Epic Universe trip report: Team Member Family Day was full of amazing discoveries

The two major things that struck me about visiting the park were just how much there is to see, and how hard it was to not take photos. 

As part of the preview of Epic Universe, no team members or their guests are allowed to take photos or videos of any kind, including FaceTime calls. Signs are posted all around the park reminding them. We were there as family guests of a team member, not as working media, so we followed those rules. You can just imagine how many times I wanted to pull out my phone for a picture, but of course, I resisted. They did have some official photographers stationed around the park for free photos, which we’re allowed to share. It was also nice to not have to worry about getting photos and to just enjoy it.

I’m used to it being a big deal when a new theme park ride opens, even a new restaurant. Heck, we get excited when a new bathroom is added. So experiencing a whole new theme park is overwhelming. I could have spent all day in any of the lands alone just checking out all the details — and that’s on a personal level too. But we only had one day, so we made the most of it.

Epic Universe arrival 

The park was set to open at 10 a.m., so we arrived at 9 a.m. as we figured they’d let us in a bit early, and they did. The first thing we did — after just marveling at the amazing overlook view across the Celestial Park (the first land you enter) — was line up for an official photo and check out the gift shops. Universal held the crowd in this area for a while before letting everyone into the full park. 

While in the Christmas store (North Star Wintry Wonders), we noticed a display with toys going into Santa’s bag. One of the toys was a stuffed Earl the Squirrel from Universal Studios Florida park. That was a cool connection. You can also see Earl in one of the digital windows in the store. 

Super Nintendo World

We would have made a bee-line to the Dark Universe portal to ride what many people who have previewed have said is the best ride in Epic Universe, Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, but the official Universal Orlando app said the ride was delayed.

Instead, we headed to Super Nintendo World and into the Donkey Kong Country area to ride Mine-Cart Madness roller coaster. It was fun, but short, and it was a bit jerky in parts. I hope they dial that in a bit before the grand opening. I suggest sitting in one of the front seats if you can, as it’s hard to tell you’re “jumping the track” from the back seat.

Next we rode Yoshi’s Adventure. It’s a fun, cute relaxing ride like the PeopleMover at Magic Kingdom. We opted to skip Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, as some of us had already ridden the California version.

Just after exiting Super Nintendo World, we stopped by the Nintendo Super Star Store. It’s a one-stop shop for most of the merchandise related to Super Mario, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong. I noticed in addition to those characters in the décor, they also had “The Legend of Zelda,” prompting our latest rumor article. 

Celestial Park

As we walked through Celestial Park — as you must do to get from land to land or portal to portal — we saw there was a small stage show going on. We stopped to watch the “Time Tellers,” a troupe of Celestial Park storytellers, tell about their founders and how the portals were invented. Two of us even got called onstage. I was asked to portray a portal and my son-in-law played Vincent Various (a character who’s part of the Celestial Park backstory). It was a cute, well done show. This group of actors do three different shows throughout the day. A band also performs on this stage.

Since we were nearby, we took a ride on Constellation Carousel. It’s unique in that some of the animals you ride on not only go up and down and around, but they go around in smaller circles within in the large one. Some of the vehicles have seats, and there’s one for wheelchairs too. All ages and sizes can ride. For more movement, I suggest picking an animal on one of the smaller circles inside the larger circle on the ground. There are seven different celestial songs that randomly play. 

While in Celestial Park, we also did the other ride here, the Stardust Racers roller coaster. This is a high-thrill racing coaster. One thing to note: this is the only ride in Epic Universe with metal detectors. The signs don’t make it completely clear yet, but your pockets must be empty, even if you have a zippered pocket. They do provide free lockers.

Stardust Racers loads two vehicles at the same time, one yellow and one green for each of the two tracks. There are two different lines after you pass through the metal detectors. They were unmarked when I rode, but the left line is the yellow one, and this is said to be the less intense of the two. We chose this line for my wife, who isn’t a huge roller coaster fan.

The ride reminds me of Jurassic World VelociCoaster in intensity, but the trains moving together is what made it most fun for me. It feels like you can (but you can’t actually) reach over and fist bump the people in other coaster you’re “racing” at times. There really isn’t a winner or loser at the end, but we’re all winners in this fun ride. 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic

The next portal we went through was the one to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. You’re in Paris as you’re walking the streets here. It reminded me of walking through Diagon Alley, with signs, props, paintings, and more all over the walls, only this area is much wider. This is the largest of all three Harry Potter lands at Universal Orlando.

We started with trying some drinks and a Butterbeer Crêpe at Café L’Air De La Sirène. All was good, but the crêpe tasted more like just a butterscotch crepe to me than Butterbeer.

Since the Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry ride hasn’t opened yet during Epic Universe previews, we weren’t able to ride, but we were able to walk through most of the queue. The main huge Ministry room is as impressive as it looks from the photos Universal has released. You go through this room twice: as you’re going to the ride, and after you exit it. There’s also seating in here if you just want to sit and take it all in after riding, assuming it won’t be blocked off when the park officially opens. 

