ORLANDO, Fla. – Universal Orlando Resort annual passholders got the chance Thursday to purchase one-day tickets to the new Epic Universe theme park, due to open in May next year.
But what many encountered was an epic wait.
Recommended Videos
The Universal website takes pass seekers to a virtual waiting room with a warning about a high volume of requests leading to long wait times. In fact, the wait time was more than an hour. Some News 6 employees who tried spent hours waiting, in fact.
Once the wait is done, visitors go to a reservation page where they can choose from an available day to purchase the one-day pass, with prices between $150 and $170 for the first two months the park is open.
[RELATED: Epic Universe sets opening date. Here’s what to know]
But as Universal’s X.com account showed Thursday, many visitors were frustrated because they haven’t received their confirmation emails yet. The Universal account is telling customers that it can take up to 24 hours for the tickets to process.
Another thing visitors are learning is that if you try to buy an annual pass online Thursday to get try to get the one-day ticket, you’re out of luck. The new annual pass needs to be active, and the only way to activate the pass is to go to Universal Orlando Resort.
Universal is also selling a multi-day pass that includes one day at Epic Universe and two days at the other Universal parks. Those tickets start at $117.33 a day, depending on the pass you pick.
If you were to get a three-day pass for May 22, 2025, the first day Epic Universe opens, the multi-day pass costs $481.99, plus tax. The tickets must be used over a six-day period, and you can only visit one park per day.
[RELATED: What will transportation be like when Epic Universe opens?]
Visitors can also get four and five-day passes. All of them include only one day at Epic Universe. This is part of Universal’s attempt to manage crowds.
We reached out to Universal Orlando to find out if any days or passes were sold out but we have not heard back yet.
Epic Universe is Universal Orlando’s fourth theme park and will feature over 50 attractions with ground-breaking technology throughout five different worlds all connected through mystical portals.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: