Real Heroes are Sandwiches: Review of Epic Universe

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

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

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

I would like to start this review with a well known parable as old as time itself:

There was once a literary and film franchise that was beloved by everyone, for it was the Holy Texts. And so it is written, the Righeous Executive of a theme park in the Kingdom of Swamplandia bought the rights to make a theme park land based on the Holy Texts for many gold coins.

After many years and hard work by the Wisest in the Land, the theme park land opened and specialty beverages poured liberally from every restaurant to the eager mouths of the people.

And it was good.

The Righteous Executive surveyed their work and decreed that the theme park in the Kingdom of Swamplandia would not be the only place to have this theme park land based on the Holy Texts, so they made a copy of the theme park land across the sea.

And because the love for the Holy Texts was found in the hearts of everyone everywhere, it too was beloved. And the Righteous Executives smiled, for they were bringing joy to the hearts of the people.

Because one was good and two was better, the Righteous Executives decreed that not one, but two more theme park lands would be built from the Holy Texts.

One would go at the theme park on the top of Mount Oluwood, and the other in their second theme park in the the Kingdom of Swamplandia.

And as it was written, so it was that the park on the top of Mount Oluwood would get the same theme park land that was originally built in the Kingdom of Swamplandia and was copied across the sea.

But in a stroke of genius, the Righteous Executive decreed that the other theme park in the Kingdom of Swamplandia would be something new. It would be based on the other part of the Holy Texts that everyone knew and wanted to see.

After many years and hard work, and many gold coins spent, the theme park land opened. And lo, it is written that it was bigger and more impressive than the ones that came before. And as it is written, the specialty beverages poured liberally from every restaurant to the eager mouths of the people.

And it was good.

The Righteous Executive came to believe that the theme park lands based on the Holy Texts were the key to their success. So when it came down from on high that a new theme park would be built in the Kingdom of Swamplandia, the Righteous Executives knew exactly what to do.

For at this time, the Prophet of the Holy Texts had received wisdom to create some New Holy Texts. These New Holy Texts included new places and things that surely would be as beloved as the places in the original theme park lands.

So the Righteous Executive decreed that the New Holy Texts would be a part of the new theme park. And the Wisest in the Land set about making it so for more gold coins than any of the lands before it.

But the Prophet made a mistake. The New Holy Texts were not universally loved, for they were not very good. What started as five new texts became three. And nobody's hearts were enchanted by the wisdom in these New Holy Texts.

But it was too late!

The Righteous Executive had already committed to building the land from the New Holy Texts. But a ride in the New Holy Texts would not bring joy to the people. So instead, the ride would need to be from the old Holy Texts.

But how?

* * *

Many years later, on the eve of the coronation of the new theme park, the Righteous Executive lay awake in bed, wondering if his solution would save the day.

How do you bring the people from the land of the New Holy Texts to the land of the old Holy Texts? A bead of sweat formed on his brow.

The solution was time travel.

And the new park opened.

And it was good.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic ★★★½

I've never met anyone who thinks the 2016 film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is great. But a lot of people liked it well enough. And the film included the wizarding version of 1920s Paris, which is certainly a compelling location for a theme park land.

So despite the tepid source material, as a location to spend time in, EU's Wizarding World of Harry Potter is pretty wonderful.

In my opinion, a perfect theme park land is a distinctive setting where people want to go, a location where appealing stores and restaurants would feel at home, and a base for rides that people want to ride.

Two out of three isn't bad!

So what if the headliner attraction is located over 200 miles and 70 years away?

The Harry Potter universe includes all the tools you need to solve this problem: the Floo Network can transport you instantly to London, and the Time Turner can bring you forward ~70 years to the timeline people actually care about! Slap a time turner motif on the portal into the land and Bob's your uncle!

This land is beautiful. It is grand. It is shaded. The restaurants are good. The stores are interesting. What's not to love?

On the other hand, will any future rides also need to use the Floo Network and a time turner?

Le Cirque Arcanus ★★★☆

Le Cirque Arcanus is probably the only in-universe story that anyone would have any interest in seeing that is set in 1920s Paris from the Harry Potter franchise.

The show has some really impressive effects, including an amazing set transformation midway through the show and some excellent puppets and costumed characters.

I have some reservations about the plot of the show. Why exactly is the circus guy bad? Is that just something from the movie I forgot about?

Surely, the creatures who live in the enchanted briefcase would return to the briefcase between shows. That would be a much better way to transport them than the old circus train system he previously used. So when Newt Scamander saves the day at the end, it was not clear to me why this was better for the animals than the alternative.

I also think the circus stuff in the first half of the show is a little strange. Are the other performers supposed to be magical? Is the aerialist performing with the broom supposed to be riding it? The way she moves in relation to the broom does not look like the broom is the source of her flight. In the universe of the show, is she just flying around the broom using magic unrelated to the broom? Or is she on wires in the world of the show too?

But overall, I find the show to be charming and definitely worth seeing at a day in EU.

Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry ★★★½

Ok, so now that we've used the Floo Network and the Time Turner to get to magical London in 1998, was it worth it?

Yeah. It's worth it.

The Ministry of Magic queue area is very good. And with the ride operating reasonably reliably, the queue actually moves at a decent pace.

The ride vehicles are beautiful, although the placement of the two doors makes loading unintuitive. The doors are located about 1/3 of the way from the edge of the vehicle on each side. If they were placed at the edges of the ride vehicle, guests could file into the vehicle with single file lines. And I bet the process would be much less complicated.

Even after three rides, I am not entirely sure where I was supposed to sit based on my number. I was with a large enough group each time that it didn't matter. But it's got to be difficult for non-English speakers.

The ride itself has some amazing sequences with incredible scale. And the animatronics are very good. The projections and video walls are extremely crisp.

But some of the scenes where Harry Potter's elevator is in front of you are strange: on each side of the elevator, there are projections, but the space above and below the elevator is just a black void. For something with otherwise quite good sight lines, it looks impressionistic in an otherwise lifelike world.

The ride works, and although it doesn't quite reach the perfection of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, it is certainly a solid offering.

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

Review of Epic Universe Part 4: Dark Universe

The unique power of theme parks as an art form comes from their ability to combine the built environment with the tools of theater (music, staging, actors, etc.) to create a cohesive environment in which the audience can imagine themselves in a different time or place.

Theme parks can tap into existing cultural ideas and bring them to life. The caves sequence at the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland works because everyone knows what a pirate's lair is supposed to be like, and the thing you see at the beginning of the ride executes the concept at a grand scale. So even though not much is going on, it is everything you imagined it would be, and at any moment, you could imagine Blackbeard himself burying another treasure chest.

Platform 9 ¾ at Universal Studios Florida does this too. The ideas in Harry Potter are as much a part of American culture as apple pie, so when the full size Hogwarts Express train pulls into the station, nearly everyone has a set of expectations about what that should be like. So when costumed operators manage the excited crowds into the passenger cars to the musical score from the Harry Potter films, every detail adds up to what people imagine it to be like. All of the tools at the disposal of a theme park combine to help the guest imagine themselves as a student at Hogwarts getting ready to board the train to take them to wizarding school.

The Universal Classic Monsters are the most popular version of monsters in our culture. The Frankenstein book has been in the public domain for generations, but the version everyone thinks of is the version from Universal's film library.

Prior to EU, however, Universal has limited their use of the Classic Monsters in their theme parks to stage shows like Beetlejuice's Rockin' Graveyard Revue and the Horror Make-Up Show. But these shows are jokey, and play up the camp elements of these characters and stories. In a lot of ways, they don't take the idea of Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, and the others very seriously.

The sense that these characters live in a world one could visit has not been attempted in a theme park setting prior to EU's Dark Universe.

Dark Universe ★★★☆

The Dark Universe section of the park is accessed through a graveyard which leads to the grey and foreboding village of Darkmoor. Towering over the village is Castle Frankenstein, which periodically erupts with lightning. Beyond the castle, the land becomes less well defined, with a large rollercoaster (and safety netting) filling the forest. Finally, the Burning Blade tavern sits underneath a very impressive windmill that lights on fire periodically.

