Universal Epic Universe Preview of Animatronic Dragon, Food First Look, Rollercoaster Testing

Universal Orlando's newest theme park, Epic Universe, opens in just 91 days! As the opening draws near, we will be covering the news released each week as we continue to find out more and more about this brand new park.

Epic Universe is the first major theme park opening in the Orlando area since Islands of Adventure opened in 1999 which was preceded by Animal Kingdom in 1998. Suffice to say, this is a big deal for theme park goers to see a park of such scale join the market of Orlando theme parks!

Epic Universe officially opens to the public on May 22, 2025 and I will be there on opening day to cover this big moment and share my review with our readers. Let's get into all the details of the Epic Universe news for this week of February 20, 2025.

Epic Universe Details We're Still Waiting For

These are some of the biggest details we are still waiting for as we get closer to the Epic Universe opening date.

Epic Universe 1-day and 2-day tickets– We still do not know the details of when Epic Universe 1-day or 2-day tickets will go on sale nor exactly how much they will be. 1-day tickets have already gone on sale for Annual Passholders with prices ranging from $122-173 depending on the date. According to Universal Orlando, these tickets for all other guests “will be launched at a later date before the park opens.”

Express Pass- There have been rumors swirling that Epic Universe won't offer Express Pass when it opens. This does not appear to be true as the official website states, “Express Passes for Universal Epic Universe will be launched at a later date before the park opens. More details will be announced closer to the launch of these products.” The language here has led many of us to wonder if Express Pass will work differently at Epic Universe but so far, we don't know anything yet.

Universal Hotel Express Pass- We do know that Epic Universe will have Early Park Admission for hotel guests but we do not know if the hotels that offer free Express Pass will be able to use it at Epic Universe. Again, how Express Pass will work is our biggest piece of missing information right now!

VIP Tours at Epic Universe- VIP Tour experiences will include Epic Universe but information on these will also, again, be “launched at a later date before the park opens.”

As of now, we do not know an official timeline for when we will get these details beyond that it will be before Epic Universe opens on May 22, 2025.

Epic Universe News This Week

The newest commercial for Epic Universe has been making the rounds after its initial launch during the SuperBowl. The hype is real as the opening date for the land draws near! You can watch the Epic Universe commercial on YouTube if you missed it.

 

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A post shared by WESH 2 News (@wesh2)

Wesh2 got footage of an animatronic dragon being tested for the How to Train Your Dragon- Isle of Berk land. This gives us the first look at what the meet and greets with these dragons will be like! The dragon seen in the video below is Dart the dragon, son of Toothless the dragon. This animatronic dragon is so impressive, I can't wait to see more.

Video: Stardust Racers testing at night. As seen from Stella Nova resort on Feb 17.
Featuring one clip with #stardustTrails which in this video was done through a custom After Effects plugin.
Look also for Hiccup's Winged Gliders and Dragon Racer's Rally testing. pic.twitter.com/qvc51EgpJv

— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) February 20, 2025

We also got this look at Stardust Racers testing at night in this video shared by bioreconstruct on X! This rollercoaster is the theme park's most thrilling ride which is likely on par with the thrills that Jurassic World VelociCoaster offers. This will definitely be one of the most popular rides in the park for guests that love coasters.

Earlier in the week we got the first look at all the new food items coming to Epic Universe which includes Butterbeer crepes and great Universal Monster items in Dark Universe.

Epic Universe Construction Updates

I pulled a few of the most exciting recent photos from the construction updates shared by bioreconstruct on X from this week. Work is coming along nicely and rumors are flying that construction will wrap up soon.

The photo above shows a close up look at the top of the Chronos tower at the front of Epic Universe.

When you zoom out, you can see the front entrance of Epic Universe.

In another exciting construction update photo this week we got from bioconstruct on X, we can see this close up of the Constellation Carousel.

Over in Super Nintendo World, we got a close look at Yoshi's Adventure above the Donkey Kong Adventure pope. This land is looking so impressive.

Here is a close up of Frankenstein's Manor in Dark Universe.

Another aerial shot shows the entrance of Isle of Berk which is looking straight out of the films.

Next week we'll share more construction updates as work starts to move along quickly!

First image via Universal Orlando.

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