108. Epic Universe in 6 Hours | Universal Orlando's Newest Theme Park

Universal Orlando's Epic Universe is officially open! I had the opportunity to preview it, and while it was a whirlwind 6 hours, it was totally worth it. In this episode, I'm sharing my best tricks for tackling the most popular rides, strategies for getting food and drinks, and tips to avoid the crowds.

Connect with Michele on IG: @jetsettingwithmichele or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/MMTinsiders

Contact Michele to plan your next vacation: www.makinmemoriestravel.co/contact

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com. 

Transcript

Hello, jetsetters, and welcome back to another episode of jetsetting with me. Today's episode is going to be epic. Yes. I did it. I showed my crazy, and I got six hours in over at Epic Universe before the park officially opens today. You are hearing this on the day that the park opens. I, my friends, went early May, and I am here to spill all VT, give you the four one one, the DL, whatever the new hip words are for, I went, and I'm going to share my experience. So first of all, I have to tell you, I am a little bit crazy, and I think that you need to know how crazy this trip was.

So I found out the Wednesday before the weekend that I could get a preview ticket. So this was a Wednesday. Four days later, that Sunday, I was going to be flying to Miami to get on a cruise with my husband on Monday, which is called the Chefs Making Waves cruise. And it was a celebrity chef cruise, and I will tell you all about it because it was super fun in another episode. But so on Wednesday, four days before, mind you, I have no idea about packing, anything, I found out I could get a preview ticket. I changed my flight because it was on Southwest, and I chose to fly into Orlando at zero dark thirty. So I got into Orlando, like, by 9AM local time. The park didn't even open till eleven, so there we go.

And then I bought a BrightLine ticket in the evening to get from Orlando to Miami, where I would then meet my husband, who was still gonna take our original flight into Miami and check-in at the hotel, and then we would still board the cruise. So when I tell you I had, like, six hours, I had, like, six hours. So I did get to the park right around, as I said, I landed at nine. I didn't have any baggage, obviously, because I was only gonna luggage. Because I was only gonna be there for a few hours. Oh, and PS, I should tell you that my friends, Lindsey and Ashley, from Once Upon a Wardrobe did yeoman's work in fitting me in on Thursday and time to do my outfit, order anything I had needed overnight from Amazon, and get me dressed and ready for Celestial Park. Sadly, it poured down raining, and you really can't tell that I looked super cute. But I did, and I got tons of compliments on my skirt.

And that is my squirrel moment for this podcast. Next. Okay. I got off the plane. I got my Lyft. I got to the park. It was about 10:15. Now I knew I needed to either get an express pass or a shared VIP tour because I only had six hours, and I really wanted to be able to ride things as soon as possible.

So I did manage to get over to the area where you can buy express pass or shared VIP tour. You can now do that in advance now that the park is open. But during preview days, you could only do it same day. So I ran over there. There was actually a shared tour that would have been available for four hours from two to six, but it was $650. But it did include Ministry of Magic, and one of the reasons it didn't start until two is because during preview days, that attraction didn't open until three. Again, now it's open, and in fact, they ended up closing it down for the last two weeks of preview days. They really needed to work on its regularity and not breaking down.

It was working a lot like rise of the resistance did when it first went live. Lots of breakdowns, lots of trouble with the load and the unload, and it was rise of the resistance was also on a virtual queue, which just for verbiage sake, Universal calls VL or virtual line. K? So I got to the park, and I ended up getting an express pass, which did not count for three attractions, one of which was Ministry of Magic. The other is the Celestial Coaster, Stardust Star Racers, which I really wasn't ever going to ride anyway. Now by the time I finished that, it was pouring down rain. So I had to run through the rain to get over to the lockers to put my I had my travel backpack with my computer for the you know, because my husband couldn't take my suitcase and two backpacks. So okay. So I have my backpack.

It's in a locker now, which lockers are $20. The Spark is very, very expensive on the inside. Like, not just the ticket to get in, but once you get in, food, beverages, lockers, merchandise, all very, very expensive. So I paid $20 for my locker, and by this point, it is like a monsoon. But it's only 10:15, so the park is actually open at this point for resort guests. That is gonna be my number one piece of advice, is that if you are going to Universal to experience Universal, stay there, even if it's just a night or what sometimes we call a ghost room, get you that extra hour. And the extra hour is in Mario Brothers, which is where the park seems to enclose on you and get very, very crowded because of the way it's built. So I will tell you, I did not get to go in and experience Mario Brothers in the time that I had.

