Review of Universal’s Epic Universe and All Rides Ranked | Harry Potter BATM Overhyped?
[Applause] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, [Music] hey. [Music] [Music] Hey guys. So, since our mini trip to Epic Universe, we have been so looking forward to doing a video where we’re going to actually discuss everything. Yeah, we’re going to be spoilerfree for this one. Exactly. Now, if you’ve watched our minieries, you will know that we did keep it as spoilerfree as we possibly could, more so in terms of sort of the ride content. Um, if you’re new around here and want to see more of Epic Universe, but without the risk of spoilers, please do go and check out those videos. But yes, this one is going to be a case of our opportunity to talk about everything Epic Universe, little ride, features, spoilers, etc. Yeah. So, I think the way we’re going to do it is first of all, we’re going to start by ranking our favorite rides. So, go from number 11 at the bottom all the way to the top. And then as we you know, rank each one. We’ll discuss it. Maybe go into details of what happens on the rides, what fun things we found good, what things we found bad. Um, but yeah, there might be some spoilers in there for on ride, things that happen, characters, etc. And then after that, we’ll discuss the food, uh, some of the merch maybe, and whether or not it is now our favorite theme park that we’ve ever been to, or is it just a bit overrated? Find out. controversial, but we’ll also get into what we want to happen in the future as well. So, future expansions that we want to see, future rides, anything that we would change. Yeah. So, I think it’s going to be a good discussion on Epic Universe. We want you to get involved. Get in the comments where your favorite rides were, what you want to see come to the park in the future, if you’ve had any of the food, what was your favorite. So, yeah, get involved. And the way we’re going to start it is by discussing our our rankings. Yeah. So, let’s get to it. Let’s go. Starting off, we are going to go through our rankings of the rides in the park. Now, just to note, we are just going to focus on the rides in this section. So, we’re not going to be talking about, say, the Viking training camp or the splash pads, and we’re not going to talk about the shows. No, either. We’re just going to keep with the rides. So with that in mind to kick us off at number 11 which may be a little bit unfairly that is coming in last. So that is fire drill. So sadly when we were there for two days the first day um it was upwards of 80 to 100 minute wait. So that was our first day in the park. So we got to experience other things. We didn’t do it thinking oh we’ll get to do it on the second day when we do the rest of the rides and we’re shut the whole day. So, we didn’t get to do it, so we can’t really say it’s better than the ones we get to did get to do. Even though we think that if we did actually go on it, even though we would have got absolutely drenched, we probably would have enjoyed it, especially in that heat as well. And it might have then gone up in the rankings. We don’t know. But yeah, for Fire Drill, it is a water ride. However, it’s kind of like a sort of shooting target game in case you need those little actions to help. Um, so it’s okay. So there’s two boats that go round. So it’s roughnut and tough nut are the sort of theming for this ride. So obviously there’s the two of them and it’s either team roughnut, team tough nut and you then go down in the boats and you’re sort of competing against each other. Yeah, I think you can shoot each other in the boats as well. Um, but yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was like a nice little family ride. So you can all get on that one as a family. Yes. And I think in that heat that’s why it gets so busy because it’s height of summer everyone wants to get wet so they can then cool off. But and as you say I think a key part as well is the fact that it’s a familyfriendly ride which as a whole for Epic it’s maybe part that’s not so positive for them that there’s maybe in terms of the rides that are available there’s not a ton which cover sort of all age groups. So I think that does then push it up as well. You’re going to have family groups want to go there so they can do something together. Yeah. Cuz I think there is there is height restrictions on both other rides in Burke. So yes, you can do the the training camp which we won’t get into. But if you’re very small, then yeah, it’s probably the only ride you get to do. But yeah, I think you kids love it. I think little kids would absolutely adore this ride. Yeah, the the wooden cars of characters around the the course is really fun. You do get a little peak of it if you get one of the mac and cheese cones and go sit next to Spitfire Grill. This is a covered seating area. Um, which that’s a good one to look out for if you’re looking for somewhere to sit and it’s shaded which is definitely in Nile much needed. But you get you get a good view into the ride. You can see the boats kind of going around on their sort of track and yeah, you can see the cutout. So I think there was ones of rough nut and tough nut stoic. There was one stoic as well that we could see. But yeah, it was really cool and it’s really I think encapsulates that world as well. Very perfectly themed for that area. Yeah. So they smash the park but sadly we didn’t get to do it so we have to last. Sadly. So coming in at number 10 which is technically our least favorite that we did of all them. Constellation Carousel. Mhm. Now, it is a beautiful ride in terms of the design of it, the music. It’s all very sort of celestial. Yeah. So, it’s very on theme for the area that it’s in. Um, all the sort of zodiac signs they’ve got is the rides, vehicles that you can go on. But then it it is a carousel. Yeah. It does have its uniqueness of the fact that it goes very high. There was options as to if you can sit if you want to sit next to each other sort of behind each other on your own one. Yeah. But it just it didn’t blow us away. Yeah. It’s a carousel at the end of the day. It’s a good carousel. It’s a nice carousel, but one thing it has going against it is it’s so slow to actually get onto it. Now, the wait times aren’t huge for it, but the weight is when everyone comes off, it takes them a while to get off and get out. And it takes them a while to organize the number of people to get on because you’ve got those two seaters and ones that you can go on yourself and you’re they’re trying to organize all that via an iPad. So, they ask you what your preference is. So, that sort of slows things down. They get you into the waiting area. when you’re eventually onto the ride as well. There’s quite a lot of safety checks going on in terms of checking the um seat belts, which absolutely they’re right to do that, but it did take quite a while. So, the wait time I think was what 15 minutes when we went to do it. That 15 minutes was a case of literally walking in, speaking to the gent that had the iPad, getting put into the right pen, getting allowed on the ride, getting checked in the ride, going through the ride, and then departing. Yeah. And just be aware that actually some of the animals they try and get on, some of them are actually quite high up, so it is quite hard to get on some of them if you’re not the tallest. I think it just depends what position they have to end on. cuz mine was fine for getting on, but I remember when I went to get off it was quite yeah quite high quite off the ground. And for someone who’s got little legs, it’s um a little bit of a challenge. So, it’s worth bearing in mind. Um I think in terms of that accessibility wise, you would probably need to go on certain Yeah. um vehicles if your mobility is limited, but that’s obviously things that you can discuss with the cast members that are there as well and they’ll be able to sort of guide you with that. Yeah, we’re glad we did it. If it’s a short wait time next time we’re there, we’ll do it again. But it’s just not one that’s going to absolutely blow you away. You’re not going to come home and go, “Oh my god, Constellation. I can’t can’t stop thinking about it. Can’t believe I got on it.” Yes. Like, but yeah, it’s still it’s a good ride. It’s just nothing. It’s a nice addition to Celestial Park and it takes up a nice bit of room and it’s very pretty, but yes, wasn’t anything special for us. So, hence it’s ranking number there. Yeah. Coming in at number nine is Yoshi’s. Yeah. Yoshi’s Adventure. Um, it got sort of built to us before we got to the park. It’s sort of like a people mover around the Nintendo world in a Yoshi vehicle. Sounds great. I mean, we love People Mover. Love People Mover. One of our favorite rides in in Disney World. But yeah, it was kind of a long wait. I mean, we’ve seen this get up to 60 to 80 minutes. Mhm. The queue is cool. Go for this little wooded area. There’s toads everywhere. Good fun. Um, however, there was quite a lot of wear and tear in the queue, bearing in mind when we went, it had officially been open for two weeks. Yeah. And prior to that, previews were open for a month. Um, so yes, it’s taken a bit of a knock so far. Some of the little bits of fruit and some little flowers and stuff like that scraped them off picking off other stuff. When you’re on the ride, it is it’s okay. It’s it’s a nice way to rest your feet. Yeah. For about five minutes. I think it takes about that to go around the ride. Yeah. And there is a little interactive game. So you’ve got all three eggs. There are different colors. you know, as you go around the ride, you have to try and hit the button where you see the egg and there is some animatronics that appear of of different Nintendo characters. So, which are very cool. They’re very well done. It’s very I think it’s a cool addition to that area. It’s just it’s nothing startling in terms of the ride again, hence why we’re kind of putting it slightly lower down the list. It’s a good kitty ride. So, if your kids never done a ride before, it’s a good like start a ride. Yeah. That’s another one where that’s probably a lot where the popularity is coming from is because it’s accessible for families. Now, the ride vehicle that we got in fit both of us and I think you could probably get two adults and a kids in a push, but I think that kind of be that for the seat in. But yeah, it was the animatronics are cool. It’s very um very very Nintendo Definitely enough. Yeah, this is a a sweet ride, but it’s not going to again come out at top of anyone’s rankings. Yeah. So, that’s why it’s down at our number nine. So, coming in at number eight is Back Tile Burke for Dragon Racers Rally. Dragon Racer Rally. I actually really quite enjoyed it. I think it’s pretty unique maybe compared to sort of rides that you would find elsewhere. Again, the queue was quite nice in terms of the sort of the little thematic bits they had. So, they had kind of instructions of how to sort of operate the sort of wings on it or if you wanted to do a barrel roll, how you can go about that. But, it was sort of written in a way that it was the characters that put that across to you. And there was trophies and stuff, wasn’t there in the queue, too. But when you get on a ride, it is quite hard to to do what they want you to do, which is try and spin it and you go around. So, a lot of the time it’s just doing this on it and you’re not actually able to force yourself over. You can do it. Like I have seen people when we were there, they were going around. I don’t know if I’d like it to constantly be going round and round and round all the time. Think I might get a bit sick after that, especially if you just had a mac and cheese cone and then you go, “Nah, you might be a bit.” Um, but yeah, it’s good fun. It does actually feel like you’re flying. Flying. Yeah. On a drive in. It’s very cute. Again, it’s it’s a nice way to take the weight off your feet. Mhm. But it’s quite Yeah, it’s very You do feel quite magical when you’re kind of like spinning around and you’re coming down. It’s like, wow, cuz you’re coming down with your wings and controlling it. It’s nice. I would certainly say don’t skip it. Give it a we shop. Again, it’s one that the wait times can get sort of fairly long for. I think that’s also to do with the the loading unloading the formation blowing and unloading as well. But yeah, it was it was good fun. There’s two towers there. So when one goes, the other one goes, you are sort of moving quite quick for the queue. But if it’s anything more than say like a half an hour, I would say maybe give it a skip for the triangle when it’s 15 20 minutes. But it’s really good fun. It’s just give you a good view cuz you’re up high. Nice little aerial view of Isa