When Will Universal’s Epic Universe Open?
“When will Epic Universe open in 2025?” and "when will Universal Orlando announce an opening date for the new theme park?" are two common questions right now for people planning vacations next year to Central
“When will Epic Universe open in 2025?” and “when will Universal Orlando announce an opening date for the new theme park?” are two common questions right now for people planning vacations next year to Central Florida. We’ll try to answer given rumors, speculation, and what we know.
Fair warning before we start, though. First of all, this is a Walt Disney World blog (it’s right there in the title) and although we’re Universal Orlando Annual Passholders, our knowledge and contacts are far more limited there. Second, opening a brand-new theme park of this scale and scope is fairly unprecedented in the modern era and this type of post usually leans heavily on historical precedent.
Suffice to say, we don’t have a crystal ball so this is highly speculative–more so than usual. No one can give you a definitive answer about when Universal’s Epic Universe will open. If you’re the kind of person who thinks prognostication posts are a “waste of time” and want only the facts, then there’s nothing for you here. Consider instead subscribing to our free email newsletter for instant alerts, which will provide you an update when Epic Universe’s opening date is announced, tickets go on sale, or there’s another official update.
Let’s start with what we know so far, which is that Universal Orlando has been methodically unveiling each land in Epic Universe, starting back with Celestial Park in late January. Since then, they’ve showcased How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, Super Nintendo World, and Dark Universe with about a month and a half in between.
If that cadence continues, we should expect a reveal of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic sometime before mid-August 2024. I would not expect an announcement of the opening date until after Ministry of Magic, with whatever is unveiled next about Epic Universe following that reveal probably coming around 60-90 days later.
Universal Orlando’s slowly pulling back the curtain on Epic Universe has been a marketing master class, and part of that is the big reveals spaced about to allow anticipation to grow and each portal to have its moment in the spotlight and buzz thereafter. If I were Universal, I’d want to keep this up as long as possible–building momentum right into the grand opening.
If marketing operated in a vacuum without other moving parts (it doesn’t), it would probably make sense for Universal to do a primetime special on NBC or streaming event on Peacock (or both) over Thanksgiving weekend, announcing the opening date then.
There’s a reason why Walt Disney World does two holiday specials–one over that weekend and then the famous ABC Christmas Day Parade–and that’s because they’re times when family gatherings are happening. This puts Disney front-of-mind or in the discussion during these events, which may very well extend to conversation about the upcoming year’s vacation plans. People love having something to look forward to, especially during the doldrums of winter.
It’s our understanding that the biggest stretch of the year for Disney vacation bookings is approximately Christmas through a couple of weeks after New Year’s, with a longer tail into February. (Also explaining the savvy of the Super Bowl spot.) It stands to reason that the dynamic isn’t much different for Universal. Making a splashy unveiling and announcement during the holiday season would make sense.
One conspicuous change in these reveals has been Universal shifting from a “Summer 2025” opening timeframe to simply “2025.” We saw something similar happen with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and, sure enough, its opening date was pulled forward by Disney.
Obviously, there could be multiple reasons for this and those could be either good or bad. The optimistic outlook, and the one that most fans seem to have, is that the opening date is being moved forward. This would certainly make sense, especially given that the months before summer are now busier than summer itself.
Some fans have gone a step further, speculating that Universal Stella Nova Resort, opening January 21, 2025, and Universal Terra Luna Resort, opening February 25, 2025, indicate that Epic Universe is planned to open in Winter 2025. While the date being pulled forward by that much is possible, I’m highly skeptical that the debut dates of those hotels have any bearing on Epic Universe’s opening date. They are park-adjacent, not in-park.
Less likely is that the opening date of Epic Universe has been pushed back or there’s now uncertainty about the timing, but without anything official from Universal, all are possibilities. At least, in theory.
A delay is also unlikely because there have been clues from Universal leadership that the opening timeframe has been accelerated via earnings calls and interviews. Just last month, Steve Tatham, the Executive Creative Director for Epic Universe at Universal Orlando, was on the Superbold Podcast and suggested that Epic Universe would not open in Summer 2025.
Steve said that more would be rolled out soon, but that he couldn’t go into detail about everything. However, he did say that “it’s set to opening at the beginning of next year–before next summer.” He added that they’re in the “throes of construction, and [will be] wrapping up that in the coming months and then getting ready for guests next year.”
Comcast’s second quarter earnings call is scheduled for July 23, 2024 before the market opens and it’s possible the company will provide further guidance about the timing of Epic Universe’s opening. If anything, the fiscal quarter during which Epic Universe will open seems most likely. I would not expect a specific date, but anything is possible. These are fairly uncharted waters with a new park, and if Comcast wants good news for investors, that might be just the ticket.