I chose that because I have experienced it in the Hollywood Park, and the ride that I most wanted to do there is the one that is not in Hollywood, which is Donkey Kong, and that was delayed. So one thing at the outset that I really noticed about this park is I have no idea what they're gonna do in the daily Florida summer rain because many, many, many, many of these attractions are outside. Lots of the thrill rides, lots of the coasters are outside, and they cannot run-in the rain. And they also have to wait for the tracks to dry in order to open. So I'm very curious to see how that's gonna work in the daily rain. Because as we all know, in Florida, it rains daily in time for the 03:00 parade at Disney. Okay. Moving on.

So I get into Celestial Park. I decide I'm going to get a rain poncho because I'm just gonna go for it, remembering I only have six hours. And then I realized that my socks and my feet were gonna get soaked, and I was like, no. And the only thing that was open between 10:11 was Mario Brothers, so really didn't need to do that. And the one ride I wanted to ride was closed because it was outdoors. So I ended up sitting down next to some very nice gentlemen, and we debriefed the virtual line, which was going to drop at 11AM for Ministry of Magic. So this is a long way to tell you that I didn't need the raincoat because the weather app was very accurate when it said it would end by eleven, and it actually got really hot. And I had to go back to my locker and get out my sunglasses and put my rain shell away.

But I now have a rain shell that says epic universe on it. I should give that away some time. Okay. Moving on. So I sat down next to these guys outside of the merchandise store waiting for the whole rest of the park to open and, obviously, for the rain to go away, And we decided we were gonna refresh our virtual line, and we were gonna all try and get a virtual line for three instead of they were two and I was one. And that way, if any one person got it, we would all be able to use it. I was the first one to get past the first screen, but I still didn't get the virtual line. VL.

And I will tell you that as of this recording, and, of course, I will give updates if this changes. But as of this recording, the virtual line for Ministry of Magic drops at eleven, three, and six. Some hints about that. If you have the opportunity, if you see the screen that actually shows you the times and there's more than one, go for something in the middle. Everybody's gonna go for the very first one. If you go for something in the middle, you might be more likely to get it. The 06:00 drop is the most successful because many people have already left the park. Of course, that was at the time of this recording, and it was also during preview days.

So that may or may not be accurate. But the park is only open until nine. And on opening day, it is open from nine to nine. And the nighttime show is in Celestial Park, and it is the fountain show. I did not get to see that. Obviously, I had to leave by 05:30 to go get my train. Tips about the virtual line. Again, I didn't even get an opportunity to choose anything other than three to 03:30 return time.

And by the time I did that, I couldn't get in for one, two, or three. But I'm actually pretty lucky to have gotten to actually ride the attraction because many people have gotten to walk through the queue, and yet not gotten to ride. You can be on either Wi Fi, the guest Wi Fi or digital. It works both ways, just so you know. And I did get to ride the attraction. Now I'm gonna go back to my day. I started in Celestial Park. I wanted to walk all around and see all the different portals and take pictures.

So I got to see Celestial Park. This is at 11AM now. And by the way, my Ministry of Magic virtual time to return is at 03:30. So this is what I did between eleven and 03:30. That coaster is no joke. It is got hang time. It has got reverse engineer. Like, it is scary, but it looks amazing.

It's very pretty. I'm sure it looks even better at night. So Celestial Park has all the portals that go off of it, but it's really, really beautiful. It's very well done. There's the gorgeous Helios Hotel, which if you stay there, you obviously can go into the park right from your hotel. And then at the 03:00 rain, you can go back into your hotel. It also has some really good food in there. But Celestial Park is the only place where you will find quick service food.

Things like pretzels, popcorn, soda, and the refillable mug, all in little, like, outside fast service, you know, little kitchens like you would find at any theme park throughout Celestial Park. There's also the carousel there, which is really, really good. I really enjoyed the carousel. I'm glad I did it. I forgot to mention that I ended up with the express pass. So I got on all of the attractions that I went on without a wait. I will say that I probably didn't need the express pass. I could have done single rider, but I was glad that I had it just the same because single rider is not always open on every attraction.

