What’s New in Orlando: Universal’s Epic Universe, Ette Hotel and much more
Orlando may be best known as the theme park capital of the world, but there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. In this episode, Tim Johnson and David Brodie explore the city’s ever-evolving theme park scene — with a deep dive into the brand-new Epic Universe at Universal Orlando Resort. For personalized help, check out the Visit Orlando Trip Planner for free one-on-one planning with a local expert.
From immersive Harry Potter rides to adrenaline-pumping coasters, we break down the top new attractions — and some surprising standouts like Dezerland Park and the Ette Hotel, a Michelin Key-awarded boutique hotel near Walt Disney World.
What You'll Hear About
• Why Orlando is still the most visited destination in the U.S.
• What’s new at Walt Disney World: Zootopia 4D show and Disney Starlight Parade
• Staying at the Ette Hotel — a luxury boutique option near Animal Kingdom
• Hidden gem: Dezerland Park and its Hollywood car collection
• A full day at Epic Universe, featuring:
– Ministry of Magic ride in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
– Stardust Racers and Curse of the Werewolf roller coasters
– Lunch at Flora Taverna inside the Universal Grand Helios Hotel
– Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge and Minecart Madness in Nintendo World
• Pro tips on beating the crowds and making the most of your visit
• Why staying late for the nighttime light show is totally worth it
Episode Resources
- Epic Universe (Universal Orlando)
- Ette Hotel Orlando
- Dezerland Park
- Walt Disney World
- Universal Grand Helios Hotel
Sponsored by Visit Orlando
This episode was produced with support from Visit Orlando. For personalized help, check out the Visit Orlando Trip Planner for free one-on-one planning with a local expert.
Some links above are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a small commission if you book — at no additional cost to you. We only recommend places we’ve personally experienced and loved.
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Transcript
So one thing that will probably surprise you is the fact that Orlando is the most visited destination in the United States.
Speaker A:A second fact that will not surprise you is that it is the theme park capital of the world.
Speaker A:People come from everywhere to come to the theme parks in Orlando.
Speaker A:And today that is going to be the focus of our episode.
Speaker A:It is a city that is in constant evolution and change, and the parks themselves are in constant evolution and change.
Speaker A:David, how you doing?
Speaker B:I'm doing great, Tannen.
Speaker B:Yeah, I was really surprised by how much there is in terms of what's new at all the theme parks.
Speaker B:When we were there, we had a chance to do a deep dive into two of them that we're going to talk a little bit in today's episode.
Speaker B:But also there were a few theme parks that we didn't get a chance to visit on this, this trip out, but that I know have a lot new going on as well.
Speaker B:Maybe starting off with Walt Disney World.
Speaker B:Do you want to talk a little bit about what's going on there?
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker A:As you said, we didn't make it to Walt Disney World on this trip, but I have been to Walt Disney World many, many times.
Speaker A:And one of my favorite park within Walt Disney World is Animal Kingdom.
Speaker A:And one of my favorite things in the world is going on an African safari.
Speaker A:And they replicate that experience very, very well with the safari attraction, but also just throughout the park.
Speaker A:And they have added a brand new 4D show called Zootopia Better Zugether.
Speaker A:I'm sure it'll be fantastic.
Speaker A:Just like their new nighttime parade, which is Disney Starlight.
Speaker A:Disney does spectacle very well.
Speaker A:Fireworks, parades, things like that.
Speaker A:And this is a brand new nighttime parade with LED lit floats, glowing characters from some of the movies, some of the favorite movies from recent times, Frozen and Kanto and a bunch of others.
Speaker A:Nighttime parades I think are just so special.
Speaker A:And I'm sure it's going to be a wonderful, wonderful parade, brand new, just started at Walt Disney World.
Speaker A:And I know you have a couple notes on a couple other theme parks and new things that are happening for sure.
Speaker B:And maybe just before we leave Disney too, I mean, we should say we stayed just really on the doorstep of Disney, very close to Animal Kingdom, at.
Speaker C:A relatively new hotel, the ET Hotel.
Speaker B:Which just this year won the Michelin Key Award.
Speaker B:Michelin, who does kind of evaluation of the best restaurants in the world, has also started now awarding keys to the best hotels in the world.
