We were back as a family at Universal Orlando Resort this summer, and we again splurged on a day of Universal Express Pass at Epic Universe. In this post, I’ll dive into what you need to know about Express Pass at Epic Universe, including basics (cost, rides, and purchasing) and my mixed feelings about our day in the park, helping you to decide—is it worth it? Read on to learn all about Express Pass at Epic Universe!
Note: You can read a similar post, from our previous Express Pass visit to Epic Universe, here. As you can infer, feelings about the product can just vary by how the day goes when it arrives.
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 $200 per person, plus tax, but those prices regularly exceed $300. 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.
At Epic Universe, ten of eleven rides are included in Express Pass. The excluded ride is Dragon Racers Rally, a fine ride but not a must-do, in our opinion. You’ll want to have a separate plan for that ride even if you have Express Pass. The flexibility afforded by Express Pass should make it easier for you to fit it into your day.
The ten included rides at Epic Universe are Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, Fyre Drill, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, Monsters Unchained, Curse of the Werewolf, Constellation Carousel, Stardust Racers, Yoshi's Adventure, Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge, and Mine-Cart Madness.
The two main shows, Le Cirque Arcanus and The Untrainable Dragon also have an Express Pass option. From my experience and 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 Most Recent Experience With Epic Universe Express Pass
I bought Express Pass for Epic Universe in the Universal Orlando app two days before our visit to that park. We were going to be there on a Saturday, and the product had already sold out for Friday, so I felt a sense of urgency to make a decision on Thursday.
It was clear from the numbers I was seeing on Thursday that I could expect waits of 90 to 180 minutes for three headliners—Mario Kart, Mine-Cart Madness, and Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry—if we went without Express Pass. Given that, and given where those rides, and time in the lands of the park, fell in our overall priorities for the trip (very high), I made the decision and spent $894.57 for the three of us to have Express Pass.
They emailed a QR code, but 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 (for reasons that come up later in this post, that didn’t really happen this day).
Epic Express Pass - Data from Our 2026 Visit
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 context for these numbers below. (We didn’t use, or have to use, Express Pass for every ride, which is why some are missing. When given a choice between a 10-minute wait and Express Pass, always choose the wait. That way you keep your Express Pass for a re-ride later.)
The 68% savings is an improvement over our 2025 visit, when we only saved 53% on the wait times. It is also wildly close to my Universal Orlando rule of thumb, which is that Express Pass waits are 1/3 posted waits.
Notably, Express Pass performed even better than that average on the longest waits. The missteps are also explicable. Hiccup’s Wing Gliders faced a short operational delay while we waited in the Express Pass queue. We caught Mario Kart as it reopened and the Express Pass queue was absolutely slammed.
You can see we “saved” 5 hours of queue time with Express Pass. Those “Savings” sort of come with an asterisk, because it’s not like we would have willingly gotten in line at peak times without Express Pass. But, more on this below.
Altogether we didn’t feel like we had a ton of extra time at the park that day (in a good way). Zoe had a blast playing in Super Nintendo World. We carved out some extra time for treats. We were able to see both Le Cirque Arcanus and The Untrainable Dragon.
The next section of this post is really important context, but I don’t want to bury the lede—I expect to buy Express Pass next time we visit Epic Universe, too.
Epic Universe contains some of our favorite rides, shows, and lands, but perhaps the biggest factor for my Express Pass decision is that our Universal Orlando visits tend to avoid off-season. When I look at yesterday’s data, for example, I can see I would have had a fine day without Express Pass.
If you’re not visiting in off-season, the waits start to creep up and become more of a problem. Then there’s just a simple bias I can’t avoid—Epic Universe really showed me the worst case scenario this past visit. So let’s talk more about that.
The Very Broken Day at Epic Universe
We have to talk more about this day at Epic Universe. It was June 6, 2026, and if I could use one word to describe this day at the park, it would be “broken.”
Mine-Cart Madness had a similarly awful day. We had to exit the Mario Kart queue at rope drop because that ride couldn’t get going. Our first attempts at Fyre Drill and Battle at the Ministry also ran into “DELAY” notices.
A guest should expect and accept that a ride might be down for some portion of the day. But the extent of the delays this day were way outside the acceptable range.
More importantly, though, is that a typical guest would probably have faced three rides—Curse of the Werewolf, Mine-Cart Madness, and Battle at the Ministry—with waits in the 90-to-150-minute range to be fit into the last five hours of the day. Even if technically possible (a big if), this totally wrecks any evening plans you had. If you made the mistake of saving some fourth ride for this time, you’re just out of luck.
So, of course when we were in the park this day I was incredibly happy that we’d spent the $900 on Express Pass. It was literally the only feasible way to get on all the rides that day. When every. single. queue. was disappointing Zoe by being closed, I at least got to (correctly, thankfully) point out, “Well, we have Express Pass and should be able to get on it later. Some people will just miss out on it entirely.”
Those people who missed out on these rides entirely paid around $180 to be in the park. And while this post isn’t a review of the Epic Universe experience, it’s hard to disconnect my indignation on behalf of those guests from my gratitude that I was able to spend an extra $300 per person for the Express Pass—essentially a $300 (per person) insurance policy to get us on all the rides at a $180 park.
It’s worth asking how this review would read if even one of these rides hadn’t been open at a time that worked for us. I can’t imagine I’d endorse it if, for example, we hadn’t made it on to Battle at the Ministry (Zoe’s first time on it, by the way). And it’s sort of wild that a $300 per person product moves from “I hated this waste of money” to “probably essential for your visit” based on these rides just barely having enough operational time in the day, but it’s nothing new that E-ticket rides make or break the day.
Conclusion — “Fool Me Twice…”
It would be ridiculous to say a good day at Epic Universe is simply worth $480 per person (the approximate cost of a one-day ticket plus Express Pass). But that’s not how theme park vacation planning works. If you’re visiting Universal Orlando Resort, you’re already paying thousands of dollars for flights, hotels, and multi-day park tickets. You’ve already invested a lot to make sure the experience is great. And if this is a once-in-a-long-time visit, the stakes are high.
The question is, given everything you’ve put into this trip already, is it worth the extra cost for Express Pass to “insure” your experience at newest, arguably best, theme park?
If you’re on the fence about Express Pass, you should keep your eyes on wait time trends as your visit nears (keeping in mind holiday / weekend fluctuations). Just because I got burned with a wayward day doesn’t mean I think Express Pass is always a must-have.
Remember—I bought Express Pass before I knew the day would be a disaster for everyone else. I did this because this was Zoe’s only visit this year, and they kept talking about how excited they were about everything at Epic. I saw some concerning wait times, and decided it was worth “locking in” the good day.
I didn’t regret that decision, but I have to close this post by just saying I share the exasperation of all guests that a park that’s been open over a year still has days like June 6, 2026. I’ve bought Express Pass for both our family’s full “Epic” days not because I thought it was “icing on the cake” or a “YOLO” or “splurge” purchase. I simply felt it was necessary to have a good day. That’s not the selling point Universal Orlando should be relying on.
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.