Burke. It’s good fun, but I think the rest of the rides we’re going to talk about all just have us something that’s really unique and special. So, here is where Dragon Rally is, but we still really enjoyed it. So, at number seven, we have Mario Kart. Yes. Now, we’ve got a lot to discuss for this one because these prices we’re getting into now are the ones that have got a lot of spoilers in them. Um, a lot more unique features. The queue for this one, talk to you. Awesome. Really, really cool. You go through Bowser’s Castle. There’s trophies everywhere. There’s books on like it’s like a library around and you’ve got really clever titles all the way through like how to woo a princess obviously. That was one that was coming to my head as well. Then there’s ones about Yoshi’s Adventures. There’s other ones all just linked to different Yeah, they’re either kind of pun like titles or they’re kind of linking to the sort of stories of these other characters. Yeah, we did capture some footage of the ride queue in our day video, but again, there’s time stamps there so people can skip past if you don’t want to see those spoilers. But if you’re interested in seeing a bit of that footage, pop back and have a look at that video there. Yeah. But yeah, it’s very it’s very clever seeing even like the trophies from Mario Kart as well. That was really really cool. Yeah, my only criticism of the ride queue is that it’s so blooming long, but that’s because it’s a very popular ride. So, unfortunately, you are nine times out of 10 going to be at a pretty darn long. Yeah. So, it’s probably one that a lot of people go and rope drop in the morning. So, as soon as they get into part, they head there, try and get on it or one that they leave till late at night. Y uh where we went, there was technical faults during it. So, it kind of took over two hours to actually get on the ride. I think it was posted at what 90. Yeah. And because we hadn’t been on it yet and we wanted to get everything done that we possibly could, we thought, “Right, we’ll go for it.” But yes, it was rather plagued by technical faults while we were in the queue. Yeah. And it does have water fountains all the way through it. So, we were able to keep hydrated, which was good. But maybe that extra attained it because when we got onto the ride it was two and a half hours later and we’re a bit like a and 2 hours 12 minutes actually was how long we waited cuz that’s slightly rammed in my brain that it took us 2 hours and 12 minutes. It is not worth 2 hours and 12 minutes I assure you. And you get your your headset which is cool the Mario Kart headset and you flip it over and it’s sort of like augmented reality. You got to sort of turn the screws to make it tight in your head. Yeah, it’s a bit weird. It’s a bit suctiony cuz it’s kind of like a rubber band that sits here and then it’s got the sort of actual like red Mario bit and you got the little dial. When you do that, it’s kind of like it’s like on your head and if you turn it too much, it will squash your head. So, just be careful. You don’t want to injure yourself. But when you get onto the ride, it’s sort of like augmented. Now, this ride’s also in other parts. So, it’s in Japan, it’s in California. There are some instructions before you get on. So, you go into one of the pre-show rooms, which have also got the costumes as well for the characters, which is pretty cool. And they do have a sort of instruction part where they’re saying about the fact that you need to sort of turn to aim um and that you then use like your buttons to sort of release and everything. But yes, when you get on and you start to go, it isn’t the easiest to navigate. No. And I think it’s one of these rides that it’ll take a couple of times to get on it to actually fully get what you’re supposed to do and what get good at it. But you know that’s two three times waiting in like an hour to 90 minute queue unless you’re paying for it for express. So it’s going to be a long time for you to get used to it. And then when you’re actually on the ride now what I think about with Mario Kart is racing fast cars going at speed and this ride is not a fast one. It’s more of a dark ride. You’re kind going around slowly. There’s scenes. There’s cars wishing by you for the augmented reality, but you yourself are not going fast at any point. I think the theory of it is really clever. I think it’s a really clever idea, but I’m not sure the execution comes across as well. Now, the part that I thought was the coolest was Rainbow Road. So, that came in towards the end of it, wasn’t it? It was one of the last parts. Now, that was really cool because it went totally dark and then you’ve gotten your sort of goggles or visor and you just got like rainbow borrowed like this and I think that really lent itself to it whereas maybe just the other ones didn’t come across quite as well as they could have. Yeah. So, I think it’s this isn’t new like ever since this ride came out in Japan and California, people have been saying this about it that it doesn’t seem like it is the idea of what many people have as Mario Kart. There’s certain elements are very cool, but it’s just it didn’t stick the land in for me. And I would never wait more than two hours for it ever again. And we’re going to California next month. Um, and we’re discussing whether we’d actually do the ride over there or not. Or give it a I think it depends on the ride time for it to be quite honest. Um, I think one thing to mention as well is if you’ve got a powerup band, you can then scan that when you get on the ride. It’s not a necessity though. You don’t have to have that to be able to do it. Yeah. It’s just a case of kind of like it’s part of your sort of inapp counter in terms of things that you’ve done and sort of points and coins that you’ve collected with the ride as well. So, it’s a four-seater. So, we had mentioned this in our tips video in terms of it’s one of these ones that if you’re going on as a single rider, it’s maybe not necessarily going to really benefit you that much because of the the information um with it as well. I know it’s a very like maybe something that’s silly, but for me, because you’re meant to be kind of like moving it with your steering wheel and it’s kind of giving you the points for that. Um, but obviously everyone in the vehicle is doing the same thing. Um, so maybe it kind of takes I don’t know. It It doesn’t feel I didn’t feel it was as immersive as it possibly could have been. I think you’re like my brain’s kind of going thinking like, “Oh no, I’m not controlling this cuz everybody else is doing the same thing.” Yeah. That’s why breaks down when it’s so slow and you realize that it’s not moving fast. Does sort of trick your brain because the things that are happening in your visor look fast, but you’re you can tell you’re not going at speed. And now we still got it at number seven because, you know, we think the queue is fantastic. There’s certain elements about it that are really good and really fun, but it’s just not Mario Kart for me. And yeah, I think it should be something more like the new coaster in Universal Hollywood, the Fast and Furious coaster. Something like that. The drilling coaster that you’re actually racing. Yeah. Yeah. Granted, understand why they maybe wouldn’t go something quite so hardcore with that because they’re going to try and appeal to that sort of family audience, but yeah, it’s just it was good fun. It’s clever, but it’s just not as amazing as it possibly could have been in our opinion. Not as epic. And for number six, we are taking our first trip to Dark Universe because number six is Curse of the Wereolf. Curse the Wolf. I really enjoyed. Yeah, really enjoyed it. I think it’s a stick. It’s undeserved. I agree. I think we when we got on it, it was posted at what about 20 minute? Yeah. Wait. Um I think it it does deserve more than that, but I think unfortunately it tends to kind of get jammed up at about the sort of 80 minute mark. Um which I’m not sure I would wait that for it. Um but no, it’s good fun. It’s quite a cool coaster design in terms of the fact that it’s made up of four, but two people are facing forward, two people are facing backwards. Um, but in the process of the ride, it is a swirly whirly that it kind of turns you around. So, you get your chance going backwards, you get your chance going forwards. Um, yeah, it’s a really smooth ride and it’s good fun. I think the closest comparator is probably Guardians, right? spinny bit. If that’s something that makes you feel sick when you’re on Guardians, especially the bit where describe it, but you’re kind of going around this earth is in like the middle and you’re going around Earth and you sort of spin around. That’s kind of screw type. Yeah, it’s kind of like that. But I think it’s it’s really good fun. It’s, as you say, it’s very smooth. There is I would love to do it at night. Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. if you had like that going around, you had the burning blaze burning blaze going on fire and it Yeah, it’d be be great. The only thing that I would say that make it better was when you go through the wooden structure and that is where you meet the werewolf. You go through it, then you go back through it. I think it’s a bit too quick. I think if it had an element that was kind of like say Slinky Dog where you stop and then something happens and then oh we need to get out of here and then go forward. But I think because it’s constantly just moving and go back and forth some people that effect don’t you? Yeah cuz the the were hanging over. Mhm. Then unless you’re looking up at it, you miss it. Whereas a lot of people I’ve heard say I didn’t see the werewolf. It’s huge. So, I mean, I think it was quite impressive to miss it, but no, I agree. I think it would maybe kind of give a little bit more kind of um suspense to it if it was a case that you’re kind of there that’s as if it’s kind of like going to like come at you and you’re kind of in risk of that, which might be some some kind of vibes of that and another ride that we will go on to discuss shortly. But yeah, I would agree. I think they could have done with that. My other thing would be I wish it was slightly longer. Yeah, I think it was over very quickly which it was an awesome ride. Like I was more than happy with it. I think it like it went as really smooth in terms of the track was really smooth. I think just like the whole motion of the whole ride and the design of it. I think it works really well. Yeah. But could have done been a little bit longer. But I say about nighttime because we went in Stark Universe at night time. There was absolutely no lights on that coaster while it’s going through all these trees and everything. spooky vibes. I think that would just be amazing. Like I think you obviously go through the same trees during the day. It’s foggy as well. That fog. Yes. You obviously go through the same trees and everything’s the same during the day, but with the trees that have got that like spooky vibe to them when it’s dark and they’re kind of like the sounds cuz they are playing out sounds from the bushes and stuff like that. So yeah, the fog all of it just gives it that atmosphere. So I think that would be really really fun to do. I think if we did it at night, it might have might shift up more as well. I don’t know. We’ll have to give it a go by the next go back. I do think we’ll get into future things to come later on, but I do think once the part’s complete, people will start to appreciate this ride a bit more because there’ be more to do in Dark Universe. When that happens, yeah, people will will like this ride more. I do think Animatronic could have been moving. Um, it’s got a bit of a current Yeti vibe to it where it’s just the sort of thing that’s hanging over. where it could be grabbing. Yeah. But very fun coaster. Mhm. I think as well, I think we sort of touched on this during the vlog series as well. If it’s if you’ve got people in your party who are maybe not big on massive coasters, either they’re not keen on them or they’ve not had the exposure to them. I think that’s a good sort of in between coaster. I think it’s a good sort of introduction to kind of going on a bit more of the sort of thrill element with it. Um but yeah and even the ride queue I think was really cool. It was really cool theming with the sort of the village and um fortune teller. Yes in the movies. Um so yeah it’s very well themed as as all the are in epic universe. So yeah very good but just missing out on on top five because I think the top five that we’re going to discuss are all pretty amazing. So yeah, without further ado, breaking into our number five, we have Stardust Racers. Oh, now this might be number one