In fact, it wasn't open for Ministry of Magic, for example. Also, Ministry of Magic is not included on the express pass at this time. It is included on the VIP tour or VIP shared tour, and that's just information for you as we plan your trip to go to Epic Universe. So here I am in Celestial Park, and I know I'm gonna skip Mario Brothers because one attraction is down, delayed opening because of the rain, and the other one I've already been on. And and it's the most crowded at this point in the day because it's been open for an hour, so everybody goes there. All the resort guests head there. So I most wanted to go to Dark Universe. I really, really wanted to ride the ride that is themed to the granddaughter of Frankenstein, and all the monsters get loose, And she's trying to bring them all back so that Frankenstein is the name that is most remembered of all the monsters.

And I loved dark universe. It was amazing. All of these lands, as you heard on my last epic universe episode, are extremely immersive. They are truly, truly live up to the name epic. I mean, when you go into dark universe on the portal, they have little skulls. And as you walk through the portal, they are all, like, four d. I mean, they're each portal has video, audio. You know? They're fully immersive as you walk through the portal to bring yourself into this universe.

And I really love dark universe. As you walk through, it gets darker, and you see lightning, and they have great streetmosphere. There's a man dressed up as, like, a mummy. I took pictures of all the menus of all the food. The food in each land is also very well themed. So this one is a steak house, but it's not s t e a k. It's s t a k e as in a steak through the heart, as in a vampire. I didn't eat here.

Obviously, I didn't get to eat in a lot of the different aisles or a lot of the different portals or universes. But I did get to see the food, and I smelled it, and it was amazing. The ride, as previously mentioned on my last epic universe episode, had lifelike audio animatronics in the attraction. It was crazy. Now the attraction seats four, I would say it's very, very similar to the Harry Potter Hogwarts attraction and that, you know, the four of you at the same time will roll on your back, come up, go backwards, turn around. It's not dizzying. I didn't feel dizzy at all. I did have my patch on, however, my seasickness patch, but it didn't feel jarring.

It was actually, despite all the movement, it was very smooth, and you definitely get turned around to see each of the audio animatronics. And I will say that both Frankenstein in the preshow even and the werewolf were they could have been real if they existed in real life. I mean, the audio animatronics, if you're into theme parks or you're a theme park nerd like I am, you have to go on the ride just to see that. It's amazing. The story, as I said, it's about Frankenstein's granddaughter. It's a little convoluted, and I do definitely recommend reading the story on the Universal app, Epic Universe app, as you're in line or before you go on. This ride did have single riders. So if you're willing to split up, there's practically no wait.

And I know this because the express line and the single rider line are the same line. And so waited, like, four minutes to get on the attraction, and I could have done it again as a single rider since I used my express pass the first time. I could have done it again, but I wanted to see more. The second attraction there, the outdoor roller coaster, it was closed due to rain. So that was my experience in dark universe. I really, really loved it, and I would love to go back and really fully experience the other attraction and the food, and definitely ride the one attraction I did get to ride again. Now, the next one that I most wanted to go to was Isle Of Berk. I will say that I've never seen how to train your dragon movie, but I had seen so many of the pictures on Facebook, and my friends who had already been to preview days just absolutely loved this one.

It had the absolute longest line of any attraction of any day. There was no express pass, and you cannot VIP tour it. The absolute longest line of anything all day in any of these lands is to meet Hiccup and Toothless. Supposedly, they're amazing, and the Toothless that you would meet and pet and take a picture with is supposedly amazing. But since I have no emotional, like, attraction to that and there was no way I was waiting ninety minutes, it's also very, very hot at this theme park, and Isle Of Burke is one of the hottest lands, I will say. The trees are new. They haven't fully grown in. There were not enough fans or umbrellas in this line for ninety minutes.

I was like I mean, even if I'd had the time, I wouldn't have done it. It was just hot. The fast food in this land smelled amazing. Again, there's not like popcorn or pretzels, but there is, like, fast food lunch type of stuff that you can order in the mobile order, or there is a sit down restaurant. The sit down restaurants are interesting. You go. You sit down. You scan a QR code.

You place your order through the app in your phone, and then someone brings you the food. So it's a nice little mix between a quick service and a fully sit down restaurant. I mean, you get to sit down, you get to rest and relax, and someone will bring your food, and, yes, it is an air condition. But the quick service in Isle Of Burke also has, like, a seating area that's undercover, and it has some fan aspect to it, but is still outside for unless you wanna go into this the sit down restaurant. I took pictures of all the menus, and I will say this is the one I actually wish I had eaten at is Isle Of Burke. I did not get to ride any attractions in this particular portal. The one is the fire drill, which is a family friendly water attraction where you will get wet. It was delayed opening because of the rain, but, also, I didn't wanna get any wetter than I had gotten already.

