My Epic Trip Report

Universal Orlando Resort
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What a crazy day! I wanted to share our experience with you all.

We checked in to Hard Rock Saturday evening. I didn’t know you could do online check in so we waited long. Then we had to wait in another line to get our paper tickets. That was annoying. But whatever. Room is nice. Bathroom is too small for door and toilet.

In the morning I realized the Epic express passes were on my phone and couldn’t transfer my husbands to his phone. Annoying. Had to wait in line in the lobby and they printed paper express passes.

Planned to take a Lyft bc I read over and over it was faster but the lady who left the table after me beat us to the park by 100 ft.

We bought the Mario bands before the entrance and linked them. I wish they were available at our hotel but they are only at the Epic hotels.

We entered around 8:40 with no line and went straight to the secret Nintendo entrance to the right of the escalator. It was closed. So we got in the big group on the escalator so they could check our room key.

Arrived and felt like I was in a cartoon! It was amazing. Kids went crazy getting coins and keys. In hindsight I wish we ran straight to Donkey Kong but we enjoyed the moment.

Donkey Kong posted 50 min and it took us 30 from start to finish. Very jerky. I hated it but rest of fam loved it.

Got the kids apple and mango smoothies which were delicious.

Went to Berk and DH and DD did dragon racers. Posted 5 min. Took 30.

Went to Hiccups. Posted 70. Used express pass and took 18 min from start to finish. I got very sick on this ride and very dizzy. Rest of fam loved it. I had to leave for a 4 hour nap while the rest of the crew did almost everything else (they didn’t do werewolf, stardust, carousel or MoM).

They got back to hotel at 4:30. We ate dinner at the Kitchen at 6 which was soooooo good. It was raining. DH was beat and went to bed. I took the kids to the arcade. Then at 7:50 we got the bus back to Epic. MoM was posted at 90 but was 60 when we got in line at 8:30. Took 40 min from start to finish. I walked the queue and went to exit at boarding area. Kids loved it. Queue was really cool.

So cool to walk through the street at night. Went to stardust racer. Posted 45 min. DD took about 35 with express pass. Got on bus to leave at 10 and were in bed by 10:30.

It was a great night!! I want to go back again asap.

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Adding that I booked the main tickets with express pass and hotel thru a travel agent friend who is an expert in Disney and not an expert in universal. I should have booked myself bc I would have known all the hotel quirks. The pool here is amazing! Def feel like I’m at a resort.

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Thanks for the recap. Good to hear real liner experiences.

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Oh other things to note

  • the bus was always there for Hard Rock - coming and going we never had to wait for it. I was impressed.

  • Fyre Drill we did not get wet and I packed changes of shoes for nothing lol

  • the park stays open til 10 which was fun and I wouldn’t have known that if I wasn’t reading all over Facebook and Reddit

I am interested to see what happens tomorrow with wait times when the capacity increases

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Why does capacity increase? (Out of the loop)

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I read they were doing limited capacity at 16,000 until July 1 and then increased to regular levels of 46,000.

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:flushed: That is quite a huge jump in numbers! We’re going the first week of August…

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My goodness. Triple!!!
Cue thrill data getting all that data together

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That is a huge jump! But then I wonder how many people they are actually turning away / can’t get tickets? Seems like everyone who really wants to go is going. Maybe it won’t actually jump that much?

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I recall reading this somewhere, but I also remember reading that an additional capacity increase was planned for the fall beyond the July increase. Can’t remember where I saw it or I would re-read.

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We just got back from our trip. We stayed at the Helios. I will say that first thing in the morning when you go in for early entry, we were going for the Stardust racers and they opened the front gate and it was like the running of the bulls. Trying to get across flat out running people was hazardous and very scary to my younger granddaughter. In fact so much so she refused to go to Harry Potter land because she said the people there were crazy. That said, we had Express passes and they worked very well. We went a second day just to get the rides done that we did not have passes for. And it basically took all day. Harry Potter broke down while we were in line so it ended up taking an hour and a half to get on the ride. Mine car madness broke down five times while we were in line and it took over two hours to ride it. The first day we got there about 20 minutes after Park open and it was much calmer and we were able to go ahead and get in line for the Harry Potter ride so it wasn’t that bad but day two was very intense and that’s when she refused to go back to that park. We were going to go watch the circus and instead I took her to the pool and got her ice cream so all is well with the world.

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