play for a few moments. (We miss you, buddy, come out and play again!)

Celestial Park: The only section of the Park we will deep dive during this review. We are writing in-depth reviews for each Portal, but wanted to explain this section a bit more.

Epic Universe’s central hub and home to two rides, shops, and dining options. We rode Stardust Racers, the new high-speed roller coaster. Furthermore, we fell in love with the advanced design of Constellation Carousel. We had our lunch at Meteor! A quick service restaurant, and just enjoyed the vibe during the morning, and then again the ever-changing lights of the evening.

Celestial Park cannot be missed. You have to go through Celestial Park if you want to find the four other Portals heading into the other lands. This is the first land you will encounter upon entering Epic Universe. The goddess of the moon, Luna, sits across the central fountain area from the Helios statue that sits in front of the Resort of the same name (I think it is the Greek god Apollo, who is normally shown with a bow and arrow). The carousel, which lights up beautifully at night, is in the center.

The whole of Celestial Park is massive with large walkways, and no shade to be found… yet. This area is superbly themed, which I have to mention again, turns into something not to be missed at nighttime with all the lights and audio working in sync, making for a magical experience. We were in awe of the evening fountain show, and walking out in the evening gives you something to think about on the way back to the car or bus.

Stardust Racers Roller Coaster – This is the one ride that we wanted to be the highlight of our day. Dueling Coaster, designed by Mack Rides, where only one side was in operation during our preview day. We cannot speak about how cool that part of the coaster is. What we can talk about is how rough the coaster is. We like to put our heads against the headrest and found ourselves with the feeling like we were banging the back of our head constantly, so we had to overuse our neck muscles, and we ended up being very sore after riding. This reminded us of how rough Hulk has become at the Islands of Adventure park.

Constellation Carousel – Climb aboard this imaginative carousel where the cosmic energy of the universe enables guests to ride the constellations themselves. What appeared to be a simple ride turned out to be one of wonder and amazement for us. Each rideable character is adorable, and the music is well done. We climbed aboard a bear and let our imagination take over. The ceiling of Constellation Carousel is a Star Tracker featuring rotating celestial star patterns, with a center Mesmerizer creating a ribbon cone effect above you while riding.

Ministry of Magic – The new Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Epic Universe is well done. Spending a majority of the day in this Portal is very possible, and it will only get better when guests fill the land. French characters and stores line the wide streets. Entertainment can happen at any moment. We got a chance to see Place Cachée Jazz Band featuring Plume the Puffskein! play in front of the staircase. Link to the video.

This is home to the new Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, which can only be ridden if you have solved the Mystery of the Virtual Queue system! What a horrible design. This is limiting people who paid over a hundred bucks to enjoy as much of Epic Universe as they can. This system is broken, and unless you have learned the hacks and secrets of how this works, you are out of luck and not riding!

This eliminates families who do not spend their time reading deep, in-depth blogs or going on Reddit to figure everything out. Nothing wrong with those that have taken the time to learn this system, but I feel bad for average Mom & Dad with 2.5 kids visiting the Ministry and not being able to ride the main attraction.

We got to meet and talk to Cassandra Trelawney’s portrait, which was quite the unexpected experience. We had the purple drank! Not that purple drank! We would never write about Lean! I Digress. They had drinks at Bar Moon, a tribute to the American Bar in France. Bar Moon features a non-alcoholic drink called the Occamy Tea. The drink is not listed on any menu, but it is worth getting to see the magic unfold. Color-changing potions are truly fun.

Overall, this new themed land is massive and well done. With hidden places and secrets abounding. This is truly Epic! But FU to the virtual Queue system!

Dark Universe – What a vibe this new land is! Horror fans, and families will be thrilled to walk around seeing various characters like Ygor, or the Invisible Man (which, if you ask me, should have been a photo standing next to a door and you just say there is an “Invisible Man” standing next to you. John Cena, anyone?). Experience a violin-playing storyteller in front of a misting fountain! We felt like we entered a true Transylvania town from the old Bram Stoker Dracula book, or Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, or let’s go deeper for my D&D fans, it was like Ravenloft came to life!

