My thoughts/experience at Epic.
I went at opening (no early access) and stayed all day on May 17, the last weekend before official opening. My husband (not as into theme parks) joined at about 3pm.
Ministry - I’m posting my waiting for 5 hours experience at the end of this post. So it’s there if you want it. I am no stranger to an opening day line (I did four hours with lots of break down for Top Thrill Dragster back in the 90s). So I don’t think the wait had an impact on my ride experience. Overall, this was not my favorite HP ride (Gringotts still has that title). The queue is beautiful. The story line is thrilling, and the animatronics are impressive (except maybe for a few at the end - movement awesome, but human faces are still tricky it seems). What left me a little flat was the lack of thrill in the ride movement. For me, it felt a bit like the ride movement of Spiderman or Transformers, just in a Tower of Terror car (which did trigger my brain a bit because I will ride that ride but hate drops lol). The big positive is that I would absolutely throw my almost ready for thrill ride nieces and nephews on this. So it definitely fits in to the overall theme of this park being a bit more friendly for all ages than the OG parks.
HP Land on the whole - absolutely stunning to look at. Hoping for more to interact with. We saw some actors and checked out the shops (that seemed like just French versions of what we already have). Loved Le Cirque Arcanus - just stunning. Bar Moonshine drinks were good. The Goblette Noir was nearly empty and had lots of seating - so that might be a solid tip for a place too cool off. I would love for them to add some street shows. It just needs a little more back there to really pull people.
HTTYD - this land is just a blast. It felt like the largest with the most to explore easily (basically just walk the loop). The character actors were a lot of fun. The twins were hysterical. The mac and cheese cones lived up to the hype. I got lucky and caught the roller coaster when it was coming up after some down time. It would absolutely be worth a 45ish minute wait, though. It really is a baby Hagrid’s Motorbike. I would say the intensity is similar to Everest but no significant drops. The show was visually stunning. Toothless flies earlier than expected (I assumed it would be the finale). So be ready for that when the clouds are on the screen. We didn’t wait in line to meet Toothless, but you can see him from outside the line and he is pretty incredible. Skipped getting wet on Fyre Drill (I did hear someone say your feet stay mostly dry because of how you’re sitting). The other ride was always posted around 35-45 minutes and we had other priorities.
Nintendo - easily the most visually striking. My husband was most looking forward to just seeing this land. We didn’t ride much here because Mine Cart was down and Mario Kart was hovering around 2 hours. We did do Yoshi’s ride and it was cute - wish it was longer, but if it’s around 20 minutes, it’s a fun way to get a nice view of the land. We did go into the Donkey Kong area even though the ride was closed and it’s also fun to walk around. Play the bongos if you can - fun little game across from the bubbly barrel.
Dark Universe - Absolutely stunned me. This was maybe the land I was least interested in. Was obviously going to check it out, but just wasn’t high on my list with my personal interests. The land is awesome to look at - so well themed. The ride was an absolute favorite of the day. Re motion sickness: Forbidden Journey makes me very nervous. I can do it, but I need dramamine and wristbands. I did have both for this ride, but I think I would have been okay without. On FJ, it’s the screen movement paired with the vehicle movement that gets to me. This ride doesn’t really do that. The vehicle makes some crazy movements, and there are screens, but you’re more seeing things happen in different scenes on the screens - not experiencing motion simulation. As far as the fear factor, I’m a wimp but was fine. If you’re familiar with the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural, I’d put this in the same category. Top notch experience from the moment you enter this queue.
Celestial Park - It’s just beautiful. Between this area and Dark Universe, Universal has really proven their ability to do some original storytelling and theming. Over the course of the day, I rode Stardust three times. I’m a huge coaster fan. So this was an absolute favorite. Green is a bit wilder than yellow, but both are great rides. As far as Stardust vs Velocicoaster, similar intensity with one caveat: If air time out of your seat is what makes you uncomfortable, this ride has more. I do think this coaster is maybe a little more disorienting too because of the dueling tracks. the colors are different but also pretty close on the color spectrum. So when going very fast, there are occasional moments of not clearly seeing where you’re headed next - especially on that first ride. It really is an incredible ride though. I think it’s likely easily in my top 10 coasters, maybe even in the top 5. We did miss out on the carousel - we were in line and it broke. They gave us a single pass. The expiration says June 1, but a TM at concierge said hold onto and they will honor for the next year.