This land features some great streetmosphere actors (which play the characters in a more comic fashion, so the people who like camp definitely have something to enjoy) in addition to the impressive settings and rides. Darkmoor in particular is a really fun environment.

The forested portion of the land currently isn't much of a forest, and I am concerned that the rollercoaster's safety envelope may prevent it from ever growing into one.

If I didn't decide to stick to my own stupid rules when I started this review, I would give the Darkmoor portion of Dark Universe four stars and the forested area near the Curse of the Werewolf would get only two.

The Burning Blade Tavern [restaurant] ★★☆☆

The exterior of the Burning Blade is amazing. There really isn't much more to say about it.

While I was at the park in April, we went inside the Burning Blade Tavern and used Mobile Order to get a garlic stake-themed garlic bread. The food was disappointing, but the bigger issue is that the food pickup window was outside (at a window you could see from the inside of the tavern!) After I got the food, I realized I needed a fork. So I waited at the bar to ask for one, and the bartender said I had to go back outside to get it from the pickup window (which opens into the very kitchen he is standing in!)

This is the kind of hiccup that I am sure will get resolved as the park operations meet reality. But it still is strange that food is currently only available at the mostly-unthemed outside seating area.

A lot of the quick service food at this park seems to be Mobile Order only. I think that Mobile Order is a fine service to offer, but I think some of the execution was a bit confusing. Perhaps that is something that will improve with time as well.

Curse of the Werewolf ★★½☆

This is a launched rollercoaster with spinning ride vehicles. It is a fun ride, but the the theming is pretty sparse. The queue has nice decorations with a somewhat generic traveling carnival theme. Once on the ride, guests encounter a couple of static figures. But the ride is definitely not telling any story in a Universal ride narrative sense.

Theme parks have a long tradition of rollercoasters expressing the theme of a ride by having elements that are a physical embodiment of whatever the ride is supposed to be about. For instance, the Incredible Hulk Coaster is relatively unthemed in a scenic sense. But the launch followed by large looping elements do feel like what Bruce Banner feels when he turns into the Hulk.

Not every rollercoaster needs to be Hagrid's Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure!

But it's not clear how the Curse of the Werewolf is an interpretation of turning into a werewolf. I don't think of werewolves as spinning very much. And the portion of the ride where the train stalls and launches again also doesn't feel very wolf-like.

Its a fun coaster, but in a park filled with excellent rides and coherent themes, this ride falls short. It is more like a second-tier ride at Busch Gardens. It's nice. But not to the standards of the rest of the park.

Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment ★★★★

Monsters Unchained is everything that Curse of the Werewolf isn't. Grand. Ambitious. And executed extremely well.

The queue is an elaborate tour of Frankenstein Castle, including artifacts from Victoria Frankenstein's more recent experiments. Apparently the ride takes place in the present, because many of the artifacts seem to be kept at bay with modern technology.

After a series of very impressive preshows, guests pass a set of double sided lockers and Dracula's open casket before boarding the ride at a giant turntable. What follows is a series of vignettes full of classic horror movie imagery that probably makes sense if you ride it enough times to piece it all together. But it actually doesn't matter because it is so overwhelming and impressive.

The best Universal-style rides are the ones where the plot takes a back seat to the action. In The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and in Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, the rider is overwhelmed by a series of impressive scenes featuring everything you imagine a ride on this subject should contain.

In the case of Spider-Man, it doesn't matter that Doc Octopus' scheme to ransom the Statue of Liberty is completely silly. What matters is that you get to see your favorite Spider-Man villains and have a fireball blown in your face.

Likewise, you don't care that Harry Potter wouldn't skip an important Quidditch game to lead some strangers around on a flying bench--you get to chase a dragon and get attacked by dementors!

Monsters Unchained is as impressive as those other two rides. It features most of the tricks in the book, a collection of special effects on a grand scale, and every classic monster you might want to see in a ride. This ride is the peak of the Universal house style and is one of the best rides in the world.