for a lot of people, but for us it’s down at number five, the Julian Coaster, two different tracks. Green line, bit more intense. Yellow line as well, marginally less intense. So we went on both of them back to back. So we went early entry, went straight to starters racers, got on them straight away. Both lines, no wait times, which was great. And have to say it’s a thrilling coaster. It is fast, intense. I’ve had no experience like it when you’re going around that barrel roll and you look up and there’s other people and they’re staring at you and they’re Yeah, that’s that’s nuts. That’s absolutely crazy. First time I’ve ever experienced anything like that on a coaster and it’s very intense. Um but yeah, just miss out on top four. Is it our favorite coaster in in Orlando? No. Um for us, Veloc does still pip it to the post, but I think that’s just cuz we’re really into Jurassic Park. You especially love velociraptors, so that is always going to be pretty high in our rankings. Um, but Stardust Racer, it’s just it’s very unique in what it is. It’s in terms obviously we’re saying about Chris Wolf which do being longer. The Stardust Racer tracks are so long. It’s such a long ride. It’s great. Um, but yeah, green was a bit too much for me. yellow was a bit better, but still still pretty intense even for meant to be like a bit more easygoing. Um, we again didn’t get the pleasure of doing this ride at night time sadly, which I think could be very much something that we want to do. As Mike says, both evenings the weather delays caused issue for that. And on the second evening, we opted to go and scout out pickups and try and get on that because um yeah, we fancied doing that as our sort of closer. No spoilers getting chucked in there for the rest of this ranking accidentally. Um so we didn’t get a chance to do it, but we did see it at night time and it was really cool to see. Yeah. Um Another thing which I don’t think I ever actually said in the vlogs, but it was really quite cool was it goes over this big sort of expanse of grass. You could tell that we’ve also been cutting the grass cuz we’ve just got like this like nostrils full of um freshly cut grass. So if you’re a hate fever sufferer, maybe not the ride for you. But yeah, I think going on it back to back in the morning first your first rides might not be the best idea, especially if you’ve not had any breakfast or anything like that. Is a bit of a head shaker at points. Yeah, it’s one of these ones certainly for me anyway and I don’t know if anyone else has the same feeling. You can let me know in the comments below, but it kind of feels like my brain is like juggling about my skull. That’s very much how I felt after. It’s not it’s not hulk bad. You know, you’re not getting Oh, no. You’re not like bashing away, but it’s just the force of it. And there’s two, you know, two points where you go really fast on it. And I think there’s like a little sort of bumpy slinky dog kind of. Yeah, it’s really good fun. It’s It’s an insane coaster. It’s Yeah. The fact that it’s got a ge element, the fact there’s two different tracks that have different the way it looks at night. Everything about it is it’s very special. Yeah, it’s definitely up there, shall we say? And we’re definitely next time we go to Universe, one of our main things we’re going to do is is ride at night because it just was absolutely spectacular. I think even just when you’re going over some of the lift hills, getting that view of the park at night all lit up would be spectacular. When you look up during the daytime, you look at the other coaster must obviously looks great, but at night time with the lights on the coaster and everything, you look up, it must just be insane. And that’s why I think a lot of people have it as a number one because they’ve ridden at night and they’ve seen what it’s like. Well, I think as well even just the between the lights that are on the actual trains, but also when you first come out of that sort of launch station, you do your look and then you’re going through the first launch. Um, and that is kind of it’s all sparkly like stars and that just looks absolutely amazing. And I think at that time of night as well, the fog probably then becomes really a lot more Yeah. Um, apparent apparent Yeah. kind of more atmosphere and then with the lights and everything then you come whooing out and then up that hill. Wow. Must be pretty spectacular. You’ve got the nod to Back to the Future with the Fox on the back. Very clever. Very clever. Yeah. So, Stars Racers epic epic ride and you need to do it when you go. If you have a coaster, it’s amazing. Again, doesn’t pit force coaster first. So, not quite number one, but it’s still a very smooth coaster as you kind of hope for a pretty much brand new coaster. But yeah, we’re excited to ride it again. Yeah, definitely. So, number four, and this may be the most controversial of our picks, but at number four, we have Harry Potter and the Battle of Ministry. We do indeed. Now, this is a very cool ride and it has an amazing amazing queue which if you don’t fancy going on the ride, make sure to go into the viewing area to at least see the ministry itself cuz it is just straight from the movies. Straight from the movies you walked into it. It’s insane. Incredible. They’ve done such an amazing job. So, make sure to go and have a little look at it even if you’re not going to go and do the ride. Now, we did this on our first day. It was built 200 minutes. Yeah. Um which ordinarily we would not be going anywhere near anything near 200 minutes, but our kind of thought process was that we didn’t want to risk it being down on the second day and not be able to do it. Yeah. It did work out quite well that it was about half that time that it ended up being. So, that was pretty spectacular. It was getting closer and closer to Park Coast time. So, the cast members were getting you on that ride and getting you off it. They were straight on, straight off. Yeah. So, it worked out well for us. But, yeah, we were talking about this the other day, actually, that the whole the queue system is so cool that it’s set up in sort of different rooms. The actual queue itself feels like it goes fairly quickly. Yeah. It’s because there’s so many interactive parts of it in each room. I think the slowest part is if you get stuck in the main hallway. Yes. where you first go in, it seems to take a while to get out of there, but once you actually into the different corridors where there’s different moving things on the walls, the map of the ministry was absolutely stunning. I absolutely loved that. That was in what the you got the main room, he then got the kind of room and then that was in what the next room. Yeah. Yeah. It was really cool. I think the only disappointing part for us is because all the videos we’ve seen we’ve seen in Umbrage’s office with all the cats and then you’ve got we house self there who speaks to you. When we got to that part which is just before getting on the ride, we basically got rushed for it. So we didn’t get the chance to really spend time with the animatronic. Whereas some of the rooms where you get stuck in, yeah, it’s cool, but there’s not really that element you want to just watch over. And there’s a few cool ones where they’ve got characters on the wall that come alive. Yeah. Talking portraits and everything are fantastic. Moody’s makes an appearance. And then some other characters, a Scottish one in the kilt. So we know Scottish theme in there. And then they got the lockers as well, which got sort of little Easter eggs of the characters, too. Um, but yeah, as Mike said, when we got to the room with Umbrage’s office, there was a element of excitement of being like, “Oh my god, I think we’re really close to getting on the ride.” So, we did kind of like bolt through that if we wanted. I’m sure we could have kind of hung back, but we would then had to try and scoot back into the queue. And you never know when this ride’s going to go down, so you need to get Yes, exactly. Um, but yeah, the queue is sensational. I think one of the best raid cues that we’ve been in without a shadow of a doubt. Yeah, we’ve got one more to talk about. It is probably up there as well, but this one just in terms of the main hallway, I think beats them all. I think stunning. Absolutely stunning. Yes. In terms of the ride itself, now the box that you get in is kind of Tower of Terroresque. It’s not a Tower of Terror ride, though. seen a lot of people sort of talk about that and sort asking those questions. It’s not by any means. One important thing to note is you must keep your feet firmly planted on the ground otherwise you you risk breaking the ride down which it does jerk you about a little bit. So it does make it a little bit difficult I will be honest. So it’s maybe not the best design but there we are. Um, but yes, it’s very clever the way that the sort of design of the ride vehicle is with the boxes here with the walls. Sorry. It kind of blocks you from being able to see things before you come up to it, which I think is really good. Um, because I think that’s one criticism I would have of a ride that we go on to discuss. Um, is that you can kind of see ahead of yourself and I think that can sometimes take you out the moment a little bit. But with this, it can stop you. It keeps your focus right on where you’re meant to be. It’s all the sort of original characters that are there. So, they keep it in that universe. The story is quite cool in terms of going through it’s meant to be Umbra’s trial. She then breaks out and then there’s um Hyon and Hermione trying to catch her. And you go through, you meet different characters. There’s Steph there. Yeah. And there’s one very amazing animatronic of a creature from the movies. The ampant looks like a giant rhino basically crashes through one of the walls and again just the scale of it is incredible. For me that’s the most impressive thing about this ride is the scale of it. Some of the rooms you’re just like wow this is huge. The way I think that this ride is getting overhyped is the animatronics are not great. The characters they’ve brought back Harry, Ron, and Hermione and that projection mapping on the facing is um not the one. So yeah, I think it’s the same for the one of Umbbridge as well. Now bear in mind that Ana Stson actually came back to properly film for this. Um it’s It’s not great. The outfits that they do for them, obviously fantastic. The actual animatronic body is fantastic. Universal knows what they’re doing with that. But yeah, the actual face element, you know, how Frozen Ever After gets a bad stick for having the projections at least they’re kind of like animated characters, you can kind of get away with it. would kind of felt I let it down quite a bit for it does take you out of it when you come around you see Harry and you’re like oh gez what’s happened and yeah it’s it was the one of Umbbridge when it’s in the there’s a big sort of dramatic moment with her and it just kind of lets it down I feel considering the rest of it when you’re kind of going along and you’re kind of going through all the lifts and everything in the ministry like it is in the film that’s so awesome the way that they do it and you Do you feel like you’re genuinely going through that? But yeah, the animatronics, the people animatronics kind of left a lot to be desired. And I think when this ride first got through previews and you got all the vloggers going on it, they’re all saying how amazing it was, they got to ride it as it was first done. Yes. And that’s when it started to have issues and they actually took some of the elements away. I think there’s an area where a death eater is pointed as one and does something to your vehicle and you’re meant to drop me which we did a little bit. We had a little bit of a kind of when the death eater was interacting with us in that room but nowhere near what it was kind of built to have been previously. So it’s not as thrilling as I think as it was meant to be, which is a shame. I hope they add those elements back in because without it, it’s a good ride. It’s spectacular. Mhm. But there’s something missing for me. And I think it’s just that sort of thrilling element to it. If you love the movies and you love these characters, you’re going to adore it. It’s a new story with these characters. You got to cherish that. But the ride itself, I think when it first got previewed, everyone was saying, “Wow, this is the best theme park ride I’ve ever been on.” And then when you go into it thinking you’re going to get that and then doesn’t live up to it, it’s a little bit disappointing. Yeah. But the elements of this that are amazing are the queue. And the first time you walk into that ministry park going