Epic Universe Rides and Attractions

Epic Universe – Our 3 day Epic adventure was full of amazing theming and scenery, beautiful clear pools with majestic fountains, a smorgasbord of dining options, plus 11 rides, 2 shows and a splash pad. So, let’s get into those…

The spectacular dome at the centre of Celestial Park is home to Constellation Carousel, a beautiful carousel where the animals are all themed to signs of the zodiac an astrological symbols. Not only does the carousel spin as you’d expect but areas of the floor rotate too, so you’re weaving through the centre as you spin. It’s all set to a backdrop of beautiful lighting and music to make it more visually stunning. It really does look great, especially at night when fully illuminated. We only did one ride on the carousel and it was a bit of a slow load and unload process, so a 5 minute queue felt more like 10-15. When we rode it the music was relaxing but we did watch it on Disco mode too, where the music was louder and faster, the lights were more party like and the carousel span backwards!

Astronomica is a splash pad. We didn’t see it operating until the last day, but it looked like fun for the kids to run through and get soaked. Never seen the appeal of a splash pad. Don’t mind getting a soaking on a water ride, but having to take swimming gear and towels to a theme park doesn’t appeal. Each to their own.

Two of the best coasters I’ve ever ridden. People seem to compare it to Velocicoaster over at Islands of Adventure and ask if it’s better, due to their similarities. Both have a similar feel with LSM launches and great elements. I’d say they were on a par, but I’d give the nod to Velocicoaster on it’s theming. That’s taking nothing away from Stardust Racers as it’s amazing. The duelling element really makes it a great ride and helps it stand out. You really do feel like you’re in a race with the other train. This Mack Rides beast has 2 launches (watch out for the 2nd part of the 1st launch, it caught me off guard the first time) and the ‘celestial spin’ where the trains invert around each other close enough you feel you could high five people on the other train. The way the trains cross one another around the bends and over the last few stretches of the track is brilliant and makes the race feel real. It’s only got a 1.2m height requirement too, so Elliott, our 7 year old was tall enough to ride. He loved it. And because I had to take both kids on, we had to do rider swap, meaning I managed to get about 16 rides, including one late night ride where we had both trains to ourselves which was amazing in its own way.

It looks amazing at night too. The track remains dark but the trains are illuminated to look like comets flying through the night sky. Its a great sight, on and off ride. The station itself has an art deco feel about it and looks amazing. The trains in their purple and white colouring are stunning. Keep an eye out for the Back to the Future Flux Capacitor at the back of the trains!

The green and yellow intertwining tracks have slightly different layouts. The general consensus appears to be that the green track is better, which the queue length seems to confirm, but there’s not much in it for me. Green may have been a little more intense, but the airtime hills on yellow made up for it.

We were hotel guests with early park access, so it was straight over to Super Nintendo World on our first day for our first ride in Epic Universe – And because Mine Cart Madness was down, that ride was Mario Kart Bowsers Challenge.

And wow. You enter Bowser’s castle, up the stairs to the giant stone-look carved statue of King Koopa himself. It looks brilliant. The entire queue is fantastic and you can tell they’ve spent months of planning every detail to ensure its perfectly in-keeping with the games and characters. Every book in the library room has humorous Super Mario related titles, such as Feng Shui for Dungeons, Off the Edge: A Rainbow Road Story, How to Talk to Princesses and Know their Weaknesses: Luigi. The long castle corridors are lined with Bowser bunting and portraits, rows of Mario Kart Grand Prix trophies, a brilliant pop-up style map of one of the courses, screens with Boos moving through the bookshelves, Bowsers reading chair and his plans, blueprints for Bullet Bills, the Bob-Omb factory and production line… all of it. Amazing.

Grab your red Mario hat and head into the quick pre-show that explains the controls of the ride, with a backdrop of Mario & friends racing outfits, then you’re in.

Get in your kart, clip in your visor and you’re in a race with Mario to beat Bowser. Its a brilliant setup with rooms of practical sets and screens, with the racers and characters overlayed in your visor screen, so you can look around and see different things. Collect shells and shoot the bad guys, turn the wheel when told and collect the coins to win. You will spin out on occasion too, just as if you’d hit a banana skin in Mario Kart. It’s a slow paced ride, but really good fun. It takes a few tries to get used to it too, but it is a ride you’ll want to do again to see everything. Its a cleverly executed ride where you’ll jump through some of the more popular Mario Kart courses, ending on Rainbow Road.

Mario Kart Bowsers Challenge always has a big queue too. If you’re lucky enough to catch it under 30 minutes, it’s definitely worth jumping in.

Yoshi’s Adventure is a slow paced trot around the world of Yoshi. It’s an omni-mover attraction where you sit in different coloured Yoshi cars and move gently around Super Nintendo World, spotting all the characters and Yoshis whilst trying to find 3 Yoshi eggs. It’s a ride for young children but I still couldn’t find one of the eggs. Both the queue and ride are bright and colourful, its a cute addition to the area. Queues were generally small, but its not a ride you’d want to wait more than 20 minutes for.

Just around the corner in Donkey Kong Country is Universal’s new ‘Boom’ coaster model, where the ride sits atop a fake track while the real track is hidden underneath, enabling you to look like you’re jumping across broken mine tracks.

The ride itself looks fantastic from the outside with the minecart track and temple facade, but felt a bit lacking when you’re actually on it. Not much in the queue either aside from a great Cranky Kong animatronic. Think they’d spent all the queue budget on Mario Kart.

