The Discover Universal Blog shared a full guide to the lore of Celestial Park, the central “world” of the newest Universal Orlando Resort theme park, Epic Universe.
Celestial Park Lore
Celestial Park: The Portals & Residents
Discovery Universal Blog senior editor Nicole Wills sat down with assistant creative director JC Cloward and show producer Gina Scheraldi to talk about the story of Celestial Park. As they described:
Celestial Park is a wondrous realm that exists outside of the bounds of space and time. It’s home to portals to other worlds throughout the universe — portals that some of the greatest artists, architects, and scientists in history have traveled through to pay Celestial Park a visit and, in some cases, leave their mark on the world.
The Chronos
The Chronos is the portal through which guests enter Celestial Park and Epic Universe. It opens and operates the other portals leading to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, Dark Universe, and Super Nintendo World. It’s maintained by the Celestians.
The Celestians
“Celestians” are the people who live in Celestial Park, including people who were born there and people who have traveled to the world and made it their home. The Chronocosmic Engineers are Celestians who maintain the portals and take care of the Chronos. Other Celestians operate the restaurants and stores of Celestial Park.
Stardust Racers
Stardust Racers is the park’s dual-launch coaster. According to its backstory, Celestians once used comets to travel across the cosmos from one world to the next. Stardust Racers was the launch point for these comets.
But once the Chronos opened the portals, an easier method of intergalactic travel, comet-based travel fell by the wayside. Chronocosmic Engineers then developed a system to contain comets for recreational use, and racing them at Stardust Racers became a pastime.
It wasn’t easy stabilizing the comets. But a “certain doctor” happened to travel through a portal to Celestial Park and offer his technology to the Chronocosmic Engineers. The doctor is Doc Brown from “Back to the Future,” as hinted at by the Flux Capacitor on the back of each Stardust Racers train.
Constellation Carousel
The seats of Constellation Carousel are the physical manifestations of constellations. On the side of each ride vehicle, you’ll see points of light that reflect the constellation each animal represents.
Watch our full nighttime POV of Constellation Carousel:
Various Emporia
The Celestian Vincent Various was one of the first travelers to Celestial Park. He worked as a Chronocosmic Engineer for years, traveling through different portals, before setting up shop at Various Emporia. This location includes the shops Sensorium Emporium, North Star Wintry Wonders, and Lens Flare.
Sensorium Emporium
Sensorium Emporium was once a workshop of Vincent’s inventions. It’s now the flagship merchandise location of Epic Universe, including items from all the worlds.
Above the check-out area is Vincent’s old workspace and a chalkboard of details.
There’s also a telescope pointed toward the cosmos. Although he’s retired from adventuring, Vincent still keeps an eye on the interstellar worlds that he used to visit.
North Star Wintry Wonders
This year-round holiday shop is Santa Claus’ workshop. He lives at the North Pole but got lost in a snowstorm and fell through a portal into Celestial Park. Vincent let him set up shop in Various Emporia. Above the shop’s shelves is a conveyor belt transporting gifts from Celestial Park to the North Pole, right into Santa’s sleigh.
One gift is a plush of Earl the Squirrel, the Universal Orlando Resort holiday mascot.
Moonship Chocolates & Celestial Sweets
The characters of Moonship Chocolates & Celestial Sweets are Captain Cacao and Maya of the Skies. Maya is a young girl who travels the cosmos on her moonship. She met the bear Captain Cacao on an adventure and he became her navigator so he could keep traveling with his best friend.
They continue to travel the cosmos looking for the most delicious ingredients. In Moonship Chocolates & Celestial Sweets, there’s a door for Maya, a smaller door for Captain Cacao, and an even smaller door with the initials M.L.
M.L., Universal revealed, stands for Major Lolli, a sugar glider who befriended Maya and Captain Cacao and joined their team. She makes sure the moonship is kept in tip-top shape and is “very aggressive” in making sure everybody is safe.
Celestial Park Dining
Atlantic
At the seafood restaurant Atlantic, you may hear the story of Fernando del Mar from your server. The young seafarer traveled with his grandmother, Valentina, who would tell grand tales of her adventures on the high seas. One such tale was about a rough patch of sea — the Bermuda Triangle — filled with mermaids and ichthyocentaurs.
Fernando wanted to explore this place himself so bought the ship Adriata 2 and set off. It turns out the Bermuda Triangle contained a portal to Celestial Park. Fernando loved Celestial Park so much, he decided to open a fine dining restaurant to immerse guests in the Atlantic Ocean.
Fernando is usually out sailing but does send reminders to his crew to alternate between serving dishes at Atlantic and having adventures.
Read our Atlantic review.
The Blue Dragon Pan-Asian Restaurant
Celestian Kai Ming is a backpacker and chef from Chengdu, China who was guided by the constellation Draco on an adventure across Asia. Alongside her family’s tiger protector, Hao Yu, she traveled on a star-powered bike, collecting recipes and sharing her cooking. She ended up in Celestial Park and founded The Blue Dragon Pan-Asian Restaurant.
The Tiger Bar at the restaurant is inspired by her “mischievous and snack-stealing” tiger. The Chengdu Dream is Kai Ming’s favorite drink at the bar.
Read our review of The Blue Dragon Pan-Asian Restaurant.
Pizza Moon
The quick-service restaurant Pizza Moon is designed as a Victorian paper theater with posters outside for the theater’s performers. The design is directly inspired by Georges Méliès’ 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) but it has its own backstory.
A rocket crashed on the Moon, leading the residents to come out and see what landed on their planet. The Moon, of course, is made of cheese and with the fiery rocket heating the cheese up, they decided to make pizza.
The restaurant is owned by the Celestians Hugo de Lune and Cosimo Alessandro Nanarossa. Hugo is from a family of French traveling circus performers. During his travels, he met Cosimo, himself from a family of Italian pizza makers. The pair fell in love and opened the restaurant together.
Read our Pizza Moon review.
Meteor Astropub
Meteor Astropub is owned by the young Celestian Omar Alia, who comes from a long line of stargazers. Omar used to spend all of his time in his family’s astronomy tower, eating comfort foot and staring up at the skies. His love for the stars led him to Celestial Park. He began studying to become a Chronocosmic Engineer but in the meantime, he founded Meteor Astropub to combine his love of the stars with his favorite comfort food.
Read our Meteor Astropub review.
The Plastered Owl
Within The Oak & Star Tavern is The Plastered Owl, a bar built by the Celestians as an homage to one of their favorite fables.
As the story goes, the Plastered Owl was hanging out with his woodland friends, Woody Wolf, Rambling Raccoon, and Dapper Deer. True to his name, the Plastered Owl had a little too much to drink and fell into a tree, which turned out to be a portal to Celestial Park.
The Plastered Owl’s friends followed him to make sure he was okay and now they all live in Celestial Park, acting as guardians looking over the Celestians. There are wall carvings in The Plastered Owl showcasing the adventures of the animals.
CelesTiki
The last venue that Universal shared a backstory for is CelesTiki. This bar is owned by Hana Kupei, a Celestian originally from Universal Volcano Bay. She was guided to Celestial Park by the magical fish Kunuku, who used to lead her family on travels.
Hana opened CelesTiki in Celestial Park as an homage to her home island and the Waturi people. It offers Volcano Bay Rum Punch, which can only be found elsewhere at Kunuku Boat Bar in Volcano Bay.
We learned about the lore behind Celestial Park on a VIP tour. Check out our video below.
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