The Battle at the Ministry of Magic

Battle at the Ministry of Magic

This ride has been the most hyped attraction out of any ride to come to Epic Universe. Followed closely by Monsters Unchained. It was marketed as an extremely new ride experience, with a new ride vehicle, huge sets, and even some teases of some incredibly lifelike animatronics. It was clear that the new park was going to go the opposite direction of Universal Studios and would be avoiding the reliance on screens.

I was lucky enough to go to Epic Universe three times during family/friends team member previews. The park was in a technical rehearsal, so some portions of the park were closed for a majority of the time. The first and second trip, the Ministry of Magic was closed. On the third there was a virtual queue, but we also lucked into some express passes which let us on the ride even as we missed the virtual queue! Which was a blessing due to the virtual queue line being three hours long and we got on in 40 minutes.

The queue is one of the best queues in the world for one section. When you go through the floo powder and enter the Ministry of Magic. It looks like you step into the movie with a massive entrance. One of the best reveals in the world. This theming is supplemented by the remaining queue but not quite as special as that reveal. It is similar to the Forbidden Journey queue with its supplementing rooms. It also has a lifelike animatronic character in the queue that happens to be on ride as well. Incredible queue. It goes on forever though, with a queue capacity to hold seven hours of people.

Let’s finally get into the ride.

The ride vehicle is similar to Tower of Terror. It is a large ride vehicle with seats secured by a seatbelt. My seatbelt happened to be EXTREMELY tight which hurt during some portions of the attraction. This attraction is similar to Forbidden Journey with the bobbing of the ride vehicle. It also has similarities with Spiderman as well. There are many screens in the attraction. There are also many physical sets with some being huge and even a giant animatronic shows up in one scene that is truly incredible. Several lifelike animatronics and even some supplemental animatronic figures that aren’t quite as advanced.

It is a fun ride. The shaking and bobbing of the ride vehicle surrounded by screens makes me not have as much enjoyment in certain parts of the ride but overall, it is a strong attraction.

I have heard more of a split of rankings of Ministry, Monsters Unchained, and Stardust Racers. I figured this would be Ministry one on all lists and my brother even said he liked Mario Kart better than Ministry. Which I found just a bit crazy. I will have to ride it a few more times. My feelings have gotten clearer on more ride throughs of other attractions so maybe the Ministry could improve. I did get stuck in a portion of the ride which was not fun for a few minutes.

The final ranking of the big three for me is Ministry of Magic in third. Stardust Racers in second. And topping the list is Monsters Unchained. All three of these rides are incredible in their own right but Monsters took the spot due to the animatronics, the ease of following the story, and the screens being more supplemental than Ministry. These rides will be audience attractors for Epic Universe for years to come. And it was awesome to be one of the first to ride these attractions. I went to the Magic Kingdom the weekend before I went to Epic and to ride Tron, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the newest attractions Disney has to offer and then compare them to Monsters Unchained, Ministry, and Stardust. It isn’t even close, and Disney has to up their game.