This is going to be Epic

Fast-track pass to Orlando's latest £5.7billion theme park? Yes please, says Portia Jones

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Being catapulted 133ft into the air straight after a massive pizza lunch was, in hindsight, a bold choice. Especially in Florida's 35C heat.

I'd been launched sky-high at Universal's brand-new Epic Universe, getting an early look at Orlando's most-hyped theme park before it opened to the public.

And where better to start than strapping into one of its headline attractions, cosmic-themed dual-racing coaster Stardust Racers?

I'm a theme park super-fan. I'll queue for hours for terrifying rides, scream myself hoarse and sprint straight back to the start. But nothing prepared me for this. During the roughly 90-second ride, I was screaming, crying and briefly convinced I'd broken through the stratosphere.

This Epic coaster doesn't warm you up gently. It hurtles you into the cosmos at 62mph with a savage force that threatens to rearrange your insides.

At one point, as we spiralled through an inverted crisscross at full speed, I was fairly sure I could even see my soul leaving my body.

It was a thrilling start to my time at Epic Universe, Universal's long-awaited new Orlando theme park, with an estimated construction price tag of £5.7billion.

Announced in 2019, this 110-acre park is the biggest Universal has ever built and is, as its chief Mark Woodbury puts it, “the most technologically advanced park in the world”.

It’s also the first major theme park to land in Orlando in 25 years - and with icons to rival Disney including Harry Potter and How to Train Your Dragon, it's coming for the House of Mouse.

Ambitious, immersive and bursting with brand-new rides and cutting-edge tech, Epic is Universal's boldest bid yet for the Florida theme-park crown.