Epic Universe, the newest theme park at Universal Orlando, officially opened on May 22, 2025. This highly anticipated opening to the public comes after two months of early previews for select guests and is now open to everyone.
We rounded up all the best posts from the Epic Universe opening day including a heartfelt message from the Universal CEO, appearances from celebrities, and a look at the crowds plus wait times on this historic day.
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Epic Universe Officially Opens
Epic Universe, Universal Orlando’s highly anticipated new theme park, opened today on May 22. The official media event took place last night, May 21st, but today marked the first day the park is officially open to the public.
This is the first new Disney or Universal theme park in the United States in multiple decades. It is thrilling to see the new park come online.
While today is the official grand opening, the park has been open to team members, annual passholders, and those that purchased preview tickets the past two months. We were there on the first official paid preview day, you can see our Epic Universe ride reviews and what we accomplished on that day in our trip report!
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The Universal Destinations & Experiences CEO, Mark Woodbury, shared this message with fans ahead of the opening on the official Universal Orlando Instagram.
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The official Universal Orlando account on Instagram also shared these photos of the portal opening ceremonies for all the major lands in Epic Universe.
Celebrities Attend Grand Opening
Multiple celebrities attended the Epic Universe grand opening ceremony including notable stars associated with the IP for these new lands!
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Warwick Davis, Oliver Phelps, and James Phelps (Professor Flitwick and the Weasley twins!) attended the opening ceremony for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic which you can watch in the video above from Disney Food Blog on Instagram.
WATCH: The ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ cast visit @UniversalORL for Universal Epic Universe. Watch the full video on @iHollywoodTV: https://t.co/Zrptc8ee3c #HowToTrainYourDragon #EpicUniverse #UniversalOrlando pic.twitter.com/dZL9XfQ10l
— Noah Wilson (@NoahWilsonLive) May 22, 2025
The cast from the live action How to Train Your Dragon also visited Epic Universe to celebrate the opening. Gerard Butler, Nico Parker, Mason Thames and Dean DeBlois are all captured in this video from Noah Wilson on X.
At Epic Universe we all Fam 👉 #HiccupCult #HowToTrainYourDragon pic.twitter.com/SsaVWOKXOV
— #HowToTrainYourDragon (@HTTYDragon) May 20, 2025
The official How to Train Your Dragon movie account on X also posted this look at Mason Thames (the live action Hiccup!) meeting Toothless and Hiccup.
SUPER NINTENDO WORLD at @UniversalORL Epic Universe is now open! Mr. Miyamoto can’t wait for everyone to visit! pic.twitter.com/7L59dz6U0E
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 22, 2025
The official Nintendo account on X also shared this look at Shigeru Miyamoto celebrating the opening of Super Nintendo World. Mr. Miyamoto is known for his legendary work on Nintendo games including Mario and Donkey Kong.
The monsters broke out of Darkmoor briefly this morning during a special @UniversalORL #EpicUniverse Grand Opening ceremony pic.twitter.com/nYYs9631mL
— BlogMickey.com (@Blog_Mickey) May 22, 2025
While not “official” celebrities, the monsters of Darkmoor also made an appearance during the ceremony for the Dark Universe portal opening shared by BlogMickey on X.
Grand Opening Ceremony Fireworks
During the media grand opening held on May 21, we got a first look at fireworks at Epic Universe from Francis Dominic on Instagram.
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The show also featured dialogue from Steven Spielberg which you can see in the video below from Carlye Wisel on Instagram.
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It’s great to see the potential of the fountain combined with the fireworks, I expect we will have a regular nightly show coming to Epic Universe in the future that incorporates these elements!
The moment we’ve all been waiting for 🥲✨ Universal Epic Universe officially opened this morning with an awe-inspiring celebration. pic.twitter.com/dm82Pw5DLd
— Orlando Informer (@OrlandoInformer) May 22, 2025
The fountains were also in use during the official opening today which was shared on X by Orlando Informer.
Wait Times on Opening Day
For anyone who has been watching the previews, it wasn’t a big surprise to see that Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry has had the longest line. This video captured by Disney Food Blog on Instagram shows how LONG this line has been on opening day!
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Universal got rid of the virtual queue very recently for this popular attraction during the preview period and has opened today with a regular standby line with no virtual queue. According to multiple reports, the queue for this attraction can handle up to a seven hour wait time! There is NO Express Pass available for this ride.
As of 1 PM ET, the Universal Orlando app shows the ride as delayed. Prior to the delay, the app listed the wait time at 300 minutes.
As for other notable long waits, reports on social media have said that the line to meet Toothless in the park as been consistently at 100 minutes throughout the day.
It seems that everyone in Epic Universe on opening day is in line for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry because the other wait times for all the other rides in the park are shockingly low. The longest wait aside from Harry Potter is Dragon Racer’s Rally at 30 minutes. The next longest wait attractions, Stardust Racers and Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, are only at 15 minutes.
Curse of the Werewolf is also only at 15 minutes with Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment and Mine-Cart Madness are at a shockingly low 10 minute wait.
As for the rest of the rides, these are all under 10 minutes. It looks like the big takeaway for Epic Universe crowds on opening day is that most guests are going to spend HOURS waiting for Harry Potter which results in very low waits for everything else.
While we ranked Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry high on our list of best Epic Universe rides, I’m not sure I would want to use my entire day at Epic Universe waiting in that line.
We will have to see how crowds stabilize in the coming weeks and then we can make a more accurate plan for how to strategize Epic Universe. Don’t worry, we plan on being there after the opening hype calms down to see how things shake out!
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