Update: Stardust Racers Reopens Earlier Than Expected at Epic Universe

Written by Joshua Posted March 11th, 2026

Update (March 25, 2026): Stardust Racers is back, somehow both early and late at the same time. After blowing past three reopening targets, Universal padded the ride’s downtime calendar with plenty of extra buffer. Turns out, they didn’t need most of it. The dual coaster is once again launching guests skyward, which means our countdown clock was completely unnecessary.

A map of Epic Universe showing a 25-minute wait for Stardust Racers

Our original story follows…

Stardust Racers is going through some things. Epic Universe’s dual coaster has been closed since February 19. The plan was a short, three-day update. I didn’t write about it or create a countdown. As closures go, it looked routine.

Then Universal pushed the reopening to February 28. Then March 15. Today, they added even more time to the schedule, listing April 6 as the new reopening date. That means the ridiculously entertaining coaster will be closed through most of spring break, including the always-crowded Easter weekend.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Spring break kicks off in earnest this Saturday, and Universal surely wanted this ride ready for the crowds heading to Central Florida. Instead, a coaster capable of handling up to 2,800 guests per hour will be offline the entire time.

I feel sorry for the Team Members working in guest services.

Epic Universe's Stardust Racers sign at night

This marks Stardust’s third extended closure. The first came after Kevin Rodriguez Zavala died while riding in September 2025. In January, the coaster experienced a freak valley incident on a cold, windy day. Cranes had to remove the stranded trains, forcing a three-day shutdown.

This time, though, everything pointed to routine maintenance. According to thrill-data.com, Stardust’s final three operating days before the closure had average wait times of 38, 44, and 32 minutes. Those are rock-solid numbers. Universal likely expected a quick turnaround.

Instead, the coaster is now scheduled to be down for 46 days. Universal, always tight-lipped, hasn’t shared why.

Update (March 12, 2026): Universal has released the following statement about Stardust’s extended downtime:

“Stardust Racers is undergoing its first annual planned inspection and maintenance process. We are efficiently completing the work all at once and are also making additional capacity and throughput enhancements, which is extending the temporary closure period.”

Our original story continues below.

Reliability may be part of the story. The coaster goes offline fairly often. We ran into that ourselves last September. On our first day, we waited out a long delay in the standby line. The second day was even worse, despite having Express Passes. Team Members cleared the queue during our first attempt. Later that evening, we tried again while only one train was operating. Even with EPs, we waited close to two hours to ride.

That’s anecdotal, sure. But plenty of similar stories appear on social media. In hindsight, I probably should have ridden Monsters Unchained (Epic’s crown jewel of ride efficiency) a dozen times instead.

Ride operations have been one of the few weak spots in Epic’s otherwise fantastic experience, and Universal has acknowledged the issue. During Comcast’s most recent earnings call, CFO Jason S. Armstrong said Epic Universe is “not yet operating at full run rate capacity,” but the company has made “meaningful progress expanding ride throughput.”

For guests hoping Universal will soon add Annual Pass access to Epic Universe, that likely won’t happen until attractions can consistently handle the extra crowds those passes would bring. Maybe this extended downtime results in a far more reliable Stardust Racers. If it does, that will go a long way toward Epic being able to handle more guests.