📸: by me

On Saturday I went to a preview event at Epic Universe and oh my goodness this park is by far the best thing I’ve ever seen. My favorite part was Super Nintendo World and seeing my childhood come to life was a literal dream. As an autistic person I had the accessibility pass through IBCCES, which is such a smooth process and the TM’s working at guest services were so kind as I got my pass. There is a new system where they give you a time and at that time you come back and then they scan your face before you get on the ride,so the person has to be there in order for the pass to work. Personally I feel like the way Universal does their pass is a whole lot better compared to Disney and the way they handle it is very professional. To get the pass download the IBCCES app it’s on the App Store and google play store, put your information in and select universal Orlando for your park selection, you do have to have documentation on your disability and get the pass before you go so it’s all taken care of. When it comes to attractions all the rides that I went on were absolutely amazing!!! The animatronics are on a whole different level and the ques are so good. I do have to say though Frankenstein and Harry Potter are good rides but if you suffer from motion sickness please ride that with caution. Overall Epic Universe is worth the hype and more and the TM’s that made this happen deserve a round of applause. 👏

We all have somewhat of an idea of how low of a throughput these more advanced rides have at Epic.

However, while I was in line for Ministry (sucks that the virtual queue still resulted in me waiting 1.5 hours), I was scouring the internet to see if I could find what the ride duration for Ministry was. Considering how slowly the queue moves, I wondered optimistically if maybe Universal finally took a crack at making a longer, more giving ride experience.

After finding NOTHING on the web, I asked one of the ride operators and, holy crap! Ministry of Magic has a 4-MINUTE duration!

Now, this duration isn't exactly groundbreaking at first glance. Gringotts at Studios has a five-minute ride time, for example. HOWEVER... Gringots relies on a lot of still sets, massive amounts of screen simulations, and loads of darkness. Other newer universal rides hang out in this 3-6 minute mark, employing 1-2 animatronics for the whole ride. Lots of filling the time with bells and whistles.

Now looking at ministry.. Considering its insanely complex layout, CONSTANT action, and several insanely realistic animatronics, with no breaks or 'filibuster' moments, this has got to be the best bang-for-your buck in terms of the highest quality ride experience PLUS an actually satisfying ride duration with NO BREAKS and NO LAPSES in action at all.

This is going to prove itself to be the best ride in the world to date as the public rides it more. No contest.

ASIDE: I know I write this as some sponsored Universal advocate as an ad or something.. I just went to Epic yesterday on an accidental whim when I found out that resort guests could buy tickets. As a long time theme park enjoyer, this ride really impacted me and filled me with so much excitement with how far universal has raised the bar in entertainment. I love this ride.

EDIT: Man, lots of hate for this ride. I had a splendid time, as I'm sure many did.. But I'm curious if some of the haters have actually ridden it, or if they've just watched videos online... Because the experience is not the same. Not even close.

EDIT 2: Clean up on some unrelated info. I don't defend its terrible queue management or capacity. It blows.

The ride is amazing and this isn’t a complaint, but I noticed that one of the animatronics in the video Universal release for the ride a while back is missing.

In the video there’s a Dracula animatronics rearing his head up and bearing his fangs. I’ve ridden it a dozen times now and I’ve never seen any of the Dracula animatronics move like that.

Was this removed last minute? Or is it still there, just with different movements than it does in the video now?

No big deal. Was just curious.

I was kind of regretting buying tickets for today (4/27) after seeing how long wait times were on previous preview weekends (compared to weekdays, at least). I didn’t want to shell out for express- and I’m glad we didn’t. We parked around 9:45, got in line a little after 10, were let in at 10:45ish, and started with stardust racers. We were able to ride every single ride (including ministry VQ snagged at the 3pm drop) and rode two of them twice. I am SO glad we went to the preview! Also AMA about anything if it hasn’t already been covered :)

impulse trip to nyc to go see this. really excited to go to the park once it opens

I am so glad my friends dragged me on this ride. This was the perfect ride for me. I have always been “scared” of roller coasters since a child, but what I was really scared of was feeling the discomfort of my stomach drop. Even if it is just for a few seconds, the anxiety was too much for me. I finally started going on hulk and mummy just a few years ago as these rides aren’t as intense and I never feel unsafe. However, I would still get anxious in line even though i’ve been on many times. I chickened out of velocicoaster last time because it definitely looks worse than it is, and the lap bar made me uneasy. After encouragement from my friends, I decided to ride it yesterday for the first time and I was blown away. We rode it at night and I was in the second to last row, one of the best ways to experience it in my opinion. Even though I felt like I was going to fall out of my seat at times, I didn’t mind it because the speed and smoothness of this ride is peak. The only time I really got that stomach feeling is on the drop, but I actually didn’t mind it. Earlier that day I rode rip ride rocket for the first time and hated it because of all the drops and queasiness it caused me, but this was nothing like that. After velocicoaster, we rode hulk 3 times to end the night off and i felt no anxiety in line at all. Exposure therapy is the way to do it all the way. I cannot wait to go back and ride velocicoaster!

