One Complaint Fans Have About Epic Universe's Opening I Can Kind Of See (But Also Kind Of Disagree With)

I spend a lot of time on the interwebs, and there have been a lot of tweets about the opening of Epic Universe lately, particularly after the brand-spanking-new theme park released its upcoming hours. The park will open for the early birds at 9 a.m. on May 22 and will be operating until 9 p.m. that night, but for some fans, that’s not nearly enough.

Why Fans Are Complaining About Epic Universe’s Upcoming Hours

As Universal has started dropping its summertime 2025 hours online, a slew of fans have been very vocal about how they feel about said hours. This includes hours for May 22, which will see the ever-popular Islands of Adventure open an hour later than the brand new Epic Universe theme park. This has very much made some fans unhappy:

• Wallin Ballin: BREAKING: Epic Universe opening day hours have been posted. Sigh.
• Just Jake: What I’ve learned today is there’s a real divide between theme park fans and those with ops or hospitality backgrounds. Fans want late hours; ops folks are like “yeah, same, but here’s XYZ reason it can’t happen."
• Wallin Ballin: So…. Here’s a question. If staffing is a legitimate reason for why Epic Universe can’t have good hours for opening weekend, then why are we opening early at 8 a.m.? Why not just eliminate early admission and instead have an extended evening hour? The park was designed to be seen at night, not at 8 a.m. Hopefully they fix this quickly.
• Luvryyryy: They should be closing at midnight legit no excuses.
• LotheronPrime: I'm actually surprised by this, I was fully expecting 11 p.m close time; at least 10 p.m.

Most of these comments aren’t nuanced enough to reveal why exactly the parks should be open later and not earlier, but one of them did allude to the nighttime light work the theme park creators put in to be enjoyed after dark. Given the park is opening in summertime and the sun is simply out later, fans who go to the park right around opening will not be able to enjoy what they feel is a major perk.

I’d also be willing to bet some park newcomers simply want to enjoy hours later at night on a crowded day. May 22 will likely be an insane day for the theme park, not just because even with soft openings there will be kinks to work out, but every time there is a massive crowd, wait times and more can also expand out and every single area of the park can take longer to work through.

It’s also worth noting that after one-day tickets finally went on sale, the new park has already sold out its first two weeks at Epic Universe (great news for Universal Orlando!), but we don’t know at what capacity they capped tickets, or how crowded the parks will be.

Then, of course, there’s the specific theme park fandom who is most excited for the spooky opening of Dark Universe at Epic Universe. There, fans can visit Darkmoor Village and Frankenstein Manor specifically. It’s an experience that would doubtless be amped up in the nighttime, but there won’t be a lot of nighttime to be had early on.

What Time Is Sunset On May 22 (And Beyond?)

One thing that should be mentioned is that Universal Orlando is obviously situated in Florida, which is on ET time. So, on May 22 sunset is at 8:14 p.m. ET. The daylight will continue sticking around through the summer, but it peaks on June 20th during the Summer Solstice when sunset will be at the latest just before 8:30 p.m. ET.

So, I do see how that won’t leave a lot of time in the dark before the park closes at 9 p.m.

Why This Is (And Isn’t) A Big Deal For Epic Universe Visitors

I get it, fans want as much time as possible to explore the brand new theme park, and I can see why there are lots of feelings amongst longtime Universal fans who want to experience the parks in the dark. I get their feelings, as nighttime wandering in a theme park has a way different vibe than the daytime, and it’s a ton of fun.

It's also true that many people only are able to get to big theme parks once or on special occasions, and I get why they want the most bang for their buck possible.

However, I’d just hasten to add this doesn’t feel to me to be nearly as big of a deal as some of these vociferous tweets have been making out. First, in previews, Epic Universe has mostly been open until 9 p.m., with the parks closing on select days at 8 p.m., so these posted hours are not really a big surprise. While CityWalk can be open much later, the latest Universal Orlando parks in general are typically is only until 10 p.m., so 9 p.m. is not that far off in my opinion. Even if Epic were open until 10 p.m., fans who come in the summer time really wouldn't have that much more time in the dark.

There is the light at the end of the tunnel that is the summer solstice. After June 20th, daylight begins to wane. Sure, while there will be times of the year the parks at Universal may close earlier, at some point there will be a perfect alignment of theme park hours and daylight waning, and if you are a fan of the dark, that's a great time to plan a trip.

I also just think Universal has made efforts to expand it's nighttime offerings in recent years, and there’s going to be so much to explore that leaving a little something for later is a good idea. I don’t need the instant gratification of walking around a spooky park at night right now. There are still so many new Epic Universe rides and so much food that is brand new to explore. I’ll focus on that for now, and I’ll worry about the nighttime picture opps later.