through the metro flu, you get the smoke and you come out and it’s just like, wow, I’ve been transported into movies. The only thing of note with that is when you’re going when you’re going through, you’re not going to get the flu just to yourself. Yeah. There are people that are going to be going ahead of you and going after you. So you might not get that sort of full amount of wow that you possibly could if granted you could be the first person at the front of that batch they’re going through and you do get that but there’s a good chance that you’re not going to. So just prepare yourself for that. You might not get your sort insta worthy shot and when you’re weaving at the end they are quite keen for you to go. You can’t then double back on yourself. They will tell you off. We saw that happens to quite a few people. Um so it’s just obviously I know that’s not the be all and end all but let’s be real. We all like taking our photos. We all like taking our videos. So, it’s just something that’s worth noting. Um, I do think had Dobby obviously not met his sad demise, I do think he probably would have been the central character in this ride, but for obvious reasons, he sadly is not. Um, but yeah, definitely go and check out the ride. I think I do think the park as a whole I think showcases Universal’s tech savviness. Yeah. And as as much as we’re saying that we wouldn’t wait 2 hours to Mario Kart. If this one was a 2-hour wait, we would wait for it. We are very keen to do it again to give it another go. We only did it once, we wanted to do it again. There has been elements added back to it since we’ve been on it. So, we’re excited to do it again. We think it is an amazing achievement by Universal. M it’s just one or two things could have made it that a little bit better and bumped up the rankings. Yeah. Our number three which might might come as a surprise to people depending on what your opinion is. You can let us know is Donkey Kong Mine Cart Madness. Now this was actually our first ride in the park. So maybe there’s a little bit of bias because it was the first ride we got in Epic. But we really enjoyed it from the queue where there’s elements you can use your band the big animatronic that’s in there to talk about golden bananas and just the ride itself. I thought it was really really fun. Mhm. There’s the element of it going off the track even part of it. Yeah. Really good fun. Clever the way that they design it in terms of it being that sort of track. The actual wheels are on the side so they can then kind of design whatever so they just say there’s the missing gaps. It’s like you’re jumping over it like in the game. Um it’s just it was really good fun. Mhm. Honestly, we love a fun coaster. So, the fact that it had those elements to it again, it wasn’t the longest, it wasn’t the fastest, it just made it just put a smile on our face. And because we just smiling all the way through it, we thought it was absolutely amazing. And then you meet Donkey Kong at the end as well. Is there any Diddy Kongs there? And yeah, just what a way to start an Epic Universe. That was the first ride. We’re so glad we did that instead of waiting for Mario Kart. Oh, yeah. Just got us off to a good start. So, I think our remains, it might be a bit biased for it being our first ride in Epic, but I think we picked right. And I think it’s really good, though. I think I I do genuinely think anyone would enjoy it. Even if you weren’t off with the characters themselves, it’s just a good fun ride. And again, it’s a pretty good family ride. I’m not quite sure what the height restriction is is for it, but it’ll be less. We had seen quite a lot of things before we went talk about it being a little sort of bone shaker. Yeah. Didn’t find it too bad. We’d also seen criticism of people saying that if you were in the second row that you didn’t that it wasn’t as good because you couldn’t kind of see the effects and everything. In our opinion, that’s a little rubbish. We were in the second row and the way that it’s tilted when you’re going through Yeah. um the bits where there is the sort of effects that you need to see the track etc. you can still see it and you don’t miss out on that. Um so you’ll be fine wherever you’re sat as far as we are concerned anyway. Um but yeah really good fun lot of fun. So it’s a very deserving number three for us. I think when we were talking about where we were ranking things it has to come down to sort of what brought us the most joy. Yeah. So it’s not the most thrilling one like we would have put starters races here if we had to go for that thrill full thrill go but you know we came off starters races be like you know wow that was great but you know my neck hurts and my neck hurts and know I need to go lie down for a minute but when we came off this one we were just smiling like wow I think as well because we made a point for Epic to as best as we could avoid spoilers in terms of the actual ride content with Kart Madness. We had seen a ride through it before in Japan. Yeah. Yeah. So, we kind of we were somewhat aware of what we were going into. You weren’t expecting that. Yeah. We weren’t expecting like a high thrill hagrid type coaster. Yeah. It was just a good fun one. Characters that we actually love. And you know, I’ve got my Don Kong Mario set. Mario set. Mario set. Lego set. Mario Kart set I think is what you’re thinking of. Amalgamations in there. Um, but yeah, it’s just really, really good fun. We recommend it to everyone. If that’s what you’re going to do for rope drop, you made a great choice because you can get that. That’s how we did it on our first day. You’re avoiding big long weights because it does get very popular because it’s again another one that a lot of kids can can do whereas maybe Stardust has a bit higher of a height requirement than that. But yeah, really, really good fun. And coming in at number two, and it is so close between two and number one. Drum roll, Monsters Unchained. Yes, Monsters Unchained. I was going to say it was incredible. It is. However, I will be honest, on my first ride through, I wasn’t sold on it. I was a little bit disappointed, but that’s because we didn’t get a proper run through. We had I was going to say a technical fault. I’m not sure it was a technical fault. I’m not sure if it was perhaps case they had had to stop the loading. Yeah. For people to get on who perhaps need a little bit more time for getting on to the seats if that’s why it paused. But it caused it quite a poor part for us and it then meant that we missed out on quite a significant scare from the werewolf. And um yeah, it was his sort of like swiping towards us and also missed out on a bit that he basically sort of spits all over you which is quite aggressive when it’s restarted there’s a bit of creature as well we grabbing you so there’s like three animatronics were just still and then eventually when we got going again it started again so I think we missed out on three really key elements I still loved it but then when we came off I think you could see it in our first day vlog I think you were just a bit like oh I think I was so hyped for that ride that it just didn’t quite meet my expectations and to refer back to what I’d started to say earlier in terms of what I give points to Ministry for is the fact that it blocks you being able to see what’s coming up. So, it’s then it’s a surprise when you come to it with the way that monsters are designed. And I understand it is to do with the feming of the fact that you’re going through the cataccoms with um you’re getting guided on like this arm thing. It’s part of the pre-show, etc. So, you are kind of meant to understand that you’re going on the tour through it. But to me, when you first get loaded and you go around and you get to Egor talking away in his little box where he’s controlling you and you can just see these arms further ahead and it’s not that dark, it just kind of took me out of it a little bit. So, I do think I I personally think it could do with being darker so that you don’t see that. Um, that would kind of help it. But yeah, the second rides that we did, we went single rider, but we managed to just with the way that it worked out, we ended up being in the same vehicle, so that worked pretty well. But it was a perfect run through that we got on that. Everything was working as it was meant to. It just all kind of immersed me personally a little bit more on that go and I came off it being like, “Yes, this is what I wanted.” and we went straight back on it because the single rider is fantastic for monsters. It is. So, make sure to check that out. Definitely do the full queue at least once and would say probably do that as your first go so that you kind of understand you get the whole Yeah. You get the whole pre-show because the footage you you probably would have seen if you’ve not been to epic yet you would have seen the fact that you go into a room you got Victoria Frankenstein and you got Frankenstein’s monster comes out and then they’re having a conversation and then Dracula appears and yeah the animatronica Frankenstein monster is insanely huge insanely good huge. So you don’t want to miss that the first time you you go. But if you’ve done it once, you’ve seen it single ride. Oh, you you’re just breezing through your straight up ride. It’s amazing. But yeah, and also in the pre-show prior to that, you get Eigor giving his demonstration of the arm, which is hilarious because it just full on waps like this. And remember when we were in there and actually in footage I’m sure kept in as well that you can hear people suddenly go whoa because if you have not seen and we had seen the bits of the pre-show for that one. We hadn’t seen any on ride because we wanted to be totally unspoiled. Um but if you hadn’t seen any of that you probably are stood there thinking my goodness what have I let myself in for when you’re seeing this get waxed about in that way. And in our partic monster you see on the ride is not the original Frankste monster. This is a new version that Victoria’s come up with. The more improved version whereas the original is actually in the queue. So Boris Carlos Frankste Monster is part of the queue which is a really fun kind of preserved and getting scanned and it just looks amazing for movie lovers of the classic movie monster. It’s amazing that that’s that’s there. And there is little elements of Henry and Elizabeth and their Yeah. photo as well in the first room. I think the whole queue is just filled with Easter eggs for all the movies. It’s really cool. And then when you get onto the ride, that’s where you meet Dracula creatures there. Um werewolf comes out of you. There’s a mummy and there’s Phantom of the Opera as well. Yeah. So as well just the scale. So yeah, the queue absolutely amazing. The one thing I would say though is if you are sort of sensitive to flashing lights, please be careful when you go through because it is very like bright and flashy in the queue. Yeah, it’s very very cool. It’s just something to bear in mind. Um but yeah, the queue is amazing. But in terms of the actual animatronics on the ride, my goodness. Again, even with me having been a little bit disappointed on the first go through, even just the appreciation for the technology that’s in that ride, it’s just absolutely amazing. The size of Phantom when you first that’s the first one that you come across once you’ve gone past Eigor, just the scale while he’s like this at the piano and then reaching for you. Yeah, he turns it does look like he’s looking right at you, trying to grab you and there’s fire and you can feel the heat. Ah, it’s such a great right way to get onto it and then you go around the corner and then you’ve got it’s the way it kind of like totally like Yeah. whirls you as well with it. Even there’s a part where you know you’ve got an element that’s sort of like Frank Monsters have to put his arms on two things to make it go and it works. The first time it didn’t work but when he puts both and then he like gets the electricity through them and it’s like shaking and properly zaps whereas as Mike said there we missed out on that on the first go through because it wasn’t working unfortunately. So I think that’s the downside of them being relying on so much technology that there is obviously going to be faults at points and it does kind of knock your experience a little bit. But when it’s working perfect perfection I think for me it’s not a coaster so I can say it’s in terms of dark ride is the dark ride in Orlando now it’s it’s amazing. It’s a favorite. I love Haunted Mansion but in terms of being like a horror movie fan this is just another level. the characters that we all love. Seeing them come to life, come to life and like try