Universal Orlando’s third theme park, Epic Universe, is now officially open — without long wait times on its grand opening day.

Rather than reflecting a lack of demand, it’s been widely reported among theme park news sources that Universal was likely to cap attendance on opening day and the few weeks after, similar to the capacity limits for the park’s preview period. (You can read about our experience during one of those previews here.)

Guests were allowed inside Celestial Park well before the official opening time to relieve congestion at the park entrance.

Opening ceremonies for the park were limited to small presentations and moments in front of the portals to each land at Epic Universe, such as this one at the How to Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk entrance.

Years of hype for Epic Universe would mean massive, unbearable crowds on opening day, right? That wasn’t the case with the exception of Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, the dark ride that is proving to be Epic’s most problematic — and coveted — attraction. 

The wait time at one point was listed at five hours long before the ride broke down. Waits later sunk down to as low as three hours.

Yet if you could manage to skip Battle at the Ministry, many guests reported low wait times across the rest of the park, even lower than some of the preview days.

Low wait times on opening day may be seen by some as an indication of trouble for Epic Universe. After all, it’s expected in a theme park that new, individual rides to grab headlines for very long waits on their debut. 

However, if the emphasis is on the guest experience rather than creating a FOMO-like demand — and not potentially driving away customers who assume there will be huge crowds — capping attendance as Universal has may be the better move for opening a whole new park compared to just one ride.