What will Universal’s Epic Universe theme park look like?
With every passing month, the hype around Universal Orlando’s new theme park, Epic Universe, gets louder.
But a detailed site plan might lend some clues.
What has been confirmed to the public is that Universal will build a new theme park complex with hotels, shops, restaurants, and an entertainment center several miles south of its existing resort. It will be called Universal’s Epic Universe.
It will be built on part of a 750-acre site that Universal owns near Sand Lake Road and East Universal Boulevard in Orange County.
Epic Universe is set to open in 2023. The new park will be the first in Orlando since Universal’s Islands of Adventure opened in 1999.
Concept art for the new park shared by Universal shows at least four themed areas and a hotel.
During a Comcast Corp. quarterly earnings call Thursday morning, Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, confirmed that consumerelectronics behemoth Nintendo will be going into Epic Universe. Super Nintendo World opens this summer in Osaka, Japan.
We don’t know when the park will open or what the themed areas officially are but the not-yet-approved site plans might give us the best idea.
Months before Universal announced Epic Universe, land purchases, permit applications, and leaked documents indicated that a theme park was coming.
With three themed areas still unconfirmed, the newest site plan for Epic Universe shows in detail what could be one of those areas.
First reported in Orlando Park Stop, a theme-park blog, the site plan seems to be for a “How To Train Your Dragon” land. Universal Studios has rights to the popular children’s film franchise, which was created by Universalowned DreamWorks Animation.
The plan shows many features, some easy to point out while others are not so clear.
The most prominent feature is a roller coaster that stretches almost the entire width of the site. There are several buildings over and around it, possible ride-staging areas.
Just left of center, could be a water ride, much like the long-gone Jaws ride at Universal Studios or the still-going Jungle Cruise at Magic Kingdom. The tracks in the water seem to connect to a lake.
Toward the bottom of the plan is a large building with auditorium-style seating. This area would most likely be for a stage show as it has back rooms drawn next to the auditorium area.
The most unclear part of the plan is a large building in the center. It has no drawn seating so another stage show might be out of the question. It does have gray, thin structures connected to and surrounding the exterior of the building, which could be tracks but they do not have clear, defining marks as the large roller coaster.
It might not be an attraction and could be a welcome center of sorts or shopping plaza like the shopping areas at Hogsmeade Village and Diagon Alley in Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios, respectively.
While these are all speculations, the site plans are a good indicator that the land will be filled with attractions.
Devoun Cetoute: 305-376-2026, @devoun_cetoute