Over the past few weeks, it has become clear that this ride has a great capacity too. Lines for this ride rarely get to be over 45 minutes while the other headliners even off north of 90 minutes. The team for this ride really knocked it out of the park with this one. At the time of this writing, I haven't yet been on Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry. But I would be shocked if this isn't the best ride at the park.

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

Review of Epic Universe Part 3: Super Nintendo World

This portion of my review is highly biased. I can't say why. Maybe it is because I am secretly Shigeru Miyamoto. You'll never know...

Super Nintendo World ★★★★

Super Nintendo World looks great! The experience of going through the portal into the land is almost overwhelming.

Everywhere you look, there is something moving. Everything is so bright and colorful you don't care that you are getting sunburned. I have reasons to believe that this land will continue to look pretty good even after a few years of baking in the sun. But it is hard to believe that something this colorful can exist in the real world.

This is not a place to relax. But it is a rare thing in theme parks for something to be everything you imagined it could be. I think that the land of Super Nintendo World achieves this goal.

If I have one complaint about this land, it would be that there is only one restroom for the entire land. The restroom itself is pretty good, with an underwater level theme. But it is very far away from the Toadstool Cafe and the queue for Mario Kart. And finding it is not so easy. I would not want to be a team member in this land who has to try to explain how to get to this restroom to a guest who needs it urgently.


Good luck describing how to find the restrooms to someone in Toadstool Cafe and the queue for Mario Kart... Photo credit: Theme Park Worldwide

I did not get an opportunity to play any of the games that are accessible with the purchase of a Power Up Band. I may write a review of that experience after I get an opportunity to play with it some, especially if I feel like I have something insightful to say (HA!). But for now, we will continue on to the rides...

Mine-Cart Madness ★★★½

The first attraction I experienced at EU was Donkey Kong's rollercoaster, Mine-Cart Madness. This is a first of its kind "boom coaster", which utilizes a real track hidden by a faux track and ride vehicles that hold the passenger compartment at the end of a long boom to simulate jumps. This ride goes through the list of everything you could ever want a coaster that appears to jump the track to do. It's pretty great.

The ride is short and a little bumpy. And the jumping effect isn't completely convincing (a subwoofer built into the seat like what is in use over at Monsters Unchained would go a long way towards giving the riders a more convincing effect of riding on the faux track. Turning off such an effect at the jump points would really sell the illusion). On each of my first two rides, the effect towards the beginning where Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong have a near miss with your vehicle was not working.

And yet, this ride delivers. It looks incredible, it is fun, and it is suitable for a pretty wide audience. The near miss effect was working when I visited the park in a more recent visit as well. This is a great effect!

This is a really fun ride. I am happy to have spent almost five years of my life working on this thing.

Yoshi’s Adventure ★★☆☆

This ride takes you around the second level of Super Nintendo World looking for colorful eggs in the back of an endless chain of Yoshi ride vehicles. It is really simple and gives the rider a chance to see everything from a different vantage point. It is the Nintendo equivalent of Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover at Magic Kingdom.

Photo credit: @bioreconstruct

But what keeps this ride from getting a better score from me is the low speed, long stretches in the hot sun, and the somewhat puzzling use of individually-ratcheting lap bars on this ride that would otherwise be suitable for infants.

Animatronics tend to get pretty baked in the Florida sun, and Universal doesn't have a particularly great track record of keeping this sort of thing looking well maintained (I'm looking at you, High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride!) So I worry about how well this will hold up.

Finally, the configuration of the exit is a little strange. One gets the feeling that you must walk against the rotation of the turntable to exit. I am not aware of any other ride that makes you feel like that when you get off. The turntables at most rides have the load/unload near the halfway point on the circle, and this does too, but something about it seems off.

Overall, it is a charming ride. But not as much of a stand out.

Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge ★★½☆

My rating for this is based on a single ride through. On my second visit to EU, the line ended up stalling for over an hour, so we bailed on it. So it is possible that it improves with re-rides.

