For months, I had this preconceived notion that May 22, 2025 would be the "best, worst day of my life": exciting, of course, but that excitement would be met with insufferable crowds, attractions posting wait times of multiple hours long, and opening-day break downs. If you told me opening day would have been the easiest, smoothest, most relaxing park day I have ever experienced, I would call you nuts.

I woke up at 3 a.m. to start getting ready. Staying at the nearby Universal Stella Nova Resort, we used the hotel's walkway for access to Epic Universe. We sat at the gates in a line filled with way more people than I was expecting. After about an hour or so, we were let into the entrance to line up for security. At about 6:20 a.m., we were inside the park. My group split off to see the opening ceremonies at the different portals across the park. I chose one the closest to my heart, Super Nintendo World.

8 a.m. saw the start of the grand opening ceremonies. Once Super Nintendo World had finished its portion of the celebration, I bolted out of there to meet up with my friend who was near the entrance to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic, hoping to get early access to Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. This ride's delayed operations were truly the only downside to the day. (Experiencing technical challenges, Battle at the Ministry did not open until a little after 3 p.m. It was stressful wondering if we'd be able to experience it at all, but I'm happy to report we were able to ride it THREE times by day's end.)

We decided to leave the Battle at the Ministry queue, our choice fueled by the low wait times around the park. Wanting to take advantage of something that might not last all day, we set our eyes on Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment. However, after our trip to the catacombs, we noticed something: wait times were not going up. They were staying below 25 minutes. We wondered if it would stay all day, and to our absolute delight, they did.