An Epic Day at Universal’s Epic Universe
By Jackie Kutney
Epic Universe! Thoughts on our Epic day at Universal’s New Park! When Universal first released Epic Universe preview tickets for passholders (as well as on-site hotel guests and Universal Visa card holders), I hopped online and was excited to get tickets for my family and me. We just went for our preview day Saturday, April 25th, and the park definitely lives up to its name!
This park is absolutely amazing! Everywhere you look, there is so much detail. Despite being at the park the entire day, we still didn’t see and do everything. We entered the park under the massive Chronos and were instantly impressed walking into Celestial Park.
We made a quick stop at one of the stores to pick up some Power-Up Bands for my kids before heading to Super Nintendo World. The bands are $45 each (but you do get your annual pass discount). Once you activate the bands in the Universal Orlando app, you can track your progress with the interactive areas in that portal. Speaking of annual pass perks – you also get your parking benefits associated with your particular pass level at Epic Universe. There is no parking garage, only surface parking.
Once my kids’ bands were activated, we headed to Super Nintendo World. This portal seemed the most crowded, which I attributed to the large assortment of interactive games and activities there. It definitely feels the most immersive, as if you have shrunken down and entered the video game. It truly is overwhelming, in the best possible way! This was my kids’ favorite portal and we got to experience all three rides there.
-Yoshi’s Adventure: a slow-moving ride around part of the land (think like a shorter version of the People Mover at Magic Kingdom)
-Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge: a fun, interactive, AR ride
-Mine-Cart Madness: a fun Donkey Kong roller coaster – but it is a bit jerky where the track is supposed to be broken. This was a complaint I had read from some people online but it didn’t bother me or anyone in my family.
Our next stop was How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk. I must admit that I have never seen these movies so I didn’t relate to much of the area, but it was still very well-done and impressive. We rode Dragon Racer’s Rally and Hiccup’s Wing Gliders but skipped Fyre Drill since we didn’t want to get wet. Hiccup’s Wing Gliders is a fun family coaster that we all really enjoyed. We didn’t have a chance to watch the show in this area, but I’ve heard great reviews for it.
We then went back to Celestial Park to ride Stardust Racers. This dueling coaster is intense but very fun! It’s like a combination of Mako at Sea World and Velocicoaster at Islands of Adventure. You’ll get lots of airtime along with memories of Dueling Dragons. I had read online that the green track was more intense than the yellow track, but I honestly felt that both were equally awesome. While we had wanted to ride Constellation Carousel at night, we unfortunately didn’t have time.
Next we entered The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. This area is very well-done and detailed, but we weren’t able to ride Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. I’ve heard amazing reviews of this ride but you can only ride with a Virtual Queue and those proved extremely hard to get. Times are released in the Universal app three times during the day (11:00am, 3:00pm, and 6:00pm). Despite my never-failing techniques for scoring virtual queues for rides at Disney, I was unsuccessful in getting a return time here. Take note, though – even if you aren’t able to get a Virtual Queue for this ride, I was told you can still go and walk through the queue itself without riding. While we didn’t have a chance to do this, I heard it’s absolutely awesome. There is also a show in this area, but we didn’t have time to watch it. While there, we tried the Butterbeer crepes and they were delicious!
Our last portal to visit was Dark Universe. This was the area my husband was most excited about and it did not disappoint. We saw some roaming characters there, including the Invisible Man and Ygor (from Monsters Unchained – The Frankenstein Experiment). We also did a meet and greet with the Bride of Frankenstein. Going back to Monsters Unchained – this ride is fantastic! It’s the same ride system as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Islands of Adventure; but the screens are so much sharper and clearer, and the animatronics in this ride are unbelievable. While there aren’t any “jump scares” in the ride, there is no shortage of action and attention to detail. Alsoin this portal is one of my favorite rides at the park: Curse of the Werewolf. This is a super fun coaster that spins as you go along the track. I will put a lot of emphasis on the spinning part. I personally love rides that spin and don’t have issues with motion sickness; however, if you get queasy on spinning rides, you’ll definitely want to consider some relief, whether preventive or afterwards. For example, if the spinning on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind affects you, you may want to consider either skipping this ride or taking some medicine to alleviate motion sickness.
One thing to note about lockers at the park: they are available to use at all of the bigger rides. The lockers are located within the queue, so you’ll have your bags with you until you get towards the front of the line. The lockers are bigger than the free lockers at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure (slightly smaller than the bigger lockers that you would have to pay for there), so water bottles fit standing up. The lockers also use facial recognition to rent and unlock, so you don’t have to worry about keeping your park ticket with you.
After an awesome full day at Epic Universe, these are my three main takeaways:
Universal Epic Universe To Begin Guest Previews on April 17
https://mousefantravel.com/?apid=tmsm
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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