It's alive! Epic trip report

Universal Orlando Resort Trip Reports
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Here’s my trip report for our day (party of 4: myself, DW, DS13, and DNephew13) at Epic on Sunday, 11/16. The trip was at the request of my DS13. We’ve made it a thing to go on a solo trip with each of our kids when they’re 12-13, and when a ski trip was scrapped for other reasons, a Universal trip (including attending one night at an Orlando Informer event and a day at Epic) was his fallback choice. We had early entry (staying at Dockside) and no express passes. It was our second time visiting Epic. The first time was on a Sunday in July–definitely prefer the November weather and crowds.

We arrived around 815am after catching the bus at Dockside. They processed a few people through the security checkpoint until backed up at the taps. They opened the taps at 830. We went left for RD at Nintendo World and we were held until 850.

Started first at Mario Kart. Hit line at 900. On at 910.

Went directly to DK Mine Cart. We were in line at 920 with a posted 30 minute wait. I was hoping we’d be off and moving on to Berk before 1000, but no such luck. Got a ride down announcement at 935. Restarted at 950. Down again at 1010. At that point, I looked at the app and saw that Hiccup, Curse of Werewolf, and Stardust Racers were all delayed, so a rough morning all around. They restarted at 1018. By that point the express pass line had filled in (they weren’t taking express passes before regular park opening) and those folks were getting priority and slowing down us regular folk. Another delay announcement at 1025 but shortly after announced that the delay would be brief to add additional carts and that the line should be quicker upon restart. Restarted at 1035. We were finally on at 1054 (i.e. 90 minutes later).

Since wait times in Berk weren’t terrible yet, we decided to keep our initial plan and head there. We were in line at Hiccup at 1115 with posted wait of 35 minutes. We were on at 1142.

After Hiccup we went to the noon Untrainable Dragon show, followed by a food break. We shared a couple mac & cheese cones at Spit Frye. Food was great, but I’m still not a fan of the mobile ordering system. You place an order during a certain pickup window and wait for the notice that the order is ready. But instead of having a streamlined pick up system, you have to pick one of the 3 long pick-up lines to wait in to get your food. Took about 20 minutes in the “ready” line. After that we did some shopping in Berk and headed out to Celestial Park. Some of us were still hungry so bought some pork soup dumplings and cheese dog.

Next we were off to Stardust Racers. App said 15 minutes; door said 25 minutes. Actual wait was around 15 minutes (green side). We were off ride around 200. We were torn about where to head next, but decided to try to catch the Cirque Arcanus show in Paris at 2:15. By the time we arrived at 2:07, it was already at capacity. We went shopping, got a few snacks at the Goblet Noir, saw some street musicians, and then went back to Cirque Arcanus around 245 for the 305 show.

We were planning to do MoM in the evening when wait times went down, so left for Dark Universe. Started at Monsters Unchained at 350 with posted 20 minute wait. We were on in 10. Curse of Werewolf was still longer than we were willing to wait, so went back to Stardust Racers, which was posted at 25 minutes. Actual wait was only about 5 minutes, so went back through again and waited about 15 minutes for a front row ride.

At that point, only rides left on our to-do list were Curse of Werewolf and MoM, but they were still longer than we were willing to wait. Basically all the other thrill rides had wait times over 55 minutes or were delayed (Hiccup). No one was that interested in waiting in long lines, nor were we particularly hungry, so just decided to hang out in Berk. At 510, the two 13-year olds decided to try Dragon Racers Rally (the adults had no interest). Posted at 25 minutes and took about that.

We were now ready to eat again so headed back to Cafe l’air de la Sirene for a relaxed meal. We were finished around 630. We knew that wait times would drop later in the night, but we didn’t have much left to do on our list and we were running out of steam, so just decided to wait it out at MoM (80 minute posted wait) and finish with Curse of Werewolf. MoM took 60 minutes. Thankfully, by that point (740pm) Curse of Werewolf only had a 15 minute wait. We made it to the ride shortly after 800pm and it took just under 15 minutes. Our goals accomplished, we grabbed some snacks from Burning Blade Tavern and started heading out.

BUT, wait times were now quite favorable, so we opted to get a few nighttime re-rides in. We went to Stardust at 832. Posted 25. On in 15. Then went to Berk. We walked on Wing Gliders (posted 5 minutes) and then went to Hiccup with posted 15 minute wait time, and we were off in 10. Did it one last time to end the night.

At 915 everything in the park had a posted wait time of 10 or 15 minutes, except for MoM, which was still posted as 45 minutes (I’m sure actual wait was less). I was tempted to go re-ride Mario Kart and DK, but others were feeling done and we had an early flight the next day, so we caught a return shuttle to Dockside.