Speaking of which, rumors of initial ticket details for Epic Universe began to trickle out due to leaks from travel agents and third party ticket sellers who had been trained or briefed by Universal. This is what prompted our post: Is Universal Making a Classic “Crowdpocalypse” Mistake with Epic Universe? The ticket details aren’t the point of that–it’s all about expectations of crowds.
The ticket rumors seem to suggest that Universal Orlando is gearing up for an opening date announcement much sooner than I might otherwise expect. For one thing, you typically don’t brief third parties on details like this months before it’s relevant to them. And you can’t very well sell tickets to a park that doesn’t have an opening date.
For another thing, Universal had to have known there’d be leaks. They’re a savvy business. Yet they briefed a large number of outside organizations and individuals on this not a day or two in advance of an announcement, but what is already a couple of weeks. That had to be with the expectation that it’d get out. Perhaps that was even the point–to telegraph this info or let fans voice their frustrations at unofficial sources to reduce the backlash once the open secret became official. I don’t really know, but the approach is odd, regardless.
Announcing an opening date far in advance is at odds with Universal Orlando’s normal approach. On average, Universal Orlando usually announces an opening date for a new attraction or entertainment around 1-3 months before that new offering debuts.
The very obvious distinction here is that Epic Universe is a new theme park. While fans did book trips around riding VelociCoaster, Hagrid’s, or even this summer’s new spectaculars, it’s a totally different dynamic. Universal’s normal announcement-to-opening timeline is flat out irrelevant here.
For one thing, there are the aforementioned ticket sales. None of those aforementioned attractions or offerings necessitated changes to the ticket system, Annual Passes, etc. They involved no systemic changes that would almost require having a date much further in advance than is normal for Universal.
Universal sells Annual Passes on a rolling basis and park tickets through April 30, 2025. While they could open up further future dates for the existing gates, there is probably an internal desire to add Epic Universe to the inventory if it’s expected to be open by then. Otherwise, they’re missing out on potential sales as people wait or there’s a messy situation with upgrades later.
These ticket sales alone present an incredibly compelling reason–perhaps the outcome-determinative one–for Universal announcing the opening date of Epic Universe well before the holiday season rolls around. That’s doubly true if the park is on pace to debut before May 1, 2025. And it sure seems like it is.
As for when Epic Universe could open, all signs point to the project being way ahead of schedule. For one, there are the statements from Universal Creative and other leadership, suggesting that construction is going to wrap up in the coming months.
We also have regular Epic Universe construction photo updates courtesy of theme park eye in the sky bioreconstruct (a highly recommended follow on Twitter who graciously provided the above photo), and those make progress on certain parts of the park look really far along. Within the last week, his photos showed multiple coasters with ride vehicles out on the tracks. Even well before this, some attractions had been cycling.
Most of the areas of Epic Universe that still appear very unfinished won’t come together until the last minute, anyway. Walkways and other hardscape and landscape that they won’t want to finish until the heavy equipment is mostly done. As we’ve seen with past Disney projects, those elements can come together very quickly.
At the risk of pointing out the obvious, we can only see what we can see from the aerial photos. So they can be deceptive in ways both good and bad.
Meaning that we don’t know what things are like inside the massive show buildings, restaurants, and other indoor venues. While the exteriors are looking fantastic, it’s possible that progress isn’t at the same point with at least some of the interiors. I’m not suggesting this is the case–just that it’s possible.
What I think is more likely is that the complex ride systems might take more time than anticipated. Epic Universe has a handful of attractions that are innovative and push the envelope beyond what’s been done before. The likelihood of at least one–perhaps more–running into unanticipated issues is probably fairly high.
We actually have a good, very relevant example of this with Donkey Kong Country in Osaka. Last December, Universal Studios Japan announced that would open in Spring 2024. Based on progress and a variety of other in-park changes, it appeared to us likely that the expansion would debut in time for sakura season this March.
On April 19, Universal announced that Donkey Kong Country had been delayed until the “second half of 2024.” Universal indicated that “Although the development work of this expansion area is in the final stages of completion, USJ would like to ensure a positive experience for our guests and has determined that additional time is needed for the final period of preparations and adjustments.”
Since then, it’s been radio silence on Donkey Kong Country–still no opening date. Although no specific reason for the delay was given, it’s almost certainly due to unexpected issues with Minecart Madness. As innovative new attractions become more complex and complicated, there are more issues that arise during test and adjust.
This is hardly unique to Universal–if anything, they’ve experienced this issue far less than Disney. But now, Universal is opening a whole new park with multiple next-gen attractions, including Minecart Madness. It seems like a safe bet that one or more would have unexpected hiccups during test and adjust. That’s just normal.