The scale and detail in the queue is great, but the ride itself is very reliant on augmented reality, which I didn't particularly care for. The overwhelming sense of the ride is that it is a game where you have to shoot things. And the actual video game versions of Mario Kart definitely have that aspect to them. But they are also racing games where you feel like you are going places fast, and this ride doesn't ever really give that feeling.

There is a lot of great stuff here, and the technology was definitely ambitious. But I don't really think this is what I want out of a Mario Kart attraction.

Don't take my word for it, though. It seems to always have a pretty sizable line, despite a very respectable hourly capacity. So it must be doing something right. It probably just isn't for me.

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

Review of Epic Universe Part 2: Celestial Park

I am not entirely sure why I am writing this one. I already reviewed the parking lot of Epic Universe (EU), which is the only aspect of the park that I can unironically present myself as speaking with authority about. But I actually like the stuff inside of theme parks more than their parking lots. So I am going to review that stuff too.

Celestial Park ★★★★

Once inside the park, you are inside Celestial Park, which runs from the entrance to the Helios Grand Hotel. The end closest to the park entrance features covered arcades lining the shops.

Further into the park, the shade ends. This leads to one of the only negative comments I have heard about EU, that there isn't enough shade, especially in Celestial Park. I am not very concerned about the shade issue in this area of the park. The landscaping here will eventually fill in. Only the paths crossing the central water feature will be in the direct sun in a few years time.

The buildings in this part of the park are ornate in a way that I wasn't sure would work, but after seeing it in person, I think it is very successful.

The central water features include dozens of fountains and jets that add a great kinetic element to this area. Overall, I came to this portion of the park with fairly muted expectations, and was impressed by how nice it is. From my perspective, this part of the park is a very pleasant place.

Constellation Carousel ★★★☆

Between Super Nintendo World and Dark Universe is a large domed structure housing the parks "carousel". I put it in quotation marks because it isn't mechanically a carousel, and only some of the seats have motion similar to that of a carousel.

Photo credit: Me. Steal it for all I care!

The ceiling of the dome has cool spinning things, and is really fun to look at. The center of the attraction at ground level feels a bit empty, though.

On my first visit, the ride broke down about 20 seconds into the cycle, and we were instructed to exit the ride from a non-home position. For those of you keeping score, that means I get to count this as a ride evacuation!(1)

After the evacuation, the ride was reset and we got to do a complete ride. It is fun! The motion is as gentle as a conventional carousel, but the forwards and backwards movement is a nice addition. The animals and other vehicles you can ride look nice, and are about as comfortable as any other carousel animal.

One unusual aspect of this ride is the inclusion of individual seat belts (similar to the restraints on Soarin' or Star Tours. It is hard to imagine them doing much other than slowing the ride cycle time. Speaking of which, the dispatch interval on both visits for this ride was quite low. Hopefully that is something that will improve as the operators gain experience.

Stardust Racers ★★★½

Stardust Racers is a pair of two exceptionally long dueling/racing coasters with a comet chasing motif and a great onboard audio system. On my first visit, I made the mistake of riding while dehydrated, hungry, and overheated. So I had a pretty awful time. But I rectified each of those problems for my ride on my second visit, and all of my concerns went away.

This ride is great!

Other people can describe coasters better than I can, so I won't attempt to try. But it is a lot of fun.

The queue features the two-sided locker system and metal detectors that were first used at VelociCoaster in Islands of Adventure. Everything about the experience is very good.

If I had one complaint, it would be that the line feels very slow after the line splits between the two tracks. Every time I rode, the ride was operating with two trains on each side. This pair of coasters appears to be capable of four trains per track, which would help with this problem immensely. But in the meantime, it reminded me of how slow the line for Dueling Dragons (Islands of Adventure 1999-2017) felt after you choose thy fate.

The amount of queuing space for this ride is immense, but the ride rarely had a wait exceeding 30 minutes with almost all the line in between the metal detectors and the station. I am sure it mostly has to do with the great hourly capacity (even with two train operation), but this facility is intended to handle way more people that I was seeing on both preview days. Is the ride just too intense? I'm not sure.