The ride itself was a fun little jaunt and cleverly done, but for a new coaster, it was a bit rough, throwing you into the sides of an uncomfortable cart as it whipped you across the track. When it was working, the queue was generally around the hour mark or over.

Monsters Unchained was probably my favourite ride in Epic Universe. Dark Universe itself looks amazing and the Frankenstein Manor facade that houses Monsters Unchained was exceptional.

The queue through the manor was littered with Universal Monsters Easter eggs, videos of them hunting the monsters, sketches and writings, sparking electricity effects, ghoulish statues and artwork all around befitting a Frankenstein Manor. They even had the encased body of the original Frankenstein’s monster.

The pre-shows are an experience in themselves. Part one with Ygor (The undoubted star of Dark Universe) talks you through the ride vehicle and promises you’ll be safe. The second pre show will introduce you to Victoria Frankenstein and her new monster. The animatronics here are brilliant…. When they work.

The ride itself is a Kuka Arm vehicle, the same as you’ll find in Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, that takes you through the catacombs beneath Darkmoor, encountering all of the Universal monsters along the way to try and stop Dracula. You’ll be moved up and down. Side to side and all directions as you pass through and there is loads to see. A mix of practical sets, screens and amazing animatronics bring this story to life. It’s a brilliant ride that is not to be missed.

Is it scary? Elliott loved it. We did several rides and he loved it, but it depends on your child. He’d also watched a POV beforehand to make sure he’d like it…

Generally, Monsters Unchained was a reliable ride that always seemed to have a low queue time due to the capacity of the ride system. The most we waited was around 40 minutes on a very rainy morning when everything else was closed, but it was generally a walk on. The only downside is the animatronics, when they fail it can spoil the experience. But even when it’s bad, its still awesome.

Curse of the Werewolf is a Mack Rides Spinning coaster with a multi-pass launch. It looks pretty fun, but unfortunately it was down for maintenance the entire week we were in Orlando so never got to ride it. By all accounts its a very short ride and isn’t anything special. At least we’ve got something to go back to Epic for though!

Another one that was closed while we were at Epic Universe. Battle was set to be closed for the week but reopened on the Friday with a 3-5 hour queue! Quite glad it wasn’t open while we were there as that’s half a day wasted in a queue. Ah well, next time, and I hope it quietens down.

The queue alone is worth spending a few hours in though. That first time you enter through the Floo network into the vastness of the ministry is just…wow. The size of it, the amazing detail. We were fortunate enough that we were allowed to go through the ride queue while we were there to see the moving wanted posters, talking portraits, the office desks, the Aurors lockers, Umbridge’s office, and just wait until you meet Higgledy!

With Battle at the Ministry down, Le Cirque Arcanus is the only other attraction in this new Wizarding World area of 1920s Paris.

It’s a brilliant show, featuring Circus ringmaster Skender, from the Fantastic Beasts films, whose circus is down on it’s luck following the events of the film, until he steals Newt Scamander’s magic suitcase. Its a clever show with actors and puppets, on a fantastic set, inside the suitcase, where you’ll see Kelpies, Erumpents and the Demiguise.

Hiccup’s Wing Gliders is an amazing family rollercoaster experience. Everything in Isle of Berk is brilliantly themed, and Hiccup’s is no exception. You feel like you’re in the How To Train Your Dragon movies. The queue is full of designs and models from hiccups workshop and the building itself feels like a wooden Viking building from the films.

The ride is an Intamin launch coaster with rollbacks, fun onboard audio and characters throughout. Sit back as Toothless accidentally launches you on your adventure though the dragon nests. If you’re after a fun coaster ride though Berk, then this ticks all the boxes. A brilliant family ride, that’s similar in style to Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, like a Hagrid’s lite with smaller queues. If it’s a hot day, aim for row 7 on the right to take full advantage of the splash over the water. We all loved Hiccup’s. Brilliant coaster.

A pair of beautifully dragon themed Gerstlauer Sky Fly rides where you’re twirled through the air on your dragon seat. You can flap the wings as it turns and try and flip it too. These were quite hard to move and the cycle was so short that you barely had time to do anything. It looks great but definitely isn’t worth the long waits it gets for 1 minute on a sub par experience. A lot of the seats always seemed to be broken too. Avoid unless its a walk on.

A beautifully themed splash battle ride, Fyre Drill looks like Ruffnut and Tuffnut have carved all of the Viking characters and dragons from wood. Its cartoonish, very colourful and looks stunning. The signs warn you that “you might get wet, possibly soaked”, but we got wetter waiting in the queue from one or two errant jets of water that came over the wall. On ride, you have to blast the targets and make them spin, hit the wrong targets and you’ll get sprayed back, but the water cannons couldn’t be tipped high enough to get the higher targets and there was minimal jets spraying back. Maybe we just had a bad ride, but what looked to be a fun experience left us a tad disappointed.

If you can only make time for one show at Epic Universe, make it The Untrainable Dragon at Isle of Berk. It’s an amazing. It really is. The show follows the exploits of a rogue dragon that Gobber and his friends can’t control. Hiccup steps in to try and help the dragon and find out why it’s so angry. The Untrainable Dragon is a brilliant story, full of Viking music, amazing sets and lighting effects, fantastic dragon puppets, characters and costumes. And keep your eyes to the sky for Toothless’ grand entrance. It’s amazing.

Its a park full of world class rides. OK maybe not all are world class, but you need some filler attractions and I think Epic could use a few more to soak up the queues, but there’s plenty to do here and amazing experiences to be had!

More info required? Visit the official Universal website.