Speaker B:And this is one who's recently been named to that list.
Speaker B:It is only a 5 or 10 minute ride away from Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Speaker B:But it is a world way in terms of the atmosphere.
Speaker B:Very modern boutique hotel, lots of cool facilities.
Speaker B:They had an amazing restaurant at the hotel as well.
Speaker B:They had a relaxation area, is a great pool, a very zen, cool modern design experience which wasn't necessarily what I was expecting sitting at the, at the gates to the, to the theme parks.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:I couldn't agree more.
Speaker A:You know, I've stayed in many theme park hotels and they, what they do is they do a wonderful job of what they do.
Speaker A:This was something completely unexpected, completely different really.
Speaker A:A boutique hotel that you might find in, you know, in, in Paris or you know, New York or something like that.
Speaker A:Very polished, wonderful finishes, beautiful linens, great service, just this elevated boutique experience.
Speaker A:But again, as you said, I mean, right on the doorstep of Animal King.
Speaker A:I think we even made a wrong turn when we were trying to get to the hotel and we ended up at Animal Kingdom even though we weren't going.
Speaker A:So that's how close it is to the Animal Kingdom park.
Speaker A:So that was just a wonderful surprise.
Speaker A:Wonderful hotel.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And also, you know, not too far from where we were staying.
Speaker B:SeaWorld Orlando, they've opened some new rides recently.
Speaker B:Just this spring, Expedition Odyssey, the world's first fully immersive arctic themed flying theater.
Speaker C:But then the two theme parks that we got to really spend our time at do a bit more of a deep dive into were epic universe that we're going to spend a lot of days episode on.
Speaker C:But also a pretty unique place.
Speaker C:One called Desert Land, home of the Orlando Automuseum.
Speaker C:This is a massive collection, thousands of cars really tracing the history of automobiles.
Speaker B:But more importantly than that, what is.
Speaker C:Really known for is their screen used Hollywood automobiles.
Speaker C:You've got everything from the cars from Ghostbusters, from Back to the Future, Terminator, Indiana Jones, Jeep, Kate Middleton's Volkswagen Rabbit that she used to drive before she got married to Prince William.
Speaker C:And then this enormous collection of James Bond memorabilia and James Bond screen used vehicles as well.
Speaker C:Including some that you can in each of the sections that you can even sit in hands on and get to.
Speaker B:Enjoy a bit yourself if you do.
Speaker C:One of their VIP tours.
Speaker B:We both thought, oh, maybe we'll be.
Speaker C:Here for a couple of hours.
Speaker B:We ended up spending half of our day there and it was really, really worthwhile.
Speaker A:Yeah, I know we chatted about it, that neither of us are really car guys.
Speaker A:So we thought, okay, we'll go in, we'll see what there is to see.
Speaker A:And we had this Excellent guide who's super passionate about everything that was at the museum.
Speaker A:And you know, we, we sat in the Ghostbuster car and got our photos taken.
Speaker A:We went, you know, we probably spent an hour in the James Bond room alone just seeing all the cars.
Speaker A:And it was, you know, it was really awesome.
Speaker A:I mean it was.
Speaker A:Even as a non car guy, I'm kind of more of a movie guy.
Speaker A:So there were lots of movie and TV show cars and there was that huge long limousine.
Speaker A:It was longest, it was the longest car in the world.
Speaker B:Not alone.
Speaker A:You know, we were, you know, taking pictures with it and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker A:So, so I think that was one of the biggest in a city of surprises.
Speaker A:That was one of the biggest surprises that we had during our visit.
Speaker B:But then when it comes to what's new, I guess where we really spent the majority of our time and really digging into was Orlando's newest theme park at Universal Orlando Resort.
Speaker B:The brand new Epic Universe.
Speaker B:And today we're, that's what we're really going to be doing.
Speaker B:A deep dive into going through our favorite rides, our favorite things to eat, all that you can experience at Epic Universe.
Speaker D:So we're here at Universal Epic Universe, a brand new theme park that's part of Universal Orlando Resort.
Speaker D:We've got a beautiful sunny day, a.
Speaker A:Park that they just opened earlier this year.
