As part of our recent trip to Universal Orlando Resort, we splurged on a day of Universal Express Pass at Epic Universe. In this post, we break down everything you need to know about Express Pass at Epic Universe, starting with what rides are included, how much it costs, and how to use it, and working through our experience to help you decide—is it worth it? Read on to learn all about Express Pass at Epic Universe!
Basics of Express Pass at Epic Universe
Express Pass is Universal’s paid extra that allows guests to wait in a shorter queue at most attractions in the park. It’s their version of a “skip the line” system, in the same way that Disney offers Lightning Lanes. But, as we’ll see, calling it “skip the line” would be way overstating its value.
Universal Orlando has three theme parks—Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, and Universal Epic Universe. There are a variety of Express Pass bundles covering different numbers of parks over different numbers of days. I’m not going to get into those here.
For the purpose of this post, I’m reviewing one day of Express Pass at Epic Universe. We have a separate post where we reviewed 2-park Express Pass at the other two parks. One day of Express Pass at Epic Universe starts at $160 per person, plus tax, but those prices can be as high as $330+tax. Again—per person, so everyone who intends to use it needs their own Express Pass.
Express Pass allows guests to access the Express Pass queue for each included ride once on their visit date. Express Pass Unlimited—allowing multiple uses of the Express Pass queues—is available at the other parks but not at Epic Universe yet. (FWIW, except for a de minimis cost difference, maybe $10, I can’t see ever endorsing Express Pass Unlimited.)
At Epic Universe, eight of eleven rides are included in Express Pass. The excluded rides are Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, Dragon Racer’s Rally, and Mine-Cart Madness. As a result, you’ll want to have a separate plan for these rides even if you have Express Pass. The flexibility afforded by Express Pass should make it easier for you to fit these into your day.
The eight included rides at Epic Universe are Fyre Drill, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, Monsters Unchained, Curse of the Werewolf, Constellation Carousel, Stardust Racers, Yoshi's Adventure, and Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge.
The two main shows, Le Cirque Arcanus and The Untrainable Dragon also have an Express Pass option. From my conversations with Team Members, this allows you to bypass the ordinary queue (which can be a drag to wait in), but it doesn’t guarantee seating—i.e. once the queue closes to regular guests, it closes to Express Pass guests. I won’t be addressing the shows in this post. They’re good, they just don’t factor into my Express Pass analysis.
Finally, it’s worth noting that most rides at Epic Universe have Single Rider lines. These are free lines that will require you to ride separately from your party—you’re filling in empty seats once standby guests are seated. If you’re willing to use the single rider queues, you’ll want to do some more research to decide whether those will be enough to obviate the need for Express Pass.
Our Experience With Universal Express Pass
We paid $256 per person (or over $750 total) to add Express Pass to our Universal vacation package (with the help of our travel advisor, Lauren Quirk of Travel With Character LLC). When we got our tickets printed at the hotel on our check-in day, we were given the Express Pass tickets, too.
Universal uses facial recognition to identify guests, including in the Express Pass queues. We always tried to have our Express Pass tickets handy in case there was an issue, but most times we were just told to keep moving as the Team Member looked at the screen confirming our eligibility.
We used Express Pass as part of a family visit to Epic Universe. I prefer to use Express Pass (and Lightning Lanes) on family days vs. solo days because it allows me to let Zoe take the driver seat a little bit more. With regular standby lines, I have to basically always make the decisions about where to go next or risk us missing out on a lot. That’s not easy for Zoe to grasp, and with any sort of “skip the line” system, it’s nice to empower Zoe to pick the rides and lands we should prioritize a bit.
Epic Express Pass - The Bottom Line Data
Below is the data from our Express Pass visit to Epic Universe, including posted standby times, how long we waited in the Express Pass queue, and the percent of time we “saved” with Express Pass. There’s more analysis of these numbers below. (For reasons not important here, we didn’t use the Express Pass queue at Stardust Racers on this visit.)
To some extent, the data speaks for itself. I can’t say every guest would have the same experience, and I can’t say whether my experiences are more or less typical than any other guest who has reviewed Express Pass.
What I will say is that, based on my experiences in Universal Orlando parks, including multiple past purchases of Express Pass, this was within the range of what I expected, albeit a little worse than I’d hoped for.