My hair was a hot mess. There is Hiccups Wing Gliders, which is the surprise hit attraction. It was closed due to a delayed opening because of rain, so I did not get to ride that. And then there is a show here. Now I did get to see the show, and the express pass does work for the shows so that you are guaranteed really, really good seating. For both the shows, there's also one in Ministry of Magic. I don't recommend sitting close-up. I sat for both of them in the first row of the second area, and that way, I had a view of the entire stage, and I was able to see everything.

If you sit too close-up to the stage, you're going to miss the full perspective. I will say both shows were very good. They did live up to all the hype. I enjoyed them both. And so that was my experience in Isle Of Burke. By this time, it is time for me to do the land that I was most excited about because I wanted to be sure and eat there. I wanted to check out the merch. I wanted to do everything so that the last thing I would do is the attraction, which remember my return time was at 03:30.

And then I could meander on the way out to get my shared transport back to the train to go on the BrightLine. So it was time to go through the portal of Ministry of Magic. O m g. It is definitely the most immersive themed park of Harry Potter that exists. Remember, there's two others. There is Hogsmeade, and there's Diagon Alley, 1 in each of the other universal parks, Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure, and now this one, Ministry of Magic. It's based on the nineteen twenties Paris from the Fantastic Beasts. And the first thing I did was go see the show.

The show was beautiful. It was truly, truly beautiful. And, of course, some of the real actors from the Scamander series, Newt Scamander, make an appearance through video and audio. It was really good, and the preshow was very good too. They did really pack us in there even though I had an express pass when I was at the front of the line. They packed us into that preshow like we were sardines. And when I tell you it was hot and humid, and I did not want anyone near me, and yet we were packed in there like sardines. So one thing I do recommend is actually, you don't have to be the first one in because you don't wanna sit too close-up.

I had my portable fan. Thank goodness. But I just was feeling a little bit claustrophobic. So I would actually recommend being towards the back of this preshow. You will be able to see and hear everything just fine. You don't have to be right on top of the preshow. And then going in, you will have a great seat. You don't have to rush to the front.

That's just my little piece of advice. Let's talk a little bit about the merchandise, because they do have new wands. I brought my old wand that I had bought in Diagon Alley, and it did work. But these new wands are so cool. They light up at the end when they work, and they are prettier. They are super expensive. I think they're, like, $60, but you can buy a wand there that is definitely, like, magic wand two point o. They're very cool, and there are some really great places where you can use your wand to make things happen.

They're really all over the place in nineteen twenties magical Paris, and I kinda wish that I had had a newer one. My old one, like I said, it worked, but I've never been really good at getting those the wands to work, so I definitely needed help. But that was probably me and not my wand. I don't know. Maybe the wrong wand chose me back in Diagon Alley A Few Years ago. I don't know. This is where I did choose to eat. I chose to eat in the nineteen twenties Paris sidewalk cafe.

So I went in. I then got a table, and then scanned the QR code. I entered my order, and then somebody was gonna bring it to me. It was so long a wait for the food. I was like, all I ordered was a piece of quiche. Come on now. Like, I should not have to wait thirty minutes for my quiche. So, apparently, this is a very popular land for people to eat.

I don't know if they were still under staff. I know staffing in Orlando is hard, but I definitely it wasn't worth it. I was not worth the money. It was the service. Although they were nice, the kitchen must have been very backed up, and it just it wasn't worth it at all. Also, there were some rude people. So there is a front door to enter. There is a line.

You go in the line. You tell them how many you people you are, and then they will seat you. Well, so I had waited for a table of two. Obviously, I'm just one person. I don't want them to waste a four top on me. Right? So we finally get a table of two that clears, and they go to seat me. And people walked in from the outside patio, and we're like, we're gonna sit here. And then when someone explained there was a line to them, they were like, well, no.

We didn't wanna sit outside, so we're gonna take this table. They wouldn't move. So don't be those people. Don't be rude. There's no reason. You can be nice. If you would have just simply explained in a nice way, I probably would have said, absolutely. Sit here.

I'll go sit somewhere else. Anyway, I waited for another table or two. It wasn't a big deal. But then, like I said, after I ordered to get my food, it took a really long time. Also, something unique I learned about the Ministry of Magic, and, actually, I don't think I knew this about any of the lands. But, apparently, in Harry Potter world and any of the world, w o r l d s, worlds of Harry Potter, they do not know from soda. So there is no Diet Coke. There is no seven up.