and grab you like the werewolf bit. Yes. He literally comes over and straight at you. You feel the splatter and the rooster spit and blood that’s coming out and then when you come out of that bit it spins around then you’re kind of more on your back and then he’s like above you again trying to like claw for you. It’s so clever. where Dracula comes out with you as well and he tries to and again like he’s properly like this and there oh one criticism that we did have was there’s a big Dracula animatronic at the start because this is the whole thing he’s escaping so Victoria’s had him sort of held hostage and is trying to use his power and everything um to have him under her control he escapes out of it when he’s doing this there is a massive metal rod which you can see coming out of his back, which is something that we would say is a bit disappointing because it like is very very obvious. Yeah. I wonder if they could have sort of made it into the story a bit more of he’s held captive by something like there’s something chain or something around them and then that like bursts open and then you would be okay he’s coming free of keeping him attached because he’s coming out of this sort of portal. So there’s all these lights behind him and then you just see this bit of black. It’s just a bit That was a bit disappointing. But then the other parts where he So there’s parts where it’s like just screen based, but then there’s parts where there’s screen based and then there’s um animatronics. So there’s a massive Dracula at one point which is sat in front of um sort of screen going on. Yeah. And that’s really really effective. It’s done really well. The mummy because you mentioned that have to give a shout out to that. This thing. Wow. Massive. So the first part is using these sarcophagus and then it starts to sort of burn open if you like which is done through projection but it’s just so incredible the way they do it and the next part when you come to that the absolute size of this big mummy like the head and the chest and everything that’s like coming out. Yeah. It’s definitely not one from the movies the the Brendan Fraser movies is not like that. This is a different scale. Yes. Of spectacular. Even when you meet Creature for the first time because you don’t see him coming. So like you’re you’re on the arm and you jump forward and he’s just like in a little straight into Oh yeah. It’s amazing. It’s great. Now those rod monsters are are present sadly in like the the footage for the ride and some of the posters for the ride. The bride’s in it but they took her out and she’s not in the ride anywhere. Yeah. um whenever that was like a post sort of I’m not sure but they’ve got it’s kind of part of the theming if you go and speak to the bride she’s kind of in terms of the meet and greet she’s aware that all this is going on and she’s then helping Francine’s monster the new one escape and they do kind of have sort of conversations around this which I think is quite clever. I do wonder if there was a story element beforehand where it was kind of like it was bride and Frank and Monster were the main two and then they were kind of no let’s incorporate this Victoria character into it and take her out cuz having like a se another like female lead that’s connected and Frankenstein would have been a bit confusing maybe other than that I think the story of it was perfect the way it ended was gore at the end yeah who knows Wait, he’s outside. He’s he’s walking about. Well, this is very true. He’s carrying on Dark Universe. Um, but yeah, it’s it’s for for a horror fan like myself and haven’t seen other movies. It’s just it’s I think as well mentioned this in the day two video on the second go through on Single Rider. The group that I was with, they were hysterical. So, they hadn’t been on the ride before. There was one of the girls who screamed her head off the whole way through. So, they did ask me beforehand. They were like, “Oh, is it like really scary?” And I’m like, “No, it’ll be fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s It’s Oh, it’s not as bad. It’s certainly not as bad as like the big arm like whapping you about bless her.” This girl absolutely screamed her head off the whole time, which came off it and she was like, “That was awesome.” But yeah, it was pretty entertaining getting other people’s reactions. I think sometimes adds to it. We always uh when we went to SeaWorld on our first trip together, when we went on ice, there was a guy Eddie’s son that were behind us and he was like, what was it? Oh lord. Oh lord. Oh lord, save me Lord. It was great fun. So I think just people’s reactions can sometimes add to your experience. Um but yeah, I cannot wait to get back on that ride. There’s part of me that’s like we should have gone for like another ride through the single rider, but here we are. There’s so much to do in that part. But yes, it’s a very, very strong number two. It could probably easily be number one as well, but there’s just one ride that pipped that for us. Yeah. So, yes, number two for some chains, and all we can say is great it even outside. We didn’t even talk about the the facade. The facade the man stunning. go and see even at night when you’ve got all the electricity going through it and yeah, can you imagine in Orlando when it gets September there’s thunderstorms and there’s lightning and all that hits it. I guess one thing to note though is I don’t think the height requirement for that ride is particularly tall. However, it’s maybe worth considering the content of the ride. Um recently a friend of mine had been to Disneyland Paris um and bless her the ride photo of um her and her kiddies and they all looked a bit petrified. So in her words maybe should have had a look at the content rather than just the um height requirement. So I would give that as some advice particularly for this ride that it could be a little bit too intense. And if you’re wondering if you’re wondering what ride that was and it wasn’t Haunted Mansion, it was Pirates. Yes. But there’s a lot of more skeletons and ghosty pirates in the the Paris version. So yeah, I can I can imagine for a small kid that would be quite terrifying. But yes, once Unchained. Insane. Insane. Insane. Insane. Go do it. Yeah. And without any further ado, you may have you may have guessed it already if you know who all the rides are, but our number one ride at Universal’s Epic Universe is Hiccup Swing Gliders. Yeah. Incredible. If you had said this to us before we got to the park, we would be like, “Yeah, we would have thought monsters. We would have thought Harry.” We kind of thought Yeah. Monsters and Harry Potter, I think, were probably our two most anticipated. Yeah. And then we went on Hiccups and wow, we just absolutely loved it. Now, it might help that we watched all the How to Train Your Dragon movies just before we went. The first time you’d ever seen them. I’d seen all of them before that and it’s just you absolutely loved it. You know, you’re you’re going to meet and twist. You’re going to see the dragon show and it’s just incredible. You’re going around this Iowa Burke area which is possibly the best area in the whole park and you go on this ride and it’s just so much fun. It’s magical. It’s everything from it from when you first go in and then you’ve got the whole hiccup animatronic. You’ve got toothless and then when Toothless sets you off and you go absolutely zooming around I will work. It’s just magic. It’s Yeah. So that’s the first part that you even just the music as well that blasts out with the trains. The music’s blasting going around the corner and as M says first you come to is a little sh with hiccup animatronic and the toothless animatronic and it’s just amazing and as we found as well the audio on audio um changes every time that you ride it as well. So there’s different phrases in terms of sort of how you blast off and then while you go around the ride too but it’s just I think at a glance you would maybe think it’s a bit more of a kind of kitty coaster. No, it’s very fast. Yeah, but again, it’s smooth. You do kind of feel again like you’re sort of flying, which is obviously the point of it because it’s meant to be these sort of wing gliders that you’re on. Um, it’s just beautiful. Now, when we first did it, we on the vlog, we said it, we heard somebody compare it kind of like to Hagrids and we kind of agreed with it. Now obviously Hagrids has a lot more technical wizardry to it like show the drop and stuff like that and more animatronics and certain things that happen in Hagrids but what what they mean is like the speed of it and the sort of twisting around corners and I’d say it’s half hagrid half slinky dog. Mhm. But don’t like because a lot of people say oh Slinkies is a kitty coaster but slinky but a lot quicker. Yeah. It’s got a bit more sort of intensity to it. Um, but yeah, it’s incredible when you’re going over the water. It’s incredible when you manage to get water in your eye. Um, we’re all good. There was nothing wrong thankfully. Um, but yeah, coming rounds the bit on the water. You do this kind of loop. You then go to this bit behind the scenes which you can’t see from the sort of main thud affair where there’s all these it’s grumps. Is that what it is? Yeah. Um, these are all here. hiccups in case saying like, “Oh, yeah, there’s these. Oh, we’ll keep going.” And then you kind of do your little slide back and he’s like, “Oh, no. We can’t be stopping here.” And they start to kind of pop open. Again, that’s what I said about Curse of Werewolf when you’re going into the wooden structure that needed something like that so you can appreciate the werewolf. Whereas this has it so you stop and then you can appreciate the sort of theater that they make. What we had twice as well. Um, so it was what our second and third ride on it that we actually got stopped there. So there was obviously a bit of a delay with somebody getting on or off the ride um at the loading area. It works perfectly because you just kind of sit there and it kind of like you can hear this you see the steam going and the kind of like rumbling noise and everything and you’re sat there because we obviously knew that it was coming because we had been there before. But you set off at a rate and odds that when you’re sat there with this anticipation thinking, “Oh, we’re about to go. We’re about to go.” It actually like adds to it so much. And then you zoom off. You’re going around all the corners. You’re in a park. You’re in the epic universe. You’ve got the amazing How to Train Your Dragon music playing. You go up and around and you’ve got these dragons like in their little houses looking at you. And just before I forget to say as well, riding it at night again gives you a different perspective because with that egg bit, it’s all lit up and it’s like purple lighting and everything. Awesome. So again, make sure if you get the chance to go and do that at different times a day. Um but yeah, coming through seeing the dragons in their little houses and then when you have that last home stretch and it’s just so beautifully smooth. The music’s going and it’s just so triumphant and again you genuinely feel like you’re flying and it’s a bit kind of bit emotional if I want to use that kind of terminology in terms of you’re a bit like It’s amazing to play. Even just talking about I’m like, why are we not in epic universe right now? Take me back to get on on the cups. But as you can see, it just it’s like a smile on your face. Yeah. So, we talked about that with Don Kong. Like, we like that one because joy it brings you in this one even more. So, when we tied up how many rides we’ve done on everything by the time we left, this was our most ridden ride and monsters. Monsters. So, tides. