Real Heroes are Sandwiches

The original How to Train Your Dragon movie is a delightful family film with cute character design and a touching "boy and his dog" story. This spawned a franchise of successful sequels, TV shows, and remakes. But it definitely is a second tier intellectual property, closer in appeal to the Universal Monsters than Harry Potter or Nintendo. However, I think it has proven itself to be just as worthy of inclusion in the park as the other lands.

How to Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk ★★★★

In my review of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I suggested that a perfect themed land should have:

Distinctive settings where people want to go
Locations where appealing stores and restaurants would feel at home
A place for rides and attractions that people want to experience

Isle of Berk has all three of these characteristics. The world of How to Train Your Dragon is a cute blend of Scottish and Viking imagery; where shops and restaurants have plenty of options for appealing food and merchandise; and opportunities for rides that are the things you would want to do if the world of the movie was real.

My wife loves the chocolate eggs at the How to Treat Your Dragon shop.

This land has the strongest attraction program of any of the lands in EU—three rides and a show—plus some wonderful animatronic dragons throughout the land.

I can only think of two downsides to this land: Large portions of it will never be shaded, because a significant fraction of the walkways cross water features. And the attraction names are somewhat interchangeable (I spent the entirety of my first day at the park confusing Dragon Racer's Rally and Hiccup's Wing Gliders, since the attraction where the rider controls dragon wings is not the attraction with the word "wing" in the name).

But those are some minor criticisms for sure. Isle of Berk is a very strong theme park land.

Dragon Racer’s Rally ★★★½

The first attraction one arrives at in Isle of Berk is Dragon Racers Rally, a Sky Flys-model spinning ride from Gerstlauer. This attraction allows guests to control the wings of their "training dragon" with the possibility of flipping upside down so that (we are told) sheep will be thrown into a pile as a training exercise.

It looks great and it is very fun to ride. Unfortunately, it is a little difficult to actually get it to go upside down. I am told that other Gerstlauer Sky Flys are much easier to invert. On one of the times I rode this ride, a seven-year-old in my party was quite disappointed that he was unable to flip upside down, despite working on it pretty hard. The most I've managed in a single ride is three inversions.

The cycle time is also pretty short. This is a fun ride that is definitely worth checking out if the line is 20 minutes or less (first thing in the morning or late in the evenings have both been kind to me).

Hiccup’s Wing Gliders ★★★★

If Curse of the Werewolf is a rollercoaster that fails to be a representation of it's thematic reference, Hiccup's Wing Gliders is just the opposite. The track layout swoops and dives exactly like the dragons do in the film. When the ride stalls out at the midpoint, it feels like the dragon you are riding needs to get a running start.

This is an exceptional family coaster. It does everything that Slinky Dog Dash over at Disney's Hollywood Studios does, but it does it better. The finale sequence from the second launch to the end is satisfying and thrilling. And the onboard audio makes everything seem so grand.

This is my favorite rollercoaster in EU.

The queue is a little sparse, and it has some unfortunate sightlines to the back side of Mead Hall. But these are minor concerns that do not take away anything from this fabulous ride.

Fyre Drill ★☆☆☆

I rode this ride under unusual circumstances, I am not as confident in my rating for this ride as I am with the other ones in this park.

I believe that Fyre Drill is only Universal attractions made since Hogwarts Express without individual restraints. This boat ride features a door to keep guests in the vehicle for the duration of the experience. And it makes me wish that other Universal attractions did the same.

Like Dragon Racer's Rally, this ride is also themed to a training exercise. Here, guests float past beautiful wooden carvings with fire targets on them. Guests can aim their water cannons at the targets and... on my ride through, nothing happened.

It is my understanding that the true aim of this ride is to get its passengers soaking wet. But when I rode it, I was literally the only person on the entire ride. So, when I rode it, the only part that got wet was my pants (the seat was wet when I sat down, I swear!)

It was kind of slow, and even if there were other people on it, I don't think I would actually enjoy getting wet on a ride like this.

I'm glad it's here, but it's not for me. And given the relative lack of interest, I feel as though it may be the weakest offering in the park.

The Untrainable Dragon ★★★½

When the show begins, live drummers on each side of the stage set an appropriate viking mood. After some dancing and less-than-memorable songs, some great dragon puppets come on stage and really impress. This show is more than just an opportunity to sit in the air conditioning.

But the real reason to see the show happens a little later. About ten minutes into the show, a dragon ridden by a live actor flies over the audience.

The moment when they emerge from the fog is one of the most impressive things in the entire theme park. Who cares that the songs aren't particularly good, and that the story is thin? That moment is just so amazing.

Mead Hall [restaurant] ★★★½

On one of the visits to this park over the summer, my party got too hot in the afternoon and needed to stop to cool down. So we went inside the Mead Hall in search of air conditioning.

After about twenty minutes (when our brains returned to normal temperature), we became able to appreciate our surroundings. The central seating area was beautiful and grand. After a little while longer, we ordered some food, and it was good!

Final Thoughts on Epic Universe

Before I wrap up this series, I had a couple other thoughts about the park.

The text inscriptions on the portals are better on the west side of the park:

"Here we go!" (Super Nintendo World) and "It's alive! It's alive!" (Dark Universe) are brief and iconic.

On the east side of the park, the inscriptions are "For in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own" (Wizarding World of Harry Potter) and "We, my friends, have dragons!" (Isle of Berk). These are either too wordy or have strange punctuation for an inscription.

Universal's new theme park is very impressive. Out of the eleven rides in the park^[1], I gave seven of them three or more stars. That probably puts the number of high quality rides at EU as high as Islands of Adventure and above the likes of Universal Studios Florida and Disney's Animal Kingdom.

EU is not perfect. But so much of the park delivers on its promise. For a new park to come out at the gate with such a strong roster of attractions is extremely impressive. And it appears to be paying off! Universal has been able to fill the park without inviting annual passholders to pad their numbers.

Can you imagine what the per capita spending numbers must be for this place?

I hope Universal continues to invest in their parks with high quality attractions. Universal managed to get out of whatever funk was producing the likes of Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon and Fast & Furious Supercharged.

When it became clear that Universal was considering the possibility of building a third theme park in Orlando way back in 2015^[2], it was hard for this theme park fan to not be excited. But this park exceeded my expectations. And I think it will continue to influence theme park design for years to come.

Notes

Rides are defined as attractions in which the guest is physically moved via mechanical means throughout the experience.↩

It wasn't immediately clear that Universal was the entity purchasing land in the area that became Epic Universe until Universal started mounting opposition to the Skyplex that year.↩

Series Directory

Review of Epic Universe Part 1: South Campus, Terra Luna, and Main Entry

Review of Epic Universe Part 2: Celestial Park

Review of Epic Universe Part 3: Super Nintendo World

Review of Epic Universe Part 4: Dark Universe

Review of Epic Universe Part 5: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic

Review of Epic Universe Part 6: How to Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk