Epic Universe is still days away from its grand opening, but the honeymoon period already appears to be over. Designed to be Universal Orlando’s most ambitious project yet, the sprawling new theme park has attracted enormous buzz—and, more recently, growing concern.
As anticipation reaches a fever pitch, soft openings and preview events have drawn thousands of eager guests hoping to experience the park ahead of its official May 22 debut. But along with the praise for the park’s impressive detail and immersive theming, a less flattering pattern has started to emerge.
Some visitors aren’t just exploring the new lands—they’re reportedly damaging them. Even before opening day, guests are testing the limits of what they can get away with inside the park.
A Bad Start in SUPER NINTENDO WORLD
Nowhere has the damage been more visible than inside SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, the brightly colored, meticulously designed land inspired by Nintendo’s most iconic franchises. According to early reports from the park, guests have already begun tampering with the queue for Yoshi’s Adventure, an omnimover ride adapted from Universal Studios Japan.
“Visitors have been pulling the stems off the apples in the Yoshi’s Adventure queue,” one report notes—an issue that, while seemingly minor, could pose larger operational and maintenance problems as crowds increase.
Guests already broke many of the stems off the apples in the Yoshi’s Adventure queue pic.twitter.com/RQeLNNKm9m
— Universal Parks News Today (@UniNewsToday) May 8, 2025
SUPER NINTENDO WORLD features several attractions, including Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, a ride powered by augmented reality, and Mine-Cart Madness, a coaster themed to Donkey Kong Country. Designed to feel like a life-sized video game, the area is filled with interactive elements and tactile props—many of which may now be at risk if current behavior continues.
Though queue damage may seem trivial, it mirrors a larger pattern that has plagued other parks. In 2023, Disneyland’s Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway suffered similar issues, with guests deliberately damaging props in its interactive queue—behavior that was widely condemned by longtime fans and cast members alike.
Beyond Broken Props
The incidents at SUPER NINTENDO WORLD aren’t isolated. Reports from Epic Universe preview attendees have described a range of inappropriate behavior, including guests making suggestive comments to a Hiccup face character in How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk. Hiccup, a teenage character in the DreamWorks film series, has apparently become the target of uncomfortable interactions from adult visitors.
Elsewhere, team members have reportedly been shouted at by guests attempting to cut the queue for Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, while others have noted minor vandalism in other attraction lines across the park.
Preview access was recently expanded to include any guests who purchased early-entry tickets, leading to a notable increase in daily attendance. With that, however, came longer wait times—and, seemingly, a rise in bad behavior.
Have you noticed bad behavior during previews at Epic Universe?