Atlantic [restaurant] ★★★★

Atlantic is the table service restaurant in the center of Celestial Park, overlooking the central waterway and fountains. The interior is really nice, with cool stained glass light-up fish on a track "swimming" above. It is such a relaxing place to cool down.

On both visits to the park, I had lunch here, and both meals were excellent.

Overall, Celestial Park really exceeded my expectations.

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

Notes

(1) The rides I have been evacuated from, including the approximate year, include:

2025: Constellation Carousel (Epic Universe)

2024: Dinosaur (Animal Kingdom)

2019: Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! (Disney California Adventure)

2017: Universe of Energy (Epcot)

2011: Journey into Your Imagination with Figment (Epcot), *Mission: Space (Epcot)*, Spaceship Earth (Epcot)

2007: Toy Story Midway Mania (Disney's Hollywood Studios)

2006: Spaceship Earth (Epcot)

*Occurred as a part of ride operations training, so I might not get to count this instance.

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

On May 22, 2025, the first multi-billion dollar theme park to open in the western hemisphere since 1999 will open. Universal's Epic Universe is a new full size theme park located in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. With apologies to our friends on the other side of the Atlantic, I shall refer to the park as EU for the rest of this post.

I was fortunate enough to get a chance to visit EU during previews on April 19 and May 19. So, I decided to record my first impressions of the resort and the specific rides so that everyone will know how cool I am, or something.

Note, both times I visited the park, I did not want to worry about taking photos, except when I was not sure that I would be able to find a comparable photo by others. I did actually go, I swear!

This review is broken into six parts, with general observations about the new resort campus in part one, with reviews of all the rides and attractions I saw in the subsequent parts, divided by land.

Photo credit: @bioreconstruct

Universal Orlando South Campus ★★½☆

Over the last 35 years, Universal has built out their main Orlando campus north of Interstate 4. That campus is extremely well laid out, with a compact walkable retail dining and entertainment core (CityWalk) anchored in each corner by the parking structures and two theme parks (Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure). Connecting this area to four resort hotels is a landscaped waterway with frequent boat service. At the periphery of the site are two additional value hotels, a water park, back of house service facilities and employee parking.

On the other side of I-4 at the former Wet n Wild site are two additional value hotels connected to the main campus by bus.

The new park is located on property that has gone in and out of Universal's hands a couple times over the past 35 years. This site is within a mile of the Orange County Convention Center and has been connected to the north via an extension of Kirkman Road, including dedicated bus lanes in the median. As far as I know, this additional resort area does not have a name, so I will call it the South Campus.

The South Campus is home to EU, a park-integrated resort hotel, two value resorts, surface parking, and an extensive back of house complex.

Near the center of the South Campus on Kirkman Road is a strange elevated traffic circle over top a very slow conventional traffic signal. This connects to the resort road that serves EU's surface parking lot as well as two resort hotels.

Photo credit: @bioreconstruct

As far as I can tell, this circular bridge structure is intended to eliminate south-to east turn movements for cars and buses from the traffic signal. But I can't figure out what some portions of the bridges are for (in particular, the bit between the ramp at the 3 o'clock position to the ramp at the 2 o'clock position). If I had to guess, I would say it has something to do with hotel busses coming from the Kirkman southbound general lanes. But what an expensive way to make that connection!

I get that they used circles as a design motif across the South Campus. But it doesn't look circular from the ground, and those long retaining walls are never going to be as appealing as some of the other ways to make these roads work. The scale is weird, and it feels like nobody questioned it after the first sketch. But I know Universal and I know traffic engineers, so that seems unlikely.

In general, the South Campus isn't particularly walkable. Getting between the closest value hotel to EU requires crossing an eight lane road at a traffic signal with a 3+ minute cycle time. A far cry from the waterfront walkway that connects most of the main Orlando campus.

I don't want to overstate any of my criticisms of the South Campus--many of these observations go away if the full density of the campus is built out. It looks like a parking structure could go in the lay down yard south of Epic Boulevard east of Stella Nova resort if they ever wanted to put a fourth park in Epic's parking lot.