Curse of the Werewolf was a huge letdown. Short and goes nowhere. It spins you while sending you up and down two high-banked turns. The theming was fun to look at, and the ride itself felt like what most people have complained about recently at the ‘Other’ theme park operator. The new coasters are just short. 60 ish seconds, after a 50-minute wait? Nope! This sounds more fun when the wait is 25 minutes or less.

While Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment could be the greatest dark ride ever created! This ride had us in awe of animatronics and storytelling. THIS is the future of rides. Can you remember riding Spider-Man the first time, without knowing that 20 years later, people still say how great the ride is? Monsters Unchained is only better, and if it can hold up over time, every new dark ride will be compared. Universal Creative Teams have been working on getting this ride working and timing perfectly, and when we rode, all the animatronics and story elements worked perfectly. We are looking at you, Dracula! This is a must-do for everyone, and no, it is not scary for most kids.

This is the Portal I would recommend to my friends! Also, for those who are huge Halloween Horror Nights fans and Universal Monster lovers! It is the area that needs half a day to explore or more. From wanting to still experience Das Steakhouse, and see what other characters would appear, we could live in this vibe.

Next stop for us was Super Nintendo Land – While others will review this land better, I can only give a personal experience because for my family and myself, Mario & Luigi, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Yoshi’s, and the various other characters are what made our childhoods. Especially my kids! Raising a neurodivergent child and his “thing” is Mario and video games, which made this Portal extra special. This was personal to me! I needed to shed a tear at least once during our preview. Knowing that my son will get to see his world come to life meant something to me, and I know many other families like ours that will understand exactly what I am saying.

It IS stepping into a Mario Bros. level. With special treats for fans who have played every game. While also simple enough for families who may not have ever picked up a controller in their lives. Fair warning, though: The music, the kinetic energy, and the number of people in this Portal can become very overstimulating. Bring the headphones, take the extra break, and have patience. Be ready to walk up and down some steps!

We will be reviewing Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Mario rides in the future, but I don’t want to bog everything down here. Furthermore, we will be eating at Toadstool Cafe in the future.

Isle of Berk – How to Train Your Dragon Portal – Scuse my language in the next sentence! I am sure I don’t need to write this, but it is for emphasis. Holy Shit, when they say they have dragons, they mean they have Dragons! We met five different dragons, and lost count on how many animatronic dragons, plus the ones you can physically meet and interact with, and let us not forget the roaming baby dragon.

We met and greeted Hiccup the Viking, and his Dragon best friend, Toothless. Which had to longest line of the day, because it is a not to be missed interaction. As soon as we left that meet and greet, in the section by the restrooms, Toothless’ offspring, Dart, was out and about doing tricks and being shy! This event doesn’t happen all the time, so we were lucky to catch it.

The Ice Breathing dragon animatronic is another not to be missed Dragon, while also you can walk through the whole Isle of Berk counting Sheep and meeting Vikings. Astrid may be found walking around, along with other human performers. There is so much eye candy and things to do in the Isle of Berk, we will have to spend way more time visiting this Portal.

The downside of Isle of Berk is the rides themselves. While fun, each one has a downside that is annoying and stands out as not the best design. Almost a “you spent how much money, but didn’t think to do ‘this'” situation. Like the lap bar in Hiccup’s Wing Gliders hurts the thighs badly. The poor little girl in the seat behind me was crying and freaking out because it was too tight and digging into her legs. I felt like she was right, the lap bar hurts. Plus, it was another NEW ride that already felt like it had been used for a few years.

While Dragon Racer’s Rally was fun, not being able to 360 the vehicle may be smart for kids riding, as an adult, I was so hoping to spin infinitely! Battle at Sea on Fyre Drill is fun, but the people around me noticed a big flaw, and that was that adults can soak kids and others on it. Nothing like people saying they felt bullied by the same group of adults that they didn’t know. Nitpicking at this point! So let us move on.

This Portal is in the best spot in the whole park, during sunset, which makes the whole place glow in a radiant light. It is spectacular to see.