Epic Universe - Ministry of Magic

After Super Mario World we entered the final area of Epic Universe,The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. Like the Harry Potter lands at other Universal parks, this one was very well themed with lots of eye catching details. It is set in Paris.

Besides shops and restaurants, it has one ride and one show. The ride didn’t open til 3 pm and required a virtual queue time, which we failed to secure during the drops at 11 and 3, so we decided to go watch the show. It was based on the Fantastic Beasts movies, and was cute and had impressive effects, but not as repeatable as something with songs and dancing or acrobatics. 

We went back into Celestial Park for dinner and a ride on the carousel, then tried and failed to get a virtual queue at 6. We were disappointed, but at least we were able to travel through the floo network and see inside the Ministry of Magic show building. It was impressive.

After that we walked around a bit and looked through some stores and bought a few things. The portals and Celestial Park look nice at night. A lightning storm had shut all the outdoor rides down around 6 pm. We waited a bit hoping they would come back up but finally gave up around 8, an hour before the park closed.

Epic Universe - Super Mario World

We left Dark Universe and headed next to Super Mario World. This area was similar to what we experienced a few years ago at Universal Hollywood, but expanded. Since we had ridden the Mario-Kart ride then, we decided to skip it and instead lined up for a ride Hollywood didn’t have, Yoshi’s Adventure. 

Yoshi’s is a cute simple family ride. Similar to the skytrain in IOA’s Suess Landing, guests travel above the land and see colorful creatures along the way. Universal could use a few more like it. It was our shortest wait of the day. 

We then headed into the Donkey Kong section of Super Mario Brothers. We wanted to try the Mine Cart coaster, but it had an hour wait and had recently stopped loading, so we headed back to Celestial Park.

Epic Universe - Dark Universe

After lunch we crossed Celestial Park and entered the “portal” for Dark Universe - an area themed to the classic Universal Monsters. Each themed area at Epic Universe has a “portal” at the entrance. 

I’m not a fan of calling an area Dark Universe in a park called Epic Universe, but the theming here is pretty good if you like creepy monster movies. It’s supposed to be an old, run down European village called Darkmoor. It’s fairly small, with two rides and two restaurants, plus some shops and monster meet and greet areas. 

The Curse of the Werewolf, a short spinning coaster, was closed for the day, so we headed to the main attraction of the area, Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment.

This ride uses the same system as IOA’s Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, but with less screens and more animatronics, so it didn’t cause as much motion sickness. The animatronics are really good, but Jennifer is not a fan of scary movies and monsters, so said she didn’t need to ride it ever again. 

Epic Universe - Isle of Berk

We decided to start our day at Epic Universe in the Isle of Berk, the setting for the How to Train your Dragon movies. This area was really well done, with lots of interesting things to look at, including large dragon puppets. 

Our first ride was the coaster, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders. It’s a nice family coaster that has good speed and turns but no inversions and some nice views of the area. The other two rides in Isle of Berk are an interactive boat ride in which riders shoot water guns at targets and an aerial spinner called Dragon Racers Rally. There is also a play area for younger kids.

After we rode the coaster we watched the stage show, The Untrainable Dragon. The plot and songs were so-so, but the dragon puppets were pretty impressive, especially Hiccup’s entrance flying over the audience on Toothless.

I wanted to go to the Mead Hall for lunch, but Jenn didn’t see anything appealing on the menu. Instead we grabbed a couple of Mac and Cheese cones at the Spit Fire Grill. It was pretty good although fairly pricey for what we got.

Epic Universe - Celestial Park

Earlier today Jennifer and I attended an Annual Passholder preview of Universal’s new park, Epic Universe. It’s located a few miles southeast of the Universal Orlando Resort. We arrived a little more than an hour before opening, and slowly made our way through security and into the park’s entry area and hub, Celestial Park, where we waited for the rest of the park to open.

 

Celestial Park contains several stores and restaurants, some fountains and plazas, and two rides.Stardust Racers is a dual track hyper coaster, and reports have been that it’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately it never opened yesterday. There’s also a carousel, which we rode after dinner, right when it started raining. It’s one of the few rides in the park which doesn’t close when there is lightning. 

We ate dinner at the Oak and Star Tavern in Celestial Park. It was pretty good, and reasonably priced for a theme park restaurant. It looked like it had some good beers and drinks too, but Jenn and I had refillable soda mugs that we refilled at the various freestyle machines around the park. 

The park entrance is located at the south end of Celestial Park. In the north is a hotel, the Grand Helios. In front of the hotel is a large fountain that has dancing waters and music periodically. Celestial Park is a nice area, although it is a little spread out and needs more shade. We enjoyed the look of the buildings and I am looking forward to coming back in a few years from now when the trees are a bit more mature.

Moonlight Magic

Yesterday evening we took the monorail from Bay Lake Tower to Epcot to attend the DVC Moonlight Magic event. We met two of Jennifer’s friends and checked in a little before 8 pm.  Upon check in we each received a map and three snack coupons. We headed to the World Showcase and made our way around, stopping to grab snacks. 

After Luminous the regular guests filed out, leaving only the DVC attendees. We rode Frozen and the Grand Fiesta Tour with little to no wait, then watched a special fireworks show at 11. There were also special character meets and free ice cream. Jenn and her friends took photos with Duffy, then we all rode Living with the Land. 

After some more ice cream, Susan and I headed out and took the bus back to Bay Lake Tower, while Jenn and her friends rode Cosmic Rewind. This morning we checked out and went home. 

Bay Lake Tower

 

The rest of April passed fairly uneventfully. Bryan started his job in Bend, and Jenn started her 12th book. This week Susan transferred to a part time role at the Riviera Resort. This afternoon we checked into Bay Lake Tower for one night so we could attend a DVC Moonlight Magic event at Epcot. 

We had a one bedroom villa overlooking the pool and Bay Lake. It was newly refurbished so it had a Murphy bed over the sofa and a small one under the TV, which was nice. Downside was our room was next to others being refurbished, so we could hear construction noise. 

After checking in we took the boat over to Fort Wilderness, where we had a late lunch at Trail’s End and checked out the progress of the Lakeshore Lodge.