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t have the single ride. that gets you straight on it. And the queue’s outdoors and it can get a bit lengthy, but it’s it’s so worth it when you get onto the ride. You you forget about the fact that you’re in that queue and you just enjoy the fact you’re on an amazing roller coaster. So, yeah, it’s very worthy number one and we cannot wait to get back on it. Yeah, it’s just beautiful. The only literally the only criticism that I have of it, and it’s a very loose one, is just the way that the ride bar is designed. It kind of hits you at a bit of a strange point on your thigh. I felt like too tight cuz it kind of with the way that the ride vehicle moves, it kind of digs quite into your legs and bones. Um, and I have seen a couple people sort of mention that they’ve ended up being a bit painful because it’s been a bit too tight. So just obviously make sure that you’re safe with the way that it’s down, but just kind of take that into consideration that you maybe don’t want to strap yourself in quite Yeah. You always know that you can you can put it down comfortably and then you can always get it another one if you sort of like suck yourself in. Maybe don’t do that. Maybe just get it in so it’s comfy. There’s no upside down or anything like that. So you’re not going to come falling out of it or anything like that. Um but that is just one very little thing and it’s just more for an awareness piece. But yeah, it’s just magical. Magical. Absolutely magical. So there you go. That is our ranking of all rides. Do you agree? Do you? Is there any that you either are really super hyped for if you’ve not been yet? Or is there any that you loved? Is there any that you hated? Is there any that you want to ask any questions about? Because as per usual, we do just kind of ramble. Especially when we’re, you’ll probably tell between having done the first half and then that second half, we’re then a bit kind of hyper when we’re talking about this. It shows the excitement and the joy of it. So yeah, whack anything down below for us. And now we move on to next part, which is to talk about the food. So in terms of the food in Epic Universe, we’ve got to say that it might just be the best theme park we’ve ever had. Mhm. We were on the whole very very impressed. I think special shout out goes to mac and cheese cone as we have mentioned earlier on. So it was the PBJ one that we absolutely adored. We have since been home made our own version at home which turned out pretty well with not going to blow my own trumpet too much. Um but yeah that’s exquisite. We have seen the um Universal Hollywood have since brought ones in, but they don’t seem to be putting too much of the first day. So maybe they just got it wrong on that day. But yeah. Yeah. I if you’re going to Epic Univers or you’ve been you know that mac and cheese con is like the signature sort of snack that everyone seems to get and it it definitely definitely get it from there. Um, Oak Star Trek gets a very special shout out in terms of restaurants. Could not rate that highly enough. Um, well, I say our only thing that we’re kind of like for an improvement improvement list Universal, if you’re listening to us, breakfast, make it longer. Especially when you’re opening the park officially at 10:00 a.m. and then you cut off breakfast at half 10. No one’s rope dropping breakfast. Come on. Exactly. Come on. Make it a brunch. I think in terms of of sit down meals at Universe has it locked in. You’ve got you’ve got something for everyone. You’ve got fish, you’ve got pizza moon if you want pizza, which is some of the best theme park pizza you could ever get have tavern if you want a bit of barbecue. Each portal has its own sit down area. So you know the barbe creps are in cafe to sit in. Yeah. And their other food as well. stuff like the beef bing on and everything looks fantastic. Yeah. Um and yeah, in terms of fish, Mike’s referring to is it Atlantis? Yeah. Yeah. Which looks stunning. You also got fish in me hall as well. Yes. And I work cuz obly Vikings fish. You’ve got fish tisses over there. Just might have a toothless that comes along and tries to punch. Who knows? But yeah, again like even the theming in me tall is absolutely stunning with big tapestries that are on the wall and everything. Um, the specialty freestyle drinks are pretty cool as well, just as we’ve touched on, I think, in a previous video. It’s a bit of a shame that Mario and Harry Potter don’t have their own ones, too, just to kind of top off, but it’s good fun to go and try them. Yeah. And then, you know, you’ve got Dark Universe, you got a monster salad, which is all very fun. Garlic steak. Yeah. Yeah. And then if you want to have a bit more of a a fine dining experience, it also has that as well because the two restaurants at the front are both sort of fine dining. Blue Dragon Asian is bit more costy than some of our restaurants, but it all looks very tasty. Very, very good. Then Atlantis at the front as well is more fine dining and fish menu, but it’s great. And they’re opening up an Italian/Mexican one as well in Special Park. So once that open that will be another area of food that caters for because I think literally has every sort of type of food that you could possibly want. You know has bow buns, hot dogs available. Starbucks. You got two Starbucks you can go and get your breakfast sandwiches and coffee. I’m just kind of smiling because obviously we’ve kind of gone around all of the worlds and the one that we’ve not touched on because it’s slightly contentious. Slightly contentious from our point of view um Toad still cafe in Super Nintendo World. If you have watched our day one vlog, you’ll know we weren’t massively impressed. Um, just in terms of the fact that unfortunately didn’t get the best experience, that it was the food to go well to appear, i.e. one lot of food and then we were told that there was kind of a bit of an indefinite delay because they hadn’t put on the other lot of food. So, that was a bit disappointing. Food itself, it’s tasty enough. I think it’s not the tastiest food that we had. I think it’s kind of if you went I’d probably say if you went to a chain restaurant, it’s that kind of style of it’s it’s geared towards families. So if you’re going with kids, like you might not have most adventurous pallets. The it sort of cers towards them. Yeah. The theing of the restaurant’s great. You have other to stools on the the walls and even Bowser comes down to to fight at one point. But yeah, we had a bad experience because it is probably the busiest restaurant in the park because everyone wants to eat in to cafe and get, you know, served, you know, the toast soups and the sim cups, the Mario burgers, you burgers. It’s very popular. that we did hear which is worthwhile bearing in mind that in terms of getting um sort of alterations made to your food that doesn’t seem to totally be possible. Give him a shout out cuz he’s one that did it. So universally speaking obviously I had Oh sorry forgot that it was Yeah. So it was was him that did it online and then it seemed to create a big news story. So we done him for basically indicating that they wouldn’t actually change anything on his meal because it seems like Nintendo wants it to be a very strict Yeah, I think chef was is the reason for that. It’s chef Nintendo owner doesn’t want to to change it and have any alterations done to to the way anything looks. So yeah, just of all the restaurants that are there, we it’s up to you. You eat what you want to do. If you want to go into Toast Cafe, you’ll have a different experience than us. You might absolutely love it. Yeah. But of all the options that we had, the amazing food we had at Open Star and Pizza Moon, it just didn’t compare. Just didn’t compare. And it’s one that we wouldn’t go back. Are you willing to give the little quick service a go with the little cal they look quite yummy. And the one thing that we were gutted that we didn’t get, not used so much because you don’t like bananas. Yeah. is the Donkey Kong ice cream float float because we went just before about 15 minutes before the park closed and for some reason they decided to close that early which I think is an absolute madness amount of money they make from them cleaning out the ice cream machine before I think is probably the vibe that was going on but yeah it’s it’s like when you go to McDonald’s and you can’t get a McFlurry or a milkshake cuz the ice cream machine’s not working. But if we want to talk about ice cream, we had some of the best ice cream. Yes. In epic universe that we have ever had. Frosty Moon. Frosty Moon. Frosty Moon. Absolutely amazing. And it was so I thought it was so cost effective for what it was as well. You got a very decent portion, big scoop of ice cream, and then you got the choice of two toppings. Cheesecake. Get the cheesecake. Like big slabs of cheesecake. Big slabs of cake. Yeah. Amazing. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Cannot f the best it was. Stunning. We got margaritas. Yes, that was quite pricey, but I think it’s the same anytime you get alcohol in the parks. Um, but yeah, super tasty because it was like out the slushy machine. It was like perfectly kind of blended up with it. Um, so yeah, that was that was really good. And the frozen B of beer from the high pot section was was amazing. We did get the lavender lemonade, which we wouldn’t recommend. Bit of a miss for us. the price it was. It just tastes like a normal lemonade. It doesn’t have much lavender to it, which I thought was a bit of a shame when that’s kind of the special element of it. But I think we’d like to try some of more of the specialty drinks in there cuz some of them look very cool. Um, but the frozen part of beer is amazing as always. Yeah. And then the cakes and everything in Harry Potter as well looked absolutely stunning. We didn’t end up getting that just cuz we had other things that we were planning to get and we sort of weighed up and chose not to. But we gate looked beautiful and Isa Bark obviously gave a shot of the um marshmallow sheep. Marshmallow sheep and little truffle dragon eggs cheesecake dragon eggs as well. Lovely. Very nice. So yeah, on the whole food’s pretty pretty stunning I think cuz um Universal perhaps compared to Disney doesn’t always get the best Yeah. rep when it comes to food. Epic Universe very much very much that because sometimes we we have conversation like I hands of adventure like what food are we gonna get what food do you want and then you’re kind of going around the lands and you’re like there’s not really anything that’s like specialty or like unique whereas like you know you’re going to Magic Kingdom and you’re going to get five or six different things. Animal Kingdom you’re going to get the burger bow buns. You’re going to go to Yak and Yeti. But when you think about university you’re not always like oh I’m going there because of food. Maybe it’s for the like brand things, isn’t it? Like Cinnabon, etc. Maybe for like Halloween Horror Nights to bring out signature snacks, but Epic Universe totally changes that. Some of the food here is just some of the best theme park food we’ve ever had and we can’t wait to to go back and even try other restaurants that we’ve not been to yet cuz we want to try Meat Hall. We only got drinks from there. Um want to try cafe and get the butterbeer crepe that everyone even though it’s quite pricey. Pricey. Yeah, you got to try. You got to give each of these things a go. But yeah, if you got if you’re a big foodie like us, you’re not going to be disappointed with Epic. And just to touch on the merch. So, we all have some theme park merch and you’re not going to be disappointed in Epic Universe because there’s plenty of areas to get what you could possibly want for the four lands and more. Universal aren’t trying to claw any money back at all. Of course, not a super expensive park that they just created. What we would say is if you see something that you really like, just buy it. Yeah, cuz you do have certain things selling out, especially in Isle of Burke. The dragon eggs, you know, when we went, there was only one available and it was Toothless, where it was meant to be one of every character. Um, the shoulder plush toothless as well, totally sold out, which we did ended up getting via CO at home and it’s the exact same one. It’s strange. Um, and also some of the theme bags as well. So, we went to the Dark Universe area and we’re like, oh, can we get one of the the bags? And like, no, sorry. sold out on the first day. So the first day it was open, they sold out. Same with magnets and stuff like that too. So yeah, I mean now it’s the same for kind any park that you go to. If you’ve seen something that you really really like, get it ASAP so that it doesn’t disappear on you. But yeah, plenty plenty of options of stuff. Um, as per usual with theme park merch, it’s not the cheapest thing. However, if you if you’re willing if you want it, then you kind of have to be willing to pay. Yeah, there’s some some very cool stuff. I think it is slightly more expensive than some other theme parks. You know, I think they are trying to make that money back. They just open this brand new one and they’ve got such popular characters like Mario and you know people are going to buy it. So yeah, I say some of the merch options, they’re hilarious like stuff like the big fuzzy hats that you can get and um Mario off like Donkey Kong, Toad, etc. But who honestly I’m impressed who actually wears those in Orlando in that heat or if it starts raining as well, it’s just going to literally and all the character themed t-shirts with the big like big Mario character t-shirts, they’re all polyester and they must be so uncomfortable to to wear in the the heat. It’s crazy the amount of people we saw wearing them cuz you know matching sandwich everyone’s wearing them as a different charact like you must be sweating in that at 9:00 in the morning even oh I know it was absolutely roasting even when we’re in like queue waiting for security. Um but yeah a really good range of merch. I like the stores as well. I like the way they had them and Captain Caca charact mug. So if you collect them, you can get one for Epic Universe as well. So there’s plenty of stuff that you could possibly want and you’re going to come back with a lot of stuff. And there it is worth noting the um preview center is still in existence at CityWalk. So if you are just say doing your one day epic universe and you then afterwards end up thinking really really wish I’d got whatever it’s obviously not a guarantee that they’re definitely going to have it but they might have items there cuz they’ve got merch for each of the portals. Then also in the new or not the new the newly revamped store on the main bit of city walk they’ve got um more merch too or and at Orlando airport when you’re going home where we did so there’s a few things where ridiculously there was two t-shirts that I just I honestly think I was just overwhelmed on that last evening and the fact I was so busy in that store and I was just kind of like right no I’m kind of at done now that I never got my Epic University t-shirts. I’m very very pleased that it was at the airport and that monsters t-shirt you were eyeing up for ages. I had to get it. It’s just as well. But one thing I hope does happen and this is veering off into what we want for the future is Universal is not very good at bringing out new merch. So, you know, it’s like with Disney, like they constantly bring out new stuff, whereas if you go to Universal Parks for years and years, you’re going to see the exact same stuff in the shops. So, I hope for Epic they constantly bring in new stuff like every year. Replenish the stock. Bring out new designs. Just don’t make it all the exact same t-shirts, the exact same merch that you’re trying to sell, pens, stuff like that. Make it a bit more like Disney. Make a lot more collectible things and you know, you can trade off and you can bring once you’re making your money better. That’s the way to do. Yeah. Because you can’t just bring out expect people are going to keep returning to your park to buy merch if you’re just going to keep offering the exact same t-shirts, the exact same posters and they need to finish. I’m sure I’m sure they’ll be on to it and they’ll get it going. But yeah, it was I’m pleased that we’ve got our sort of bits and bobs that we got. There are plenty places for you to stop in and get it. And it is very well whether it’s the stores in the particular portals or the store at the front did have a very good stock as well of kind of well both of the stores at the front had really good you obviously get the essentials you there’s plenty of wands going about there’s plenty of power bands you going to sell those to get them. Um but yeah the the merch is the merch and we all love looking at it. all buying it and yeah, everyone’s each their own. What’s we think’s amazing, you’ll think’s a whole lot of rubbish, vice versa. And yeah, it’s whatever you want, you can get it. So, in terms of the future of Epic Universe, we obviously have certain things that we would fancy seeing ourselves. There’s obviously other things that a lot of people are kind of expecting is likely going to come as well. um from sort of maybe hints in the park and um just kind of things that are ongoing out with. So say for example, Legend of Zelda I think is probably you think it’s coming to a park. It’s coming to one of the Universal parks whether it’s Islands or if it’s Epic Universe. fact that Zelda’s and the Link and Ganondorf are present in Epic Universe in the Nintendo store just outside the portal and their stained stained glass glory. Yeah. Makes you think that there is an expansion pad. Yeah. Around Nintendo World. So, it does make you think, is there going to be a bit for Legends of Zelda? It makes sense. Um I think it be it makes sense to sort of keep it together but then again there is obviously space over in islands as well and then when the Simpsons eventually goes they’ll free up space and studios for that. So who knows and it is a franchise I have seen people criticize and saying like who who is Zelda beat up some people saying they don’t know it but is one of the most popular game franchises been around since the 80s. So, if you don’t really know what Zelda is, you know, has been around forever. Um, and some of the games are some of the best games I’ve ever played. So, yeah, I’d love to see Hyrule come into the parks and be some sort of ride around around Zelda because I think it’s got a movie coming out as well. Yes. I don’t think it’s Universal that’s making that. I think it’s Sony, but you know, if they’re going to build a Zelda ride and tail off the success that maybe then it’s a very smart decision. I guess that segus us into other successful films. So I think again it’s one that I think probably a lot of people would put money on is likely to come to Epic Universe is Wicked. Yeah. And I think there’s even a documentary going out. There’s something that John Chu is attending which it was kind of seeming like there might be some kind of announcement and there’s like this aerial shot. I think Bio Reconstruct got it off this backstage bit where it’s got all these green pipes and everyone’s like, “Oh, what that’s for and think wicked green.” Yeah. With the second film coming out later this year, it would be probably pretty sensible to kind of hop on the hype of that in terms of announcing something. Although that does seem very close to having just opened the park. Um, but I think my only concern with it, as we had discussed in our spec video for Universal Great Britain, is whether it has that longevity, I think, is a question. So, I think it would be sensible to kind of like get going with it um pretty quickly. But I think there’s a lot of fun that you could probably have with that. Um, I think the Wizards of Oz has been around forever. I think it’s such a popular franchise. I think you need to amalgamate the two of them. And it’s not just going to be about these two movies. I think you need to have that sort of yellow brick road. Yeah. Element to it with the they will come into Wicked 2. Yeah. Spoilers for that. But you know, the characters from Reservoirs will come into that and yeah, you can incorporate them into the land. So, it’s not just going to be Alphaba and well, they’ve kind of done it. If you take um Ministry of Magic, the actual world in Epic Universe, they’ve obviously done a bit of kind of amalgamating fantastic beasts and it’s what 1920 is it 1920s Paris. Um and then they’re kind of using the time turner element to then be able to have the actual Ministry ride and kind of have that set in the classic Harry Potter part. So, I think you could probably quite easily have sort of two sort of Yeah. parts. And interestingly, for Harry Potter, they were going to have the broom ride. So, there’s going to be a second one. It’s going to be set on a broom and make it fun. You could have one that’s flying on a broom around Oz brick road going up to Emerald City. Emerald City all the characters. Emerald City would look so cool considering what they’ve done with obviously Nintendo World Frank’s Manor. Yeah, that would be pretty I think pretty awesome. There’s a lot of people that would love to walk on the Albert road. Yeah. Old city. So I think yeah, we’ll watch the space I guess. I think both of us would be for it. Um and we always see that part. I do think they would be smart to quickly get going with expansions because everybody loves the park right now, but they know small. Yeah. And when it rains, a lot of these attractions go down. So, I think they need those expansions. They don’t need to go for both of them. They can just do one of them. One done and then add rides to the other portals to try and branch it out and bring something extra. continuous development of it is going to be a biggie. And then you probably have some more indoor rides because yeah, at the moment weather delays are a bit of a issue. Especially if you come up to September time, interesting what people think when it gets to very very close to hurricane season. Yeah. But yes, since she obviously mentioned it in terms of Harry Potter, um that there had been talk of a second ride, but that never came to fruition. But there is a building that’s ready there for it. Definitely something we would like to see. Yeah. Whether they do actually make it towards the beast sort of go a totally different direction with it is something I think that the land really needs because you’ve only got one ride. You’ve got the interactive one parts and you got a show. I think an extra ride in there would make it absolutely perfect. Yeah. Eat up those crowds. Yeah. It’s the only portal that’s only got one ride and it’s arguably one I would say it’s certainly one of the most popular. Yeah. But it’s a bit eek that it’s only one ride that’s there. I think having those plans to do a second one it’s obviously in their heads they’re going to do it at some point. It’s just whether that’s top priority where it’s at or it’s getting the next port open or what we think is going to happen in Monsters area. Dark Universe is just going to be a creature the black lagoon boat ride. A lot of people are calling that for that. There is an expansion pad for that in that land. So we think that because creature has such a small role in monsters unchained that having some merch is everywhere. And even with HHN this year, I think there’s a nod to creature in one of the Yes. areas. So they seem to be going very much on Creature. I think there’s even talk about media coming out last yearhn wasn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. They did quite a bit cuz remember us talking about this and we were saying they’ve kind of been done a bit dirty in terms of epic etc. We’re thinking we’re thinking this year it’s going to be a house dedicated but it’s not. So I think there is going to be a boat ride. What they do in that boat ride compared to the movie will be interested to see. Um and I think it’ll be a very popular ride because creature seems to be a very popular character. So, we really want to see that coming because I think it is an amazing land. But I do think again it just needs a little bit more. Yeah, I think even a creature meet and greet cuz I think that was one of the ones that was rumored. You know, there’s meant to be a wolf man. There’s meant to be a creature, but they’re not there yet. I think that’s coming soon. Can’t wait to see that. Absolutely. Next thing is another thing that’s rumored would be a parade. Yes, I think a parade around Celestial Park would be pretty pretty dang cool. Um, the mega movie parade is that it’s called in Universal Studios. We love that. Absolutely amazing. So, to see something like that with the IPs that are in Epic Universe, I think would be a lot of fun. And I believe there is a parade building, isn’t there, that’s situated over there. So, I would imagine it’s something they’re gearing up to. And again, it’s kind of it’s eaten up those crowds. just giving people things to go and do and see. Um, again, obviously the heat of Epic Universe is going to be a bit toasty while European watching it. Yeah, watching it. Um, no, I think it’d be good fun. Imagine a parade folk coming down and then you’ve got two of us even if he’s like flying over it or something that would be insane. And then like the one behind it is all monster themed and you’ve got Dracula’s umbrella. You can’t be out in the sunshine. And then you’ve got one for Harry Potter. It’s got Harry Potter characters. And then or even just Fantastic Beast with all the the beasts would make more sense. And then yeah, Nintendo, you could have some Mario characters, but then you could go into Japan, taking that and gone to Pokemon, having Pokemon around. They’ve got you could have Legends of Zelda characters. You could have anything from Nintendo on those prays. So it’ be pretty spectacular. I think I could have did a parade. I can’t wait to see it. Um, and I guess as well, not parade, but something that has kind of meant to have occurred and hasn’t occurred is flying dragons. Yeah, those are big drones that were meant to have that doesn’t seem to have happened yet, and we would really like to see that. We unfortunately didn’t get to see the little robot um dragon swen videos and everything and they’re adorable, but I think seeing actual flying dragons above