I’ll also say that in these early days of Epic Universe I’m not surprised Express Pass performed slightly worse than I hoped. The reasons for this are twofold. First, more guests than usual are buying Express Pass, presumably. The park is new, everyone wants to check out the rides, and no one knows perfect touring strategy. Second, ride reliability isn’t perfect. As we’ll recount below, two of our three longest waits involved downtime while we were in the queue.
But still, I think it’s easy enough to look at this data and just conclude Express Pass at Epic Universe isn’t worth it. If you were on the fence before, that table probably knocked you off. If you were excited about the prospect of Express Pass before, maybe you’re not as sure. In either case, I’m happy to provide the rest of the context so you have the most help I can give you in making your decision.
Epic Express Pass - Ride by Ride
Let’s talk through the waits ride by ride before discussing how we think of Express Pass at Epic Universe right now. You can read more about the rides at our Universal Epic Universe rides guide.
Fyre Drill (40 min vs. 80 posted). This was an absolute bust. I think the ride has its virtues, but it’s simply not at all worth waiting 40 minutes for. Our 4-year-old was likewise unimpressed. Some families may get appropriately soaked and have a hilariously good time. Our experience was not that, and even allowing that experience will vary, I definitely never intend to wait a significant amount of time for this one again.
Hiccup’s Wing Gliders (35 min vs. 35 posted). We wound up waiting the same as the posted wait for Hiccup’s Wing Gliders because the ride had technical issues. It wasn’t a huge delay, but they had to run three consecutive cycles with empty trains. The wait time went up 15 minutes while we were in line, so you could look at this as being 35 min vs. 50 min posted, if you wanted to be generous.
Monsters Unchained (10 min vs. 20 posted). I’ve written elsewhere that Monsters Unchained is generally not a wait you need to worry about. It doesn’t tend to get outsized, and it’s a queue we’ll happily spend some time in.
Curse of the Werewolf (6 min vs. 45 min posted). While we didn’t love the ride, Curse of the Werewolf was arguably our most successful use of Express Pass. The queue is not particularly themed, and single rider was at capacity when we use Express Pass. We also didn’t return to Dark Universe the rest of the day (no offense to it, just didn’t need to). This was an ideal way to save nearly 40 minutes.
Constellation Carousel (14 min vs. 20 posted). Our wait for Constellation Carousel was simply a reflection of low capacity and standard, slow carousel operations. We didn’t get on the first cycle when we arrived. It took time to load that cycle, then run the ride, then unload and load us.
Yoshi's Adventure (16 min vs. 35 posted). The wait for Yoshi’s Adventure was what I’d expect from Express Pass. I wouldn’t wait more than 20 minutes for this one in any case, so it’s good to have Express Pass. No matter how much time you’re spending in Super Nintendo World, it’s just easier if you don’t have to stress about fitting in a relatively underwhelming ride.
Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge (51 min vs. 135 posted). As with Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, there was some delay in the middle of our Mario Kart wait that extended our Express Pass time. That said, this one really gets at the heart of Universal’s Express Pass product, in my opinion. If rides have 135 minute waits, you’re paying to shave 80 minutes off that. Waiting 135 minutes for a single ride makes the park challenging to do in a day. Waiting 51 minutes isn’t really a problem, particularly in queue as nice at Mario Kart. Whether you want to pay for that privilege is a different question.
Does Express Pass Make Sense at Epic Universe?
On a ride-by-ride basis, I think the above analysis is mostly sufficient. So for the this section I’m going to focus mostly on the total experience with Express Pass. Let’s start with some numbers:
Altogether, we waited 174 minutes in Express Pass queues for rides with total standby waits of 370 minutes.
That means we saved (ostensibly) 196 minutes.
We waited 47% of the time we would have without Express Pass.
We paid $255.59 per person. So we paid $1.30 per person-minute saved, or $78 per person-hour.
A one-day ticket to Epic Universe the season costs around $190 per person.
Now, “skip-the-line” systems serve at least three related purposes. First, they keep you from having to endure a lot of time waiting in lines. Lines usually aren’t fun. Second, they usually allow you to do more in a single day. As long as the park has enough offerings, the time you save can be put to use doing more ride or other fun things. Third, they sometimes allow you to shorten your trip. Maybe a park would usually require two full days to experience, but with “skip-the-line” you can do it in only one.
All three of these ends are served by Express Pass at Epic, but the latter two are probably more important. As to the first, you’re not “skipping” or escaping lines with Express Pass. You’ll still have what would be considered pretty typical theme park waits anywhere outside of Universal and Disney parks. Pack your patience, even with Express Pass. Waiting 51 minutes for a ride is significantly more tolerable than waiting 135 minutes, to be sure, but it’s no paradise. (This is in contrast to say, Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Magic Kingdom, where sub-10 minute waits are the norm.)
Express Pass does enable you to see more of Epic in a single day and, relatedly, to shorten your trip if necessary. Notice that if you don’t have to shorten your trip, you might not want to. In this case, Express Pass cost more than a single day ticket to Epic Universe. For our visit, the difference was $65 per person more. This means that if we could spend an extra day at Epic Universe, even having to add a night at a hotel like Stella Nova, we’d probably come out about even.
If time were no issue, I’d definitely take that second day in the park, enduring some longer waits spread over the two days, rather than pay for Express Pass. If you’ve only got a single day in the park, I think the value of Express Pass turns most on how much do you need to do at Epic.
With Early Admission, the park was open 12 hours this day. The posted standby waits above—for only seven of eleven rides in the park—totaled over 6 hours. Add in typical waits for the missing heavy hitters—Harry Potter at the Battle at the Ministry, Stardust Racers, and Mine-Cart Madness—plus two stage shows, meals, and time spent actually enjoying the brand new park...and the day gets pretty tight.
I cover this more in my guide to planning a day at Epic Universe. In that post, I suggest you have a list of things you’re willing to skip. For my part, I’m fine skipping Fyre Drill, Constellation Carousel, Dragon Racer’s Rally, and Yoshi’s Adventure any day. I’m on the fence about Curse of the Werewolf and, controversially perhaps, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge.
That means I’m looking at 5 to 7 must-do rides, two of which aren’t on Express Pass (Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry and Mine-Cart Madness). Even combined with the two must-see shows, plus time to experience the lands, it’s really hard for me to justify the cost of Express Pass.
But if you have to fit in, say, Curse of the Werewolf and Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, the park becomes much more challenging to fit into a single day. This is particularly the case if they keep hours limited. Typical hours are 10AM to 9PM. More reasonable hours of 9AM to 10PM (which may be coming sooner rather than later) would go a long way in this park.
Still, as much as I liked some rides at Epic Universe, I can’t say I see Express Pass—as I experienced it—ever coming close to the $255 per person that we paid. The silver lining is that this is partly because the park is overall pretty excellent. If I get in the shows, some time and Super Nintendo World, and a character greeting or two, I wouldn’t be upset missing a few rides.
Related to this is the fact that Express Pass doesn’t include Mine-Cart Madness or Battle at the Ministry. Those two rides are absolutely must-do for me. This means any day that includes those is already going to have less time for the rides on Express Pass. When you consider the waits of 30+ minutes can happen in Express Pass queues, it’s not even clear you’ll always even make it on all the Express Pass rides in a single day that also includes Mine-Cart Madness and Battle at the Ministry.
I don’t regret getting Express Pass at Epic Universe, but I can’t see getting it again until those two rides are included. Until then, a little bit of planning and a willingness to miss a few rides if necessary leaves me with a satisfying day in the park and $250 still in my pocket.
All Your Other Universal Orlando Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Universal Orlando planning! Take a second to check out our most important content!
Just starting out? Start with our Universal Orlando Resort planning guide! If you’re considering a Universal hotel, read our Guide to the Hotels of Universal Orlando Resort!
You’ll want to know what rides the parks offer, so we’ve got a Universal Studios Florida Rides Guide, a Universal Islands of Adventure Rides Guide, and a Universal Epic Universe Rides Guide.
If you’d like an idea of how to plan a day at these parks, we can help there, too. Our One Day Universal Studios Florida Itinerary covers a full day at the original park, our Universal Islands of Adventure One Day Plan covers Hagrid's, Velocicoaster, and more, and we even have a One Day Guide to Epic Universe covering Universal's newest park.
Want to know how to get on rides without the long waits? Read all about Express Pass at Universal Orlando Resort. Plus, early risers always have the best theme parks days (well, we think so). Read about Early Park Admission at Universal Orlando to learn how to get an extra hour in the parks.