Epic Universe Update: Track Supports Installed for Yoshi Ride and Footings for Hub Coaster

Universal Orlando’s upcoming theme park, Epic Universe, may not be opening until summer 2025, but construction seems to be happening quite rapidly. Just a couple weeks since our last update has seen new projects start within the massive work site, tons of more steel has risen, and even more ride supports have been installed.

Let’s take a quick look around some of the more notable changes to be seen, including work around Super Nintendo World, the park’s massive central hub, and more.

As always, these incredible aerial photographs come compliments of the talented Bioreconstruct on Twitter, the greatest theme park follow in all of Central Florida!

In our last update we talked about roller coaster track arriving and being staged near the theme park site. This coaster track is expected to be for the How to Train Your Dragon area, and still appears to be staged in the same spot.

Despite track not yet being installed within the How to Train Your Dragon area, there are plenty of coaster footings installed already. These are mostly positioned near and within the land’s main water feature.

The roller coaster will pass under a couple bridges, passing below the water line of the area’s lagoon. This will be similar to the way the Incredible Hulk Coaster passes under the bridge near the entrance to Marvel Super Hero Island at Islands of Adventure.

Zooming out, we can see that the very first coaster footings have been installed for another roller coaster attraction at Epic Universe. At the top-right part of the photo below are footings for the hub’s massive dual track racing coaster.

The hub roller coaster will be the largest and most thrilling attraction for Epic Universe. See the video below to get an idea of what the coaster may be like.

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The area where the new footings have been installed is where the two tracks for this massive steel coaster will come right up to the edge of the park’s central hub.

While we know for sure that the hub coaster and the How to Train Your Dragon coaster attractions will in fact be roller coasters, there is another attraction just starting to take shape that we aren’t 100% certain of.

According to permits, there will be two attractions located within the Universal Monsters area of Epic Universe when the park opens. One will be an indoor dark ride. The show building for this attraction is taking shape now.

The second attraction was originally being designed as an indoor theater show, but recent permits and rumors indicate it may have been changed to another roller coaster ride for Epic Universe.

Check out the photo below, which is where the second attraction is set to be built. Some footings are beginning to take shape, but it may still be too soon to tell if this will in fact be a roller coaster or not. Whatever it is, it does not appear to match earlier permit drawings for this area.

As we’re used to by now, Super Nintendo World is seeing the most progress! The image below shows the entire land: Donkey Kong roller coaster at bottom, Mario Kart building outline on right, and Yoshi with the rest of the land at top.

In addition to coaster supports and track that has been installed already, new steel has risen for the Donkey Kong mine cart roller coaster.

This is part of the main structure for the ride, and may contain indoor scenes, as the attraction will go both outside and inside.

In the photo below of the entire area, you can see that while not much work is happening at the Mario Kart ride, seen on the top-right, it does look like the ride path is starting to be dug out.

A closer view of Mario Kart seen below.

While not too much is happening with the Mario Kart attraction, work is picking up for Yoshi’s Adventure.

This family omnimover style attraction takes place high above the Mushroom Kingdom, and many of its track supports were just installed. The round structure on top of the building will be a continuously moving load and unload area for the Yoshi Ride.

The entrance to the Yoshi ride can be seen in the photo below, with the bridge under the ride path and track installed to the right. The black cylinder in the foreground will be the entrance to Toad’s Cafe, the land’s quick service restaurant.

Other areas of the park are seeing modest progress, including plenty of steel being added to the large ride in the future Wizarding World area.

From the side we can get a better idea of how tall this large ride building is. According to permits, at least one section of this structure will be at least-5 stories tall.

The center of Epic Universe is seeing prep for several structures as well as multiple water features, including a large showpiece fountain display.

A big thanks to Bioreconstruct for providing everyone with the incredible aerial photography. You can follow Bio on Twitter for more photos around all of the Orlando theme parks.

That’s all for now, but if you’d like to bring a piece of the parks home, Souvenir Scents has candles and wax melts that smell like the the ET ride, Butterbeer, and even HHN houses. Save 15% off every order with my promo code PARKSTOP at SouvenirScents.com.

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