We love Universal Orlando’s attractions, restaurants, and hotels, but there is always room for improvement. As 2025 closes out and we look forward to 2026, here are some suggestions where Universal Orlando can improve in the year to come and beyond.

Reimage Volcano Bay

When Volcano Bay opened in 2017, Universal Orlando christened it a “water theme park”, a water park so advanced that it blends the concept of a water park and a traditional theme park. Well, attempted to blend but it ended up still being more of a water park than a theme park. TapuTapu was removed, several slides had to be reworked or are now closed due to incidents, the interactive features such as Vol were turned off, and the much-anticipated shows never materialized. In October 2026, Volcano Bay will shut down for nearly six months for a complete refurbishment, so let’s reimagine some aspects of Volcano Bay…

First, add more Cabanas. The private hideaway away from it all cabanas are wonderful, but book months in advance at astronomical rates. Adding more Cabanas is an easy no-brainer choice that will make guests happier. I’d also love for them to offer an online solution to booking cabanas as waiting on a call to book has taken several hours in the past. A full expansion of the park is also needed. The Krakatau Aqua Coaster is the most popular attraction in the park, why not build another water coaster on the southern expansion pad, similar to Mammoth at Holiday World? And don’t forget to replace the worn and weathered tarps and roofs of many of the dining locations.

Epic Struggles

Epic Universe, the first new theme park in Orlando in 26 years, opened this year. Over a decade in the making, this new park opened May 22, 2025, to eagerly awaiting guests. Epic Universe is truly Epic with its incredible architecture, massive new attractions, incredible experiences, and amazing food and drink. But like all new parks, it’s had its share of opening year pains.

From cracked themed pavement to ride capacity, there are lots of issues that remain in the park. Many of them are continuing to be addressed, such as the cracked pavement being replaced as we speak. But other issues have popped up over the year – the Burning Blade lost and regained its blades to fix its effect, all the dragons in Berk were shut off during my December visit, the statues at Berk are covered in soot from the fire effect, and Super Nintendo World’s games and moving figures were also down. The fact there aren’t issues isn’t a problem, there always are, but it’s how and when they are responded to that matters. Hopefully Universal continues to repair and replace as the park goes through its growing pains.

Price Increases

Death. Taxes. Theme park price increases. It’s as certain as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. But this year was one humdinger of a year with price increases, and nowhere was that more evident than with the mac and cheese cones in Isle of Berk at Epic Universe.

What started as an $11.99 snack went up $4 to $15.99. That’s an increase in price by a third in just a handful of months! Berk isn’t the only place with a high inflation rate – a cup of Butterbeer is now $9.50! Prices rose all over the resort this year and it has made it hard for us to suggest some classic Universal experiences. While we’ll never see price decreases in the parks, I hope Universal considers taking a break from increasing food and drink prices for 2026.

Bring Back Character Dining

Universal’s never been known for their young child-friendly offerings. While the opening of Dreamworks Land in USF helped in that area, the Universal parks lack one popular offering found at Disney: character dining. Sure, Universal has a limited Marvel character dinner offering, but it’s limited in days and choices, and the Grinch breakfast is only available during the holidays. Instead, I’d like to see Universal embrace character dining options around the resort. USF can have a Minions breakfast at Minion Cafe, while a Mario breakfast would be a lot of fun at either the Atlantic or Toadstool Cafe. And don’t forget about the resorts by reopening the old Tchoup Chop location for character dining again.

Improve Your Lowest-Rated Attractions, Restaurants, & Hotels

We covered your favorite Universal Orlando attractions, restaurants, and hotels, so now it’s time to look at your least favorite. This year is a big one with several new additions and a whole new park to cover.

This year, your ratings came back with a resounding message: Fast & Furious Supercharged sucks. PE-YEW. Bad. It’s your worst-rated attraction not only in USF but the whole resort between four parks! But don’t let Dom and the guys distract you from two other low-rated attractions. In Islands of Adventure, the lowest rated attraction is Dr. Doom’s FearFall, an S&S launch tower whose popularity died off in the mid-2000s. The first entry to the lowest-rated Epic ride is Yoshi Adventure, not a bad ride per se, but not one that justifies the waits (even if we do say to grade the ride not based on the wait).

Restaurants

Lets start in Islands with a restaurant I find is massively overrated because it was Derek’s white whale for several years: Wimpy’s. Burgers with no indoor seating near a water ride so the seats are always wet. Skip Wimpy’s go to Thunder Falls Terrace in Jurassic Park. Fast Food Boulevard in Springfield, USA is your lowest rated restaurant in USF with its just ok burgers and chicken. Toadstool Cafe in Epic Universe takes the cake for your least favorite restaurant in the new park with its basic burgers and pasta. If you’re in CityWalk, we suggest skipping Hot Dog Hall of Fame, a cute but ultimately lackluster hot dog place. Can Universal Orlando CityWalk please get a Portillo’s?

Hotels

While I enjoy my stays at Endless Summer Dockside, it has routinely rated lower than the other hotels for room quality, check-in, and overall rating. It’s easy to see where the issues come from with check-in lines stretching around the lobby at times to long waits for elevators. At times, the hotel feels too small for the number of rooms it has. We hope Universal looks into improving these experiences for guest satisfaction. Don’t hear about folks talking about Cabana Bay anymore? Not a surprise here, it’s the hotel with the lowest Would Suggest to a Friend rating.