I Went to Universal Epic Universe On The First Paid Preview Day. I Was Surprised By What We Achieved.

Universal Orlando has now opened their new Epic Universe theme park to the public for a preview period leading up to their official opening date. This is the first major new theme park in the United States opened by Disney or Universal in over two decades. It features Harry Potter, How to Train Your Dragon, Nintendo, the classic Universal monsters, and more.

We’ve been covering all the latest Epic Universe news very closely. When Universal announced that they were going to start limited previews a week before the first event I knew I had to be there. This trip report focuses on the preview day itself and does not contain ride spoilers. Another upcoming article will focus on my ride rankings and takeaways from the park.

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Epic Universe Preview Period Overview

This full trip report was written in a bit of a hurry on the plane home from Orlando. Please ask me any questions in the comments for more details on specific things where you want more depth. This is just the beginning of our coverage and I’ll have my full review of the park and rides in the coming days.

My preview day at Epic Universe almost could not have gone better from a logistics point of view. Almost all the things that could have gone right did. After hearing horror stories from earlier team member previews of scorching hot days where nearly all the attractions at the parks were down at different periods or never opened, I was shocked by our success.

Based on those earlier reports, I came in with a very short list that I would be thrilled with if we got to ride it all. I wanted to ride Donkey Kong, Monsters Unchained, Harry Potter, and see the Untrainable Dragon How to Train Your Dragon. That list was already a stretch based on prior reports and my hope that there would be more pressure for the park to deliver during paid previews. I’ll get into what we got on below.

Even if the day had gone poorly, I was excited about the experience of being one of the first people in the new park. There’s something very special about being one of the first on any new attraction. I always look forward to first days of festivals and new rides, but a whole new theme park is something even better. Constant new discovery.

To purchase tickets to the Epic Universe preview period, you could be in a couple of different buckets. Many of the people who purchased tickets for the preview were annual pass holders. The preview was also open to those staying at a Universal hotel. This was how I was able to access a ticket. I stayed at the new Terra Luna value resort that is nearby the new park.

We have heard reports that the park was around 1/3 capacity yesterday and it showed. Everything was very easy. I expect that Universal will see these positive reports and sell more tickets for upcoming previews. Yesterday they had stopped selling Annual Pass Holder tickets but kept selling tickets for hotel guests. Tickets for hotel guests were more expensive than for pass holders and cost $179.99 for hotel guests.

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Early Park Admission for Hotel Guests

The theme park officially opened at 11 am, but the park opens an hour early for hotel guests. During the first hour, Super Nintendo World and Stardust Racers are supposed to be operating for guests.

The buses from the hotels begin running an hour before that. So, around 8:50 am I walked out of the Terra Luna hotel and joined the already long line at the bus station to ride over to Epic. We waited, and waited. When no bus has arrived by 9:30 am and the line had doubled in length, I went to check on a walking path that I had heard described.

I ended up walking out a gate at the front area of Terra Luna and then ran into a security guard who was causing the area and confirmed it was ok for me to walk that way to the park. I followed a brand new side walk in front of the other value space-themed hotel, Stella Nova. The path is perfectly fine during the day but I don’t think I’d want to do the walk home alone at night. The walk took me about 10 mins, but admittedly I was really hustling because I knew that many people would end up in front of us at the park gates.

A side note here, a room at Stella Nova was only a few dollars more expensive for the period that I booked. I should have booked that hotel instead to have the easy walking path from that hotel directly across to the park entrance.

When I joined up with that path, there were already hundreds (a thousand plus perhaps) in all of the security lines. Before getting in line I made my way to guest services to inquire about Express Pass for the day. The price was over $200 a person in addition to the ticket. I debated but then decided to see how the park was before. I joined the far line and then at 9:45 am they opened the security gates. The line moved pretty quickly and I was through by 10 am.

