Experiencing Epic Universe Again...

Epic Universe

I have now gone to the newest park at Universal Orlando Resort for the sixth time since it has been open. I have seen it in many different forms of itself. The first time I went, I was only able to ride two rides, while all of the others were shut down for technical issues when it was time to ride them. I have tried many food options, I have ridden every ride, and I have been able to get a fully realized picture of how this park is. I am extremely blessed to be able to go to this park as often as I can, and it was something I would watch videos on when I lived six hours away. I am lucky enough to go to every event, try out each new ride within the year it’s made, and just be around these theme parks that I love so much.

After a few times of visiting, I put this park up with Islands of Adventure as the best park in Orlando. After this last time, I am not sure if I can change this up.

We stepped into the park at 3:00 on a Sunday in December. I haven’t really been examining the wait times and how busy the park is, but I couldn’t believe how empty it was in the front section. We walked right into the Atlantic sit-down restaurant, which is the flagship restaurant of Celestial Park. We were seated right away with many empty tables around the restaurant. We ate a good meal, as the scallops were delicious. Small portion but still delicious.

After the meal, we walked over to Monsters Unchained, where we walked right into the preshow, walked right to the lockers, and then walked right to the ride. This attraction has been the top of my list since I went on it in March at a team member preview. Two of the largest animatronics didn’t work correctly, as the Wolfman and the final Dracula did not attack our ride vehicle. It worried me about the attraction needing excellent maintenance to keep this at the top of my list. The two animatronics that didn’t work really disappointed me, those are two key moments of the attraction that was missing. Most of the animatronics were working but this ride needs all of them to be the best in the world. I have only ridden this a few times that had everything working.

After Monsters Unchained, we walked over to the Curse of the Werewolf. This is a fun attraction, but it’s short. I love the spinning aspect when it works, and it is just a fun small introductory coaster. We probably waited 20 minutes for this attraction which was one of our longest waits of the day.

After the two attractions of Darkmoor, we went over to Berk. This world has always been one of my favorites with how beautiful it is. There are fun attractions, and a great show. It is a full land. The one that feels the most complete of all of Epic Universe. The first attraction we went on was Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, the E-ticket of Berk. We waited 15 minutes for this attraction, and it is one I could ride over and over again. It is so much fun. Baby Hagrid is still one of my top three attractions.

We walked over to the Untrainable Dragon show, which is something that I am glad Universal went back to. I love sit down shows at theme parks as a good way to eat crowds, and an entertaining way to get some air conditioning. We walked right into the show, and got a seat right in the middle of the show, in a half empty theater.

We skipped over Fyre Drill and went over the Dragon’s Racer Rally which is the flat ride of the land. We waited another 15 minutes for this attraction as one side went down. One thing that I kept noticing was how empty the Express line was. The standby was moving very quickly the entire day. I am glad this ride is available but it isn’t something I am going to do every time I visit.

An $18 Mac and Cheese cone was next on the agenda, and although it is expensive, it was very tasty. A carb on top of a carb. The last time I got one of these, I didn’t understand the hype. The bread was hard as a rock, the stuffing was okay, and there was barely any pork on top of the cone. This one I had most recently was delicious. Still, it was not worth $18 but there were two sections of pork, decent mac & cheese, with a soft piece of bread. Much improved. We were able to walk right up to the counter to order this which was never the case a few months ago.

What do you do after you stuff your face with bread and pasta? You ride Stardust Racers. The best time to ride is at night and we waited ten minutes for it. We got seated in the back row, and the whip on this back row up the hills is intense. This was a ride that most of our travel party struggled after, and weren’t in too big of a hurry to go to the next ride.

We had to go do Ministry of Magic as it was a 40-minute wait on the app. Once we got back to the ride, the posted wait time was something different entirely… 100 minutes. We were ready to turn to Nintendo World until I decided to just look inside the Ministry to see how the line was, I had just ridden it a month ago and I waited 30 minutes, and I know where the line was for that. I couldn’t see the line at that point, and I overheard some people say they waited 20 minutes for it so we decided to get in line. It was less than a 10-minute wait for the most popular ride in the park. I still can’t get there. I think it is a great ride, but not nearly as good as it was marketed to be. It is similar to Spiderman with some physical sets supporting the screens with a ride vehicle that gets manipulated. The final scene when the time turner explodes is goofy, especially with the projection face animatronic.

We had almost every ride and world completed by nine o clock as we walked to Nintendo. We first had to stop for ice cream of course, and for $8.75 it was incredibly mediocre.

Nintendo World was empty. I could get to every power up band block, every mini game, and could actually walk around. Typically, that is a crowded area that you can barely walk through. This time was a great change as we walked through the world straight to Mario Kart. This was a walk straight to the preshow and we waited about ten minutes. This ride has grown on me, and it is close to a top five attraction at the park.

The smaller world of Donkey Kong was empty as well. We waited about two minutes to get on Mine Kart Madness which is a ride with one of the worst guest throughput in the park. The line is long and moves slow. It is a ride that I typically avoid due to the wait to ride ratio, I never think it’s worth it. This night ride was different. It was almost a walk on, and it was a fun ride. It still beats you up a bit too much, but it is still a fun attraction that I loved getting on. Only when it’s a walk on though.

Yoshi Adventure was the last ride of the day, and it has so much potential. I wish it could travel throughout the entire Nintendo World with more indoor portions like a People Mover. I also wish the vehicle traveled a bit quicker. It is a good supporting attraction that I will always get on if it’s a walk on. I also love how it adds to the land visually.

One quick light show later and we were at our car at 1020 ready to go home. We had almost completed every single ride in 8 hours. We did the ones we wanted to do, we don’t have any urge to get on Fyre Drill, Le Cirque Arcanus or the Carousel.

This was one of the best theme park days I have had in a while. It was 70 degrees most of our time, it wasn’t crowded, and we got to eat several different items. Epic Universe is still a fantastic theme park, and I do think it is still my one. I hear rumors that expansion is being worked on, so I can’t wait to see what they do for that. This is a great theme park. Especially when it is cool outside.