Speaker D:A brand new experience for both David and I and we're both very excited to spend the whole day here immersing ourselves in this park.
Speaker D:And what are you most excited about?
Speaker B:I'm probably most excited to get in and see, see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Speaker E:It looks super immersive.
Speaker E:Some great rides there.
Speaker F:And this is now doubled the size.
Speaker E:Of Universal Orlando Resort.
Speaker E:We're almost double the size with this new park that they've added.
Speaker A:I think it's gonna be a great day.
Speaker E:Lots of sweet.
Speaker E:Here we go.
Speaker D:Okay, first ride of the day done.
Speaker E:What do you think, Tim?
Speaker D:Amazing.
Speaker D:We did the battle at the Ministry of Magic and I'm not a huge Harry Potter guy, so the narrative thread of the ride was a little bit unfamiliar to me.
Speaker D:But everything about it was actually pretty amazing.
Speaker D:I mean the sets walking in and then the actual thrill of the ride.
Speaker D:A lot of thought I think went into the design of this ride.
Speaker D:Really enjoyed it.
Speaker B:Theming was pretty amazing.
Speaker E:Unfortunately we couldn't film inside.
Speaker B:But what I really liked about it.
Speaker E:Is as you were going through what was digital versus what was practical effects.
Speaker D:Very hard to tell.
Speaker E:I mean it was, it was very.
Speaker D:Line the line between magic and reality was a little bit blurred, and I think that's where you think it's get the most fun, most interesting.
Speaker D:Would you give a wand here at.
Speaker B:The Wizarding World of Harry Potter?
Speaker B:You're looking at one of two prices.
Speaker C:Either 65 for some of the wands here or 85 for a few that.
Speaker B:Are a little bit more elaborate.
Speaker F:And they're all going to let you interact with all the different interactive features here throughout the wizarding world.
Speaker D:We just got off Stardust Racers here in Celestial park, and I'm a real roller coaster guy.
Speaker D:I love roller coasters, and I'm not sure that I've ever had an adrenaline rush quite like that.
Speaker D:I mean, it felt like G forces.
Speaker D:It felt like you were floating in the air.
Speaker D:It felt like twist after turn after twist after turn.
Speaker D:My favorite thing was just before we got on, neither David or I had done too much research on this particular roller coaster.
Speaker D:And David said, does this have a loop in it?
Speaker D:And I said, I don't know.
Speaker D:I don't know.
Speaker D:I think there's one maybe.
Speaker D:Maybe one loop.
Speaker D:And there were.
Speaker D:I'm gonna go low on the estimate.
Speaker D:There were maybe 1 billion loops.
Speaker D:It was just constant.
Speaker D:It was.
Speaker D:And, yeah, I mean, we'll be riding the adrenaline for a while.
Speaker E:That's by far the most intense roller.
Speaker B:Coaster I've ever been on.
Speaker E:You got to make sure before you go on, you can't have anything metal.
Speaker E:You can't have your glasses.
Speaker E:We thought, oh, it seems like a little bit much that you get on the ride.
Speaker E:It was a little bit much.
Speaker D:It was like.
Speaker D:It was intense.
Speaker D:People who love roller coasters, I got.
Speaker E:To Love that, right?
Speaker B:60 kilometers an hour or 60 miles an hour.
Speaker D:We got over 100 kilometers an hour and a half.
Speaker D:It felt like a thousand.
Speaker B:And the only.
Speaker E:Only roller coaster I ever been that everybody was almost giving it a standing ovation as they.
Speaker E:As they got to the end.
Speaker D:Yeah, everybody cheering as we came back into the station.
Speaker D:Every single time.
Speaker B:So very cool ride.
Speaker D:Yeah, super fun.
Speaker E:All right, we're just off Curse the Werewolf.
Speaker E:This is our second roller coaster of the day.
Speaker D:It was less intense, less intense than the first one, but still a little bit intense and fun enough to kind of get the adrenaline pumping.
Speaker D:And as some of you might notice, I am no longer wearing a hat.
Speaker D:And that is because my hat flew off.
Speaker D:So it was a powerful enough ride to pull my hat off.
Speaker D:And I was dumb enough that I did not take my hat off before the ride.