All in all, it was a long, fun day. We were there for 13 hours and rode: Bowser, DK, Hiccup (x3), Dragon Racers Rally (x2), Stardust Racers (x4), Monsters Unchained, Ministry of Magic, and Curse of the Werewolf. We saw the Untrainable Dragon and Cirque Arcanus shows. We ate a bunch. We walked a lot.

Our trip also included one night at an Orlando Informer Meetup, our first trip to Volcano Bay, and doing the the Jurassic World: Escape at the Great Movie Escape in City Walk. Ask me anything!

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This is the same ride. Do you mean Dragon Racer’s Rally?

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I sure do. Will edit.

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Ooh, how were these snacks?

Fantastic trip! You accomplished so much and waits really weren’t too bad. Thanks for the details. How was the bus to/from Dockside? Did it also stop at Surfside?

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Thanks for the report. We’re going to Epic in less than two weeks without express passes and it’s great to hear you got to do everything without express pass. :grinning_face:

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This was at Star Sui Bao. Soup dumplings were small, but DS13 really enjoyed them (so much so that I didn’t get to try them). He said they were his favorite thing in the park, but who knows. The cheese dog was my shorthand for the “Tteolbokki Skewer,” described as “grillled hotdog and rice cake wrapped in a cheese crust with yuzu aioli, Japanese bbq sauce and scallions.” Cheese dog probably didn’t do it justice, but I didn’t really enjoy it. The separate parts were fine but they didn’t come together as a cohesive dish.

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The first couple hours in the morning (especially with early entry) and then the last few hours of the evening were key to getting a lot accomplished. We purposefully took it pretty easy in the busy afternoon hours to focus on shows, shopping, and exploring.

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Which day of the week are you going? OP went on a Sunday. I went on a Thursday and lines were much longer than OP experienced. From what I’ve read Sunday lines have been shorter than weekday lines so far. By the time I learned that, it was too late to switch my Epic day.

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Did you happen to notice what Super Nintendo crowds were like besides the ride lines? We will have express. I’m considering going directly to the power up band stations first to do those while everyone else is in line for rides. My kids could spend hours doing games. Trying to just avoid the masses of crowds that are there all day. Any thoughts?

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Luckily we’re going on a Sunday! And also Saturday—we added a day when we started hearing reports about long lines.

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Is this something that’s mostly fun for kids? Or is it more like Wizarding wands that are fun for all ages?

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They felt like a constant cluster to me but never intense lines. Like my kids were just flitting to and from these (along with many other ones) as we went through. We almost lost DS in the Bowser rope drop line because he ran off to do one of the challenges. I don’t think there is really ever a “quiet” time but I also don’t think there were really ever long, long lines for the games.

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I think it depends on personality. We are only getting bands for the kids due to cost. But we will help them with the games and collecting coins. If they weren’t so expensive, we would all get the bands and adults would do everything too. We probably wouldn’t do it if we had plans to try to ride everything. But, since they are a bit young for Dark Universe and too short to ride a few things, we will add this. I’ve seen lots of videos of adults doing the games. We would enjoy it, but we are kids at heart.

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I like games in general but not video games especially.

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We only got bands for our kids. DH and I wore them a little bit but I wouldn’t bother for the adults if your kids were willing to share. We also managed to skate by with a single wand too!

My favorite part was when I was wearing the Toad band and Gobber told me to look out because I was growing a fungus!

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You are like a literal answer to a prayer with this report! Our priorities are very similar, and we will also not be using Express Pass so reading every word of this is as if I took our best possible day scenario and made it happen!

We are also prepared to spend the max time in parks, taking it easy in the middle of the day (and dedicating some amount of time to playing the Power Band games).

A question on starting at Mario Kart, did you notice of the handicap access to the side was open? Or only the escalators?

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We won’t have any youngsters with us; it will just be me and my adult daughter! I’m wondering if we would enjoy playing with the power-up bands. Maybe sharing one between the two of us? We’ll be there for two days so might have time for it.

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DW and I purchased bands for the kids, but not ourselves. The lines for the games were not too long. There were a lot of teenagers who had clearly played the games many times before in line. The kids liked (but did not love) the games. Some of the games were challenging and it would have taken my kids numerous attempts which we didn’t have time for.

It’s one of those things that it’s really hard to say whether another adult would enjoy it. Personally, I had no interest in trying the games or “collecting” the coins (and. neither did DW), but I’m sure there are plenty of adults who would enjoy it. From what I saw, I think the ideal age for maximizing interest plus necessary skill is probably 12-15 y/o.

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Not sure how old your kids are and of course, all kids are different with this stuff, but as two data points: DD10 loved all of Dark Universe. DS8 enjoyed Curse of the Wearwolf, but didn’t like Monsters Unchained.

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Yes I think this would be perfect!

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