There is no no. There is gilly water, and there is lemonade, and there are adult beverages galore. Every single land does have a signature cocktail and bars galore. They all look beautiful. There is one in the Isle Of Burke that is like a walking calorie machine. It's got ice cream and whipped cream, and, oh my god, it looks delicious. So interesting. If you want your Diet Coke or your refillable mug, get it in Celestial Park before you walk through that portal, because some of the lands do not have the drinks that I would have liked.

So then I got to go on the ride. You do walk through flu powder, which is super, super cool. You go into the ministry of magic. You see Dolores Umbridge. You see the actual Ministry of Magic. It's like you stepped into the movie set. It is amazing. And even if you don't get the virtual line and don't get to ride the attraction, you can still walk into the queue, The actual because everybody gets into the big beautiful Ministry Of Magic Lobby, and then you actually have to scan your actual virtual line pass to get into the actual line, which really starts there.

I can see it being, at times, a three hour queue, if it actually starts from outside of the Ministry of Magic lobby, but everyone should see that lobby. It's gorgeous. You will recognize things. Everywhere you turn, you will see things. Do not rush through it. Take your time. It's truly epic. I don't know how else to describe it.

It's immersive. It's epic. It's beautiful. The ride itself was very quick. I kind of remember parts of it. It is a very unique ride system. It the ride vehicle looks very much like tower of terror. It is not like a tower of terror ride, though.

It's supposedly an elevator that's going to take you up to the trial of Dolores Umbridge. So this is after the movie. We do see Ron, Harry, and Hermione in both video form and an audio animatronic. If you ever noticed in the other two Harry Potter lands, we don't actually see them in audio animatronics. We only see them on screens. We see them both ways, and I will be honest. I will tell you there were sometimes I couldn't tell if it was an audio animatronic or a screen. It was so, like, definitely plays definitely plays tricks with your mind.

You are not going very high up or very low. It's similar to the Spider Man ride at Epic Universe. It is definitely just playing tricks with your mind. You are not really going high up or very low, and the ride itself is fine. It wasn't scary. It was fun, but the surroundings are just amazing, and you definitely are gonna have to write it more than the one time that I wrote it to take it all in. To sum things up, first thing, Express Pass is a hot yay, A hell yeah. There are single rider lines, but the express pass for the price that it was to be able to walk in the shows and everything, just a hell yeah.

If the price of the shared tour goes down, I would absolutely do that because it guarantees you a ride on Ministry of Magic. A private VIP tour would be even better because then you could ride Ministry of Magic more than once. But, yes, it is worth the money, especially if you only have one day. Do it. Do it. Do it. Okay. The virtual line, well, I mean, I got on, so it works.

I didn't love it. I didn't like it. I didn't like the way they did it at Disney either, so I'm not really sure what the best way to do a virtual line or a virtual queue is. But, you know, we still waited in line, I would say, about forty five minutes because pretty much everybody returns at the start of their return time. Anyway, my biggest piece of advice is to absolutely stay the night before on property, get that extra hour in with resort guests only, do Mario Brothers, hope that the rain is in the afternoon and not in the morning, bring your mobile charger. Just like there are no sodas in some of these immersive worlds, there were not a lot of charging stations. And there was only one place where I could change out my mobile thing that you I'm forgetting the name of it, where you can swap them out at different machines. So they're like $30 for the first one, and then it's like $2 when you swap them out.

There was only one of those in the entire park. It actually was next to the coasters in Celestial Park. But if you go into these immersive worlds, there are not charging stations, and there are not places to switch out your mobile charger. When would I visit again? Well, definitely not in the heat. So I would say probably 2026 in the January or February. I want all the kings to be out. I wanna be able to ride ministry of magic more than once. I want to not have to worry about the 03:00 rain, and the crowds, and the heat.

So January, February. Maybe November before the Thanksgiving crowds, but we are talking about Universal, Orlando, and they are famous for Hollywood Hollywood Horror Nights. So definitely not October because that's gonna bring the crowds out for Hollywood Horror Nights, and then they're you know, people are gonna cross over into epic universe. So I would say January, February of '20 '20 '6 would be a great time to go again. Will I go again? I can't wait to go again. I feel like I missed out. I was only there for six hours, so I'm sure there was a lot I didn't notice. And after all that, it was worth being crazy for a day.

I really, really had a lot of fun. And special shout out to x who I met in line who helped me get on Ministry of Magic, which was definitely the highlight of the day. Until next week, jetsetters. Happy travels.