Overall, I would say that the South Campus is currently a step down from the main Universal campus, but I suspect that the resort will grow into it over the next decade.

Terra Luna Resort ★½☆☆

In order to have a place for my wife to rest in the middle of the day if it got too hot while we were at the park, I decided to book two nights at Terra Luna resort for about $150/night for the visit on April 19. The price was slightly lower than the price of a room at Cabana Bay, my favorite Universal value resort.

At check-in, the staff were efficient and friendly, and I was happy to discover that we would get early entry to EU as a perk for staying on site!

The lobby is nice, although the bar at the end of it struck me as too "out in the open". Nobody appeared to be getting drinks there any time I walked past.

The elevators appeared to be inadequate for the number of rooms, as the line for the elevators often stretched back to the lobby at all hours of the day and night.

The room itself was nice, if a little spartan. The finishes in the room were very solid, so there wasn't a lot of sound attenuation. Any time anyone turned on a sink in the room above or next to us, we could hear it. We were also kept up at night by the conversations of the people in the hall or in nearby rooms.

A bit of noise is to be expected, this is a family-oriented hotel at a theme park after all. But I did recently stay at a Hampton Inn in Vermont for the same price where all the rooms surrounding mine were occupied by a motor coach full of high school-aged boys in some sort of traveling sports team. And I could not hear them at all from inside my room.

Overall, I like the exterior look and the lobby of the hotel. But I cannot recommend staying at Terra Luna. If you want to stay on site at Universal on a budget, Cabana Bay has a similar vibe and will be much more comfortable.

Epic Universe Guest Parking ★★★½

The parking lot for EU is arranged to allow speed parking. It appears as though premium parking is shaded under solar panels. And handicap parking is provided in the front adjacent to the bus loop for off site hotels. Ride share pickup is also provided.

The vehicular circulation patterns are clear and probably will provide a very high level of service even on busy days.

The only thing keeping the parking lot from getting four stars is the lack of shade down the pedestrian spine in the center of the lot. With a parking layout this simple, there is no need for a parking tram. But given the lack of tram, it would be nice if there was something to reduce the inconvenience of such a long walk. Disneyland Paris's guest parking has moving sidewalks. Just sayin'.

Main Entrance ★★★½

The park entrance is somewhat unusual for a Universal park. Guests who are purchasing or picking up tickets are separated from guests who already have their park entry media.

If you need to pick up your tickets upon arrival to EU, you and your entire party will be funneled into a shaded queue which leads to its own security station. Once beyond security, you will be sent to one of many ticket counters where a friendly team member will help you with your tickets. After you receive your tickets, a turnstile brings you straight into the park.

This is a dramatic improvement over the typical ticket booth setup where each window has a separate line and the whole experience occurs in the brutal Florida summer heat.

Guests who do not need to purchase or pick up tickets go straight to the main entrance shade structures which are operationally unlike anything else in Orlando. This entrance features security only a dozen or so feet in front of the entry turnstiles. This arrangement is fairly common at lower volume amusement parks. But Universal does have experience making this work at their busiest park, Universal Studios Japan.

A danger of this arrangement is that delays at security are more likely to lead to the turnstiles being underutilized or vice versa, because the close placement reduces the amount that guests can find the shortest turnstile line in the interstitial area between that and security. In Japan it generally works because the staff and visitors are both fairly efficient in their movements.

If rumors are to be believed, this arrangement is likely the result of an early concept for this park to have the Celestial Park area open to the general public without tickets, so this structure may have originally been intended to only host security. Time will tell whether this will be adequate, but if push came to shove, there is enough space that a new security station could be added in the future.

Regardless of the origin of this arrangement, it is an unexpected change to the park entry procedure. And even if the jury may still be out for the primary entrance, the entrance for guests who need to purchase or pick up tickets is excellent and should be applauded for making such a significant advance in a part of the theme park experience that has seen little innovation since the invention of the credit card.

In the next part, I will review every ride and show in the park that I was able to experience across my two visits. I got to see every ride except for Fyre Drill and Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry.

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