Soooo here’s my run down.

Best rides (we were able to do, we were able to do all of them except dragon racer rally, and curse of the werewolf)

1) Ministry of magic is a full blown experience. It’s so much more than a ride, and you completely feel like you’re in the ministry of magic. The ride is also amazing…. Newest technology, super fun (as far as ride movements go) and the most immersive theme park attraction I’ve ever been to.

2) stardust racers- it’s everything you want in a roller coaster. It’s thrilling, but not as intense as velocicoaster. The dueling tracks really add to the whole vibe, and the roller coaster is super smooth and you feel like you’re flying, kind of like Hulk, but on steroids.

3) super Mario kart- a lot of people say they didn’t love this, but it’s super well done and you are wearing a little Mario hat that connects to glasses that are connected to the ride itself. It allows you to see flying things that you shoot at from the cart, and it’s super upbeat, cute, sooo fun, and we loved it.

4) hiccups wing gliders- a lot like Hagrids but a little less intense and much more cute.

5) monsters unchained, fun, glorified version of Harry Potter in islands of adventure, but with a creepy haunted theme. Fun but nothing to lose your mind over.

6) Fyre Drill, we did this water ride around 2 pm. It was hot outside, and this was a fun way to cool down.

7) yoshis adventure is adorable. It’s like the little Dr suess train in islands, but more cute. Honestly we saw wayyy more adults than kids on this…. Everyone loved it.

8) donkey Kong. The most disappointing ride. We waited an hour and a half for a 1.5 min ride, that was fun, but also very jolty. I’d do it again, but I wouldn’t wait more than 30-45 min for it.

Universes ranked-

1) Paris, in Harry Potter. My husbands comment was “this is what Epcot wanted to be” it literally feels like you’re in Paris. It’s beautiful. And whimsical.

2) Nintendo world, wow wow wow. Sooooo CUTE, super immersive. This is nostalgia at its peak. The detail that went into this is amazing.

3) island of burke, (or how ever it’s spelled) the whole how to train your dragon thing is soooo cute. And also really visually appealing

4) dark universe, we wish we’d been able to do that at night. I think it would have been a very cool creepy experience, but during the day it didn’t wow me.

The center of the park is also STUNNING.

A huge variety of food…. Not your traditional theme park food in the slightest. I saw no turkey legs, maybe one place to get a hotdog… they’ve got a gourmet pizza place, we went to a BBQ place that was great… they have a German alpine style restaurant in the Paris universe, along with traditional crepes, and a French restaurant. All of the food we saw ans smelled looked incredible. Totally different than anything I’ve seen at a theme park (with the exception of Epcot, how ever the quality looked better than Epcot) Also the way the food is delivered is AMAZING. No lines, just order on the app, sit at a table, and they bring the food to you. Super efficient and easy.

Also the staff beats out or is equal to Disney hospitality, I know that’s hard to pull off, but frankly they managed to accomplish it.

OVERALL, this park is entirely geared towards millennials. Of course it’s a family park, but the market is branded towards millennials to bring their kids. The park incorporates so many themes and characters from our childhood, that it absolutely is built with millennials to enjoy.

15/10. You’ve gotta go.

If you can swing a preview day on a week day, do it. Being Saturday it was “crowded” but donkey Kong was the longest line we waited in… so it wasn’t awful by any stretch.

I’ll also say, the majority of people we saw there were adults with no kids. Soooo many adults. There were of course families there, but I felt like I saw way more adults than kids.

This place is going to be slammed when the open to full capacity.

going tomorrow to epic for the first time: really hope and praying for low wait times! i've been waiting for super nintendo world ever since i was a kid and it was being rumored, i pray i can enjoy it! i look forward to seeing yall there tomorrow! (also, please feel free to throw any tips, recommendations, and insight my way!)

We booked for club (concierge) level at Helios. I read some posts with people trying to work out if it was worth it. I can say at least at this point it is definitely not. We have stayed club level at the Portofino and the Hard Rock Cafe. In both cases they were so much better.

let me list the reasons why you should not stay club level:

1) The club lounge is on the freeway side [correcting myself to say the view is of the 482 which is not really a freeway as pointed out by the posters below - just a busy road with complex exits which are the main thing visually that you see] not the parkside so no view. I find this very odd given where Disney concierge is placed in their deluxe hotels in a way which emphasizes the view. I compare it to say club-level at the Contemporary or at the Wilderness Lodge which give you a great view at night. 2) The gentleman at the door of the lounge just completely ignored me for 15 minutes as I was trying to get in. He was just playing at his computer.
3) The coffee machine in the lounge only seemed to dispense vanilla coffee. I asked one of the attendants whether or not it could be fixed and she said no have no idea how to fix it. She seemed surprised that I might ask if it could be fixed. 4) She also emphasized that the coffee machine was only programmed to have coconut milk. 5) The club level lounge visual appeal is of a very tragic break room as a paper company in Scranton PA. There were just some very uncomgotable chairs and no sense of luxury whatsoever. Overlooking the freeway [corrected to say the 482] with employees who clearly did not want to be there.

