We headed over to Orlando today for our first visit to Universal’s Epic Universe park for the first time during a passholder preview day to see the first new theme park in Central Florida in over two decades!
This is going to be a very honest first look so that everyone reading this knows what to expect from our point of view (no need to worry about it being all positive or negative). There are some video clips from all over the park at the bottom of the page.
Right now Universal’s new theme park, Epic Universe, is going through it’s pre-opening trial period where employees, hotel guests and passholders are able to experience what the rest of the world will be able to see on May 22nd.
Quick first impression of entering the park from 528 and it’s that there is a serious lack of signage to tell you where to turn off of Universal Blvd., but that could change at any time once they hear from enough people about it. The other thing about parking that I don’t get is that they didn’t build a parking garage like the two they have for the other parks. I’m sure they have their reasons, but it sure seems like it would have made more sense to have built one instead of putting those huge parking lots out there.
Once you enter Epic Universe you are in Celestial Park which stretches from the entrance all the way to the Universal Helios Grand Hotel. You’ll find a variety of shops, restaurants (sit down and quick service) and plenty of places to sit. One thing you won’t find is an abundance of shade, but it’s a new park and it’s going to take years for the trees they did plant to produce shade. You’ll also find the Constellation Carousel and Stardust Racers (you’ll see some photos of Stardust Racers below). The Atlantic is Epic Universe’s fine dining restaurant and the upper level is a gorgeous bar. We could have eaten there, but the reservation was for after we wanted to leave the park.
Here’s Constellation Carousel and the Helios Hotel is in the background.
We wanted to get in a quick walk around each of the worlds and then be able to go back through them in the evening (the original plan was to go through each of them at night, but we were pretty exhausted by the end of our stay and didn’t get to that).
First up was Super Nintendo World. You enter through the portal and take a ride up an escalator to the top level of this world. There’s also actually two “lands” here as you’ll also visit Donkey Kong Country.
If you’re a fan of the Nintendo games, you’ll be in gamer heaven as Super Nintendo Land has all of your favorite Super Mario characters.
The Mario Kart ride and Mine Cart Madness had the longest lines throughout the day and both were down at times, so we didn’t get to go on either. We did hop on Yoshi’s Adventure and it’s one of the few small child friendly rides in the entire park.
Yes Donkey Kong Country has its own entrance and you come back out this way to exit Super Nintendo World. Actually, all four of the worlds are the same way. You cannot go to different worlds from the one beside it. You exit and go back into Celestial Park to make your way to the next world you want to explore. I don’t mind this as it allows guests to really get into the theming of each area.
We did want to try some of the food around the park, but we wanted to keep it not too expensive, so we shared food as we explored some of the restaurants throughout the day.
First up was The Oak & Star Tavern. As soon as I walked in and smelled the BBQ, I knew I had to try a couple things here. One thing that you’ll find at the “quick service” sit down restaurants at Epic Universe is that you’ll get to your table, scan the QR code on the table and order your food (and pay for it) right at your table on the Universal FL ap on your phone. Everything is brought out to you. I don’t know if there’s an option not to use the QR code or to pay with cash or a credit card if you don’t have a cell phone with the Universal app on it.
I also wish that Walt Disney World would find a way to add the “Freestyle” machines around their parks like Universal has done. Not just for the soda options, but there’s plenty to choose from and the free ice & cold water that anyone can access is absolutely wonderful for theme parks here in Central Florida!
Above you’ll see the two meat platter (We went with brisket and ribs), mac & cheese, cornbread and harissa cauliflower. It was all up there with any of the other food we’ve had at theme parks in the U.S. and Europe that we couldn’t lump into typical “theme park food”. The brisket didn’t come from Texas and the ribs weren’t smoked in Kansas City, but they were both decent. The Boss was a huge fan of the cauliflower and the mac & cheese was I think the best I’ve had in a theme park (again, that’s not a high mark to reach, but it was pretty good.).
Yes there’s four types of BBQ sauce on the table. Sweet is what you’d expect and the other three are definitely unique. My favorite was the harissa sauce. We also purchased a couple of beers that they had on tap and a refillable cup that we could fill at any of the numerous “Freestyle” machines you’ll find in the park. That did bring up the price of this meal a bit, but we were there to try things.
Enough food, let’s go see some monsters!
I have to say that I dreaded this world the most and it’s solely because my son knows that I am not a fan of werewolves. I’m not going to get into the whole backstory about it, let’s just say that I have a very irrational fear of this make believe monster. Not “The Wolfman”, he’s not what I REALLY don’t care to see. It’s the kind that actually look freaky. Knowing all of this, my son (who still may be left out of the will for all of this) has from the first day he knew Dark Universe was going to be a part of this park, has teased the ever living crap out of me about the Curse of the Werewolf ride and how there would be howling throughout the land itself. I honestly didn’t even want to walk through this portal, but walk through I did.
This is the inside of Das Stakehaus. We didn’t eat in here and yeah, if you have young kids that aren’t into movie monsters, it might be a bit much for them. But if your family loves monsters, you should sit and have a bite (just make sure those vampires don’t take a bite out of you!).
Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment is one of the top tier attractions at Epic Universe. I knew that I couldn’t actually ride it, but I did want to go through the queue to at least see that part of it.
With lights flashing in the windows, visible even during the day, I did want to see this building at night. Which of course we didn’t get to see on this visit.