The point of that is not to cast aspersions on Universal because, again, this also happens to Disney. A lot.
The point is that Universal cannot possibly announce an official opening date in 2025 for Epic Universe in the next couple of months with complete confidence that the marquee attractions will all be ready by that date.
From my perspective, the earlier they announce an opening date, the more conservative it’s likely to be. Meaning that if the date comes in August or September, it’s more likely to be further into the future. Let’s say April 2025 for the sake of discussion. By contrast, if they announce in November or December, the internal confidence increases and they might be able to inch that forward into March 2025.
The good news is that this largely should work itself out.
Epic Universe isn’t just going to do a cold open one day in next March, April, or whenever. In all likelihood, the park will have over a month of previews for team members, Annual Passholders, Florida residents, media, foreign dignitaries, influencers, Real Housewives, and the cast of every version of Law & Order. That’s a lot of people. And I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if some–many–of those are paid previews.
This presents an opportunity for Universal Orlando to set a conservative opening date far in advance–let’s just throw a dart at the board and say an opening date of April 1, 2025 (the start of a new fiscal quarter) announced on September 18, 2024.
They could take that approach even though the date is far into the future if the expectation is that all or most of Epic Universe will be ready by February or early March at the latest. The approach could then be to get Epic Universe ready to greet guests as quickly as possible, and simply backfill all earlier dates with paid previews.
There’s likely a steady stream of Annual Passholders, locals, influencers, franchise fans, and even regular ole tourists who would pay a pretty penny to experience Epic Universe early. Not only that, but these are demographics who, for the most part, don’t need as much advance notice of dates. Universal could announce paid previews relatively last minute–after (presumably unpaid) employee previews start.
For the most part, those groups are also all higher knowledge guests. Meaning that, for example, if a single attraction is not ready for primetime, that could be conveyed to them and they’d understand. Those guests are going to be willing to shell out money to experience Epic Universe early, even if it’s incomplete.
Heck, that could probably be taken a few steps further. Epic Universe utilizes a portal system, which would make it very easy to block off an entire land if it’s not ready. There might even be a scenario where resources are allocated away from one land during late phases of construction if it’s clear one marquee ride in that won’t be open and towards other lands, if construction becomes a race against the clock. I doubt it will, but again, it’s possible.
Ultimately, there are a lot of moving parts and not a lot of pertinent precedent for what Universal Orlando is doing with Epic Universe. Personally, I don’t think the most recent major theme parks to open provide much insight. Universal Beijing opened during the pandemic so its schedule was rushed and fanfare was muted. Domestically, Disney California Adventure was too far in the past–before social media changed the game.
Really the only good example is Shanghai Disneyland, and that worked out somewhat similarly to what I’ve described above. That park had its grand opening date of June 16 announced in January 2016, with previews beginning on May 7. But if memory serves me correctly, that project was much more of a race against the clock (various work had to be redone relatively last minute). It’s also in mainland China, making it a different beast.
Without having any inside info, rumors, or other non-public information, it appears highly likely that Epic Universe is way ahead of schedule as a whole, even if individual components could be subject to delay. If the new park can open before next summer, Universal will likely want Epic Universe open by spring break.
With Easter falling on April 20 and bulk of spring breaks happening in the few weeks prior to then, a target date of April 1, 2025 for the opening of Epic Universe makes a lot of sense. (Universal will likely have no hesitations about opening during a peak season–they’re going to be able to carefully control attendance with ticketing policies.)
Prior to whenever it opens, Epic Universe should have 1-2 months of affiliation previews. Personally, I expect Universal to monetize most of those. Comcast has poured a ton of money into Epic Universe and made a bold bet on the future of its theme parks, and they will want to recoup that as quickly and aggressively as possible. (Like Disney, theme parks are one of the biggest bright spots for that corporation.)
Given all of that and the desire to start selling tickets as quickly as possible, I think that timeline makes the most sense. But again, all of this is guesswork and Universal’s calculus might differ. It’ll be interesting to watch what happens–one way or another, 2025 is going to be an incredibly exciting year for theme park fans. We’ll keep you posted on all of the official (and rumored) developments!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
When do you think Epic Universe will open? What’s your official opening date prediction and expectations regarding previews prior to then? Will you visit Epic Universe in 2025, or will you wait for crowds to settle down (in theory)? Excited for Super Nintendo World, Harry Potter’s Ministry of Magic, Dark Universe/Classic Monsters, or the How to Train Your Dragon lands and/or attractions? Think Epic Universe will be a third gate that’s a worthy addition to Universal Orlando Resort…and potentially on par with Disney’s best lands? Any questions? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!
