The park, the result of a decade's worth of development, recreates the worlds of Harry Potter, Nintendo, How To Train Your Dragon and Universal's classic monsters
Opening day saw guests arrive as early as 6 am, testament to Karen Irwin (president and CEO of Universal Orlando Resort)'s description of the day as "incredible exciting... Epic Universe is the culmination of what we’ve been working on for nearly a decade. Our teams have poured so much passion, vision and dedication into this new park and there is truly nothing like it in our universe."
Universal is billing Epic Universe as the first major theme park since Universal's Islands of Adventure opened in May 1999—a year and a month after Disney opened their most recent Florida park, Disney's Animal Kingdom.
The park and surrounding resort also features a four-star, 750-key resort, Terra Luna, and the Universal Helios Grand Hotel, a 500-key property, inside the gates of the park.