While in the land, we also tried out a couple of the wand interactions in the windows, and saw a couple of impressive animatronics, including a large, cute Mooncalf who was waiting for his owner to return, not realizing Grindelwald killed him. At least, this was the sad story we heard about him. We also had a nice conversion with a portrait in another window. 

How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk

Then we headed through the portal to the land of dragons, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk. We checked out Mead Hall, which sort of reminded me of the inside of the old Enchanted Oak restaurant at Islands of Adventure. We also stopped to watch guests riding Frye Drill, but we didn’t ride because we didn’t want to get wet. You can see most of the ride from above. We also watched guests meeting Toothless, but we didn’t meet him because we didn’t want to wait in line.

But we did wait in line to ride the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders roller coaster. It’s a fun, more tame, but still exciting coaster. Most of the roller coasters at Epic Universe have onboard audio (all except Curse of the Werewolf), which is great. On this one, you hear Hiccup talking to you, along with the “How to Train Your Dragon” soundtrack by John Powell.

While strolling Berk, we also had a fun interaction with Gobber the Belch and his dragon in his workshop. Gobber was a live actor in an impressive costume. This land was full of little details, as are most of the lands.

By this time it was 2 p.m. and we were hungry for a late lunch. We tried dining at the full-service Atlantic restaurant, which had just opened the day before, but we didn’t realize reservations were needed and none were available until later, so we headed to the Dark Universe portal.

Dark Universe

On our way to Das Stakehouse in Dark Universe, we had fun conversations with characters Ygor (Dr. Victoria Frankenstein’s assistant), the Bride of Frankenstein, and the Invisible Man, who was in his wrapped-up visible form. He told us to get his Monocaine mocktail concoction at the steakhouse so we could turn invisible too. Spoiler: we got it and we are still visible. All four of us enjoyed our full meals in this dark, ominous, creepy restaurant. 

Next we rode the Curse of the Werewolf roller coaster. It’s a spinning coaster that goes back and forth along the track. We loved it. I think I was so engaged with the people in the coaster car across from us screaming that I didn’t even notice the werewolf on the ride. We did see the mystic Maleva at the end of the ride. 

Unfortunately the Monsters Unchained ride didn’t open the day we visited. So we have that and much more to look forward to on our next visit. We also didn’t have time for the indoor shows (“Le Cirque Arcanus” in Ministry of Magic and “The Untrainable Dragon” in Isle of Berk).

At this time, it was 4 p.m. and the park was closing in an hour. My wife and son-in-law loved the Paris streets in the Potter world, so we headed back there to just look around. We also tried to visit the shops in Celestial Park on the way out, but everyone had the same idea. It was too crowded, so we left.

Final thoughts and observations of Epic Universe from our preview

• We had an amazing day and it’s an awesome park. There’s so much to see and do, you’ll need a couple of days to see and do it all. But if you can visit on a day the park opens early and closes late, you should be able to see everything you want to, depending on the line lengths. Although Universal hasn’t announced any annual pass options for the park, as a local, I hope it happens soon. As beautiful as Epic Universe is during the day, I can imagine it will be even more beautiful at night. 

• This was an early preview for Epic Universe, and it was noticeable. There were rides like Battle at Ministry which aren’t ready yet, and some areas and restaurants in the park they are still working on. We also saw small areas not painted yet, and some electrical issues on some signs. But for the most part, the park was done and beautiful.

• Each portal has a screen surrounding you showing stars, clouds, and visuals and sounds meant to represent you being transported into a new world. The Super Nintendo World portal takes you onto an escalator warp pipe up into Princess Peach’s castle, complete with the warp pipe sounds. There’s also a warp pipe exit you can walk through. 

• Surprisingly, I didn’t see any merchandise I wanted to buy anywhere in the park. However, I’d already bought a few Epic Universe merchandise items from the Preview Center in CityWalk before visiting the park.  

• Some rides at Epic Universe use free lockers and for other rides, you just keep your packages at your feet. The rides we rode that required free lockers are Stardust Racers and Hiccup’s Wing Gliders. For all the others, we could put our bags at our feet. But be warned, although Curse of the Werewolf allows you to keep things in your pockets and bags at your feet, keep a good grip on your bags and I suggest emptying your pockets. I wasn’t holding onto my bag at first and it started rolling around the floor of the vehicle. 

• Celestial Park is beautiful and huge. Keep in mind it’s a long walk from portal to portal. Unlike most theme parks where you walk from one land into another, you have to leave each land and walk back through Celestial Park to get to the next land or portal at Epic Universe. It’s can also get very hot in the open Celestial land, at least until the trees grow large enough to provide more shade (unless more shaded areas haven’t been installed yet that we don’t know about). 

• There are only a couple of true table-service restaurants in the park: Atlantic and The Blue Dragon. At the others, you order in the app, get a table or be seated by the host, then mark the table number in your app and they bring your food to you.

• It’s a long walk to and from the parking lot. The parking is on either side of a walkway up to the park and there are no trams or moving walkways, and it doesn’t appear like any will be added. It’s a long walk just to an area where trams could be added, so plan ahead if you need help with long walks, and also remember the long walk before you leave the park. 

Stay tuned as we will have our first official coverage opportunity in Epic Universe beyond this family preview, with photos and videos allowed, in a couple of weeks.

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