Speaker C:Okay, so we're here at the Helios.
Speaker F:Hotel at Flora Taverna.
Speaker F:Checking out, checking out.
Speaker D:Lunch here.
Speaker D:I like it, I like it a lot.
Speaker D:You know, theme parks, you know, they're so much fun but they can be hot.
Speaker A:You know, you're queuing up in lines.
Speaker D:Sometimes it's nice to just escape and you know, we're sitting in comfortable chairs.
Speaker D:It's air conditioned, a nice menu of kind of Mediterranean themed, Greek, Italian themed dishes.
Speaker D:Not too busy, just kind of a nice little siesta and lunch on the way.
Speaker D:So I think kind of a hot tip for a cool place to go is to come here to the, to.
Speaker A:The Universal Helios Grand Hotel and the.
Speaker D:Flora Taverna for lunch.
Speaker D:If you're looking for a little break.
Speaker F:It's a pretty reasonable menu.
Speaker F:We were just saying, you know, pizza is about $22.
Speaker F:I think I'm getting a sandwich for about the same.
Speaker F:For theme park food, the definitely a little bit elevated and throughout the park I've kind of noticed that too, that it's a bit of a elevated food experience.
Speaker F:Well, we were just in the Wizarding.
Speaker E:World of Harry Potter there multiple French restaurants.
Speaker F:We wandered into one where they had sort of crepes and French onion soup, things like that.
Speaker F:Right when you first came in, that was on the kind of left hand side as you first entered that land.
Speaker F:And then another one that was more off to the right hand side as we came in that was more almost.
Speaker B:Kind of felt like a German, like.
Speaker F:A style beer hall, bratwurst, schnitzel and.
Speaker D:All that kind of stuff.
Speaker D:So I felt like they had done a really nice job of weaving the theming of the area into the restaurants.
Speaker A:A restaurant?
Speaker F:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker F:In, in all the restaurants.
Speaker F:And then the other nice thing here is I've noticed like a lot of the Disney parks.
Speaker F:If you were to come out to one of the, the hotels on property for lunch, often a bit of a hike out, particularly the Disney World.
Speaker F:It could be, you know, a bit of a trip or this.
Speaker F:We're kind of right still in the very center of the park in this nice luxury hotel and air conditioned and everything as well.
Speaker F:And in two minutes we can be back on rides as well.
Speaker A:Well, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker D:The only thing I wish is that we could take a nap after we're not staying at the hotel.
Speaker D:Not a possibility.
Speaker A:But I think after I ordered a.
Speaker D:Italian sausage pizza, I think a nap is going to be in order, but perhaps not possible.
Speaker E:Probably, probably be up till 3 o'.
Speaker E:Clock watch the World Series last night didn't Help.
Speaker D:Exactly.
Speaker D:Exactly.
Speaker D:But, yeah.
Speaker A:Lunch on the way.
Speaker D:Looking forward to tasting the food.
Speaker D:And again, a nice little siesta here.
Speaker A:At the Helios Hotel.
Speaker E:All right, we're working our way through the major attractions for the day here.
Speaker E:Tim, we just came off Mario Kart or Mario Kart Bowser Challenge.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker E:What do you think?
Speaker D:Yeah, it was kind of like an immersive video game.
Speaker D:So a lot of us remember growing up playing Mario Kart.
Speaker D:This was like driving right into Mario Kart.
Speaker D:Now, I will say I was never good at Mario Kart, and I was not good at this.
Speaker D:I had the.
Speaker E:That was reflected in today's.
Speaker D:The low score of everyone in our group.
Speaker D:And it did take me a solid two minutes.
Speaker D:Minutes to figure out what I was doing.
Speaker D:But once.
Speaker D:Once I got rolling, it was a lot of fun.
Speaker E:It's good.
Speaker E:You had the augmented reality glasses where it projected up, you know, parts of the video game in front of you.
Speaker E:And we were both saying, you know, through parts of the ride, it was.
Speaker E:You could see the ride, you could see the video game in front of you.
Speaker E:But as you got to the end, there's quite a cool section where it felt very emergent, like you were right in the video game itself.
Speaker D:Absolutely.
Speaker D:Like driving into a video game.