Rope Dropping Super Nintendo World

From here, I was ready to ride. I was meeting up with friends who had stayed in the new Helios Grand Hotel and they were already arriving at the Donkey Kong-themed Mine-Cart Madness when I got into the park. I made it over to the ride and opted for the single rider line. The single ride line took 10 mins when I joined it.

The posted wait time for the standby line was 35 minutes. By the time that I was off the ride the line there had spiked to 130 mins, That was the highest it would be all day. I do still think that as Universal adds more tickets for these previews coming here first if you are getting in right at opening as a hotel guest is the right move.

After that ride everything else that was supposed to be open during the morning preview was down with technical difficulties except for Yoshi’s Adventure, a flat ride omnimover that weaves through the top of the land. I hadn’t planned on riding it but we got on quickly while everything else was closed. This is a cute ride but nothing critical to experience. The technical difficulties were expected and the possibility was shared on signs throughout the park stating that this day was still a rehearsal. The posted wait time when we joined Yoshi’s was 15 minutes and the actual wait was 11 minutes.

Off to Dark Universe Next!

At this point we headed over to Dark Universe and they opened the land early around 10:45 am and we joined a throng of people walking on to Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment. The queue for this is long but we were moving the entire time.

Everything about this ride is fantastic. It’s a monsters version of the original Harry Potter ride, but I would definitely rank it higher than that ride. So many Audio-Animatronics. A very fun story and an amazing pre-show. I have a lot more to say about this in my ride review coming soon. There was no posted wait time when we arrived here as it had just opened and the actual wait was 31 minutes.

This was also the first time that I experienced their locker face scan process. For most of the rides at the park, there are lockers to stow loose belongings. There are stations with cameras that take a picture of your face and then use facial ID to again open the locker. I was super impressed with how this worked all day.

My Experience Using Virtual Queue for Harry Potter

Also while in line for Monsters we tried for the Harry Potter and the Battle of the Ministry virtual line. The ability to sign up for the line was set to open at 11 am on the app. We started refreshing at 10:55 am because apparently it has not been exactly on the dot so far.

The virtual line finally opened slots at 11:01 am and we were able to grab one for a little bit later. There were three virtual queue availabilities during our day that were stated in the app. The virtual queue isn’t tied to a specific ticket. Anyone with an app can access it and select the amount of people in their party.

Since we were already in Dark Universe and things were going so smoothly we decided to ride the Curse of the Werewolf Coaster. This was also super fun and surprising. The queue here was a little bit longer than the posted time of 25 minutes. The actual wait was 29 minutes.

Mobile Ordering Largely Ran Smoothly at Epic Universe This Day

In line for this coaster we mobile ordered lunch for Das Stakehaus where everything is on a stake. While ordering, the app was glitching on me and I had to reenter the same credit card twice before it would accept the form of placement. When we arrived at the restaurant we scanned a QR code on the table with the app and the brought the food out to us. It was super smooth and came quickly once we were there.

The food here was fine and not huge portions. The steak in particular was nothing special and smaller than we expect. The chicken on a stake had great sides of potatoes and carrots, but the chicken was a little dry. I would still order that again though. There is also a mead here which reportedly tastes like a mix of red wine and sparkling cider.

An Intense Ride on Stardust Racers

After this we headed to Stardust Racers, the intense racing coaster that goes upside down multiple times with two different ride tracks interwoven. The entire time we were right next to the other train. That brings something special to the coaster. The posted wait time was 35 minutes and the actual wait was 22 minutes.

There are two colors. One is supposedly less intense. I chose that one. I haven’t ridden an intense coaster like this since I saw spots last year after riding Knott’s Berry Fam’s most intense coaster twice in a row. This coaster was awesome and so intense.

The queue for this was not too long either. At one point there is a clear distinction where you can choose between the two sides on the coaster. The less intense version had a slightly shorter wait. The queue is not themed and is winding switchbacks surrounded by some gardening. I also don’t remember distinct background music here.