Burke would just be. So that’s definitely something I’d like to see. I was even thinking the the water show that they’ve got at night that closes the park is is really cool. But you could incorporate that into a drone show. You could have the four IPs coming together at a drone show over Helios because they’ve got space behind there. They could set them all off there. Well, they did it for the grand opening, didn’t they? They used a little bit of a drone show. So, it’ be cool to kind of see a little bit more of something like that getting incorporated into just sort of general. You can imagine in the future you could have drones and then if they did bring Wicked in, you could get things you could do with those drones above Helios and then the dragons, then the dragons, you know, fly over and then you got them and then you’ve got everything that that could come with drones. Maybe you set up some fireworks as well. So it becomes like not just a fountain show but becomes drones, fountains, fireworks. It becomes a spectacular show that even takes Epic to that even more next level. Because right now the fountain show you’re like, “Yeah, that’s that’s nice. It’s really cool. It’s a beautiful backdrop of Helios, but I do think they could do more with it.” Yeah, I think some connected but not um something else I would like to see from Epic is for their opening times to be extended. Yeah. As well. open earlier, close later. And I think with something like that, if we’re going for a big show, rather than having that closing the park, do it a bit like Magic Kingdom for an easy example that the show is like an hour or so before closing. Again, that’s a really good people eater, too. So, if you then want to go and bang out the reads while that’s going on, then that works really well. I don’t think anyone’s getting out of line for ministry to watch the the f show. Um, but yeah, but no, I mean like it’s an absolutely it’s a spectacle in the park as it is, but some extra bits and bobs would be they’re having to I can’t wait to see is is what they do seasonally and now I know they’ve announced that something’s coming for Christmas to Celestial Park. But what they got to do in Halloween knowing that they’ve got HHN in another park, but they’ve got one that’s dedicated just to monsters. Are they going to do anything special there? have speciality treats is what I want from the park is it keeps evolving. They keep seasonal additions. Every few months there’s something new that keeps people going back and it can’t just be the exact same thing constantly. You need to keep bringing them in with new merch, new food items, new seasonal offerings, parades, shows. I think especially without stating the obvious, the park is going to be so popular in its first while between stuff like affected by weather delays that then obviously impacts the amount of rides are open. Just the popularity of it and there is a limited number of rides even when they are all running as they should. Um I don’t think it’s maybe going to be everyone’s number one go and do it all the time because depending when you go there’s maybe a bit of a limit as to what you can kind of accomplish. So as Mike says to then have these other things might kind of encourage people to go do you know what I am going to go back or we’ll go and kind of aim for this today we’ll aim for that today and it’s a mix I think as well with when they get to the point which I believe start next year that they start opening up the 14 day tickets to many times go yeah be interesting to see how busy is um and they need to keep evolving it because even with the food options they’ve got the sort of hots in soio park they’re doing like hot dogs and bow buns and stuff like Yeah, but that they could so easily just change and be totally different things every now and again. The next big food item that comes out buns are very popular now, but you know something else might come out like okay well now I’m incorporate that. Um, so yeah, it does need to keep evolving and bringing people back in and I guess agreed. I think at this moment it’s kind of there’s certain things kind of got that viral appeal for the moment but once they’re then there for a while people are going back as to if that kind of thing how many times are people going to be interested in getting the Donkey Kong someday once you’ve had it once are you going to go get it again and again and again and again you know the flavors in as much as we loved it the flavors in the ice cream places was only about four or five once you’ve had them again and again and again are you going to keep going back and forth for it. So, it is about evolving it, bringing out new stuff, keep changing everything constantly to keep it fresh and new. Yeah. Very, very intrigued though. I think it’s the whole the place is amazing. We would highly recommend going, but we are excited to see what the future holds. Future holds. Yeah. And that brings us on to our last topic. Our last topic of this video, which will round us out, is a bit of a biggie. Is it our favorite park or is it a bit overrated? So, I’ll let you go first. Is Epic Universe your favorite theme park you’ve ever been to? It’s the newest theme park I’ve ever been to. I think in terms of the potential that it has, the technological savviness of it, it’s amazing and I absolutely loved it, but I’m not sure it’s a case of I might say it’s my favorite ever park. However, it would very much or is very much making me reconsider how we do our Orlando holidays cuz typically we will stay at Disney and take a couple of days at Universal out of the 14 days. However, we are now more considering whether it’s kind of cases that are balancing a trip because we want to go back to the epic universe. Would you say it’s your favorites in light of what I’ve shared? Not yet. So, I think this park has so much potential and I think eventually it will be the best theme park in the world with what’s to come and the expansions. So, I say maybe 5 to 10 years time this will be the best theme park in the world. Right now, it doesn’t have that nostalgia factor as well. Mhm. So, I wouldn’t rank it above some of the parks that, you know, we first went to. You know, for me, Epcot is my favorite park. And when I think about going to land on our next trip, I’m like, I can’t wait to get back to Epcot. And I’m like, oh yeah, I can’t wait to get back to Epic as well. But it’s part of me still drawing me to Epcot, still drawing me to Islands of Adventure because these are the ones that we first went to together, they have that sort of nostalgia. Mhm. Whereas Orlando, it’s like yeah, we think about walking around World Showcase. You think about maybe that’s where it’s newness works against it that it’s not quite solidified itself in that sort of emotional pool quite yet. I do think that will come. Um I do think you can also have an absolute rotten day at Epic Universe. I think it we didn’t which we were very very lucky for. Yeah. of the two days that we went, we were incredibly fortunate, but I do take on boards like we’re in these Facebook groups and things and see people’s different experiences and I can see where people are like having they’re coming away thinking this is the worst part ever. What on earth is this? cuz we experienced some of it because you know it got to say 6:00 at night and we still got 3 hours to go and then we’re looking at the app and everything’s closed cuz there’s there was lightning in the area and we’re like well the only options you have are waiting 3 hours for this or 3 hours for that and you’re kind of like what do you do? And if that was your full day, you know, September when it’s hurricane season and you’re just getting on nothing and you paid 180 pound for a ticket then I can imagine you’re not going to be too too happy. But yeah, like for me it’s it’s a stunning park. It’s an amazing park. The rides are all incredible. But right now in its current state, I’d say it’s not quite there to be the best parking lot. I certainly wouldn’t say it’s over or not not in our experience anyway. Again, totally appreciate where people have not had the best experience where you might kind of go loaded rubbish. What’s everybody on about? Hate this place. Um but no it is it’s absolutely spectacular. It is um very much testament of what Universal are capable of and I think it’s so exciting cuz you can just think in what they can potentially bring whether that’s too epic or if that’s the case and if they’re doing any overhauls in highlands in studios that is just oh the potential is incredible. I do think now that they’ve shown what they can do. When you’re going to islands and you’re going to studios and you’re like, “This is the same people that made the Fast and Furious, right?” You’re like, “How did that happen?” But they’ve taken it to the next level. And I do think Disney had to catch up as well and we’ll see what they do with their new villains land and all that monsters in coming because it’ll be a very interesting time in the theme park world the next number of years cuz Universal set the ball so high y with some of these rides that Disney needs to do something pretty spectacular to reach that level. They’re capable of doing it. We’ve seen it in Japan. Technically that’s a different company that runs their parks but what they’re doing now. Still they use the Imagineers and the Imagineers are amazing the money. Yeah, the money. The money is the question. Bob needs to loosen those pur strings a little bit because he knows that the the parks are the money makers. So, but yeah, Universal absolutely kicked it at the park with this one smash park, I should say. Um, so I guess what do you guys think? Do you think it’s the best theme park ever in the world in Orlando with Universal’s offerings? Um, or do you think Even Disney’s offerings is the best. Anybody ever been to? You’ve been to Eftling and Netherlands been to Europa Park and is this one on Towers? Yeah. M and D. Yeah. Come on. MDs in Scotland. Um so yeah, let us know what you think down below. It’s It is something spectacular though. If you get the opportunity to go, absolutely recommend it. So I guess thank you for listening to us ramble away. As I said, feel free to or any thoughts down below in the comments and we’ll come back to you. And if you’ve enjoyed, please give us a little like and if you’d like to give us a subscribe as well, then that’s fabulous as well. Yeah, we’ve got next month we will be going to California for the first ever time. Come on quick. So, first ever time we’re going to Disneyland. First ever time we’re going to Hollywood and Universal Air and we get to do OogieOogie and we get to do Hollywood Horror Nights. So stay tuned for those. a little extra exciting bits and bobs as well which are to be revealed around Hollywood as well. Um we’re excited to go around Disney cuz we got something on the cover planned. Um but yeah, going around some of the famous spots in in Hollywood will be be very fun. So you don’t want to miss out on that. So make sure you hit that subscribe button. Plus thank you very much guys and we’ll see you soon. Bye bye. [Music]
Our bumper review of Universal’s Epic Universe in Orlando – The spectacular brand new theme park!
We just got back from two days in the park and bring you our review of all the rides. We talk about the merch, the food, and what we want to see come in the future.
Finally, we answer whether or not Epic Universe is our favourite theme park in the world.
00:00 Intro
03:05 Fyre Drill
06:08 Constellation Carousel
09:16 Yoshi’s Adventure
11:34 Dragon Racers Rally
13:49 Mario Kart
20:59 Curse of the Werewolf
26:04 Stardust Racers
31:20 Battle at the Ministry
41:17 Donkey Kong Mine Kart Madness
45:15 Monsters Unchained
58:27 Hiccups Wing Gliders
1:05:43 Epic Food Options
1:15:18 Merch Talk
1:20:46 Discussing the Future of Epic – Wicked? Monsters expansion + more
1:35:13 Is Epic Universe overhyped? Is it our favourite park?
1:41:11 Outro
Join in the discussion in the comments. Have you been to Epic Universe? What did you think of the park?
Please make sure to hit the like button and to subscribe as we will shortly be heading out to California for Disneyland and Universal Hollywood. We are excited to experience Oogie Boogie Bash and HHN while in LA so don’t miss out on those videos.
#epicuniverse #universalorlando #orlando
3 Comments
Great review. Can I ask where you go those cat paintings behind you?
Have you been to Epic Universe?
Drop us your views on the park below. Make sure to hit the like and subscribe buttons too 🙌
I'm sorry, but MKM over Ministry is mad. A rough, 1:45-second-long coaster with its only redeeming quality being the system and the theming… nah. Monsters and Ministry rule the park, in my opinion.