Universal’s new Stella Nova Resort is officially open!
The new hotel is a twin resort to the Universal Terra Luna Resort, which will open later this year. Both hotels are located directly across the street from the new theme park Epic Universe, which will open on May 22nd, 2025. We stayed at Stella Nova on its opening day and got a peek at all the new amenities, shops, and restaurants inside the hotel. We also decided to test out the bus system that takes you from Stella Nova to the Universal Orlando Resort, and what we noticed about our trip might be some bad news.
Stella Nova Resort is approximately 5 to 7 miles from Universal City Walk, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, and Volcano Bay, but luckily, the hotel offers a free shuttle to get you to the theme parks. (When Epic Universe opens, you’ll be able to simply walk to the park!)
Since we were at Stella Nova anyway, we decided to hop on the shuttle over to City Walk. We noted that it took us about 12(ish) minutes to get from the hotel over to City Walk. This isn’t bad timing; however, we have a feeling this will not be the norm. When we rode the shuttle there was NO traffic, and unlike at Disney World, you ride on very public, active roads, and in particular Universal Boulevard.
Universal Boulevard and the other public roads the shuttle took can get VERY busy, especially around the times the theme parks open and close. In the past, we’ve had to sit in 20+ minutes of stopped traffic just to get to the parks. Hopefully, the buses will have better luck than regular cars because they do have special lanes, but we’re worried that even they could see BIG traffic slowdowns.
If you’re planning to stay at Stella Nova and take the shuttle (or drive yourself) to the parks, you’ll definitely want to plan accordingly. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to account for any traffic that you may encounter, especially around park open and close times and for any special events such as Halloween Horror Nights or concerts.
Getting to Epic Universe will be a piece of cake, but it may be more difficult to get to the other parks. There are roads near Epic Universe and the hotels that are still not done being built, so as the new park opens this problem may get better, but we’re unsure what that will look like. For the time being, consider traffic as you head to the parks!
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Join Us As We Try Nova Bar in Universal’s NEW Hotel
Are you planning to stay at Stella Nova Resort? Let us know in the comments!
This is a little off subject but I wonder how early busses will start picking up people presumably from City Walk when Epic opens. You know people will be in line hours before Epic opens each day and it will be very irritating to be on the supposed first bus only to discover you are in a line that is a half a mile from the entrance. Just curious.