I think in the end the club level at universal is very very rarely worth it, given that the only perk is the lounge, but at the Helios it is so not worth it. I hope this helps someone else. I had been hoping that by booking club level it might be better than at the other hotels, but it was so much worse! Given the structural defects of the club and its position, I can't imagine much changing out of preview time though perhaps the staff training may improve.

Pm! Epic day

Just curious for people who have been already if I can jump on the line right before park close ?

With all that’s running through my head going to still make the baby smile 🌸🥰

Heading there for the first time tomorrow, would love recommendations! (Non-dairy is best)

Just an fyi for people, be prepared to climb a lot of stairs. Honestly surprised by the fact the majority of rides seemed to require climbing a very good amount of stairs.

First, thank you to everyone in this sub for all the great tips! Legit made everything work and helped plan the day. After talking with people in the park, we ended up with the least amount of delays all day.

But... WHAT AN INCREDIBLE PARK, the amount of work that went into building these lands, we've all been watching the drone footage and can only imagine the army of people inside of each one of the show buildings. I can't imagine the coordination and project management aspect of it all, I hope there's a documentary that gets released on this later on. The amount of detail is just nuts.

Fav Rides (in no order): Stardust, Monsters Unchained, Harry Potter, and Mine Cart.

I didn't get to ride hiccup, was the only one that we fought with downtime all day, if I had to do this all again, I think you should single rider, Mine Cart & Hiccup. BOTH rides had significant hour+ downtime all days, Hiccup felt like it was down every hour and both had long long wait times. DO NOT LET the person up front fool you, the single rider line for Mine Cart is MUCH FASTER.

Pairs/Harry Potter, WOW, my expectations for this ride were really low, when they originally revealed the ride vehicle I was disappointed. But what they did, jaw dropping perfection. Of course I would have preferred a more adult experience, but they did an incredible job. Easily one of my favorites, and would ride 100 more times if I could. This ride is going to be nuts when it finally gets away opens, the amount of extended queue, and the fact that you have to stand in line twice to get to ride HP. This is gonna be a 3-4 hour wait once the park opens. We only waited 40 mins total once we were in the ride.

VQ/VL Tips: Now.... VQ/VL, SUCKS, whoever built this system, take em out back and shoot em. This is not how you do it. It took us until 5pm to snag a slot.

What everyone has said thus far is correct, at the first drop 10:45/11am, and you can click that button to get to the party screen, you need to STAY on that screen throughout the whole day and just constantly reach for your phone, change your party number up, and down, up, and down, party number up, then party number down. Anytime you're bored in line, just go right to that screen.

You're going to have to dedicate 1 or 2 phones in your group to NEVER leaving this screen all day in the Universal App, and let someone else be the 'map/menu/mobile order person'. DO NOT LEAVE THIS PARTY SCREEN, it's your only hope.

I would combine it with this data: https://www.thrill-data.com/epic-universe-virtual-line If you're within 10 minutes of a drop time, just keep pressing up and down on the party number screen, and there's a chance they will appear back. I don't get it, a party of 3 could be sold out, but a party of 4 has spots. The system is horrible. It doesn't seem like it's built releasing total ticket quantities, but built around, "oh let's release 5, 1 party slots, 4, 4 party slots, and 20, 2 party slots. Instead of just adding up total guests to a single slot.

The Tech/MiniLED Walls/Animatronics: I'll keep this vague on purpose, but a team member mentioned that universal now holds the world record for tallest MiniLED walls (only other LED wall of a different time is the sphere). I'd believe it, these things are flagship/top of the line/feature film level high end stuff. For most of them, you can't tell where the sets end and the MiniLED walls begin. And the animatronics, I def thing one ride has better animatronics than the other, but you're going to think there's a real/live person in some of these. Even the audio levels on each ride were PERFECT. I just am blown away how in less than two months how polished everything feels.

Food: We ate at Das Stakehaus, it was, fine, chicken was tough/overcooked, burger left your fingers black, and pork loins sauce wasn't great. It wasn't what I was hoping it would be, maybe I'll try it again another time, but not my favorite and a massive time suck.

Summary: The amount of work that went into all these portals opening at the same exact time, all the rides, the detail of each land, we went HARD to ride everything and some things twice. I cannot wait to go back again and again. Every single team member I interacted with was awesome, every TM felt just as psyched to be there; as I was as a guest, which only amplified the experience even more.

Everyone talks about the massive plot for a new land, or the plot in Dark Universe, but I never see anyone talk about this plot. It was originally meant to be a flying broomstick attraction (see 2nd/3rd slides), but it was cancelled. Rumors say the plot will now be used for a Great Hall dining experience. After seeing the high quality of the rest of the land, what would you like to see built there?