Party’s over, of us. The final 3 days have been the busiest ever at Epic Universe, with 10/10 crowd ranges and common wait occasions of over an hour. This gives an replace on attendance, following up on “Epic Universe is Dead” from opening weekend.
Let’s begin there, because the final 3-4 days have been fairly the distinction to the primary 3-5 days of the most recent park at Universal Orlando. Epic Universe formally opened on May 22 after months of previews, and its grand opening day was the slowest ever within the park’s transient existence. The pattern continued all through Memorial Day weekend.
Over the vacation, Epic Universe had decrease common wait occasions than Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida, in addition to all 4 parks at Walt Disney World. Crowd ranges have been 1/10 at worst, with most sights being walk-ons or having minimal waits no matter their posted occasions.
Our put up about Epic Universe being empty was made to supply a “huge kudos to Universal Orlando for choosing to have low crowds for the opening weekend of Epic Universe.” We lauded that call, and rebutted the criticism amongst Walt Disney World followers that it “proved” Epic Universe was unpopular or a flop.
As we mentioned on the time, the better transfer would’ve been to promote many extra tickets, take short-term income, endure heavier crowds and no matter else got here with that. The word-of-mouth wouldn’t have been as optimistic, so it will’ve include a tradeoff. But it was nonetheless a selection–and never resulting from lack of demand, unpopularity, or the results of Epic Universe being a flop.
Well, maybe we spoke too quickly with our reward based mostly on the previous few days! Let’s begin with a have a look at attraction-by-attraction averages for Epic Universe on its busiest day up to now, courtesy of Thrill-Data.com:
The highest common wait time was Harry Potter and the Battle on the Ministry (227 minutes), adopted by Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge (151 minutes), and Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness (95 minutes).
Another 5 sights had common wait occasions over an hour; even Yoshi’s Adventure was 58 minutes. All of those have been walk-ons just a few days earlier. All instructed, the typical park-wide wait time was 73 minutes.
Although May 28 was the busiest day in Epic Universe historical past (to this point), it’s not an anomaly. Here are park-wide averages for the reason that grand opening:
- May 22, 2025: 20 minutes
- May 23, 2025: 25 minutes
- May 24, 2025: 25 minutes
- May 25, 2025: 38 minutes
- May 26, 2025: 31 minutes
- May 27, 2025: 52 minutes
- May 28, 2025: 73 minutes
- May 29, 2025: 65 minutes
- May 30, 2025: 61 minutes (to this point)
The final three days have been 10/10 crowd ranges. Keep in thoughts that that is based mostly on Epic Universe’s transient historical past, largely consisting of paid previews when capability was capped. The park has but to function with out a man-made restrict on ticket gross sales, however that can’t final perpetually.
Speaking of which, simply as with the paid previews, Universal Orlando has nonetheless been considerably limiting attendance. Based on leaked ticket information (which was pulled immediately from Universal’s ticket gross sales engine), it’s our understanding that present limits are roughly one-third of whole park capability.
What’s attention-grabbing right here is that, at the very least based mostly on the leaks, nothing has materially modified when it comes to capability caps. The numbers are barely totally different from opening weekend, however not materially so. Depending upon the day, capability is roughly 12,000 to fifteen,000 friends. As we identified beforehand, ticket gross sales have been throttled throughout paid previews to related ranges and there have been some days that had considerably greater wait occasions.
Accordingly, we attributed the distinction in open weekend to journey reliability. Epic Universe loved its greatest uptime stretch ever over Memorial Day weekend. It didn’t appear like a brand-new park, however one which had discovered its operational groove and been operating easily for years.
It now seems that this was not the difference-maker. At least, not the first driver. We’ve now heard from a number of Team Members who’ve indicated that precise ticket gross sales have been throttled far under that 12,000 to fifteen,000 quantity, with fewer than 6,000 tickets being bought for opening day and round 8,000 for subsequent days.
To be completely sincere with you, I’ve no method of assessing the veracity of this rumor. It’s considerably shocking to me that this is able to be communicated to Team Members, however I admittedly don’t understand how this works at Universal Orlando. It’s fully attainable managers have this information, talked about it to frontline TMs, and that’s the way it’s gotten out. It might be a foul recreation of phone, however it’s coming from a number of sources.
This nonetheless passes the odor take a look at for me as a result of I’ve additionally talked to individuals who have confirmed that the ticket information is official, and there’s actually no different solution to reconcile the curler coaster wait occasions. It does look like ticket gross sales have been throttled Memorial Day weekend, and the numbers throughout previews and in the previous few days are extra correct (till July 1, 2025 when the cap will increase.) Regardless, take all of this with a grain of salt.
During previews, there have been some actually tough days. Between breakdowns and climate delays (which shut 7 of 11 rides), there have been events when solely 1-2 rides have been operational. This had a cascading impact on crowds, and even on days attendance was closely capped.
A few days have been so unhealthy that Universal Orlando truly issued refunds. It was because of this that we warned about being in Epic Universe the primary time when there was an operational meltdown at greater capability. It’s going to be a nightmare. Keep in thoughts that this nonetheless hasn’t occurred. There have been meltdowns, however not at greater capability.