Speaker D:Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:Coming off Minecart Madness, actually one of my favorites.
Speaker E:It was, like, good theming.
Speaker E:Looked like we're going off the tracks multiple times.
Speaker D:I think for pure fun factor, I think I. I think it really checked all the bosses.
Speaker D:You know, I think the theme was that you're on a cart going through a mine, and maybe Donkey Kong was right, twisted the tracks, it destroyed them.
Speaker D:And lots of times it looked like the cart was going to just fly into a pond or off the edge.
Speaker D:And then, of course, it didn't.
Speaker D:And it was just.
Speaker D:It was just fun.
Speaker D:It was just a lot of fun.
Speaker E:And least intense is relative because the other two roller coasters, they pretty high.
Speaker D:They were fairly intense.
Speaker D:And this was.
Speaker D:This was just pure fun.
Speaker E:Pure fun.
Speaker D:They were fun too, but this was just pure fun.
Speaker E:T is for traveling as your family.
Speaker E:People get tired throughout the day.
Speaker E:Go back, take rest at your hotel.
Speaker B:Maybe midday when it's hotter outside.
Speaker B:But I would highly recommend being in.
Speaker E:The park for the last two hours.
Speaker E:A it's some of the least crowds of the day.
Speaker B:You can go back and do some of the rides you enjoyed or hit some of the ones that were maybe too busy earlier, and you get to see it all lit up in the whole different atmosphere.
Speaker E:Here as well.
Speaker F:Stick around until the end of the night.
Speaker E:There's actually a great sound of light.
Speaker D:Show that happens right in front of the Helios Hotel.
Speaker E:So another good reason for coming back in the last hour.
Speaker E:So, Tim, we've kind of covered the whole park now, but we hit, I would say, what, 90% of the rides here, probably, and most of the big ones for sure.
Speaker D:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker D:And for me, the Ministry of Magic, it.
Speaker D:It really, truly was magical.
Speaker D:So love that ride.
Speaker D:That's of Camp Miss for me.
Speaker D:And Stardust Racers was mind blowing.
Speaker D:I mean, the G forces, the twists, the turns, the adrenaline rush afterwards.
Speaker D:I would say if you're a roller coaster person at all, that's a canvas for me as well.
Speaker D:100%.
Speaker E:It was, it was the one that as we got on, we were both like, whoa.
Speaker E:That was not what we expected.
Speaker E:That was.
Speaker E:You look at it, it looks like a roller coaster, but you definitely didn't get a sense of the intensity till the moment they hit.
Speaker B:Go.
Speaker E:It was far and away the fastest roller coaster I've ever been on.
Speaker D:Absolutely.
Speaker D:And the twists, the turns, all the unexpected curves, I mean, it was, yeah, it was incredible.
Speaker D:Really.
Speaker E:I would be with you.
Speaker E:That was definitely the can't miss for me.
Speaker E:Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Speaker E:The theming was incredible.
Speaker E:I mean, the rides were.
Speaker E:Were great, but even just walking around.
Speaker F:It, I mean, you really did feel.
Speaker E:Like you were on the streets of Paris.
Speaker D:Yes, I've been to Paris many times, so definitely felt like Paris.
Speaker D:I've never been to Paris in the era, you know, that was being portrayed.
Speaker D:But you really could you kind of close your eyes, open them again and believe that you were.
Speaker D:That you were in Paris.
Speaker D:The theming was.
Speaker D:Was very, very complete there.
Speaker E:The Nintendo section was.
Speaker E:Was bigger than I expected it to be.
Speaker E:That was actually, as we first got in, it looked like a couple kids rides and we went on one that augmented reality ride that was quite good.
Speaker E:But then I thought we were done.
Speaker E:We turned a quarter and there was a whole other section of it that was probably the largest of the themed.
Speaker F:Lands here of what we saw today.
Speaker D:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker D:And many, many steps.
Speaker D:I think we're going to hit 15, 20,000 steps today.
Speaker D:So we've really covered the ground here at Epic Univers.
Speaker G:Make fond memories of your explorations live on in the stars above and within you until the next arch journey calls you back.
Speaker G:Farewell and.
Speaker C:Sa.