Redeeming Our Harry Potter Virtual Queue

We then popped into How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk for a moment to take photos before it was time for our Harry Potter return time.

We headed over to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter portal and walked into an incredible Paris street land with tower buildings on each side. This was by far my favorite land to spend time in and I came back multiple times during the day.

We walked to the entrance to the Harry Potter attraction where they weren’t checking virtual queues at that time. [Slight spoiler] We walked up and went through the Floo Network entrance to the Ministry of Magic and were blown away by the massive queue building. When then went to the entrance of the line and they checked and then scanned our virtual queue. [End slight spoiler]

This wait was posted at 15 minutes, but the ride went down when we were in line. It came back up after about 20 minutes of hanging out and the actual wait here was 1 hour and 1 minute. When we got to the load station they were only using half of the possible load stations.

After the ride someone in our group bought the very fun on-ride photo which is positioned as part of a the Daily Prophet newspaper. The cost was $42.

The ride puts you back into the Ministry of Magic building so you can wait until after your ride to look around and take in the space.

Isle of Berk’s Theming Works For Everyone

From here we walked to the Isle of Berk and saw the Untrainable Dragon show. I have not seen all of these movies so I wasn’t exactly clued in on the story, but that didn’t matter. [Slight spoiler] It’s an amazing show with great performers, music, and huge dragons. [End slight spoiler] We showed up here right in time for the 3:30 pm show and walked in right as they were closing the doors. Note that later in the evening I tried to walk up to the Harry Potter show 5 minutes before showtime and they had already closed the doors. That show you need to arrive at least 15 minutes before.

After the dragon show we toured through the rest of the Isle of Berk. We tried one of the Hooligan’s Mac and Cheese cone which is pretty much like the Chili Cone Carne at Cars Land in Disneyland. The cone here is better with sesame seeds and great flavor and the filling is better in Cars Land.

We then rode Dragon Racer’s Rally which had a posted 25 minute wait and 10 minute actual wait and the Hiccups Wing Gliders which had a posted wait time of 15 minutes after just reopening from a closure and actually wait of 6 minutes. I was really impressed with Hiccups. It’s the same ride system as Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure at Islands of Adventure. The Flyer’s one was a pretty standard amusement ride that is skippable.

I chose not to ride the Fire Drill water ride here as I just didn’t need to get soaked.

End of the Day Brought Low Wait Times

By this point we had more than checked off my full list of attractions. Throughout the rest of the day we had time to double back to attractions including the Ministry of Magic, which we rode again without any downtime interruptions and this time it had a 40 minute posted wait and 28 minute actual wait, Donkey Kong, Stardust Racers (I skipped this time around), and Monsters Unchained. The queues for all of these had fallen to 15-20 minutes.

We closed out the night by wandering in Dark Universe after dark and the Harry Potter area. In Dark Universe I loved seeing the Burning Blade tavern which has a windmill that literally catches on fire every 15 minutes and in Potter the popcorn bulbs lit up along the buildings.

I closed out the long, successful day, with a group of friends at Bar Helios on top of the new Grand Helios resort hotel looking out on the theme park. It was a fantastic, dare I say epic, day.

Some final quick Epic Universe takeaways

Bring a water bottle, even if it’s a plastic one. There are water fountains and bottle refills everywhere, even in the queues which was very much appreciated. There were also easy Coke Freestyle machines to access throughout the park.

For those who use an ECV or wheelchair or avoid stairs, it is important to know that there are a lot of them naturally here. Frankly, I was surprised how many there are. There are also plenty of elevators but I worry that these will get backed up with the amount that there are switches in height for different attractions. Many rides had stairs as part of their queue include the Harry Potter Ministry of Magic attraction. We’ll be watching this closely.

I’ll be back with my full ranking of the attractions very soon and an overall review of the park. There are so many wonderful pieces here that come together to deliver a great experience. I’ll be watching closely to see how the upcoming previews go. If you are considering a preview, I recommend visiting the sooner the better.

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