Some boring logistics: I drove it and parked at about 8:10 I was in the park and in the wizarding world by 8:35. They did not hold non early access people anywhere, but they were checking hotel keys at the attractions.
MY RECAP OF BATTLE AT THE MINISTRY PURGATORY
Let me preface this with a few things about me. 1) I’m local. I won’t be back at Epic right away, but I know I’ll be back multiple times. So my priorities for the day did take that into account. 2) I grew up going to amusement parks. Cedar Point was a regular destination for my family. I have done many 3-4 hour waits for new roller coasters and am used to dealing with finicky rides that break down a lot (every intamin roller coaster ever).
This happened on May 17, the last preview weekend before official opening. As with everything, YMMV. Things are changing each day as they get closer to full capacity.
Getting in line: I did not have early entry. However, they did not hold guests outside the park. I entered the park at about 8:20 and walked back to the Wizarding World portal. They were splitting guests left and right (early access to the left), but shortly after I arrived, they combined the line. I
heard at least one frustrated early entry guest. The TM explained that since Battle isn’t an early entry offering, anyone can join the line.
Once they got the line organized, we were snaked all the way to the other side of the land. I started across from Bar Moonshine. At that point, I’m pretty sure they hadn’t actually moved people into the attraction queue. Once they did, it took me 30 minutes to get from that point to the actual attraction queue.
Then we sat and didn’t move for about an hour. The app did not say delayed. The only reason we knew the ride wasn’t running was because nothing was moving.
I have been psychologically trained for this kind of waiting: I’ve been doing this kind of wait since I was in my teen years. I also used to be a teacher - so I’m super used to loud, overstimulating, crowded environments. A few things that would have sent my husband over the edge (he was not with me - left me to my own insane life choices). 1) It’s a crowded line - not a spacious line in the metro floo area. 2) There are lots of metro floo themed announcements. They are a bit noisy, but more importantly, it means when an actual announcement comes on (not often), you miss most of it because it’s hard to differentiate.
I believe they actually started running the ride around 9:40. At least that’s when they started sending people through the floos.
By the time I got into the ministry it had been 3 hours. Part of the queue before the floos is outside. So that’s another consideration. It’s pretty well covered and there are fans, but you aren’t inside w/ AC for the whole queue.
Once you reach the ministry (and get over the initial awe and excitement), you enter a new challenge: trying to guess how many more rooms you have to go through before the ride (list below). Everything is stunning, and generally you move through the rooms pretty quickly (I do think we had another stretch of some downtime - either that or it was maybe the time when VIPs and DAS return times started), but there are a lot of rooms: Ministry atrium, room with the bank teller style windows, a hall, room with the ministry map/architecture drawing, minister portrait room, room w/ the magical device cleaning up a mess, auror locker room, auror training room, split by party size, Umbridge’s office, a hall, stairs up, stairs down, then load.
Would I suggest anyone spend 5 hours doing this? Probably not. Do I regret doing it? Not really. DH does not do lines more than 30 minutes, and though we’re local, we won’t be back to Epic right away. So, this was my shot to ride it any time soon. I intentionally did it first thing because he was going to join me later so I needed it done before he got there. I also knew my other priorities and knew that I would still have time to do the rest of what I wanted to do even with killing a 1/3 of the day in this crazy long wait.
Was it worth it? For me and what I needed to do, yes. I got to ride a headliner before the park is officially open, and that’s what the theme park nerd in me wanted to do. Do I think the ride is worth the wait? Not really (and yes I do think some rides are worth a one time 4 hour wait). I explained in another post why I think it’s a good ride but not my personal favorite of the HP rides. When Gringotts opened, my jaw was on the floor after that ride. I do think it’s getting harder to wow because the bar is already so high. I also am, at my heart, a thrill seeker, and I could have done with a little more thrill from the ride movement for this one (the story is lots thrilling).
From what I experienced, if it’s works with your schedule and if you are okay risking a breakdown or a closure, definitely don’t go right at opening, let the wait time level out and then take it from there. The wait did, at least according to the app, get shorter as the day went on (which is typically the case with popular rides - especially ones that tend to break but are, for whatever reason, actually running consistently that day).