As we defined in Why You Should Skip Epic Universe, journey reliability and breakdowns have been huge and protracted points–and never simply with Harry Potter and the Battle on the Ministry. Pretty a lot each single one of many park’s marquee sights has ranges of downtime greater than what friends would think about cheap. This is exactly why “Unpredictable Attendance & Crowds” was one of many causes for ready. As we’re now seeing one week after the grand opening, that evaluation was correct!
Watching from afar, the previous few days have had a few days which have seemed like repeats of these actually tough late previews. There have been breakdowns, climate delays, dumped queues, and stories of lengthy traces for refunds or visitor restoration on at the very least two of these three days.
This is fascinating to me, and makes me surprise if Universal’s strategy to opening weekend (in equity, an strategy that we praised!) has already backfired. That locals noticed pictures of the park as a ghost city and the whole lot however Battle on the Ministry as a veritable walk-on, purchased tickets consequently, and now really feel like this can be a bait-and-switch.
It is also high-knowledge theme park diehards who’ve had tickets for some time and consider their expertise is the outlier and the opening weekend is or needs to be the norm. I might see a situation the place some followers particularly focused the week after opening weekend, pondering that will be the trick to avoiding crowds, and now really feel like they’re getting a uncooked deal.
Obviously, breakdowns and a majority of the park closing resulting from climate is one factor. If I acquired dumped from a number of queues or couldn’t do something, I would search visitor restoration, too.
But a few of what we’ve noticed simply seems to be like frustration about hour-plus waits, as there have been pictures of lengthy traces for refunds on days that have been operationally-efficient for probably the most half. Frankly, lengthy traces type of include the territory of a brand-new theme park, as does somewhat little bit of unreliability and unpredictability.
(To be abundantly clear: I’m watching this from afar through wait occasions, social media, and stories from a few pals on the bottom. So this might be an misguided evaluation; I’m additionally not excusing Universal for his or her ham-fisted operations, a lot of which has been fairly guest-unfriendly for the reason that begin of paid previews. During that, I maintained that the ‘technical rehearsal’ excuse goes out the window as quickly as you begin charging full worth. All of that sentiment nonetheless stands. It’s friends being upset about common ‘ole excessive wait occasions for a brand-new park that I discover troubling.)
Anyway, all of this form of underscores our unique recommendation about ready to go to Epic Universe till 2026. I nonetheless plan on publishing ‘when to visit’ recommendation (supposed on having that up right this moment, however the previous few days give me pause), however the curler coaster crowds of the final week ought to give anybody pause about relying an excessive amount of on crowd calendars for this new park or getting into with any form of expectations in any way.
The unhealthy information is that none of that is going away within the brief or medium-term. Hard because it is likely to be to consider given the above wait occasions, capability remains to be being capped at a very low degree. As we’ve written elsewhere, Epic Universe can have a capability similar to Disney’s Hollywood Studios when working at full tilt (effectivity, reliability, ticket gross sales, and so on.).
Despite that, we consider Epic Universe has not been designed in such a way to soak up crowds. Its structure shouldn’t be conducive to crowd stream, there are specific areas that shall be slammed (Super Nintendo World) whereas others really feel empty (Celestial Park), and there merely isn’t sufficient that’s sheltered. There are baked-in points that may presumably necessitate growth or adjustments sooner somewhat than later.
While there shall be additional enhancements because the park finds its operational footing and improves effectivity, what we’ve seen among the previous couple of days isn’t that far off from an everyday operational setting. It’s not like Universal can enhance the climate, or make it so outside rides don’t shut throughout storms. Complex sights are nonetheless going to have downtime, even years from now.
It’s additionally value reiterating that crowd ranges are relative, not absolute. Meaning that the ten/10 crowd ranges of the previous few days in all probability received’t be 10/10s as soon as Universal stops capping capability for Epic Universe and natural demand rises. The present 65-73 minute waits may find yourself wanting downright blissful as soon as Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve roll round.
Today’s 10/10 crowd ranges might be readjusted to 7/10 or under. There’s a really actual risk that Epic Universe takes the crown of most-crowded theme park on this planet come 2026–a title based mostly on common wait occasions and never uncooked attendance, which positively won’t even be prime 10 globally.
Or maybe wait occasions received’t rise that a lot, as demand self-regulates. Just as rapidly as phrase of mouth unfold about how superior the opening weekend expertise was at Epic Universe, so can also it unfold about a lot worse it’s gotten. It’ll be actually fascinating to observe how this continues to unfold, as one thing tells me the curler coaster journey of 1/10 to 10/10 crowds at Epic Universe is simply simply getting began.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Epic Universe’s insanely low wait occasions for opening weekend adopted by 10/10 crowd ranges the previous few days? Do you count on this curler coaster attendance to proceed all through the summer season? Think Universal Orlando has bungled the launch of Epic Universe, or is that this simply the sensible actuality of debuting a brand-new, envelope-pushing theme park in 2025? Did that dissuade you from attending this summer season or 12 months? Agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions? We love listening to from readers, so please share every other ideas or questions you’ve within the feedback under!