It’s pretty spooky inside and again, it’s not something many small children might be comfortable with. Make sure you watch the video at the bottom of the page to see some more of the queue and my son did say it was a great ride. I’ll just have to take his word for it, but he did say the visuals were pretty intense. This was also my first experience seeing something on a ride that’s not built for small children. They had a room at the end of the queue where family members that weren’t going on the ride, could sit and wait for those that were going on it. I am going to assume that parents could take turns going on the ride this way and it was nice to see a park have a place for those not going on a ride to wait in the A/C instead of outside. Stardust Racers also had this option for families (I don’t know about the rides we didn’t go on).
The Burning Blade Tavern is actually quite small inside, but they have some drinks and food that are pretty quirky. We didn’t eat here on this visit, but we will try some of the items in the future. Oh, and from time to time, the windmill does catch on fire.
Yeah, this is the picture I just scroll right on past and that I deleted off my phone as soon as I could. Of course I did not go on Curse of the Werewolf, but I was told by my son that it’s pretty fun and not real extreme.
Unless you don’t want to get eaten by or turn into a werewolf… Then it’s pretty extreme.
The Helios Grand Hotel is impressive and we thought that we’d be able to go inside (as did many other people that were walking up to it as we were), but a lady poked her head out of a door and said “Room Key”, three times as I asked if we were allowed to go in. Nothing but the words “room key”. Three times. Everyone outside of the door kind of just looked around at each other and walked back down the steps.
This is the view from in front of the Helios Grand Hotel looking over Celestial Park.
Another view of the hotel.
One more shot of the hotel and the massive fountain in front of it. Wide steps topped with artificial grass surround this fountain, so I assume there’s a show at some point.
Our next world to explore was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic.
I have to state that the two Harry Potter “lands” at the other Universal Orlando parks are up there at the top of my list (along with Cars Land at Disney’s California Adventure) for theming. They are incredible and I’m not even a big Harry Potter fan.
I also have not seen the newer movies that this land is themed after. That is probably why this land, as amazing as it is, didn’t connect with me. I will be watching those movies before going back for a second visit so that I understand a bit more about it.
Like I said, it’s impressive and from some of the comments I heard from people while we were walking through, Universal did a great job making them feel like they were in the movies.
Now we did attempt to get the virtual queue for Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry twice, but did not get lucky. We also chose not to watch Le Cirque Arcanus as both times we walked through this land, it was full, but we did walk around a bit and then went looking for some more food.
We chose to visit Le Gobelet Noir and went with the Lentil Stew to split and again, this was up there well above typical theme park fare. It was REALLY good and it’s an option for vegans.
Each of the rooms inside this restaurant are themed a bit differently and this was where we sat.
Again, the theming was amazing.
One more look at a part of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Ministry of Magic.
Looming over the park is the Stardust Racers “dueling” coaster. I am so glad that they brought a dueling coaster experience back to the parks (even if I’ll never be able to step foot on it.).
Yes it’s nice to see coasters dueling over Central Florida once again! Even if they aren’t dragons.
Our son went on both sides of the coaster during our visit.
One thing that is deceiving with the line for Stardust Chasers is that when you see the queue outside and are walking through it, once you get to the locker system they have set up for guests (you cannot take anything with you when you’re on the ride), guests head upstairs to walk through metal detectors (they’re not kidding about you not taking anything on the coaster.). Then you go through a door and there’s another queue area as you wait to board the ride.
It’s a lengthy coaster and my sone said that it’s as intense as any coaster he’s been on. He also said he’d ride it over and over again! I’ll just have to take his word for it.
Even though I can’t ride coasters and this write up has nothing to do with Walt Disney World, I sure wish they’d start building big coasters at even one WDW park.
We still had one world to explore and it was the one I had been waiting for.
How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk.
Again, the theming is AMAZING. The further you walk into the world, you feel, well like you’re literally walking through the Isle of Berk.
This is the front of the Isle of Berk. To the left you’ll find the Viking Training Camp, Dragon Racer’s Rally and Hiccup’s Wing Gliders. To the right is the Fyre Drill ride, The Untrainable Dragon show and the meet & greet with Toothless. There are options for food and to pick up merchandise all over the Isle of Berk.
Hiccup’s Wing Gliders coaster is smooth and fast and a great ride for everyone that hits the height requirement.
Oh, there are dragons. Everywhere.
Dragon Racer’s Rally is a fun ride and there is a way to actually flip your dragon over, but I didn’t see anyone actually do it. I think the heavier you are, the more likely you might be able to do it.
Mead Hall is the main dining area on the Isle of Berk and it’s where Vikings young and old meet up to dine and have a beverage or two.
We chose the Swedish meatballs (with lingonberry preserves of course!), mashed root veggies and one of the meads they serve. A meal fit for a Viking (or a trio of guests who needed a quick meal.).
Inside Mead Hall.
I did ride Fyre Drill and learned that there are a couple areas where the guest Vikings can actually get other boats with sneak attacks from the water cannons when they aren’t expecting it. You are going to get wet on this ride. Just how wet will vary from person to person and from ride to ride.
One of the most iconic scenes in any animated movie.
Another view of Fyre Drill. It’s a slow, family friendly attraction, but remember, you’re going to get wet.
Did I mention there’s dragons everywhere?
We had actually spent more hours at Epic Universe than we typically do while visiting a theme park and while we would like to have stayed until the park closed hours later, it was a work night and we still have an hour drive to get back home.
But we did stop by for one more bite to eat on the way out and it was for a pie at Pizza Moon.
There are a few options on the menu and this margherita style pie was a good choice to finish our day.
That concluded our first adventure at Universal’s Epic Universe, but it won’t be our last. I do think we’ll wait for the crazy rush of guests that will engulf this brand new theme park starting on May 22nd to subside a bit and for sure I won’t go during our long Florida summer season, but we’ll be back to finish exploring what we didn’t get to see and do.
