Universal Helios Grand Hotel, a Loews Hotel

Universal Helios Grand Hotel took its first guests on 16 April 2025, five weeks before Epic Universe opened on 22 May, and it stands at the end of Celestial Park, the gardens and water at the centre of the park. Universal Creative designed it as the palace of Helios, the Greek god of the sun, in a Mediterranean style picked out with constellations, and Loews Hotels, which co-owns it, runs it. There are 500 rooms, 35 of them suites, and the lobby's floor-to-ceiling windows look straight down Celestial Park.

The rooms are done in blues and purples, with impressionist flowers on the headboards. The Standard 2 Queen Beds room is 325 sq ft (30 m²) and the Standard 1 King Bed 340 sq ft (32 m²), and the two-queen room is sold by its view: the pool, the city from the highest floors, or Epic Universe. Two queens sleep four, and a fifth guest needs a $35-a-night rollaway. Deluxe rooms add a sleeper sofa in 415 sq ft (39 m²), and the Club Level a lounge with continental breakfast and evening hors d'oeuvres. The How To Train Your Dragon Kids' Suites, 545 sq ft (51 m²), give children their own room with twin beds, themed on the Viking village of Berk.

What Helios Grand is chosen for is the door off the lobby. Hotel guests with an Epic Universe ticket clear security in a small room of their own and step out into Celestial Park. It works both ways: in at opening, back to the room for a midday break, and in again for the evening. Guests also get Early Park Admission, up to an hour before opening at select attractions. Park View rooms look out over Celestial Park to the Cosmos Fountain, with water shows by day and the fountains and lights of Celestial Goodnight at closing time, weather permitting, while the show's fireworks go up behind the hotel. Bar Helios on the roof serves tapas and cocktails on a terrace over the whole park.

The trade is space and reach. On a February weeknight the entry room starts around $580 before 12.5% tax, and the park view adds about $200. Universal Express Unlimited does not come with the room, Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure and CityWalk are a free shuttle-bus ride away, and Walt Disney World's parks are 25 to 31 minutes by car with the roads clear, with hotel parking at $36 a night plus tax. Guests praise the staff and the walk-in access, and question the room size for the money. Book it for a trip built around Epic Universe, with children who will want to go back in after dark.